Prayer Force
Training
Leader’s Guide
Table of Contents
Chapter
Page
Introduction
Week One – The Highland’s Vision
2
Section One – The Vertical
Week Two – The Presence of God
16
Week Three – Capacity for His Presence
28
Week Four – Worship
38
Week Five – The Lord’s Prayer
48
Week Six – Tabernacle Prayer
60
Section Two – The Horizontal
Week Seven – The Power of Agreement
78
Week Eight – Authority in Prayer
88
Week Nine – Spiritual Warfare
97
Week Ten – Healing and Fasting
113
Week Eleven – Ministry
128
Week Twelve – Commissioning
143
1
Highlands Vision
Week One
Purpose: to support Pastor Chris Hodges in the vision
that God has given him for Church of the Highlands.
Introduction
You’re an intercessor. What does that mean? Does it mean you attend a weekly
prayer meeting with a handful of peaceful Christians and pray through prayer
requests around a circle? Or is there more to it than that?
In this small group study we’re going to delve into what it means to be an
intercessor. We’re going to learn what it means to align ourselves with God’s vision
for our church. We’ll spend some time focusing on and cultivating the most important
asset we can acquire as intercessors: the presence of God. We’re going to study
prayer formats and outlines that will help us get started in a lifestyle of prayer. We’re
going to discover the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the word, and the power
of agreement. Then we’re going to decide what we want to do with our gifts – how we
can serve our pastor and our church as intercessors.
In each section of the study, we’ll learn how to practically apply the teaching. Our
goal is that we never become religious in our methods, but connect with the heart of
God.
Swayed By the Wind
We’ll begin our study with an overview of the vision of our church set forth by our
pastor, Chris Hodges. Each church has a specific calling and vision. As intercessors
in the church we want to align ourselves with that particular vision.
Write out John 3:8. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You
hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where
it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
How do we know we are following the wind of the Spirit of God? There are great
prayer resources and vibrant prayer ministries available to us that woo us in many
directions. We can get involved in various noble causes such as praying for
evangelism across the world, serving in healing ministries, honing our prophetic gifts
by following great prophets, or confronting demonic strongholds in our city. We might
be interested in heading up prayer walking in our community, joining with other
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parents to pray against ungodliness on our schools, or marching on Washington to
war against injustice. Where do we begin?
Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our
God (Psalm 92:13). We begin our role as intercessors by getting planted and rooted
in the local church which God ordained as the primary source of ministry to the world.
We will flourish and see souls added daily, miracles, healings, and deliverances if we
take the time to go through seasons of planting, watering, pruning, and storms as the
plantings of the Lord in His house. We want to be deeply rooted so that we produce
sweet fruit.
Intercessors are a part of the body of Christ, His church. Our pastors provide
covering that will protect us. Intercessors are drawn to the fire of God wherever it is.
But when we’re a part of the body, we can do more than we can on our own.
Under the covering you will have opportunities and support. In the church are
counseling and financial resources, credibility, influence, blessing, and anointing.
John 3:8 says we are born of the Spirit. When we are born of the Spirit of God,
we live by spiritual principles. Three of those principles are submission, faith, and
humility.
1. Submission: We willingly submit to our pastor and desire to serve him.
Read Hebrews 13:17. Why do we want to submit to our
leaders? “ Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.
They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.
Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that
would be of no advantage to you.”
2. Faith: We walk by faith and not by sight. It takes faith to follow and support our
pastor because we don’t know where the wind of Spirit has come from or where it is
going, but we are asked to follow a human being who is dependent on the Holy Spirit
for direction and success.
Even many of those who followed Jesus as His disciples didn’t have faith to
endure. “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken
to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe."
(John 6:63-64)
Read the verses that follow these words of Jesus in John
6:66-68. How did Peter respond to Jesus’ question? “From
this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer
followed Him. ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus
asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’”
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3. Humility: If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and
compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same
love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:1-3).
Choose the lowest place as a servant in God’s house. There is power in laying
down our lives for Him and others.
Write out and meditate on Matthew 10:39.” Whoever finds his
life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
A Covering for Our Pastors
In submission, faith, and humility, we lay down our own agendas and become
watchmen for our pastors and the ministries that they oversee.
1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be self-controlled and alert because our enemy, satan,
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. His main target will
be our leaders because of the influence they have. We want to “Devote yourselves to
prayer, being watchful and thankful” as we are told in Colossians 4:2.
Intercessors are the watchmen for our pastors and our
church. Read Isaiah 21:6-8 and explain the role of an
intercessor by drawing analogies from watchmen in a war.
“What the Lord says to me: ‘Go, post a lookout and have him
report what he sees. When he sees chariots with teams of
horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert,
fully alert.’ And the lookout shouted, ‘Day after day, my lord, I
stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post.’”
Our Great Commission
More than any other purpose for our church, we are called to be a Great
Commission church that reaches the lost and equips believers to do the work of
ministry.
2000 years ago when Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He gave
instructions to those who were watching. Today we call those instructions the Great
Commission.
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In Matthew 28:18-20 circle the action words from the
commands that Jesus gave the church. Then Jesus came
to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age."
Jesus was saying that after having given His life for ours and conquering the devil
and the power of sin, He now had the keys that gave Him all authority on the earth.
He then told His church, including us, that He is giving that authority to all of His
disciples.
Write out and meditate on John 14:12. “I tell you the truth,
anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He
will do even greater things than these, because I am going to
the Father.”
Jesus wanted our ministry to be even greater than His own ministry while He was
on earth. That’s why at the end of His time here, He willingly gave His authority to
human beings and said, “Go!” He wanted His disciples to change the world and
reach people everywhere. He desired that people all over the world come together in
local churches and be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. He wanted His disciples to teach others to observe what He had commanded
them – to pass it on so that new believers would go and do it themselves. Then
Jesus said if His disciples would find this mission and live it out, He would be with
them until the end of the age.
Church of the Highlands has as our mission those simple instructions from Jesus.
We have enjoyed His presence and life-giving anointing as we have purposefully
done what He commissioned us to do. We will to do everything it takes to stay on
mission. Why? Because we will continue to depend on His presence in our church!
In Colossians 1:28-29, we see the Great Commission stated in another way: “We
proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we
may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his
energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
As we enter the next season of Church of the Highlands, we intercessors will be
focused on the four elements of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20
and Colossians 1:28. We’ll be learning how to pray more effectively by studying
different prayer formats and topics that will enrich our prayer experience personally,
but we will study with this goal in mind: to successfully intercede with all kinds of
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prayers so that He is proclaimed to everyone! Our church doesn’t exist for us. It is
organized for one reason - to reach people at every level of spiritual growth.
In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we’re told that we are not our own, that we were bought
with a price. There is no glory in being an intercessor. No one, except God, will ever
know the time you spend in worship, on your face in tears, or off in a prayer closet.
From Matthew 6:5-6, fill in the blanks. "And when you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by
men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in
full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door
and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
As intercessors if we follow Jesus’ example, we most likely won’t win the approval
of the religious people because they didn’t approve of Him. In fact, they thought He
was an irreverent heretic. But by following in His steps, we will be used by Him to
bring revival and renewal to thousands. Pastor Chris has said, “I just want to make
sure that as we grow we never leave the simplicity of having a place where people
can breathe, where the gospel is positive and life-giving, a place where the lost will
say, ‘I don’t know if I believe what you believe, but you guys look happy.’ Why not
have a place that is vibrant, exciting, real, and fun - a place where we can really find
the Lord.”
In Prayer Force Training, the foundation and purpose of our study on prayer will
be to support Pastor Chris in the vision that God has given him for Church of the
Highlands. There are four words from Colossians 1:28 that outline this vision:
proclaim, admonish, teach, and perfect.
1. Proclaim – dynamic weekend services
In proclaiming the gospel message, the key is communicating the goodness and
kindness of God. Romans 2:4 tells us that it’s the kindness of God that leads us to
repentance. There is a time in each believer’s life when God’s kindness and love
covers over sin and He says, “Come to Me. I want to give you a fresh start. I love
you. I hold nothing against you – I forgive every one of your sins.” We pray for an
environment in our Sunday services where everyone who doesn’t have a personal
relationship with God through Jesus Christ will find His kindness and love in the
valley of decision and choose life.
Highlands should never become so seeker sensitive that we forget how to win the
lost. Because of the reality of heaven and hell, growth is not an option – our church
must grow. There are 6.6 billion people on earth, 2.1 professing Christianity and 4.5
billion lost people – lost, destined to an eternity without God unless we as
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intercessors and believers do something. When we hear statistics, sometimes it’s
difficult to get our minds around the numbers. To illustrate 4.5 billion people – the
number of the lost in the world – we would have to line up every person front to back
and circle the world 34.2 times! Nothing is closer to the heart of God than this.
If we want to do ministry like Jesus did, we need to pray for sinners to be around
us. People flocked to hear Jesus teach. Only the religious people were offended by
Him. As holy as He was – the lost enjoyed being in His presence. Pray that we
create an environment where the lost will come. God is more concerned about the
outsider than the insider; He is more concerned about the lost than the found.
As intercessors we don’t want to have misguided expectations of the weekend
service – we just want to pray that they come back, and then they will begin the
process of a lifetime of knowing God, serving Him, and loving Him.
In Ezekiel 47:1-12, God shows the prophet Ezekiel a river. It’s the river of life. In
that river everything has life – it is teaming with it. This river represents the Spirit of
God and intimacy with Him. The river flows during worship in our auditorium from
heaven, through our worship team, and out to the people with a life-giving anointing.
In the river of life, the lost are not condemned and every visitor feels welcome. One
first time visitor told Pastor Chris after a Sunday service, “Something was in that
place!” That something is what we live for – the presence of the living God.
At Highlands intercessors take positions around the auditorium and in prayer
rooms to connect in the spirit realm to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
2. Admonish – relational small groups
Then, we as the church must admonish new believers. This means we warn them
of sin and the need to change. This happens best in the safety of a few people. The
deep and confrontational part of Highlands where we learn to take up our cross and
get the junk cleaned up out of our lives happens most effectively in a small group
setting. It’s there that we get real and honest and get the accountability that we need.
Life Groups, in particular, are small groups designed to help people close the door on
yesterday. The vision of Highlands is that every member be connected in a small
group.
There are four aspects of a person’s life:



The Arena – I know, and you know. This is our public self, the part that
everyone sees.
The Mask – I know, but you don’t know. In small groups we take off our
masks and become real with each other.
Blind spots – I don’t know, but you know. When we develop deep
relationships with other believers, they help us remove the blinders so we
can see our lives in an eternal perspective and begin to change.
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
Potential – I don’t know, and you don’t know. This is where intercession for
each other is so important. We encourage each another with words from
God, hope, and vision for the future.
Read 2 Timothy 2:21-26.
Write out verse 25. “Those who
oppose Him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant
them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.”
Although we can’t be at each small group, we place a shield of intercession over
every group asking the Spirit of God to move in each meeting so that people all over
Birmingham will remove the masks, open their eyes to the blind spots, and move on
to reach their potential.
3. Teach – clearly defined Growth Track
Next, we teach everyone to go to higher heights. We do this through the Growth
Track, the Wednesday night Bible study, small group leaders’ training, missions trips,
the 24/7 internship program, and church planter training seminars. Our vision is that
all believers will make up their minds that they will grow. Highlands has a unique and
specific call to be a training center – a factory – to release many leaders, church
planters, worship pastors, and youth pastors. Pastor Chris has a vision to train up the
best and the brightest to do our part to fulfill the Great Commission.
Following is Hebrews 5:11-13. Write out verse 14. “We have
much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because
you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought
to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the
elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need
milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still
an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about
righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from
evil.”
Many Christians have disqualified themselves from great potential to teach and to
minister because of a list of qualifications that aren’t from God. If what most people
think is true about what makes one worthy to lead, God never would have used the
twelve disciples because they were uneducated. Moses never would have been
chosen because he was a murderer. David certainly wouldn’t have been chosen
because he was an adulterer. Paul was a slaughterer of Christians, but he became
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the greatest apostle. Paul said, “By this time you ought to be teachers.” Every day
we’re one day closer to Jesus’ return, and we have no time to waste. Pray for a
release of spiritual gifts, talents, and passion in leaders.
4. Perfect – a winning Dream Team
Finally, we all want to be presented perfect as it says in Colossians 1:28. This
word “perfect” means mature and complete in Christ. God’s ultimate goal for our lives
is that we would not be in the constant pursuit of His will, but to be actively involved in
His will.
Finish Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do.”
Pray that more will get on the Dream Team, go on missions trips, join one of the
church plants, join the prayer force, and live their lives to fulfill the Great Commission.
Throughout this study, pray for yourself that you find your place of ministry. The goal
of this study is for you to see yourself leading other intercessors and teaching them
how to pray.
God has brought an incredible team of servants to form the staff of our church.
Their job is to equip the saints for ministry so that the job of presenting everyone
perfect before the Lord is accomplished. We as Highlands intercessors will have
Pastor Chris, each of the other pastors, and the church staff always on our agenda
as targets for God’s blessing and favor. A list of the Church of the Highlands staff is
included in this chapter so that you can pray individually for them.
In celebrating what God has done in our church, we can never forget that we are a
Great Commission church. We do what we do for one primary reason: we want Him
to be with us even until the end of the age. We don’t want to ever see a Church of
the Highlands without the presence of God. But His presence is conditional – always
pray that we stay on point to proclaim, admonish, teach, and perfect.
8 Qualities of Our Growing Church
In addition to praying for the vision of our church, we want to pray for our church
to become more excellent in every way within each ministry. There are eight
qualities that have been identified in our church as having enabled us to become a
powerful and influential presence in our city. If our church is to continue to grow and
be healthy, we must possess these qualities. These are the intangibles that are the
heart of the vision. Each of the following qualities are prayer points for intercessors at
Highlands.
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1. Empowering Leadership
Empowering leadership will pave the way for turning vision into reality. Leaders of
life-giving churches do not try to build up their own power to become all powerful. It’s
exactly the opposite. They consider it as one of their most important tasks to help
Christians develop greater degrees of empowerment, which according to God’s plan
already belongs to them. So at Highlands we do the following:




Encourage free-market thinking. Creativity and passion is key!
Let leaders lead.
Allow them to challenge the process (not the vision).
Create an atmosphere of encouragement.
2. Gift-oriented ministry
God determines which Christian should have which ministry. At Highlands, we
want every believer to identify their gifts - more than 80% of Christians do not know
their spiritual gifts! No factor brings more joy than this one. The basis for this quality
is the conviction that God has already determined which Christian should best
assume which ministries in the church. The role of church leadership is to help its
members identify their gifts and integrate them into ministries that match their gifts.
So at Highlands we do the following:



Do away with the “volunteerism” mentality. Focus on passion!
Have a process where people can discover their gifts.
Make equipping people the main function of the staff of the church.
3. Passionate spirituality
The degree of passion in the church separates growing churches from other
churches. The ministry must stay life-giving. As far as healthy churches are
concerned, studies show that the important thing is not the way spirituality is
expressed, but the fact that faith is actually lived out with commitment, fire, and
enthusiasm. So at Highlands we do the following:



Focus on being a presence driven church. We are Spirit-filled on purpose
and we cultivate the anointing of God.
Create a culture of prayer and fasting.
Develop a life-giving prayer ministry. That’s the reason for Prayer Force
Training!
4. Functional structures
The structures should fulfill their purpose. Church structures are never an end in
themselves but always only a means to an end. The most important criterion for
forms and structures in the church is if they fulfill their purpose or not. Healthy
churches change (or lay to rest!) whatever does not measure up to this requirement.
So at Highlands we do the following:
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



Clarify a measurable “win”. We measure the effectiveness of the each
ministry.
We want to be easy, obvious, and strategic in everything.
We plan the ministry calendar around purpose.
Eliminate events that don’t serve the purpose.
5. Inspiring worship service
Our services aren’t based on a model. Pastor Chris wants every service to be
inspiring so that coming to church is the “get to” rather than “the have to.” So at
Highlands we do the following:



Laugh more. Humor a great form of communication
Create comfort by focusing on excellence.
Embrace a spirit of generosity.
6. Holistic small groups
Small groups provide the intimate community that Christians need. As we learned
before, the vision of our church is for all believers be admonished and have intensive
spiritual interaction. Small groups become the essence of the true life of the church
as they apply biblical insight to the everyday issues of the participants. So at
Highlands we do the following:
1. Broaden the ministry expressions to fit everyone’s need.
different.
2. Focus the groups around a common purpose.
 Evangelism – connecting the disconnected
 Pastoral Care – partnering with the staff
 Mentoring – relational discipleship
People are
7. Need-oriented evangelism
At Highlands we are not pushy or manipulative – we simply meet the needs of
non-Christians. Healthy churches share the gospel in a way that answers the
questions of non-Christians. Praying for the lost, giving to missions, and celebrating
changed lives creates a culture that makes “others” the reason we exist. Connecting
the disconnected becomes the passion of the church. So at Highlands we do the
following:



Keep the lost as the main focus of your attention.
Communicate your “Points of Passion.”
Understand why people don’t go to church. The sermons are boring,
churches always ask for money, childcare is not excellent, the music puts
them to sleep, there are too many hypocrites in church. Pray for Highlands
to continue to connect with the lost!
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8. Loving relationships
Growing churches have a higher “love quotient.”
Unfeigned, practical love
endows a church with a much greater magnetic power than all the marketing efforts
of this world! At Highlands we are in the people business. Our success, fulfillment,
and happiness depend upon our ability to relate effectively. So at Highlands we do
the following:



