How You Can Receive Divine Insight by Praying in the Spirit
Praying in the Spirit activates the grace of God to pray perfect prayers in any situation. These prayers go beyond our own agendas and beyond our rational understanding.
When we pray in the Spirit, divine insight enlightens our hearts so that we can hit the mark when we pray.
Praying in the Spirit With Eager Expectation
The book of Jude has only one chapter, but it is full of revelation and divine insight about praying in the Spirit:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 20-21, NASB).
The wording catches my attention: “waiting anxiously.” That does not contradict the Scriptures about casting your anxieties upon the Lord (see 1 Pet. 5:7, Phil. 4:6, Matt. 6:25-34).
“Waiting anxiously” means waiting with expectation, hardly being able to contain your eagerness. Praying in the Spirit releases a supernatural atmosphere and enables you to walk continuously in the love of God.
God has secrets He wants to share!
Really? Yes, secrets are waiting to be revealed.
Amos 3:7 tells us, “Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His purpose to His servants the prophets.”
Some would have us believe this should read, “God does nothing” as far as the supernatural goes and especially concerning the voice of God speaking today.
But while we do agree that the canon of scripture is closed, God still speaks today, and the prophetic nature of God is alive and active.
Notice what else this single verse points out: “God does nothing unless He first reveals His secret counsel.” Secrets are for the purpose of being revealed. Secrets are to be shared.
The secret counsel of the Lord is to be shared with His intimate servant friends.
With whom do you share your secrets? Do you share everything all at once, or do you reveal your innermost thoughts in parts at a time?
Is trust required? Do you share some now and another piece later? Are there pauses—when it seems that you need to digest what you have just given—before more of the secret is shared?
Prophet: Why Hope Restores in Every Situation
Every one of us goes through dark valleys and troubled times. But in Christ Jesus we have hope. And hope restores in every situation—no matter how dark it may seem.
To say the last year has been challenging would be an understatement for most of the world.
On a national level, almost everyone has experienced a COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty. Added to that, you may have walked through political volatility or personal struggles like a job crisis, health challenges or relational struggles.
After you have walked with the Lord long enough, you begin to see the truth that the place of trouble always, always leads to a door of hope.
Always.
God takes your deepest valley, your valley of Achor, and he transforms it into a door of hope.
After the door of hope, Hosea says, comes joyful celebration: “She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt” (Hos. 2:15b, NKJV).
You will sing and celebrate as Miriam did when God had worked a miracle and delivered the Israelites from Egypt, right through the midst of the Red Sea (Ex. 15:20).
Don’t Stop in the Middle
Prophet: No Matter What Comes, Remember This Unquestionable Truth
Have you ever felt like things were so difficult in your life that “no one cared” about what you were going through? I have.
But the truth is, you always have an advocate—because God C.A.R.E.S.!
You are never alone. And at His very core—God is good!
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus! Regardless of the terrifying storms of life surrounding you, it is vital to anchor your soul in Christ and keep your eyes fixed on Him.
The wind and waves of today may look frightening, but when you fix your eyes on Christ, you only see His goodness and you can trust His words, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matt. 14:27, NASB).
As you remember who God is and put your trust in Him, you can say with confidence like David in Psalm 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom should I dread?”
One of the best ways to shift your focus and see God’s goodness in your life is by using the acronym God C.A.R.E.S.
James Goll: 3 Vital Principles for Understanding the Prophetic
Early in the modern prophetic movement in 1988, I remember learning the importance of the three-stage process of properly handling revelation. These three basic but essential principles each build upon one another: (1) revelation; (2) interpretation and (3) proper application.
Without discovering that framework, we might have continued to take every word literally, never realizing that God might sometimes speak in symbolic language. These three principles have become vital building blocks for understanding the prophetic.
We also learned there is a trifold nature of the prophetic. It is: 1) partial; 2) progressive and 3) conditional. So, let me build on these foundational principles with some additional understanding to unpack the anatomy of a prophetic word.
