The Christian life is not one we can maintain or advance solely on the basis of revelations, experiences or words received in the past.
The Christian life is a progressive life.
If we want to keep moving forward in God’s purpose, we must stay attentive to what God is saying today. God’s voice is not limited to what He has already told us yesterday. The message that keeps us in His presence and in His plan is the one we receive from Him in the present.
That is why we must constantly connect God’s plan, God’s Word and God’s presence. These three realities are closely linked.
From this perspective, prophetic prayer takes on particular importance.
1. What is prophetic prayer?
Praying prophetically is not simply multiplying words or repeating prayers we are used to saying.
Prophetic prayer means praying in agreement with God’s mind, will and ways.
It allows us to make sure we are not just “beating the air,” but that our prayer is truly directed toward God.
We may pray a lot without being convinced that our prayers are truly aligned with God’s throne.
Why?
Because the prayer that goes up is founded on the word that comes down.
In other words, our prayer must be a response to what God reveals to us.
So we must not pray only out of routine, tradition or habit. We must learn to pray by revelation.
2. God’s voice must come before our prayer
In this season, it is essential to develop our ability to hear God.
The ability to hear God’s voice lets us understand His ways. And understanding His ways gives us the ability to pray in a way that creates a favorable context for the fulfillment of His purpose.
The prophet Habakkuk says:
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me.”
Habakkuk had understood something important: he was not to simply pray based on what God had already told him.
He had to stand before God and listen to what God was going to say.
He could not live solely on past revelation.
The power and dynamic of prayer must also be born of our listening to God’s voice.
3. Prophetic prayer begins with an encounter with God
If prophetic prayer depends on God’s voice, an essential question arises:
How do we enter this dimension where we can hear God?
The answer leads us to a fundamental reality: the encounter with God.
Habakkuk says: “I will stand at my watch.”
This watch represents the secret place, the place of meeting and communion with God.
Prayer can truly enter God’s counsel only when it enters God’s sanctuary.
That is why we must not focus only on prayer. We must focus on the encounter with God.
Focusing on the encounter means focusing on the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus must be the source that feeds our prayer.
We are not simply trying to produce words in prayer. We are seeking to meet a person.
4. Abiding in Christ
To enter this dimension of prophetic prayer, we must understand the extraordinary privilege of the new birth.
The new birth does not only make us a new creation in Christ. It also brings us into a new spiritual environment: Christ Himself.
In Christ, we have access to the mind of Christ.
As long as we abide in Christ and are rooted in Him by the Holy Spirit, we continually receive the Word and revelation of Christ.
God’s voice is therefore not limited to a mountain or a particular geographical place.
Some people think they must climb a mountain to hear God.
But if our communion with God depends on a physical place, it means we would stop hearing God as soon as we came back down the mountain.
God’s voice is not on the mountain.
God’s voice is in His presence.
And God’s presence is in Christ.
Whoever is in Christ abides in God’s presence.
5. The new birth: the first prerequisite of the encounter
One of the first prerequisites for encountering God is therefore the new birth.
No one can truly walk with God outside His spiritual realm.
Whoever is born again enters a spiritual reality that is Christ Himself.
God’s presence is no longer simply a place we enter occasionally. It becomes the environment in which we must learn to abide.
So it is no longer simply a matter of entering God’s presence.
It is a matter of keeping our place in God’s presence through continual communion with Him by the Holy Spirit.
When we understand this reality, our relationship with God’s voice becomes much clearer.
6. Hearing God’s voice
Jesus says:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Hearing God’s voice is a privilege tied to our relationship with Christ.
Jesus came to give us access to God’s presence.
However, there is a difference between hearing God’s voice and discerning God’s voice.
God’s voice is not necessarily a series of audible sentences.
God’s voice can be a revelation.
It can be an impartation of God's counsel, His thoughts and His will within us.
So it is not simply about seeking words or phrases during our times of prayer.
We must learn to discern the revelation the Holy Spirit produces in us.
It is a spiritual knowledge that allows us to understand certain realities without relying solely on our natural abilities or human intelligence.
Faith allows us to perceive the realities of the spiritual realm.
7. Everything is in Christ
When we understand this reality, we discover that everything leads us back to Christ.
The voice of God is in Christ.
The knowledge of God is in Christ.
Salvation is in Christ.
Spiritual growth is in Christ.
All who desire to grow in prophetic listening, and in the character and nature of God, must abide in Christ.
All who desire to experience greater deliverance must abide in Christ.
All who want to move forward in God's plan must be in Christ, abide in Christ and walk in Christ.
Everything we seek in the Christian life must ultimately lead us to a deeper experience of Christ.
8. True rest from God is in Christ
The message also leads us to understand the notion of God's rest.
The people of Israel entered the promised land, but that does not necessarily mean they entered the true rest God had prepared.
God did not simply want to give them things.
He wanted to give them His presence.
True rest from God is therefore not founded on the possession of worldly things.
