Prayers from the Throne of God

© Garris Elkins

Prophetic Horizons

PO Box 509

Jacksonville, OR 97530 USA

prophetichorizons@gmail.com

ISBN-13: 978-0615455778

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63003-253-1

Cover design and image “High Places” by Anna Elkins

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked “NKJV” are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked “NASB” are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing from the author, with the exception of brief excerpts in magazines articles or reviews.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS

Foreword by Jack W. Hayford

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.    Establishing a Heavenly Altar of Prayer

2.    Seated in Heaven’s Perspective

3.    The Watchman’s Prayer

4.    Our Position of Power

5.    Our Position of Authority

6.    Our Position of Intimacy

7.    Prophesying Hope into Life’s Margins

8.    The Sound of this Prayer

9.    Prayers that Declare, Decree, and Prophesy

10.  Praying out of Brokenness

11.  Commanding Prayers

12.  The Power of Agreement in Prayer

13.  Living in the “Green Light” of God

14.  A Matter of Timing

15.  Expectation in Prayer

16.  Extending an Invitation

I dedicate this book to Jan, Anna, and David:

my wife, daughter, and son whom I love so much.

FOREWORD

The Holy Spirit is seeking to awaken the prayer mission of the Body of Christ: this book is a companion to the soundings of trumpets that are calling for you today.

The beauty of this clear-minded, spiritually pungent, biblical and practical guidebook in your hand is a tool, I believe, the Holy Spirit has fashioned through the experiences and wisdom of a pastor who has led a congregation for decades in diligent, harvest-begetting prayer.

I want to commend to you the faithful witness, work and shepherd-hearted character of Garris Elkins. He is a fellow servant I have known for years, and it is a heart-warming privilege to introduce him and this excellent work.

Never have I seen a more concise, yet complete, outline of dynamic keys to spiritually impacted prayer. The profundity of spiritual insight in pivotal pages of God’s revelation are presented here with simple clarity in ways that will enable practical application for leaders to read and God’s people to incarnate these in their ways of thinking and praying.

Few books recently coming to publication have reached my hand that have seemed to me as timely and as truly igniting in their potential as this one. May the Holy Spirit use it to speak vitality and ignite joyful, impassioned and faith-filled prayer, intercession, praise and spiritual victory for multitudes.

Jack W. Hayford

Founding Pastor, The Church On The Way

President, The King’s College & Seminary

Los Angeles, California

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Books are possible because people beyond the author add to the process. I want to acknowledge some who have added to my process.

I thank my parents, Charlie and Lavert Elkins, who came from very humble beginnings. You showed me that God can take what the world considers “small” and make something out of it. Thank you, Dad, for telling me stories and helping me to see the power of a story well told.

I thank my pastor, Roy Hicks, Jr., for preaching the Kingdom of God and making me hungry for more.

I thank Jean Darnall who turned to me at a conference in Holland and said, “You will write for God.” I did not know what that word meant at the time, but now I do. Thank you, Jean, for your obedience to the Lord’s voice.

I thank Dr. Jack Hayford for modeling the life of a credible and Spirit-led leader. Thank you for introducing many of us to the shout of grace.

I thank my daughter, Anna. You are a real editor and fine-tuner of text. Without your touch I am not sure this would have happened.

I want to express a deep awe, wonder and thankfulness to my wife, Jan. You see God in life. Thank you for opening my eyes to see as He sees. I don’t know where I end and you begin anymore—we are truly one.

Jesus, I thank You most of all. You have loved me through it all. Thank You for helping me stay this course. I desire to end this life growing in intimacy with You and making the contribution into Your Kingdom that You created me to bring.

INTRODUCTION

There are many good books on the subject of prayer. I wrote this one partly to add to your existing understanding of prayer but mostly to increase your faith by helping you to gain a new perspective in prayer. My desire is for you to pray from a new freedom and boldness.

Gaining heaven’s perspective in any area of our lives will change us. Without the perspective of heaven in our prayer life, we will struggle in prayer without a sense of victory.

God desires to add to our prayer life the power of declarations, decrees, and prophecy spoken from the throne of God over the issues of our lives and culture that have yet to come into line with heaven’s intent. This kind of prayer does not supplant but rather supports the hard-fought petitions in prayer that some circumstances require.

As we unfold this perspective of prayer, allow God to untie your concepts of prayer and raise you to a higher place—a place where you already live with Christ at the right hand of the Father from where you are able to shower prayers of victory down upon this life. This rain of prayer from the throne of God will release heaven’s intent upon the earth and will soften its hardened ground in preparation for the new and extraordinary things God wants to do in our lifetime.

1

ESTABLISHING A HEAVENLY

ALTAR OF PRAYER

Years ago, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle. We were flying thousands of feet up in the air over the beautiful Pacific Northwest. On this particular flight, I had a window seat and was able to view the passing countryside as it inched past my window. As we approached the Eugene-Springfield area of Oregon, a place we had called home for several years, I looked down and began to identify some familiar landmarks. The longer I looked, the more I could recognize streets, parks, and shopping malls. And there it was—our old neighborhood. I was fascinated that I could see it all from so high up.

There was the street where we had raised our kids, and there was the road I had taken to work each day. I remembered our home hidden in the trees of the surrounding forest. From my highflying perch, it all looked so different and small. My perspective had changed. My perspective changed because my altitude had changed. So it is with prayer. We only have a limited view when we pray from an earthbound perspective. Moving our prayer perspective to the view from heaven gives us the bigger picture that only this higher position can provide. We will see our lives differently from this higher place, and we will begin to pray differently.

We cannot always pray with confidence if we are only looking at what is taking place around us. What is taking place around us is not yet fully redeemed. Life on earth reflects a fallen world and speaks in an unredeemed language.

REPOSITIONING OUR PRAYER ALTARS

Our global civilization is in an epoch cycle of change. This cycle of change will test the things we know and believe. Human solutions will fail with ever increasing frequency because earthbound realties will not meet the needs of desperate people living in desperate times. People will turn to God for answers. This turning is what we have historically called “revival.” In this turning, God will ask His Church to respond to the world around us from the fresh revelations of His heart.

God is releasing a deepening hunger for prayer within His Church—a hunger for the language of heaven. God is preparing us to minister supernaturally in a world that is exhausted by dead religion.

A refreshing wind of God’s presence is blowing across creation. This wind will clear our field of vision to see what God intends His Church to be.

One of the greatest, most culture-transforming powers available to the Church has always been prayer. Prayer moves heaven to bring its environment down upon the earth to transform the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord. Jesus Himself said that His house would be known as a house of prayer. The house of God is not a physical temple or a church facility. God’s house of prayer is a presence-carrying people who are living and breathing temples of God. God dwells in this kind of house—in us—with power.

God is encouraging the Church to experience a shift in how and where we see ourselves in prayer. He is asking many of us to reposition our prayer altars from the place of our earthly struggle to the place of our heavenly victory. He is calling the Church to fully realize our position in Christ, not only as a theological truth, but also as a positional truth and an experiential reality from which we can pray. We are being asked to add a prayer altar to our place in Christ at the right hand of God’s throne and from there to pray the will of God down into our circumstances upon the earth.

Our concept of prayer is critical in creating an environment filled with hope and joy. We need to expand our perspective.

God has given us prayer to change this world through the transforming word of Christ. Your neighborhood and nation are waiting to be called “the New Earth.” All of creation is in a perpetual groan waiting to experience once again the freedom it knew before sin entered the earth. Our prayers must also be created and released from the perspective of heaven, because this is where God is directing His Church in the supernatural process of the transformation of our world. God’s perspective is our message to our world and our prayer for all of humanity. This kind of prayer draws from a preferred future that Jesus is waiting to usher into this world in partnership with His Church.

SEATED WITH CHRIST

The following story shows how this shifted perspective works. A wonderful church faced a challenging experience. Their pastor had become emotionally involved with another woman, and he had stepped down from his role as the senior pastor. I was asked to come and speak in the church while they processed this painful situation.

As I spoke on that Sunday morning, I looked out over the hundreds of faces looking back at me, and I felt the pain and sorrow these people were experiencing. They did not understand this new reality that had just been dropped into their lives. They loved their leaders, including the one who had failed.

At the end of the service, I felt the Lord ask me to do something. One of the elders I had come to know was a fatherly presence of wisdom for the church. People looked to him for direction, and his words carried weight. I asked the ushers to bring the largest chair they had in the building—one of those upholstered, overstuffed chairs. I wanted something that would resemble a throne. The chair was placed right at the center of the platform in front of the podium. I then invited this elder up and asked him to have a seat. I told him that, as an elder of this church, he was seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father. I shared with him that none of the pain and sorrow had taken God by surprise. God sees the beginning and the end of all things, including what this church was experiencing.

I then asked the elder to pray over the future of his church family from the perspective of heaven and the complete victory of Jesus Christ.

Something wonderful began to happen. At first the elder paused, not sure what to do. Then he started to pray, and with each word the intensity of his prayer gained momentum as he began to see this situation from heaven’s perspective.

His tears of pain began turning into tears of joy. Hope began to fill the sanctuary. People began to speak up in agreement with his prayers.