- Discerning pure revelation. How can we know if a word is genuine? It is too easy to dismiss a word as being “off” simply because we do not consider all of the factors.
First, we must evaluate the source of the word. We must learn to discern the difference between three different primary voices that come our way: God’s Holy Spirit, our own thoughts and flesh, and the demonic noise thrown to us by demonic forces.
Why You Must Take Part in This Mighty Convergence of Prayer
The Holy Spirit is divinely orchestrating a symphony of prayer and worship in these days. God’s desire is that every section of His Prayer Band be in tune with Him while in tune with one another as well.
The Word of God is our score as we each follow the lead of our conductor, the Holy Spirit. Though we play a diverse variety of instruments, two of the hallmarks of God’s united sound are unity of heart and harmony. Isn’t this simply glorious? Praise the Lord!
This month, I have asked God Encounters Ministries’ prayer director, Jason Ford, to share with you his heart and thoughts of what the Lord is doing in the prayer movement. He and his wonderful family recently spent 10 days in prayer at our nation’s capital.
So, let’s read as Jason shares on “A Convergence of Prayer”:
A Convergence of Prayer
7 Ways to Shorten Your Seasons of Struggle
Battle is part of the Christian life. There is a real enemy and you were born into a war. So, seasons of struggle are a given.
But can you shorten your seasons of struggle? I believe you can, and I believe that the Bible is filled with good advice toward this end. You do not need to prolong the agony. You can arise and conquer.
One of the enemy’s ploys is to make you roll over into a passive position. When that happens, you are no longer actively engaged and the devil can roll over you. It is important to daily arise, speak to your inner man and remind yourself of the foundational truths in the Word of God! As you rise up, these truths become weapons that drive the enemy back and make quick work of the battle.
Even if you have been through a few skirmishes before, you can’t just slide into automatic pilot. It is vital to use your most effective weapons, ones that are tried and tested. These are weapons that work—but you must work them. Did you catch that? For the weapons to work, you must work them!
Prophet: 15 Keys to Interpreting Your Dreams
Walking in the prophetic language of dreams is a form of tapping into the mind and heart of God and can be an exciting and exhilarating journey. But understanding and interpreting your dreams and other revelatory spiritual encounters can often be a complex and even confusing process.
I encourage you above all else to keep interpretation simple! Keep the big picture of the dream and overarching theme in mind.
With too much detail you could miss the interpretation. This is a lot like not seeing the forest for the trees.
3 Prophecies: Supreme Court, Extreme Polarity, Conflict of Thrones
There are three significant prophetic words I have received in the past several years which are now entering their fulfillment: 1. Deepening Polarization, 2. Open Conflict of Thrones, and 3. Third Supreme Court Appointee.
Though the ways and means by which I release prophetic utterances can vary, I felt it was important to bring these forward again now so you can partner with the heart of God in calling forth His purposes on the earth!
God is looking for those who will stand in the gap for the nations of the earth. I pray that you will join me by standing in repentance and calling forth His prophetic promises.
The Days of the Great Divide
We are living in Days of the Great Divide and Times of Extreme Polarity.
Over the past three to four years, I have written about this at various times and spoken about it in in different places and diverse ways.
James Goll: 7 Relevant Points for Receiving Pure Revelation
God wants to reveal His heart to you.
He wants to speak to you specifically about your life. As you create space and time for Him to speak to you, He will also reveal things regarding your church, city, nation and other things on His heart.
Sometimes you are just to be an intercessor, and sometimes more action is required.
But first you must position yourself to hear from Him.
“I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run” (Hab. 2:1-2, NASB).
7 Points That Matter: Receiving Revelation
From these two verses there are seven points that matter:
How You Can Release Prophetic Anointing at any Time
Today the Holy Spirit in all His fullness is being sent forth into the entire world as believers who are filled with His Spirit release His prophetic anointing, bringing impact and influence everywhere they go.
