I don’t believe I would have had the confidence to believe I could partner with Holy Spirit in reconciling men back to God through hearing His voice if it hadn’t been for my husband but also one other special person.
“Can I sit here?” I looked up to see a blue-eyed redhead staring back at me. I could tell immediately she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. We ate lunch together that day and we have rarely been apart since—that is, until I moved away. And even though I’ve moved away, we make sure to stay in daily conversation with one another. We are way too invested in one another to simply reduce that friendship into something merely seasonal.
We always joked that our devotion to one another was like that of Ruth and Naomi’s from the Bible. I, of course, was the elder of the two, not because I was wise but because I was old. That blue-eyed ginger is named Stefanie, and it has been through my relationship with her that I’ve experienced why embracing the prophetic nature we all have is so vital to not only myself but to the world around me. Seeing myself the way God sees me and agreeing with Heaven is certainly the vital first step in awakening your prophetic voice, but it’s also very much about learning how to champion others in ways that we simply couldn’t without the beautiful gift of prophecy. Together, she and I have held each other accountable to recalling who God is and what He is saying about us and our destiny. I believe that you can’t truly love someone else well until you learn to love yourself well first, and I don’t believe you’ll ever be able to love yourself well until you receive the love that God has for you as you experience being known by God. My relationship with Stefanie is evidence that God is not only passionate about His children but even more passionate about us prophetically seeing His children through His eyes.
It was three years into my friendship with Stefanie before she told me she sang. I was shocked. This was the first I had heard of it. I had never heard her sing. I challenged her to sing for me and she pulled me into a back room and sang for me. Her voice, her courage to be known in a new way, her gift, hit my heart so hard that I began to cry as she sang. She was not just someone who could sing; she was a singer. There’s a difference. It was built into the fabric of her being, and she was allowing me to hear her blatantly anointed voice. Yet, she was pulling me into a back room, almost in secret before she would sing. Naturally, I gushed about her voice in the most sincere ways. I encouraged her to not hide her voice, not that I knew if she was, but I assumed so because she only sang in front of me in private after three years of knowing her. She’s not one for much attention, though, I’ll give her that, but still I knew the world was waiting to hear her voice—she just had not recognized it on that level yet.
I never play the game of convincing. I am not patient enough for it, but I will believe in you until you are able to hold on to a vision for yourself. While I love to prophesy what God is saying over people, I find people really begin to possess the word being spoken over their life if they hear it and see if it for themselves. If I’m prophetically speaking into someone’s life, it should be confirmation of what is already going on in their heart, though they maybe don’t have the courage to believe in it. It was through Stefanie that God taught me this. He taught me that unless people can possess His words, they will never know Him or experience being known. I found leading people into hearing God for themselves was vital to help people move the mountain between what they could see and what they believed.
Right when Stefanie began to sing, I knew it would be my job to make sure she had every available opportunity to use her voice, because her voice was a gift that needed to be developed and shared. How was I going to do this? Prayer. A lot of agreeing, releasing, and praying from a place of “It will be so, God, because You’ve anointed it to be so!” Even though she had no idea I was interceding and prophetically declaring hope to rise up over her life, I knew this would be a great start to being a good friend for her. Not everyone will always know the depths of your love for them, but God knows!
You see, Stefanie had a very similar upbringing to mine. We weren’t raised believing that God was audibly speaking or giving us insight through visions and dreams, and I was terrified to let her know that I was encountering God, seeing angels, and prophesying. In some ways, my tears as she sang to me in that little back room were in part because she exposed the worshiper within her—a worshiper I could see she was secretly nurturing and held sacred, yet I didn’t have the courage at that time to reciprocate. I was unable to let her know that I had a voice that was awakening too. I was afraid to be seen as supernaturally alive and scared to be seen in this new way that God was awakening within me out of fear of being misunderstood or being rejected by one of the most important people to me. The only cure for fear of man is to love them the way God does. If perfect love is casting out fear, seeing others the way God does will cast out your fear of what they may think or believe about you. Even though they may never agree or see what you see, unity can happen between people if love, not agreement, is the common bond shared.