God walked into the house that day and brought hope, because someone was declaring hope and prophesying a future greater than the painful shaking that was taking place in the community. Today, that church is thriving and living out the answers to that prayer from the throne of God, spoken by the elder. All of this was taking place as he and the church worked through the difficult process of restoration.

Revelation flows from the throne of God to the earth, not the other way around. Revelation does not come from brokenness; it flows from the fullness of Jesus Christ. The throne of God is planted firmly in timeless eternity, unaffected by this life. This eternal perspective is a greater reality than the reality of this earthly realm. This earthly existence will always yield to the design and intent of God for a new heaven and a new earth.

God answers prayer from eternity into time. This invasion from heaven’s perspective into our lives is where the supernatural events of God’s Kingdom take place. It is a welcome invasion and one the Church partners with through prayer.

The Greeks have a word to describe this invasion of time and space by the revelation of God. The word is kairos. God’s time—kairos—invades the developing line of chronological time. In these kairos moments, miracles take place because supernatural revelation has been released. Chronological time must yield to the invasion of heaven’s will and perspective because a kairos moment comes from a greater reality than the one we are experiencing here on earth. Time will yield to eternity. Chronological time will always have to yield to a kairos work of God.

When we pray according to heaven’s will and perspective, we begin walking in the intended authority Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a power that would fall from the realm of heaven onto the earth:

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

—Acts 1:8

Chronological time is linked to the continuation of what is unredeemed unless it is interrupted by the redeeming purposes of God. The Day of Pentecost was an empowering of the Church, but it was also an interruption of time. When God breaks into our timeline and does the work of heaven, a kairos moment occurs. When this happens heaven’s perspective invades earth’s perspective and overwhelms the surrounding darkness. This is when revival breaks out and cultural transformation takes place.

In these moments, natural systems are interrupted, and supernatural systems of heaven are instituted; people are saved, the sick are healed, and spiritual frontiers are pushed back. Without this heavenly intervention, life would go on as normal. Frontiers of spiritual darkness are dismantled and pushed back by the revelation of God spoken through His Church. Our battle with darkness is about territory—the territory of individual lives and culture.

It is from our position in Christ, seated at the right hand of God, that we gain a perspective of prayer that is infused with a boldness resulting from seeing this life from God’s viewpoint. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. The same applies to us. To pray the will of God means that I must first see His will and then proclaim it upon the earth. As Acts 1:8 instructs us, we are to tell people about Him (other versions translate this as bearing witness). Our boldness does not come from doing acts of obedience isolated from God. Our boldness flows because, like Jesus, we are seeing heaven at work. We step out in faith, and we speak what we see and hear.

In Colossians 3:1, Paul shared a similar reality with the church in Colossae, saying: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven.”

SETTING OUR SIGHTS

What we set our sights on in prayer will direct the flow of our prayer. The reality of heaven, not the pain of our circumstance, is where we are to set our sights.

Hostage rescue teams train to rescue hostages and quell violent situations by developing tactics superior to those of the criminals. These highly trained people practice with their weapons while hoping they will never have to use them. In their training, they constantly hear the words, “Focus on the front sight!”

Officers blur out the rear sight so that they can focus fully on the front sight and the target in front of them while still remaining tuned to their surroundings. Focusing on the front sight will direct the bullet to its intended target instead of an innocent victim.

We have been told to set our sights on the reality of heaven—the higher reality. When we see with heaven’s sight, we are able to bring that reality to the untransformed parts of this life and demand them to yield to the will of God.

My wife, Jan, and I love our children. All through their lives, from birth to adulthood, we have prayed for them. Early on we knew the reality of heaven for each of their lives, and we prayed that reality every day. Our children would do foolish, childish things like all children do, but those foolish things were never their reality in our eyes.

God’s word had defined who they were to become. We held on to the promises God had spoken to our hearts concerning our children. We have seen God’s reality for them and have spoken that reality into their developing lives so that the intent of God for them would become the driving force in their lives. We stayed focused on the realities of God’s design and destiny for our children, and we see God at work in both of their lives. Maybe just as importantly, we have discovered God at work in transforming us as parents who need as much help as our children. One of our promises from the Lord is that He is turning the hearts of the fathers (and mothers) to the children, and the children to the fathers (and mothers).

The same principle of praying from God’s reality applies to each person and circumstance with which we engage. God is asking the Church to see and then pray heaven’s perspective into existence upon the earth. It is not that we are creating a new reality apart from God but rather that we are simply focusing on heaven’s reality and not allowing anything less to gain our attention. Nothing is new or old in heaven. Heaven is eternal and timeless and so is the truth of God. Focusing on the unchangeable nature of heaven is a supernaturally calming experience because we no longer have to carry the weight of outcomes.

2

SEATED IN HEAVEN’S

PERSPECTIVE

Places dedicated to prayer attract me. When I was a student at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon, I enjoyed walking into the prayer chapel and sitting on the wooden pews. The chapel is as old as the campus. At one time someone proposed removing the chapel to make way for campus expansion, but the protest from past students stopped that plan in its tracks. Thousands of students have waited within those chapel walls to hear from God. It is a special place.

I can still recall the smell of that old wooden structure. I first visited it as a twenty-something college student trying to find my way in the calling God had placed upon my life. I spent many hours with God inside that chapel. Like me, hundreds of students have sat in those pews, struggled with their calling, received life-changing direction, and answered the call of God to various ministries or mission fields. Others went on to make contributions into God’s Kingdom through business, arts, and sciences.

To this day, every time I travel through Portland, I try to find time to slip into one of those chapel pews and talk to God. It is a timeless place.

Some of the heroes of faith we read about today started out in chapels and special places of prayer just like the chapel at Multnomah University. When we set aside a time and a place to be with Him, extraordinary things happen.

Recently, Jan and I traveled to Redding, California, to attend a conference at Bethel Church. During a break in the conference, we spent some time in the prayer chapel. The Bethel prayer chapel is not only appealing for its architecture but also for its expansive view of the surrounding mountains. On this particular evening, I chose to sit in a chair and look north. In fact I set my chair on the letter “N” that is embedded in the carpet as part of a compass that orients the chapel to the surrounding geography and beyond.

In my field of vision was Mount Shasta—all 14,179 feet of her majestic beauty. Mount Shasta is a stratovolcano. A stratovolcano is a tall, conical-shaped mountain with many layers. These volcanoes are formed by repeated eruptions and coolings that give the volcano its steep slopes.

As I sat looking out toward Mount Shasta, the sun had already begun to set over the western horizon. The only piece of earth still illuminated was the summit of the mountain. The colors were striking. Shasta was reflecting the sun in a palette of salmon pink, orange, and white. The surrounding valley was already under the subdued and blurring blue light of evening. But Mount Shasta shone bright above this twilight in a proud display of glory. She was created for this moment.

Then the Lord spoke. He said, “Watch the high places.” In the next few minutes, I would have one of those conversations with God in which He uses creation as part of His vocabulary. Our conversation was a combination of Spirit-led impressions and the visual display of what I was viewing from within the Bethel prayer chapel.

The color and light still struck Mount Shasta from the west. The east side of the mountain was similar to the colorless twilight of the surrounding valley below.

As the day continued to end, so did the light on the mountain. The shadow of evening twilight began to crawl up the base of the mountain, encroaching upon the light display that had captured my attention in the first place. Inch by inch the twilight climbed up the slopes as the earth rotated and blocked each preceding angle of light. I continued to watch as the very tip of Mount Shasta hung onto the last of the sun’s rays.

And then it was all gone. The show was over. It was like I had just watched a great movie and was left with only the film credits and the soundtrack music playing in the background. I was waiting for the “The End” to scroll up onto the screen and dismiss me from the theater. Twilight had erased the day, and now night was falling. The mountain began to dissolve into night as lights of human culture began to emerge through the darkness.

As I faced the darkness, the Lord let me know that if I would simply continue to look where the mountain used to be, the sun would rise again, and the mountain would display its glory once more in the morning. At that moment I knew what He meant when He said, “Watch the high places.” When times are dark, it is best to keep looking at what God had revealed previously.

When we explore what it means to pray from the throne of God, we will realize that the high place, God’s throne, is not affected by darkness or the rotation of the earth. His throne remains above everything, above the highest mountains that we look at in awe. His throne is surrounded by the light of His presence.

When we understand that we live in a perpetual high place with God, we are taking a posture of hope and faith; we are believing that God is not Someone with a single cycle of promise, like a beautiful sunset affected by the rotation of the earth, but rather Someone whose promises originate in timeless eternity above the natural cycles of life.

OUR POSITION IN PRAYER

Comprehending the power of this kind of prayer starts with the understanding of our identity in Christ. Instead of always struggling upward in prayer from earth to heaven, we need to see ourselves positioned in heaven. It is from that place—being seated with Christ—where we begin to comprehend that our prayers can also fall down upon the life we now live on the earth. In other words, we pray from our reality in Christ.

In Philippians 3:20, Paul writes: “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.”

We all carry a natural citizenship in our earthly nations. When we become born again, we pick up a second citizenship in heaven with Christ. With that born-again experience, we receive the rights of citizenship in this heavenly Kingdom; we now possess a dual citizenship.

