I have understood for a while now that when you receive prophetic words you’re not meant to simply sit on them but, if I am honest, other than declaring them, I didn’t know what else to do. Then early this year as I was seeking the Lord concerning His goals for me for 2020 (I learnt a while ago that I was best off asking Him what His thoughts on the matter were rather than setting my goals and then getting disappointed 😊) He got me to do something interesting. The Lord asked me to review my journals (I highly recommend journaling by the way; it’s so important to capture all the things the Lord lays on your heart so that you can go back to them as and when). He wanted me to extract the following:
- What He had said about who He is
- What He had said about who I am
- What He had said about my purpose and destiny
I undertook the exercise and it blew my mind in several ways. Firstly, seeing how much God had said to me about these matters over the years just blew me away. Because they were on different pages and in different journals, I simply didn’t realise how much He had been “downloading” to me over the years.
Then, seeing what He had said about how He saw me was like Him just hugging my insides. I felt so loved by God and so so special to Him. His little whispers to me here and there, “You are my beloved”, “You are My treasure”, “Oluwapelumi” (meaning God is with me – as you can see, He has even been “toasting” me, a non-Yoruba speaker, in Yoruba. Lol!), when pulled together formed a chorus of reassurance. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we all live from a place of our identity – who we believe we are. We get our sense of identity from our fathers. So, having the ultimate daddy tell me who I am…. Priceless!
Furthermore, reviewing who He had revealed Himself to be brought great comfort and strength. When God Himself tells you personally that He will take care of you, He has great plans for you, He will provide for you, etc. it cannot but build faith in your insides. It’s not that I don’t believe it when I read it in the Bible but Him telling me personally takes it from my head right down into my heart.
Pulling together all He had said concerning my purpose and destiny helped to centre me. It helped to bring clarity regarding God’s vision for my life and to narrow my focus on what I am meant to be doing. Even in COVID times there has been so much activity, it therefore helps to know who you are and what you are meant to be doing so you don’t waste time and dissipate energy.
Initially, I had created three bullet point lists from the extracts. Then a few months later the Lord got me to put them into prose form. Another worthwhile exercise. I essentially worked with the Holy Spirit to create a story out of the bullet points and this helped to crystallise the truths about who I am, whose I am, who He is and what He wants to partner with me to accomplish here on earth.
During the year, when I have felt a little shaky, I have gone back to these words. Let’s just say that they have helped to anchor me. 😊 Honestly, even as I am writing about it now, I am getting a warm cosy feeling in my insides. 😊 It’s that quiet reminder that I have a God who loves me so much and no matter what things may look like around me, He’s got me! I repeat, priceless!
Then, fast forward to October, a Christian community of which I am a member showed a video about “processing prophecy”. Off-the-chart stuff! The speaker was Dan McCollam, the author of the book, The Good Fight: Prophetic Processing Workbook. As Amazon describes it, “This book provides tools for accelerating one’s prophetic destiny”.
Dan talks about “processing” a prophetic word by breaking it down into:
- What God is saying about who you are, your identity. This could be for an individual, a family, a business, a nation, etc.
- What God says He will do i.e. His promises.
- What you are required to do for the fulfilment of the promises i.e. your responsibility or the conditions.
- The timing of the word. Is it a “now word”? A “later word”?
During this year in particular, the Lord has been highlighting to me this concept of us living from our place of identity. We think, act, and speak based on who we believe we are. Therefore, a faulty sense of identity will result in faulty outcomes in our lives. It is with this in mind that I believe the first area of processing prophecy is regarding identity. God wants us to see ourselves how He sees us so we can be who He made us to be and, from that, do what He has called us to do – in that order.
Also, for the first time it became clear to me that my responsibility regarding the manifestation of a prophetic word was not just declaring them but also identifying the conditions the Lord has given or what He has asked me to do and doing them. I also realised the importance of me aligning my thoughts, words and actions with God’s promises. For example, there is no point me believing and declaring that He is going to do something amazing on the business front and then I don’t “get up and go”.
In engaging with our prophetic words, we usually just focus on what God has said He will do and passively wait for them to come to pass. When we don’t identify and take hold of our responsibility towards bringing the words to pass it often leads to the pain and disappointment of seeing promises go unfulfilled . If we look at things from the standpoint that we are co-labourers with Christ, then we will recognise that it is His desire to partner with us to bring to pass His will on earth and we will also act accordingly.
In the area of timing, the teaching helped to bring clarity regarding the fact that there is a timing to God’s promises. Some of His words are for now and some for a time to come. We need to have an understanding of this so we can operate in God’s season and not try to force things into the wrong season.
In short, the teaching gave me much food for thought. I realised that I had not been appropriately engaging with God’s promises and slowly but surely I am trying to rectify that.
To give you an even better sense of what I mean, please find attached a prophetic word about Nigeria processed according to the parameters shared by Dan McCollam. I must admit, I struggled a little regarding the timing aspect but I hope you will still find it useful. Also, please do not focus on the elegance (or lack thereof) of the articulation of the prophetic word in the illustration; it was “raw”. For clearer articulation, please check out this article and/or this video.
I urge you to fish out any prophetic words you have received – old and new – and begin to process them.
Happy processing! 😊
Call to Action
1. Review your journals and extract what the Lord has said to you regarding:
- Who He is
- Who you are
- What He has called you to do
2. Collate your prophetic words and process them based on the parameters shared above
3. Pray to God for the grace, wisdom and strength to do the things He has asked you to do
4. Get on and do what you are meant to do
5. Ask God for the grace to wait patiently for the promises which are for a time to come
6. Regularly declare:
- Who God says you are
- Who He says He is
- His promises
7. Then believe, keep believing and stay believing until you see the manifestations
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