True rest is found in Christ.
The realities of the Old Testament announced, through shadows and figures, a deeper reality that was to be fully revealed in Christ.
True rest is not simply a territory.
True rest is a person.
Christ is our rest.
9. Salvation is the experience of Christ in His fullness
There is also a limited view of salvation that consists simply of no longer being under the oppression of demons or escaping condemnation.
But salvation goes much further.
Salvation must be understood as the experience of Christ in all His fullness.
It means letting Christ progressively take up all the space in our lives.
When believers do not understand or enter into God's rest found in Christ, they become vulnerable to sleep and spiritual death.
This is why the current spiritual context is described as a context of spiritual sleep.
In this season, the Spirit of God is calling His people to wake up.
God's heart is to awaken a Church that has fallen asleep so that it becomes aware of its purpose again.
10. God's agenda is Christ-centered
The most important agenda is not the Church's agenda.
It is God's agenda.
Human agendas can be shaped by denominations, church visions or even personal ambitions.
But God's agenda is centered on Christ.
Christ is the way by which we advance in God's purpose.
This is why we must learn to discern the direction in which God is leading us.
In a world full of information, programs, messages and demands, the essential question remains:
What is God doing?
The most important direction is where God is and where He is leading us.
11. Being active does not mean being awake
A person can be extremely active in the Church and yet be spiritually asleep.
Activity is not necessarily synonymous with progress.
So the question is not simply:
“Am I doing a lot of things for God?”
But:
“Am I really walking with God?”
Walking with God moves us forward in God's purpose.
Progress in God's purpose also means that God gradually increases the weight He entrusts to us in His work.
He uses us more to carry His presence, manifest His purpose and influence our generation according to His will.
12. The test of every spiritual activity
In this season, we must learn to evaluate our activities by one essential criterion:
Does this lead us to behold Christ and be transformed into His image?
Whatever the program, whatever its apparent impact, its true impact must be measured by how it leads us to Christ.
If an activity does not help us behold Christ more and become more like Him, it risks becoming merely a religious activity or church entertainment.
God does not build man-centered programs.
God builds what is centered on Christ.
Christ is the way.
Christ is the center.
Christ is the one who leads us toward the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.
13. Destiny in Christ
It is not possible to fully enter eternity with Christ without walking in the destiny God has prepared in Christ.
This destiny is progressively revealed by the Holy Spirit and carried out through ministries.
When we lose sight of this reality, we easily fall into legalism.
We automate our methods of prayer.
We reproduce protocols.
We repeat formulas.
But we can lose the spiritual reality behind all these practices.
Reality is not in our methods.
Reality is found in a continual experience of the person of Christ.
No matter what we do, if it does not lead us to experience Christ more, to lose more of ourselves and to make more room for Jesus, then we must question the spiritual value of what we are doing.
14. God preserves a faithful remnant
Even in times of spiritual sleep, God always preserves a faithful remnant.
This remnant remains aware of the reality of God and His purpose.
God reveals Himself to this remnant.
He shares His heart with them.
He gives them a message and spiritual authority to help awaken a generation.
It is in this light that the midnight cry takes on its full meaning.
Even though the virgins were sleeping, they were not all in the same condition.
There is always a remnant that God can use.
Even today, God is looking for men and women able to stand as watchmen.
Men and women who are aware of the spiritual darkness, aware that time is short, and aware that this generation must wake up.
15. The prayer ministry and revival
It is through these watchmen that God wants to speak and restore His altar.
The prayer ministry plays an important role in preparing for and sustaining spiritual revival.
But the power of our prayer must be fueled by a dynamic and continual encounter with God, as well as by renewed revelations.
This is why corporate prayer is also important.
It is not only about praying individually.
We must learn to pray together, as one body, in unity and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
It will take more than one person.
It will take a generation of men and women rising together to form a wall and an altar for God, so that His fire and His rain may visit this generation.
Conclusion: activate prophetic prayer in your life
Prophetic prayer does not begin with a method.
It begins with an encounter with God.
It does not rest simply on repeating words.
It rests on listening to the voice of God.
It does not feed solely on revelations from the past.
It remains sensitive to what God is saying today.
The prayer that goes up is founded on the word that comes down.
This is why we must learn to abide in Christ, to cultivate continual fellowship with the Holy Spirit and to seek the presence of God.
God is calling us out of religious routine.
He is calling us out of spiritual sleep.
He is calling us to become watchmen.
He is calling us to restore the altar.
He is calling us to pray according to His heart.
So don't just try to pray more.
Seek to meet God more.
Don't just try to multiply words.
Seek to hear His voice.
Don't just try to be active.
Seek to move forward with Christ.
And above all, don't settle for living on what God told you yesterday.
Abide in Christ, listen to His voice today and let His revelation guide your prayer.
For when the Word comes down, true prayer can go up.
And when men and women rise as watchmen, in deep communion with Christ, God can use their prayer to prepare the ground for a spiritual revival in their generation.
