Prophetic Journaling: How it Can Sharpen Your Prophetic Gift

Do you want to develop or sharpen your prophetic gift? Prophetic journaling is an easy but powerful tool for prophetic activation. It can help you grow your gift of prophecy.

Journaling is basically recording any insights you receive from God during your prayer and Bible study times.

Some ways prophetic journaling can help you sharpen your prophetic gift:

• It encourages you to listen to God and become familiar with His voice (John 10:4). You can also practice receiving revelation from God and processing it.
• Journaling helps you remember what God has spoken to you by providing a record to refer back to
• It provides a means of focus, discipline, and accountability
• You can practice putting what God is saying into a clear and communicable form—a necessary skill for prophecy
• You can look back later and see what, in the case of prophetic revelation, has come to pass—this helps sharpen your gift.
• Journaling provides a record from which you can pray God’s purposes into being
• You can get more revelation when you journal. Once you record what you have received, it frees your mind so that you can be open to hearing more of what God is saying.
• You can use what you have received in your journaling time to share with others
• It brings glory to God when the things you have journaled take place
• It provides a safe place to practice receiving and processing prophetic revelation without the pressure of public exposure
• You can use what you have heard from God to help you walk with Him and obey Him (Hab 2:2)

Journaling in scripture

For an example of journaling, we don’t have to look past the Bible itself. Much of scripture is prophetic revelation recorded in written form.

What Do You Need for Prophetic Journaling?

The type of journaling you choose should suit your personal style. There are also a variety of media you can use to help you journal. These include:

• Writing in an A5 or A4 journal
• Typing and recording your journal using a computer.
• If writing or typing is difficult for you, you can record your journaling in small, bite-sized files using a dictation recorder or smartphone, then name and store them for later reference.

Journaling is essentially private, but if you would like to share from your journal, another media you can use is the Internet. Some of my blog posts started out as journal entries.

It is best to keep your journal notes together in one place, such as a notebook, journal or single folder on your computer. This way, you can refer back to them later.

Types of Prophetic Journaling

You don’t have to stick to any one type of journaling. Choose a journaling style that best suits you.

Some simple options you can use for written journaling are:

• Freestyle writing
• Bullet points or lists
• Mind mapping (my current personal favorite). This is where you place your central idea or scripture at the center of the page, and record other ideas from there as ‘branches’. Because you don’t have to record consecutively, it takes the pressure off, you can put down your ideas as you think of them randomly, and create some order later if you like.

Two popular methods that can assist you with the journaling process are:

1. SOAP method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer)

2. Prayer journaling

Remember that journaling methods are tools, not rules.

Prophetic Journaling Should be Weighed Up

Prophetic journaling is always to be viewed (like prophecies and other prophetic media) as needing to being weighed up. (1 Thess 5:19-20, 1 Cor 14:29, 1 Cor 13:9,12) Our personal journaling can be a mixture of what God is saying, and the processing of our own souls in our journey with Him.

Filters for prophetic journaling include: submitting to leadership and accountability (for weighing up), checking against Biblical principles, checking against the fruit of the Spirit and Godly outcomes, and so on.

It should never be seen as ‘dictation from God’ because that is where we can move into error.

See more in this article: Take Time to Sharpen Your Prophetic Gift

The Two-Week Prophetic Journaling Challenge

I will be reviewing the prayer journaling and SOAP methods in the next couple of posts.

I am not currently using these two journaling styles (I use mind mapping). But I will use these methods for one week each as I blog about them, and describe my experiences in the comments section of each post.

It would be fun if you would join me on this two-week journaling challenge.

Consider some of the benefits I have mentioned in this post. Journaling can help you sharpen your prophetic gift, and it could change your life as you hear from God.

Prophetic Journaling: Create Your Treasury of Insights from God

Now available as an Online Course, with Opportunities for Activation

Are you interested in learning about, and being activated in prophetic journaling?
Here is my brand new course, “Prophetic Journaling with Activation” with my best tips and insights, along with downloadable templates to help you get started.
Throughout this course, you will:

• Identify the ways journaling will help you develop your prophetic gift
• Refresh your journaling practice with new ideas, tools, and approaches
• Download and print templates to help you get started
• Put into practice what you have learned and activate your gift
• Access advanced content, to help you develop your prophetic gifts further
• Hear my best tips to help you share your work with others

Sign up for the course, with an introductory price here, or see all courses including the Prophetic School here.

© 2010 Helen Calder, Enliven Blog

Enliven Ministries: Prophetic ministry for a revival generation

Helen Calder

Helen Calder is a prophetic minister and writer, and founder of Enliven Ministries. Helen has a unique gift of equipping in prophetic ministry and prayer. She is known for Enliven Blog (est. 2009), an online resource that reaches thousands of people globally.