Copyright 2013 – Kevin Horn

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This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit.  The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal group study is permitted and encouraged.  Permission will be granted upon request.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

My Story

Step 1:  Cry out to the Lord

Step 2:  Confess and Repent of Your Sins

Step 3:  Act on What the Lord Reveals to You

Step 4:  Give your Time, Talent, and Treasure

Step 5:  Create an Atmosphere

Step 6:  Study Biblical Prophetic Experiences

Step 7:  Find Others Who Are Hungry

Postscript

Acknowledgments

Resources

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Preface

This book was written for hungry Christians like you who want to take their first step into the prophetic realm.  Many desire to hear the Lord for themselves and others who are hurting, but because of uninformed theology or a purposeful stifling of the gift of prophecy by their leaders, they feel that He does not speak today or they cannot hear him.  I want to make it easy for all who read this book to hear the Lord by sharing what has helped me.

In I Corinthians 14:1-5, the apostle Paul explains how we should desire earnestly, above all the other spiritual gifts, to prophesy.  It is amazing to me how so many churches and Christians ignore this very scriptural command as it relates to the ministry.  Communication is the foundation of relationship.  Authentic Christianity is real relationship with Jesus.  If we never talk to Him and hear Him speak back to us, how will we ever know the Lord?

The Lord places such a high priority on prophecy because it is vital to the life and health of the church and the Christian's spiritual life.  What parent would have children, and then not speak to them?  As a father who relates and speaks to his three children daily, I can assure you that our Heavenly Father has much to say and express to us as His beloved children.  We must ask ourselves if we are merely religious or in a personal relationship with the Lord.

The aim of this book is to serve as a guide to those seeking the pathway of prophetic revelation that is available to every child of God.  I have found that I can hear the Lord the easiest when I have prepared myself to hear Him speak.  This preparation is a show of respect to the Lord and that you value what He says and feels.  Faith is expressed outwardly as we expect the Lord to speak to us and we make room for Him in our lives.  Expectation is a key to hearing God.  In this way of preparation and expectant faith, the bride of Christ makes herself ready for Jesus to speak and share His love and wisdom for her and the world.  Can we, as a church, get a vision for making ourselves ready for entering the courts of the Lord, our Great King?

I wanted to share these steps of preparation so that others could begin to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit.

Do you hear Him?  Quiet your soul and spirit..........Listen.........and you will.............

Introduction

It is a great time to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  The Lord is pouring out His Spirit in a greater measure.  The result of His Spirit being poured out throughout history has been the increase of visions, dreams, and prophetic revelation.  In times past, we have seen the heavens closed and revelation has been rare.  However, in these last days, we have seen the Lord releasing revelation on a greater scale and even people in countries that are closed to the gospel are seeing visions and dreams of Jesus.

You may be saying, “I don't have visions and dreams, and I certainly don't hear God speaking on a regular basis.”  That may be your experience, but I know that if you read this book and agree to do the exercises and follow it's counsel, you will begin to hear the Lord in ways that you never thought possible.

In this book, you will learn about the process of preparing to hear the Lord speak to you in prophetic ways.  You will learn that preparing yourself and waiting on the Lord is not a passive state of being, but one of active preparation and expectation on your part.

One of the things that you will come to realize is that God is always speaking.  This is a startling revelation to most Christians when they begin to the hear the Lord consistently.  They will say that they did not realize that God was so expressive.  The Bible says that idols are mute, but our Living God is constantly releasing the passions of His heart for the people Jesus died to save.

In Revelation 4, we see the Lord high and lifted up on His throne and lightening, thundering, and voices pour forth from Him.  All of those symbols speak of God's redemptive invitation to all hungry souls that desire to commune with the Lord.  He speaks to all who long to hear Him expressing the passions of His heart and the thoughts of His infinite mind.  Listen closely, and you will hear the Creator of the universe speak.

He longs to talk to you.  Let us listen with humble and expectant hearts.

My Story

I grew up in church and attended several different congregations of various denominations such as Baptist, Charismatic, Assembly of God, and Presbyterian.  My friends and family went to other types of churches and I always liked visiting them.  I enjoy the varying view points and major focuses of each church.  I believe that we all can learn something from every orthodox Christian church.

