Sun 24 Jan 2010
Sharpen Your Prophetic Gift Through Journaling
Posted by Helen Calder under Developing the Prophetic Gift, Devotional Life, Journaling
[2] Comments
Do you want to develop or sharpen your prophetic gift? 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 journaling can help you grow in your prophetic gift are:
- 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—an 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 hear 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 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 recorder, MP3 recorder, or mobile phone, 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 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 favourite). This is where you place your central idea or scripture at the centre 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.
The Two Week 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.
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© Helen Calder Enliven Publishing
Helen this is timely for me – I haven’t done any ‘regular’ journaling for a while, but as I was given a journal for Christmas, then our pastor encouraged us to start journaling I figured that God was telling me something!
I have been working my way through the Psalms and have found that there are usually one or two verses that seem to be ‘just for me’ and I am able to take hold of them and pray about their application in my life. The writers in Psalms are very ‘real’ about their situations and that encourages me when I’m struggling. Whatever their problems, they eventually come back to the point of praising God and realising that only He can help them.
My life experiences may be different to theirs, but as Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever”. That’s so good to know!
Jenny it seems to me the Spirit is nudging you to activate journaling again!
I, too, love the Psalms, there is always so much to identify with in them–as you say, they are ageless! Lately I’ve been going back to Genesis and getting some real inspiration out of there too.