My best friend has the spiritual gift of prophecy. I may need to explain that a bit: Christian prophecy doesn't have much to do with foretelling the future, although God can grant that if He wishes. It has much more to do with seeing the power of God at work in the world, envisioning the spiritual battles that rage all around us, and with communicating the miraculous power and message of God to His people.

One of the lessons that I teach around Christian goal setting centers around Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." I believe that our desires are our deepest values, the holy touchstones that God created in each one of us. One person's values and deepest desires may be service, compassion, family; another's may be beauty, leadership, security; still another's may be freedom, growth, meaning. We all have them, although in our sin we can try to live them out badly! But God created the values within each individual, and He firmly tied the fulfillment of our values to our relationship with Him. (You can read more about this in my article on "The Deep Desires of Your Heart.")

My friend's spiritual gift and my teaching were brought together the other day. I was having lunch with my friend and she mentioned that she had been given a word from God. It had to do with hope in a financial situation, but it didn't seem to apply to her. Maybe it was for me? She told me the message: "Be obedient and I will give you the desires of your heart

The miraculous part? I had never mentioned my teaching on desires of the heart to her before, and she didn't know the verse from Psalms. She did not know the term in her own wisdom.

God did.