I don't put a label on myself except to say that I am a Bible-believing Christian.  I would be labeled by others as Pentecostal or Charismatic.  Others have said that I am too Baptist to really be called Charismatic.  I am not a Baptist.  I am not a Charismatic.  I agree with teachings from both camps.  I don't really care for any of these labels.  I prefer to be known as a follower of Jesus.  I prefer being known as a lover of God.  I would rather my life declare that I am a true disciple of Christ.

“I did not believe that God would speak to me...”

One thing that my background and exposure to various churches and theologies has given me is an understanding of the positions taken by pastors and members on the Lord speaking today.  I heard different things growing up.  I remember being in churches where people would speak in tongues and prophesy.  Then, I also remember being in churches in which people would have flipped out if someone attempted to speak in tongues or prophesy.  I will say that those churches that did not practice prophecy were always drier than the churches who had a flow of the Holy Spirit.  I went through a period of my life where I did not believe that God would speak to me.  I did not believe that I could hear Him speak.

I went through a period of time where I was not exposed to Charismatic and Pentecostal churches and they started to seem foreign to me.  The expression of spiritual gifts that seemed normal to me as a child, all of a sudden seemed very odd and I felt out of place when visiting.  This continued until I intended to play basketball in high school and failed a physical examination with issues related to my blood count.  I was facing my first personal crisis in life.  I went to five different doctors and each one of them told my parents a different story of what could be wrong with me and the terrible road ahead.  They all just needed to conduct one more test.  I went through a lot of tests over the next year.  I heard everything from leukemia, lower gastric-intestinal bleeding, to upper gastric-intestinal bleeding, and that my body was not keeping up with my growth rate.

It was a very scary time for me.  I was not sure what was going wrong with my body, but I knew that I was not well.  My red blood cell count was getting low, and none of the doctors were able to tell me and family why.  My mother finally got tired of all of the different diagnoses, and she did what any concerned mother knows to do.  She gave me over to God and gathered her family to bombard Heaven on my behalf.  I can still remember that time of prayer like it was yesterday.  We all gathered at my grandmother's house and my family laid their hands on me and began to pray in the Spirit over me.  I could feel the presence of the Lord very strongly.  I knew that I was healed in the instant that my faith reached to Heaven.  When you have been touched by God, and He comes in a tangible way, you know that you are healed.

I went back to the doctor and sure enough, my red blood cell count was back to the normal level.  I was forever changed by the experience.  It was in that moment of prayer, that I began to desire to know the power of the Holy Spirit in my own life.  I heard my family praying in the Spirit and I knew that I did not have these gifts operating in my life.  I knew that I needed to have the touch of God in my life just as they did.  This was around February of 1995.

Two months later, in April of 1995, I found myself at a revival service in Honaker, Virginia at a church called “Calvary Lighthouse”.  Nothing could have prepared me for the revival services that I would experience.  We arrived late and the praise and worship was still going on.  Then, one of the ministers got up and began to exhort the congregation to praise the Lord and surrender to the Holy Spirit.

All of a sudden people started having all of these experiences with the Lord.  All sorts of spiritual manifestations started happening.  You have to remember that I was not really used to these things, so I was sort of skeptical at first.  Then, I started feeling waves of God's power start to move on me and various parts of my body.  I had not felt the Spirit of God like this before.  I had felt spiritual things before, but mainly they were either demonic and fearful or I would feel God's peace and comfort.

In the revival service, I began to feel God's power come upon my body in my stomach and thighs.  I cannot describe this any other way than to say that it was as if there were little fish in my stomach swimming around.  My thigh muscles were alive and responsive to the power of God moving in them.  It was not long after that I began to close my eyes and get lost in the worship.  I had thoughts that I was going to start seeing visions during that revival.  I kept waiting to see them, but they never came.

I realize now that I was ignorant of how to receive a vision and that I kept expecting them to come to my physical eyes.  They never did during those revival services.  However, if I had been trained to see in the Spirit, then I am confident that  I would have seen plenty during those services.  It is funny how much I can remember from those days.  During those days, it truly seemed like I had slipped into eternity and kairos time where hours and minutes no longer apply.