In my travels I have crossed the borders of many nations. My first passport had so many added pages that it became too thick to carry comfortably, and I had to order a new one. What I enjoyed the most about travel was returning home. Experiencing the uniqueness of a new culture was always something that added to my life, but home was truly where my heart lived. Because we are followers of Jesus Christ, God wants us to see that our real home, the place indicated on our spiritual passport, is where our hearts are most alive.

Jesus said that He was leaving this earth to go and prepare a place for us. That place, established in eternity, is our real home. We are sojourners living here, making Kingdom contributions on earth.

Paul gave profound words to the Church in Ephesus about our position in Christ:

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.

—Ephesians 1:19-23

The resurrection power of God caused Jesus to be seated far above the turmoil and change that is taking place on the earth. He went there to rejoin the intimate fellowship He had with the Father and also to prepare our place in Him. When we gain this perspective, we will see into the invisible realm with the eyes of faith and then begin to pray heaven’s reality into what seemed impossible to the natural mind. It is God’s will that we be in His Son. When we pray the will of God from this heavenly position into the earth, we are not praying apart from God’s will, but we are praying as God’s will.

There will be a day when this old earth will become a new earth. Until that day a division still exists. Many of our prayers only reflect the earthbound half of our reality as children of God. God wants His people to rise in their confidence in prayer. This world cannot provide that confidence. That is why the writer of Hebrews says that our faith is anchored in eternity, not here. Our confidence starts with the location of that anchor. The very need for an anchor indicates that the place of security is where the anchor has taken hold. In Ephesians 2:6 Paul reminds his readers: “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus.”

Picture the image: God is seated on His throne, and at His right hand, Jesus is seated on His throne. The picture is one of complete unity and victory. Now, imagine that you are seated there with Christ. That’s the starting point for your prayers.

Jesus emptied Himself of His divine privileges to come and live among us. Then, after His victory, he returned to heaven and left the incarnation in the hands of His Church. In one form or another, the Body of Jesus Christ has been on the earth continuously for the last 2,000 years. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He left us to be His Body upon the earth. The Church today incarnates the presence of Jesus. Wherever we walk we carry the risen Christ within us. The Church, living as the Body of Jesus Christ upon the earth, is God’s model for how this is all supposed to work. This powerful, incarnated Body of Christ upon the earth is not the only place Christ resides. He is also seated at the right hand of the Father with His Church within Him. On earth He lives in us, and in heaven we live in Him.

In God’s mind it was not enough that we function as the Body of Christ solely with the limited representation that an earthly incarnation provides. The incarnated presence of Jesus upon the earth within His Church is an invasion of another and higher reality that we already live within—in heavenly places with Christ—a place where we now reside.

Heaven is always a greater reality than the reality of the earthly realm. When Jesus instructed His disciples to pray, He said, “On earth as it is in heaven.” He did not say, “in heaven as it is on earth.” The power of God connected the heavenly with the earthly. Jesus came and lived a real life in a real world. The incarnation of Jesus is the connecting point of heaven to earth and earth to heaven.

Many of us have limited our understanding of prayer to such a degree that we may be challenged by the idea of adding an altar of prayer in heaven to complement our earthly altar of prayer. Dual citizens who understand God’s Word should not struggle with this. Our struggle is an indicator of our limited understanding of how Paul defined a believer as someone who lives in two realms.

3

THE WATCHMAN’S PRAYER

After spending time with God one morning, I turned on my computer. As I read the morning news, I noticed a live image of the White House in Washington, D.C. The image was a familiar one. Taken from an elevated position, the camera angle showed the flag waving and exposed part of the roof-line.

Most people would look at the roof of the White House and see it as just the roof of a government building. But I always look for the security personnel. And there they were: visible in the distant live shot, their dark uniforms in stark contrast to the white paint of the building. Unless you knew to look for the security personnel, you probably wouldn’t notice them. These are the people assigned to keep watch. These are the people assigned to look out for and protect against attack.

As a young man, I was a law enforcement officer. I was on one of the early SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) that were emerging in the law enforcement community across America in the 1970’s. We trained with the FBI SWAT teams each month to learn their tactics. We trained within our own team to become a functional and cohesive unit. We trained on our own time to remain in top physical condition.

Watching the live video feed of the White House, I remembered working similar duty at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. I had been assigned to outer-perimeter roof security for President Gerald Ford when he visited the university to speak. Roof duty is obscure and unnoticed to most people, yet it is vital to preserve life.

The watchman’s prayer from the throne of God is comprised of a lot of “roof duty.” You are on the “roof” of your family, your business, your city, and your ministry. You are scanning for threats that are only visible from the watchman’s higher vantage point. Most people don’t know you are there.

In the ministry of a watchman, you are not living in fear but rather in a state of prepared anticipation. This is duty you train for: sometimes as a team, sometimes alone.

Parents do roof duty waiting up at night for a teenager to return home by curfew; they declare safety over a child’s travel. A businesswoman works the roof when everyone else gets to go home at the end of the day; she prophesies turnaround and favor over her company. A servant-leader in the Church works the roof in prayer when no one else notices; his prayer covers others for breakthrough in the coming day.

Most of the people receiving these prayers will never realize they came from a watchman praying from the throne of God—the roof of heaven.

The majority of roof duty simply involves watching. In the Old Testament, the watchmen walked the wall of the cities, looking to see who was friend or foe. This is the essence of roof duty. It hasn’t changed much today. The watchmen go unseen by those whose focus is only on what is taking place at ground level. To many, the throne of God is obscured by the troubles and pain of this visible, ground-level life. If our attention is trapped in our daily activities and duties, we won’t be paying much attention to what may be approaching. If you have been assigned to spiritual roof duty, it will not be the job that gets noticed, but it will be the job that provides security for your family, home, nation, and Church.

Whenever you find yourself alone on roof duty, remember that you aren’t watching solo. God is up on the roof with you. God likes roof duty, and He loves to empower those on the roof with supernatural sight to see things from His eternal perspective and then to pray that eternal perspective back onto those living below.

4

OUR POSITION OF POWER

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.

—Ephesians 1:19a

The word “power” in Ephesians 1:19 refers to God’s power, specifically to the release of this power in our thinking. This is called dunamis in the Greek language, which is the root of our English word “dynamite.” Here it refers to the explosive power exercised in the mind of a believer. The mind must first experience the explosion of God’s power before that experience is translated into words that make up our prayers. Paul used this same word when he referred to the Holy Spirit:

And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.

—I Corinthians 2:4-5

The ability of wisdom to transform human minds is found in the source of that power. Paul is linking the issue of trust to the release of power. What we rely on reveals where we have placed our trust. So then, what will we trust? Will we trust in the power of God that defies human wisdom and logic, or will we settle into a life of prayer that only reacts to what is happening around us? Reactive prayer is influenced by surroundings and emotions, but proactive prayers from the throne of God flow from an environment free of failing situations and human emotions.

Proactive prayers are influenced by God’s throne and the environment of heaven. These prayers are crafted from the lexicon of heaven. If we are only trusting in what our minds can grasp, then we will only draw from the limited spectrum of human wisdom and power. The Church was never intended to live within a reactive mindset where darkness tries to set the agenda for our actions. God raised up the Church and seated us with Christ so that we could function from the preferred reality of heaven. When we rely on the power and wisdom of God, supernatural things begin to take place.

A few years ago, I was asked to speak to a group of pastors in a nation that borders the Adriatic Sea in southern Europe. The area is beautiful and filled with the history of the Early Church.

As the evening meeting progressed, the leader of this national church movement asked if I would pray prophetically over the new church planters being sent out. As these leaders formed a line, I began to pray over each of them, sharing the words and images I felt the Holy Spirit was giving. I was working through an interpreter.

One young couple came up for prayer. As I prayed I began to see an image. In fact, the image was so real that it looked like words were being typed across the forehead of the woman in large print. I saw the word, “Occult.” Not wanting to embarrass the woman, I leaned over and quietly whispered this word to the interpreter. He paused and then leaned over and spoke into the woman’s ear.

As the woman heard the words she screamed and fell back into the arms of her husband and began to weep and shout out words in her native language. I had no idea what she was saying, but I knew that God was up to something.

When the interpreter regained his composure, he began to question the woman. Several moments went by. When he got up from where the woman was now on the floor, he shared with me what she was crying about.

Apparently, this young woman was afraid of going out to pastor a church. The task of leadership was daunting. Her mother had been involved with mediums who predicted the future. So, at the invitation of her mother, she went to a medium to ask if their church plant would be successful. On this night God exposed her secret sin so she could confess it and be set free. With my feet firmly on the earth, I saw what heaven wanted to release this woman from, and her life was changed. Prayers that come from the throne of God will impact our lives in profound ways.

I have preached Acts 2 so many times that I thought I understood what took place in that upper room. The disciples came to the Day of Pentecost already indwelled by the Spirit because Jesus had breathed His Spirit into them in John 20. These same, water-baptized and indwelled-by-the-Spirit believers were told by Jesus not to leave Jerusalem and attempt ministry without the equipping of the Spirit’s power that was to come upon them—the power to become a supernatural witness.