Pastors and leaders make themselves available to people.
Tell real life stories that people can relate to.
Model a relational lifestyle.
The purpose of this chapter has been to familiarize intercessors at Highlands with
the specific vision, purpose, and qualities of Church of the Highlands. As we journey
into each teaching on prayer, keep these ideas always on your mind. We are called
to this church at this time to be supportive of this particular ministry. Although
studying and practicing each area of prayer will be personally enriching, the goal is
that we become a unified Prayer Force trained for our part to fulfill the overall
purpose of our church.
Next we’ll focus on the most important gift at our church. Without it we would
have no influence, no love, and no life. In Chapter 2, we will study what the Bible
teaches about the presence of God. Moses said in Exodus 33:15, “If Your Presence
does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” God is calling us up to higher
heights in Him, but we can’t go there without Him.
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Prayer:
Holy Spirit, give us a fresh commitment and passion for winning souls.
May your kindness, Lord, lead us to repentance.
God, please continually remind us that Church of the Highlands
doesn’t exist for those already here, but for those who are not yet here.
Draw them by your Spirit. We cry out for souls in Birmingham! Bring in
the lost.
Father, I pray that Highlands continues to be “hassle free,” yet powerful
without being eccentric or mystical.
Lord, we pray for the river of life to flow in our services at Church of the
Highlands.
We pray that in our small groups the four aspects of each person’s life
will be revealed so that our hearts will be teachable, and we will grow.
We tear off all masks in the Spirit for every member in every small
group and proclaim that all shame is gone! We pray that blind spots
are revealed. We slam the door on yesterday and declare that people
are set free.
God, we so desire that our people know who they are in You, how You
want to use their gifts, talents and personality to lead others, and what
their specific purpose for being alive is. Show each person in our
church their unique purpose.
Lord, we as a church want to have more love, more power, and more
influence in the city of Birmingham. May we grow in our excellence in
every area.
We call forth the destiny of every believer in our church!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen
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Prayer assignment for Week One:
Familiarize yourself with the Church of the Highlands staff. Your small group
leader will give you a current list. Pray for each one of them. Ask God to give you
scriptures to pray for them, and write down anything He shows you.
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
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Section One
The Vertical
The next few lessons will give us instruction in
developing our personal prayer life and intimacy with
God – the vertical. Cultivating His presence and
anointing will transform us into intercessors who are
conduits of blessing to others.
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The Presence of God
Week Two
Do not send us up from here without it.
Pastor Chris has said, “History belongs to the intercessors.” We are an army that
works behind the scenes to intercede and battle for God’s will to be done in our
church, city, nation, and world. But unlike other armies, our main source of power is
not guns and missiles, but the presence of our Commander in Chief.
2 Chronicles 20:21: “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to
sing to the LORD and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out
at the head of the army, saying: "Give thanks to the LORD, for His love endures
forever."
The next verse says that as they began to sing and praise God, the Lord set
ambushes against their enemies. God showed up for them because they bowed
before Him and worshipped His name. Learning how to attract His presence will
ensure victory.
One of the fruits of the presence of God is ease. When His presence is
manifested there is no struggle, rather there is a flow of His grace and anointing.
Exodus 33:12-18: Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these
people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I
know you by name and you have found favor with me.' If you are pleased with me,
teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.
Remember that this nation is your people."
The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then
Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from
here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people
unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the
other people on the face of the earth?"
And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I
am pleased with you and I know you by name."
In Exodus 33:18, what did Moses say to God? “Then Moses
said, "Now show me your glory."
Our cry at Highlands is “Show me Your glory!” The word glory is the word
“kabowd” in Hebrew. It means weightiness or the full weight of God. It’s a tangible
presence that you can at times even feel in your physical senses. God wants to bring
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His glory into our lives so that we know He’s there – we won’t have to wonder about
it.
God desires to manifest His glory. Some believe that God only wants to show
His glory among the spiritually elite or only in certain geographical places or special
occasions in a seemingly random fashion. There is the belief that people have done
something to usher in His presence. The Bible says it is His desire that the
knowledge and glory of God cover the earth. That is already His plan. His plan isn’t
to pick pockets for revivals and to shock people randomly with manifestations of His
glory. He wants His glory every where!
The question isn’t so much, “How do we get it?” as it is, “What are we doing that’s
keeping it from happening?” Jesus said to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. One unique characteristics of heaven is that we’re in the presence of
God forever.
Read Isaiah 60:2. Where does God’s glory appear? “See,
darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the
LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you.”
Read 2 Corinthians 3:18. Who is in the process of being
glorified? “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory….”
1 Corinthians 2:4: My message and my preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
The Lord always desires that we have deeper levels of the manifestation of His
glory. It’s not just for special occasions. God didn’t just want to glorify Himself; 1
Corinthians 2:7 says that He wants to glorify us – that He has wisdom destined “for
our glory.” In other words, He wants His goodness, power, and wisdom manifested in
our lives.
True worship paves the way for His glory.
In the Bible where ever there was true Spirit worship, the manifest presence of
God came into that place.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14: The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one
voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals
and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He
is good; His love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a
cloud. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the
glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
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The word cloud is the word for the Shekinah glory of God. This was the visible
manifest presence of God in the form of a cloud or mist. The priests could not even
perform their service to the Lord – or even stand up – because of the weightiness of
His presence. Sometimes when people are confronted with the glory of God, they fall
under its heaviness.
God’s presence must be welcomed and respected. It has to be dear to us.
What could be more offensive to God than desiring to pour our His goodness on
people and they say, “I don’t know if I really want this.” That grieves Him.
Hosea 10:12: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and
break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes and
showers righteousness on you.
He says, “Sow for yourselves….” We might think that we can throw the ball in
God’s court and ask Him to move in our midst and visit us. Remember – it’s already
His plan and His desire. We are to sow for ourselves righteousness, and we’ll reap
the fruit of His unfailing love – His presence. He is throwing the seed at us, but often
it bounces off because of the hardness of our hearts. It’s up to us to prepare the way
for His presence.
One of our jobs as intercessors – the most important job – is to prepare the way
for His glory in our church. Because we are human and no more spiritual than those
we’re interceding for, it’s crucial that we pave the way for the thousands attending our
church by personally cultivating God’s presence in our own lives. The life of a true
intercessor is not marked by attendance at prayer meetings or the number of people
we have prayed for. Instead, the mark of an intercessor is the glory of God on us.
How do we cultivate His glory in our own lives? There isn’t a huge secret to it. It
all comes down to two things that God really wants: holiness and intimacy.
Holiness and intimacy are the two components of true worship. When we study
intercession and prayer, we will often encounter those two words. In every prayer
format or prayer outline there will be a call to first being set apart from the world and
then drawing near to God.
Holiness
Psalm 24:3-4: Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy
place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an
idol or swear by what is false.
When He sees us in our imperfection, He’s not excluding us from fellowship with
Him. He’s not saying, “You need to get your act together before you can come see
Me!” Remember, He already wants us in His presence. He just sees some things in
our lives that keep us from being able to come into His presence. He’s not angry with
us. He is delighted with us and wants us to come to Him. Sin is like mud that a child
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gets into – it covers us and keeps us from coming inside the house. So the question
becomes, how do we get holy?
Holiness doesn’t mean to be without sin and perfect. “Hagios,” holiness in the
Greek, means set apart. God wants His people to have a relationship with Him that is
set apart, a relationship that is like none other. We set our relationship apart to Him
as holy.
Write out and meditate on Hebrews 12:14. “Make every effort
to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no
one will see the Lord.”
Some of us wonder why we don’t experience God’s presence like others seem to.
We think He doesn’t speak to us. The problem is not with God. There are things in
our lives that quench and grieve Him, and all He wants us to do is separate ourselves
from those relationships and sins that keep us from being holy. He isn’t telling us we
need to get it all together at once.
Fill in the blanks for 2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be yoked
together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and
wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light
have with darkness?”
Using the analogy of the muddy child, what fellowship can mud have with the
living room carpet or kitchen floors or your bed?
Write out and meditate on 2 Corinthians 6:17. “’Therefore
come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘Touch no
unclean thing, and I will receive you.’"
The next verses give us a promise: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my
sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, dear
friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit,
perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (Corinthians 6:18 – 7:1)
What do we need to do to have a holy (set apart) relationship with God? There are
three instructions we find in the Scriptures.
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Pathway to Holiness
1. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
If you try to deal with your own mud, you won’t be able to completely clean
yourself. Moms know where to find dirt that children can’t find. It’s the same way
with the Holy Spirit. He can pinpoint areas of sin where we’ve been deceived or
blinded. We become desensitized by the immorality of our culture to things that
grieve God’s Spirit.
Write out a prayer for yourself from Psalm 139:23-24.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my
anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.”
2. Assess your life.
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Unhealthy friendships or activities. The Bible says have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness. (Ephesians 5:11)
Disobedience to parents. The burden for this assessment is actually more on
the parents than on the children. Are our homes places where there is the
expectation of submission to authority? This must be our standard because
without it homes are destroyed and we grieve the Holy Spirit.
Dishonesty. We need to be meticulously honest. Err on the side of
truthfulness for the sake of having His presence in your life.
Course joking or speech. We need to watch our words and what we listen to
and laugh at.
Allowing things in our homes that are demon inspired. This would include
movies and music created by people who are immoral and serve the devil.
Unforgiveness.
Pride.
3. Humble yourself.
In every place in the Bible where there is sin, God never says, “Go away and get
your act together.” The instruction is always to humble ourselves. It means call it
what it is. Don’t go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I have this problem…” Just go ahead
and call it sin. Instead pray, “Lord, I have grieved You. I’ve allow this thing in my
home and in my life and in my eyes. Lord, this isn’t just a problem - it’s sin, and it
separates me from You.” Have an honest talk with the Lord.
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From Luke 18:9-14, what do we learn about the attitude we
should we have as we approach God? "Two men went up to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee
stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other
men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast
twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a
distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said,
'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the
other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will
be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Pathway to intimacy with God
God is inviting us to the place where we meet with Him face to face. Worship is
the doorway to God’s presence. Everything flows out of your relationship with God.
Read 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 again: The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as
with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets,
cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and
sang: "He is good; His love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled
with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for
the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
The next verse, 6:1: “Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that He would dwell
in a dark cloud. I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell
forever.”
David was the architect of the temple. His life’s dream was to see a house built for
God. David’s son Solomon was the one to actually build the temple with the exact
instructions that God had given David. The final article that was brought into the new
temple was the Ark of the Covenant. The first thing the priest did was to thank the
Lord, worship Him, and sing praises to His name. God made His home there.
2 Chronicles 6:41-42: "Now arise, O LORD God, and come to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your might. May Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with
salvation, may Your saints rejoice in Your goodness. O LORD God, do not reject
Your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant."
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the
burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The
priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled
it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above
the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they
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worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; His love endures
forever."
Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. And King
Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and
twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the
temple of God.
Solomon no longer did just what was required. He took his sacrifice to the next
level – 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. He made an
exceptional sacrifice going way above and beyond because of his deep passion
and desire to be with God. God met with Solomon personally face to face and spoke
to him that night (2 Chronicles 7:11-22). No longer was it just a corporate anointing,
but now Solomon himself met with God.
Psalm 50:7-15: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify
against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt
offerings, which are ever before Me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of
goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a
thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are
Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it. Do
I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
What does the Lord require of us in Psalm 50:15? “Sacrifice
thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and
call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will
honor Me."
In this Psalm God is speaking prophetically through David. He told the people
that they were following His instructions. They were meeting the regulations. But
then God goes on to say He doesn’t need all those slaughtered animals because He
already owns them. The truth was that God didn’t ever really need all of those
sacrifices, even though that is what He had commanded them to do. What He really
wanted – the only thing He didn’t already have because He had given it up – was the
people themselves. What God desired was gratitude – an expression of their heart
for Him – and a fulfillment of their vows to Him. God wanted to come to a deeper
level of intimacy with His people, an uncommon closeness that would go beyond
just a contract or an arrangement. He wanted to be in a covenant love relationship
with them.
What is Intimacy?
1. Affection – There are so many people who want intimacy with God, but church
and religion have done them a disservice. God doesn’t want your form; He doesn’t
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want your “bulls and goats.” He simply wants you!
you love Me?”
The Spirit of God is asking, “Do
From Exodus 33:11, how did the Lord speak to Moses?
“The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man
speaks with his friend.”
Moses had a special relationship with God. He was the only one in the Old
Testament who would speak to God face to face as one friend speaks to another.
God is looking for a people who will say that church is not enough – even Church of
the Highlands. The secret to intimacy with God is affection, showing your deep love
for Him, and being who you are with Him.
From John 14:15, what is the natural result of loving God?
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
We think that verse says, “If you love Me, you’ll prove it to me by doing what I tell
you to do.” That’s not what this verse is saying! It says, “If you love Me, you’ll keep
My commands. They won’t be a burden for you.” If we fall in love with Jesus, the
Bible will be a lot easier than we think it is because everything will flow out of the love
relationship. David was the best at living in the flow of God’s love. While everyone
else was performing the rituals, David was off in a field worshipping God with his
whole heart. He declared that he wanted to be the apple of God’s eye. He had only
one desire.
From Psalm 27:4, what was David’s one desire? “…that I
may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to
gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in his
temple.”
David had true affection.
Testimony of Pastor Chris: “My little nephew, 3 years old, died of a horrible
disease and it messed me up. Three months went by and I was faithful to go pray.
I’ve learned through serving the Lord this long that you just do that whether it’s
working or not because it always comes back around. For three months God said
nothing to me. I got zero out of the Bible. It was as religious and rote as it could
possibly be, but I was there.
“One day in my basement where I pray, I got so mad at God. I expressed my
frustration with Him about what happened to little Will and why He was being silent
with me. I just really complained. I let it all out. At that time I had been in there about
an hour and suddenly I heard the pitter patter of Sara and Michael’s little feet. They
were so cute at that stage. The kitchen floor was right above my office, and when I
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heard it I thought about it and I said to God, ‘You want to know the truth? I’d rather be
holding those little kids than sitting here with You. God, they’re easy to love – You’re
hard.’ Then God spoke to me clearly, ‘It’s because you don’t treat Me like you treat
them.’
“That answer changed my life. From that day, I’ve never been religious with God.
When I see the Lord in the morning, I just say, “Hey. How was your night? How are
you doing?” My relationship with God has grown out of it.”
2. Control. “God, I give you my life. I commit myself to You and to no other.” For
intimacy ,we must give Him full control of our lives.
Read Ezekiel 47:1-12.
In a vision the prophet Ezekiel saw a river coming from under the temple, and the
Spirit of God led him down the stream, measuring as He went. At the point where the
river was ankle-deep, God told Ezekiel to go across. Next, the Spirit of God
measured off another distance and had Ezekiel go into the water where it was kneedeep. He stepped out into it. The current could be felt there, and Ezekiel got
somewhat wet, but he was still in control. Then he was led further out where the
water was waste-deep. Now he was really wet and fighting the current, but still in
control. Then God instructed him to go all the way into the middle of the river. At this
place the river took over. Ezekiel lost contact with the bottom and was swimming in
the river.
The river in this vision symbolizes the presence of God. The bottom, or the
ground, which includes the bank of the river, represents the world.
There are four levels of control in worship
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Ankle-deep—We can enjoy refreshing in God’s presence, but we are in full
command. We can splash and play, then choose to walk out of the river with
no lasting effects on our lives.
Knee-deep—The current of God, His manifest presence, can be felt, but we
maintain restraint. It’s still relatively easy to subdue the flow. In knee deep
water, we have a good view of those who’ve ventured out to deeper waters,
and we see that “in His presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11), but the
riverbank is still our security.
Waste-deep—Here the stream of His presence is strong. We’ve walked out
into the river into deep water, fighting the current and struggling to keep
contact with the bottom, or the world. Often the fear of man or the fear of
losing control will tempt us to go back to the river bank. It is at this place that
we make a crucial decision: “Who will be my master, me or the Spirit of
God?”
The middle of the river—This is where we are out of control! We give up
control to Him and sever the influence of the world. We let go of our own will
and desires. At this place we are going wherever He is!
The middle of the river – “deep enough to swim in” – is the only place that’s
teaming with life, where there is healing and where the glory of God is. The only
difference between the middle and the first three levels is that in the first three wee
can stay in contact with the ground and in the middle we lose control. Most of us
want God and religion on our own terms. We want to be wet, but not be out where
we can’t touch the bottom. At each level we resist when what God requires is that we
lose contact with the bottom and give Him control. In the middle we go where the
river goes. Trust Him. Stop dating God, say the vows and do them. Go for it, you will
not be disappointed – membership has its privileges.
3. Inclusion. He wants to be first on our minds. He wants to live life with us. He
wants to be there when we’re up and when we’re down. A friend wants to go with
you. Why would God say, “Call on Me in the day of trouble”? The only reason He
would make that request is that people weren’t calling on Him. Intimacy always says,
“Where you go, I go. I’ve got to be with you.”
Experiencing the glory of God requires only two things: holiness and intimacy.
God said He’s a jealous God. Draw near to God…wait on Him. Believe that He
wants to manifest Himself to you. Stand on that! As you experience His presence,
you’ll find that He wants to show up when you press in. Ask Him – He says we don’t
have because we don’t ask. Just because Pastor Chris gets up on stage doesn’t
mean God automatically shows up. We must ask and believe!
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Prayer
Father, we as a church don’t want to go anywhere or do anything
without Your presence. How else will we know if You are pleased with
us unless You go with us? What else will distinguish us from the
world?
God, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Heaven come to earth!
Father God, throw seeds of righteousness on my heart. I want to reap
the fruit of Your unfailing love! I commit to do whatever it takes for the
ground of my heart to be softened so the seed will be sown. Nothing is
more precious to me than Your presence.
God, I want to speak to You face to face as a man speaks to a friend. I
adore You! You’re my favorite person in the world.
I’m diving in the deep end, Jesus. Take control. I’m Yours!
God, let Your word grow in me like a seed producing a harvest that is
30-60-100fold. Satan, you will not steal seed of the word of God from
my heart. Lord, let me not just be a hearer of the word, but a doer
also. Let it begin now! Do the work of sanctification in my heart.
Without holiness I know I won’t see Your face. Teach me intimacy. I
want to love You. I want to see Your face. Show me Your glory!
In Jesus’ Name…
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The following discussion questions are only in the Leader’s Workbook:
 Have you experienced His presence? What did it feel like?
 How do you sense His presence in our services?
 What are the obstacles in your life to God’s glory….
 How do you believe intercessors invite the glory of God?
Encourage participants to spend time with prayer leaders in our church and learn
from them.
Prayer assignment for Week Two:
Assess yourself in the areas of holiness and intimacy. Ask the Holy Spirit to give
you wisdom and revelation into specific ways that you can make Him feel completely
welcome to dwell with you in intimate friendship. Journal your thoughts here.
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Capacity for His Presence
Week Three
Do you believe that you have all that God has to give you? Do you have a thirst
and appetite more? God is so vast that we will never have all that He has to give us,
but our God is a giver and He has so much more to give you! He wants you to have
His glory – the full weight of who He is.
However, we have a dilemma: if God dumped the full weight of who He is on a
human being, the person would either explode or he wouldn’t get it at all. The full
weight of a God who is so far beyond us cannot be contained in a human being. We
don’t have capacity for His glory. The frustration is this: God wants to give us spiritual
things that we can’t handle. So what do we do? Well, God came up with a solution:
the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-10.
God has secret wisdom to give us. There is knowledge and understanding of God
that we don’t have yet. He destined this secret wisdom for our glory – our glory. He
intended before the beginning of time that we would be able to receive His glory.
Fill in the blank from 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. “However, as it
is written:
‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind
has conceived what God has prepared for those who love
Him’ – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit
searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
God has things for you that your natural mind cannot embrace. We are triune
beings. We have a body and a soul, but there is a third part that no other creation
has: a spirit. Our spirit is the part that is made perfect when we are saved and is the
part that will spend eternity in heaven. It’s the part of us that is like God because He
is Spirit. This is how He made us in His image. Our spirit, because it is like God, has
all the capacity we need to receive the glory of God, the full weight of who He is.
The problem is that the spirit man in us is influenced by the natural parts of our
being - the soul and the body. We crave things, think things, and do things that are
outside of God. We have a war going on all the time between our natural man and
our spirit man. God made a way for His glory to get to our spirit and bypass our
natural man. If our natural mind could understand God’s solution for us to receive
His glory, we would reject it. We’d try to explain it away. God created a code
language between His Spirit and our spirit. It is the single greatest gift that you can
receive outside of salvation. It comes through the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Peter walked with Jesus for three years and performed miracles – even briefly
walked on water – but although he considered Jesus His best friend, he denied
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Jesus in His darkest hour to a young girl. (Matthew 26:69-71) Three years with Jesus
really had done very little for Peter because although he had been with the Lord, he
was still operating as a natural man. Peter needed power to overcome fear,
persecution, and insecurity. He needed strength in his spirit that would go beyond
even the ability to perform miracles.
Receiving the Holy Spirit and the Baptism in
the Holy Spirit
John 20:19: On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were
together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, "Peace be with you!"
This was in the time period after the resurrection, but before the ascension. Jesus
had lived His life, was killed, buried, resurrected three days later, and then spent 40
days on the earth after His resurrection.
John 20:20-22: After he said this, He showed them His hands and side. The
disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with
you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that He breathed on
them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus told them to “receive” the Holy Spirit. The Bible says He breathed on them.
This word breathe has the same meaning as the word used when the Bible says God
breathed life into Adam. Also, it’s the same meaning as the word used in Ezekiel 37,
when God put breath into the dry bones and made them come alive. When Jesus
breathed on His disciples and they received the Holy Spirit, He was giving them life –
at that moment the disciples were saved. Their sins had been paid for. The disciples
were the first ones to receive the new covenant. Before that, the only way for sins to
be forgiven was for the blood of animals to be shed as a sacrifice to make atonement
for sin. Jesus came as the final blood sacrifice. Because He had died and been
resurrected, people could now be born again under the new covenant. When a
person becomes a Christian, his sins are forgiven, God breathes on him, and the
person receives the Holy Spirit. Every person who is saved receives the Holy
Spirit.
After His resurrection and 40 days of appearances, Jesus was ascended into
heaven to return again one day at the end of this age. Ten days after He ascended,
the day of Pentecost occurred.
Acts 1:1-5: In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do
and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions
through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed
himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He
appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
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On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do
not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard
me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized
with the Holy Spirit."
Notice in verse 5 that Jesus told them that they would be baptized in the Holy
Spirit in a few days – future tense. The word He used, “baptized,” is a different word
than the word translated “receive” in John 20:22. To be baptized means to be fully
submerged in something. The difference between receiving the Holy Spirit at the
time of salvation and being baptized in the Spirit could be illustrated by filling a glass
with water or putting the glass in a swimming pool.
Fill in the blank from Acts 1:8. “But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth."
Jesus didn’t want the believers to do anything until they had received power. He
told them to wait until they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Then they would be His
witnesses throughout the earth. God desires to take Christians – believers who are
already going to heaven – and offer His power so that they can live a supernatural
life.
Most of the time when a person receives the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he
receives a heavenly prayer language, also called tongues, with the purpose of being
able to communicate by the spirit with God and bypass the soul man.
Finish Acts 2:4: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled
them.”
All of the new believers at Pentecost spoke in tongues. Tongues are either the
ability to communicate in a known human language that is unknown to you, or a
spiritual language that no one but God understands. If you pursue the baptism in
the Holy Spirit with the evidence of praying in tongues, your brain will challenge it
because your mind can’t understand it. Your mind might say things like, “You’re
making that up.” Or, “That’s of the devil.” But unless we want to be weak like Peter
was when a little girl asked him if he knew Jesus, we will have to reject those carnal
thoughts.
One event gave Peter the power to stand up and preach to thousands about
Jesus and to stand before men who beat him and imprisoned him because of it! That
event was the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Peter had the glory of God.
God has plans for us that will not be possible unless we reflect more of His glory.
Ask God for more of the Holy Spirit, more of His fruit, more of His love, more of His
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power, more of His gifts. Don’t be satisfied with the level of joy you now have. Ask
for more peace and kindness. Desire to reflect His goodness. Ask Him to pour out all
of the gifts – more prophecy, more tongues, more interpretation of tongues. The Bible