The service progressed further with the ministers tag teaming and calling out words of knowledge for various things that needed prayer and healing.  This was very impressive and many people were getting touched.  I began to desire to be able to hear the Lord speak to me just as He did to them.  Nothing yet.  They began to ask for people to come forward to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I had desired to speak in tongues, but I was very unlearned and unable to relax.  When I went up to the front of the church for prayer, I was full of preconceived ideas and determination to get what I had come for.  I had heard my family speak in tongues and it sounded like French, Spanish, and sometimes Chinese.  So, I expected that I would sound very similar when I finally broke out in tongues.  The Lord was about to pull a fast one on me.

The ministers kept on telling me to relax and let go.  They kept on telling me to surrender to the Holy Spirit.  I was trying to hard to make this thing happen.  Then, I just began to pray the things that they were telling me such as surrendering to God.  I began to obey their instructions to speak and form the words that I was receiving with my own mouth.  They told me that I had to use my voice and not just my mind to speak in tongues.  I finally stepped out and began to utter what the Holy Spirit began to give me right in that moment.  The tongues that I began to speak were totally unexpected by me.  Talk about God totally breaking my box and throwing me a curve ball!

The tongues that came out of my mouth sounded like a continual tongue roll.  I never in a million years would have picked a continual tongue roll as the first utterances that I would speak when baptized in the Holy Spirit.  That day, I had to humble myself and surrender to the Lord.  I had to let God be God and give me the type of tongues that He desired.  Those continual tongue rolls were a sign to me that God was supernaturally giving me those words.  The ministers held up the microphone to my mouth and the whole church could hear me, including my very proud and joyful mother.  My sister came the next night, and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  She reasoned to herself that if I said it was real, then it must be.  She was hungry too.  What a powerful time it was!  I am so thankful for that time of revival and refreshing and the move of God in my life.

The revival went on for several more days after those first few nights.  We went back several times for more and more of the power and presence of God.  Things escalated every time I went and I received a greater impartation and a deeper work of the Lord in my heart and soul.  I was given a complete overhaul by the Spirit of the Lord on the floor of that church.  I received healing for deep hurts, spiritual gifts, and my life was changed forever.  I could never be the same again after these experiences.

Before the healing experience and the revival, I was on a course to become another Sunday-only Religious Christian.  I was someone who would put their hour in on Sunday and go back to living their life the way they wanted to.  After the life changing touch and presence of God that I experienced at those revival services, I desired so much more.  I desired to hear the voice of the Lord.  I desired to call out words of knowledge for healing.  I desired to see visions.  I desired to pray for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Shortly after these revival services, I began to hear the Spirit of the Lord speak to me and He would tell me the strangest things.  He would give me trivial instructions and ask me to obey Him.  I began to share these words with my family, and they told me that God was teaching me to listen to Him.  I obeyed these instructions from the Lord for a while, but because I did not have anyone to disciple me in prophetic things, I quit listening and then I quit hearing God speak.  I heard His Spirit in conviction of course, but I was not hearing the flow of words like I did after the revival services.

“I learned from my own experience that I don't want other people to experience prophetic things, and be without instruction and training in their prophetic gift.”

It was several years later before I would get into a church that had any understanding of the prophetic.  It was several years that I did not hear the voice of God, and I consider it wasted time in my life.  I know God is always doing things with us and in us.  What I learned from that experience is that I don't want other people to experience prophetic things, and be without instruction and training in their prophetic gift.  I spent years with a gift that was not being developed.  I guess God was working on my character in that time.  I know that I began to hear Him speak during the time of the revival in those early years, so I would say that is when I was activated prophetically.  In that revival atmosphere, I had my prophetic gift awakened and brought to life.  It was such a powerful concentration of the presence of the Lord in the room, I would imagine that any spiritual gifts that you had would have come alive and start flaming like a fire.  The question for you is do you have this type of environment for you to get activated in the prophetic gift?  Do you have revival services near you to attend and get your gifts and passions stirred up inside you?