When Jesus gave His disciples instructions in Acts 1 about the coming Day of Pentecost, He said that the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them to empower them to become His witnesses, making them into a Spirit-empowered voice to the nations. Witnesses bring testimony. A witness gives evidence of something that has taken place. The witness of the Church for the last two thousand years has been linked to the initial outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

I began to ask myself, “What was the witness?” The witness was not only the experience of Pentecost itself but also the message the disciples were empowered to deliver. When we limit the Day of Pentecost to a set of experiences, we limit the full understanding of what I believe God intended that day to be for the Church throughout history. On the Day of Pentecost, we were empowered to speak the language of heaven upon the earth.

In Acts 2 the disciples were huddled together in fear behind closed doors when suddenly the wind of the Spirit began to blow. As this wind touched the disciples, the mockers in the crowd thought they were drunk. The noise and the manifestations were not the message. The noise only got the attention of the surrounding community. The message of Pentecost was tucked away in verse 11: “And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”

The power of Pentecost was not only in the supernatural manifestations that took place that day; the power of Pentecost was the ability of the Church to supernaturally proclaim the wonderful things God had done in a language people could understand. This language is not always verbal. It can be delivered through art, music, preaching, writing, serving, and any area of life that is empowered by His Spirit. This empowered voice given on the Day of Pentecost also empowered our ability to pray with power and authority.

Let’s return to a verse we looked at earlier, this time focusing on the word “power,” the dunamis Jesus used when He said:

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

—Acts 1:8

A key to understanding this verse, and maybe the entire event of Pentecost, is why the disciples were empowered in the first place. The disciples were empowered with a new voice to witness. Jesus instructed them: “tell people about me everywhere.”

As it is used here, dunamis is the explosive power of revelation that takes place when we speak in His name and in His power. This is not the delivery style or the presentation of a voice but the power that encases the words and delivers them for supernatural impact. When we are supernaturally empowered to speak for God, the hearers of our words will receive an explosive revelation of God’s heart for them.

The purpose of the power at Pentecost was to empower the Church to share the wonder of God with supernaturally charged words that contained explosive power. This power would unlock human minds with the dynamite of heaven in an explosion of love.

In Luke 4, Jesus shared the reason He came to earth. His explanation directly echoed Isaiah 61:2: “He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus was anointed by God to proclaim God’s favor in the earth. The fulfillment of the ministry of favor upon Jesus Christ was transferred to us when Jesus was taken up into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. Once He was enthroned, the Spirit was released into the Church. On the Day of Pentecost, the Early Church spoke in supernaturally empowered language, and when the people heard of God’s favor, they called it the wonderful things God has done.

In Isaiah 61, a chapter describing the ministry of Jesus Christ and ultimately the ministry of His Church, words that describe God’s impressive favor jump off the pages:

Good News, comfort, released, freed, favor, beauty, blessing, praise, planted, glory, rebuild, repairing, revive, double portion, prosperity, everlasting joy, reward, covenant, honored, blessed

These are the kinds of words the people heard on the Day of Pentecost—words of favor and wonder from the God Who had once seemed distant. When spoken by the power of the Spirit, these words of favor would begin to transform the kingdoms of the earth into the Kingdom of our Lord. When we pray from the throne of God, we are speaking the words of Isaiah 61 into people and situations, and we are releasing this empowered voice to speak down upon the developing history that is playing out before our eyes.

God did not empower our voice to simply echo off the walls of a church building on Sunday morning. Our empowered voice was given to us as a weapon of prayer capable of pulling down the strongholds of darkness that only look imposing when viewed from an earthly viewpoint instead of a heavenly one.

5

OUR POSITION OF AUTHORITY

There are social and political transitions taking place that will someday be traced back to prayers made from our position in Christ at the right hand of the Father. These prayers will not struggle up in human effort in some attempt to convince God to move, but rather they will flow down with anointing and set in motion supernatural change that reflects God’s intended purpose for our world. Strongholds that many Christians have thought were too far gone for change will suddenly change. God is about to change what appears to be unchangeable, and this requires God’s people exercising their authority in Him.

As a young pastor, I attended a meeting with a small group of leaders in the early 1980’s in Billings, Montana. Jerry Cook was our speaker. He made a comment that I will never forget: “Your authority will never be established until it is challenged.”

Jerry was saying that we can claim to have authority, but its realization only comes through our response to the challenge of our authority. The challenge will reveal the condition of our hearts. We can become so consumed with defending our authority that we begin moving in a human authority that draws from a source apart from God. God wants our exercise of authority to depend on His life moving through us. A defensive life is a life that moves in limited wisdom and authority.

Jesus used the word “authority” when He spoke the Great Commission to His disciples:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

—Matthew 28:18-20

The significance of the words, “I have been given complete authority,” is not just the process of making disciples but also the authority transferred from Jesus to His disciples. This word for authority is constructed from two concepts. One is the origin or source of something as well the movement from that source to the recipient: from Jesus to the Church. The other part of this word expresses, “I am, I exist, I have been.” In the context of this transferred authority, the word means the authority of the risen Lord resident in timeless eternity yet released and moving into time through the Church into the earth.

Jesus released this authority to His Church so that we could pray and minister in power. When we see death trying to raise its false authority over a situation or loved one, we are able to draw from the authority of Jesus Christ and speak life into dead situations. Such prayer is birthed, as Ephesians 1:21 tells us, “far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else.”

This prayer—effortless and throne-sourced—is not hindered by conditions here on earth. It is prayer that tears down strongholds that seemed immovable. Nothing is immovable to God. He can change what appears to be unchangeable.

6

OUR POSITION OF INTIMACY

I have been married to my wife for several decades. I cannot imagine Jan not being in my life. We are at a place in our relationship where we honestly do not know where one of us ends and the other begins. This is oneness.

When we go to a mall to shop, Jan and I sometimes separate to take care of different errands. Even if I can’t see Jan, I can sense her presence when she is nearby. When I find her, it’s uncanny. I once found her in the middle of a flea market in Berlin, Germany—a city of over four million people. I hadn’t even known she was going there; I had just been out for a bicycle ride. She always smiles, “You just know where I am.” Intimacy and oneness are powerful, unifying forces that overcome the physical barriers of separation.

Prayer from the throne of God is an intimate act that senses the touch of the Father’s hand because we are seated within Christ at the Father’s right hand—within His reach, united with Him. Ephesians 2: 6 is not just a theological proximity; it is a real closeness and intimacy among the Father, Son, and Church.

I love the touch of my wife, Jan. When I feel stress, just one touch of her hand on my neck releases the stress. She says that touch is one of my love languages. I would agree.

Touch is also one of the love languages God uses to affirm His Church. Jesus is always within reach of the Father’s touch. When God the Father touches His Son, He is touching the Church. Jesus said that He would never leave us or forsake us because intimacy with us is important to Him. Throughout Church history those who have been part of a great move of God have commonly said, “God touched us.” Intimacy with God is a key part of the environment of revival.

Intimacy with God is a missing factor in the prayer lives of many within the Church. We make our prayer appeals to God Whom we perceive is somewhere else. For many of the same reasons that we fail to experience intimacy with people, we fail to experience it with God. We see our position as not intimately united with Christ but only connected to Him through theology or liturgy.

Jesus changed how we are to relate to Him when He said that we are no longer considered His servants but His friends:

“The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. You are my friends if you obey me. I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.”

—John 15:13b-15

Many people still relate to God as if they are servants because they carry an Old Covenant understanding of God that was only a shadow of what was to come. In the Old Covenant, the Spirit came to people and then left. In the New Covenant, the Spirit takes up residency in a believer’s life—and stays there. We are never without His Spirit.

The difference between being a servant of God and friend of God is a list. Servants work from a list of things to do, and when their list is done for the day they return to the servants’ quarters. A friend has no list. A friend works from anticipation. Friends anticipate each other’s needs. Friends understand one another because their relationship is based on an intimacy that sees the heart. There are no separate quarters for friends. Friends are always there. Friends can walk into each other’s lives at any time.

My father accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior on his deathbed. My dad was a rough-and-tumble man with a soft heart. As a child growing up in the Great Depression, he had a completely different outlook on life than I had. I was provided for. Dad had to fight for everything he ever got. He was born in a sod house on the plains of Oklahoma in 1908 with a horse and buggy waiting outside in case the doctor was needed.

When he was a young man, my father left home and rode the rails across America as a transient looking for work. He was a tough man forged in tough times.

I remember the morning the Lord woke me before dawn to go the hospital bed where my father lay dying. I went with the simple instruction from the Lord to read the 23rd Psalm to him. As I finished reading to my father, I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to ask Dad what his relationship with God was like.

Then the Holy Spirit asked me to probe deeper, “Dad, have you ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” The question was strange because I know my father had sat through hundreds of altar calls in his lifetime. Most of our family thought my father knew the Lord.

He began to softly cry and said, “No.”

“Dad, all these years sitting in church you never accepted Him—why?”

“I was afraid.”

My father, the man I grew up knowing as afraid of no man, was afraid of coming to God.

Just before sunrise I had the honor of leading my earthly father in a prayer to come into a living relationship with his heavenly Father. What a privilege that was for me.

Because my father was dying, our conversation became very open and honest. I asked him what he wanted for his memorial service. He requested to have a soloist sing the song, “He touched me.”