Jesus dispatched His disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19a) carrying the light of the world.
Great Diversity of Prophetic Anointing
I cannot emphasize enough how big God is.
We see an almost bewildering variety of gifts, anointings, ministries and combinations across the body of Christ.
Yet even with such diversity, everything is under the governance of the same Lord: “There are various gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are various operations, but it is the same God who operates all of them in all people” (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
What is an anointing, anyway?
I define an anointing as the supernatural “enablement,” grace and manifest presence of the Holy Spirit operating upon or through an individual or group to produce the works of Jesus.
James Goll: 8 Common People Who Appear in Your Dreams
These are very important days for the body of Christ and for the nations of the earth. In such times, the Lord often pours out revelation in the form of dreams.
It is vital that we learn to interpret these dream encounters accurately so that we can discern what the Lord is saying to us and how He would have us respond.
An extremely common occurrence in dreams is the appearance of people—family members, friends, acquaintances, prominent leaders in church, society or government and even complete strangers.
In the majority of these cases, the people who appear in your dreams and/or visions are often symbolic in nature.
6 Effective Ways to Exercise Your God-Given Authority Over Demons
Jesus had authority over demons.
Wherever Jesus went, crowds gathered. Demoniacs were often healed in those crowds.
In some cases, the demons became disruptive (see Mark 3:10-11 and Luke 4:41; see also Acts 8:7, where demons shrieked in Philip’s large meetings as they were driven out of people).
Most of the time, Jesus commanded the unclean spirits not to reveal His identity:
“When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was” (Mark 1:32–34, NASB).
Regardless of the behavior of the demons, Jesus drove them out with as little as a single word (see Matt. 8:16). He also healed people who were “troubled by evil spirits” (Luke 6:18, NIV). This seems to imply a lesser degree of demonic influence—”affliction” or “oppression,” as opposed to “control” or “possession.”
Prophet: Praying for the Wisdom Ways of God
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52, MEV).
Wisdom is one of the primary qualities of God’s Holy Spirit—in Isaiah 11:1-3, the spirit of wisdom is listed as one of the seven Spirits of God. He is wisdom personified: “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself” (1 Cor. 1:30a, NLT).
I would say wisdom is even more vital to prophetic people, than the divine revelation they receive, because only through God-sent wisdom can they know how to handle the word of the Lord in the right way.
So Exactly What Is Wisdom?
God values wisdom so much, that altogether the words “wisdom” or “wise” are used more than 456 times in the Bible. Clearly, wisdom is a valuable commodity! Yet do we truly understand what wisdom is?
Prophetic Vision: The Microburst Is Birthing the Microchurch
Do you know the difference between a microburst and a tornado?
While both can create fierce, destructive damage, they move and operate in very different ways.
A tornado forms a cylinder of rotating wind that can range in size and activity whereas a microburst forms a column of sinking air coming straight down perpendicularly. It then powers its way in a straight-lined direction, in comparison to the circular or swirl pattern of a tornado. It can be extremely powerful.
The Microburst Is Birthing the Microchurch
Recently, while in worship, I was given a rather unusual vision.
I saw three men sitting on a platform together.
Suddenly, a wind from heaven blew straight down upon the three apostles. It blew them out of their chairs, and they were left standing. And stand they did.
James Goll: ‘Grandma of the Prayer Shield’ Fulfilled Her Kingdom Calling
With 82 years of fruitful life, Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Alves graduated into the arms of Jesus on the morning of July 23 at her home in Bulverde, Texas. That morning, I received a personal phone call telling me the bittersweet news.
Beth is fondly known within the God Encounters Ministries sphere as “grandma of the prayer shield.” Over the many years I have known her, Beth served in various capacities in our ministry, both as a director on the board and later as an adviser to the ministry. Her involvement personally touched the lives of every Goll family member. She was entrusted as one of the speakers at Michal Ann’s memorial service in Nashville, Tennessee, almost 13 years ago.