says to covet the gifts of the Spirit. Ask for more faith, the gift of miracles, words of
knowledge, and the discerning of spirits. You can find the lists of spiritual gifts in
Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, and Ephesians 4:11.
Ask for the seven attributes of the Spirit of God as listed in Isaiah 11:2: the spirit
of the LORD, the spirit of the fear of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and counsel, the
spirit of might and knowledge and understanding. We need a fresh baptism in the
Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts we have the record of the first time the Holy Spirit was
poured out on the new church, but the Bible also teaches that there are many
subsequent fillings of the Spirit. The early believers were constantly being filled and
refilled. “…ever be filled and stimulated with the [Holy] Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18,
Amplified)
The Holy Spirit should be the Lord of your prayer life. The Bible tells us to “pray in
the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit wants to come and partner with you in your prayer
experience. Sometimes we need to put the prayer models and lists away and simply
allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us. There is certainly a place for the patterns
and outlines, but there us a time for the Holy Spirit to partner with us with Spirit-filled
prayer.
Testimony of Pastor Chris: “When I got saved, I was gloriously saved. For a few
months I became the most radical Christian I knew. I won many people to Christ
those first few months. I was so on fire for God. I did prayer meetings around the
flag at school. I was witnessing boldly to people I had been intimidated by. Almost
all of my friends got saved during that time. But I realized more than ever before,
because of my deep love for God, how much of Him I did not have.
“My appetite and hunger for the power I saw in other people’s lives grew. I would
think, ‘I want that!’ Growing up I wasn’t exposed much to miracles, signs and
wonders, and people who walked in the Holy Spirit. When I began to get exposed to
the power of God, I was starving for it. I was never a skeptic even though I was
raised in a church that didn’t believe in miracles. I was raised in a church that taught
that miracles happened in the Bible, but not today. After I was saved as a teenager, I
never even thought about that teaching again. I knew I wanted to have God’s power.
I could see the fruit of it. I could see the evidence of it, and I was starved for it. I had
been in church since I was born – I was full of the word and could quote scriptures,
but I never saw the verses in the Bible that are everywhere about the gifts of the
Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s role in my life! I had never seen the verses on the baptism
in the Holy Spirit. I read the Bible with fresh eyes and I was fired up. I became
immediately convinced that I wanted it.
“I have to say, though, that there was a part the ‘spirit-filled’ world that I was
turned off by. I didn’t like anything that looked man-made. I could have read it wrong,
but some of it looked artificial and excessively emotional. I wanted the experience
described in the Bible. All my life since then, I have been open to the fullness of the
Spirit of God while at the same time truly honoring God and not glorifying man.
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“With that being said, I want to tell you what is the most significant part of my
Christian life – outside of salvation – and that is Spirit-filled prayer. About three
months after I was saved, I started learning about this second experience described
in the Bible. I asked the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit. At first because of my
background and headiness, nothing really seemed to happen. I knew that I was the
problem, and I came to a place where I was so hungry and desperate for God! Soon
after, I was at a small group and we were discussing the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I
knew my brain had reached its capacity. The hard drive was full, and I had all I could
get in my natural man. I asked the people in the group to pray for me. I told them that
I was struggling with it, but I really wanted it. I got down on my knees and the people
laid hands on me and explained it to me. That night I received the baptism in the Holy
Spirit and my prayer language. This was in March of 1979, during my sophomore
year in high school. Every day I pray in the Spirit – every day of my life. Every day
that is a meaningful time for me.”
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit and prayer
I Corinthians 14:1-2: Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts,
especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to
men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.
God has a realm that is a mystery to us. Most of what God wants to give us our
brains cannot contain. He wants to take us to a realm that is above the natural.
Desire all the spiritual gifts including tongues and prophesy.
I Corinthians 14:5: I would like every one of you to speak in tongues…
I Corinthians 14:39: Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid
speaking in tongues.
Benefits of Spirit-filled prayer
1. It will allow you to tap into His power.
Praying in the Spirit (in tongues) is a way for your spirit and God’s Spirit to
communicate through a private language that bypasses our minds. God made it
intentionally strange so that we would not be able to figure it out and decode it. God
teaches us how to pray with our minds in our understanding, but there is a level of
prayer that is above the level of our brains. Praying in the Spirit enables us to tap
into God’s supernatural (beyond natural) power.
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In 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Paul said his preaching was not with
wise and persuasive words. What did he say characterized
his preaching? “A demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that
your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”
God wants our Christian experience – including our prayer life - to go above the
intellectual level. Spirit-filled prayer develops faith and confidence in us as we tap
into God’s power.
2. It will help you in your weakness.
There are moments when you feel hopeless and desperate, even speechless.
In Romans 8:26 Paul says that the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. When we do not know what we ought to pray
for, how does He help us? “The Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express.”
In Romans 7 Paul describes how he tries to live like he desires to live, but he ends
up doing the opposite. Then he begins Romans 8 by telling us that there is no
condemnation for believers because the law of sin and death has been defeated. In
Romans 8, Paul instructs us on how to live the Spirit-driven life. In verse 26, he gives
us the great news that the Holy Spirit is here to help us. When we don’t know what to
pray for, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us. The word in the Greek for intercede
here literally means He will grab the other end of the rope with you.
Romans 8:27: And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
The Holy Spirit prays through us with groans that cannot be expressed with our
natural words. When we pray the best that we know how, and then He steps in and
“puts His hand on the rope,” your prayers become perfect prayers. Every one of us
needs Holy Spirit assisted prayer.
3. It will strengthen your inner man.
The more we pray in the Spirit, the stronger we will become spiritually. It’s like a
spiritual work-out.
Write out Jude 20. “ … build yourselves up in your most holy
faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”
I Corinthians 14:4: He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…
When you’re
drained and empty and spent, you are built up through praying in the Spirit.
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4. It will free you to worship.
Acts 2:11: “Both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans, and Arabs—we hear
them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" The people heard them in
their own languages praising God and declaring His wonderful works.
Fill in the blanks from 1 Corinthians 14:15: “So what shall I
do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my
mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my
mind.”
5. It will assist you in spiritual warfare.
This is a very critical reason to pray Holy Spirit assisted prayer. The devil desires
to sift us like wheat and to destroy us. Sometimes the battle against the devil’s
power seems overwhelming.
Ephesians 6:11: Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand
against the devil's schemes.
From Ephesians 6:18, what is the final element of our
spiritual armor? “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all
kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and
always keep on praying for all the saints.”
The Holy Spirit partners with us as we pray in the Spirit to give us strength to
overcome the enemy.
Receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit
Luke 11:13: If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask Him!"
If you are starving for the Holy Spirit and desire to be immersed in His love and
power, just ask God for it! He will not deny anyone who comes to Him believing that
He is a good Father.
To receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you can have someone lays hands on
you and pray for you, or you can be all by yourself and just ask God. If you’re hungry
for His Spirit and the full weight of His glory, seek Him with your whole heart. Come
before Him with humility laying all piety and religion aside.
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From Jeremiah 29:13, what condition does God put on
finding Him? “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek
Me with all your heart.”
Come before Him with a pure heart. John the Baptist said that Jesus would
baptize us in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). There were tongues of fire on
the Christians when the Holy Spirit fell on them at Pentecost. Fire is a symbol of
refining. God want to do a refining work in us. Ask Him to purify you.
As you come hungry, humble, and pure, be sure that you are in a receiving mode.
The Spirit and the Bride say COME! God is looking for the thirsty to come and get the
free gift of the water of life.
Just start praising Him. He will give you a heavenly prayer language. He will
meet you as you open your mouth and give all control to Him. You do the speaking;
He will give you the language. It won’t come from your mind.
Finish John 7:38: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
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Prayer
God, I want Your glory, the full weight of who You are.
Holy Spirit, I desire more love, more power, more grace. When others
see me, I want to reflect your beauty. I covet Your gifts - all of them.
Jesus, You said that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask Him. Father, I ask you now, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to fill
me with the Holy Spirit.
Father, I ask that I could experience Your presence and Your power as
I never have before. Help me to win over my natural mind. I lay down
every barrier – unforgiveness and pride and sin. I want to be innocent
and take You at Your word. I trust You! I want everything You have
for me. I receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit now, in Jesus name. It’s
mine!
Immerse me in wisdom and counsel and might. I desire knowledge and
understanding beyond my limited mind. I want a fresh baptism in You. I
step into the fullness and power that are available to me.
I confess that I am a Spirit-filled Christian. I yield my voice and tongue
to you and expect to pray in the Spirit as You enable me.
Praise the Lord! Amen
Leaders Only:
At the end of meeting, pray for people to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Lay
hands on them. If you are uncomfortable with this, bring them to the Saturday
morning prayer meeting and ask Mark Hand or another pastor/ leader to join with you
in praying for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for your participants.
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Prayer Assignment for Week Three
If you desire to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, have a leader pray for you.
Wait on the Lord and eagerly desire spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul tells the
church, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues.” (Verse 5) He also told
them, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” (Verse 18) If you
pray in tongues, pray often this week in your prayer language. Make notes on how
praying in the Spirit has benefited you in any of the five areas discussed in this
section: tapping into His power, helping you in your weakness, strengthening your
inner man, freeing you to worship, and assisting you in spiritual warfare.
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Worship
Week Four
Worship
Psalm 27:4: One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the
house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and
to seek Him in His temple.
There is a song we sing at Highlands that goes like this, “Here I am to worship,
here I am to bow down…” Have you ever thought, “Well, here I am to worship and
pray – I’ve got my prayer outlines and guides – but how do I really do this?”
There are two main aspects of worship. One is our love and adoration of Him –
the inward; the other is our expression of love through submission – the outward.
Although we think of songs and words and other expressions as worship, worship
can never be separated from obedience and submission. In fact, the first time the
word “worship” is used in the Bible is in the context of Abraham’s obedience in
putting Isaac on the alter. But for this chapter, we want to focus on the first aspect:
learning what it is and how to worship God from the inside out. The outward will
reflect the inward. Jesus said “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.” (John
14:15) He also said, “My commandments are not burdensome.” (I John 5:3) When
we love Him from the inside out, there will be the fruit of obedience.
An inward craving
Every one of us was created with an inward craving. The Bible says that all
creation groans (Romans 8:22). Even the lost people in this world - those who are
drunk in bars, committing adultery, murderers, those who are full of anger, bitterness,
and hatred – have an inward intense craving to connect with God. That was God’s
desire from the very beginning. Jesus, our example, paved the way to worship in
spirit and in truth (John 4:23).
Matthew 11:29: Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.”
He also prayed in John 17:21, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in
Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us.” Our Father God desires that we
be one with Him, just as Jesus is one with Him.
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Read the following verses and learn from Jesus about His
connection with His Father. Write down a key phrase from
each that shows us how Jesus models unity with the
Father.
John 5:19: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
Himself; He can do only what he sees his Father doing,
because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 5:30: “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear,
and My judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him
who sent Me.”
John 12:49: “For I did not speak of My own accord, but the
Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say and how to
say it.”
John 14:10: “Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that
the Father is in Me? The words I say to You are not just My
own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His
work.”
1 Peter 2:21: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered
for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His
steps.”
Two Hindrances to Communion with God: our
flesh and our “place mentality”
1. Our natural man
God is a Spirit; He’s not a theology teacher, and He wants to connect with us in
spirit. He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Look up and write out I Corinthians 6:17: “But he who unites
himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.”
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Our minds cannot connect with God; only our regenerated spirit man can. Union
with God’s Spirit is the missing link in the life of every carnal and earthly minded
person. To satisfy the latent hunger for union with our Creator, there are steps we
must take that are unnatural for us. One reason for this is that our natural man is
constantly battling our spirit man.
Our natural man, also called our soul, is comprised of our mind, our will, and our
emotions. Our natural man demands to understand God. Many Christians believe
that simply reading the Bible and studying it will satisfy their desire for relationship
with God. It is true that we are to worship in spirit and in truth, but reading the Bible
by itself without experiencing Him is not enough. You can get insight, but there is a
communion with the Lord that He desperately wants that can only be achieved when
there is a mixing of the spirit and the word. In worship, the Lord prompts us with
scripture; He uses His word to speak deep things to us.
Look up and read 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3. List everything
that profits us nothing if we don’t have love. “If I speak in the
tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith
that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I
possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have
not love, I gain nothing.”
You can have power, preach, do miracles, and have all the Bible knowledge that a
human can possess – BUT the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – a love relationship with
Him - is another dimension we must have before we can truly represent Jesus here
on earth. A wonder of God is that as we see Him we become more like Him. Our
spirit man starts to swell and grow and burn. The Refiner’s fire purifies our soul, and
we begin to be transformed into His likeness.
Malachi 3:2 – But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when
He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
2 Corinthians 3:18 – And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the
Lord, who is the Spirit.
Read John 1:1-4.
John tells us that Jesus is the Word and that He’s our source of life. Later in the
book of John we’re actually told to eat Jesus’ flesh. This makes sense in the spirit if
we see Him as our source, our food, our sustenance. We are the temple of the Holy
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Spirit. When the Holy Spirit pours out on us, we receive more of Him. The more of
God inside of you, the more of your soul and spirit that is occupied with Him, then the
more attraction and union there is.
John 6:35-40, 50-51: Then Jesus declared, "I am the Bread of Life. He who comes
to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I
told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me
will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come
down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is
the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that Me has given me, but
raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the
Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
“But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and
not die. I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world."
We’re to consume Him, and then He will consume us! He’s a consuming fire.
Deuteronomy 4:24 - For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
He’s jealous for us! When we’re anointed with God’s presence and glory, there is
an attraction. He is attracted to us, and we’re attracted to Him. The carnal man –
bored, tapping his toe while others are experiencing the river of life – has nothing for
the Holy Spirit to attach Himself to. While another person has hands raised,
weeping, he is looking at his watch. God wants to occupy this man! The Lord wants
bodies to occupy. The more the Lord occupies, the more presence and the more
revelation He can pour out. The devil occupies Hollywood, drug dealers, corrupt
politicians, and evil rulers around the world. The Lord wants an army of billions – an
army of bodies that choose Him feely.
2. The “Place Mentality” - an incomplete perspective
Another possible reason for the difficulty we have in connecting with God’s Spirit
is that most of us have a mindset that heaven is a place where God is, and we are
here on earth. Our “place mentality” is three dimensional and limited to our
understanding. We are to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
(Matthew 6:10) What is His will; what’s going on in heaven right now? The Bible says
Heaven is a pure celebration of Him.
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From Revelation 4:10-11, what are the Elder’s (faithful
overcomers) doing? How often do they do it? What are they
saying? “The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the
throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns
before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive
glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they
were created and have their being.’"
The elders never grow tired of worshipping Him. How can we experience heaven
on earth? If the elders are worshipping 24/7, aren’t we to do that? If God wants the
same thing happening here as in heaven, doesn’t He want us to be near Him at His
throne looking at His beauty and splendor and experiencing communion with Him?
The Garden and Heaven – a complete
perspective
Two ways to break from our natural, tangible, visible, 3-dimensional perception is to
look into the experience of the only humans (besides Jesus) who had complete union
with God – Adam and Eve, and secondly, to begin to see heaven as more than a
place.
The Garden Experience
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had 24-hour God-consciousness. God
was with them all the time. Adam and Eve didn’t go in and out of the presence of
God – they were always in it. They would not have known what we experience when
we cry out, “Oh, I can’t get a breakthrough! I need to get back into the presence of
God.” They were always in His presence. They had complete union and oneness
with God’s presence. The atmosphere of the Garden was the presence of God. The
air they breathed was His glory. The Holy Spirit hovered there.
Adam and Eve ate freely from the Tree of Life. What does it mean to eat freely
from it? The Tree of Life is experiential knowledge. It is revelation. It is to experience
the life of God. As hungry as they were for God, they could freely eat from the Tree of
Life and taste and see that the Lord is good. God told them, “Have as much as you
want of who I am.” In this fruit He gave the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him. They experienced His presence through the fruit of the Tree of
Life.
We think of the Garden of Eden as a place – a paradise. We think that if we could
physically go there, we could have the experience that Adam and Eve had – the
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fellowship and communion they had with God. What must that have been like?!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to eat freely from the Tree of Life!
But the Garden of Eden was more than just a place – it was an experience. And
God tells us that we can also eat from the Tree of Life and have experiential
knowledge of Him (Revelation 22:14).
Heaven
We also think of Heaven as just a place. We say things like, “I can’t wait to get to
Heaven,” and “Oh, to be absent from my body and present with the Lord,” or “One
day God has a mansion prepared for me in Heaven, and we often proclaim, “In
Heaven there’ll be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more bills, no more problems.”
We have the mentality that the Garden of Eden and Heaven are simply places.
Both are places, but because we have the “place mentality”, we don’t experience
what God has for us now.
When Jesus talked about the “kingdom of Heaven,” often He was not referring to
the place that we’re going one day in the future.
Read the following verses and underline where the
Kingdom of Heaven is:
Matthew 4:17: From that time on Jesus began to preach,
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."
Luke 17:21: “Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’
because the kingdom of God is within you.”
If we have the “place” mentality, we can’t lay hold of the experience of the Holy
Spirit and have intimacy with God. God wants to awaken God-consciousness in our
spirit. Jesus shed his blood for the remission of our sins, and through his death and
resurrection God opened the veil that gives us access to experience as much of God
as we want to.
From Hebrews 10:19-22, what can we do in unqualified
assurance and in absolute trust? “ …we have confidence to enter
the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened
for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest
over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty
conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
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God says He has opened up a way for us to come and eat freely of the Tree of
Life. Freely – as much as you want of Him. As hungry as we are, we can eat of His
glory, presence, and power. We can walk in the manifestation of 24-hour Godconsciousness.
Out of the Garden
In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve were taken out of the Garden (the place), but they
were also taken out of a degree of the glory and intimacy of God that they had
enjoyed. When He took them out, the first thing He did was place angels at the
entrance so they couldn’t get back in and have access to the Tree of Life. He took
away His manifest presence. But complete relationship with Him was not cut off. In
Gen. 4:26, it says that “men called on the name of the Lord.” Enoch walked with God
and then was no more (Gen. 5:24). There was a degree of God’s presence even
though God had taken away the Tree of Life. Back then, Jesus had not come to
make a way for them to come boldly before the throne of grace and mercy, into the
Holy of Holies. But through His mercy, God had relationship with His people outside
of the Garden.
In the church today, many have an “out of the Garden” experience. W e do not
relate to God on the level that He’s made available. We settle for the life we have –
for whatever level we think God wants us to have, and we don’t stir ourselves to
reach for higher levels.
But we can have a Garden of Eden/ kingdom of Heaven experience! Jesus
demonstrated the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is within you and you
have the ability to tap into every spiritual blessing with Christ in heavenly places
(Eph. 1:3). We have the potential to understand our inheritance – the limitless
anointing purchased by Jesus. The blood of the Lamb has made a way for us to be
restored to what Adam and Eve had in the Garden.
An open heaven
Many have seen by the Spirit an open heaven over Church of the Highlands. The
open heaven comes from the ministry of Holy Spirit who manifests Himself in
response to our worship. He is a gentleman and only comes when invited. When
welcomed, He will flow though our meetings and our souls and fill the place with His
glory. No evil can stand in His presence. In fact, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is
more powerful than direct confrontation with the devil. It is an act of warfare to make
a deep connection with the Lord. It is more powerful than taking authority over
demons – demons bow their knee to someone who has been with God. Worship
cleanses us and puts us in a place where the devil has nothing on us.
John 14:30 – “… the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”
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God is enthroned by our praises far above every ruler and authority that satan can
send our way (Psalm 22:3). Our high praises are like a sword against the enemy
(Psalm 149:6-6).
The River of Life flows at our church because of the worship of intercessors like
you. Press in for more love and deeper revelation. God cannot be fooled by a fake
relationship. He is omnipotent, and He is looking for honesty and humility and the
fear of the Lord. As worshippers we bow our knee to Him, and He reveals the truth
that He is Lord. We fall in love with Him and ask Him, “Lord, What can I do for You?!”
If you love Him, you’ll obey His commandments.
Some practical ideas
So how do we get there? How to we lose ourselves in worship? Use anything that
will put your total focus on Him – reading the Bible, listening to sermons on CD, and
filling the atmosphere with anointed music. Cultivate a desire to see Him more
clearly.
We have many opportunities for corporate worship at Church of the Highlands.
Prayer and worship are the foundation of our church. In our meetings God is drawn
and we come face to face with Him. The word builds our faith and the anointed
music touches our soul and gets us in alignment with God. But the flow of the Spirit
of God in our meetings will be the cumulative affect of the depth of the individual
connection with God that we each have. Therefore, get alone with Him - not just to
pray through your outlines, but to see Him face to face. Find a quiet place to meet
with Him. Many worshippers like the car as a meeting place with God because they
can sing or scream or cry, and no one else will hear!
Acquire a collection of songs that stir your spirit. What songs do you love to sing
at church? Has God ever given you a song in the morning when you wake up?
There are songs that build our faith. Songs that we sang as children – perhaps
hymns filled with rich lyrics. If you hear a song that touches you, ask about it. Begin
to compile a list. The Lord has an incredible array of music available to us. There is a
door in the spirit through music tailor-made for each of us.
The list of songs that stir us may evolve over time. There are stages of higher and
higher revelation that we acquire through worship. At first we may love songs of
praise, joy, and dancing because of the great salvation God has given us. Then we
may move to songs that cut through our soul and cleanse us. We weep and ask God
to cleanse us. He is so pure and we become so aware of Him and our own
weakness. Then we may go back to the songs of joy because of our thankfulness.
We’ll have seasons of awe and wonder where we crave songs of deep intimacy. We
become broken and willing to even be martyrs because He has taken us over. We
cry out, “More of Him, less of me.” That’s God’s ultimate goal.
In our technological world there are many ways to get music to our ears. CD
players, computers, and MP3 players (such as the Ipod) are wonderful tools for
worship. Be willing to make worship through music a priority. It will have a financial
cost, but it will be worth it.
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One way to buy songs without having to purchase a whole CD is to use I-tunes
which is accessed through the internet. Songs can be downloaded for $0.99 a piece
and put on your own CD or MP3 player. If you’ve never done this, don’t be
overwhelmed! It really isn’t difficult and others can help you.
Your small group leader will provide a current list of songs that we presently sing
at Highlands. It’s not an exhaustive list and new songs are being added constantly.
Choose some that you love and worship!
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Prayer Assignment for Week Four
Spend time resting in God’s presence this week. Compile a list of songs that
assist you in connecting with Him. If you already have music you love, add some new
songs.
You may want to join other worshippers at a corporate prayer meeting. Two
choices at Highlands are Saturday, 9:00-10:00 am, and Wednesday, 5:30-7:00 am.
Both meetings are led by Mark Hand, prayer Coordinator of Church of the Highlands.
Focus on the Lord and cultivate 24-hour God-consciousness. Journal your
conversations with God.
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The Lord’s Prayer
Week Five
One of the goals of the Prayer Force Training is to give you as an intercessor
tools that will help enrich your personal prayer life. We’ll talk about corporate prayer
and the power of agreement in prayer for the salvation of the lost and the needs of
others in later lessons. But for the next two lessons we’ll look at two prayer models
that are designed to enable us to pray thoroughly in our private time with the Lord
and grow our friendship with the Lord as we invest extended periods of time with
Him.
We’ll begin with the Lord’s Prayer model.
Luke 11:1: One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of
His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
Most of the disciples were not strangers to prayer. Anyone who was a Hebrew
was very familiar with prayer. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray
not because they had never prayed before, but because He was praying in a way
they had never seen. He wasn’t just saying words - He was actually talking to God.
They wanted Him to teach them how to connect with God. Then Jesus gave them the
Lord’s prayer. Luke’s version of this prayer is recorded in Luke 11:2-4.The Lord’s
Prayer is also found in Matthew 6:9-13.
Just before Jesus gave the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, He gave them some other
instructions on how to pray.
Matthew 6:5-6: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell
you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your
room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
That was particularly applicable to His disciples in that day because almost all the
prayer of their day was public prayer.
Matthew 6:7-8: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they
think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
They thought that the longer they prayed, the more holy and righteous they would
be. Jesus wanted to teach them that it wasn’t the length of the prayer or the form of
the prayer, but the connection they would make with the Father that is the goal in
prayer. Recited prayer is dangerous if there is no connection between your heart and
God’s heart.
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Jesus is our example in everything and as we study how He prayed, we’ll find four
aspects of His prayer life that we can follow.
Four aspects of Jesus’ prayer life:
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Jesus prayed regularly. Luke 5:16: Jesus often withdrew to lonely places
and prayed.
If you want to enhance your prayer life, you need to set a specific time to pray.
Anything that is a priority needs an appointment. If you don’t purposefully arrange to
meet with God, time will pass and your relationship will fall short. He’s always there
and we know it, so we use that as a crutch. We think, “I can talk to Him any time.”
But there are times that we need to give Him our full attention.
What were the instructions on prayer in 1 Chronicles
23:30? “They were also to stand every morning to thank and
praise the LORD. They were to do the same in the evening.”
A good principle to use in prayer is the principle of tithing: give God the first of
your day. Make sure you give Him a portion of the day to establish what is important
to you.

