For example, the day before the 9/11 attacks, I had a terrible feeling of foreboding that I could not explain. When you do not know what it is, your mind can try to compensate with explanations that are not accurate. My first inaccurate thought was that my house was on fire. My second inaccurate thought was that there was going to be a violent rift at a meeting I was scheduled to attend that evening. Neither thought was accurate or even logical, but I sensed fire and then violence, and then my mind tried to piece it together. I spent the afternoon praying in my prayer language because I was unable to get a grip on my feelings. The next morning, when the news of the terror attacks came out, I understood what was behind the things I was discerning.
Although I manage it much better now, I still walk in this level of intensity almost daily. This gift has taken me into the place of intercession unlike anything else. I have also counseled too many people to count who have the same gift, which is why I wanted to touch on it in this book. If you have the gift of discerning of spirits in this much strength, you can see how it could be mistaken for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. If that is you, will you consider that you are not crazy but actually have a gift?
Kris Vallotton once said, “If you don’t manage your discernment, it will manage you.” We manage the strength of this gift through a heavy diet of the Word and prayer and by living a sanctified life. We direct it toward intercession until our peace returns to us. When our peace has returned to us, then we know we have established God’s Kingdom effectively through prayer (see Isaiah 9:7).
The gift of discerning of spirits allows us to watch and pray intelligently. As James says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). We are supposed to be effective in prayer, not ineffective. This gift, in all its unusual manifestations, sharpens our intercession.
Kingdom Prayer Principles
The gift of discerning of spirits comes from the Holy Spirit and enables us to distinguish between spirits—divine, demonic and human. It is also a supernatural ability to discern the hidden motives of the heart.
This gift is not the same as having an evil eye toward others or being suspicious, which are heart issues.
The gift of discerning of spirits works in tandem with intercession, enabling us to be alert to the specific schemes of the enemy as we watch and pray.
We have to develop, from the Word, a framework of possibilities in the spirit realm if we are going to discern well. Otherwise, we will not be able to grasp what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us.
This gift is primarily sensory, and we discern the spirit realm through our emotions and our five physical senses, not through our intellects.
When we begin to notice things happening in our senses that have no explanation, we must recognize it as an invitation for dialogue with the Lord. The positive points of discernment become worship; the negative points become intercession.
There are a surprising number of people who have the gift of discerning of spirits and do not know it. All too often, they mistake their giftedness for being crazy.
Thoughts for Reflection
In what ways have you been able to recognize the presence of God through your senses? The presence of evil?
Do you often second-guess or feel bad about yourself when you discern evil in a person or a situation? What is a more constructive way to process this information?
Do you find yourself sensitive to nearly everything? Do you struggle with noise and crowds, finding it difficult to think and process unless you are fully alone? Do you dislike that about yourself, and have you considered that you might have a strong expression of this gift?
Do the possibilities of the spirit realm draw you into dialogue with God and intercession? Or do they shut you down with fear? What is the Holy Spirit saying about that?
10
We Are a House of Prayer
All over the earth, we see a movement of prayer taking place. Paul’s simple admonition to the Thessalonians to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) has resulted in a surge of 24/7 prayer gatherings around the globe that attract old and young alike. These gatherings can be found in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, South America, Africa, China, America—the list goes on.
Kim Catherine Marie Kollins, a nun from Texas who led a 24/7 prayer ministry among one hundred million renewed Catholics, once said:
Everywhere I turn I seem to hear this same call to prayer being proclaimed—prayer for cities, prayer for nations. Everywhere I look I see writings calling the people of God to intense worship and adoration and intercession. Many new prayer initiatives are being called forth—houses of prayer are springing up, prayer mountains and prayer vigils are being held in response to this prompting of the Holy Spirit.1
The practice of day-and-night prayer has its foundations in the Old Testament, beginning with King David. On his inauguration day as king of Israel, David commanded the Ark of the Covenant be carried by the Levitical priests into the new capital of Jerusalem. It was received with a loud celebration of songs and with dancing and then was placed inside the Tabernacle. David appointed hundreds of singers and musicians to worship, to give thanks and to petition the Lord day and night, something that had never been done before (see 1 Chronicles 15–16).
We see this pattern of day-and-night prayer continuing with David’s son Solomon, but now the new Temple replaced the less-permanent Tabernacle. Leaders of Judah and Israel that came later, such as Jehoshapat, Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, were also conscientious to reestablish day-and-night prayer, appointing singers and musicians to their places “according to the commands of David and his son Solomon” (Nehemiah 12:45).
By the time Jesus came to earth, the Temple’s night-and-day prayer expression had been replaced with religious politics and disreputable commerce. Provoked by this, Jesus arrived at the Temple with whips in hand and began driving out the buyers and sellers and the animals for sale before turning over by force the tables of the money changers (see John 2:13–16). He then rebuked the Temple crowd with a prophecy from Isaiah, saying, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’” (Matthew 21:13; cf. Isaiah 56:7).
