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There's a question I want you to think about today. It's a serious question that must be asked of serious believers at serious times like these.

What are you doing with the gift of God inside you?

You might say, "Sister Lynne, I'm not sure I even have a gift of God in me!"

Certainly, you do. If you're a born-again, Holy Ghost-baptized believer, you have the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside of you in person and in power. That in itself is a mighty gift of God.

Are you cultivating it? Are you developing it? Are you growing in your effectiveness and your ability to yield to the Spirit and work with Him? As I write you today, I'm reminded of the letters the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his spiritual son, encouraging him in these things.

In his first letter, Paul wrote Timothy and instructed him to make prayer his first priority, praying for all men, especially for kings and those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Then, in a second letter, he followed up that instruction by admonishing him to stir up the gift of God that was within him (2 Tim. 1:6).

I believe there's a message in that for us today. If we're going to pray effective prayers…if we're going to pray in a way that makes a real difference, we will have to stir up the gift of God that is within us. We will have to be filled with the Spirit every single day.

Be Filled…Speaking
Ephesians 5:17-19, actually commands us to do that. It says:
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….
Notice there that the Word tells us it's the will of God for us to be filled with the Spirit speaking! Now I realize at times the Spirit of God will come on us and move us to run, or dance, or laugh. And when He does, I'm the first one to jump out and do it.

But the Bible doesn't ever command us to be filled with the Spirit running, or be filled with the Spirit dancing. It does, however, instruct every one of us at all times to be filled with the Spirit speaking!

Colossians 3:16 says it this way. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." This kind of speaking and singing referred to in these verses isn't done by natural ability. It is divinely inspired utterance that comes by the Spirit of God.

You Can Do It!
Why is this kind of speaking so important? First of all because it edifies. It teaches you, builds up your faith, and helps others who might hear it. It lifts you to the victory side and that's where you must be to pray the kinds of truly powerful prayers that change nations.

Years ago, right after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, before I knew much of anything about the Word, the devil came against me with terrible depression. In and of myself, I had no idea how to deal with it. But as I yielded to the Holy Spirit, He taught me to begin every day singing in the Spirit.

I'd sing in tongues for a while and then up out of my spirit would come the interpretation of those tongues and I'd just sing it out. Time and again, what I sang out was the very thing I needed to get me through the day. I was edifying myself by yielding to the Spirit and operating in the gift of prophecy.

Some people think the gift of prophecy is always used to foretell future events and it only takes place in church services. But that's not the case at all.

Prophecy is any Spirit-inspired utterance in a known language. It comes in the form of songs and prayers, declarations, teachings and exhortations. It can happen in a church service, a prayer group, over the dinner table, or in your own personal prayer time.

In fact, it should be happening more and more in all those places - especially in your prayer place! Why? Because the most powerful kind of prayer is the prayer that comes when a believer is speaking inspired by the Spirit of God.

Am I telling you that you can prophesy? Yes! First Corinthians 14 says:
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather than ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God; for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifeth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying….
(vv. 1-5)
Hook Your Heart and Mouth to God
Notice there that Paul urges everybody to desire the gift of prophecy. The Amplified Bible version says we should desire and cultivate it! To cultivate means to improve by care, training or study; refine; to promote the development or growth of; to seek to develop familiarity with; give one's attention to; pursue.

Now, in the light of that, let me ask you this question again. What are you doing about that? If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you have the capacity to speak, and pray, and sing by the Spirit of prophecy. Are you developing that capacity? Are you stirring up that gift within you so you can move to new heights in God?

I'll be honest with you. It's not easy to do. The devil will try his best to keep you from it. He will try to distract you with the busyness of life. He will try to occupy you with natural facts and thoughts so that you won't ever have time to soar into that realm of the Holy Ghost and develop your capacity to work with Him.

Sometimes I wonder just how proficient in prayer we would be if we took the time we spend talking about prayer projects, or reading newspaper articles and email messages about them, and spent that time just singing and worshiping and yielding over to the Spirit.

I know that, at times, the Holy Spirit will lead you to read something or study about some current event. But no prayer power will ever come from that. Effective prayers aren't based on newspaper articles or email alerts.

God told me a long time ago not to be led by the newspapers when I prayed. He told me to be led by the Spirit! He's the only one who really knows what's going on in any given situation. The only one! I don't care how factually accurate somebody's report may be about the condition in some nation or some government official, nobody but the Spirit of God understands that situation fully.

Only He knows what's going on in the hearts of the men and women involved. Only He knows exactly what must happen to change things. So the more you develop your ability to hook your heart and your mouth to Him, the more accurate and powerful your prayers will be.

Ephesians 6:18 says we are to "pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit…." The literal Greek says, led by the Spirit. John 16:13 says, "He (the Holy Spirit) will guide us into all truth."

He's our guide. Not other people. Not the newspapers. Not the Internet. So if we're wise, we'll spend more time cultivating our relationship with Him than we do with any of those other things.

Three Keys to Cultivation
Exactly how do you go about cultivating this relationship with Him and the gift of prophecy that He offers us? Here are three keys:
  1. Spend more time in the Word of God.
    Remember, Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…." The more full of the written Word of God you are, the more proficient you will be in prophecy. So get into the Word!
  2. Consciously develop your faith and expect to prophesy.
    Romans 12:6 says, "…let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith." Just as you can develop faith for healing or prosperity or any other provision of God, so you can develop your faith for the gift of prophecy by reading about it in the Bible, studying it, meditating on it and then stepping out on that faith by taking action.
  3. Practice!
    In your own devotional time at home, step out and yield to the Holy Spirit in this way. A good way to start is by singing in tongues for a while, then, as words begin to come to you in your known language, sing them out. It might come slow at first but keep at it.

    Trust the Holy Spirit to help you. Give yourself some time to spend worshiping and praising God, singing and praying in tongues, until you're so full of the Spirit you overflow with prophecy.
Keep cultivating that flow. Get familiar with it. You'll grow as you do and eventually you'll find yourself slipping into the spirit of prophecy as easily as a bird flies or a fish swims.

The Spirit of God is moving on me about this so strongly I could keep writing for hours, but I'm out of time right now. So until I write you again, beloved, stir up the gift of God within you, and set your heart on prophesying!

Excerpted from the newsletter Prayer Notes by Lynne Hammond
(Minneapolis: Mac Hammond Ministries)
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Lynne Hammond
Web site: Lynne Hammond Ministries
 
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”
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