Jesus prayed privately. Matthew 14:23: After He had dismissed them, He
went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was
there alone.
The key to private prayer is intimacy. We want a special atmosphere where we
can spend time with the Lord. In Luke 11:1 it says that Jesus went to a “certain place”
to pray.
When we have prayer meetings at Church of the Highlands, the music is turned
up so that we have the energy of corporate prayer, but people can still pray out loud
in privacy. We need to get away from distractions so we can focus on Him.

Jesus prayed sincerely. John 17 is a beautiful prayer that Jesus prayed for
us. Stop and read it. As you read notice how much He loves us and wants us
to be connected with the Father like He is.
Be careful of using formulas. In order to do keep from being too methodical, we
need to use variety. Some of us pray differently than we talk because that’s what has
been modeled for us. We don’t want prayer to become too predictable or mundane.
Some days we may just want to center on the word and confess it. Other times we
may just spend our whole prayer time in worship. Then there are times for intense
warfare.
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Look up and write out Ephesians 6:10. “Pray in the Spirit on
all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Whatever we do, we don’t want to babble redundantly using meaningless
repetition just so men will be impressed. God just wants your heart!

Jesus prayed specifically. Luke 22:31-32. "Simon, Simon, Satan has
asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
Do we even know what to say when we pray? Most of us have used the Lord’s
prayer as a general prayer that we have repeated by memory. Many have thought
erroneously that the Lord’s Prayer is simply a prayer to pray. Instead it is an outline
that shows us how to pray. We can take the phrases in the Lord’s Prayer as the
components or headlines of how to pray.
Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this prayer.” He said, “After this manner pray…” The
Hebrew teachers would teach topically. When they would teach, they would instruct
the students in outlines rather than give them every detail. Jesus as a Rabbi
intended for us to use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline. We can use the components if
His prayer to develop our prayer life.
Six steps to praying like Jesus
1. Worship the Father. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Turn your
attention immediately to God and not what you came to pray about. Don’t go straight
to doing business with God. Jesus set the pattern when He began His prayer with
worship. Don’t take another step until you have connected with His heart. Sometimes
we connect with God quickly; other times we may need to press in for longer.
We want to connect in relationship with God. Jesus prayed, “Our Father in
heaven.” Prayer must begin with confidence in your relationship with God. You will
never be able to have a successful conversation with anyone that will surpass your
relationship with that person. When our relationship with God is not solid, we will find
prayer awkward. We will have trouble finding things to say to Him. God desperately
wants us to come into an intimate relationship with Him. He wants us to connect with
Him as our Father. Of course, many of us have had unhealthy relationships with our
earthly fathers that have affected our view of God as our Father. The best way to
connect with God as Father is to remember the cross. God dramatically expressed
His love for us through the cross like no one ever has or will. God was so desperate
in His love for us that He was willing for His Son to die and suffer terribly for you.
How can we grasp that level of love? Imagine offering your own child or imagine
your parents giving you up to be murdered.
Many of us picture ourselves in trouble with God and see Him up in heaven
holding a stick ready to whip us. The truth is that God enjoys you. You’re his delight.
He loves you! Even when you need correction or rebuke, He isn’t losing His temper
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with you. He is so kind. “If we being evil know how to give good gifts…..” Approach
God with a confidence that He is a good Father.
What is the confidence that we have in approaching God
according to 1 John 5:14? “… if we ask anything according to
His will, He hears us.”
God is saying to us, “Just come! Ask Me!” Jesus prayed, “Hallowed be Thy
name.” We need to be transformed/ changed in His presence. According to
Ephesians 2:6 we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. The way to take our
position with Him is to hallow His name. We move from earth to heaven spiritually
when we worship. Many of us are frustrated when we pray because we feel that
earth is talking so loudly and we are disconnected from God. “Hallowed be Thy
name” literally means holy is Your name. It’s a true worship experience when we
worship His names. Worship His eight covenant names because He is who He said
He is!
The 8 covenant names of God
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Jehovah Tsidkenu, our Righteousness
Jehovah M’Kaddesh, Who sanctifies
Jehovah Rapha, our Healer
Jehovah Nissi, our Banner of victory
Jehovah Raah, my Shepherd
Jehovah Shalom, my Peace
Jehovah Shammah, the One who is there
Jehovah Jireh, my Provider
Take each name and worship Him!
We are transformed in worship from downcast and earthly-minded to being seated
with Him in heavenly places. How long do we worship? Until we are connected with
Him in spirit. That may take a few minutes or it may take your whole prayer time. If
that’s the case, just stay there in worship because that’s what our highest calling is
anyway!
2 Corinthians 3:18: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are
being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
When our faces become unveiled, the disconnection is gone. Unveiled faces
means we’ve come to a place in our relationship with God where the clutter is gone
and we see Him clearly.
We will be in worship, and then all of a sudden we’ll have the moment where we
exclaim, “There He is!” We know it when we’re there. At that point He’ll be reflecting
on us His glory. We begin to change into His likeness with ever increasing glory.
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2. Make Him Lord. God loves a broken and contrite spirit. In humility we make Him
Lord. We acknowledge that we are utterly dependant on Him. When we bow before
Him in repentance, we then can go boldly before His throne and pray confidently,
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” At this point we
aren’t praying what we want, we pray what He wants.
As we pray we want to establish that He is King, and that this world, the heavens,
and our own lives are His Kingdom. In a kingdom everyone lives to serve the King.
We make His agenda override ours. What does He want? What is on his agenda?
Sometimes people pray, “Lord, if it be Thy will….” What is His will? Lock in on His
prayer list before you get to yours. If we seek His kingdom, everything you were
going to ask for will be added to you automatically. Often, if we pray His agenda, we
won’t even get to our list. We’ll know that He has us covered because we covered
Him!
Jesus prayed, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” His will is that earth
look like heaven! So therefore, if we want to know what His will is, we need to know
what heaven looks like.
Revelation 2:1-4: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy
City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his
people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear
from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away."
It is God’s will that you be filled with joy and peace in this life. In heaven there are
no tears or pain. God wants us to pray in a partnership with Him that the messed up
affairs of our planet and its fallen nature be brought back to God’s intended order.
Look up and write out Matthew 10:7. “As you go, preach this
message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'”
We are to go around and proclaim that the Kingdom of heaven is near. If you are
sick, the kingdom of heaven is near. If you’re depressed, the kingdom of heaven is
near.
As disciples of Jesus, what four things from Matthew 10:8
are we to do to manifest the Kingdom of God? “Heal the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out
demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
This is what the kingdom of heaven looks like! Get the kingdom of God operating
in your own life and then give it to others. The church has been in error offering
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platitudes like, “I’m so sorry that you’re in trouble. If it be God’s will, He’ll help you
out.” Our job is to preach that the kingdom of God is near, and to heal the sick,
cleanse the leper, and drive out demons because freely we have received and freely
we are to give. We aren’t to be passive. We are to proclaim that we know what
God’s will is – for earth look like heaven.
Luke 12:32: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give
you the kingdom.” Your Father in heaven is pleased for the kingdom of heaven to be
given to you! Jesus said if you want it, you can pray for it and you can have it today
here on earth!
3. Offer our petitions. “Give us this day our daily bread” When we say “give us…”,
we recognized the fact that He has it. Your help does not come from the government,
or from your boss, or your spouse, or doctors – He alone is our source.
Look up and write out Psalm 121:2. “My help comes from the
LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
God is the ultimate Giver! Depend on Him for everything, not just what you need,
but everything.
We are in a dangerous place in America because we don’t think we need to pray
for God to give our daily bread. We are well fed and have plenty. But this phrase
means so much more.
Go through every part of your life and tell God that you are totally dependent on
Him. Even in the areas where you feel very self-sufficient and blessed. Go through
your schedule and tell God that you can’t do any part without Him. Daily depend on
God for refreshment and a word from Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths
straight.
4. Receive and give grace. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors.”
Some translations say “trespasses” instead of debtors. A trespass is when we go
too far, a debt is something that we owe or we didn’t go far enough. These words are
opposites. We don’t have an English word that really describes what Jesus was
saying, but the Greek word used here encompasses both thoughts.
It means
“Forgive us for the things we should have done and the things we didn’t do.” These
are the sins of commission and omission. In this part of our prayer, we get our heart
right before God. We ask God to forgive us for our sin.
And then we forgive others for what the have done to us. Just as we have
received grace we extend it to others. Everyday we need to go through the list and
forgive – never let an offense fester; it will grow and destroy our lives. We receive
God’s forgiveness, and decide to do what may be very difficult for us – we let others
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off the hook. The Bible says we are forgiven to the degree that we forgive others. It
is not optional that we forgive as we have been forgiven.
Mark 11:22-26: "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone
says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his
heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I
tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will
be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive
him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
Unforgiveness of others is a condition that will trap us in anger and bitterness. We
must totally release all who have harmed, offended, or hurt us. We must get our
hearts right for prayer to work.
Look up and write out Matthew 5:44. “But I tell you: Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
5. Be victorious. “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Translated more accurately this verse should say, “Do not allow us to be led into
temptation.” The devil is faithful in what he does, and he will come after us today. His
job description is to lie, kill, steal, and destroy us. We need to become comfortable
engaging in spiritual warfare. Satan seeks to stop you.
1 Thessalonians 2:18: For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again
and again—but Satan stopped us.
The Greek word translated “stop” here means diversion, or literally “to cut a ditch
in the road.” Satan wants to cut a ditch in the road to keep you from being
successful. How do you resist the devil? It’s by daily making decisions to walk in
obedience to God.
Make your decisions before the temptations come. For example: “Lord, today I
covenant with my eyes and my mind not to look at or think lustfully about anyone or
anything.” Train yourself to say no to the devil and yes to God. This is spiritual
warfare.
Whether we want to believe it or not, there is a devil who is making plans and
schemes right now to destroy our lives. If we decide we don’t want to deal with him,
we’re in trouble because he won’t bail out. Prayer is not only communing with God,
it’s confronting strongholds. If we don’t learn how to confront the devil, we will
become victims.
Look up and write out James 4:7. “Submit yourselves, then, to
God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
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6. Release faith. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” If
you want to have effective prayer you must have faith that is released. The greatest
expression of faith is to go ahead and thank God in advance for something you’re
believing for. If you can genuinely praise God before the victory, you have a faith
that will work for you.
Read 2 Chronicles 20:6-25.
God’s people won the battle through the powerful principle of praising God by faith
before the victory!
Philippians 4:6-7: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer
and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of
God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.
According to Hebrews 11:1, what is faith? “Now faith is
being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see.”
Following is a prayer guide composed from the Lord’s Prayer scriptures and a
prayer crafted from each truth.
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THE LORD’S PRAYER GUIDE
Matthew 6:9-13
I. OUR FATHER WHICH ARE IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME
A. Picture Calvary and thank God you can call Him Father by virtue of the
blood of Jesus.
B. Worship the Name of God, corresponding with the benefits in the new
covenant, and make your faith declarations:
Name
Jehovah Tsidkenu
Jehovah M’Kaddesh
Jehovah Rapha
Jehovah Nissi
Jehovah Raah
Jehovah Shalom
Jehovah Shammah
Jehovah Jireh
Meaning
Our righteousness
Who sanctifies
Our Healer
Our banner of victory
My shepherd
My peace
Who is there
Our provider
Benefit
I am forgiven of all sin
I am set apart for inistry
I have health & healing
I am secure & victorious
I am led by the Holy Spirit
I have peace & sanctuary
I have God’s presence & power
I have success & provision
II. THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE
Pray for God’s will in these areas:
A. Nation, State, County and City
B. Church
1. Pastors
2. Group Leaders
3. Members of Church of the Highlands
4. Vision of Church of the Highlands
C. Your Family
D. Yourself
III. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
A. Offer your requests to God.
B. Ask God to bless every area of your life.
IV. FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS
A. Ask God to forgive you.
B. Forgive and release others.
C. Set your will to forgive those who sin against you.
V. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
A. Put on the whole armor of God.
1. Helmet of Salvation
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
3. Belt of Truth
4. Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
5. Shield of Faith
6. Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God
B. Pray for God’s protection in all areas of your life
VI. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY
A. Make your faith declarations
B. Return to praise and worship
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Prayer
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”
“God I worship You for who You are. You’re everything to me. I’m so thankful
You are my Righteousness because I wasn’t good enough today. All of my
attempts to do right fell short. I’m only righteous because You allowed me to
be. I love You for that. I don’t deserve it.
I thank you that you are my
Sanctifier. Of all the people you could have picked, why did you pick me?
How did You see something in me? I am so grateful that You’ve set me
apart. I’m also so grateful that You’re always there for me by Your Spirit. No
matter where I go, You’re there. How is that possible? I’m in awe of You.
You even go ahead of me. You’re my Banner of victory over the devil. Before
I face any trouble, You’ve already won for me. You lead me in triumphal
procession. I thank You that You’re my Peace. When life gets stressful and
a lot is going on, You give me peace. I praise You because You heal me
from every disease and sickness.
You’re my Provider – you give me
everything I need.”
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
“Lord, You must increase, I must decrease. I don’t deserve to take a step
towards You. But by the blood of Jesus I don’t deserve to come near You. I
lay my life down at Your later now. I give You every part of me.
“Lord, I pray for the lost people in Birmingham because I know they are on
Your heart. Bless families, Lord, and marriages. I lift up our government
officials and leaders. Your will be done in Birmingham as it is in heaven.
“Lord, will you take this tangled mess called life and send a slice of heaven to
earth?
“Father, let the heavens be open over our city and families and over everyone
who has experienced pain and divorce and sickness and depression and
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poverty. We pray that the kingdom of heaven come upon them, in Jesus
name!
“Give us today our daily bread.”
“Lord, I can’t live without You. I need you to make my marriage wonderful. I
need you to help me be a good parent. I need you to help me do my job. I
need you in every area of my life! Protect me while I’m driving and traveling.
I’m dependent on your safety and your angels to surround me. You provide
the meals for my family…
“I’m not the reason my life is working. God, I am dependent on You.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
“Father, I come again to Your throne of grace asking You to forgive me.
Forgive me for not only the sins that I committed, but for those things You told
me to so that I didn’t do. Thank You, Lord.
“Lord, I release all who have hurt me in any way. I’m asking also that you
would forgive them. Whether they intended to harm me or not, forgive them
because they really didn’t know what they were doing. I pray for Your grace
and blessing to be poured out on their lives!
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
“God, I know today I’m going to face warfare. When that happens, give me
the power to overcome. In every area of weakness I desire to be more than
an conqueror in You. With Your help I will overcome lust, greed, control, and
everything else the devil throws at me.”
“Lord, should I come face to face with temptation, I want to come out on the
other side victorious and strong. God, according to 1 Corinthians 10:13, You
always provide a way of escape. Come along beside me and help me to be
successful.”
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever!”
“I’m not worried about anything anymore. I completely trust you, God, not
only for the answers, but for the timing of the answers. I even trust You,
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Lord, for the way and manner that You will answer. It’s Your kingdom, Your
power, and Your glory! It’s all You.”
Prayer Assignment for Week Five
Pray through the Lord’s Prayer model for several days. Keep of journal of the fresh
revelation that God gives you. After you have used the outline a few times, make
notes of any ways that it has enriched your prayer time.
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Tabernacle Prayer
Week Six
Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all you
heart.”
God wants to be found by us! The question is - will we seek Him with all our
hearts? The following, Tabernacle Prayer, will not only give us an outline to help us
“keep watch with Him for an hour,” but will give us a map to seeking Him and finding
Him.
Pastor Chris has said that the Tabernacle Prayer outline is the greatest teaching
to help him in his personal prayer life. It unlocked prayer for him.
This teaching will help you enjoy your prayer time. For most people, praying for an
hour is a challenge. Even if they accomplish an extended time in prayer, they may
only get a few good minutes that they really connect with God. Why is that the case
for so many of us? It’s because we just don’t know what to do!
Tarry with Him
Before Jesus was arrested and taken before the authorities to be condemned, He
spent time praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was getting ready to die. He
took Peter, James, and John with Him and asked them to go over to a certain spot
and pray while He went off by Himself.
Matthew 26:38: Then He said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the
point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me."
The word watch means, “work with Me, be with Me in this thing. I’ve been with you
all this time, and now I need you.” So Jesus went off to pray, and He was under so
much pressure that He literally sweated blood. Then He returned to check on His
friends and found that they were asleep.
Matthew 26:40: "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?"
Have you ever read that verse and thought, “But Lord, praying for an hour isn’t as
easy as it sounds. I’d really like to be able to do that, but it’s difficult to stay focused
for that long”? Sometimes when we pray, we have good intentions to pray for a
while, but we run out of things to say after about ten minutes. We start repeating
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ourselves, then we might start singing for while, then we open our Bibles and read for
a while, then finally give up.
According to Matthew 26:41 why might it be hard to pray?
"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The
spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Most of us would love a powerful hour of prayer because our spirit is willing – but
our flesh is weak. Sometimes our flesh is weak because we have cravings that we
desire more than prayer – like TV, food, friends, or even work. Or sometimes our
flesh is weak because we haven’t trained our natural man and our minds how to pray.
Following are steps to the presence of God through the Tabernacle that will assist
us in training ourselves to become strong in our personal prayer life with an ultimate
goal of finding Him – drawing near to His presence.
From Psalm 16:11, what will we discover and enjoy in His
presence? “You have made known to me the path of life; You
will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at
Your right hand.”
Another benefit of using the steps of the Tabernacle in prayer is getting ourselves
in position to approach the throne of God for others. On the heart of every intercessor
is closing the gap between the needs of others and the provision that God graciously
offers.
Look up and write out Hebrews 4:16. “Let us then approach
the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
The Tabernacle
In the Old Testament there was a protocol established by God to entering His
presence. A protocol is a certain way of doing something, a formality, that is proper
for approaching and being with a person of great importance. For example, if you
were to go to the White House for a meeting – even if it were just to shake the
President’s hand - you would have to meet with a minister of protocol who would tell
you things like, “Don’t say anything to him unless he says something to you. Don’t
reach out to shake his hand unless he reaches out to shake your hand.” The minister
of protocol will go over the proper way to address a man of that stature and that
importance.
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When Moses received the law, God established a protocol for the Israelites to be
able to have fellowship with Him. So when He gave the law, He gave instructions on
how to build the Tabernacle which would provide the way for His people to be able to
enter His presence. Moses came down from the mountain with these instructions for
building this “portable church.” If you would like to read about the Tabernacle in the
scriptures, you will find a very detailed description in Exodus 25-31 and 35–40. For
our purposes, we will briefly describe the parts of the Tabernacle as they apply to
prayer.
The Tabernacle was the portable church used by Moses and the Israelites while
they lived in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land, Canaan. God led the
Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Sometimes He
would stop and settle for a long time; sometimes He would make a brief stop and
then the cloud or fire would move on. At each stop the Tabernacle would have to be
reconstructed. God’s people did this for forty years! Finally, they crossed over the
Jordan River and entered the Promised Land, and years later Solomon built the
permanent temple.
There were three areas of the Tabernacle: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and
the Holy of Holies. The Tabernacle was a rectangular shaped tent that had high
walls with no covering. There was a small entrance to the rectangle that we call the
“gate.” Inside the rectangle was another smaller rectangle, or tent. The area between
the two tents was called the “Outer Court.” The inside smaller rectangle was cut in
half making two areas: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. This smaller tent was
covered with a curtain, but the Outer Court was uncovered. The priests from the tribe
of Levi would minister regularly in the Outer Court and the Holy Place. Only the High
Priest could enter the Holy of Holies. The Outer Court was the only place that people
other than the priests could go.
In the Holy of Holies lived the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a gold box with
two cherubim made from hammered gold on top of it. The cherubim faced each other
and look down on the box. In the box were the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod
(Aaron was Moses’ brother and the high priest), and some manna. The Ark of the
Covenant carried the presence of God. Every part of the Tabernacle, from the Gate
to the Holy of Holies, was constructed for the purpose of the high priest being able to
approach the presence of God to intercede for the people and do what God had
commanded so that His glory would continue to be with them.
On the next page are illustrations of the articles in the Tabernacle and an outline
describing what each piece represents.
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Step One: The Gate
Psalm 100:4: Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give
thanks to Him and praise His name.
Thanksgiving was established by God as the first step for the Israelites to enter
His presence.
For us today, we begin the process of entering His presence the same way –
thanking Him and praising Him. Think of a fresh reason to be thankful every day. A
good discipline might be to thank Him each day for something you’ve never thanked
Him for before. It will keep prayer alive for us.
The church should be a praising church. If God is really alive and He really does
save us from sins that would cause us eternal death, then we ought to be excited
about it. Heaven will be loud with praise. Our church services should be getting us
ready for heaven! The Bible says there will be a sound like mighty rushing waters
with tens of thousands of angels singing their praises. It will be loud!
According to Psalm 95:2-3, how should we approach the
Lord? “Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him
with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great
King above all gods.”
Thanksgiving is a challenge when we’re in the middle of a trial and hell is bearing
down on us. The devil will do every thing he can to stop us right at the Gate – the first
step in the process to entering God’s presence. If he can keep us from God’s glory,
he will be able to strip us of any power to overcome in this life. Anyone who is weary,
down-trodden, even depressed must press through and thank God – it’s a sacrifice of
praise.
Psalm 141:2: May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my
hands be like the evening sacrifice.
Look up and write out Psalm 116:17. “I will sacrifice a thank
offering to You and call on the name of the LORD.”
Step Two: The Brazen Altar
In each part of the tabernacle was furniture, called articles. There were six
articles placed in an order, each with instructions for its use. The first article was the
Brazen Altar.
The second step to entering His presence is acknowledging that we are forgiven.
At the Brazen Altar blood sacrifices were made. Animals, such as birds or cows,
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were killed and the blood from these animals was poured on the Brazen Altar to
atone for (pay for) sin. The Brazen Altar represents the cross of Jesus. The cross
provides many benefits for us.
Psalm 103 lists five redemptive blessings we receive through the cross. At this
step to entering God’s presence we want to acknowledge what He has done for us
and praise His name.
5 Redemptive Blessings Provided through the Cross
1. Salvation. Psalm 103:1-3a: Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being,
praise His holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefitswho forgives all your sins.
Praying like this doesn’t mean you are getting saved each day; it just means you
are thankful for His salvation. We appropriate the benefit of salvation each day. It is
good to acknowledge to God that without Him, we are nothing. We come to Him
empty. There is nothing that we have done that makes us worthy of having an
audience with Him. We can’t take even a step towards Him outside of His blood.
Look up and write out Romans 3:23. “For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.”
Look up and write out Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
2. Healing. Psalm 103:3b: …and heals all your diseases.
The second benefit of the cross is healing: physical and emotional. We thank God
at this step for healing all our diseases. It’s a good idea to name them, especially
any disease that brings us fear – like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression,
autism…
Remind yourself everyday that Jesus is your healer!
Read Exodus 15:26 and write down who God said He is. “..
for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
3. Redemption from the curse. Psalm 103:4a: …who redeems your life from the
pit
The third benefit of the cross is redemption from the curse of the devil. Ephesians
6 tells us that we must make our stand against the devil. We have principalities,
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powers, and rulers of darkness coming against us. We proclaim that by the blood of
Jesus we are protected.
Read Ephesians 6:13-18.
What happened to the debt we owed because of our sin
according to Colossians 2:13-14? “…. He forgave us all our
sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that
was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away,
nailing it to the cross.”
4. The Holy Spirit. Psalm 103:4b: …and crowns you with love and compassion.
The fourth benefit of the cross is the Holy Spirit. He “crowns us with love and
compassion”; these are the traits of the Holy Spirit. Through the cross we receive the
nature of God.
Look up and write out Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I
live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.”
We begin to take on his nature and abilities and all that He is.
5. Provision. Psalms 103:5a: …who satisfies your desires with good things.
The fifth benefit of the cross is provision. He gives us everything we need.
What promise do we find in Philippians 4:19. “And my God
will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ
Jesus.”
Step Three: The Laver
Now we can take another step towards His presence. We can come boldly into
His presence through the cross and the blood of Jesus.
The next article in the tabernacle was the laver. The laver was a large bowl made
out of mirrors and full of water. When a person looked in it, he would see himself.
The people would wash at the laver and be cleansed. For us as we take this step in
prayer, we allow the Lord to work on our character.
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Four actions to take at the laver:
1. Repent. Here we confess known sin such as attitudes, ways that we’ve treated
people, any thoughts that weren’t pure. Ask the Lord to cleanse you of these things.
We also want to ask the Lord to reveal to us any unknown sin.
Psalm 51:10: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within
me.
Read 1 John 1:7-10.
Write out 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.”
2. Offer your body to the Lord.
Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of
worship. It is worship to God when you offer you body to Him. Consecrate your
whole body to the Lord. Start at the top and work your way down.
3. Offer Him your mind. The mind is the place that we get into the most trouble.
Romans 12:2: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve
what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Philippians 4:7-8: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
What are we to do with our thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5)?
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself
up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
4. Ask the Lord to replace every part of our sinful nature with the fruit of the
Spirit.
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Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no
law.
If you do these four things, you have had a successful stop at the laver. You have
been cleansed and changed.
Step Four: The Candlestick
Once you are forgiven and cleansed, you can come in as a priest to the Holy Place.
In the front part of the Holy Place were three articles. To the left side of the Holy
Place was the candlestick with seven candles. The candlestick represents the Holy
Spirit and the seven candles represent the seven-fold nature of the Spirit of God that
is described in Isaiah 11:2: The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— the Spirit of
wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
The fear of the Lord will help us in making decisions because we will make them in
light of the fact that we know that God is watching. The Lord has entrusted us with
many wonderful gifts, and we must manage them and make choices through the fear
of to Lord.
Proverbs 1:7 says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
Revelation 4:5. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of
thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of
God.
Next we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us to “eagerly
desire (covet) spiritual gifts.” We want to ask for more of what we have and gifts that
we don’t yet have. Ask for them all! Name the gifts and abilities that you have and
ask Him to fan each of them into flame so that they will remain red hot and on fire.
Just ask him and He’ll give them to you.
Read Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, and Ephesians
4:11.
Step Five: The Table of Shewbread
Then, across the room in the Holy Place was the shewbread on a table. There
were twelve loaves of bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Bread in
scripture also always represents God’s word. The twelve loaves at the table were
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replaced every day. The bread was never left there for more than a day. This
teaches us a very important truth: God wants to continually reveal His Word to us.
We need fresh bread, fresh revelation from Him each day.
At this step, open your Bible and read until you receive a fresh word from the
Lord. He will give you a scripture for the day, something to chew on all day long. God
will give you opportunities to share this fresh bread with others.
Claim God’s promises at this step. In the New Testament in the book of Acts,
scripture was quoted when the Christians prayed. We can take God’s word and put
scriptures in first person.
Write Luke 10:19 in first person. “I have given you authority
to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the
power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
Matthew 4:4. Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but
on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Step Six: The Altar of Incense
The next article in the Tabernacle was at the entrance to the Holy of Holies near
the multi-layered curtain. This article was the altar of incense, and it burned
continuously. Incense represents the worship, praise, and prayer of the saints. Kneel
before the Lord and worship Him during this step. Tell Him how much you love Him!
This will be a very intimate and affectionate time. Tell Him how much you adore Him
and appreciate Him. Sing a love song to the Lord. If you play an instrument, play for
Him. You may want to have worship music playing throughout your prayer time.
Connect with God in worship.
Look up and write out Proverbs 18:10. “The name of the
LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”
At this step pray the names of God.
1. My Righteousness, “Jehovah Tsidkenu.”
Jeremiah 23:6: In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
2. The Sanctifier, “Jehovah M-kaddesh.”
Leviticus 20:7-8: “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the
LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who
makes you holy.”
3. My Healer, “Jehovah Rapha.”
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Exodus 15:26: He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your
God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands
and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought
on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
4. My Provider, “Jehovah Jireh.”
Genesis 22:14: So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And
to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.
Because the Lord is your provider, go ahead and tell Him what your needs
are and ask Him to provide for you.
5. My Banner of victory, “Jehovah Nissi.”
Exodus 17:15: Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.
When in battle, the banner was carried by the person at the front of the army.
The banner said, “We win!” The Lord goes before into every battle. He
leads us in a triumphal procession. Our enemies lose, we win.
6. My Peace, “Jehovah Shalom.”
Judges 6:23-24: But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You
are not going to die." So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it
The LORD is Peace.
7. My Shepherd, “Jehovah Raah.”
Psalm 23:1: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
8. The Lord who is there, “Jehovah Shammah.”
Ezekiel 48:35: The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits. And the name
of the city from that time on will be: “ The LORD is There."
Step Seven: The Holy of Holies
With worship on your lips, you walk into the Holy of Holies. This is where you will
be face to face with God.
In the Holy of Holies there was no candle - it was lit by the presence of God. Only
one time a year did the high priest go into the Holy of Holies. Anyone who attempted
to enter the Holy of Holies that was not the high priest would die. If the high priest did
not closely follow the protocol set by the Lord for entering His presence, even he
would die. Bells and a rope were tied around the ankle of the high priest in case he
died while in the Holy of Holies so that he could be dragged out. The protocol had to
be followed before the high priest could have an audience with God.
The Holy of Holies was separated by several layers of curtains called the “veil.”
Behind the veil was the Ark of the Covenant where the presence of God was. When
Jesus was crucified, an earthquake took place and the veil was torn from top to
bottom by God. It was ripped in two because God was saying to all of us, “Now you
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can come and have a face-to-face with Me. Now you can come and be in My
presence and have communion with Me.” After Jesus gave His life for us, there no
longer remained a barrier between us and God; we no longer need a priest to go in to
the Holy of Holies for us. Jesus is our High Priest and He, through His blood, has
torn the barrier once for all time!
In the Tabernacle, it was in the Holy of Holies that the High Priest prayed to God
with an agenda: to intercede for everyone else. It is here that we make intercession
for people. We’ve had our wonderful time with God at each of the other five pieces of
furniture, and it may be tempting to stop there – but people are depending on our
prayers to God for them.
Intercession means you are standing between a person who needs mercy and the
only One who can give it to them. True intercession says “Lord, please give them
one more chance!” Intercede for your family, your pastor, your friends, your
neighbors, and your co-workers. Pray for missionaries and un-reached people,
including your lost friends and family. Intercede for government officials. The Bible
tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Have a list ready and pray through
everyone on it. Stand in the gap on their behalf.
What does the Lord say about our needs in Matthew 6:33?
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.”
As you end your prayer time with the Lord, end as you began: with thanksgiving.
Philippians 4:6: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Thanksgiving is the ultimate expression of your faith.
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Prayer
As you pray the “Tabernacle Prayer,” your prayer life will become richer and God
will give you fresh revelation. You will grow in your friendship with Him and find that
you can easily “keep watch with Him for an hour.”
Thanksgiving
“God, I thank You that Your blessings are chasing me down and overtaking me! You
are an awesome God. I thank You for my family, for my church, my friends, my work,
and my country. I am overwhelmed with Your goodness to me.”
The Brazen Altar
“Lord, I come to the foot of the cross, and I want to thank You today that You saved
me from all my sin. Once again, I want to confess my sin, and I want to receive the
forgiveness. Thank You that You have delivered me from the power of darkness.
Thank you for choosing me before I was even born!”
“God, I thank you that You have healed me of every disease in my body and my
mind. There is no disease that You are not willing and able to heal. You are my
Healer. You heal cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism… I praise Your
name, Jehovah Rafah!”
“I thank You, God that every attack of the devil and anything he would want to do to
me is broken, in Jesus name. Every curse, every generational curse, every negative
word spoken against me is broken!”
“Thank you, Lord, that You give me love and joy, and You crown me with
compassion. You make me like You through the Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your
Spirit.”
“God, thank You for being My Provider. Thank You for the influence that I have
through Your provision.
I ask You to enlarge my territory. My most important
commodity is Your presence. If You go with me and Your hand is on me, I will
succeed. You are the source of everything I need, Jehovah Jireh.”
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The Laver
“Father God, form in me a pure and clean heart. Show me my sin. I denounce all sin
and repent of everything that has grieved You. Forgive me for turning my back on
You. Cleanse me.”
“Lord, let my body be worship to you. Let all my efforts, all my work, be pleasing in
your sight. I offer my eyes to you today that they might not look lustfully on anyone or
anything. I make a covenant with my eyes to behold Your beauty. I want to see You
and the needs of others. I give you my ears today that I might not listen to gossip and
junk, but that I might be sensitive to Your voice. Lord, I give you my mouth that I
might speak good and not evil. Keep my tongue free from evil. Protect my words.
use my mouth to edify others, not tear them down. Let my hands minister to others
and do good. I commit to You never to take what is not mine. Let my feet go where
ever you want them to go. Give me divine appointment. I give you my to-do list. I
want to be in step with what the Spirit is doing and saying. I want to walk in Your
ways. Set a guard over my eyes, ears, tongue, hands, and feet so that I will be
faithful to do Your will.”
“Lord, take my mind today so that I might not think bad things, but good things.
Renew my mind so that I think on the things that are excellent and praiseworthy. I
take captive every thought now to make it obedient to Your word. I cast down every
imagination, and I demolish every worldly and demonic perspective.”
“Lord, I desire to have Your fruit manifested in my life. Pour love through me, and
peace, and everything that You are.”
The Candlestick
“Lord, I need your Spirit to operate in me. Lord, give me counsel, might, knowledge,
power, and understanding. Please give me the fear of the Lord.”
“Father, let the fire of Your seven spirits fall on me!”
“Fan the flame of the gifts that You have given me. Lord, I covet tongues,
interpretation of tongues, and prophecy.
I covet words of knowledge, words of
wisdom, and the discerning of spirits. I covet today workings of miracles, workings of
faith, and the gifts of healing. I want to teach, prophesy, exhort, lead, serve, give, and
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show mercy. Enable me by Your Spirit. I’ll be whatever You call me to be! I covet
Your gifts. Pour them on me! I’ll take all You’ll give me.”
The Table of Shewbread
“God, I ask You for a fresh word today – a Rhema word. I pray for the Bible to come
alive. Reveal Your ways, Your character, and Your wisdom to me. I stand on every
Word You have spoken and every promise You have made. I pray for opportunities
today to share fresh spiritual bread with others.”
The Altar of Incense
“Lord, it is an honor to even know You. I adore You and love You with all my heart!
You created everything I see and the heavens above me.
You made me and
crowned me with glory. You are the God of might and strength. You nourish me and
protect me. God, You never change! You are all-powerful, all-knowing, and Your
glory fills the earth. Let everything that has breath praise You and worship You!”
“Lord, thank you for saving me and making me righteous and whole. Thank You for
becoming sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Lord, thank You for making me holy, set apart, and special. Thank you that You
looked beyond my faults and saw some potential in me.”
“Thank You that You heal all my diseases. By Your stripes I am healed. You sent
Your word and You healed me!”
“Lord, I don’t need anyone but You to be my provider. I rest in the fact that You will
meet all my needs. I acknowledge that You and You alone are my provider. No one
cares for me like You.”
“Lord, thank you that you give me power over the enemy. You are my Banner of
Victory!”
“Thank you, Lord, that I have peace through You – nothing is broken, nothing is
missing. You give me the peace that goes beyond my human understanding.”
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“Lord, you guide me. You protect me. You speak to me, comfort me, and discipline
me. You’re a Father who guards me and shepherds me. Thank you for taking care of
me.”
“Lord, you are always by my side. You are my advocate, Holy Spirit. I take comfort
and am encouraged because I can boldly say that You are my Helper. I will not fear
or dread anything. What can man do to me?”
The Holy of Holies
“Lord, I know Birmingham doesn’t deserve it, and our nation has made some poor
decisions – but please Lord have mercy on our city and nation. Have mercy on our
church. We want You come back soon, but please give us more time to reach the
people in the 10/40 window and other places where there are lost and dying people.”
“Father God, I lift up my family and friends to You. How I want them to know Jesus
Christ and Your word intimately! I pray that You would keep them from the world,
from falling away, from satan, and from false teaching. Lord, may my family and
friends be holy in their thoughts, in their actions, and in their character. I pray they
would know their purpose and lead others to You. I pray that they would constantly
possess the full joy of knowing Jesus and live in Your love and presence.”
“Bless the pastors and staff at church. Bless them spiritually, emotionally, physically,
and financially. Thank you for giving me such wonderful leaders”.
“I pray for the gospel to reach the ends of the earth. Use me and my church in the
final harvest. We want to be laborers for You. May Your hand of blessing be on the
Mayor, the Governor our Senators, Representatives, and on our President. God
bless our nation and forgive us for turning away from You!”
“God, I know You already know everything I need. You’ve promised me that you
would take care of me daily if I make Your kingdom my primary concern. I am so
incredibly thankful for all You have done for me. My cup overflows! I ask You to
continually bless me so that I can be a blessing for You and for others. I love You.”
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Prayer Assignment for Week Six
Pray through the Tabernacle Prayer model for several days. Keep of journal of
the fresh revelation that God gives you. After you have used the outline a few times,
make notes of any ways that it has enriched your prayer time.
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Section Two
The Horizontal
The last few lessons have given us instruction in
developing our personal prayer life and intimacy with
God – the vertical. We’ll now turn our attention to the
release of the love and compassion of God that we
have as a result of our connection with Him. For the
rest of the study, we will focus on our practical
ministry as intercessors – the horizontal. We’ll lay a
foundation of two fundamental truths: there is power
in the agreement of believers and Christians have
spiritual authority in prayer. We’ll then look in to what
the Bible says about our role in healing and spiritual
warfare.
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The Power of Agreement
Week Seven
As we move from the vertical to the horizontal in prayer, we keep our eyes
focused on the Lord while at the same time locking arms in unity with other believers.
God did not make people to be independent; He has made us to be inter-dependent.
Although high values in our culture, rugged individualism, self-reliance, and selfcentered personal ambition are not a biblical principles. In a successful prayer force
there is no place for these values. Why? Because nothing eternal can be
accomplished without personal sacrifice.
The early church under the leadership of the apostle Peter
experienced the greatest level of the manifestation of God’s
miraculous power that has been seen since that time. After
reading Acts 2:41-47 and Acts 4:32-33, why you think that
might be the case? “… They devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were
done by the apostle. .All the believers were together and had everything in
common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he
had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere
hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord
added to their number daily those who were being saved.”(Acts 41-47) “All
the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his
possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great
power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and much grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:32-33)
The power of agreement in prayer is a biblical principle. Jesus said these words:
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will
be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my
name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:19-20)
Notice the word “anything.” Did He really say that? “Anything” could be something
wonderful, or it could be something terrible. He said anything. He also said, “if two
of you agree.” If we believe what He said, it only take two and it will be done. Do you
see the incredible power in that truth?!
But how can two agree unless their vision and requests are identical? Agreement
will often require one to serve the other. Paul said the following words to the
Philippians believers: “make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each
other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be
selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than
yourselves.” (Philippians 2:2-3)
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Three areas of agreement
Following are three areas of agreement, that if achieved by our prayer force, will
create a mighty army of intercessors. Nothing will be impossible if we can reach
agreement at this level!
1. Agreement with our pastor
We began this study with the vision that our pastor has for our church. The reason
for this is that we as a prayer force exist for one purpose – to serve our pastor and
the vision the Lord has given him. This chapter is entitled the “Power of Agreement,”
but might be more appropriately entitled, “Submission and Humility.” How do we jump
from power to submission and humility? In God’s reality, there’s no leap at all –
power is born out of brokenness and servanthood. An intercessor must be willing to
lay down his will, his agenda, and even his dreams. Like Jesus we must say, “Not
my will, but your will be done.” God will reward that kind of humility!
Not many of us will be pioneers in ministry, and even those who are pioneers will
spend many years in submission to someone over them. Intercessors have vision
and are often prophetic, seeing in the spirit the things God is doing and will do in the
future. The temptation is to run with what we see – often running ahead of our
leaders and those we’ve been called to serve. We make the mistake of trying to be
pioneers when God has called us to pull the wagons, build the campfires, and watch
for the wolves.
2 Corinthians 2:9 - For this was my purpose in writing you, to test your attitude and
see if you would stand the test, whether you are obedient and altogether agreeable
[to following my orders] in everything.
The apostle Paul actually gave specific orders to the Corinthian church to see
whether they would submit to his authority! God may test you from time to time to
purify your motives and your heart.
Write out Hebrews 13:17. “Obey your leaders and submit to
their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must
give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not
a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
An attitude of willing submission is necessary if we are to see God’s promises
fulfilled.
Isaiah 1:19-20 - If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.
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God has good in store for us if we take on the nature of a humble servant. Not
only will we see miracles for others, but we will eat the good of the land ourselves.
Matthew 6:33 – Your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs and will give
you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God
your primary concern.
God’s ways are totally contrary to human nature. He wants to give us great
authority, to make us the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13). But this NEVER
happens in God’s kingdom or economy except through becoming the “tail” first.
Write out Mark 9:35. "If anyone wants to be first, he must be
the very last, and the servant of all."
Follow the lead of our pastor with reverence, honor, and respect. Even when you
disagree, trust the Lord and obey! Be faithful and you will receive this promise, “Well
done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put
you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” (Matthew
25:23)
Our pastor and other leaders need us to cover them and immerse them in prayer.
Being bond-servants to them should be our privilege considering that they keep
watch over our souls and carry the weight of responsibility for our salvation and
growth. In return they face resistance spiritually. They and their families personally
bear the brunt of satan’s attacks.
Sometimes we will be called to stake ourselves to a leader. God will give them an
assignment that He never intended for them to carry through on their own. They will
need our agreement and full support.
Read Exodus 17:8-15.
Write out verse 12. “When Moses'
hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he
sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side,
one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till
sunset.”
What a wonderful picture of the victory that can only be accomplished when a
leader is supported and held up by others.
2. Agreement with each other
Intercessors, primed through personal worship and intimacy and immersed in love
for people, come together to create a powerful force. The first step in releasing the
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love of God through our corporate intercession is establishing unity through
agreement.
God says if we agree, He’ll agree with us and jump into the circle. Where there is
agreement, there is power. This principle works in all areas of life, not just prayer. It
works in football – where there is agreement, a team will win. A great team learns
that the sum is greater than the individuals. Team members will supersede their own
individual ability because of the power of agreement. This principle works in every
area of life. Deuteronomy 32:30 tells us that one man can chase a thousand
enemies, but two can put ten thousand enemies to flight. All of a sudden because of
agreement, exponential power is released!
Think about this: the devil is very logical. If you’re the devil, and you know that if
two intercessors pray together, exponential power is released, then wouldn’t you
make it your sole purpose to stir up trouble and disunity? He wants disagreement
and division. Division means two visions. The number one strategy of the devil is to
keep us apart because then he will accomplish the goal of stripping us of power and
making our intercession ineffective.
Therefore, shouldn’t our ambition as intercessors be to find a way to agree in
every situation? What would it take for us to become partners and see eye to eye? It
takes allot! Why? Because each one of us is different. Every person has a unique
view of God, a one-of-a-kind personality, and different perspective on life.
Ephesians 4:1-3: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of
the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing
with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace.
Write out 1 Corinthians 1:10. “I appeal to you, brothers, in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one
another so that there may be no divisions among you and that
you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”
Occasionally you may encounter “super-spiritual” people who will come with
persuasive words designed to draw us away from the purity and simplicity of our
devotion to the Lord, our pastor, and each other. They may seem very religious, but
will not depend on the Holy Spirit or submit to our pastor and other leaders.
Read Romans 16:17-18. What are we told to watch for and
what are we told to do about it? “I urge you, brothers, to watch out
for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary
to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people
are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and
flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.”
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When intercessors can achieve and protect unity with each other, anointing will be
released.
Write out Ecclesiastes 4:12. “And if one can overpower him
who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not
quickly torn apart.”
From Ecclesiastes 4:9, Why are two better than one? “Two
are better than one, because they have a good return for their
work.”
2 Chronicles 5:13-14 - The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one
voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals
and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He
is good; his love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a
cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the
glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
We want God’s glory to fill the temple of our hearts and our church! It will happen
when we join together in unity.
3. Agreement with God
The foundation for all of our agreement in prayer must be based on God’s word,
the Bible. Intercessors and the word of God are an inseparable partnership.
To see our part in the Great Commission accomplished through Highlands, it will
take faith. Faith can only come through meditation on His word and revelation that
comes as a result. When God’s perspective is revealed to us, faith will be activated.
When faith is activated, we can begin to call forth God’s revealed will and see things
change. As a prayer force, great faith will be activated as we join in agreement with
the word of God.
Look up and write out Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is being sure
of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Settle the issue that the Bible is the inspired, complete, perfect, finished, alive
word of God.
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