God touched my father. Touch is the condition of intimacy. God wants to touch us. Whenever He reaches over to touch His Son, Jesus Christ, He is touching those who are in Christ. We pray from a place of intimacy that releases prayers of faith.

7

PROPHESYING HOPE

INTO LIFE’S MARGINS

Most of us have written something in the margin of a book or a Bible. As we read along, we jot down thoughts and observations in the margins of the text. There is actually a term for this: “marginalia.”

Marginalia originally described the intentional designs in the margins of Medieval illuminated manuscripts. The margins of these manuscripts were filled with beautiful patterns and images in gold and silver that helped “illuminate” the text.

We all have a text that describes our lives. This life text narrates the successes and failures that visit each of us as we walk upon planet Earth. Along with a life text, we also have margins in the pages of our lives that have yet to be written upon. God has words of hope and destiny that He places into those margins that illuminate His purpose for us beyond what the text of our life reveals. The Church has been called to prophesy God’s heart into the margins of people’s lives.

Paul described the purpose of prophecy:

“But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.”

—I Corinthians 14:3, NIV

The gift of prophecy was given to the Church to illuminate the life text of the people in our family, our workplace, and those living in the distant corners of this world.

Sometimes we don’t understand the text of our lives. When a word of prophecy comes and fills in the margins, our life text is illuminated with things that bring us strength, courage, and comfort. Something wonderful and supernatural takes place when we know that God sees more for us than we can see for ourselves.

The stories of our lives on earth can be filled with turmoil. But we know that prayer from the throne originates far above that turmoil. As we saw in Ephesians 1:21, this elevated position is “far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else.” The social, political, and economic strains taking place on the earth do not affect this kind of prayer.

Verse 22 continues: “And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church.” Prayer from God’s throne flows from the headship of Christ toward earth and will speak to areas in this world system functioning independently from God—areas without His headship. Headship brings order. Prayer from the throne of God will declare headship over the disorder and rebellion that is robbing the earth of God’s joy. Prayer from this position of headship subdues rebellion, averts wars, and causes national leaders to yield to the word of the Lord.

As pastors, my wife and I adjusted our prayer life when we gained this perspective. We have the privilege of leading a wonderful church. We love the people, and they love us. When people walked in challenging seasons, it would have been so easy to give in to the fear a spiritual parent can experience. Instead, God asked us to pray His will over our spiritual children.

We began to declare the will of God over the text of their lives. We prophesied over their circumstances—all from the throne of God, above what was taking place in their lives. The timetable of change for each of our friends was unique to their personalities and circumstances. What changed in our prayer life was how we saw the people God had entrusted to us. While we still knew that some were walking through personal challenges, our level of trust in God began to rise because the outcomes were not dependent upon what we saw taking place here on earth. What mattered most was our understanding of the heart of God for His people.

The nature of prayer from the throne of God is hope. And hope is sourced in eternity, not in time:

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

—Hebrews 6:19-20a, NIV

Whenever God has us speak a word of hope to another person, God uses our words as His pen to write His destiny into the margins of someone’s life in a way that illuminates that life.

8

THE SOUND OF THIS PRAYER

When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, ten cities stood as obstacles in their way. The first of these cities was Jericho.

In Joshua 6:2 God said, “‘I have given you Jericho.’” Jericho was a promised victory. Israel was not yet a full-fledged army; it was simply a group of desert wanderers with a promise. Their physical resources were limited from years of wandering in the desert. Their only real weapon of warfare was their obedience to God.

The Church stands in a similar posture. We all face a Jericho that is standing in the way of what God has promised. World systems are unstable. Financial fear is trying to lure the people of God into its grip. But God is positioning His Church to bring down those walls just as He did in Jericho.

We all know the story of that walled city. There was no way in. God instructed Israel to march around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times, shout, and have the victory.

While I was a young pastor, Jack Hayford was one of the voices that forged my initial understanding of biblical leadership. Jack has always walked in that rare air of supernatural revelation that has earned him great respect. Jack once shared how he led his church in a shout of grace that changed the very atmosphere of his congregation. Grace is a powerful weapon. When the Church prays grace-filled prayers in the form of declarations, decrees, and prophecy, walls will come down.

The shout was the focal point in the story of Jericho. One-and-a-half million voices rose together. This was a shout of grace. A shout that said, “Our only way in is if God makes a way.” This shout of grace was a desperate one; Israel had no access to Jericho unless God did for them what was impossible for them to do in their own strength. That is the nature of grace. Grace releases God’s favor, and favor brings the victory. When we shout grace at our Jericho, God releases a supernatural favor that no wall of opposition can withstand.

What we miss in reading this story of Jericho is the size and dimension of what took place. The city of Jericho covered only six acres of ground. If you consider the outer fortifications, the size of the entire city was only nine acres in total.

At the time this event took place, the population of Israel was relative in size to the population of cities like Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, or San Diego. Picture this: a city of nine acres surrounded by a circling mass of 1.5 million people.

The inner ring was comprised of the priests, the middle ring by the men of war, and the outer ring by the people of the nation of Israel. If you had stood on the walls of the city, you would not have seen a single-file line of people but rather a rotating mass of people reaching beyond the horizon.

For six days no one spoke a word. For six days Israel revolved around the city only once each day. On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times. This was not a silent event. You don’t move this many people quietly. The sound of 1.5 million people marching was powerful and loud. The earth shook. The dust cloud must have been thick.

On the seventh day, at the completion of seven circumnavigations of Jericho, 1.5 million voices raised and shouted at the walls of Jericho, and the Word says the walls of the city fell straight down. This was no timid shout. This was an aggressive and prolonged shout as Israel closed ranks over nine acres of land.

Imagine 1.5 million people shouting and running forward, climbing over the rubble that once was the wall around Jericho. The former obstacle had vanished. This is what can happen when you pray from the place of victory enthroned with Christ against those things that will try to deny your way into your inheritance.

When we were young pastors, my wife and I pioneered our first church in a small town in the Rocky Mountains. Our young family of four had moved into a culture and climate that was foreign to us. We didn’t know a single person. It turned out to be one of the hardest times and yet one of the best times on our journey in life. God was forming in us foundational truths for the years of ministry that lay ahead. Into this young, small fellowship arrived an older, more mature couple who were more gifted and more knowledgeable in the function of a local church than we were. They settled into a place of leadership. It did not take long for us to recognize that some things were not quite right, and we knew that we would have to address some personal issues in their lives that could eventually harm the church.

The husband’s response was one of anger. In a private meeting, he told me what was wrong with me and the church. He then proceeded to curse the church and announced its demise. Outwardly, I responded as calmly and graciously as I could, but on the inside, I was in turmoil, shaken by the spiritual intensity of the moment. I actually got sick to my stomach as this man raged at me. I responded by saying, “We are sad that we have not been able to be of any help to you and your wife. It’s important that you both be in a place where you can receive from the Lord. As you leave here and look to find that place of fellowship, we will be praying for you.”

I went home and shared the whole episode with Jan. We could imagine the fallout that might occur in the church from this encounter. We felt the personal pain of that first shock and betrayal from a fellow brother and sister in the Lord. We felt inadequate and helpless to change the outcome for this couple and their influence on the rest of the church. We felt like we had failed. There was only one thing we could do. We got down on our knees and, with raised voices, we worshipped God. We declared His goodness, mercy, love, and forgiveness over the situation, over this couple’s failure and ours, and over life itself. Our declaration and cry was loud and sustained.

We learned some foundational things that evening about God’s heart, about authority, and about warfare. Right after this confrontation, the church immediately moved forward in depth and character. A developing atmosphere of love and honor was felt. It was a turning point for all of us. Several years later this couple wrote me and asked for forgiveness. I responded with love and affirmation to their step of faith and was once again amazed at God’s heart of love toward each of us when we are willing to respond in grace and mercy.

I learned something else from that situation. Our response is everything. Whether we are responding to someone who is angry with us or whether we are coming face to face with some immovable life obstacle, our response must be fueled by the grace of God or it will lack His power and authority.

The walls of our personal Jericho will not fall by human wisdom and reasoning. Another church program will not do it. Only the shout of grace in prayer will bring it down. The shout of grace in obedience to God was the weapon of supernatural warfare for Israel. When we shout grace-filled prayers, supernatural events transpire.

God is asking His people to position themselves in unusual prophetic postures to pray prayers of authority in response to areas of life that appear to be completely closed and walled off. God is asking us to shout grace to the walls that stand in the way of His promise. This is not a timid prayer. It is loud and without apology. It comes after days of prolonged obedience in silence and marching in the dust.

Many individuals and ministries have been on a long dusty march, but now a plan for victory is before them. The plan for this season is the same plan for victory in all of recorded history of God’s people: the battle plan is always a plan of grace. The cultures we live in are waiting to see God’s miraculous provision demonstrated in His people. We are the ones who possess the shout of grace. The sound of grace is waiting to be heard in every city and in every nation upon the earth.

The prophet Zechariah spoke powerful words about shouting grace:

“Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will flatten out before him! Then Zerubbabel will set the final stone of the Temple in place, and the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’”

—Zechariah 4:7

Follow Zechariah’s example and shout over the mountains in your life:

Gather your mounting bills, and shout prayers of grace over them.

