A Deeper Look At Prayer Part 4

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 ‘Able to cast out devils in a single prayer! Able to pray revival to a land!   

Able to snatch loved ones from the doorsteps of hell!

Look down on their knees! It’s a woman! It’s a man! It’s the church! It’s an intercessor!

Who me? Yes you! If you are born again you have more power than you ever dreamed because of God’s power and might in you and His Spirit making intercession in you. Read on child of God and be transformed!

By Benjamin ‘Raven’ Pressley

There is a verse in the Bible that to me is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. It says, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (Ezekiel 22:30).” How I wonder if it this is not so for this day and time. God wants to stay His wrath. He wishes that all people be saved (2 Peter 3:9).  But He listens for the prayers of His people. He listens and waits and calls us to intercession to build a hedge of protection and prayer around our loved ones, even around our communities and nations. He hears our cry and He does not leave us alone to intercede for He calls others to pray who are sensitive to His call. He promises to raise up a standard against the enemy when he comes in like a flood (Isaiah 59:19), Do you know what raise up a standard means? It means He will rally the faithful together in your behalf to stand against the enemy. You are never alone!

The priest was the intercessor of the Old Testament. They were required to give up

everything in order to serve as priest, a mediator and intercessor for the people. In Revelation 1:4-6 it says Christ has merged the office of the king and the priest and declares that all believers are “kings and priests unto God and His Father.” Do you know what that means? A king dictates authority and a priest intercedes. We have authority in the spiritual realm!

It is written:

”Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

“Submit yourself therefore to God and resist the devil and he will flee (run in terror) from you. “(James 4:7)

But you cannot separate the two offices. The two offices are one. You cannot dictate authority over the devil unless you are willing to pay the price of priesthood. You must be born again and filled with His Spirit. Like the priests of old you must be willing to enter the Holy of Holies and tread the courts of God, to enter into His presence on behalf of others.  So many want to dictate authority but they are not willing to be the intercessor and cry out to God for the people. The priests also had to be pure. We cannot be a living a lifestyle of sin and expect to have authority over the devil.  I am reminded of the seven sons of Sceva who saw Paul casting out demons in Jesus’ name and decided they would try it out. So, they went to a demon possessed man and attempted to cast the demons out by saying, “In the name of Jesus that Paul preached,” and the demons replied through the man, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” And with the demons’ strength jumped on the seven sons of Sceva and beat them and sent them running away naked (Acts 19:13-16). There are no shortcuts, no magic formulas, it isn’t in the “words” you say, rather it is if you have the goods to back up what you say. If it were just a matter of the “right words” then those who were not Christians could also get the same results by saying the right words and” claiming” the right things. That would not be the gospel, that would be sorcery. Sorcery believes by certain words and acts and incantations that what you wish will come to you. The Word of God says it is, “not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Every promise of the word of God is dependent on a right heart toward Him. Study it for yourself. For example many say, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” but that is not scriptural the scripture says “Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Do you see what I mean? When we are in His presence presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, our lips are His, our emotions are His, our desires are His, we are submitted to Him—It is then that demons tremble! It is then they must set our loved ones free.

Romans 12:1-3 says

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

 

We are His, We are bought with a price, We are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Don’t be conformed to this world. We are to stand out in this world. As Christians we should desire purity more than power. He supplies the power. It is by His power that signs shall follow those who believe (Mark 16:17-18). We don’t have to worry about the power being there if we are submitted to God.

Does the enemy fear you? He should and whether you feel like he does or not he does fear you if you are God’s child. God showed me one time that when a believer enters a room that every demon spirit in that room cringes, stops what they are doing and they wait to see what we are going to do. Sadly, most of the time they breathe a sigh of relief when we do nothing. Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” We are kings and priests unto God. When we enter a room we should bind and cast out every devil in that room. I have seen people get up and leave the room before even when under my breath I would say, “I bind you devil and cast you out in Jesus’ name.”

