11 Signs That Your Prophetic Gift Is Being Held Back

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One of the things I am passionate about is helping people to grow in their spiritual gifts—especially prophecy. [1]

People regularly share with me that they believe they have a gift of prophecy, but are not sure how to begin developing it.

Sometimes they express fear or embarrassment about stepping out with a prophetic insight, because they lack confidence.

I also come across prophetic people who tell me that they used to flow in the gift of prophecy but feel it has become blocked or closed down in comparison to how it used to be.

These Christians long for the ‘good old days,’ when they felt released in their gifts and saw miraculous things happen as a result.

This is why, over the next little while, I am going to be producing some articles on how to move forward and break through limitations in relation to prophetic gifts and ministry. [2]

Identifying a Limitation is Good News

Identifying a potential barrier to the growth of your gift or ministry is good news—for it is the first step to empowering you to break free and enter into the ‘more’ that God has for you.

In fact, in God’s Kingdom there is always more!

And you can turn that seeming obstacle into a stepping-stone to greater growth and fruitfulness.

Signs that you are Being held back in Your Prophetic gift

Here are eleven signs that there may be a limiting factor holding you back in your prophetic gift or ministry.

If you do not have a gift of prophecy, replace the words ‘prophecy’ or ‘prophetic ministry’ with the name of your gift or ministry.

See if you can identify with any of these:

1. You used to believe you were called to prophetic ministry [3] but now you are not so sure

2. You are wondering why your prophetic gift seems to be hidden and not recognised by other Christians or by leaders in the church

3. It is a long time since you stepped out, took a faith risk, and did something new in the use of your prophetic gift

4. You are drifting and have a lack of direction in your prophetic gift or ministry

5. You feel barren and are wondering where the fruitfulness is that you were promised or initially experienced when you started out

6. You recognise that difficulties in the use of your prophetic gift began with an event that occurred in your past

7. You are not sure what to do to get to the next level of growth in your gift of prophecy

8. You have been hurt or wounded in relation to your prophetic gift and haven’t gotten over it

9. You are not receiving opportunities to use and bless others through your gift that you would like to have

10.You are content with your current level of experience and do not have the motivation to press through for growth in your prophetic gift

11.You do have opportunities to use the gift of prophecy, but it is not flowing as smoothly or as accurately as you would like, or have known in the past.

Over the next little while we will be looking at how to overcome some barriers to growth in your gift. Many of these will apply to other gifts, not just prophecy.

Some of the things I will be considering include:

  • Fear
  • Not knowing where to start
  • The effect of past hurts
  • Apathy
  • Not being released or given opportunities

Feel free to forward or share these articles with others who may be helped by them.

Notes:

[1] The gift of prophecy is the Spirit-empowered ability to receive and convey a message from God—to make known the Father’s mind, intention and purposes.

[2] If you are interested in developing your gift, the e-book ‘Grow Your Prophetic And Prayer Gifts’ is a tool to help you identify which stage of development you are in and move to the next level.

[3] By prophetic ministry, I do not mean a role or position. Prophetic ministry occurs when you use your prophetic gift to love and help people in a way that brings them closer to God and releases them into His purposes. As Paul says, ‘the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.’ (1 Cor 14:3)

Related Posts:

Why Is My Spiritual Gift Or Ministry Not Being Released?

Break Free Of Hurts That Are Blocking Your Prophetic Gift

4 Barriers to Hearing God’s Voice – and Biblical Insights for Breakthrough

© Helen Calder 2011 Enliven Blog

Enliven Ministries:  In the David McCracken Ministries family

116 thoughts on “11 Signs That Your Prophetic Gift Is Being Held Back”

  3. Althea

    It is quite funny I am finding this resource at this time in my life. I was filled with the Holy Spirit at 17. Shortly thetafter I began walking in the prophetic with words of knowledge, wisdom. The church I attended at the time had no mentors or prophetic training. Because of limited understanding this later resulted in them ridiculing me and calling me a witch????

    Though heartbroken and disillusioned I stayed with God. But when ever I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to speak, I suppressed or quenched the urge to allow the gift to flow.
    Fast forward 20 years later I faced my fear and repented for allowing others to cause me to fear. A few years later after seeking God through a lenghthy period of prayer and fasting the prophetic gift was stirred up again in the prophetic song of the Lord and word of knowledge was stronger than ever.
    This went on for about 5-6 months. Then something happened..I was about to speak a word of knowledge to a young lady and the drummer(we had at the time) tapped the drum maybe by mistake I I don’t know. But as soon as that word was in my mouth for that woman it was gone. If I had training, mentoring I probably could have asked God to reveal it again.
    Presently I am at a place that I just want God more than anything.I want God to be real in my life! There are times while praying for others the prophetic gift flows or the word of knowledge. But it isn’t as consistent as I believe it should be.
    However I am in constant search for sound, Godly prophetic teachings, mentoring and counsel. I know my gifts and I want to become more sharpened in the ministry and flow in all the gifts God has placed in me. I want to be ready and available! I know there are people out there just like I was. I don’t want anyone to experience what I did unnessicarily.
    Feel free to reply if you are led.

  4. Helen Calder

    Hi Althea, the prophetic call is a journey, it unfolds through time and seasons, even wilderness seasons, such as you have described.
    I pray that you will enter into a new flow and sense of grace in your gift and calling. The articles I have suggested to Andrea, above, may be a help to you too, and I trust you will be blessed as you take a look through the materials I have provided here.

  5. Annette

    I’ve been gifted by God from early childhood and had a hard time in the churches but as I trusted in God and his voice only it got better. What I’ve learned is that when people don’t understand or are afraid they act funny. My gift is sure so I’m not upset about the way others see me. What has just happened is I said what God gave me and the pastor said you’re not the only one that’s got the gift of prophecy and got mad. My gift is sure and on point that the unsaved just praise God. That’s all that matters.

  6. Helen Calder

    Hi Annette, Thanks for visiting the blog and leaving a comment.
    I believe that an aspect of ministering in love (1 Cor 13) is that we share our prophetic insights in a way that is loving – in a way that is helps them not be afraid- offered in humility, and promotes unity. Even when we’ve been hurt (and I’ve surely been there :-)).
    I didn’t used to believe that (I write about my journey in my eBook ‘Prophetic People in a Changing Church) and at one stage would have thought accuracy and knowledge and being spot on prophetically were the main things.
    May I encourage you to keep exploring this area. Let me know is you would like a copy of the eBook I’ve mentioned. Bless you.
    (P.S that’s awesome about the prophetic evangelism!)

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