4 Steps to Receive A Prophetic Word Spoken Over You

When God gives you a word, you have to stand on the promise and believe God to receive it.

I tell people all the time when I’m preaching: You need to be a receiver. Think about how a receiver operates on a football field. The coach calls a play. The quarterback is getting ready to release the ball. But it’s the receiver’s job to be ready—eyes open, arms out, running the route, and expecting the ball to come their way. A good receiver isn’t wandering around the field, clueless. They’re locked in. Focused. Positioned to catch what’s coming.

The same is true when it comes to receiving the blessing of God, a fulfilled promise, or a prophetic word. If God says revival is coming, then like a receiver, we’ve got to position ourselves to catch it. A prophet once gave us a word that squalls in the spirit were coming. A squall is a sudden, violent storm on the water—unexpected, intense, and forceful. This wasn’t going to be a gentle drizzle. It was going to shake and move things. It was going to mark us. So what does a receiver do when that kind of word comes? They look for it. They position themselves. They prepare. That’s exactly what our church began to do after receiving that word. We started praying at another level. The hunger in the house intensified. My wife Jessi began to crave the presence of God more than anything else.

At that time, our oldest daughter was preparing to leave for college at Oral Roberts University. We had seen powerful ministry in our church—thousands saved, people healed, the Spirit moving—but we hadn’t yet seen the kind of revival people would write about. Jessi’s heart burned with one desire: that our daughter would witness a supernatural move of God from the front row before leaving home. She got desperate. She started crying out to the Lord. She would go into the sanctuary when no one else was around, fall on the altar, and cry, “God, send revival!” Some days she prayed for hours, other days just for a few minutes—but she never passed that altar without laying herself on it. She began training the worship team to do the same. It became common to find people on their faces at the altar, crying out for a move of God. It set a new tone for the church.

One Sunday morning, in the middle of a worship service, Jessi stopped everything. Worship was rising, the atmosphere was building—and then she paused. She said, “I have a prophetic word. Someone in here needs to hear this: You will live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17). I’ll be honest—sitting in the front row, I thought: Well, Jessi, that’s a nice verse, but I’m not sure I would’ve stopped worship over it. But she locked eyes with me, and without saying a word, she told me I was wrong. Married folks know what I’m talking about—you can have a whole conversation without a word being spoken. She looked straight at me and said with her eyes, “Brian, you’re wrong. That’s a word from God.”

Eight minutes later, a man collapsed on the balcony. Lifeless. Gray. Eyes rolled back. It looked like death had come for him. The medical people in the church rushed to help, and the entire church was shaken. We were live-streaming to two other campuses, and all three churches immediately began praying in the Spirit. I believe what James 5:16 (NKJV) says: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” I walked up to where they were tending to the man. It didn’t look good. I asked them to step back for just a moment.

I stood over him, looked death in the face, and said: “I agree with what was prophesied. You will live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord. I rebuke death, and I speak life into you!” The moment I said “life into you,” that man sucked air back into his lungs. His eyes popped open. He sat up and said, “I’m fine.” Come on—he said he was fine! The church erupted with praise. Revival wind swept through that sanctuary. The paramedics arrived shortly after and took him to the hospital, but everything checked out. He was cleared and released. Later, I visited the family at the hospital. They told me he had almost stayed home that morning because he wasn’t feeling well. But he came. And because he came, he didn’t face that emergency alone—he faced it in the presence of God, surrounded by prayer and prophetic power.

I told the grandkids, “Here’s the moral of the story: Come to church—or die!” That may sound intense, but I mean it—when the anointing is in the house, when revival is flowing, lives are saved, healed, and restored. God raises the dead. That moment marked the beginning of something powerful. It was a sign for good. Let me be clear—I’m not led by signs. I’m led by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. I’m not out here laying fleeces every day. But even David prayed, “Show me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed” (Psalm 86:17 NKJV).

And God will give signs—not spooky, weird signs, but super-natural confirmations that encourage and anchor our faith.

Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is noth-ing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you’” (1 Kings 18:41-44 NKJV).

Elijah said he heard “...the sound of abundance of rain,” even while the sky was still clear. The word came before the evidence. Yet he didn’t sit still and wait—he sent his servant to look. Once. Twice. Seven times. Nothing… until finally, a small cloud appeared, no bigger than a man’s hand.

That tiny sign was enough. Elijah positioned himself as a receiver! Elijah didn’t wait for thunder or a downpour. At the first hint of fulfillment, he moved. He declared to Ahab, “Get ready—the rain is coming.” This is how faith lives. When God gives a word, we don’t watch passively—we look expectantly. We search the horizon. And when even the smallest evidence appears, we agree with heaven and declare it done. We don’t wait for the storm to arrive; we announce the rain at the first cloud. We are those who are positioned to receive!

Jesus said in Mark 11:24 (NKJV): “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Let that settle deep into your spirit. Believe that you receive them… and you will have them. Receiving starts with believing. Faith isn’t passive. Faith takes hold. Faith positions itself like a receiver on the field—ready, expectant, alert, and in motion. This is why I always say: A believer is a receiver. We’re not beg-gars. We’re not hoping and wishing. We’re believers. And that makes us receivers. We receive by faith, not because we deserve it, but because we believe in the One who promised it.

So declare it over your life today:

I am a receiver because I am a believer. I believe I receive what I ask for in prayer. I receive every prophetic word, every healing promise, every outpouring from heaven that God has declared over my life.

God is moving. The cloud is forming. The ball is in the air. Get in position. Lock in. Keep your eyes open because God is about to deliver everything He said.