Elizabeth began in earnest with a simple prayer: “Lord, teach me to pray.” The result became Increase International, formerly Intercessors International, a prayer, teaching and prophetic ministry that transformed the lives of individuals and leaders worldwide. Motivated by an unquenchable passion for God, she invested her life in teaching believers how to hear God’s voice and prophesy in His name. Using humor and simplicity, Elizabeth ministered globally, speaking the Word of the Lord to governments and businesses, and she taught at various schools, seminaries, conferences and churches in 49 nations.
James Goll: 10 Practical Keys to Help You Prophesy
Prophecy is for everyone. It is difficult to convey this concept enough in our world of superstars—both in the church and outside it.
But Scripture is clear—every believer is prophetic, and every believer can prophesy (see Num. 11:29 and Acts 2:16-18).
So whether you have prophesied for years or are just getting started, here are 10 practical guidelines that will help you grow in prophecy and keep your gift solidly grounded.
10 Practical Ways to Help You Prophesy:
- Earnestly desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially that you may prophesy (see 1 Cor. 14:1). God wants to speak to you and through you!
- Trust the peace of God. Beware of speaking when your spirit is uneasy or in turmoil, or when you feel forced to speak. Look for the peace of God in every word you utter (see Ps. 85:8, Phil. 4:7–9).
- Obey the urging of the Spirit. Remember, the prophetic spirit is under your control. It will not impel you to speak against your better judgment. You can turn it off or turn it on by an act of your will.
- Don’t rely on physical,,,,
Prophet: Help Build a Firewall Prayer Shield for America
As in the days of Nehemiah, a trumpet would be sounded and the people would rally to a united cause. My friend, Patricia King, is releasing an alert for crisis intervention through intercession. I am asking God Encounters Ministries to join me in standing in the gap for such a time as this.
Please read the following article, watch the video and prayerfully consider signing up for the hour that changes the world at FireWallUSA.com. Consider partnering with me at the 9:00 a.m. watch.
Remember, in Jesus, we make a great team.
Critical Days Require Critical Measures With Patricia King
On June 27, 2020, I woke very early to an alert in the spirit. I arose to pray and inquire of the Lord, and He made it clear that the Church must rise to pray in this hour, as there are internal vulnerabilities within the USA that are producing dangerous, external vulnerabilities. He told me to build a Firewall Prayer Shield with layers of intercession to protect and align the USA in this critical hour and to call forth the nation’s full destiny.
In less than one week from that morning, the Firewall USA was launched with now thousands of participants.
God Responds to Four Redemptive Positions
James Goll: The Light That Will Guide You Through Darkness
God is the hope that lights up the darkness.
In the beginning, darkness covered the surface of the deep. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
Ever since, God has been lighting up the darkness. In fact, darkness is simply the absence of light. The darker the darkness, the brighter the light appears when it comes.
In the same way the natural world is filled with hills and valleys. In fact, come to think of it, you cannot have a mountaintop without at least a couple of valleys on each side. The way new mountains rise up is by means of great cataclysms and prolonged erosion in the valleys that are left behind.
Through the Dark Valley
The Bible references numerous hills and valleys.
Prophet Declares: Healing for Your Pain and Hope for Your Trauma
Sometimes you may feel so low, you’re not sure you will make it through. But God brings healing for your pain and hope for your trauma.
One Bleak Day, I Hit Rock Bottom
One bleak day, my emotional quotient (EQ) was at rock bottom.
I do not remember how many of my kids were home that day, but I felt so overwhelmed that I retreated to the privacy of my bedroom and began to sob uncontrollably.
Before long, weeping even harder, I went into my bathroom and shut the door. What I really wanted to do was to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come out, but that was impossible. So, to put as much distance between myself and my painful situation as I could, I went through the only remaining door, which led to my walk-in closet. With three doors between me and the rest of the house, I thought maybe I could hide from not only my family but also from God.