God Wants to Speak Through You

Prophetic Antenna Giving a prophetic word doesn’t have to be difficult. I didn’t understand this at first. I remember driving to a home group meeting one night and telling the Lord, “I’m available. Use me.”

I didn’t know what to expect. But that night, during our worship time, God showed me a flower. My heart started to beat fast, and I heard the Lord say, “Give the word.”

“But God, it’s only a flower!” I prayed. Then I noticed the flower was missing some of its petals.

“Give the word!” the Lord repeated.

“But God, it’s just a flower with some petals missing,” I protested. “Besides, I don’t know how to speak King James.” (I thought prophets had to speak in perfect “King James” English.)

“Give the word.”

Finally, with much fear, I opened my mouth and told the group, “I see a flower, and even though some of the petals are plucked off, God still loves you.”

People started weeping. The words had touched a chord in their hearts: God loved them, even though they weren’t perfect.

It was so simple!

God wants each of us to be open to speaking prophetic words that touch people’s hearts—not only in church groups, but also wherever we are as we go about our everyday lives.

Whether we’re going to work, to the mall, to the gas station or to the dry cleaners, we need to look up from our immediate tasks and notice the people around us. Then we need to ask, “What do You have for this woman, Lord? What do You have for that man?”

Once, I went grocery shopping with a girlfriend and her children. We filled our baskets and then got into the checkout line.

While we waited, my eyes happened to connect with the eyes of the cashier. Suddenly I blurted out, “How is your adultery coming along?”

The cashier turned bright red and started to cry.

“It’s not me,” she cried. “It’s my husband.”

“Oh, that’s why I saw that spirit around you,” I responded.

I continued to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompting. “Not only has your husband committed adultery against you, but he’s living with the woman in an apartment, and he’s filing for divorce,” I said. “But the Lord Jesus wants me to tell you that He will never leave you or forsake you. He knows the pain you are in, and He will walk with you in the midst of this situation.”

The woman started weeping again.

I only ministered to that cashier for five minutes. But right there, in the middle of a grocery store checkout line, the Lord gave a word to a woman who hadn’t set foot in a church for years—and who desperately needed to hear a message of love from her God.

That’s taking the prophetic to the streets. Everyone wants to know that there really is a God who loves them, who knows them intimately and who cares about the details of their lives. Prophetic ministry meets that need.

Of course, God will not always give us a “heavy” word about adultery or some other major sin in a person’s life. He may give us a picture of a flower with missing petals.

Either way, the key is to have our “prophetic antenna” up as we go about our everyday business—and to be willing to speak when the Holy Spirit prompts us.

God’s Messengers Once, when I was in New Zealand, I stopped in a manicure shop to get my nails done. I sat down, and the young manicurist took my hand.

“Hi! What do you do?” she asked pleasantly.

“I’m a minister,” I said.

“Oh, I always wanted to do something like that!” she responded.

My prophetic antenna went up. “Maybe you would be a minister,” I said, “if it weren’t for the fact that you’ve been living and sleeping with your boyfriend for the last 10 years.”