The prophet Isaiah had seen eight hundred years into the future—to this very moment at the Temple—and called forth the priorities that needed to be in place. It was to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). This makes prayer the first ministry of the Church. And the reach of our prayers is meant to be the nations.
I believe this is why the Church was birthed in the Upper Room during a prayer meeting. This is why the first outreach flowed from that place of prayer to the visiting nations in Jerusalem, resulting in three thousand conversions to Christ (see Acts 2). The Holy Spirit was communicating through this that prayer is the first thing we do and that, as a result, the nations turn to Christ.
We also see the early Church being unceasing in prayer. We read how “they devoted themselves . . . to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They prayed as individuals and together. Again, the apostle Paul exhorted the early Church to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). They were fervent in prayer and prayed in their homes, at the Temple and in the streets (see James 5:16; Acts 3:1–2). Over and over, these activities are demonstrated in the Scriptures to encourage us to make prayer the first thing we do everywhere.
The praying Church overturns demonic plans, puts angels on assignment, cleanses atmospheres and creates conditions for the visible invasion of the Word of God into the nations. As spiritual kings and priests on the earth, it is our honor and privilege to govern our whole world through prayer.
Praying for Nations
It is hard to believe that prior to the Prohibition movement in the early 1900s, America had developed a severe problem with alcohol that dated back to the Puritans. Families were ravaged by it. Work productivity was affected by it. It was all too common for workers not to come in on Mondays because of their weekend hangovers. As Daniel Okrent, historian and author of Last Call
: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, puts it, “America had been awash in drink almost from the start—wading hip-deep in it, swimming in it, at various times its history nearly drowning in it.”2 Abraham Lincoln referred to the problem as “the devastator,”3 saying alcohol “commonly entered into the first draught of an infant, and the last draught of the dying man.”4
In December 1873, Eliza Jane Trimble Thompson led 75 women to war in prayer over this monumental social problem. Eliza was a devout Methodist, the daughter of an Ohio governor, the wife of a judge and the mother of eight. She was a quiet woman but was chosen by her peers to take the lead. On a cold winter day that December, this group of women marched out of church and over to the various saloons, hotels and drugstores—not to protest, but to pray. As they reached these establishments, they dropped to their knees in prayer for the souls of the owners of each place.
They prayed for eleven days, up to six hours at a time, until nine of the town’s thirteen drinking places closed their doors. Saloon owners began to repent, which set off a storm of similar prayer actions in the Midwest and New England. Not all of the saloon closures were permanent, but this act of prayer was the tipping point for America to begin dealing with its alcohol problem. A more sober America emerged through legislation and industry regulation, undergirded by the fervent prayers of the Church and the fiery preaching of evangelists like Billy Sunday and others like him.
This is what happens when we, the Church, commit ourselves to prayer. Prayer is an exercise of spiritual government. It is our priestly function and the most powerful exercise of godly authority on the earth. It invites the atmosphere of heaven and the will of God into the earth’s domain and establishes territorial occupation.
We need to cultivate a culture of prayer and embrace a lifestyle of prayer. To understand this better, consider the prayer culture of Muslims and its impact. Muslims pray five times a day and fast one month each year, during the lunar month of Ramadan. When they fast, it is a total fast—no water or food—from sunup to sunset. In Muslim-dominated areas around the globe, an audible call to prayer is given from the mosques, in response to which persons kneel to pray in the direction of Mecca.
Muslims have a culture of prayer, and it is part of their lifestyle. They also have what I call a “governmental” mindset, meaning an intention to infiltrate every aspect of society—culture, politics, economics and more—wherever they live, including America. By way of example, we learned through a Michigan church-planter named Chilly Chilton that the city of Hamtramck, located within inner-city Detroit, broadcasts the Islamic “call to prayer” from mosques throughout the city five times a day.5 How did an American city become so immersed in Islam as to freely broadcast that religion’s call to prayer? I believe it happened as a result of their prayer culture, which is a spiritual and governmental act in their eyes and which has enabled them to occupy more territory.
I once was in a closed Muslim nation, ministering to congregants and leaders of an active missions organization and in the underground Church. I was scheduled to speak about prophetic intercession at a conference beginning on a Friday evening. On Friday afternoon, I began to experience spiritual warfare. First, the power went out in my apartment—something that, according to the owner, was not normal. When the power went out, I began to feel a strong disorientation in my mind. This type of disorientation is something I have learned is a symptom of religious witchcraft active in the atmosphere. Just a few moments later, I managed to cut my finger quite badly and could not stop the bleeding. All I could do was wrap my finger tightly in tissue. I dressed clumsily, then went to brush my hair and noticed medium-sized clumps falling out. I have lots of thick hair and began to pray I would not show any bald spots, as the clumps would not stop coming out.
