May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16)

Like you, I desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate in my life.  I want to see people healed and delivered and set free.  I want to see the dead raised and the lame walk and the blind see.  All these things we should desire, but we should also desire to operate in the gift of encouragement.

What I have noticed about the voice of God when He speaks is how encouraging He is.  Romans 15:5 says, “the God who gives endurance and encouragement.”  God will always tell you that everything is going to be alright in Christ and that things will work out.  When God speaks. you can feel the truth of it all through your being.

There is nothing like the power of encouragement to lift your heart to a different place in the spirit.  People ask me to pray for them all the time.  My hope is that they will hear from God prophetically but also that they will be filled with encouragement and joy and peace.

You can always tell a person who has not received much prophetic encouragement in their lives because when they come forward for a prophetic word and prayer, they are often scared.  They expect to hear God say something nasty about them.

But the prophetic gifting is really an encouragement gift. 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.”  When we prophesy therefore, it should be to encourage.  If a word isn’t encouraging, I would question the source.

If you become an encourager, then you will never lack people coming to you for ministry.  They will come from miles away just to be near you.  Perhaps you will even have your named changed as we find in Acts 4:36: “Joseph, the Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles renamed Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”).  Wouldn’t it be amazing to have people recognize you such an encouraging person that they change your name?

Have you ever been around a negative person who complains about everything and everyone?  It isn’t fun, is it?  In fact, you would likely go out of your way not to be near them.  I have known a few like that.  I imagine I have been a person like that myself from time to time.

According to the Apostle Paul, encouragement is a gifting (Romans 12:7-8), which to me means that it comes from the Holy Spirit and can come by anointing.  Let us pray together that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit in a new way and that we will see with the eyes of encouragement.

There are people that are near you right now that need to hear something good.  Why don’t you be the catalyst for their encouragement?  Just begin to reach out to them today and watch what God will do in their life and yours.

Many people sit around wondering what they might do for God.  I can tell you that if you will seek to be an encourager, you will never run out of things to do and God will be well pleased.

At the same time, if you are in need of encouragement today, I just want you to know that God is your strength and refuge–a very present help in times of trouble.  I pray for you today and ask God to fill you with His presence.

One last thing that I want to say is that sometimes if we want encouragement, it is a good idea to sow encouragement.  I have found that this works in my own life.  People are constantly encouraging me, in part because I have sown encouragement into them.

So go forth in a new strength today and see what God will do.  You will be amazed at the anointing under which you walk into your destiny.