Inspired means that it’s not just a collection of writings that man put
together, but that it was authored by God and penned by the Holy Spirit
Himself through the instrument of human beings.
Complete means it’s not missing anything.
Perfect means it’s 100% right.
Finished means we don’t need to add anything to it.
Alive means the Bible is not just words. John 1:1 tells us that the word is
Jesus. There is no more power in Jesus than in your Bible because they are
one and the same.
What does Hebrews 4:12 say about the word of God? “For
the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubleedged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints
and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
At Church of the Highlands we believe in the closed cannon of scripture. This
means that there are not, nor ever will be, any books, verses, or ideas added to the
Bible or placed beside it as equal in authority or revelation. We also believe that all
preaching, teaching, prophesying, and any other communication being declared in
the name of Lord is to be subject to the measurement of the word of God. Pastor
Chris even says of himself, “If I ever say anything that doesn’t line up with Bible, don’t
listen to me.”
Accepting the authority of the Bible will keep Highlands safe, alive, innocent, and
highly favored. The secret to the word of God coming alive in us is accepting the
Bible as God speaking to us and revelation coming as a result.
Paul rejoiced in the Thessalonians view of God’s word. In 1
Thessalonians 2:13, what did he say about how they
received the Word of God? “…you received the word of God,
which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of
men, but as it actually is, the word of God….”
In receiving the word of God in purity and simplicity, we must be careful not to
allow our views to be shaped by unreliable authorities.
Unreliable authorities on the Bible include the following:

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Culture - the media will lie to us and tell us that what we believe is insane.
Tradition - even the church will lie to us and say that the word doesn’t work
today.
Reason – we will lie to ourselves. Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that
seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death. We may read a passage
of scripture and tell ourselves that there’s no way that it really could have
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
happened that way. We are human. If there was a way that we could cause
a miracle, we wouldn’t need God.
Personal feelings – we should never rely on our feelings, they will always lie
to us. There will come a day in our life when we aren’t going to be a
Christian and be faithful to our promises. We’re going to want to cuss and
kick the dog. This is why we need the standard of the word of God. We don’t
get a vote; we’re not in a democracy. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords!
Intercessors must become comfortable with the fact that there are things we won’t
understand. We should be alarmed if a day comes when we think we understand it all
because that means it all fit in our brains.
What does Isaiah 55:8-9 tell us about God’s thoughts and
ways? "’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My
thoughts than your thoughts.’”
We can’t contain God in our minds. This is why we need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. The Baptism in the Holy Sprit gives us the capacity we need to experience the
glory of God and pray with power and authority with God’s perspective.
What instruction are we given in Deuteronomy 6:7? “These
commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at
home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down
and when you get up.”
God wants His word in every part of our lives. We can’t come to church to
intercede with great faith for miracles if the word is not active in our home life or our
work place as well. Immerse yourself in God’s word. Plan to spend time in the word
daily. Memorize key scriptures and claim His promises.
Imagine our prayer team, after individually being transformed by God’s living and
active word, coming together to pray over a sick person or intercede for a service or
walk the streets of Birmingham crying out for the lost. All things are possible for him
who believes! (Mark 9:23)
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it
will be done for you by My Father in heaven.”(Matthew 18:19)
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A taste of the His promises
What promises of God are found in the following
scriptures?
Philippians 4:19. “And my God will meet all your needs.”
Psalm 1:1-3. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the
counsel of the wicked……Whatever he does prospers.”
1 John 4:4. “…the One who is in you is greater than the one
who is in the world.”
Luke 10:19. “I have given you authority to…. overcome all the
power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
Romans 8:37. “In all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us.”
Psalm 27:1. “The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom
shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom
shall I be afraid?”
Romans 8:31. “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If
God is for us, who can be against us?”
Psalm 103:3. “… and forget not all His benefits – Who forgives
all your sins and heals all your diseases.”
2 Corinthians 3:6. “He has made us competent as ministers of
a new covenant…”.
Psalm 121:8. “The LORD will watch over your coming and
going both now and forevermore.”
There is scripture for every area of prayer. Use the word constantly! Isaiah
55:11: “So is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to me
empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I
sent it.”
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Prayer
Lord, I am confident that you hear me whenever I ask for anything that
pleases You. And since I know that You hear me when I make my requests,
I also know that You’ll give me what I ask for!
Father, I am so thankful for the pastors and leaders you have placed in my
life to cover me and watch over my soul. I want to serve them in every
possible way! I willingly submit to their leadership and desire to follow them.
Please put the same vision in my heart that you have put in theirs so that I
might be in complete agreement with them.
God, I pray for grace to live in harmony with the people You’ve put in my life. I
pray that in everything I do there will be no divisions and no strife. I desire to
be of one mind, perfectly united in thought and purpose with my family, my
co-workers, friends, other intercessors, and my pastor.
I want the power of agreement working in my life. I know that if I agree with
anyone about anything that I ask for, it will be done for me by You, Father
God.
Help me, Holy Spirit, to always be humble and gentle, to be patient with
everyone, making allowance for the faults of others.
I commit to making
every effort to keep myself united with other believers in the Spirit, binding
myself to them.
I come into agreement with every word You have written. I love the Bible and
stand on every promise. I will not waver in my allegiance to Your living word.
Jesus, I want the perfect unity that You have with our Father. I want to be in
your inner circle and be one as You are one! I want the world to know that He
sent You and that You love them as much as Father God loves You.
Father, may Your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it
is
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in
heaven.
In
Jesus’
name,
Amen
Prayer Assignment for Week Seven
Find five promises from the scriptures to claim for a situation you have been
praying for. List the scriptures below and pray them out loud daily over the situation.
Come into agreement with God’s word!
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Authority in Prayer
Week Eight
As intercessors – as people – we were created with a nature to rule, to govern,
and to exercise authority. Before we get into specific areas of intercession, we need
to establish in our hearts a very important truth: God has given us authority in prayer.
Genesis 1:26-28: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness,
and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock,
over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God
created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female
He created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in
number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds
of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
God’s original plan was to give Adam and Eve and their descendant’s dominion
(rule) over the entire earth and all creation.
Read Psalm 8:3-8.
God didn’t give away ownership of the earth, but He did assign the responsibility
of governing it to humanity.
Psalm 115:16: The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given
to man.
Adam, the first man, was put here as God’s representative on earth.
From Psalm 8:5, circle the phrase that indicates our
position with God. “Yet You have made him a little lower than
God, and You crown him with glory and majesty.”
God crowned man with glory! We’ve discussed the glory of God as being His
presence, His goodness in the widest possible sense. But glory is also the weight of
God – linked to the concept of authority. Have you ever heard the statement, “He
carries a lot of weight around here”? It means he has a lot of authority. We are
crowned with the authority of God. The Hebrew word for glory, “kabowd,” means not
only authority, but it’s authority based on the splendor, abundance, and honor of
God.
So complete was the dominion that God gave to Adam that if the earth remained a
paradise, it would be because of man. If the earth became a mess, it would be
because of man. If satan gained control, it would be because man gave it up.
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Why did God give man this responsibility? Because He wanted a family – sons
and daughters who could personally relate to Him, and vice versa. So He made our
original parents similar to Himself. He put His very life and Spirit into them, gave them
a beautiful home with lots of pets, sat down and said, “This is good.” Daily He
communed with them, walked with them, taught them about Himself and their home.
He said, “Give me some grandsons and granddaughters.” God was thrilled with His
family.
Again, so complete and final was Adam’s authority that he had the ability to give it
away – and he did! He gave it to satan when he sinned in the Garden of Eden.
In Luke 4:6-7, satan tempted Jesus in the desert while He was fasting and praying
and said, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over
to me, and I will give it to whomever I wish.” Satan is called the ruler of this world
three times in the Bible.
From the following verses, what is said of satan? John
12:31, 14:30, and 16:11. John 12:31 – he will be cast out. John
14:30 – he has nothing in Jesus. John 16:11 – he has been
judged.
Also, so complete and final was Adam’s authority that it took Jesus becoming a
man and dying on the cross to take it back! Without question, humans were forever
to be God’s link to authority and activity on earth.
Can you see now why the earth is in such a mess? Man has not taken his
responsibility! God chose, from the beginning of creation, to run the earth through
humans, not independent of them. He did this even at the cost of becoming a human
Himself. Although God is all powerful and completely sovereign, He Himself chose to
limit Himself by working through human beings.
He works through our prayers. God told us to:
 Ask for His will to be done (Matthew 6:10). Why would He tell us to do that if
He was going to perform His will anyway?
 Ask for our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). Doesn’t He already know our needs
before we ask?
 Ask for laborers to be sent into the harvest (Matthew 9:38). Wouldn’t you
think that God wants the lost saved more than we do?
 Ask for the word of the Lord to spread rapidly and be glorified (2
Thessalonians 3:1). Why does He need us to ask?
The promise: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the
door will be opened to you.(Matthew 7:7)
The instruction: This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask
anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—
whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
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The fulfillment: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the
snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and
making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Read James 5:17, 18.
Elijah prayed for rain after three years of draught, and the rain came. We can read
about this account of Elijah in 1 Kings 18. In verse 1, it says, “After a long time, in the
third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab,
and I will send rain on the land.’"
Read 1 Kings 18:41-45.
At the end of the chapter, after several other events have occurred, Elijah prays
seven times and finally the rain comes. According to verse one – whose idea was it
to send the rain? God’s. Whose will was it? God’s. Whose initiation was it? God’s, not
Elijah’s!
Why, if it was God’s will, God’s idea, and God’s timing, did it take Elijah (a human
being) to “birth” the rain? The Bible says that he prayed seven times. Why did Elijah
have to pray seven times? Maybe because seven is the Biblical number of
completion, so perhaps God was trying to teach us that we must pray until the task is
completed.
It was not a coincidence that Elijah prayed and the rain came – God has chosen
to work through people! God needs our prayers:
Read Ezekiel 22:30-31. According to this passage, what
kind of person is God looking for? “…. a man among them
who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the gap on
behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found
none….”
That is a scary passage, but proves the point that God is looking for intercessors
to pray so that He can work.
The word intercession means representing one party for another. When we
intercede, we are the go-between. Jesus is the ultimate intercessor – the ultimate
go-between. But Christ’s intercession was a work, not a prayer. It was an act of
mediation that purchased our right and qualified us to intercede for others. He isn’t
praying for us; He’s interceding for us so we can pray. That’s what is means to pray
“in His name.”
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When we pray in intercession, we are an extension of His work of intercession.
This means that we are actually distributors of all that was paid for at the cross.
Intercessor’s bring men before God and God’s word to men. This includes provision,
healing, deliverance, peace, victory, and justice.
Using our authority
The authority that God gave to humankind was an authority based in His splendor,
goodness, and love – His fullness. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive His
fullness. His fullness is the immeasurable source of abundance and life.
What it means to be filled with the fullness of God.
In Ephesians 3:18 Paul prayed that the believers would “be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height of the love of
God.” He also prayed in Ephesians 3:19 that they would “know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
What God is saying through this scripture is that we don’t have the ability to
understand or comprehend the revelation and experience of His love in the natural
mind that He gave us. It “passes knowledge.” But He desires that we comprehend
what it means to be filled with the fullness of Him. He wants to supernaturally enable
us to experience Him and use the authority that He gave us.
Paul was speaking to people who were Christians and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Even to those people, Paul was saying, “you are not relating to God on the level that
you can.” He wanted them to know how much of Jesus they could possess in their
physical bodies – the capacity to contain, receive, and manifest God. He prayed that
they would be filled with the fullness.
Look up and write out Colossians 2:9. “For in Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”
According to
John 1:16, what have received from the
fullness of His grace? “One blessing after another.”
In Ephesians 3:19, Paul prays for them that they would be able to walk in the
fullness – limitless anointing. Jesus had the Spirit without measure, and this is
available to us.
Acts 10:38: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy
Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were
under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.
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Because Jesus is our example, we can put our names in this verse and do what
He did!
What do the following passages tell us about the early
church leaders? Acts 19:11-12 and Acts 5:14-16. Acts 19:1112 –“ God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even
handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the
sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.” Acts
5:14-16 – “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and
were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into
the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's
shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.”
Having a revelation of His incomparably great power for
us who believe
Eph. 1:17-19: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious
Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him
better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you
may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance
in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like
the working of His mighty strength.”
Paul says he wants them to grasp something that can only be grasped if the eyes
of their hearts are opened. They needed the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that
they could comprehend what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards
those who believe.
Romans 8:11: “The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you”
That power of the resurrection is in us and available to us as believers. One reason
we don’t walk in power and authority is because we don’t have the revelation of the
exceeding greatness of His power towards us. Christ is in you! This exceeding
power is towards all who believe – not just apostles and evangelists and “great”
Christians.
What promise do we have from Jesus in John 14:12? “…
anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will
do even greater things than these, because I am going to the
Father.”
We as the church are His body. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And God placed all
things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”
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The church is the fullness of Him – it’s not denominations or groups of people
coming together for meetings. The church is to be an expression of the body of
Jesus. Everything that Jesus did and taught while in His body is the church. The
church should look like what Jesus did 2000 years ago.
From Matthew 10:8, what four things are believers
commanded to do? “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have
received, freely give.”
The church today doesn’t look like His body. His body fed 5000 and did miracles
– showing the exceeding greatness of His power. The church has the ability to walk
in the fullness of everything Jesus was when He walked the earth. We have the
same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead in us.
Do you know what you have? Do you know how to give
it away?
If you don’t know what you have, you can’t give it away.
Read Acts 3:1-10.
In verse 4, Peter said, “Look at us!” How could he say this with such boldness?
What if we did that? What if we said that to everyone who came to us needing a
miracle? Why did Peter tell the man to look at them? It’s because he knew what he
had, and he knew how to give it away.
Write out Acts 3:6. “Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have,
but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
walk.’"
Do you know what you have? You cannot have the boldness and authority that
Peter had to do miracles (filled with faith and power) unless you have a revelation of
Christ in you.
Do you ever think, “Don’t look at me – I don’t have anything – look at Jesus.” Of
course, we want to look at Jesus, but Peter said “look at us” because “it is no longer
I that lives, but Christ who lives in me.” What he was saying was, “look at Christ in
me, the hope of glory. I know what I have, and it is the exceeding greatness of His
power which is given to those who believe. That power is resurrection power – so
look at us!”
A religious spirit in us says things like, “You do know who did that miracle?” As if
we don’t know that Jesus did the miracle. We think it’s prideful to say, “Look at us.”
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But Peter was not operating in the flesh – but in who God had made him to be. He
was walking in the truth of Ephesians 1:3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ.” He knew that he was not his own, but that he belonged to Christ
who lived in him.
We may think only the “gifted” people should pray for others. “I’m just a mom, or a
shoe salesman, or a student.” The body of Christ must overcome that defeated “God
can’t do anything with me” attitude! We must develop a conquering attitude that
says, “I know what I have and I know it by revelation because I’ve been having an
intimate walk with God. I can say, ‘look at me, silver and gold have I none, but what
to do have, I give to you!’”
What we have in Christ
What we have is in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you.” That power is the Greek word dunamis which means virtuous,
miracle working power; a power that makes the impossible possible. It’s the word
used in Luke 5:17: “And the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.”
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you receive dunamis. What you have is the
exceeding greatness of His power!
Look up the following verses and list what we have in
Christ: Romans 8:11, Romans 8:37, Philippians 4:13, and 1
John 4:4. Romans 8:11 – life in our mortal bodies. Romans
8:37 – we are more than conquerors. Philippians 4:13 – we can
do everything because He gives us strength. John 4:4 – He who
lives in us is greater than he who lives in the world.
Proclaim who you are in Christ daily! We are a prayer force with unlimited power
and resources in Him.
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Prayer
Lord, You have given me authority to overcome all the power of satan.
You gave the earth to man, but we have not used the authority you
gave us to subdue evil in the world. Forgive us!
I receive the crown of glory and choose to walk in the authority that
You purchased through Your blood, Jesus. Hallelujah! You have in
Your possession the keys of the kingdom. I operate confidently and
with boldness in Your name to distribute your grace and mercy
throughout this world.
Father, I know you are looking for those who will stand in the gap to
intercede for the lost, the sick, those in need, and those in bondage.
Here I am! Send me!
Help me, Holy Spirit to comprehend what it means to be filled with the
fullness of God. Give me revelation of the incomparably great power I
have as a believer.
I desire to go about doing good and healing all who are oppressed.
Baptize me in fire so I can say with all confidence, “Look at me!” Give
me opportunities to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,
and cast out demons.
I bless You, Lord, and thank You! Freely I have received and freely I
want to give.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Assignment for Chapter Eight
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is near and that it is within us. Walking in
authority means we use the keys of the kingdom of God that were regained when
Jesus ascended to Hell to unlock gates and doors that were previously under the
control of the prince of the earth, satan. Do a word search in a concordance or on
Biblegateway.com of the phrases “kingdom of heaven” and kingdom of God”. Make
a list of verses and notes on what the Bible teaches about this subject.
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Spiritual Warfare
Week Nine
Ephesians 6:10-12: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on
the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly realms.
God intended for the church to be powerful. He said to be strong in His mighty
power. Today the church is not the most powerful force on the earth, although it
should be. Ephesians 6:11 tells us that satan has schemes. The devil is at the
drawing board trying to come up with another way to get to you.
We are in a conflict whether we believe it or not. Some think, “If I leave the devil
alone, he’ll leave me alone.” Being in denial or ignorance does not take away the fact
that there is a very real war going on. This war involves rulers, authorities, powers,
and spiritual forces of evil.
Luke 10:17-19: The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons
submit to us in Your name." He replied, "I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven. I
have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the
power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
In the following verses, underline the reference to satan:
2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Ephesians 2:1-2: “As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when
you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the
kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient.”
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Continue to underline references to satan:
John 12:31: “Now is the time for judgment on this world;
now the prince of this world will be driven out.”
I John 5:19: “We know that we are children of God, and that
the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
Before creation, Jesus saw satan fall from heaven. Satan desired to be God, and
therefore a conflict arose that lasted as long as a lightening strike – in other words,
there is no comparison between God and the devil. They are not two equal super
powers. Satan is a created being, and the creator is always greater than the creation.
God is not in the business of scaring us. The devil will try to scare us out of the
power that God has given us. Resolve today that that you will no longer cower down
to satan whether you are being attacked personally or praying for someone else
under satan’s attack. At the same time, though, satan cannot be taken lightly.
We are speaking about someone who has authority and power. The devil has
schemes and strategies to execute his battle plans. There are three basic levels of
spiritual warfare.
Three areas of spiritual warfare:
1. Ground level – casting out demons.
Matthew 10:1: He called his twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive
out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
God intends for His disciples to carry His name and cast out demons. A very
small percentage of the body of Christ is comfortable confronting demons or demonic
strongholds. Jesus described demons as being like snakes and scorpions. Memorize
Luke 10:19. Quote it in first person often. “Father, I thank you that You have given me
authority over snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Thank you
that nothing shall by any means harm me.”
2. Occult level – warfare against the spiritual forces behind satanists,
fortune tellers, and witches.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12: Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or
daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in
witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these
detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
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There are people right now casting spells – especially against Christians. They
pray and fast for Christian leaders to fall. Certain areas of the country are more
saturated with the occult, but it is everywhere. God has given the church power to
overcome the occult, and we do not need to be afraid if it. The only answer for the
occult is the church because we carry the only name that is above all other names –
the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus every demon must bow!
3. Strategic level intercession – dealing with strongholds through prayer.
This is the type described in Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 2:1-2: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in
which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
The god of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers. Different parts of the
world have high level spiritual rulers of darkness that strategically work to keep the
gospel from breaking through to people.
Read Daniel 10:10-13 and 10:20. Daniel received an angelic
visitation and a message from God. What two rulers of
darkness are mentioned in these passages? The prince of
Persia and the prince of Greece.
Prayer is not just conversation with God – it is also confrontation with the devil. God
designed prayer to be strategic and to have a purpose. God wants our prayers to
have objective. Spiritual warfare prayer is purposeful and exciting. The ultimate goal
of spiritual warfare is for souls to be saved and the glory of the Lord to fill the earth.
Intercessors around the world join in agreement daily to battle forces in the heavenly
realm. Every form of media – internet, magazines, cell phones – is used to
communicate battle plans for those who pray against the strongholds that control
nations.
Jesus confronted satan
Before Jesus began His ministry, He was baptized. The very next thing He faced
was a confrontation with the devil. He modeled for us how we are to confront satan.
First, He was connected with the Father through fasting, prayer, and worship. Then,
He used the word to combat the devil. He knew the word, and we also need to know
the word of God well enough to fight the devil.
Read Luke 4:1-21 and Matthew 4:1-11.
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To understand how to fight the devil, we need to be aware of what he’s up to.
Jesus was ready to combat every scheme that satan attempted because He knew his
enemy.
Satan was kicked out of heaven for trying to take God’s glory. What does it look
like when God is glorified? Two things will happen: people will get saved, and
people will get out of misery. You will notice something consistent about the devil –
everywhere that he has free reign and his activity is rampant, you will see massive
numbers of lost people, and you will see misery. Right now the center of satan’s
influence is in an area of the world called the 10/40 Window, which is essentially the
Middle East and the areas to the east and west of that region. In those nations there
is poverty, mistreatment of women, unattractive architecture, no flowers, and misery.
God wants people to have the opposite! He desires that people will have abundant
life, both eternally and in this life. You’ll know when God’s glory is covering the earth
because people will be saved and misery will be gone.
Read 2 Corinthians 4:4 again.
What strategy has satan
used to keep the lost from being saved? He has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers.
So how do we confront the devil? The foundation for successful spiritual
warfare is authority. Satan isn’t impressed with how many people show up for the
prayer meeting or how loudly we scream at him; he is impressed with only one thing:
authority. The same authority that gives us the ability to walk in the fullness of God
and see miracles enables us to overcome satan and all his demons. God has given
three mighty weapons of warfare to equip us.
Three mighty weapons of authority:
1. The name of Jesus.
This is one reason that we sing so many scripture songs with the name of Jesus.
The name of Jesus has power. It is above every other name. It’s above cancer,
diabetes, depression, and every evil dictator in the world. Jesus has given us access
to His name, so go ahead and do some “name dropping.” There is authority in His
name.
What does Philippians 2:9-10 tell us about the name of
Jesus? “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and
gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth.”
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2. The blood of Jesus.
The shedding of His blood on the cross was the ultimate defeat of the devil. Tell
satan and all his demons, “The blood of Jesus has defeated you.”
Read Colossians 2:13-15. From verse 15, what did Jesus
do when He shed His blood for us? “And having disarmed the
powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.”
3.
The word of God.
We need to know the word, speak the word, confess the word, use the word.
Jesus did that. Every time the devil came at Jesus, He responded with “It is
written…”
What does Hebrews 4:12 teach us about the word of God?
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any
double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of
the heart.”
Our weapons aren’t only defensive in nature. Ephesians 6: 17 says we have the
“sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God. We don’t use swords for blocking an
attack. We fight offensively with a sword. We need to become comfortable with handto-hand combat with the enemy.
1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us that the devil stalks us, plotting to pounce on us. “Be selfcontrolled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” There is never a moment
when we can take a nap in spiritual warfare – the devil and his host of demons never
take a “time out.”
Three areas of discipline for God’s army
To become effective warriors in God’s kingdom, we must be trained in three areas
of discipline that will make us strong and mighty in spirit. Every army has warriors
trained for battle, and it is the same with spiritual warfare. Our weapons, training,
and strategies are not like those of the world, though. In fact, we must be disciplined
in ways that are very unnatural for us.
These areas of discipline are covered extensively throughout this study, but we
need to be reminded of them over and over! Satan will do everything he can to keep
you from becoming strong in spirit.
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1. Lordship: submit to God.
He is our King. We are not in a democracy; we don’t have a vote. In a kingdom,
the king owns everything. Pray, “My life is Yours. My children are yours. My house
is yours. My day is Yours. My money is Yours. Everything I have is Yours! I am
Your servant, Your slave by choice, and I willingly give You every part of my life. You
are my King.” There are 55 times in the Bible that the word Savior is used, but there
are 6462 times that the word Lord is used.
Pray, “I’m not worthy to take one more step towards You, Lord. I’m not worthy to
even be called Your son or daughter except by the blood of Jesus. Everything good
that I have done has fallen short of Your glory. Outside of You, I am nothing. Let
there be less of me and more of You. I must decrease and You must increase. God,
today let my eyes, ears, hands, and feet be used to glorify You.” Submit to God,
resist the devil, and he will flee from you!
What do the following verses say about submission to
God? 1 John 2:3 and 5:3. 1 John 2:3 - “We know that we
have come to know Him if we obey His commands.” 1 John 5:3
– “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His
commands are not burdensome.”
2. Drawing near to God: intimacy.
To draw near means that we are spending time with God to the point of intimacy.
When you first begin developing intimacy with God, you may pray for an hour and
only get five good minutes out of it. But if you continue to pray diligently each day,
you’ll get 15 good minutes, then an hour… Over time you’ll develop true intimacy with
God. This discipline will require that you pick a specific place and time. You’ll need a
heart that really want to know Him – not an attitude that just wants to get trough with
a “chore.”
John 5:19: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only
what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also
does.”
Jesus didn’t even need to think about what He would do. He would just retire to a
quiet place and connect with the Father and then do what He saw the Father doing.
3. Cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.
If you haven’t achieved holiness, don’t attempt to confront the devil. This doesn’t
mean perfection; it means we are set apart, marked for God, and different from the
world. Cleansing our hands represents what we do, and purifying our hearts
represents what we think and feel. Holiness must be not only in action, but also in
attitude. Holiness is coming to a place where we have restricted ourselves from the
things that grieve the Holy Spirit. We allow the Spirit of God to put His finger on every
area of our lives: our words, our integrity, and our attitudes.
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In the Week Eleven we will cover a thorough teaching on praying for people with
demonic strongholds, but we should never engage in spiritual warfare unless we
have first gone heavenward by submitting to God, drawing near to God, cleansing
our hands, and purifying our hearts. If we have lordship, intimacy, and holiness we
can confront strongholds with power and success. We have access to Jesus’ name
and He has given us authority over every power of satan. We can resist the devil
and he will flee from us.
A place of security
In fighting the devil the most important question is not, “How do I confront the
devil?” It’s “How close can I get to God?” Although we are always on the
battleground spiritually and we must take an offensive stance against the enemy,
there is a constant place of peace and protection for us right in the midst of the
carnage and intensity of war – the shadow of God’s presence.
James 4:7-8: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.
When we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. God says He’s our shepherd
and our protector. Even on the battlefield He prepares a table, a feast, before us in
the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23:5).
Read Psalm 91 and list all of the ways that God protects us.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the
Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my
God, in whom I trust." 3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and
from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under
his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor
the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at
midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see
the punishment of the wicked. 9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge- 10 then no harm will befall you, no
disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their
hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread
upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect
him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I will
answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
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The Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-18
Following is a breakdown of each piece of our spiritual armor. God tells us in
Ephesians 6:11 to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the
schemes of the devil. Read through this list and be strengthened in your faith and
courage as you dress yourself in each piece.
Belt of Truth, verse 14
The belt holds the other pieces together so that there is no loose or clanging
armor. Putting on the Belt of Truth means that we
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

