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
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.
Hi Andrea, I’m sorry to hear of your struggles. If you check at the list of categories on the right hand side of the blog, here, the articles on discernment and spiritual warfare may be of help to you.
Regarding feeling blocked in hearing from God, this one I wrote recently might help too: http://enlivenpublishing.com/blog/2014/02/04/4-barriers-to-hearing-gods-voice/
Hi Helen. Forgive me for appearing to be rude, I am just now seeing all of the comments. Thank you very much for the link, and God Bless you so for being so obedient to Him and helping others! Much love ?
Andrea
You are so very welcome, Andrea!
i read about the 6 reasons why we should invest in our prophetic gift, and whiles reading i came across something that was talking about the arena of our prophetic calling, can you please enlighten me on that?
And secondly, i was told that God had called me into the office of a Prophet, and that even has been confirmed by another pastor, who even told me that God has placed certain prophetic gifts( the 4 main prophetic gifts) in me, but up till now i don’t seem to be manifesting in them, its been 2 years, what could be the problem?
Hi Felix, our prophetic calling relates to any ministry area that is a long term call of God on our life.
It can also relate specifically to our gift of prophecy or a calling to prophetic ministry.
The long term test of a prophetic word about a specific gift or ministry is – does it relate to how God has wired and gifted you, and is it acknowledged by your own spiritual oversight?
If you do have a strong desire to learn and grow in prophecy, and you still believe it is the call of God for you, don’t be concerned about time frames. Some prophets in the Bible were prepared for many years in the wilderness or in training before emerging in their ministry. e.g. Moses – 40 years.
Time between my own first call of God and release into full time prophetic ministry – 35 years. Lots of training, developing and growing ministry opportunities between those years. :-)
wow! okay, i will keep on believing and trusting God to act on his word no matter how long it will take. Thank you!
Helloooo, it’s me again. My question now is, i believe i have been called to the prophetic office because of the word that came to me, and this calling normally comes with certain specific gifts( prophetic gifts). We are basically God’s mouthpiece, and all we do is say God’s word to his people, but i dont hear God’s voice audibly or see visions and all of that, i just believe he is speaking to me through my spirit. I then give his people( a small congregation where i am) what i think God is saying….but my question is whenever i give this word, or prophecy, and it doesnt come to pass, should i doubt my hearing God’s voice or what should i do?
Hi Felix,
There are different types of prophecy, and it sounds as though you might be referring to ‘predictive’ type prophecy, which is forecasting that certain events will happen.
When beginning in prophecy, it is best to keep to general encouragement, exhortation and comfort (per the Apostle Paul’s guidelines in 1 Cor 14:3).
I write about this a lot – have a look through articles in the prophetic training category on the right hand side of the blog.
Keeping to general, but timely encouragement takes the pressure off when you are starting out, and when you minister to people and their lives are changed, it strengthens you in your gift and ministry.
Prophecy that is predictive in nature (foretelling events, times etc) is something best kept for those who are very mature in prophetic office and whose ministry has been tested and found accurate over time.
Even then, we advise to offer prophetic insights in a humble way, offering them with the invitation for the receivers to weigh them up.
Hope this helps, with regard to starting in prophetic ministry.
wow! you have been more than helpful to me, i thought of just sticking with Paul’s type of prophecy for now since i was not very matured to start operating in predictive prophecy. But i decided to push forward…lol….thanks a lot
I have dreams and most of the times all my dreams does happen. I went to a prayer explosion or I can say in each and every church I go to they Always telling me that a have a gift and I have to pray, read the word and fast more.\
Please will you help me to unlock my gift.
Hi Belinda, it’s great to hear from you. There are lots of articles here on the blog that can help you with gifts of prayer and prophecy. Take a look in the categories on the right hand side of the page to view articles relating to those topics. :-)