I was growing in righteous rage through that series of incidents, realizing a very real demonic presence was in the atmosphere. I was informed later that the local Muslims meet on Fridays at the mosque to pray. I believe I was bumping into their prayers—that I was in the atmosphere of those prayers. This created all sorts of disturbances I had to navigate in order to get to the meeting that evening.
I share this story to demonstrate that prayer is an exercise of power and government in the spiritual atmosphere and creates tangible and measurable results on earth. Christians who do not pray or do not make an effort to pray as a church community forfeit their authority, not realizing they are the reason many people remain hell-chained in their communities with no other means of deliverance. This is a sobering thought. Come on, Church! It is time to pray, and it is time to pray unceasingly.
God has a big vision for prayer on the earth. He declared His Church to be a house of prayer for all nations, in fact, remember? So, why does God have big vision for prayer? To fulfill His dream. He said His government would only increase and not decrease (see Isaiah 9:7). His heart is for entire nations, as well as those who lead them. This includes modern-day Nebuchadnezzars, socialist rulers, religious leaders, dictators and corrupt elected officials. Churches that consistently pray together will change their regions and nations.
Here are a few examples:
China. I travel to China each year and minister in not-so-typical places. There are strong Christians everywhere you go in China, and they are praying and evangelizing passionately. According to a 2014 article in The Telegraph, China is on course to become the most Christian nation within fifteen years.6
Almolonga, Guatemala. This city was known for its alcoholism, violence and idol worship. Its evangelical churches were small and persecuted. After a violent attempt against his life, pastor Mariano Riscajche began to hold regular prayer services with his small congregation. They began to lay hold of heaven’s atmosphere in their city and to proclaim the promises of God to their land. In time, men and women began to get delivered from demons and commit their lives to Jesus Christ. The phenomenon spread as prayer grew and grew, until the city experienced a complete transformation. Now, with 85 percent of the population professing faith in Christ, the city of Almolonga has closed all four of its jails and all but three saloons. The buildings and streets have been renamed after biblical characters. The most notable transformation came in the shape of its miraculously large and prosperous agricultural produce, which received global attention.7
Ukraine. Pastor Sunday Adelaja began with a prayer group in a dilapidated apartment, only to build a vast and powerful church in the capital city of Kiev. Still, his church was persecuted to the point of no longer having a meeting space. The government took every measure possible to contain the church. But at the word of the Lord, Pastor Sunday’s congregation challenged their government in open protest. Their protest, fueled by hours of prayer and fasting, resulted in an unprecedented decision by the government to give them more than six acres of land to build upon. Later, the church played a key role in a major presidential election that defied Russian influence and ushered in a pro-Western president by the name of Viktor Yushchenko.8
Panama. General Manuel Noriega was known to practice voodoo and other forms of magic in consortium with occult leaders. He was highly impacted by the satanic kingdom and filled the land of Panama with murder by killing all those he thought opposed him. The repeated sound of helicopters in the middle of the night meant that more remains of tortured bodies were being dumped somewhere in the jungles. He seemed invincible—until Christian leaders organized to pray. They prayed once a month by radio, traveling throughout the country on buses. Those who had to stay home prayed in agreement with the radio broadcasts. Finally, General Noriega was deposed and sent to an American prison. According to evangelist Luis Palau, Manuel Noriega has since given his life to Jesus Christ.9
Our modern-day assignment is the salvation of people and nations. Jesus commissioned us, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). Our assignment is birthed in the place of prayer, but we cannot pray effectively until we understand and carry our Father’s heart to those He has created.
Praying for God’s Will
So, how do we pray? Remember that Jesus instructed us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (see Matthew 6:10). Our prayers matter, and God’s will does not happen unless we pray. For this reason, we need to use wisdom and think about what we pray before we pray it. As long as we are aligned with God’s written Word and His voice, we will release the right things into our world through our prayers and prophetic intercession. If we are not aligned, though, we can “loose” the wrong things (see Matthew 16:19). We are more powerful in prayer than we think.
I know this from personal experience. In an earlier chapter, I mentioned that my husband, Ron, initiated a large remodeling project at our church in 2003 to update our building, as our facility had received little attention since the 1950s. The building had dim lighting; gold-colored, theater-style chairs that smelled; old, musty green carpet; a huge pipe-organ system; metallic gold wallpaper on the sanctuary’s largest wall; and other memorabilia from that long-gone era. Also worth mentioning were the cracked exterior paint, the slippery cement lobby floor, the stairwells that led nowhere and the missing foundations on parts of the building. It all had to go!
As a church, we managed to complete our renovation, making the church into a more functional, high-tech and visually pleasing facility, and many families made deep sacrifices to bring this about.
Our biggest issue during the remodel was our city’s building department. They approved our construction plans and then reneged on their approval after we began construction. Our sanctuary had been gutted, and now they wanted more safety features included—to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. If we did not comply with these requirements, they threatened to inspect our extensive building for even more code violations. It was pure extortion and put us in a terrible financial bind.
The Intercessors Handbook Page 13