make no compromises with the truth.
speak words of life.
move in authority.
John 8:32 - you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Psalm 51:6 - Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; You teach me wisdom in the
inmost place.
Psalm 19:12-13 - Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your
servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
John 4:24 - God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
John 14:16-17 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to
be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it
neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be
in you.
John 14:26 - But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Breastplate of Righteousness, verse 14
The breastplate covers the heart and protects it. Putting on the Breastplate of
Righteousness means that we



live free of condemnation.
approach the enemy under the covering of the blood of Jesus.
move in confidence.
1 John 3:21- If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
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2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation... so
that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ps. 23:3 - He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Rom. 6:13 - Offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Proverbs 4:23 - Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Psalm 51:10 and 17 - Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit
within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart. O
God, you will not despise.
Shoes of Peace, verse 15
Shoes protect our feet on the battlefield. Putting on the Shoes of Peace means
that we




live in unity with the Holy Spirit and people.
commit to God’s ways and purposes.
confidently take what the enemy has stolen.
proclaim the good news to all!
Galatians 5:25 - Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Ps. 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Joshua 1:3 - I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised
Moses.
Luke 10:19 - I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to
overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
Romans 16:20 - The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Isaiah 52:7 - How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good
news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say
to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Shield of Faith, verse 16
The shield covers the rest of the armor. Putting on the Shield of Faith means that
we

simply trust in God.
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

consume all the fiery arrows of the enemy.
train ourselves with the Word of God.
Romans 10:17 - Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the word of Christ.
Heb. 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see.
Isaiah 7:9 - If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.
1 Corinthians 16:13 -Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage;
be strong.
2 Corinthians 5:7 - We live by faith, not by sight.
1 Peter 1:5 - Through faith [we] are shielded by God's power until the coming of the
salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 5:9 - Resist him [the devil], standing firm in the faith, because you know that
your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Helmet of Salvation, verse 17
The helmet protects the mind, which is the battlefield. The Roman helmet for a
soldier protected the facial area as well as the head. This speaks of guarding what
we hear, see, and speak. Putting on the Helmet of Salvation means that we



have received salvation, which includes eternal life, deliverance, and healing
through the blood of Jesus.
guard our minds from lies and confusion.
have our consciences cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 9:14 - How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts
that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Isaiah 59:17 - He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of
salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in
zeal as in a cloak.
1 Kings 6:16-17 - "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us
are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his
eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and
saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
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Psalm 141:1, 8 - O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I
call to you. my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD … in you I take refuge.
Psalm 25:15 - My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from
the snare.
Sword of the Spirit, verse 18
The sword in this armor is a short double-edged sword used for hand-to-hand
combat and for removing the arrows of the enemy. The Sword of the Spirit is the
word of God. Using the Sword of the Spirit means that we



have the Word of God in our hearts.
meet every attack of the enemy with the God’s Word.
use the Word of God to cleanse us from the wounds inflicted by the enemy.
Psalm 119:11 - I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubleedged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Psalm 149:6 - Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword
in their hand.
Revelation 1:16 - In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came
a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
Praying in the Spirit, verse 18
Praying in the Spirit is a powerful weapon of warfare because it is praying God’s
perfect will into a situation.
Romans 8:26 - The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought
to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express.
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Warfare Prayers
Breaking the yoke of bondage (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, 10:3-5, Romans 12:1,2)
"Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before you. I cover myself with the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection. I surrender myself completely and
unreservedly in every area of my life to you. I take a stand against all the workings of
satan that would hinder me in my prayer life. I address myself only to the true and
living God and refuse any involvement of satan in my prayer. Satan, I command you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all your demons. I
bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us. I resist all the endeavors of
satan and his wicked spirits to rob me of the will of God. I choose to be transformed
by the renewing of my mind. I pull down every thought that exalts itself against the
knowledge of Christ and loose into myself a sound mind, the mind of Christ."
General Confession and Prayer (Romans 10:10, James 5:16, I John 1:7-9, 3:8)
"Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you are the Messiah
come in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil. You died on the cross for my sins
and rose again the third day from the dead. I now confess all my sins and repent. I
ask you to forgive me and CLEANSE me now from all sin. Thank you for redeeming
me, cleansing me, justifying me and sanctifying me in your blood."
Forgiveness Prayer (Matthew 6:14, 15, Leviticus 19:18)
"Lord, I have a confession to make. I have not loved, but have resented certain
people and have unforgiveness in my heart. I call upon you, Lord, to help me forgive
them. I do now forgive (name them, both living and dead). I ask you to forgive them
also, Lord. I do now forgive and accept MYSELF in the name of Jesus Christ."
Occult Confession Prayer (Deuteronomy 18:10-13, Galatians 5:20)
"Lord, I now confess seeking from satan the help that should come from God. I now
confess as sin (name all occult sins) and also those sins I cannot remember. Lord, I
now repent and renounce those sins, and ask you to forgive me. I rebuke satan. I
count all things of satan as my enemies. In the name of Jesus Christ, I now close the
door on all occult practices, and I command all such spirits to leave me in the name
of Jesus Christ."
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(Here is a very brief list of occult practices, channeling, astral projection, crystals,
precognition or fortune telling, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, ouija board, tarot
cards, good luck charms, seances, involvement with Edgar Cayce, Jean Dixon,
Shirley McLain, communication with the dead or any spirit of a human being, dead or
alive (this is really communication with demons impersonating people) mind control,
witchcraft, fourleaf clover, rabbit foot, wishbone, E.S.P., transcendental meditation,
hypnosis, mind altering drugs, yoga, incense, dungeons and dragons, pendulum,
palm reading, automatic handwriting, horoscopes, signs of zodiac, voodoo, magic,
levitation, water witching, tealeaf reading, secret organizations like Freemasons, the
worship of or praying to any other that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.)
Pride (Proverbs 11:2, 16:18. 26:12, I Timothy 3:6)
"Father, I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know pride is an
abomination to you. I renounce anything that would cause me to have pride in my
heart in dealing with other people. I renounce these and turn away from them. I
humble myself before you and come to you as a little child." (Study Proverbs 6:1619. Also, remember that fasting is a means by which a person humbles himself
before the Lord).
Unbelief and Doubt (John 16 8,9, Romans 11 20, 21, Hebrews 3:7-19)
"Father, I renounce unbelief and doubt as sin, and ask you to forgive me from these.
I ask you, Father, to replace them with great confidence in your Word and great faith
and trust in you."
Negative Spiritual and Emotional Ties (I Sam 18:1, I Corinthians 6:15, 16)
"Father, I break and renounce evil spiritual and emotional ties that I have had or may
have and with (lodges, adulterers, close friends, husbands, wives, engagements,
cults, and binding agreements between buddies). I renounce these evil ties. I break
them, and wash them away with the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Generational Bondage Prayer (Exodus 20:4-6, 34:7, Numbers 14:18)
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I now renounce, break and loose myself from
all psychic powers, bondages, or bonds of physical or mental illness upon me, my
family or family line as the result of parents or any other ancestors. I thank you, Lord,
for setting me free."
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Loosing of Curses, Spells, Etc. Prayer (Numbers 14:18, James 3:9)
"In the name of Jesus Christ, I now rebuke, break and loose myself and my children
from any and all evil curses, charms, vexes, hexes, spells, jinxes, psychic powers,
bewitchment, witchcraft, and sorcery that have been put upon me or my family line
from any persons or from any occult or psychic sources, and I cancel all connected
and related spirits and command them to leave me.
I break the power of any
negative word that has ever been spoken against me or anyone in my family. I thank
you, Lord, for setting me free."
Loosing from Domination Prayer (Deuteronomy 23:2, 18:10-12, Galatians 5:20)
"In the name of Jesus Christ I now renounce, break and loose myself from all
demonic subjection to my parents, grandparents, or any other human beings, living or
dead, who have dominated me in any way. I thank you, Lord, for setting me free."
Come to Jesus Delivery Prayer (Matthew 18:18, Isaiah 11:2, I Corinthians 4:4,
6:19, 20, I John 4:1)
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command satan and all his demons to loose
my mind. I ask you Father to send angels to cut and sever all fetters, bands, ties,
and bonds, whether they be by word or deed. I now ask the Lord, to loose the Spirits
of the Lord, listed in Isaiah 11:2, (the Spirit of the Lord, the Fear of the Lord, Counsel,
Might, Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding) into me and my family. I come to
you, Jesus, as my deliverer. You know all my needs (name them). I now loose
myself from every dark spirit, from every evil influence, from every satanic bondage,
from every spirit in me that is not the spirit of God, and I command all such spirits to
leave me now in the name of Jesus Christ. I confess that my body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed, and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Therefore,
satan has no place in me, no power over me, because of the blood of Jesus."
Restoring the Soul Prayer (Psalms 23:3, Hebrews 4:12)
"Father, I thank you that as I am being set free by your power and learning to stand
firm against the power of the devil, that my soul is being restored and returned to its
proper place within me.
I rebuke the devil for trying to destroy my life, and I
command all spirits that have attacked my soul to loose it and let it go. I set my mind,
will and emotions one hundred percent toward the service of the Lord Jesus Christ."
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Blood of Jesus Prayer
Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Through the
blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son,
cleanses me continually from all sin. Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified,
made holy, set apart unto God. My body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. I am
redeemed, cleansed, sanctified, totally set free from the bondage of the devil by the
blood of Jesus. Therefore, satan has no part in me, no power over me, through the
blood of Jesus. I renounce satan. I loose myself from him and command him to
leave me, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!"
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Prayer assignment for Week Nine
Pray daily through the warfare prayers above for yourself or someone you know
who is in bondage. Journal breakthroughs and anything the Lord reveals to you.
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Commissioning
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Week
Twelve
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List
prayer opportunites at church and the styles under each one.
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Healing and Fasting
Week Ten
Healing
Isaiah 53:4-5 - Surely He took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered Him stricken by God,
smitten by Him, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
When Jesus gave up His life for us, the enemy of our souls was defeated.
Colossians 2:13-14 tells us, “When you were dead in your sins and in the
uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us
all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us
and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Look up and write out the next verse, Colossians 2:15. “And
having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
One of the ways that satan has wrecked havoc on people is through sickness and
disease. After a person is sick, the devil’s greatest weapons are fear and
discouragement. He has convinced the church that God makes people sick, or at
least allows it, and that if God wanted people well, they wouldn’t be sick.
There have been many outstanding books written giving testimonies of healings
and teaching on this subject. For this study we will keep is very simple: God wants
people well. Jesus took stripes on His back, and “by His wounds we are healed.”
For some the question is, “Do you think God can heal you?” For others who
believe that God can certainly do anything, the question is “Do you believe God
wants to heal you?”
In Mark 9 is the story of a father who brought his son to Jesus to be set free from
an evil spirit. The man said, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Jesus’ response was so simple: “'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible
for him who believes."
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In Luke 5 is another story of a man who had leprosy. He fell on his face and
implored Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Again, Jesus
gave a simple response: “I am willing," He said. "Be clean!"
Please don’t allow satan to confuse you on the subject of healing. He will always
point you to those who weren’t healed or to those who have been praying in faith with
no apparent success. Unbelief is rampant in our culture, and we must stand together
for a breakthrough in the area of healing. Jesus should get what He paid for!
Paul warned the Corinthian church about satan’s schemes:
2 Corinthians 11:3 - But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to
Christ. (NASB).
Look up Psalm 103:2-3. What are two of the benefits that
we have through Jesus? “He forgives all your sins and heals
all your diseases.”
About two-thirds of Jesus’ ministry was healing the sick. It would seem to make
sense that if He said we would do greater works than He did, (John 14:12) that our
ministry should look like His ministry. One reason we don’t embrace healing like we
should is because it’s elusive for us: we don’t understand how it happens. American
inquiring minds demand to know. No one has it figured out because it’s supernatural!
Cancer just doesn’t leave on it’s own, and we have natural minds that demand
reason. Christians love gimmicks and formulas, but if you study the healings that
Jesus performed, you will not find formulas. You will only find one simple truth: “By
your faith, you are healed.” It’s all about a person – JESUS. You can grow in your
knowledge of Him, but you will never figure Him out. Believe in a God who is
supernatural. The secret to receiving a healing from God is faith. Faith is a tangible
intangible.
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.
Substance is a tangible. What we’re hoping for is something we don’t already
have. Hope is an intangible. Evidence is a tangible. What we can’t see is an
intangible. To make the two meet, we just have to believe God.
When you pray for the sick, refuse to theologize about healing while people are in
need. Our job is not to try to figure it out; our job is to believe that God is able and
willing. If you believe that, you have childlike simple faith that can move mountains.
In the gospels many healings are recorded. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith
comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word. To
build our faith as intercessors who pray for the sick, the best strategy is simply to
read the word of God to find out the truth about healing.
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A determined woman
Read Mark 5:24-34 and Luke 8:42-48.
The woman in these passages knew that if she could just get close to Jesus and
touch the hem of His clothes, she would be healed. When she reached out and
touched His robe, Jesus freed her from her suffering! When we persevere until we
get to the place where we can actually touch the Lord by faith, virtue will come from
Him to heal. There is a part that we play - He is the healer, but we prevail in prayer
through persistence until there is relief from suffering. God has paid an incredible
price to relieve the world of suffering, but many suffer unnecessarily.
The woman in this story had heard that Jesus was a miracle worker, that He was
claiming to be the Son of God, and that He was going from town to town healing
people. She had been sick for twelve years. She had spent all her money, and the
doctors of her day had done all they could do. She was at the end of her rope and
made up her mind to press through the crowd to get to Jesus. Her action was such a
powerful exercise of faith that Jesus physically felt the healing go out of His body to
her. If you or someone you know is sick and the suffering has gone on long enough,
begin believing God for healing. God wants to put an end to the suffering!
When we deal with sickness, we deal with what seems to be reality, but it’s not
God’s reality. It’s our reality because it’s what we see and hear on planet earth, but
there is a higher reality! Faith will supersede our reality. Faith overrides facts. Learn
how to press through the crowd and overcome the resistance of the enemy. Don’t
ever give up; just keep pressing and healing will come. Have shameless persistence!
Touch God and His virtue will be released.
Psalm 40:1-3 - I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise
to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
God will put us on a rock, a solid place to stand, if we put our trust and faith in
Him.
Jesus walked on the water
Read Mark 6:45-52. Write out verse 46. ‘After leaving them,
He went up on a mountainside to pray.”
Jesus lived the miraculous life, not only because He is Emanuel, God with us, but
also because He spent time with God. He went to the mountain to pray. Why would
He have to go to the mountain to pray? Because in His finite human state, He had to
get away to be alone with the Father. He actually had to become a human to become
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the perfect sacrifice for our sins. “There is one mediator between God and man, and
it is the MAN Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) He can relate to us as a human, but He
can also do something about our problems because He’s God. If you want to have
the God-touching faith, you must spend time with the Father. You have to get to know
Him – know that it’s His nature to heal and experience His power.
There will be tribulations and trials, but we gain patience and perseverance that
lifts our faith as we spend time with the Father. When all things look impossible, the
only thing to do is get alone with the Father. In that solitude, He makes Himself
known to us. We see how limited, small, and finite we really are as individuals
contrasted with how awesome and how great our God is. Even though the disease
and suffering are too big for us, we begin to realize that nothing is too big for Him. If
we want to walk on water, we have to spend time with the Father. Sometimes as
intercessors we think that our job is to pray for the sick and proclaim God’s promises
over them and they will be healed. That’s only part of our job. The majority of our job
when it comes to praying in faith for the impossible is the part that no one sees or
hears but the Father. Nothing is impossible for Him!
Hebrews 10:19-22: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most
Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the
curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let
us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies
washed with pure water.
Because of what Jesus has done, He now gives us the full assurance of faith that
first, all of our sins are forgiven, and second, our healing is paid for. We can go in as
priests without guilt or shame before the Holy God at His very throne and find grace
when we need it!
The Syrophoenician woman
Read Mark 7:24-30.
For faith that works miracles, all it takes is a crumb. The Syrophoenician woman
was satisfied with the crumbs left for the dogs because she believed in a God who
could and would help her – even though she was not e Jew, one of God’s people.
The scripture says if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to the
mountain be plucked up and cast into the sea, and it will obey you. A little faith is
greater than all the Law put together. It’s greater than all the ceremonial cleansing.
It’s greater than all the rituals and catechisms and theology. When we need a
miracle, we go for the crumbs because it doesn’t take much. Come to Him in faith for
relief of the suffering.
Healing isn’t always instant, but the process begins the moment that we come in
faith. His healing is always complete. He has a way of taking the suffering that we
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go through and using it to turn our hearts toward Him. Whether you are praying for
your own healing or interceding for someone else, press through the crowd and
touch Him.
Look up and write out Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is
impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him
must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who
earnestly seek Him.”
Diligent faith is faith that doesn’t give up and will not be denied. God will honor
you. Shameless persistence gets His attention.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it.
Again, what 4 things does God command us to do in
Matthew 10:8? “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those
who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received,
freely give.”
God told us to preach the gospel. We wouldn’t sit in a service and wait for God to
bring the message. A person gives the message. We wouldn’t stop and pray for God
to start the preaching. That would be ludicrous! With healing we often talk ourselves
out of praying for someone because of the mentality that Jesus will do all the work.
We say, “I can’t get involved here because I can do nothing.” The Bible says the
Spirit of the Lord is upon us to preach the good news. We don’t just wait for the
sermon to come forward. In the same way we have the authoritative command to
heal the sick…. Jesus is the healer, but He commanded us to heal the sick!
It’s not because of how good you are – it’s what He made available through the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Again, let Him get what He paid for! It’s
rooted in grace – He gave it to you! Be a joint heir and take what you’ve been given
to use for the glory of God!
Jesus said whatever city or town you enter – heal the sick there! Put your name
again in Acts 10:38 - “You know of (your name here) of Birmingham, how God
anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good
and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
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The instruction to the church: James 5:14-18
James 5:14-18 is the instruction to the church for praying for the sick. Study this
scripture and hide it in your heart. There are strong words from the Lord in this
passage that need to be permanently etched in our hearts!
“Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him
and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will
make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be
forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah
was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain
on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain,
and the earth produced its crops.”
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Prayer for healing
Father, in the name of Jesus, I come before you to ask you to heal
____. I know that the prayer of faith will make the sick person well.
Please raise him up! Thank you for forgiving him of his sins.
My hope is in You, Lord, his Healer. I believe You are willing and able
to do this. Your name is Jehovah Rafah, and at Your name every knee
will bow including _____ (name of disease).
Thank You, Jesus, for going to the cross so that we could be healed:
“Surely He took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered Him stricken by God,
smitten by Him, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)
I bless You with all my soul and remember Your benefits – You forgive
all of our sins and heal all our diseases. I pray that You satisfy ______
with good things and renew his youth like the eagle’s. Your plans for
him are good; he has a wonderful future and great hope.
Thank You, Lord, that Your Spirit lives in him – the same Spirit that
raised Jesus from the dead lives in his mortal body! I stand in faith for
my friend. Your word will accomplish what You sent it to do – it won’t
return to You empty.
Nothing is impossible with our mighty God!
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Fasting
There are times when we deny ourselves in the natural in order to press in
spiritually. Fasting removes distractions and gives our spirit man strength so that we
can make a purer connection with the Lord.
Jesus fasted before He began His public ministry. The details of this fast are
recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 1:1-13.
Jesus’ disciples were criticized by the Pharisees because they didn’t fast. In
Luke 5:34-35, Jesus answered their criticism, "Can you make the guests of the
Bridegroom fast while He is with them? But the time will come when the Bridegroom
will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” Jesus was predicting the time
that He would be gone from His disciples after His death, resurrection, and ascension
back into heaven. He said after that time, His followers would fast. Fasting is a part
of the lifestyle of our staff and leadership of Church of the Highlands and encouraged
for every member. We follow the example that Jesus set for us.
In the Old Testament and the New Testament, fasting was a common practice. It
has not been until about the past 100 years that fasting has not been a part of the
lifestyle of the church. Most Christians have never heard or read a single teaching on
fasting and will never do it in their life time. However, in order to be a New Testament
Christian, fasting should be a part of our lifestyle just like prayer, reading our Bibles,
and worship. Believers in the early church fasted as a normal part of their worship
and prayer.
In Acts 13:2-3, what happened while the believers
worshipped and fasted? “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they
had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.’”
4 Biblical times/ reasons to fast
1. Fasting during transitions.
2 Samuel 1:12: They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son
Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had
fallen by the sword.
Saul, the king of Israel, and his son Jonathon had just died. David, the one called
to be the next king of Israel, had long been anointed as king, but had not been
installed as king, yet. It was time for him to take the throne. David called a fast during
his time of transition. He led the people in humbling themselves before God to help
them through this time. There were enemies rising up against them, and they need
God’s protection.
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The first of the year is a transition time and that is why at Highlands we fast for 21
days in January. The first part of the year will set the tone for the rest of the year.
This is an opportunity to tell God what is most important to us and establish the fact
that He is first in our lives. God loves for us to give Him the first of everything.
2. Fasting in desperation.
Esther 4:16: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do
not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When
this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I
perish.”
Esther was a Hebrew girl brought into the Babylonian king’s palace to be his
queen during the time that God’s people were exiled to Babylon from Israel. She
found out that there was a plan by one of the king’s officials to annihilate her race.
She knew that the only way to stop it was for her to go to the king. To go and speak
to the king without first being asked to come meant certain death. No one was
permitted to speak to the king unless they were invited to come into his presence.
She sent word out that she was going to go to the king. She said “If I perish, I
perish.” She had a lot of courage. Because she knew her life was on the line, she
fasted. She asked all of her people to fast because they all desperately needed the
favor of the king.
When you are in a desperate situation and you need favor, fast. When we fast, we
declare that we can’t do what we have in our hearts to do unless God helps us.
We’re not capable. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit…. Healings,
deliverances from demonic forces, restoration of marriages can only happen if the
Holy Spirit shows up in a situation.
3. Fasting for the future.
Nehemiah 1:3-4: They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are
back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem
is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." When I heard
these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and
prayed before the God of heaven.
The exiles were released after seventy years, just as had been prophesied. They
were permitted to go back to Israel. Their land was in ruins. Ezra, the scribe, and
Nehemiah led them back home. They began rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.
Ezra’s job was to bring back spiritual life to God’s people. The people had completely
forgotten God’s law and the scriptures. Ezra found the scrolls that contained God’s
word and read it aloud. The people were astounded at what was read to them. They
tore heir robes in shame because they had not lived according to God’s expectations.
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Ezra proclaimed a fast and asked for God’s protection as they prepared for their
future. When you’re preparing for the future, fast and pray for God’s plan.
Read Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah’s 1:5-11.
What is God’s promise to us in John 10:4-5? “When He has
brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow
Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in
fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's
voice.”
4. Fasting in spiritual warfare.
God’s people fasted when they needed to defeat the enemy who wanted to keep
them from receiving the promises that God had for them. When the devil has his
way, there is disaster and calamity and every kind of evil. But God says when we call
on Him, He will answer us. He said He would rescue us if we seek Him and call on
His name. We as believers can pray and fast and alter the course of the plans of the
devil. We call that spiritual warfare. God has given us many promises that are
conditional – He says, “If you…, then I…” The devil has dominion, and chaos will
reign in the world unless God’s people pray and fast and humble themselves. We
can turn the course of history. History belongs to those who fast and pray.
Read Daniel 10.
Daniel was in a desperate situation. In Daniel 9 is recorded his impassioned
prayer of desperation to God. He fasted for twenty-one days. He ate no pleasant
food – he denied himself any food that brought his flesh pleasure. On the last day of
the fast, Daniel had a vision of an angel (some believe this vision was actually of
Jesus) who gave Daniel a message. He told Daniel that on the first day of the fast he
had actually been on his way to answer Daniel’s prayer when he was confronted with
the “Prince of Persia.” The “Prince of Persia” was a demonic stronghold or
principality over that area of the world. Throughout the scriptures demons and
demonic strongholds are referred to as princes or principalities.
Ephesians 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 2:2: …in which you once walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons
of disobedience…
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The angel told Daniel that he had been fighting this principality for 21 days. There
had been a struggle in the spirit realm. Paul said we don’t wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against principalities. When we fast and pray in spiritual warfare, we
wrestle with the enemy. Often it is a real struggle. Prayer isn’t just communion with
God – it’s also confrontation with the devil.
A Lifestyle of prayer and fasting
Read Matthew 17:14-20.
Most translations say in the next verse, Matthew 17:21, “However, this kind does
not go out except by prayer and fasting.” The disciples couldn’t deliver the boy
because they were not prepared spiritually. Prayer with fasting – before we even
know what we will encounter – prepares our spirit and soul.
Prayer and fasting isn’t starving yourself until you get what you want from God. It
isn’t a hunger strike. Fasting is not a way to manipulate God into action. Prayer and
fasting is more about aligning ourselves with God’s will and promises than having a
prayer answered or a need met.
Why does fasting work? Because we are triune beings. As we discussed in
Week Three, we are made up of a spirit, a soul, and a body. All other living beings,
such as dogs and horses, have only two parts: a body and a soul. Human beings
have one part that separates us from all other living beings - our spirit. We are the
only part of God’s creation made in His image. When we are saved, our spirit man is
made alive and perfect. Our spirit man is the part of us that lives forever. When God
looks at us, He’s sees us (our spirit) as perfect through the blood of Jesus. However,
our spirit is trapped inside the other two parts – our soul and our body. The soul is
our mind, will, and emotions. Our soul and our body are constantly at war with our
spirit.
What does Romans 7:23 tell us about this war? “For in my
inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me
a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”
The Bible refers to our carnal side, the soul and body, as our flesh. Our flesh
wants to sin, but as Christians we are in a process called regeneration. In
regeneration, our soul and body come into alignment with our spirit man, and we are
transformed into the image of Jesus. Over time if we study the word, listen to
anointed messages, have fellowship with other believers, and seek God through
prayer and fasting, our body and soul will begin to look like our spirit man and more
like Christ.
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The strongest part of our being will be whatever part we feed the most. The
strongest part will rule. If we feed the body pornography or any other appetite that it
craves, it will overcome the other two parts of our being. Even if the addiction makes
us depressed, angry, or fearful in our soul or detached from God in our spirit, our
body will call the shots. It wants things that enlarge it – it is willing to provide pain and
pleasure to the soul as a means to “train” it to get what it wants. Training (both good
and bad) can be defeated – but transformation is divine in origin and not easily
reversed. Similarly, when the soul is the strongest, there is no concern for the body
or spirit – so much so that the soul man could decide to literally kill the body.
However, when the spirit man is in charge, it’s a glorious thing! Fasting moves us
more quickly to a spirit-led life because not only does it build up our spirit man, but it
starves the other two at the same time. In fasting we weaken our flesh and
strengthen our spirit. If we fast without praying, though, we are simply starving
ourselves. There is no spiritual value in that. We want to be sure we are building up
our spirit man. Fasting does not have to be depriving oneself of just food. Fasting is
not penance to get God to be impressed with us. That is religion. Fasting is simply
denying our flesh so that our spirit man can feast on God.
How to Fast
If you are doing a food fast, during the time that you would normally eat, read the
Bible – feast on God’s word. Pray and listen to worship music. Listen to a good
teaching.
Your flesh won’t like this very much. We are addicted to the news,
movies, food, sugar…. Find the area where your flesh is most alive and fast in that
area. For most people the best connection to our fleshly man is food. The first sin
was committed by taking a bite of something. Rather than obey God, we’d prefer to
feed our appetite. We fall into sin at a crossroad where our spirit man is saying,
“Don’t do it!” but our craving at that moment wins the fight.
When you go without food, after the first day you’re body will begin to cleanse
itself and get rid of toxins. You may have body aches and pains. Many have said that
the hardest days of fasting food are the third through the fifth days. It’s a “hump”
after which fasting should get easier. Pastor Chris believes that fasting is God’s
system for staying healthy and ridding our bodies of toxins.
Types of fasts:
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A supernatural fast. Because this fast requires going without food or water
for more than three days, it is not recommended without extremely clear
direction from God. The only two people in the Bible who did this type of fast
were Jesus (Luke 4:2) and Moses (Deuteronomy 9:18) who each fasted for
40 days. This type of fast is physically impossible because we can’t live
without water for more than a few days. Actually, when we go on a food fast,
we need to drink twice the amount of water than we normally drink do so that
we avoid dehydration.
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A total fast. This is going without food and drinking only water.
A non-total fast. In this type of fast you would be fasting solid food and
drinking primarily juices.
The Daniel fast. This fasting anything pleasant. This fast is recommended
for most people, especially those who have never fasted before. A good plan
might be to eat only the evening meal or perhaps fasting sweets.
The Holy Spirit helps us to decide the fast that is appropriate. Don’t fast if you
have medical or dietary reasons that prohibit you from doing so. Consult your
physician and be smart about fasting. According to Pastor Chris Hodges, the best
study on fasting was done by the late Dr. Bill Bright. You can access this study at the
following website: www.billbright.com/howtofast.
Five things to pray for when you fast
1. Declare your dependence on God. The key word is humility. Fasting
does not make us spiritually elite. We’re not saying we’re better because we fast. If
fasting is done with a pure heart, the thought of fasting to prove our spirituality would
be abhorrent. We fast because we need God.
2. Ask for forgiveness. Humility and brokenness are the keys to getting God’s
attention. True humility says, “God, I’m in this situation, and I’m not even going to try
to suggest an answer. Whatever you say, I’ll accept.” A broken and contrite spirit
God will not despise. He is very attracted to anyone who cries out to Him for help.
3. Cry out for the Great Commission to be completed. This is what
we live for. We have a short life here on earth to put a dent in the devil’s kingdom
and populate heaven.
4. Cultivate God’s presence in your life. Again, we can’t stress enough the single most important commodity that we can have in life is His presence. Ask for
more anointing, more power, more love.
5. Bring needs before God.
Read Isaiah 58:2-10. Write out verses 8-9a as a prayer to
ask God for healing, holiness, and help. “Then your light will
break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your
righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear
guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and
He will say: ‘Here am I.’”
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Prayer for fasting
Father, I commit to fasting for the situation that I’ve been praying for. I
humble myself before You as I deny myself according the fast You
have chosen for me. I ask for strength to be cheerful during this time
and care for myself so that I don’t draw attention as I fast.
I have such confidence in You, my Lord, as I approach You! I know
that You’ll grant my requests as You lead me in Your will and that You
hear me. Thank You that as You hear me, You give me everything I
ask for!
I delight in You, God. Thank You for giving me desires that are good. I
commit to You everything and I know my plans will succeed because
of that.
I pray that this fast will loose chains of injustice and untie cords of the
yoke. Thank you that as I fast, the oppressed will be set free and every
yoke will be broken!
Thank you that You sanctify me through and through as I deny myself
for You will to be done. Keep me blameless – spirit, soul, and body until Jesus comes back.
Your word stands forever, Lord. It will accomplish what You sent it out
to do. I praise You!
In Jesus’ name, Amen
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Prayer assignment for Week Ten
Fast this week for someone you know who is sick. Let the Holy Spirit lead you in
the type of fast. Listen for the Lord’s voice as you fast, and journal what you hear. If
the sick person is willing, anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, lay hands on
him, and pray in faith for healing.
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Commissioning
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Twelve
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List
prayer opportunites at church and the styles under each one
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Ministry
Week Eleven
This week we’ll cover a thorough teaching in personal one-on-one prayer ministry.
Personal prayer ministry can be very brief, such as praying for someone at an altar
call, or it can take time, such as in-depth prayer sessions for someone suffering deep
inner pain or demonic influences. This will be the most practical chapter in this
study. The goal will be to train you so that you will become a confident, faith-filled
conduit of God’s blessing for anyone who comes to you in need. Please don’t get
bogged down in mechanics. Many of the instructions you will read are designed to
remove obstacles so that intercession can be offered with ease and the person in
need can openly receive the provision that God has for him or her.
First, we’ll look at basic guidelines for praying for someone at an altar call. These
pointers can be modified for use in any situation where you are asked to pray for
someone. This type of ministry will be brief. There are times that we will be called on
to go deep with people to uncover strongholds and minister healing and deliverance
that will take more time, but more often our opportunities to minister to people will be
constrained by time and circumstances. We want to be prepared at all times –
whether at an altar call, at the grocery, at work, at home, or on the phone – to make
the most of every divine appointment.
How to Pray for Someone at an Altar Call
Greet the person warmly. Ask for their name and use it as you talk to them
1.
and pray for them. Shake his hand if he is a man. Taking their hands, whether a
man or woman, is a good way to put them at ease and encourage them to come
into agreement with you as you pray. If you are a man, you can touch a woman’s
shoulder or arm only if it is covered. Be aware of praying too close to someone of
the opposite sex. In services where the music is loud, it may be difficult for the
person to hear your prayer, but God can hear .
Ask them how they would like for you to pray for them. Let them talk
2.
for a minute, but don’t let them go on too long. The more they talk about their
problem the bigger it gets, and there may be others waiting to be prayed for.
Move to prayer for them as soon as it is appropriate. Remember that
3.
you are not their solution. It’s o.k. to say, “I don’t have the answer, but God
does.” Don’t counsel; point them to God. As you pray, use scripture – it will build
their faith. God will bring scriptures to your mind that will be the living word for
that person. Bring hope and faith to them through your prayers.
Always be aware of the pastor and his leadership. When he begins to
4.
wrap up the prayer time, this is your queue to end your prayer ministry. If you feel
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strongly that the person you are praying for needs further ministry, locate a
pastor or another leader to assist you, if one is available, and move to another
location to continue.
5.
Send them off with a scripture. Again, the Lord will bring up scriptures as
you’re praying. After you end the prayer, encourage them that you are standing
with them and give them the rhema - “now” - word that God has revealed to you.
When you end a time of personal prayer ministry, a hug can be a very comforting
and affirming gesture. Hugs from the side and front hugs (with only contact at the
shoulders) are appropriate.
6.
Wear appropriate attire. We are asked not to wear shorts when scheduled to
pray for people at a service at Church of the Highlands. Women ministers should
wear modest clothing. Any tattoos should be covered. We don’t want to attract
attention or be a distraction in any way when praying for people.
These are the general guidelines for altar ministry at Highlands. Of course, you
can adapt them to fit your situation.
Prayer for Inner Healing and Freedom from
Oppression
Sometimes as an intercessor you will have opportunities to pray at retreats or join
in prayer sessions for people who need more in-depth prayer ministry. In fact, every
human being who has lived in this world needs cleansing, inner healing, physical
healing, and deliverance. This type of ministry takes time. This section will be quite
thorough so that you will be equipped to go on the front lines of battle.
Our job in praying for people is to love them to wholeness and to be bold in the
face of the enemy. We should never back down, but require the enemy to loose
people and let them go. We are conduits of freedom to God’s people.
If we are on a prayer team, such as at retreat or in a prayer session where other
intercessors are present to pray for someone, we need to remember that we are
soldiers in battle. As we war against the enemy, we must be in unity with one
another, or he will be able to penetrate and resist our efforts to bring people their
healing or freedom.
Underline in Ephesians 4:1-3 where our efforts should lie.
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life
worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely
humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in
love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace.”
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Unity, trusting one another, submitting, and humility - that’s what God’s army looks
like so that the enemy cannot step in and bring confusion. It isn’t about us at all; it’s
about our king Jesus and His heart to bring freedom and healing to those that He
loves so much. It’s about us growing and getting better at extending His kingdom.
If you know you’ll be serving on a prayer team, be sure to prepare your heart. We
have studied much on this subject, but as a reminder we should stay pure, stay
clean, stay set apart. A key to our anointing is to have a heart that is fully
consecrated. We want to be instant to repent of sin and to be forgiving. We want to
come prepared to minister with a clean heart that’s open and sensitive to the Holy
Spirit.
Guarding our minds
When we go on the attack in praying for people to be healed or set free, the
enemy will resist. How does he resist? With words, accusations, and fear. He will
use his common schemes of pride, fear, and insecurity to retaliate against us. The
strategy is to get us operating in the flesh so that we are ineffective. Be prepared to
see it coming. We need to instantly discern hell’s influence and stand against it with
God’s truth. We need to recognize the lie, reject the lie, and replace the lie with what
God’s says is the truth.
1. Pride.
Nothing stops the flow of God’s power more than pride. It’s easy to think, “Oh, I
just set that person free” or “I’m really doing a good job, I wonder if the other
ministers are doing as good a job as I am?” The enemy wants to instill in us an elitist
attitude. Pride will quench the Sprit of God in us. There is no place for pride in God’s
kingdom. It kills our anointing. This is Jesus’ work, not ours. It is all about Him, not
us. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
2. Fear.
Another tactic hell uses against intercessors is fear. We may hear things like the
following:




“What if nothing happens when I pray?”
“What if the person manifests demons?”
“What if the person doesn’t approve of or like my prayer?”
“You’re not ready for this – you’re not good enough to minister to
someone else.”
We must continually combat the lies of the enemy with the truth of God’s Word.
Jesus had to do this when He faced satan in the wilderness. Notice that He didn’t
argue with satan. He simply instantly responded with the truth, and we need to do
the same – especially in the area of fear.
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Write out 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear
involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
Never entertain or give place to the lies, but recognize them for what they are –
they are spirits of darkness trying to talk to us.
3. Insecurity.
If we rely on our own strength, we have reason to be insecure. The enemy wants
us to be in the flesh. He wants us to become focused on ourselves. This is what
satan tried to get Jesus to do when he tempted Jesus in the desert. Some of the lies
of insecurity that we might hear:
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
“What if they think I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“You don’t have anything good to pray.”
“I have just as many problems as they do, why am praying for them?”
“If anyone knew how bad I’d been lately about praying and reading my Bible,
they wouldn’t want to come to me.”
“God really can’t use me – look at my family situation.”
These are lies! They need to be recognized, rejected, and replaced with the truth
of God’s Word.
Read the following verses and circle the “power” words:
Romans 8:37 - “We are all more than conquerors through
Christ!”
Phil. 4:13 - “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me!”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5- “For though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
Zechariah 4:6 - “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.”
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Possession or Bondage?
It is important to distinguish between possession and bondage. Can a Christian
be possessed by a demon? In 2 Timothy 2:26 Paul was speaking about Christians
who are held captive by the devil. His hope was that “they will come to their senses
and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
He was not referring to demonic or satanic possession, but he was saying that a
Christian can be in bondage. When we receive Jesus and trust Him as our Savior,
our spirit is born again and made alive. God sends His Spirit to live in the “house” of
our spirit.
Finish 1 Corinthians 3:16.
“Don't you know that you
yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in
you?”
When the Holy Spirit lives in you, He possesses you, and you cannot be
possessed by satan or demons. If a person is not saved, his spirit is not alive, and he
is either filled with self or he can be possessed by demons or even satan. Possession
and bondage do not mean the same thing. Possession has to do with a lost person’s
spirit and denotes control and ownership of the person’s spirit. Bondage has to do
with our soul: the mind, will, and emotions. As believers we can be in bondage and
under the influence of the oppression of the devil. Bondage, in contrast to
possession, refers to control in an area of a person’s soul.
Bondages, such as anger, fear, addiction, lust, and rejection, are lodged in a
person’s soul, not his spirit. As we have noted before, our soul and body are not
reborn when we experience salvation. Our soul must be restored. Psalm 23:3 says,
“He restores my soul.”
Because the prince of this world is running out of time, his strategies are
pervasive. As an intercessor, you will need to be prepared to lead people through
darkness into light. Following is a basic format to use when praying for someone to
be healed and set free from oppression of the enemy.
Freedom Prayer Format
1. Interview – obtain a starting point.
Always ask the person you are praying for what their need is. When the two blind
men cried out “Lord, have mercy on us!” Jesus responded, “What do you want Me to
do for you?” (Matthew 20:32) Could He not tell that they were blind? But still He
asked them. He asked the paralytic who had been placed every day for years by a
pool that was supposed to have healing powers, “Do you want to get well?” (John
5:6) Why would Jesus ask these questions when it seems obvious that they want
Him to touch them and heal them? The Bible says in James 4:2, “You do not have
because you do not ask.”
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Write out Matthew 7:7. Ask and you shall receive.
2. Forgive.
Ask the person you are praying for if there is anyone he or she needs to forgive,
including themselves and God. To forgive is to release, loose, dismiss, and
completely cancel the debt. It means we cease to blame and feel resentment.
Following is Matthew 6:14. Write out verse 15. “For if you
forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Because God has forgiven us a debt we could never pay, Matt. 18:34-35 tells us
that we will be “handed over to the torturers” if we do not forgive others from our
hearts. These torturers are demon spirits who have been given legal right by our
unforgiveness to torment us. Tell them that one way they can tell that the haven’t
forgiven someone is if they feel sick, anxious, angry, or sad when that person’s name
is mentioned.
Lead them in the steps to forgive:

Identify those to forgive.

Forgive the person who offended or hurt you, or participated in opening
you up to this spirit.

Release and bless them.
3. Repent to God.
To repent is to change one’s mind and purpose away from sin and toward God
(Vine’s). Often people believe that simply confessing sin clears their conscience and
frees them from any consequence or responsibility. Confession of sin is a part of
repentance, but it is not repentance. Confession is admitting a sin. Repentance is
actually turning from the sin and making a decision not to continue in it. Lead the
person in a prayer of repentance.
Steps to repentance:
 See the truth about sin.
 See your sin in the area being addressed.
 Respond to revelation of the sin with Godly sorrow.
 Confess and repent of the sin.
You may want to have them repeat after you prayers like this one:
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“Father, I come into Your presence and ask for Your forgiveness. I have
given place to the sin of ___ in my life and have allowed satan to get a
foothold. I am sorry for my sin. I commit to turn form this sin. Please cleanse
me from all unrighteousness according to your word. Thank You, Lord.”
4. Renounce the enemy.
To renounce is to disown and forbid the approach of the disowned (Vine’s).
Release from spiritual bondage involves two actions, repentance of sin and
renouncing the powers of darkness. When we repent, 1 John 1:7 says that the blood
of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. But often people feel that they aren’t forgiven even
after confessing and repenting of a sin many times. It may be because they need to
renounce any demon spirit associated with the sin. Tell them to remember that “we
use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the devil’s
strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).
Unrepented sin over time will result in the enemy establishing a foothold in that
area. In other words, a demonic force can lodge a “hook” in a person’s soul. When
they are least prepared, there will be a tug on that hook that will make them feel
unworthy and defeated. Even though the blood of Jesus has covered that sin
through their repentance, the enemy must be renounced and the hook removed.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “we have renounced the hidden things of shame.” This will
destroy the demonic hold in that area and release them to experience the peace of
God’s forgiveness.
From 2 Corinthians 4:2, underline what we find if we
confess and renounce sin. “He who conceals his own sin
does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces
them finds mercy.”
You may want to have them repeat after you prayers like this one:
“I renounce the sin of anger and the spirit behind it. Spirit of anger, I refuse
to accept your influence in my life any longer! In the name of Jesus, I close
all doors I have opened to the enemy because of the bondage of anger in
my life. I choose to turn from this evil, to do good, and pursue peace and joy
and self-control. I choose no longer to partner with anger and cross the
line into sin. I choose to be a peacemaker and reconciler instead of one
who divides.”
5. Anoint to break the yoke.
Sometimes when we pray for people, we will use anointing oil. The oil itself isn’t
special. You can purchase oil in convenient vials at Christian book stores. When you
anoint someone with oil, it will symbolize 4 things:

