Back in the fall of 2006 I volunteered at Global Awakening’s yearly Voice of the Apostles conference. After one of the night sessions I was tasked with driving one of the speakers, Larry Randolph, and his wife back to their hotel. We had some brief conversation on the ride there, and during that time I asked him if he would mind praying for me to receive an impartation of the prophetic gifts, unction, or whatever else one might choose to call it. He agreed, but then we got sidetracked with some other things and the prayer didn’t occur that night, which was disappointing but fine. Yet, what happened the next day taught me something interesting about growing in spiritual power and the power of impartation.

Larry was the speaker for the afternoon session, and after calling out words of knowledge and prophecying over the audience members the Holy Spirit highlighted to him, he was about to end, saying “I’ve got time for one more.” He then looked directly at me and called me up to the front to pray an impartation of the prophetic over me. At first he wasn’t sure specifically why he felt led to do this . . . until I reminded him that I had asked the night prior. He chuckled, as he then recalled that we had never gotten to it that night, prayed for me, then closed the session.

It was touching that the Holy Spirit heard and honored my request from the night prior, but what followed was fascinating to me. I had the distinct impression that I needed to take some time in prayer with God after this, but a friend came up immediately and asked me to pray for her as well, which I did. In hindsight, I should have listened to the nudging I felt, but that’s the value of experience, and I was still pretty young in the prophetic at the time.

I have a theory about how impartation works. The Bible likes to refer to spiritual virtue, anointing, gifts, etc. as oil and humans as earthenware jars (2 Cor 4:7), so let’s use the analogy of oil in a jar. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be likened to a full jar. When someone prays impartation over us, we receive an infilling of more oil, but the jar is already full, so we have to temporarily expand the jar size to fit the extra oil (yes, I know that’s not actually a thing with jars, but just go with the example).

Once the jar-size is expanded, there are two possible options:
1) the oil will get used and the jar shrinks back down to normal size
2) the oil gets assimilated and the jar permanently expands

Some believe that impartation only works if God initiates it. I have not found that to be true. It may be more effective if God initiates it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work the rest of the time. In Acts 3:6, Peter says to a cripple that “what I have I give you”. Peter recognized that he not only had a substance but that he could give it to other people. In addition to spiritual power, we see multiple times in Acts where the Holy Spirit is given through the laying on of hands, and it references the same occurring with prophetic gifts in 1 Timothy 4:14, saying “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.”

There are a number of ideas out there about impartation, but my observation has shown me that the two options listed above are really the only two available. Either we receive the gift of impartation and it becomes permanent, or we receive it and it is impermanent. What I have found is that we can influence how permanent it does or does not become. For example, why would I have felt nudged not to pray for someone else after receiving impartation prayer from Larry Randolph? It wouldn’t matter unless my actions were able to influence what happened in some meaningful way.

I am a huge fan of impartation prayer, as I believe it is a method God gives us to accelerate spiritual growth for ourselves and others. However, it works best when we are active participants. In my own life, I have made it a point to intentionally cultivate both my relationship with God and my prayer life, as I have noticed accelerated spiritual growth when I spend long periods of time in prayer. Furthermore, I have found that if I spend time in prayer, worship, soaking, or otherwise engaging with God in the subsequent days after receiving impartation prayer, it seems to have a positive impact on whether I assimilate the impartation or not. Anyone can get prayed for, but those who are intentional to steward the gift are those who will receive the most benefit.

If you want to enhance your own spiritual growth as far as effectiveness in prayer, healing the sick, and more, I encourage you to take advantage of impartation where it is available, but don’t be passive about it. Take it that next step and intentionally assimilate all the Lord has given you so that you can be the most effective you there is. We are going to look a bit more in the next two installments about how we can encourage exponential growth and the connection impartation has with the human spirit.

The Power of Impartation Series:

Part 1: Growing in Spiritual Power

Part 2: Impartation Math

Part 3 – Pursuing Exponential Growth

Part 4 – Impartation and the Human Spirit

The book The Power of Impartation is now available.  Get your copy today!