Stand with your spouse, and shout prayers of grace into your future together.

Shout prayers of grace over a wayward child.

Assemble your ministry team, and shout prayers of grace into every obstacle that stands in the way of your vision and calling becoming a reality.

Stand on the high places of your city, and shout prayers of grace over the broken and lost.

Once you shout the grace of God, walk straight ahead—right over the remains of fear and impossibility—and into your promise.

9

PRAYERS THAT DECLARE,

DECREE, AND PROPHESY

Declarations, decrees, and prophecy are the vehicles that carry our prayers from the throne of God to people and circumstances where He wants to make Himself known.

What can we do when we have prayed through our prayer list and when we have called out to God? Is there something else we can do in prayer? We can begin to declare, decree, and prophesy God’s heart from His throne into situations and relationships that appear immovable.

Before we look specifically at declarations, decrees, and prophecy, I’d like to comment generally on the power of the spoken word. We saw that 1.5 million voices brought down the walls of Jericho, but even your voice alone has power.

God spoke and created the earth with His voice. We, His children, the Church, are made in His image and carry His creative voice. Our words can bring life or death.

When believers pray from the throne of God with the authority and power of Jesus Christ, our prayers can change the environment into which we are praying. Because we are God’s children, we carry a creative familial voice that can replicate the sound of our Father’s voice.

On the day of Creation, God spoke into the void. His voice was the assembly point for the elements to come and form the earth we walk upon. His word gathers and gives form to what was previously formless. For example, when we speak a prayer into the life of a child whose life is in disarray, our prayers provide an assembly point for God’s truth to begin to work against unchallenged lies of hell. When parents intercede for their children, those prayers take up residence in that child, awaiting fulfillment.

Proverbs 18:21 (NIV) says, “The tongue has the power of life and death.” What we say or pray will gather the elements of a life or situation around us for either life or death. There are huge consequences to our words and prayers.

I remember a season in my life when I was under tremendous pressure—the kind that comes just before supernatural breakthrough. I felt extremely fragmented. Into this fragmentation, God spoke truth to me that began to release the pressure.

In this particular time of testing, I had begun to speak words that contained no faith. I was speaking out of my pain and sorrow. I would have been embarrassed for anyone to hear what I was saying. I knew I needed to take a stand against the words that were coming out of my heart and finding life through my mouth. As I confessed my sin and my lack of faith, the Lord gave me a picture of what He was doing.

I saw an image of the Lord standing behind me. When I spoke those lifeless words, He swung a large shield around in front of me while He stood behind me. The shield was placed between my mouth and my circumstance. The words coming out of my mouth struck the back of the Lord’s shield and could not go any farther.

Through an act of great mercy and grace, the Lord was shielding me from the words of death I had spoken. I learned that the shield of the Lord has two unique functions. One is to protect me until I realize what I am doing, and the other is to protect my future. I also understood that He would not do this forever. He was giving me a chance to go to the root of my pain so that I could experience resolution and reconciliation. Through confession and repentance, I put to death my acts of rebellion and self-protection. I thanked Him for His patience with me and immediately began to filter my words to resemble God’s heart, not my pain. My words had now become assembly points for the blessing of God instead of a self-created destiny of fear and death.

Keeping in mind the power of our words, let’s look at declarations, decrees, and prophesies and what happens when they are prayed from God’s throne into our world.

WE DECLARE THE HEART OF GOD

Declarations are like the trump card thrown down in a card game; they declare victory. When we declare in prayer, we are not declaring out of our imaginations, we are declaring the heart and truth of God. Declarations express the heart of God upon the earth.

When God created the earth, He said it was good. There is a goodness associated with what we speak because it expresses the goodness of God’s heart and will. The nature of God is goodness. When we realize this truth, it becomes “natural” for us to declare His goodness in prayer.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE THE GLORY OF GOD

Sing to the LORD, all the earth;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonders among all peoples.

For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised;

He is also to be feared above all gods.

—1 Chronicles 16:23-25, NKJV

The word “glory” is defined as something with weight. God’s glory, the essence of His presence, carries a greater substance than all the powers of the kingdom of darkness. When we declare the glory of God down upon someone who is living in rebellion, or upon a government system given over to corruption, our words will have a supernatural weight that will begin to crush darkness.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE GENERATIONAL TESTIMONY

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,

And on Your wondrous works.

—Psalm 145:3-5, NKJV

Revival in the Church is passed on when one generation announces the greatness of God to another generation. Many times we only see this as the older generation making an announcement to the younger generation.

We are in a time when the younger generations will be responsible for announcing to the older generations what God has done before. The fire in the bones of young men and women can ignite and remind an older generation who have sat back and given up on the promises of God.

Begin today to declare in prayer to all generations that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is unchanging, but His people must change from glory to glory. Declarations from the throne of God to the surrounding generations can become the revival catalyst for the next great move of God by simply making people aware of the mighty works of God in the past so that they begin to live in expectation of His coming in the future.

DECLARATIONS ARE THE PRAYERS OF A WATCHMEN

Prepare the table,

Set a watchman in the tower,

Eat and drink.

Arise, you princes,

Anoint the shield!

For thus has the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman,

Let him declare what he sees.”

And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,

A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,

And he listened earnestly with great care.

—Isaiah 21:5-7, NKJV

Earlier we looked at the role of a watchman. What happens after a watchman sees the approaching chariots? He does more than just announce their arrival. Isaiah says:

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray to the LORD day and night for the fulfillment of his promises. Take no rest, all you who pray.

—Isaiah 62:6

The great work of watchmen is not only the watching but also the praying about what they see. Watchmen announce the coming of an enemy, and when no enemy is in sight, the watchman prays. Without this balance of prayer, the ministry of a watchmen can warp into judgment and fear.

As watchmen on the wall, we are to pray and announce in earnest when we see the enemy approach. Isaiah 21:7 (NKJV) reveals this: “And he listened earnestly with great care.” We shout and we announce and we pray.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE NEW THINGS

“I am the LORD, that is My name;

And My glory I will not give to another,

Nor My praise to carved images.

Behold, the former things have come to pass,

And new things I declare;

Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Sing to the LORD a new song,

And His praise from the ends of the earth.

—Isaiah 42:8-10a, NKJV

The Church is the mouthpiece of God on earth. God announces His intent in this world through His Word and through the voice of His people as they are inspired by His Spirit. When God is about to do a new thing on the earth, He will announce it through those in His Church whose voice has been empowered with His message.

As we pray from the throne of God, we are announcing the new things God desires to bring forth—things like healed marriages, prodigals returning, finances made new, and churches released into new seasons of destiny. When new things are spoken, hope begins to visit lives and cultures. Change is attracted to words of hope.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE HIDDEN THINGS

“Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;

Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,

Lest you should say,

‘My idol has done them,

And my carved image and my molded image

Have commanded them.’

You have heard;

See all this.

And will you not declare it?

I have made you hear new things from this time,

Even hidden things, and you did not know them.”

—Isaiah 48:5-6, NKJV

God reveals what is about to take place before events come into sight. The Church is equipped because God has revealed His will to us. He doesn’t want us to be caught unaware, so He makes His intentions known beforehand.

Several years ago I was asked to speak at a conference in an Eastern European nation. This nation had been under the heavy hand of communism for years, and its courageous citizens had resisted with their own blood.

After one evening session, I was asked to pray and prophesy over people. This was a particularly long evening of prayer. About an hour into the prayer line, an older woman stepped forward. As I do each time I pray in this way, I waited for a word or image from the Lord.

A picture began to develop before my eyes. I saw one of those old-fashioned, hanging baby cradles suspended in air. Where there would normally be a rope at each end holding up the cradle, there was only a rope at one end. In the natural it would be impossible for the cradle to remain horizontal and hold the baby inside. With a rope at only one end, the cradle would fall down on one side and spill the baby to the ground, but somehow the baby was held securely in this image.

As I shared what I was seeing, the woman sucked in a huge breath and turned to the interpreter and began to cry. Smiles came across the faces of all who were near enough to hear what she was saying. This woman had shared nothing with me. I had never met her before.

Later, I was told that this woman was a grandmother. Her granddaughter was gravely ill and was left at home in a swinging cradle with the family so that this grandmother could come to the meetings. When she heard the words that were spoken, she knew that her grandchild would be healed. God loves to reveal hidden things in times of revelatory prayer. That vision in prayer came from the very heart of God—from His throne.

When we live in intimacy with God, He will share things with us not grasped or known through the natural process of human intellect. In that moment of revelation, as we saw in verse 6, God is asking us, “‘will you not declare it?’” Revelation is not just the truth revealed as a concept. The fullness of revealed truth occurs when what was hidden is now declared and when spoken truth becomes the landing zone where a miracle is destined to arrive.

DECLARATIONS CROSS INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES

“They shall come with weeping,

And with supplications I will lead them.

I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters,

In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;

For I am a Father to Israel,

And Ephraim is My firstborn.

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,

And declare it in the isles afar off, and say,

‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,

And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’

For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,

And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger

than he.”