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Consecration - In Leviticus 8:12 it says that “Moses poured the
anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him, to consecrate him." As



you anoint with oil, you will be proclaiming that the person is holy and set
apart for God.
Seal the word - In 1 Samuel 9:15-17 God revealed His word to the
prophet Samuel, that he had chosen Saul to be the first king of Israel.
That was the word of the Lord. The next day Samuel poured oil over
Saul's head and spoke God's word to him. The prophets were given
God's word and they were sent out to anoint with oil to seal God's word.
You will anoint with oil to seal the word of God concerning the person
you are praying for.
Breaking of Bondage - In Isaiah 10:27 the word of God says, "it shall
come to pass in that day that the burden will be taken from your
shoulder, and the yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed
because of the anointing oil." When you anoint with oil, you are
proclaiming that all bondage is broken off of the person’s life.
Healing - In Mark 6:13, we are told that the disciples “were casting out
many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing
them.” As disciples of Jesus, when you anoint with oil, they will be
healed - spirit, soul, and body!
Apply oil and invite Jesus to break the yoke of bondage. We are breaking
negative words, curses, vows, actions, influences, connections, and ties, including
generational ties.
Look up and write out Isaiah 61:1. “He has sent Me to heal
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
You may want to have them repeat after you prayers like this one:
“I break every curse, vow, and anything against _____ that has given place
to anger (for example). Jesus, we believe that as we anoint ___ that You
are here to remove the spirit of anger from their life. Jesus, anoint ___ for
ruler-ship in this area where anger has ruled through generations. Now, in
the name of Jesus and because of the anointing He has passed on to ___,
set them apart from the spirit of anger. Remove the bondage and break it so
it will no longer fit.
6. Cast Out the spirit.
To cast out is to throw off, loose, hurl (Vines). When we pray we want to pray with
boldness. Model your prayers after Jesus. Jesus didn’t say, “Oh Father, set this
person free.” What He did was speak directly to the spirits – “Spirit, loose this person
and let them go. Be gone, GO!” This is a direct command to the spirits.
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Paul spoke directly to the evil spirit in a slave girl who was
following him. What did he say to the evil spirit in Acts
16:18? “I command you in the name of Jesus to come out.”
Jesus was speaking of all believers when He said, “And these signs shall follow
those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons.” (Mark 16:17)
Finish this statement from Luke 10:19: “Jesus has given
me authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to
overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm
me.”
You may want to have them repeat after you prayers like this one:
“Because your defeat has been accomplished through the cross of Jesus
and because of the Spirit of God who gives us power and authority to loose
___ from your hold, I command you to leave them now, in the mighty name
of Jesus.”
7. Bless and fill with the Holy Spirit, the word and the opposite.
It is not enough to be cleansed and healed, but there must be a filling. Invite the
Lord’s blessing, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the word of God, and the opposite
character trait. Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
Read Luke 11:24-26 and explain why just casting the
demon out is not enough. “When an evil spirit comes out of a man,
it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I
will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept
clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more
wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of
that man is worse than the first.”
Bless and fill with the following:
 the Holy Spirit – Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 5:18)
 the Word. Your word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against
You. (Ps.119:11)
 the opposite. For example:
Rejection  acceptance and love of God and others.
Anger  peace, joy, and self-control.
Offense  overlooking an offense, forgiveness.
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You may want to have them repeat after you prayers like this one:
“Lord, we pray for a fresh outpouring of Your Holy Spirit over the place
where anger (for example) has occupied. We ask You Holy Spirit to invade
and posses this new territory. We ask You to rule and reign in that place.
Lord, we ask You to bless ___ with peace and self-control and joy,
especially where they have been so angry. She/ He is Your child, a child of
the King, help ___ to receive this truth.
Basic training for prayer ministry
1. Relax and enjoy praying for someone. The Bible says, “Restore to me the joy of
your salvation.” No matter how serious a person’s problems are, the joy of the
Lord is their strength. Don’t get mechanical in your methods – no two people are
alike. Learn to minister in the Spirit. Let the Spirit make it fresh to you every time
rather than relying on the old. Pray for a fresh anointing each time.
2. Be sensitive to the people. Treat them with love and tenderness. They may be
vulnerable and able to be wounded easily. Desire and seek after a baptism of
love for your brothers and sisters. They will open up and receive so much more
easily if they sense the presence of love surrounding them. Ask God to allow you
to see them as He sees them. We are conduits for the love of Jesus. Be sensitive
to the working and voice of the Holy Spirit.
3. Smile because smiles are contagious and put people at ease.
4. Use their name. Call them by name because it makes them feel comfortable. If
they begin to cry or become emotional, using their names will calm them down.
When praying to break generational sin and curses, ask for maiden names for
women and mothers so that both sides of the person’s family will be covered.
5. Hugs and touching: as mentioned earlier, it’s good to hug because we are
passing on the love of God. Use hugs, but don’t force them. Use extreme caution
in touching people. If you are praying for healing, you may want to have the
person put their hand on their heart and then you put a couple of fingers on their
hand. Or let’s suppose that you discern that there is something lodged deeply in
the person from the core or their being. It’s almost like the prayer needs to be
applied in that place. Tell them to put their hand on the stomach and then put
your fingertips on their hand while you pray. Only touch them on their hands or
on their shoulder. We don’t want to be touching them in any other place.
6. The will of the person you are praying for: When we pray for someone, we
want them to be set free, but also we want them to have the understanding that
they don’t have to put up with the enemy’s harassment. Even as we pray for
them, we are discipling them and encouraging them to rise up and exert their
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own will against the spirits of darkness. As we pray with them, we need to get
them engaged in the prayer.
If someone seems passive when they come to you, you may need to speak to
them for a minute to get them involved in the prayer time. You may need to stir
them up to get them to claim their freedom.
7.
Praying too loud: Be sensitive to the person you are praying for by not praying
so loud that others can hear. Be careful not to distract the person you are
praying for with the volume of your prayer and get them out of the Spirit.
8.
Eyes open or closed? When you are engaged in spiritual warfare, you may
want to keep you eyes open. Often when we pray, we close our eyes in
reverence to God. But we never want to revere a demon. Some have
complained that it is distracting to have their eyes open when they pray, but it is
important to be aware of any signs that the person we are praying for is
struggling or experiencing freedom. Watch for facial expressions, stiffening up,
clinched fists, and lips tightening up. Don’t stare off into space or at the crowd
because it looks like you don’t care.
Don’t have the person look at you while you are praying for him. Jesus didn’t
do that. The only time that might be appropriate is if the demon is more in control
than the person. Otherwise, it can be confusing.
9.
When do you end the prayer time? When we minister, we may need to pause
and ask the person what they are feeling on the inside. You may want to ask
them if they sense a release. Sometimes we don’t know when or how to end the
prayer time so it’s good to ask the person how they feel and if there is still
something that needs to be dealt with. Then if there is a sense of release, bless
them and end your ministry time.
Sometimes the person is not going to know if a bondage has been broken, so
you’re going to have to discern by the Spirit. Ask the Lord, “Do I stop now and
encourage the person to embrace their freedom and walk in it by faith, and just
see the evidence of it later?” That may be the case sometimes. They may not
know that an evil spirit has left them until a month later when they didn’t have the
same reaction to some circumstance that they had always had. The Holy Spirit’s
guidance is very important.
10. Handling manifestations: When a person manifests something demonic, it is
not the time to become intimidated and let fear rise up in you. It is a time to
rejoice – Hallelujah! The glory of the Lord is crowding this thing out of hiding.
Demons would prefer to stay hidden. When a manifestation breaks out, it is the
glory of the Lord driving them to be exposed. When that begins to happen, one
of the first things that you want to do is make a determination whether it is the
working of a spirit or is it something in their flesh. Take a moment to ask the Holy
Spirit, “Lord, help me discern and understand what is happening here.” Never be
timid about asking for help from other prayer ministers or pastors. Motion to one
to come along side you as you minister.
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If you are praying next to someone who is ministering to a person who is
having manifestations, it’s important not to get distracted by that, but to stay
focused on the one you are praying for. Also, it’s important not to crowd in on a
prayer minister who is dealing with a situation like that. You can intercede, but
don’t gather around it.
11. Screaming, throwing up: You may have someone you are praying for let out a
scream, or possibly an incessant long scream. Help to redirect them and exert
their will. Tell them not to let the let the spirit use their mouth and to take authority
over it. You might say, “Don’t let this thing distract you and use your mouth like
this. Talk to the spirit and tell it to leave. You have authority! Tell it to leave.
Don’t let this thing take authority over you. Let’s get back into prayer and press in
against this thing.”
When confronting evil spirits, throwing up rarely happens, but it can. Some
people think they are supposed to choke, gag, or throw up because that’s what
they’ve heard or read somewhere. It does happen, but only rarely.
12. Falling down: There are three reasons that someone might go down when you
are praying for them. It could be the Holy Spirit. If you do discern that it is the
Holy Spirit, then continue to minister to the person until you are satisfied that the
Lord’s work is complete, and then help them get back on their feet.
Another reason would be a predisposition to falling because of services they
have attended where people typically fall down. If you discern that this is the
case, encourage them not to fall down.
A third reason would be that they are in battle and something begins to break
inside. Under that influence, they may begin to crumple. Hold them up, at least
to a sitting position. Say something like, “Let me get you sitting up so we can
fight this thing together. God wants you free.…” The sitting position is a better
position to fight than lying down.
13. Cleanse the room and yourself. After praying for people to be set free from
demonic influences, it is important to pray a prayer of cleansing over the place
and yourself. Cleanse the room by the blood of Jesus. Command every spirit of
darkness that has been loosed out of the lives of people to leave, and command
any spirit assigned to oppose God’s work to be gone by the blood of the Lamb.
Avoid burn-out in prayer ministry
One of the traps of prayer ministry is the temptation to carry people’s burdens and
allow them to become dependent on us. To avoid burn-out, we must be careful to
keep a healthy balance in our ministry. The key is learning how to minister by the
Spirit and not out of our souls.
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John 14:16 – “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, who will
never leave you.”
The disciples were discouraged and distraught when Jesus said He was going to
leave them. Jesus told them not to be distraught, but that He would be sending the
Holy Spirit to them.
The people we pray for need to know that they must get in touch with the Holy
Spirit to be healed. He is God’s promise to them for healing; He is God’s promise to
us for discernment and guidance. You are not their healer - He is. Redirect people
to the Lord.
God’s approval of you as a leader
Before Jesus was led out to the desert to be tempted and before He started His
public ministry, God said of Him, “This is My Son in Whom I am well pleased.” God
was pleased with Jesus before He performed the first miracle, before He preached
the first sermon, before He cast out the first demon, and before He overcame the
devil’s temptations. Don’t minister out of need for God’s approval – He already
approves of you!
Burnout comes from trying to get the Lord’s approval. It is subtle and creeps in.
We get depleted because we lose sight of being a son or a daughter. Hear this from
Father God, “This is My son/ daughter ___________ (your name) in whom I am well
pleased.” You are the righteousness of God in Christ! We are in right standing with
God because of the blood of Jesus; therefore there is nothing we can do to earn His
approval. We want to flow when we minister to someone instead of ministering out of
misdirected motives.
Are you balanced in your ministry?
As an intercessor, fight off any attempts by someone you are praying for to latch
on to you. We are conduits of God’s compassion and love. He is love and
compassion. It would do them no good to become dependent on you; they would
then be in a position to become discouraged when the time comes that you as a
human being will inevitably let them down.
If you are frustrated with someone you are ministering to or you find yourself
avoiding them, these are signs that you are being drained by them. Maybe some
other minister should become the point person with them.
If you are having trouble determining whether your ministry with a particular
person is balanced or that you are in danger of being drained or burned out, have
other intercessors pray for you. Always be careful to keep confidentiality between you
and anyone you have prayed for; but don’t let this responsibility keep you from
getting the support that you need as an intercessor.
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Limits
Decide what the practical limits are to your ministry. Set for yourself guidelines
such as the following:

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
don’t answer the phone past a certain time at night
set a time frame (beginning time and ending time) when you visit with
someone one-on-one
look at your schedule and priorities and decide what times each week you
have available to minister one-on-one
establish margin in your life so that you can stay refreshed
These guidelines will be individual to each of you. In establishing limits, leave
room for the Holy Spirit. He will guide you, and you don’t want to be so rigid that you
miss an opportunity to help someone that the Lord wants you to help.
Referring someone for counseling
If they need counseling, send them to Pastor Marcus at the church. He will get
them in touch with a counselor.
If they mention thoughts of suicide, take it very seriously and refer them for
counseling automatically and immediately. This indicates that they’ve been thinking
about it for a while. Talk to them about their pain – don’t focus on trying to talk them
out of it. Pray for deliverance for them.
Conclusion
Hopefully, the amount of instruction and information in this lesson has not
overwhelmed you! As each of us gains experience in ministering to people through
prayer and warfare, it will become more and more natural to us. We won’t need
formats and outlines, we will have confidence and many testimonies of victory!
Intercessors each have their own style and preferences. We may prefer worship and
deep intimacy with God over laying hands on someone and being bold in the face of
the enemy. Be willing to let God use you and the bear the fruit of your intimate times
with Him.
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Prayer assignment for Week Eleven
Journal your opportunities to pray for people this week. Tell details of the leading
of the Holy Spirit as you prayed, the responses of the people you prayed for, and the
results that God enabled you to witness.
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Commissioning
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Week
Twelve
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prayer opportunites at church and the styles under each one
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Commissioning
Week Twelve
Now that you’ve invested 11 weeks in the teachings about intercession at Church
of the Highlands, it’s time to find your place in the prayer ministry!
Before you begin this lesson, it would be very helpful for you to know your spiritual
gifts. At Church of the Highlands we have a special class called the Discovery
Seminar designed to help you find out how God has divinely gifted you so that you
can be more effective in serving Him. This class is offered monthly at the church.
We as a prayer force have varying gifts and passions that affect the way that we
pray. There are several types of intercessors, and it’s the goal of this lesson to
familiarize you with the differences and bring about an understanding that these
differences are what make the prayer force affective.
Have you ever been a prayer group where one man starts to pray by getting out a
lengthy list of requests. He begins praying, “Oh God! Thou art the great almighty
God. We bless you, oh God. We want to lift up these many needs to You, oh God.” A
woman in the prayer group looks over at him and thinks, “How boring.” Then another
woman begins to pray and weep. She wails loudly and the man thinks, “My Lord,
somebody give that lady a pill!” Then another man stands up and scares everyone
half to death by yelling, “You come down, you dark spirit!”
During the meeting, one person is praying for the small groups; another is praying
for Jenny who has the stomach bug; another is praying for the puppy that got caught
in the drain; and another is praying for the troops in Iraq. When the meeting is over,
everyone leaves scratching their heads and wondering if God did anything. Everyone
has so exercised their independence that they have not come together in corporate
unity. And instead of valuing the differences in prayer styles and giftings, they judge
each other and accomplish nothing in the spirit.
In the American church we have so honored independence that we have not
learned to pray together in unity appreciating the various prayer styles and types of
intercessors. Under the leadership of our pastor and our prayer coordinator, there is
a prayer opportunity for each of us. The prayer ministry at Church of the Highlands is
continually developing a prayer force and prayer strategies to mobilize every type of
intercessor. There is a place for you!
We will begin with three elements that are the basis for success in our prayer
ministry as we endeavor to be the most complete and successful team that we can
be. Then we’ll look into the different types of intercessors. Hopefully you’ll begin to
see why you pray the way you do. Next, we’ll complete a questionnaire that will
identify the type of intercessors that we are. Lastly, we’ll explore prayer opportunities
in our church so that we can get plugged in the most effectively.
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Three elements
intercession
important
to
corporate
1. Love.
All of the spiritual gifts should be governed by love. Regardless of our giftings, we
need to open our arms to allow each to exercise our spiritual gifts according the
measure of faith that God has given us. No two people have the same exact spiritual
gift mixture. Some intercessors are analytical with an administrative gift. Everything
must be structured and black and white. Someone else may have a very strong
prophetic gift. This person may see everything through proclamation, visions, and
dreams. If there is a teacher in the group, she will pray with more admonition and
exhortation. Whatever gifts we have been given, they will be energized under the
anointing, and we will pray most effectively as those particular gifts are stirred in us.
Love binds us together to value the differences.
From Colossians 2:1-3, why did Paul pray that the believers
would be united in love? “My purpose is that they may be encouraged
in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete
understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely,
Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
2. Unity.
Unity is held together by vision. Without it we will all be praying our own agenda.
There must be a corporate vision to hold the prayer meeting together. The reason
that prayer meetings in churches have traditionally been the least attended meetings
is because there is no vision, no goal, no direction, and no seeking God. Without
vision, intercessors lose interest and hope. A unified force behind the vision of our
pastor will cause spiritual and natural transformation. Proverbs 29:18 tells us that
“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.”
From Romans 15:5-7, finish this passage by writing out
verse 7.”May the God who gives endurance and
encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves
as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and
mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ
accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
3. Power.
There is power in proximity. When we come together in prayer God says that He
will be there.
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Read Matthew 18:18-20. Write out verse 20. "For where two or
three come together in my name, there am I with them." (vs. 20)
Although no two intercessors are exactly alike, we can group them according to
general types with similar giftings.
Three Spiritual gifts lists in the Bible
1. 5-fold ministry.
These are the most visible gifts because they are usually done from a platform.
List the 5-fold ministry gifts from Ephesians 4:11. apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
2. Motivational gifts.
These are the gifts that are driven through our lives. Everyone has a combination
of differing gifts according to how God desires to operate in our lives.
List the motivational spiritual gifts from Romans 12:6-8.
prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the
needs of others (giving), leadership, showing mercy..
3. Manifestation gifts.
List the manifestation gifts from 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. word
of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles,
prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different
kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues..
In all three of the lists is the gift of prophecy. This is where the gift of intercession
falls. Prophecy flows out of us in the arena of prayer. "Prophetic intercession is the
ability to receive an immediate prayer request from God and pray about it in a
divinely anointed utterance" (Dutch Sheets). True intercessory prayer is always
prophetic, initiated in an intercessor’s heart by the Holy Spirit. All intercession
initiated by Him is powerful and always accomplishes what He sent it to do.
Intercessors enter into the throne room of God in worship to learn what is on His
heart so that they can intercede effectively. This is why we begin our prayer meetings
with worship.
Intercessors come together with a blend of spiritual gifts so that when we meet to
pray, we are a uniquely fine-tuned orchestra. We will seer into the heavenlies with
the burden that God has given us and we will see the breakthroughs come.
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Types of intercessors:
1. List
List intercessors will lift up a list of people daily. They can spend hours praying
scriptures over the people on their list. Their spiritual gifts might include
administration and teaching. They know how to put things in order and make prayer
strategies. They like prayer chains. They tend to be more quiet, analytical,
structured, and cognitive.
Finish Philippians 4:6 – “Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.”
2. Souls
Souls intercessors will cry out for the lost. They are very aware of the atrocity of
hell and stand in the gap for those who are lost. Souls intercessors intercede for
others to be released into their destinies. Their spiritual gifts might include
evangelism, an apostolic gifting, and faith.
According to 1 Timothy 2:4, what does God want? All men to be
saved.
What does Luke 10:2 tell us to pray for? “Pray the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
3. Personal
Personal intercessors have been called to pray regularly for particular individuals.
They will know the schedules and some of the personal details of leaders and
intercede for them in every area. Personal intercessors have been entrusted by God
to carry confidential information about another person to His throne for mercy, grace,
and provision. Spiritual gifts might be administration, pastor, word of wisdom, and
exhortation.
Read 1 Samuel 14:6-17, the story of Jonathon defeating the
Philistines with the support of his armor bearer. The armor
bearer’s job was to carry Jonathon’s military equipment. As
a personal intercessor we carry the spiritual equipment and
follow behind our leader. Finish the statement made by
Jonathon’s armor bearer from 1 Samuel 14:7: "’Do all that
you have in mind,’ his armor-bearer said. ‘Go ahead; I am
with your heart and soul.’"
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4. Mercy
Mercy intercessors are those who are led to pray for healing, emotional and
physical, for those who are hurting. They will cry out with deep anguish for the blood
of Jesus to set people free. They are the Good Samaritan who stopped to help. They
do not look at the circumstances of an individual, but have the heart and desire to
minister to the root of a person’s pain. Their gifts might include mercy and service.
Read Matthew 9:35-36. Write out verse 36. When He saw the
crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (vs. 36)
Finish Luke 15:20 about the prodigal son. “So he got up
and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off,
his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him;
he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed
him.”
5. Crisis
Crisis intercessors are always tuned in to God’s alerts for trouble. They are moved
by the urgent needs of others. Their prayers are decisive and often involve life or
death situations. Crisis intercessors know the spiritual climate and can discern Gods
warnings. They are on site when an emergency breaks out. Their gifts might include
mercy, prophesy, words of wisdom and words of knowledge, faith, and healing.
Finish Mark 11:12: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask
for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be
yours.
6. Warfare
Warfare intercessors pray in faith, boldness, and confidence. They pray strongly
with a military might. They battle the strongholds and principalities. They can be the
most powerful and anointed if they are given the guidelines and led into the structure
of the prayer ministry. When the bullets from the enemy come, the pastor will want to
call a warfare intercessor. They are fighters. Spiritual gifts might include discerning
of spirits, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, tongues and interpretation of
tongues, healing, and prophecy.
Finish Colossians 4:12. “Epaphras, who is one of you and a
servant of Christ Jesus, sends greeting. He is always
wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all
the will of God, mature and fully assured.”
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Read Hebrews 11:32-34. List the actions that the men of
faith took that mirror warfare intercession. “…Gideon, Barak,
Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith
conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised;
who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped
the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who
became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”
7. Worship
Worship intercessors are inspired be the presence of God. They long to worship
and minister to the Lord. They worship from the prospect of victory. They may use
instruments, dance, kneeling, bowing or any other act of worship in intercession.
They are focused so much on the Lord that nothing is impossible for them. They are
often overwhelmed with gratitude for what the Lord has done. They will release
worship to usher in God’s glory. Spiritual gifts might include prophecy and faith.
Read Luke 2:36-37. Write out verse 37.
“and then was a
widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but
worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. (vs. 37)
Read Luke 10:38-39. Write out verse 39. “She had a sister
called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He
said.”
8. Government/ issues
Government/ issues intercessors will pray for our leaders to affect change for the
kingdom of God. They will research the political issues and intercede for God’s will to
be done and their city to be transformed. Issues intercessors stand against
injustices. Spiritual gifts might include teaching, administration, and exhortation.
From Genesis 11:5-6 what principle do we learn from the
account of the building of the tower of Babel? "If as one
people speaking the same language they have begun to do this,
then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”
9. Prophetic
Prophetic intercessors have a heart to see the unseen and to hear the unheard
things of the Lord. They will speak forth proclamations that will break through the
spiritual ground in the heavenlies. Spiritual gifts might include prophecy, words of
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wisdom and knowledge, tongues and the interpretation of tongues, and discerning of
spirits.
In Ezekiel 37:3-4, the Lord says to the prophet, "Son of
man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel said, "O Sovereign
LORD, you alone know." God’s response was, “Prophesy to
these bones…”
In verse seven Ezekiel said, “So I
prophesied as I was commanded.” What happened after he
prophesied what God commanded? “And as I was prophesying,
there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to
bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered
them, but there was no breath in them.”
Following is a questionnaire to help you learn what type of intercessor you are.
As you read the questions, keep in mind that there aren’t any wrong answers. God
has called you and molded you into the intercessor you are and every type is highly
valued!
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Intercessor Type Questionnaire
Respond to each question below according to who you are, not who you would
like to be or think you ought to be. How true are these statements of you? What has
been your experience? To what degree do these statements reflect your usual
tendencies? Answer each question with 1,2,3,4, or 5 based on the following
descriptions:
1 – rarely true of me
2 – infrequently true of me
3 – occasionally true of me
4 – frequently true of me
5 – very true of me, consistently
Question
1. Are scriptures about salvation easy for you to recall?
2. Are unsaved people drawn to you?
3. Are you forceful in your prayer time?
4. Are you stimulated by politics?
5. Do injustices against others make you want to pray?
6. Do people ask you to pray for their personal matters?
7. Do people say that you prayed just what was on their hearts?
8. Do people share their hurts with you?
9. During prayer do you bow, lift your hands, clap, lie down, dance, or
otherwise express your adoration to the Lord?
10. Do you enjoy praying for people in altar ministry?
11. Do you enjoy studying about principalities and spiritual roots?
12. Do you ever wake up in the night with an urgent need to pray?
13. Do you find it difficult to stop praying about something until you know
the assignment is completed?
14. Do you find that you pray in tongues throughout the day and often in
prayer meetings?
15. Do you find that your prayers often line up directly with specific
scriptures?
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16. Do you find yourself defending the defenseless?
17. Do you find yourself desiring to focus on a couple of people during your
prayer time?
18. Do you find yourself seeking the approval of someone that you pray for
regularly?
19. Do you get restless at prayer meetings when the enemy is not being
confronted?
20. Do you have a burden to pray for the lost on a regular basis?
21. Do you have a strong prophetic gifting?
22. Do you have the gift of evangelism?
23. Do you have the gift of healing?
24. Do you have the gift of mercy?
25. Do you have the gift of teaching?
26. Do you have the gift of the discerning of spirits?
27. Do you keep up with the names of government officials?
28. Do you counsel leaders?
29. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the number of lost people?
30. Do you find yourself speaking to demonic forces in your prayer times?
31. Do you pray for people in urgent situations, and then never feel the
need to pray for them again?
32. Do you pray for the government?
33. During worship, do you find yourself singing your own words to the
songs that are played as a prayer to the Lord?
34. Do you often spend most of your prayer time just meditating on the
Lord?
35. Do you pray over the same people consistently?
36. Do you read the newspaper or watch the news and want to pray?
37. Do you read the newspaper or watch the news on T.V. and cry out for
hurting people?
38. Do you receive special insight or revelation form the Lord in order to
pray for specific people?
39. Do you record dates for your prayers?
40. Do you shy away from giving difficult words to people for fear of hurting
their feelings?
41. Do you spend a large part of your prayer time in praise to the Lord?
42. Do you thrive in crisis?
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43. Do you use musical instruments during your prayer time?
44. Does God speak to you through dreams and visions?
45. Does injustice anger you?
46. Does it bother you when a prayer meeting seems to get “out of control”?
47. Does it bother you when others don’t share your grief over the pain that
people are suffering with?
48. Does praying through outlines release you to pray?
49. Does structure bring freedom for you?
50. Does the Lord ever interrupt your prayer time by bringing faces, names,
or situations to mind?
51. Does the Lord entrust you with private words and thoughts that He is
not ready to release?
52. Does the pain of others make you want to battle the enemy for their
freedom?
53. Does your heart break over issues that cause God to grieve?
54. During your prayer time do you put on music?
55. Is your preference to pray for individuals rather than groups?
56. When you pray, do you ever sense that you have connected with
heaven and entered the Lord’s throne room?
57. When others share their hurts with you, do you have a hard time letting
it go?
58. When praying over individuals, do you get mental pictures?
59. When you pray, do you ever sense that there is an emergency?
60. When you receive a prayer request, do you write it down?
61. When you talk to someone you have never met, do you want to know if
they are saved?
62. Would being a prayer shield for a particular leader be a responsibility
that you would be faithful to?
63. Would you enjoy prayer walking?
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Interpreting the Results
To interpret the results, record the number you chose (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) from each
question in the chart below. Add up your scores for a total for each type. If you
scored a total of 28 or above on any line, you are that type of intercessor.
Following is an example:
Type of Intercessor
Score on each question
List
25, 35, 39, 46, 48, 49, 60
4+5+5+5+3+3+4
Totals
29
This person would be a list intercessor.
Type of Intercessor
Score on each question
List
25, 35, 39, 46, 48, 49, 60
Soul
1, 2, 10, 20, 22, 29, 61
Personal
6, 17, 18, 28, 38, 55, 62
Mercy
8, 24, 37, 40, 47, 53, 57
Crisis
12, 13, 23, 31, 42, 50, 59
Warfare
3, 11, 19, 26, 30, 45, 52
Worship
9, 33, 34, 41, 43, 54, 56
Government/ Issues
4, 5, 16, 27, 32, 36, 63
Prophetic
7, 14, 15, 21, 44, 51, 58
Totals
153
How do I get involved?!
Now that you’ve investigated the type of intercessor you are, it’s time to get
plugged in! Your small group leader will discuss with you all of the prayer
opportunities at Church of the Highlands and provide you with materials to get
started.
A BLESSING
As a highly favored intercessor of Church of the Highlands receive this blessing
from Mark Hand, our prayer coordinator, and all of the leadership of the Prayer
Force:
In the name of Jesus Christ, I bless you, _____________ with the promises of God,
which are yes and amen. I pray the Holy Spirit make you healthy and strong in body,
mind and spirit to move in faith and expectancy. May God’s angels be with you to
protect and keep you.

God bless you with ability, with abundance and with an assurance of His love
and grace.

God bless you with clear direction, with a controlled and
disciplined life.

God bless you with courage and creativity

God bless you with spiritual perception of His truth

God bless you with great faith, and with His favor and with man’s

God bless you with good health and a good ____________ (wife
or husband)

God bless your hands to bless others.

God bless you with happiness, fulfillment, contentment, hope and
a good outlook on life.

God bless you with a listening ear and with a long life and
obedient heart to the Spirit of God.

God bless you with His peace, with pleasant speech, a pleasant
personality, with promotion, protection, provision, safety and strength.

God bless you with success, trust and wisdom AND
God bless you with goodness and mercy following you all the days of your life that
you might dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine down on you and give you peace, the peace of God
that surpasses all understanding. I bless you, _____________ (name), in the Name
of Jesus Christ. Amen!
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