More essays from my friend!!!

"The Steps God Has Taken in Releasing the Prophetic Word Through My Life"

My first experience with prophecy was January, 2005. I was invited and attended a New Year’s party where a group of girls would be praying and having a meal to represent that of the last supper, breaking bread, and having wonderful fellowship with each other. Eventually the party moved upstairs where an elderly couple (Bonnie and Ernie Cottrell) were beginning to explain prophecy. They were praying and speaking in tongues ( something else I had very little experience with). Girl by girl, they prophesied, taping everything that was said. I sat back and watched, praying in my understanding, since I knew nothing else to do. A peace came upon me as I listened and agreed with much that they were saying. It was so encouraging. Since words of affirmation is a very strong love language in me, I became excited yet a bit apprehensive about being prophesied over. I can truly say that experience with prophecy changed my life.
Within a matter of months, I was praying in tongues and learning to prophesy over others. I began by praying for people, interceding in a way where I knew that what I was praying for was exactly what they needed prayer for. During this time, God began to show me that the journal I had written to God since I was eighteen was actually very prophetic. I would write to God and He would answer me. I couldn’t believe it. God had been prophesying to me and others before I even knew what prophecy was! In telling me this, He gave me confidence to believe that the things I envision are from Him and not from a wild imagination.
Soon, God began giving me images to share with others. I would prophesy by explaining the image, telling them what I saw and what I believed God was telling me to say. Eventually that grew to not even receiving a picture. God would just tell me to open my mouth and words would flow out of me faster than I knew what I was saying, but I saw people react. I saw them laugh and cry and I knew that I was being used by God, even when I had no clue what I was saying.
One night at our Bible study, we were all laying prostrate, worshiping God and crying out to Him. God told me to go over to the leader of the group and prophesy over her and when I went, I was to say, "The Lord says," something I had never done before. As usual, I argued with God, telling him I would write it out and give it to her, or I would email her tomorrow. Holy Spirit would not leave me alone until I went over to her and laid my hand on her back. The minute I did, he released a word into me about her, a rhema ( as I know it is called now). She had been losing weight and God wanted to encourage her. He told her how her physical losing weight was going to be represented in her spiritual life, that she was even going to war differently as this weight came off, that though she didn’t realize it, losing this weight was not only a physical battle, but a spiritual one and she was winning and would continue to win, but it was going to lead her into a greater battle with much pain and much stretching. When I was done, she told me she wished she had recorded it and, teasingly, asked me to write it in an email the next day. Crazy thing was, I was able to, so I sent it to her that next day, knowing that what I wrote was just as clear and powerful as what God had told me to say before.
My teacher and mentor is and has been Barby Nestor, who had taken this class and began to use our Wednesday Bible study as a time to train all of us in prophetic activation. Eventually, Barby told me that I should take MSG and the School of the Prophets, so I could learn more. She told me about activations that were done and how much she learned in the process.
So here I am, now learning that when I prophesy, by faith, I must say, "The Lord says." Every time I come I find myself amazed with the amount of power in which my classmates speak. I stand in awe of the ways God allows me to encourage those around me and I praise Him with a deeper reverence in seeing how much He blesses all of us through prophecy.
It seems so very hard to believe that a year and a half ago, I didn’t know this way of life. I find it hard to believe that there was ever a time that I did not pray prophetically. Almost every week I pray for another way to exercise my gift because I know it will only grow through reason of use. It has been an interesting journey and I know it’s only beginning.


"How the Holy Spirit Gifts Have Manifested in My Life."

I was looking at my best friend, but I wasn’t seeing her, I was seeing a spirit of self-pity that had attached itself to her eyeballs, guiding her vision to what it wished for her to see. "In the name of Jesus Christ, I tell you, spirit of self-pity, you must leave. Through the power of Christ you are being frozen and are not allowed to move around anymore. You cannot direct my friend’s eyes. She will not feel sorry for herself anymore. You have been found out and are being revealed in the light. That which is revealed in the light, in truth, cannot remain in the darkness anymore. You must go, in the name of Jesus Christ."
I was going through a crash course in healing ministries. There were two of us ministering to my best friend. Every time I look back on that day, I am yet again astonished at what God accomplished through us. It wasn’t until the next day that I was truly able to say to someone, smiling, yet timidly, "I cast out demons yesterday, in the name of Jesus Christ. God truly led me to do something that Jesus Christ himself did."
Now, do I break that down into the different gifts that were manifested in that day? Do I tell you that there was definitely a word of knowledge given, possibly many words of wisdom, that I was given strong discernment of spirits? There were prophetic activations done during that time. When a spirit of bad-girl would not leave, we warred by singing a kid’s song, holding hands and dancing in a circle. It was important that she restored the sense of innocense that had been lost. Would the spirit have left if we hadn’t done that? I don’t know. What I do know is I was being led by something greater than myself because you can’t usually get me to sing kid’s songs with my 20-something friends, especially when it’s "Ring Around the Rosie." I’m an English teacher. I know the origination of that song. It’s not really one I would sing to restore a sense of peace.
Somehow, it seems to cheapen the different ways the Holy Spirit was manifested by classifying each gift demonstrated. I know that the Holy Spirit was there. I know He lavished gifts upon us that day and I know He strengthened us beyond measure. There were times He spoke to me and I knew what needed to be done. There were other times He spoke to my partner in warfare and she would know what to do and I would follow her lead. We were desperate in having freedom for our friend and we weren’t going to quit until it was done. It took 7 hours.
There were times that my best friend would repeat what we told her to say, but it never registered on her face that she believed it. We were often looking at demons manifesting themselves. She would mush her face, giggle, titter, and start to fall asleep. God showed us over and over again that this was not our friend. Her eyes would get glossy. She would start talking in a high pitch, squeaky voice. We would continue to speak in the authority Jesus Christ has given us, knowing that was the only reason we were not harmed, knowing that was the only way our friend would receive freedom.
It was scary and one of the hardest things I have ever been a part of. Yet I know it is what God is calling me to even now. I have prayed so many times that God would allow me the privilege of releasing the captives, of seeing the prisoners set free, of restoring the broken-hearted, giving a garment of praise for a spirit of mourning. God has made that my rhema, my life verse, my destiny. That is how the Holy Spirit gifts have manifested in my life. Of course, this is not the only instance, but most of the gifts He has given me have been represented in this essay. There is a Scripture somewhere that says we are given the gifts according to the measure in which they are needed at that time. In other words, all gifts may be present in our life, according to the discernment of the Holy Spirit. He knew many gifts were needed that day and so I was given the amazing responsibility of using them according to the measure in which they were given. I look forward to seeing them manifest themselves in other ways in the future.