I saw various visions in between the revivals and my prophetic reawakening in 2003.  However, it was not until several years later that I began to get understanding of prophetic things and have prophetic experiences.  My reawakening came with one of the most powerful visions that I have ever had.  I was not expecting to receive a vision that day.  It was totally a sovereign experience that the Lord gave to me in His grace.  I was disheveled during this experience and encouraged by the end of it.  It had things that scared me and things that comforted me.  I was totally taken off guard by the Holy Spirit that day.  I was in my shower and had just awaken from sleep.  I was very groggy.  I had no thoughts of spiritual things or experiences.

I tell you these things so that you will receive hope that your prophetic awakening is on God's agenda whether it is on yours or not.  However, do not let that statement make you complacent.  I just want you to know that it is not dependent on you to make it happen.  God will come down to you and visit you just like He did with Jacob and the ladder with the angels.  God will come down and visit you like He did me in my time of health crisis.  He will come down and show you His power and how He still moves mightily today for those who are hungry.

We have a part to play in this equation.  Our part is to be humble and not act like or think that we know everything.  Our part is to be hungry for the things of God and the moving of His Spirit.  We must be open to however He wants to move and whatever He wants to say.  Remember, that the Holy Spirit is very courteous like a gracious and proper gentleman.  He will extend invitations to us, but it is up to us to respond to His leading and His voice.

“The Passion that Drives Me....

A Passion for the Prophetic Voice of the Lord”

I have a passion to help people prepare themselves to hear the Lord.  I have a passion to train people to receive visions and dreams from the Lord.  I have a passion to help people understand their dreams and interpret the prophetic signs that God has been showing them.  My children have even gotten involved in the prophetic realm.  I have had several experiences where I will be seeking God about something that He has put on my heart to learn and understand.  I will start on Friday and seek all weekend.  On Sunday, I will be up early studying and searching the Scriptures for understanding.  All of a sudden, my daughter Emily will come up and say, “Daddy, I just saw a vision.”  Wouldn't you know it, the vision that the Lord gives her matches the very things that I have been seeking the Lord about.  This has happened on several occasions.

My young son, Samuel, has also had experiences and asked divine questions that were given to him by the Spirit of the Lord.  Emily and Samuel prayed and asked God those divine questions and received answers through child-like faith.  Can we not also receive as they do if we will come to the Lord as a little child?  This book was written as a guide to help all who are hungry to properly position themselves before the Lord.

Are you ready?

Here is the link to my prophetic gift training course.  It is five sessions of in depth video instruction on the basics of the prophetic process.  I am very excited about it and I know that you will really be blessed by the training.  More importantly, you will be equipped to prophesy to others around you.

http://propheticministrytraining.com/courses/propheticgift

Now, let's look at some ways that you can prepare yourself and your spirit to hear the voice of God and receive prophetic communication from the Lord.

Seven Steps to Prepare Yourself to Hear the Voice of God

Step 1:  Cry out to the Lord

Tell the Lord how much you love Him.  Tell Him how much you need Him.  Tell Him how your whole being longs for His presence.  Tell Him how hungry and thirsty you are to be close to Him.                Draw near to the Lord in your heart.  We have a promise in the holy Scriptures that if we draw near to the Lord, that He will also draw near to us.  Here is a secret that you may not be aware of.  The Lord wants you and your attention so much more than we even have the capacity to want Him.  Believe it!  It is so true.

David said to the Lord in the Psalms , “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you!”  David also told the Lord, “My soul follows hard after you!”  We must get the heart of David so that we can come close to the Lord in worship and holy communion with His Spirit.  The heart of David is a key to hearing the Lord.  The Lord said that He had found a man after His own heart.  The Lord and David cared the most about the same thing which was the intimate union of God and man.                The “fellowship of the Spirit” is the way Paul referred to this holy practice.  Jesus practiced this union with the Father when He walked the earth as a man as the model that we follow.  Jesus came to show us how to live and the way to live is to be in daily union with the Lord God.  Cry out to the Lord.  He wants you to be close to Him.  God is always close to us.  In our flesh, broken humanity, and dullness of soul, we sometimes are not close to Him.