—Jeremiah 31:9-11, NKJV

Once, when we were living in Europe, I sensed a need to pray for an older woman who lived thousands of miles away in the United States. The brother of this woman was well off financially. This woman was struggling month to month to make ends meet with only her Social Security check. I sensed something unrighteous was about to take place, and the Spirit of God rose up in me with an assignment to stop what was happening.

I began to declare that if this man were about to die that he would do nothing foolish with his resources that could dishonor his name or his sister’s. I declared a stop to any ungodly decision that was underway.

Several months went by, and I received word from this woman that her brother had died. He was in his mid-80’s when he passed away. In his loneliness he had become the victim of a woman who was setting him up to leave all his monies to her at the expense of his sister’s future. I was told that within days of the man’s death, his entire estate would have been given to this emotional predator. Instead, God stopped this ungodly transaction and left this vulnerable man’s honor intact and his aging sister’s financial future secure.

Declarations are not limited by time and space. When we declare God’s heart and will from heaven, evil plans are turned aside and honor prevails.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE RESTORATION

“As for you also,

Because of the blood of your covenant,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Return to the stronghold,

You prisoners of hope.

Even today I declare

That I will restore double to you.”

—Zechariah 9:11-12, NKJV

God loves to restore what is lost. When we declare in God’s name the restoration of what has been lost, we set people free from pits of depression and fear and release them into the hope of restoration. The covenant of Christ’s blood that covers His Church carries with it the restoration of all areas of our lives.

When God begins the work of restoration, He has in mind restoring us back to a fellowship with Him that existed before the Fall. We are not restored to the Law but to a place of grace. Restorative declarations send a message to situations of bondage that the shackles are about to be broken, and that what was lost will be restored with a double portion.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE JUSTICE

“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,

My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!

I will put My Spirit upon Him,

And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone

hear His voice in the streets.”

—Matthew 12:18-19, NKJV

During the Los Angeles riots of 1993, my family and I were living near downtown where the riots were taking place. Several other L.A.-area pastors and I were asked to take part in a radio interview about what was happening. The riots went on for several days. The city was living in fear, and large portions of South Central L.A. were in flames. Through binoculars from our windows, we could see riots breaking out and looters stealing from businesses.

In the radio interview, one of the pastors, an African American, said, “When we seek justice that is not God’s justice it is ‘just us.’” I will never forget his play on words. Real justice must be crafted by God, not by human emotions or it is “just us.” When we declare justice, we are not declaring our solution to injustice, we are declaring God’s solution. God’s solution for injustice involves mercy, grace, and doing the right thing in a hard situation.

DECLARATIONS ANNOUNCE THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD

“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

—Acts 20:26-28, NKJV

In this poignant address, Paul is saying goodbye to the elders of the Ephesian church. This is one of the clearest pictures in all of Scripture of what a life well invested looks like. It was a sad day of departure because the Ephesian elders knew they would never see Paul again. Paul reminded them of their history together and said that he withheld nothing from them. He had delivered the full counsel of God.

Relationships and circumstances will arise in which someone is walking in only a partial revelation. The whole counsel of God may not be present. When we pray from the throne of God, we are announcing the fuller picture of God’s heart and intent for people. Paul did this in Ephesus, and we are called to do this in our lives and ministries.

WE DECREE THE VICTORY OF CHRIST

Decrees are official orders that are transmitted by the representatives of a government. Those sent with a decree to proclaim will speak with the authority of the government that sent them. Decrees are backed by the power to carry out a governmental decision.

When sin held this world captive, Christ came and broke the power of sin by His death on the Cross and by His resurrection from the dead. A legal transaction occurred in the courts of heaven. When Jesus took possession of the keys of death and hell, He was acting from the legal rights He possessed through the victory He had gained.

When we decree in prayer, we are not bringing something up from our imagination. We are calling upon the legal rights of Jesus Christ that are now extended to His Church. We decree life because life was secured. We decree healing because by His stripes we were healed.

DECREES ILLUMINATE OUR WAY

“You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; and light will shine on your ways.”

—Job 22:28, NASB

There are times when a current pathway has come to an end. We stand at the crossroads with no new road ahead. If we decree in prayer from the throne of God into these life intersections, God will light up the crossroads and reveal a new direction for us. He will make visible what was previously not visible. The decree will make a way.

When the Lord said that He was the “Alpha and Omega” He was saying that He is present in the beginning of all things and at the end of all things. He is light, and where He is allowed to shine, vision is granted.

DECREES RELEASE THE NATIONS AS OUR INHERITANCE

“Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree:

The LORD has said to Me,

‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance,

And the ends of the earth for Your possession.’”

—Psalm 2:6-8, NKJV

For hundreds of years, this Psalm has been the prayer of many missionaries. When these saints prayed for a nation they were about to enter, they did so believing that God would give them entire people groups as their inheritance.

God has given the nations to the Church as part of our inheritance. When people come into relationship with God through Jesus Christ, this is the expression of our inheritance. The nations will be transformed and brought into the Body of Christ. We, as the Body of Christ, are expanded by each soul that comes into God’s Kingdom.

We will literally possess the nations because they will become one with us through Christ, and we will become one with them.

DECREES SET BOUNDARIES

“‘Hear this now, O foolish people,

Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not,

And who have ears and hear not:

Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD.

‘Will you not tremble at My presence,

Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea,

By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?

And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail;

Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.’”

—Jeremiah 5:21-22, NKJV

The decree of God sets boundaries even in the created order. The decree of God set the boundaries of the ocean, and the ocean cannot cross the boundary of that decree. When the Church decrees the legal aspect of Christ’s work on the Cross, hell cannot cross the boundary of that decree.

When we repeat His decrees, our words remind the created order of its submitted position to God and the people of God. Someday, when we enter eternity and see all things as they are, I believe we will hear of the decrees of the Church that literally changed the patterns of weather and the course of floods.

DECREES BRING ORDER

Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. Then they went from town to town, explaining the decision regarding the commandments that were to be obeyed, as decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew daily in numbers.

—Acts 16:3-5

Paul prepared Timothy to minister to the Jews by circumcising him—a fully grown man! Then he and Timothy carried special instructions to the Gentiles regarding worship. These instructions seem odd to us today, but in Paul’s day these decrees set the Gentiles free to worship God and live in community with one another. The decree read:

“You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

—Acts 15:29

The Jewish believers in Jerusalem did not want to impose their understanding of faith upon the Gentile believers, so they sent this simple decree to them that applied to their specific situation. The order that was brought with this decree was not a legalistic decree but one that brought order by removing unnecessary religious weights from the backs of the Gentile believers.

When we decree something in prayer, we are releasing the order of God upon which all life depends, and what follows this kind of decree is freedom and life.

WE PROPHESY THE REVELATION OF THE SPIRIT

When we prophesy over a life or situation, we are speaking out of current revelation that God is giving in a moment of time. These Spirit-birthed words have substance.

We saw Paul’s definition of prophecy in I Corinthians; when we speak prophetically, we strengthen, encourage, and comfort others. As with the metaphor of the marginalia, we are to illuminate and edify people’s life texts. Not only do the recipients of the word receive its intent, but the very environment into which the word is delivered is also changed. Prayers from the throne of God in the form of prophecy reveal the comforting heart of the Father.

A friend of mine in an Eastern European nation was a young church leader when communism ruled his nation. He had obstacles placed in front of him every time he tried to get permission from the city officials to do anything. The communist officials would speak harsh and angry words to my friend.

When these harsh words came, he would answer in the opposite spirit. If someone spoke hate, he would speak love. If someone was impatient, he was patient. If someone was not merciful, he would extend mercy. If someone was unkind, he would be kind. He responded in the opposite spirit.

Over time the resolve of the city officials melted under the love of God that was exhibited by this young pastor. The city officials eventually granted my friend the access and permission he requested. Today, this pastor walks in God’s favor throughout his nation because he spoke God’s words. These words contained the encouragement and comfort of God’s heart.

PROPHESYING WHOLENESS

Let’s now look at the verses preceding Paul’s definition of prophecy:

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. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.

—I Corinthians 14:1-3, NIV

The way of love that Paul asks us to follow brings people hope. Prophecy is one way that this hope is released. When we pray prophetic prayers, we call forth hope for ourselves and others. The gift of prophecy is not just for meetings in a church building. It is a gift that can and should be exercised in all areas of our lives, including prayer.

PROPHESYING LIFE TO SPIRITUALLY DEAD SITUATIONS

Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

—Ezekiel 37:8-10, NKJV

Prayer that comes from throne of God in the form of prophecy speaks to things that appear dead and commands them to live. When this empowered voice of prayer speaks, what is dead hears the command of life. Life has authority over death. Jesus rose from the dead because resurrection life is a greater power.

PROPHESYING HOPE TO THE SEED

“Israel will remain a stump, like a tree that is cut down, but the stump will be a holy seed that will grow again.”

—Isaiah 6:13b

When I was a boy, I watched my father trim the mulberry trees that lined our driveway. When these trees were in full bloom, they provided a wonderful place of shade during the hot summer days. The first time my father trimmed these trees, I thought he had killed them. He literally cut them back to a stump and a few branches. But each year the trees grew back healthier and larger than before because within the DNA of the tree was a life and a structure that no amount of trimming could destroy. Life is like the mulberry trees of my youth; there are times when we get so trimmed we wonder if we will ever grow back, and then life happens again.

