PROPHETIC INSIGHTS WITH HAVILAH CUNNINGTON
Have you ever questioned your ability to hear God’s voice? Maybe you’ve even canceled yourself out and deemed hearing from God as something that is only for certain people. But, have you ever considered the specific and unique way the Lord speaks to you? I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve been asked the question, “Why can’t I hear God’s voice?” The truth is, God is always speaking and God wants to talk with everyone.
Jesus did not just die on the cross to forgive our sins, but ultimately to bring us into a relationship with Him. One of the greatest keys to any relationship is communication. John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice….” The challenge can be knowing the ways He speaks and the unique ways you hear His voice.
This past week I had the privilege of sitting down with one of my spiritual daughters and friends Havilah Cunnington — a prophetess, teacher, mom, and wife. Havilah is the founder of Truth to Table , an organization that empowers female believers and equips influencers. Havilah is an expert at teaching on the different “prophetic personalities”; in other words, the different ways you might personally hear God’s voice.
In this week’s vlog, you can hear the whole conversation on the different ways the Lord uniquely speaks to His people, the call of a prophet, and how the prophetic affects family and parenting.
HEARING GOD’S VOICE EXPLAINED
How and when did you discover that you had a prophetic mantle?
I don’t think I set out knowing that I was a prophetess. I grew up in a prophetic home, but back in the 70s and 80s, there was normally just one prophet and they were kind of strange — I wasn’t sure if that was my call. But, my dad was a minister and had a prophetic gift; he would use his gift by giving one on one prophetic words that would normally lead to inner healing for the person receiving them. However, I remember thinking I could not hear God’s voice. I began telling my dad, “Are you sure you are hearing God’s voice when you give people a prophetic word because what you hear seems so obvious about their life.” He told me: “It is obvious to you because you see the prophetic word over their life, sometimes the prophetic is calling out the obvious on someone’s life.” Once I realized that I was hearing God I began to practice giving prophetic words — I always say growing in the prophetic is kind of like working out; you have to build your prophetic muscles.
Now, I know there are people that are just extremely prophetic, but I don’t think we have to change our personalities to hold the gift. God knew what he made when he created you — we should be ourselves and allow God to use our voices in a natural way. When you are authentically yourself while operating in your prophetic gifting you will live a spirit-led life. However, when we try to become someone or something besides who we were created to be, we limit our gifting to a prophetic platform.
What is it like to be a prophetess in your own home with a young family?
As you can imagine living in a house with 5 boys can be a lot, but probably less complicated than with 5 girls. Well, in terms of what it is like to be a prophetess and a mom, it kind of goes back to living that spirit-led life versus living off a prophetic platform. It also helps knowing which prophetic personality you are. There are four distinct prophetic personalities: knower, hearer, seer, feeler.
- The knower is intuitive; I think about how Paul became a mentor to Timothy instinctively. You might just know you are supposed to do something or go somewhere but lack a word or encounter to support the impression.
- The hearer is likely to hear God saying specific things. Maybe it’s a verse or a phrase that just comes to mind. I like to call this the classic play-by-play.
- The Seer is a visionary, God gives them a vision for life, but sometimes they struggle with the details of life because they have a big picture that may take a lifetime to accomplish.
- The Feeler is often given an emotion by God usually so that you can partner with God to intercede for people, your family, etc.
I am addressing this because my dad used his prophetic gift to parent us and I saw him operate in this from a very young age. He would often acknowledge that he “knew” something. For example, my dad was a minister and he would often travel to minister. One time he was traveling and my twin sister and I were at home and I was watching something on the TV. Suddenly, the phone rang and it was my dad. He had woken up from his sleep and knew that I was watching something I should not be watching.
Through events like this, my parents modeled to me my whole life that you can allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in raising your kids. Just recently, this happened for me as a mom. I noticed one of my sons came home and seemed off, maybe I could have written it off as just tired, but I knew something else was going on. So, I asked the Holy Spirit what to do and in response, I heard Him say, “Get him away from his brothers and ask him what is wrong.” I pulled him away from his brothers for a moment and asked if we could talk, but he said nothing when I asked what was wrong. Now, normally I don’t say, “The Lord told me” or, “God said” when I am parenting, simply because I don’t want to manipulate my children into opening up. Trust me though, I have not always done parenting and the prophetic perfectly, but the truth is the prophetic is not something to perfect; it is a tension to manage. In this moment with my son though I felt to say, “The Lord told me to ask you,” then he began opening up about a situation that had happened at school. I knew then if I had not tuned into the voice of the Holy Spirit I could have totally missed it.
Which prophetic personality are you?
I am a knower, but you know what I have found about knowers? They often feel like the least spiritual person. They are not having a vision where they see something or hear the audible voice of God. They often just know and that is what they have to lean into. However, when giving a prophetic word or ministering to someone I will often experience all four personalities — the word might begin with a knowing, but then I might see something, hear a specific verse or feel a certain way about who they are that all help me to minister to them. Now, some people may be thinking to themselves, “I think I experience all of those personalities.” This is the beautiful thing about God; He is not confined to a box in the way He communicates to us. However, this is something incredible about discovering the way that you may hear from the Lord the most; it builds your faith as you begin to trust that you too hear the voice of God.
The truth is the Lord is eager to speak to His children, whether you hear the audible voice of God, have angels visitation, or experience discernment through impressions, He is always speaking. I would go so far to say that if you have not heard the voice of God in the last 24 hours, perhaps it’s not that He has not spoken, but maybe that you haven’t recognized it. I encourage you to take a moment to become aware of the subtle, yet powerful ways that the Lord has spoken to you. Sometimes, we are unaware, because we do not even know how He speaks.
SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS
If you have been called to the office of a prophet, or you’re a highly prophetic person or a Church leader desiring to learn how to operate with prophets I want to invite you to School of the Prophets this year. School of the Prophets is a 4.5-day training school, that equips, accelerates, and deploys prophets into their divine prophetic calling. This year’s school is happening August 2nd-6th both in-person in Redding CA, and online. You can learn more and register here .