As a child of around twelve years of age, I was having a conversation with the father of one of my schoolmates.  He was sharing with me his struggles in his faith.  He was being very open and honest about his doubts and how he was away from God.  I believe that the Lord spoke through me at that moment.  I told him that we can take a thousand steps away from the Lord, but when we turn to Him again, He is right there only one step away.

The dad's face lit up and I saw the light bulb of spiritual illumination turn on for him.  He repeated the word I gave him back to me and said, “That is good.  I will remember that.”  I believe that the Lord was speaking through me to tell the dad of the grace that the Lord extends to everyone of us.                When we aren't pursuing the Lord, He is always pursuing us.  If you want to hear the Lord, then cry out to Him.  He can't help Himself.  He is passionately in love with you and the world.  He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us so that we could be reunited with Him.  Cry out to the Lord, now!  Raise your hands and ask Him to come and manifest His presence to you and your spirit.  Worship the Lord in spirit and truth.  I guarantee that He will come to you in a very real way.  When He does, He will speak and reveal Himself to you.  You may be like little Samuel who did not yet know the Lord or His ways.  (Read I Samuel 3 for the story)  However, with a little help, you will learn to hear and experience what the Lord is saying and doing in your midst.

Step 2:  Confess and Repent of Your Sins

Confession of your sins is so important when we come to the Lord.  I John 1:9 says that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Our sin and unrighteousness separates us from the Lord in our heart.  Like I said earlier, God is always close to us, but we can be very far from Him in our hearts.  Confession of our sins allows Him to come and deal with our sins and cleanse us so that we can be close with Him.  If you want to hear the Lord on a consistent basis, believe me, you must be close with Him.  A lifestyle of repentance is the only way for this closeness with God to happen.

Repent for straying from the place of of closeness to God.  Repent for substituting other things for God's touch and provision.  Repent for being unforgiving and allowing bitterness, negativity, and apathy in your heart.  Repent for the willful sins that you know the Holy Spirit has already convicted you of.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any way that you have offended Him or the holy angels.  Wait on the Lord and seek His face and His righteousness which means to be in right standing with God.  Ask Him to reveal the sinful behaviors, words, thoughts, attitudes and sins of omission that have distanced you from the Most Holy Place where the Lord dwells in His holiness.

Step 3:  Act on What the Lord Reveals to You

Any instruction that the Lord has spoken, obey it.  Review your journal for things that the Lord has put on your heart to do or commands that He has already given you.  One day, I felt led to take out my journal and make a list of everything that the Lord commanded me to do.  I started being intentional with the things that the Lord spoke to me because if we are not willingly obedient, we will not hear the Lord very much in prophecy.

Forgive all who you need to forgive.  Ask the Lord to empty you of all bitterness and fill you with His love.  Ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit, peace, blessing, and compassion for others.  Ask the Lord to fill you with His power and faith.  Make restitution for anything that the Lord reveals to you.  Make peace with others as He leads and where it is possible.  If He leads you to, then it is possible.  It may be only for you to do something, and the other person does not respond.  However, remember that you are the one preparing yourself to hear the Lord.  God cares more about the condition and purity of your heart than your pride and holding on to hurts that you are keeping safe for some strange reason.  Let it go!  Be free, child of God!  Obey the Lord's commands and finish the undone work that He has given you so that you may receive more important things to do with Him.

Step 4:  Give your Time, Talent, and Treasure

Start a divine flow in your life by releasing your gifts.  Give your money as the Lord leads you.    Obedience is better than sacrifice and it is a prerequisite to receive the favor that sacrifice brings.

Give your talent to ministry in your local church which is the local expression of the Kingdom of God where the Lord leads.  Bless someone with the special spiritual gifts, abilities, and natural talents that you have been blessed with by the Lord.

Give your time in the prayer room of your local church.  Give your time to the Lord and come away with Him in the secret place.  Give your time to the needy and serve them.  Give time to your family and bless them by loving them in the ways that only can.  Give your time to your local church and any ministry that is being neglected as the Lord leads.  Paying attention to His leading in these ways will help you learn to hear and obey the Lord.  This is great training.  Hearing without obeying is a grievous sin that we must not be guilty of.

