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1. Affirm the Potential You See in Others
When I was about 11 years old, I was prophesied over by a lady in our church. During part
of the prophesy she told me, "You are faithful to come to church every Friday night, even when you could be having fun hanging
out with your friends or something. And I can see that your spirit-man is very mature, taller than most of the physical bodies
of the adults in this sanctuary." At the time, the reality was that I did not want to come to church very often, but my mom
made me come to our Friday meetings. But, even though I knew this, I still believed the lady who prophesied over me, simply
because she was a prophet, and she was operating under the power of God. Because I did believe her, I developed a very strong
hunger for God’s word, and I now love to go to church.
When I was a kid, it was true that I did love God deeply. I remember being a second-grader and
watching a video-sermon about Heaven over-and-over again, simply because I loved the supernatural things the preacher on it
talked about. When the lady prophesied this spiritual maturity over me though, it affirmed that characteristic in me and allowed
me to pursue God more, with a confidence and ease.
In the same way, you can affirm the potential you see in people, even before you know if it is
one of their strong characteristics. If you meet a friend who says they go to church, you can affirm their devotion to God
before you know how serious they already are about Him. This will encourage them, and cause them to identify more with being
a Christian. As Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Affirm in his mind that he is a godly person,
and he is more likely to become one. And, you can do the same thing with any other characteristic of a person. If they seem
sweet, bold, pure-hearted, talented, or anything else, you can affirm those qualities in people and define who they become
in their future.
2. Share the Prophesies Others Have Given
If you go to a church where prophets often speak, or you watch enough Christian TV and read
Christian magazines, you will find people saying God spoke to them about the future. When you hear them prophesy about the
Church or the world, and their words feel right to you in your spirit (not your emotions, but deep inside your inner heart),
then check to see if their prophesies contradict anything in the Bible. If they do not, then share them with others! Get them
in written form if you can, and read them to your Christian friends who believe that God still speaks to His children today.
If you have friends that don’t know God still speaks through prophets, then wait to share the prophesies until they
are fulfilled.
By sharing the prophesies others give, you are helping God get the messages out that He wants
to get out. If the prophesies have already come true, you are showing that people really can hear from a living God that speaks
to them. For places that commonly publish prophesies, check out www.elijahlist.com or www.cimn.net.
3. Stay on the Watch for Trends in the Church
Prophets often foretell what is going to happen to the Christian world in a certain period of
time, whether it be that the people will have a new understanding of a certain truth, or that a great number of people will
become converted in a certain region. If you pay attention to what is going on in the churches around you, and if you watch
enough Christian media or read multiple Christian magazines, then you might sometimes be able to notice these changes happening
in the church simply by observation. When you see a new trend happening in the Church that has a positive effect on its members,
then discuss that trend with others, so that they can recognize its occurrence and work to follow it as well.
An example of such trend-watching from my own experience, is that I’ve
heard two different preachers lately speak on the need for prophetic songs in the Church, while my own worship team has been
receiving a number of new songs from God. I realized that the Holy Spirit was wanting to inspire more fresh music in the Church,
and I shared about this with my worship leader and mother. Then, just yesterday I heard a prophecy from Bob Jones and Patricia
King that God was about to "release a new sound in the earth, a whole new genre of music" that He would use to minister to
people through. This confirmed that my observations were right, and that the things I was sharing lined up with what God was
wanting to convey.
4. Point Out the Differences in Individuals
Often a prophet will give a prophesy like this to a person: "I can’t tell this
from looking at you, but the Lord is showing me that you have some Native American ancestry, and He wants to use you to share
His love with people on the Indian reserves." The prophet tells the person something about them that nobody would know without
being associated with them, and often what the person receiving the prophesy did not know themselves. Then, the person will
gain a greater understanding about their identity, and be able draw from the strengths that come with that identity to do
what God has planned for them.
You can encourage people in the same way by simply helping them to understand their
personality, and pointing out the strengths that come with having such a personality. The following are some things I have
found that help to explain someone’s uniqueness:
Birth Order: Whether a person is a first-born child, a second-born child, the baby
in the family, or an only-child can effect the mind-sets and behaviors that they develop in life. To study the effects of
birth order, I recommend The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Lemur.
Temperament Type: There are four main personality types that all people seem to be
able to fit into: sanguine, melancholy, choleric, or phlegmatic. To learn more about the strengths and weaknesses associated
with each personality type, I recommend reading about them at www.oneishy.com.
Love Languages: People can communicate love by giving a physical touch, a word of
praise, a material gift, a service, or by spending time with each other. Generally, people tend to communicate their love
through one of these methods more than the other. To understand why someone is having trouble in a relationship, you may simply
need to know if they are communicating their love in the other person’s love language. To learn about the five love
languages, and how to determine what someone’s is, check out www.fivelovelanguages.com.
Multiple Intelligences: According to the theory of psychologist Howard Gardner, there
are seven types of intelligence that people can have, which are areas in which they are skilled in learning. If you can help
someone determine their intelligence type, they will be better able to pursue the right careers and understand why they excel
in some activities more than others. To learn about the seven intelligence types, visit http://www.funderstanding.com/multiple_intelligence.cfm.
Spiritual Gifting: Ephesians 4:7 says, "But to each of us a grace was given according
to the measure of Christ’s gift." That means that each Christian has a certain amount of the gifting that Christ had
when He was on Earth, and if we use our gifts for the benefit of others, we can together serve the world just as Christ did.
The Bible lists nine of these supernatural gifts in 1 Corinthinthians 12, and they include the strong ability to give divine
wisdom, to show divine knowledge, to give others faith, to heal people, to work miracles, to prophesy the future, to tell
what kind of spirits are influencing others, to give a message in languages you don’t know, and to interpret messages
in given in unfamiliar languages. To learn more about these supernatural gifts, and to get a quiz you can share with others
to help them find their gifts, read Discover Your Spiritual Gifts, by C. Peter Wagner.
Ways of Worshiping: According to author Gary Thomas, there are at least nine different
ways that people can worship God, and worshipers tend to each have their own specialty in one of these ways. To find out which
form of worship your friends specialize in, read Gary’s book Sacred Pathways, or have them take the quiz at http://www.sacchurch.org/action-steps/sacred_pathways.htm.
Heritages: If someone has a Pentecostal heritage, you can affirm that they are probably
bold in their praise because of having that in their spiritual background. If they have a Baptist background, you can affirm
that their passion for evangelism likely comes from that spiritual heritage. Whatever someone’s heritage is, there is
almost always a good quality about having that in their history. This can apply to their spiritual background, family background,
or national background. Use the backgrounds of your peers to point out the good things in their personalities, and affirm
in them that they are carrying on the strengths of their ancestors.
If you begin to use the four forms of practical prophesy listed above, then you will be
able to bring revelation, affirmation, and encouragement to those around you, just as a prophet does. And, if you have been
called to one day become a prophet, then these practices make for great ways to "stir up the gift of God that is in you,"
as 2nd Timothy 1:6 commands. Before you know it, you may find the Holy Spirit giving you greater revelation in
supernatural ways to share with those around you.
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