It wasn’t long before Stefanie was invited to sing a solo in a city-wide Christmas cantata. My husband and I made it out to see her, and that was when my husband saw what I had been raving about. I remember him telling her after the performance just how incredible she was. She, of course, was polite and thankful but I think a little embarrassed. It’s a little terrifying when people begin to see exactly who you are and they start believing in the potential you carry. Why? Because when people begin to believe in you, you either take responsibility for that potential or you reject it and begin to wither away in mediocrity. Either way you choose, those who believe in you are watching.
Stefanie was destined for more than just Christmas cantatas and the occasional Sunday morning worship special. The anointing on her life was visible and required development. I wasn’t sure what she was specifically going to need, but I continued to pray and secretly prophesy out loud who she was and call forth everything that God had available for her. Our friendship continued to flourish.
Over the years, we shared coffee, good food, and lots of laughs. I think laughter is a cornerstone of our friendship. One of these “homemade cinnamon roll and hot coffee fueled” mornings, Stefanie, the pillar of strength that she always is, seemed to be in need of support. I had known that she was going through personal things within her family, but circumstances had developed since I had seen her last, and if she ever needed a friend, this day was that day. She looked up at me and said, “It’s days like this that you wish God was still speaking today.”
I felt every muscle in my body tense. This was my moment to speak up so she could experience God’s love. I felt my throat tighten, but my passion and belief in people hearing God’s voice was stronger than my fear, so without overthinking it I responded with, “I believe He is speaking today. Would you like to hear what He has to say?” She studied the sincerity in my eyes for only a moment and then said yes. Then, like everyone who is passionate about the gift of prophecy, I told her I’d come back the next day and share with her what God was saying. I ran to my car with my tail between my legs. I literally told her God could speak and then left her in her pain.
The next day I went to her house as promised. Nervous, probably not unlike how she felt when she sang in front of me, I started off simply praying for her, and then I began to prophesy. I won’t share all that, but I will say that it’s a word she and I recall often as a remembrance of not only who God is for her but His promises about where she is going outside of the circumstantial evidence. After that intimate moment with my best friend, I went on to tell her of the countless prophetic testimonies that I had been experiencing that had led me to know God is not only good but He is speaking loud and clear today. I told her about my class that Pastor Jay had given me so that I could lead people into hearing God for themselves, and she asked to sign up even though she didn’t attend my church.
This was the moment when I stopped being so afraid of using my voice prophetically. I risked being misunderstood and didn’t entertain fear of man, so I spoke. And I have to say, it’s when everything began to change for me. But I want you to notice that I didn’t speak up because I was proving to Stefanie that God still spoke today. I was motivated by love and compassion. My friend was hurting; she needed to know where God was, and I was compelled to get past my fears and lead her to the One who could really help her in ways that I just wouldn’t know how otherwise. The Holy Spirit is the great unifier. You don’t have to experience someone else’s pain to have an impact in someone’s life; all you need is compassion and a knowing that God is really, really good, and Holy Spirit does the rest.
Never lead with your gifts; rather, lead with gratitude for the person you’re serving. You’ll learn that the ability to grow in relationship with people is the most impressive gift God ever gave you. Your gifts are only tools to help you love others in impressive ways.
If you could have a star student in a church class, it would be Stefanie. It had nothing to do with being extra gifted; it only had to do with hunger! She was hungry to intimately know God. She was beginning to experience her holy union with God through Holy Spirit and was starting to see, hear, and know not only the plans He had for her but know God was good and that she could take big risks with her life because He was with her! Others in the class were having incredible breakthrough as well, but Stefanie was taking God at His word, and she was soaring. With prophetic images God had given her of equipping others through worship, she auditioned for and made the worship team at my church. In no time, she began to lead a team of her own where she learned the ins and outs of leading others who felt called to worship. Her voice was awakened, but still she was barely scratching the surface.
After several years of leading locally, still leaning on the promises and declarations that God had spoken over her, she auditioned to become a worship team member of a church plant that was branching from one of the most influential, internationally known worship teams. This worship team would be directly influenced and mentored by some of the most talented global musicians; it was an opportunity for Stefanie to learn from the best. Audition submissions flooded in, including one with Stefanie’s name on it. She got a callback for a live audition. At the audition, they called her name to be the first to sing. She was nervous; she even says that she started off pretty rough, but soon she found her voice amongst the nerves and simply released it!