Step 5:  Create an Atmosphere

We must prepare our heart for the Lord to speak to us.  We also must prepare our living space or place of prayer.  Prepare a place to spend time with the Lord so that He can speak to you.  If we want to hear the Lord, we have to do as Moses did and turn aside to see what the Lord is doing and saying.  It is in showing interest in the things of God, that we get invited by Him to experience more of His Spirit and to be involved in His work of redemption.

We create an environment conducive to hearing the Lord speak by listening to prophetic worship music and revival worship that is recorded and in live settings.  The prophetic anointing on the worship leaders and their songs opens you up and the heavens over you to hear the Lord more easily.  We see this principle in the life and ministry of Elisha the prophet in II Kings 3:15.  The kings came to him for a word from the Lord about a life or death situation.  Elisha's response to their pressure for him to hear the Lord was to ask for a musician with a prophetic anointing to play their instrument and release their anointing to open the heavens over Elisha.

After preparing a place in the natural for spending time with God, we must now prepare our hearts.  We create an atmosphere to hear the Lord is by guarding our hearts, thoughts, words, and actions from offending the Holy Spirit by sinning against His Word and His Presence.

Step 6:  Study Biblical Prophetic Experiences

Study the lives of those who heard from God and saw visions and dreams.  Pay close attention to their habits of prayer, repentance, and supplication and begging God for more of His presence, hearing His voice and prophetic understanding.  The prophet Daniel would pray three times a day to talk with the Lord and hear Him speak.  Study the lives of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Gad, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and all of the minor prophets.  Also study John, the Baptist, John, the apostle, Paul, Agabus, and most importantly the life of Jesus, the greatest prophet that ever lived.  Their lives and ministries will give you important insights into the prophetic lifestyle and the live of revelation.

Also, read church history to understand the devotion and experiences of others that have walked the path of close relationship with God that allows for prophetic revelation.  Read about how the saints of old prepared themselves for the Lord.  Read church history about how the Lord has come to others in visions and dreams and trances.  Read about the contemplatives who would commune with the Lord for hours.  Read and study past revivals and moves of God so that when He moves in your life, you will be able to discern His ways and spot His hand in your surroundings.

Read Scripture in Acts and the Gospels and cry out for the John 14 greater works that Jesus said were available to all who believe for them.  Ask for the works and words of Jesus to be made manifest to you and through you.  Ask for the works and words of Acts 2 and 4.  Ask God for His great grace!

Just as Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3, you need to read the scroll, pray over the scroll, eat the scroll, and obey the scroll of Holy Scripture.  Nothing is more prophetic than the Bible.  Eat it and let it nourish your hungry spirit.  Jesus is the Bread that came down from Heaven.  Jesus is the Word of God.  In the Bible, we have the written Word of God.  Receive all that God has for you in the treasure chest of Holy Scripture.  We must not neglect His written Word, or we will not hear Him very much in prophecy.  The Bible is our more sure Word of Prophecy.  All of the prophetic revelation that we think that we are receiving is always subservient to the authority of the written Word of God.  Always remember that.

Read the scroll, pray over the scroll, eat the scroll, and obey the scroll of Holy Scripture.

Step 7:  Find Others Who Are Hungry

When you are learning to hear the voice of the Lord and growing in the prophetic, it is important to find a prophetic community to nurture the work of God in your life and tend to your prophetic spirit.  Prophetic people have a bad habit of being lone wolves.  This is not good and will stunt your growth.  Rejection and it's pain drives them to caves of solitude and keeps them from the atmosphere created when two or more are gathered together in His name.  God knows this propensity of prophetic people is not healthy and will stunt their growth.  So, He made provision in Scripture for a model for us to follow.

When the Lord was setting up His nation of Israel in I Samuel, we see that the Lord instructed the Prophet Samuel to establish prophetic communities.  Before Samuel came on the seen as the prophet of the Lord, we see that everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  They were flying solo and doing their own thing.  We also see in I Samuel 3, that this caused the heavens to be closed and prophetic revelation was rare and precious.  The Lord moved to change this dynamic and teach Israel to follow the Law of God through the ministry of the prophets and priests.  To facilitate this instruction and spiritual education in the ways of God for the nation, He instructed Samuel to gather and train the Schools of the Prophets.  The budding prophets would be gathered and taught the law of God and the ways of the Lord so that they would know Him and hear His voice clearly and see His prophetic visions.  Then, these same prophets would be fit and ready to serve the people of Israel as their prophets to bring a clear and sure word from the Lord to guide and direct them.

