Do you ever doubt that you can hear God clearly? Do you ever wish that you could be sure that it is really God speaking to you and not your own thoughts? Do you wish that you had more confidence that God is really speaking to you?
In my church, we have been using creative ways to prepare ourselves to be laborers in the Lord’s harvest (Matthew 9:38). One of the training exercises that we have started using has given great encouragement and confidence to all of us. We call it “Prophetic Prayer Outreach.”
This is a way that we can build our confidence in knowing that we are hearing God accurately without the pressure of speaking to people that we don’t know.
In our last adventure, four of us met at the mall a couple of weeks ago. We all sat down together at a table in the food court. Then we picked out one person at the food court that we did not know, and we focused on that person.
Separately, we all asked God to speak to us about this person’s prayer needs. Then we wrote down the impressions that we believed we were receiving from the Holy Spirit. After a few minutes, the four of us came back together and shared what we had received from God.
The first person that we picked out to focus on was a man who was eating at another table in the food court. I felt that his name might be Jim. We never spoke to him, so we didn’t confirm that.
I saw that he was bogged down, like in mud. He was having trouble getting out of a slump. Kim had also seen that he was bogged down. She said it was like being stuck in sand. Kathy wrote, “I feel that Romans 11:23 is the verse for him. He may be an unbeliever right now, but if he abides not in unbelief, he will be grafted to God and God is able to graft him in.” Then Kim said that she had also gotten Romans 11:23 for him!
That was when my jaw dropped.
“You got the very same verse that Kathy got?” I asked. Kim confirmed that she had.
Mary agreed with Kathy that she didn’t feel that the man was a believer, but that he was an adventurous person who held strongly to his beliefs. Once he gets saved, he could be a faithful believer.
I also saw that the man had great potential, but that he needed greater sensitivity to notice and respond to God’s promptings. Kim had written, as if God was speaking to the man, “Arise and hear the sound of my voice. Can you hear me? Can you hear me running? Can you hear me calling you? Believe in Me.”
We were very encouraged that all of the impressions that we had received for “Jim” seemed to be in harmony. None of the revelation we had received was contradictory at all.
Then we took some time to pray for “Jim” according to the revelation we had received about his needs.
Later we turned our focus to a woman who was eating alone at the food court. Again, we individually asked the Holy Spirit to reveal this woman’s needs to us for the purpose of prayer. Separately we wrote down the impressions we received from the Lord. Then the four of us came together again to share what we had received.
I had seen that this woman was highly educated, intellectual, and elevated her mind over her spirit. Mary had seen that she could be a teacher, and that she had great influence over other women. Pride could possibly be an issue with her. Kim also saw “academia,” and received Psalm 73:3 for this woman. That Psalm says, “For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Kim felt that there was a religious spirit influencing this woman, and heard these words from the Lord, “She knows My voice. She is mad at Me. Her son … It’s about her son. She needs to forgive. She misses her son.” Then she saw the word “bitterness.” Kathy’s impressions seemed to continue along the same lines. Kathy felt that the Lord was saying, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep, and they know Me, and I want to lead her by My voice. Pray that she will learn to know the Lord and His way and recognize His voice guiding her.”
After sharing these impressions that we felt we had received from the Lord, we took some time to pray together for this woman according to the needs that the Holy Spirit had shared with us.
Over the next couple of hours, we focused on a total of eight people individually. Each of us received consistent revelation about each person who was the target of our focus at the time. When we came together to compare and share what we had received from the Holy Spirit, the revelations were like puzzle pieces that when put together, painted a remarkably clear picture of the needs of each individual.
This prophetic prayer outreach left all of us tremendously encouraged! We had confirmed to our satisfaction that we truly were hearing God’s voice for the prayer needs of each person. Our confidence got a real boost! We gained greater assurance that we could hear God accurately for other people. The impressions that we received truly were from Him!
If you would like to confirm that you can truly hear God’s voice and receive valid words of knowledge for others, I encourage you to do what we did!
- Together with a few other believers, pick a location that is good for people watching, like a shopping mall food court, a busy courtyard, a park, a train station, or while riding a bus.
- Take turns picking out one person at a time for everyone in the group to focus on.
- Ask God to speak to you about the prayer needs of that person.
- Separately and silently, write down notes of the impressions that you receive from the Holy Spirit.
- After everyone finishes writing, come together to share with each other the impressions that you received from God. Notice how these individual impressions confirm and support each other!
- Pray for each person that you focus on according to the impressions of prayer needs that you received from the Holy Spirit. “Outreach prayer” is different from “church prayer.” When we pray for people in public, we try to be inconspicuous. We usually keep our eyes open, and we do not bow our heads or change our body posture in any way, so it looks like we are simply carrying on our normal conversation. We do this to avoid embarrassing people and also to avoid appearing as “religious fanatics.” We always want to put people at ease and be as approachable as possible in case God leads us into encounters with people. To do this, we just try to lose the religious trappings and appear as normal as possible. God hears us just as clearly when our eyes are open as when our eyes are closed.
- After praying for the person you were focusing on, have someone in the group choose another person for everyone in the group to focus on and repeat steps 3 through 6. We do not speak to the people that we pray for unless we specifically feel led by God to do that.
- Enjoy the boost in encouragement and confidence in hearing God’s voice for others!
- If you are by yourself, no problem! You can also do this on your own at any time, wherever you are! Just pick one person at a time to focus on and ask God to speak to you about that person’s prayer needs. Then pray for that person according to the impressions that you received from the Holy Spirit. This is a great way to improve your skill and confidence in receiving words of knowledge from the Holy Spirit!
“Each of you received a spiritual gift. God has shown you his grace in giving you different gifts. And you are like servants who are responsible for using God’s gifts. So be good servants and use your gifts to serve each other.”—1 Peter 4:10 (ICB)