Mark 16:17-18 says, “17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” My word, we are operating so far below what we should be! Signs are supposed to follow us. In other words when we leave the room we are supposed to have made a difference. Don’t be afraid to pray for someone sick right there in front of everybody. Live it out loud! Do the people around you even know you are a Christian?

Abraham stood in the gap and delivered Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19). Moses stood in the gap for the children of Israel and told God to blot his name out of the book of life if He did not forgive Israel and kept them from being utterly wiped off the face of the Earth (Exodus 32: 30-34).

Do you want to enter into this depth of prayer? Are you willing to be still before Him and hear His voice and allow Him to pray in you (Rom. 8:36)? Allow Him to pour into your innermost being His overflowing life of intercession, in His presence face-to-face, real union and communion with God. And as we are in His presence and the more time we spend in His presence we will desire His heart more and more. Then we will enter into His sufferings, in fellowship with His sufferings as we realize His heart is a broken heart, broken over a lost dying and unrepentant man. Then we begin to groan and travail with the great burden that we now feel for those lost and undone. We are broken in our prayers, just as hard, fallow ground must be broken before it can receive good seed and be a place it can be nurtured and grow and multiply. Most of us have never experienced this brokenness and the word and revelation of God has never taken deep root in our hearts. Even if it has at one time I think some of our roots have hit a hard place because we have not continued to allow Him to break us. How important is the root? Proverbs 12:12 says “The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.” Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the root to appear. A tree can weather almost any storm if its root is sound. “A man shall not be established by wickedness [quick fix success methods, whatever works, religious pragmatism]: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved” (Prov. 12:3).

After you have asked for His heart, His love for sinners, His righteousness, then don’t look back to your own heart so hard, so cold and dead (Luke 9:62). There is no turning back. He wants to take you farther than you could ever dream. He began the work and He is willing to finish it (Hebrews 12:2. Phillipians 1:6). Don’t be afraid. When you enter that closet of prayer you may enter as Clark Kent but you come out as Superman! You are in the Spirit now. Don’t ever turn back to fleshly means again (Gal. 3:1-3), they didn’t work before, they won’t work again.

When you pray, let Him pray. Don’t claim anything except that He makes intercession when you pray. John Hyde knew the meaning of prayer. He didn’t talk much about prayer, he prayed. He didn’t talk about being sanctified, he lived the sanctified life. His life ‘preached’. He knew what it meant to partake of Christ’s suffering. When he died his heart was actually shifted from its natural position on its left side to a place over on the right side, from the many sleepless nights of praying in the spirit, travailing, deeply for those lost in sin. I recommend anyone who is truly interested in the true meaning of praying to read his story; the name of the book is Praying Hyde. He had this to say: “When we keep near to Jesus it is He who draws souls unto Himself through us, but He must be lifted up in our lives; that is we must be crucified with Him. It is self in some shape that comes between us and Him, so self must be dealt with as He was dealt with. Self must be crucified. Then, indeed Christ is lifted up in our lives. He cannot fail to attract souls to Himself. All this is the result of a close union and communion. That is fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Self must not only be dead, but buried out of sight, for the stench of the unburied self-life will frighten souls away from Jesus.”

Do you want to see your loved ones saved? No, really, do you? Do you want revival in the land, in your church, community, even family? Charles G. Finney had this to say about revival: “A revival is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat. In any community revival can be secured from heaven when heroic souls enter the conflict determined to win or die—or if need be to win and die! ‘The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.’ (Matt. 11:12).” We must secure the kingdom of heaven for lost souls by force, the force of our prayer! We must be violent against Satan and take those that are ours from his hand by securing God’s power by our prayers. True prayer, true intercession, true two-way communion with God can be achieved if we dare to join ourselves to Him with an open, honest and obedient heart. Look to Him in prayer.. .Look to Him for truth ; Look to Him…Look to Him!

 

 

 

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