It starts with a sincere heart and the desire to assist others and needing Help and Change for it so that you ask for it in a prayer. Knowing you can't do all that yourself and can't make it all up yourself. After that prayer trust and awareness is needed for even the smallest thing that happens!
I had no idea of all that when I participated in the weekend seminar "praying for large groups". I expected an overhead projector and taking notes. But instead I was asked to write down -after a short prayer- the nicest prayer for one person I never met before and didn't know. In my short prayer I said to God in total distress "God I don't know a thing about this person; please HELP I ask you in the name of Christ!". And then I waited for words, insights, signs, notions. I had only 5 minutes to write things down, because when meeting someone during a large event that's the time you have to pray for someone so you need the input quickly!
The person I was writing the prayer for handed me a thick book called The Book to write upon, which I didn't identify as the Bible. And I started writing. I felt really insecure, but every little input I got I wrote down, about 5 or 6 items. Short and simple. I didn't dare to read it out loud for the person and instead I said to him: "you read it yourself because it doesn't speak for me at all" and so he did. After reading it he said "excellent! All I had written was right and accurate. Which was needed, because I had written it on the Bible", he said. That gave me a little confidence for the rest of the weekend... ;-)
Insights: more than words alone!
During the seminar a female speaker told us that after a short prayer for a person we should be very vigilant for and aware of all kinds of input; no just of words, thoughts or stories. Also of sudden feelings, pains, emotions. Also of things suddenly happening around you. In the following session in small groups we were each and all invited to pray for just one person placed in the center of that small group doing just that.
Our small group had about 7 persons (me included) so I prayed for 6 persons in 6 sessions (and finally the other 6 prayed for me.) After every prayer session for one person one by one we would share our insights with that one person we prayed for with that person in order of standing clockwise.
I noticed I got input in various ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes during others were sharing their input first. Where others suddenly got a Bible verse to share or just a few words to speak in mind: I was given like an image in my mind and I spoke/described what I saw to the person. But also I could get a certain feeling or pain I described I spoke out/described to that person.
How to know whether God inspired you and gave you a genuine direction and input to speak? Because of the reaction and impact of the one you pray for!
After each thing you said to the one you pray for he or she would give a short remark. Usually words of thanks or a short "okay" or silence. But my input would bring about quite a reaction; not just because I painted what I was given to see or feel in words...
In one case of a young woman I saw a book she was reading/learning from anxiously. So I told her "I see you are reading a book and learning, but don't be afraid because it's only learning what you are doing and it will end. And the foundation you stand upon is stronger than theirs". I was the last one praying for her and speaking to her. She totally erupted in emotions then because I was the one hitting the nail on the head. She was doing an internship for her school she said at a Jewish old folks home and they were giving her a hard time (because she is a Christian and not Jewish). From my remark she gathered she had to continue and not drop out; to bring it to a good end.
In the last case I prayed for a young man and when it was my time to speak to him I felt a sudden spark in my heart and I said "I have a huge spark in my heart, no: you have a huge spark in your heart; no we all have a huge spark in our hearts!". Then the time to say anything was over and I left him astonished and confused. He immediately said "then I think I must share it with everyone here!" and stepped on stage and took a microphone to speak. He told that the last remark he got during the prayer session prompted him to tell us all about a healing taking place 30 minutes ago in a prayer session with the laying on of hands somewhere else in the building; he was a member of the organization symbolized with a spark in a heart...
I used these examples to show how God can speak when asked in prayer to speak to/for others. But surely He can also speak to you in your life when you ask about it in prayer, but also without you ask for it! You just have to be open for getting input and being aware of it. However small the vision, words, feelings, etc: be aware of it, speak it out in words, describe it, listen and talk about what you heard, etcetera. Just do it!
God can talk to you, making you aware of your actions or guiding you, but also to warn you for people or events. So it is important to rely and on God's Voice in your life and not just for prayer purposes only!
Important is that you are sincere, you want to keep God's 10 Commandments and that you ask forgiveness when you break them (breaking 1 means breaking all Commandments, James2:10-11.) And that you want to serve others in service of Christ as a Christian.
"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one Commandment has become guilty of all of them. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law*, James2:10-11.
*For Christians the 10 Commandments are the Law! Revelation 14:12 says:
"Here is the patience of God's Elect: they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.".
And James 2:11 shows us by given examples the 10 Commandments are meant with the Law.
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