Samuel had four locations on a circuit of prophetic oversight that he visited on a regular basis.  This is very much like Paul in the New Testament going and visiting and encouraging the congregations that he planted.  Samuel is an apostolic prophet.  Samuel was the shepherding Seer Prophet.  The Hebrew word that is used to describe Samuel as a seer (roeh) is from the same root as the word for shepherd (rohi).  We, as prophetic people, need a shepherd that understands prophetic things and can disciple us in the supernatural ways of God.

I have some suggestions for you to get the most out of your prophetic community.  Talk with your prophetic community about your desire for prophetic revelation.  Tell them of your desire for more of the fire of God in your life.  Tell them about your desire for dreams and visions.  Expressing this desire will help stoke a fire in them as well for more of God's prophetic flow.  We can always receive more.  Hunger begets hunger, especially in a prophetic and revival community.

Pray with your prophetic community for more revelation, interpretation skills, and prophetic understanding.  In the Bible, Daniel was pressed by King Nebuchadnezzar to interpret a dream or all of the wise men in Babylon would be killed.  Daniel asks his other prophetic friends to pray with him and ask the Lord to release revelation and understanding of the dream.  There is a special dynamic created when prophetic people gather together to seek the Lord in prophetic community.  In the unity of seeking His voice, God hears and answers the cry of the hungry and watchful.

Commit to the Lord and to your community that you will pray for the months and years that it takes to see a strong release of revelation and prophetic understanding.  We must commit to the long haul and realize that the prophetic ministry requires you to embark on a journey that lasts your whole life.  The prophetic ministry is a lifestyle to be practiced and not an occasional hobby that we engage in when it's convenient for us to do so.

Ask the Lord to tell you what your prophetic community should do to open the heavens over the region in which you live.  The goal is to open up the heavens so that revelation and supernatural ministry can be released on a consistent basis.  We are striving to see the ancient wells of revival and healing are opened up on a larger scale.  We can see community transformation as we partner with the Lord to see His purposes and will fulfilled in an area.  This was the focus of ministry of Jesus and the apostles in Acts.  The enemies of the gospel even said that the apostles turned the world upside down in about three years.  Let us make this our focus as well as we form our prophetic community.

Share your notes and journal entries and various prophetic words so that the prophetic community can join together in intercession to ask the Lord to bring about His promises in your region.  We see in part and we prophesy in part.  It is when we put together everyone's piece of revelation, that we begin to see the bigger picture of what God is doing with a region and group of people.  It will function like a puzzle as you being to fit the prophecies and history of your region.  Every region has a prophetic destiny, and this is one of the ways that we discover it.  Seek to agree in every way with the plan of God for your region.

Connect with established and budding prophets, apostles, pastors, evangelists, and teaches to see the government of God seated in a region.  We must follow the plan in Ephesians 4 to see the Body of Christ fully equipped for service and brought to maturity in the fulness of Christ.  As you allow the five-fold ministry speak into your prophetic community, it will grow, mature, and flourish as every joint supplies what is needed from their office.  It is a fountain of grace from each office that is needed to cause a great increase in the prophetic flow.

Apostles release the prophets to prophesy.  They also set the prophets in order and give them a platform from which to speak.

The pastors care for the souls of the rejection prone prophets and bring healing to their soul so that they can more effectively minister from a pure and healthy heart.

The teachers bring grounding from the Word of God and an accountability to stay Scriptural in their prophetic ministry.  Teachers also bring a depth in the written Word of God and historical realities that confirm the words that prophets are speaking.  When the teacher confirms the word of the prophet by holy Scripture and the knowledge of Biblical and ancient history, the level of prophetic encouragement rises to astronomical highs in the Body of Christ.  We see the dynamic of the plan of God being established out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, the prophet and the teacher.                Evangelists call the prophet to see the harvest fields and to feel the burning and beating of God heart for the lost.  They call the prophet to hear the cry of the Spirit and the Bride saying come to Jesus.  Finally, the joining of other prophets cause the prophetic anointing to flow like a great and mighty river.  The level of prophetic accuracy and flow cannot be matched by a singular prophet who stays in the cave to himself.  It is in the assembly that David spoke of that we see and hear the mighty works of God.  Seek to join the five-fold ministry to your prophetic community.  Every joint must supply great grace to your revelatory ministry.