Sitting in the audience were the audition candidates, the worship pastor, and the pastors of the church plant with their baby. After she sang, the worship pastor asked everyone to come and look at the baby. A large, half-dollar sized drop of oil had manifested on the baby’s head. Stefanie, remember, was raised in a church community where that was unseen and not believed in. She walked over to the baby and said the fragrance from the oil was so strong, that she had never smelled anything like it before. It wasn’t only picked up by smell, but the fragrance itself was experienced. She said it was as if you could smell it, taste it, hear it as if the oil were alive. She was stunned. She assumed it had been the hour-long pre-worship they had before auditions began that set the atmosphere for miracles and wonders; she never expected that it had anything to do with her.
Four hours later the auditions wrapped. The worship pastor pulled Stefanie off to the side and told her that her audition tape was not good. It was so not good that he only watched three minutes out of four total videos that had been submitted, but before finishing his list of callbacks he prayed and asked Holy Spirit to highlight anyone he may have missed. Stefanie’s rejected audition video was highlighted. He went back to listen to her submission, and sure enough it wasn’t her that was the issue, it was the guitarist who he said wasn’t technically at her level yet. He told her that he knew he needed to start auditions off with her because she was anointed to set the tone for the auditions that were to follow, and that oil from Heaven on the baby’s head was the manifestation of the anointing that God had placed uniquely on her voice. He went on to tell her that whether it was on their team or somewhere else, she needed to be saying yes to her voice and using it.
Talk about affirmation! Stefanie had to travel out of state to do the live audition and was staying at our house, so it was a special moment getting to watch her walk out of her audition so monumentally impacted by what God did to affirm what she carried. You can imagine she was overwhelmed by God. After getting into the car she struggled to even speak, and of course as she shared what had happened during the audition I became a blubbering mess. My husband met our emotion with the remark, “Well, if God can use the voice of an ass to get man’s attention, as the classic Bible story goes, it’s no surprise God can even use a redhead!” We all burst out laughing!
There are seasons when you will have no one believing in you; you may even have people mocking you. But those are the tests required so your feet can stand firm in who God is saying you are. I believe Stefanie always had visions of her singing, likely from the time she was small. I believe she always knew deep down that it wasn’t just that she could sing but that her voice was equipped uniquely to bridge people into the presence of God; maybe she just didn’t know how to translate those giant imaginings into practically walking it out. It doesn’t matter. Eventually, God will send someone along who will see what God has placed on your life. If you’ll be open-hearted and brave and not shrink back, someone will rise up and agree with God’s belief in you. Even if it means pulling one person into a back room so you can sing for them; or even if it means declaring what you believe, high-tailing it out of there, and then returning the next day to honor your belief in the desires God has placed in your heart. They will remind you of who you are when you’re in doubt. They’ll recall the promises that God has spoken over you! And most importantly, they will pray. They will pray when that’s all there to do. But we don’t wait for these people to come along before we use our voice!
Stefanie and I have been in a friendship for over ten years. About seven of those years we have been actively cultivating a prophetic friendship—meaning we remind one another of who God says we are; we prophesy over one another; we walk hand in hand together through the hard stuff, not just the fun stuff; and we carry hope for one another when our hope is fading. God will send someone, but will you risk being seen and known so that they can partner with Heaven to champion you into your destiny? Will you be bold and speak out what Heaven is saying about someone who needs to hear God? Gifts are most profound when they are wrapped up in loving long-term relationships, not just the “wham, bam, hope that helps and see ya later ma’am” kind of love.
All of us have a voice that needs to be awakened. God has placed His vision for our lives uniquely inside your voice so that, like Him, we will powerfully look to the void and speak out the imaginings of God’s heart! With a “let it be so” attitude, we create beautiful things out of nothing. It starts with an awakened voice that is declaring the heart of Heaven into the earth. It’s the new sound coming from you that the earth has been groaning for.