Hearing God, Pt. 2: Prophecy

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone lead through this guided prayer:

Holy Spirit, as we begin our time tonight, would you bring to our minds a moment in which we heard your voice really clearly this last week? 
(Leader: Pause here for a moment.)
God, we remember that you are kind and that you love to speak to us. 
We remember that you are patient and will continue to teach us to hear you.
We remember that you are gracious, gentle, and good.
And, for all of this, we are thankful.
Amen.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

At its most simple, prophecy is hearing God’s voice on behalf of yourself, an individual, or a group. Most often, when we speak of prophecy, we refer to having sensed an image in our mind, a feeling in our body, a verse from Scripture, lyrics to a song, a word, or some other thought in our imagination that God may have put there. In 1 Corinthians 14, we read that all followers of Jesus are to eagerly desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but especially prophecy. We eagerly desire prophecy because God loves to speak to us and to reveal his love for us. 

A helpful way to think about and process prophecy is in three layers: Revelation, Interpretation, & Application. Revelation asks “What do I sense?” Interpretation asks “What might it mean?” And Application asks “What am I to do with it?” or “Who is this for? And when is this for?” This all takes practice and even the most seasoned person will get it wrong sometimes. We practice prophecy together because the people in this room are really safe to try and not always get it right. Prophecy is not about a technique or a strategy. Prophecy isn’t a superpower. It’s about stewarding God’s presence as he reveals to us who he is and his heart for us. With that, tonight we are going to try prophecy together.

Do These Practices Tonight

We are going to do two Practices tonight as a Community: listening with pictures and listening for someone specific.

1. Listening with a Picture: First is a practice adapted from Pete Greig’s “How To Hear God.” A picture is worth a thousand words because it requires some aspect of interpretation. Even a simple picture can have so much going on – color, perspective, background, foreground, contrast, tones, movement, etc. In this exercise each of us is going to invite God to speak to us through a photo! 

(Leader’s Note: Take a moment for each person to select ONE photo. It’s ok if multiple people choose the same one. That said, because of the easy distraction of digital devices, it is ideal if you’re able to print out these photos. That said, if you’re not able to, that’s ok! Just send everyone the link below, have them pick a picture, and invite them to put their phones on airplane mode.)

Now that we each have a photo, I’m going to invite the Spirit to speak to us. Then we’re each going to take a few minutes to look at the image and ask God to reveal his heart in some way. There’s no hurry as we do this and there is no right answer. Take your time and try to be present to God. As you listen, remember that, in 1 Corinthians 14v3-4, Paul reminds us that prophecy is about strengthening, encouraging, comforting, and edifying. And remember that God loves to speak to us.

(Leader’s Note: Invite the Holy Spirit to speak and then allow the group to spend a few minutes with their picture. It may help to set a 3 or 4 minute timer, so that you can focus on your own photo. Once the time is up, continue below.)

Now we’re going to take a few minutes and share which photo we each picked and what it is we sensed God saying to us through these pictures. Maybe it was for you, maybe it was for someone else in the group or for the whole group. And once everyone has had a chance to share, we’re going to move onto our next Practice. 

2. Listening for Someone Specific: Next, we are going to try hearing the thoughts of God for another person in the room by playing a bit of a game. 

To begin, everyone will close their eyes while I walk around the room and quietly pick someone by tapping their shoulder. The person I tap will be “receiving” the prophetic words.

Then, I will set a 60 second timer and we’ll pause to listen on behalf of this unknown person. This may feel rushed, but it’s a great way to not overcomplicate things and to make sure there’s enough time to do a couple rounds!

After the timer goes off, we’ll stay in the posture of prayer, and anyone who wants to can share the images, words, feelings, etc. that came up during that time. But rather than talking through them, each person will share the image and then pray into it.

Lastly, once everyone who wants to share does, I’ll say “amen” and reveal who we were all listening for. This person then will share what resonated with them. The goal of this activity is not to get everything right. If you say something that doesn’t stick, that doesn’t mean you don’t hear God’s voice. In fact, when you don’t know who you’re listening for, it’s pretty safe to assume that you won’t get everything right. The goal is to practice learning what God’s voice sounds like and to practice sharing what it is you sense. 

We’ll keep doing this Practice a bit. We may even consider ending each night of Community going forward with a quick round of this so we can commit to being learners of God’s voice.

(Leader’s Note: When the time comes, close in prayer. Thank God for speaking and for teaching us what his voice sounds like.)

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, the invitation is to take some time to practice prophecy in an ordinary part of your life. Where might you build a container in your day to pause and turn your attention to hear God’s voice? Whether it’s first thing in the morning, on your lunch break, while the kids are napping, on your commute home, or right before bed, we want to become the kind of people who pause regularly to hear what God is saying.

There are a number of ways to do this. It could be great to practice that picture exercise for 3 or 4 minutes each morning. You could consider asking God to reveal his heart to you for someone in your life. You could even start by asking him to bring someone to mind and then to reveal his heart for that person. However you choose to engage, trying it at some point each day is a great way to practice hearing God’s voice. 

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together asking God that we might grow as hearers of his voice.