Search out the prophetic revivalists and evangelists in your region.  Look for those that God has already been speaking to about revival and hungry to see God do extraordinary things.  Move with the people that God has already been speaking to and preparing for revival.  Follow their lead, and be humble in serving them.  When we feel as though we do not need other people in the Body of Christ, we are in pride and will not see the whole picture.  Remember that you are an earthen vessel and God allows you to see only a part of the whole.  We cannot miss the precious revelation that God has stored in the other earthen vessels around you.  Psalm 133:3 says that where the brethren dwell in unity, God commands the blessing.  We want to remain on the cutting edge, and the way we do that is to listen God and the other seers and prophets and intercessors.

Lay down your agenda and preconceived notions about how God will speak and the way that He will give you revelation.  God uses the foolish things to confound the wise.  Jesus came to earth in a way that no one expected.  The King of kings came to earth in a lowly stable and told mere shepherds about it by angelic visitation.  We will miss God if we have assumptions and our own plan for our prophetic community.  Let God be God and do as He wills.  Be open.  Be hungry.  Be expectant.  Be obedient.

Expect the Lord to speak to you like never before.  Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.”  Expect the Lord to honor you and fulfill His promised Word.  This scripture is an awesome prophetic invitation extended to all who hear His Word.  The Lord is not slack concerning His promises.  Just as in Revelation 4:1, the door that John saw opened in heaven is still open.  The Voice saying, “Come up here!”, is still speaking and extending a call for the hungry to come into intimate fellowship with the Bridegroom in this hour.

Are you crying out to God for more prophetic revelation and understanding?  Are you crying out to God for more of His touch and power in your life?  Are you asking the Lord for dreams in the night seasons.  Are you begging God to release angels over your region so that you see great harvesting of souls and the churches full of hungry worshipers?  Ask and you shall receive.  Seek and you shall find.  Knock and it shall be opened unto you.  The Kingdom of Heaven is forcefully advancing, and the aggressively assertive ones are obtaining it.  What do you see Jeremiah?  Do you see the branch of the almond tree?  God is choosing you, just as He did the prophet Aaron and the prophet Jeremiah.  God wants you to lead and prophesy in this hour in the sphere that He has called you.  Get ready!

Postscript

The next step:

There is so much more I can tell you about the prophetic ministry.  I could talk about prophetic things for hours if not days.  I am passionate about the children of God learning to hear their Lord.  I can give you prophetic examples, testimonies, lessons learned, strategies, and hard earned wisdom.

I wanted to make sure that you signed up for my free prophetic training bundle.  In the bundle, you will receive over 30 minutes of audio training that covers topics such as seven ways to hear the voice of God, dream interpretation skills, the basics of prophetic ministry, and preparing yourself to hear God speak.

Pick up your free prophetic training bundle here:

htttp://propheticministrytraining.com/go/bundle

Acknowledgments

I want to thank all of the prophets and prophetic ministers that taught me, mentored me, and imparted their gifts and anointing to me.    It has been such an incredible adventure.  Thank you for pulling me up to begin soaring with the Lord in heavenly places.

I want to thank my wife and children for their love and inspiration.  I better understand how the Lord wants to have a close relationship with me through the example of your love.

Most of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who bled and died and rose again to save me and let me live forever with Him.  Thank you, Jesus for salvation and a close relationship of love!

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

My Story

Step 1: Cry out to the Lord

Step 2: Confess and Repent of Your Sins

Step 3: Act on What the Lord Reveals to You

Step 4: Give your Time, Talent, and Treasure

Step 5: Create an Atmosphere

Step 6: Study Biblical Prophetic Experiences

Step 7: Find Others Who Are Hungry

Postscript

Acknowledgments

Resources