I can remember it clearly, sitting on the couch with my new husband talking about the school we were leading. I would mention something about a student, “I can tell they are struggling with fear” or “they have a call to be a pastor on their life” and I would expect him to say he saw the same thing but this wasn’t always the case. I would try and try to get him to see it too but he couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I would be annoyed that he didn’t agree with me and see what I saw. So I would just move on wondering why he had to be so factual.

Growing up in my family it was normal to say we saw fear on someone or saw they were struggling with something, so this was the first time I encountered something different. It wasn’t for a long time that I realized that I was prophetically seeing these things in people’s lives and what I thought was normal for everyone was a gift I was operating in. This realization helped me and my husband understand each other so much better.

My best friend was really integral in this process in my life. She was the first one to tell me to intercede for the person that I saw was struggling with something. This was such a great release to pray for them and let God do the work in their life instead of me carrying around what I saw in their life.

At the time I was serving with Youth With A Mission and we practiced hearing God’s voice all of the time in decisions we had to make, where to go for missions and how to pray for a nation. This practice is what helped me grow in the prophetic. It’s simply hearing what God is saying. When I would pray over someone or would be discipling them, I knew when God was speaking something to prophesy over them because I had become familiar with His voice and His heart. If you want to grow in the prophetic, get to know His voice!

By Amy Ford