Once, when I read this verse from Isaiah 6, the words seemed to hang in the air. The Lord spoke to me, saying:

I am raising up a host of prophets who will prophesy hope to the seed that remains in the stump. I never leave a stump without a seed. This seed contains the DNA of My life. It is activated and brought to life by hope. Raise your voice and speak hope to the seed that remains. The seed is waiting for the sound of hope. Do not focus on the stump. The stump only carries the seed. This present devastation is temporary. Words of hope are anchored in eternity. Rise up and stand before the stump just as My servant Noah did when I asked him to build the Ark. You will look foolish to those who only see the stump, but I will grow the seed and the tree will stand again. Prophesy to My seed.

In my years of ministry, I have been able to travel to many nations. I have seen the Church worship in multi-million dollar facilities and in open-walled huts in the jungle.

In our Western cultures, we have discretionary time. This time is that extra part of our day that is not devoted to survival activities like getting water, finding food, and avoiding disease. In this extra space, we have the opportunity to read, play sports, watch TV, go on vacation, buy things, and develop the skills required for a hobby. Entire industries are supported by the existence of this spare time.

A consumer culture survives on the financial well-being of people who live and play within this discretionary time. When this time shrinks, the economy is affected. Talk to the car dealers today who used to bank on people buying new cars every few years, or the clothing manufacturer who hasn’t seen the volume in sales he used to see, or the small-town business owner whose profit margin is gone along with the recreational shoppers who once made it possible.

Many people in developing countries posses one set of work clothes to wear in the fields during the work week and one old suit or dress to wear to church on Sunday. For these people there is no discretionary middle in their wardrobe. Today, some of these people are not only found in third-world nations; they also live as the working poor in Western communities.

The cultural shift in which most of the Western world now finds itself is one of great opportunity for the Church. As the core of leisure time shrinks and the ability to fund that time also diminishes, many people will come face to face with a growing emptiness that can lead to fear and panic. Something must fill that void. This is the time for the Church to speak and pray into the emptiness and prophesy hope. People feel like trimmed mulberry trees.

Just as DNA remains in the stump of a felled tree, there remains a seed in each life felled by crisis. God is wanting to bring resurrection life to what appears to be dead.

As Isaiah was receiving his call as a prophet, the majority of the people in his world did not fully understand God, and they did not live for Him. That did not stop God. He was waiting to bring His love to His people if they would turn back to Him. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. He always works with the willing remnant seed.

As you walk in your city today, God will bring you face to face with people whose lives resemble tree stumps. We live in a culture of fallen trees. God has sent His Church into the streets to prophesy hope to the seed that is housed in a decaying stump of human brokenness.

As the old tree stump rots away, a new season of growth will emerge because words of hope activated the seed within.

What does prayer from the throne of God look like and sound like in this context? It is made with the sound of resurrection authority because prayer from the throne of God comes from the other side of the completed victory of Jesus. It flows in opposition to the very things that stand in our way here on earth. When you see death trying to raise its false authority over your situation, run to your position in Christ in heaven and declare your victory in prayer from the throne of God. As that prayer is released, the kingdoms of earth will be shaken with resurrection power, and they will become the Kingdom of our Lord.

10

PRAYING OUT OF BROKENNESS

Here’s a story showing how all those declarations, decrees, and prophesies can come together in a single situation.

Early in our ministry, Jan and I experienced the deep pain of betrayal and sorrow. We were terribly wronged by the man who succeeded us as senior pastor of our church.

I remember the night we got the phone call telling us what this person was doing and saying about us publicly. There was no truth being spoken, only painful lies birthed out of his fear and insecurity. We were hundreds of miles away and felt helpless. We had entrusted this person with the lives of people we dearly loved. The words of betrayal wounded us deeply. I had never felt such a combination of fear and loss.

I hung up the phone that night, took Jan’s hand, and said, “We need to pray.” We got down on our knees and began to tell God all the pain we felt in that moment. It felt like our lives were caving in on us. It felt like someone had impaled us with a poisoned spear. Our guts ached. In one of those moments of supernatural impartation, God reminded us of the truth He had given us earlier in our ministry: worship in times of challenge. In that moment He released into us the gift of praise and blessing in the face of betrayal.

We declared that this was not God’s plan. We decreed, based on the power of Christ’s sacrifice, that this event would end up glorifying God. We prophesied in prayer over all parties involved using words of blessing and encouragement.

As we continued to pray, our prayers shifted into praise. We began to praise God for Who He was. We thanked Him for this deeper, ongoing training opportunity to trust Him in our helplessness. We thanked Jesus for this hurtful moment because it was taking us deeper into our dependence on Him. Then we began to bless our betrayer. Over the next few months more phone calls would come from confused saints about how this person continued to say horrible things about our lives and ministry. Every time we thought of our betrayer, we made the choice to bless instead of curse. We declared a new outcome. We decreed from the court of heaven. We prophesied hope. This went on for eight years! Finally, it all came full circle.

One evening, we were invited over to the man’s home for dinner. After all those years, he asked for our forgiveness. With great joy I was able to look him in the eye and tell him that we had forgiven him eight years before and had spent those intervening years blessing and praying for him. It was a joy to stand before him truly wanting the best for him.

The sorrows of life can wrap themselves around us to such a degree that, in order to survive, we must flee to our prayer altar in heaven and breathe in something new and fresh. With that inhale of heaven’s breath, we are able to exhale prayers that will breathe life into situations that appear to be hopeless and impossible.

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COMMANDING PRAYERS

For a year I literally lived in the Book of Acts. Acts was my year-long, daily assignment for study and meditation. Each day I studied the history and culture of that book. I soaked in its revelation and wisdom. Since Acts gives us the clearest picture of the Church at work in culture, I wanted to know what that kind of church looked like.

In that season of ministry, Jan and I were scheduled to fly to Athens, Greece to train a group of churches, and the Book of Acts was to be our text for those training sessions.

As I finalized my notes in preparation to speak, I noticed something. It seemed to jump out of the pages at me. How did I miss it in all of my previous study? In the Book of Acts, the Church commanded healing more than they prayed for it. This was a stark revelation. I reread Acts with the commands of the Church in mind. I wanted to find the text filled with prayers for healing, but the pages of the text did not provide this kind of evidence. Instead of prayers for healing, I discovered that the disciples pronounced words of healing—they commanded wholeness.

When reading Acts 3 again, I noticed that no prayer was recorded when Peter and John encountered the lame man who was healed. What is recorded is Peter’s command in verse 6: “I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

The disciples passed this man every day as they went to the Temple to worship, but on that particular day, the revelation of heaven came, they commanded that revelation into the lame man’s life, and he was healed.

I noticed more commanding prayers:

Acts 9:34: No prayer was offered for the healing of Aeneas. Peter just said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and make your bed!” Instantly, the man was healed.

Acts 9:40: Peter visited the dead woman, Tabitha. He told everyone to leave the room, and then he got down on his knees to pray. He turned to her body and said, “‘Get up, Tabitha.’ And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up!”

Acts 14:10: A crippled man in the town of Lystra was listening to Paul preach a sermon. When Paul realized the man had faith to be healed, Paul shouted to him, “Stand up!” The man then jumped to his feet and started to walk.

A strange excitement and anticipation began to fill my heart. God wanted me to realize something. The Church needs to rediscover the power of commanding prayer.

These observations about prayer in Acts are not meant to be some new formula for prayer. There really isn’t anything new—just things that need to be rediscovered. What is evident in the lives of these early saints is that they ministered in the power of revelational knowledge. They were able to pronounce healing because they heard something spoken from God’s heart: a discussion that took place around His throne. Something of heaven had invaded earth through the commands of the Church.

As we learn to pray from the throne of God, we will need to cultivate our ability to hear the voice of God. Jesus Himself told His disciples that He did what He heard and saw the Father doing. Cultivating our ability to hear the declarations of heaven allows us to then declare the intent of heaven in prayer here on earth. God is asking us to pause to hear that specific word that will radically transform a broken life. From our position in Christ, at the right hand of God, we speak words that stop the work of hell. God wants us to hear that unique and specific word of healing He has for those hurting people in our lives and then to declare the release of God’s healing presence just like Peter did that day on the way to the Temple.

The Book of Acts is the history of a Church that moved in the moment-by-moment revelation of God. The Early Church was taught this way because their model, Jesus Christ, prayed and ministered in this fashion. They ministered out of a revealed word from God, for a specific moment and circumstance, and wrote the history of the Early Church.

Some things began to emerge as I soaked in what I was discovering in Acts. These miracles happened in the daily routines of life. In Acts 3, Peter and John would have been going to the Temple everyday at three o’clock in the afternoon. The lame man would have been there at the same time and place when Peter and John passed him by each day. What was different about this day is that God spoke a word to Peter about His miraculous intentions for the man’s life. Once that word was spoken to the lame man, he was healed.

Peter and John could have checked the time of day and realized they would be late for the three o’clock Temple service if they stopped along the way. If they had yielded to the clock of culture instead of the clock of heaven, we would not be reading about this miracle in Acts.

As functioning dual citizens of heaven and earth, we need to shake off the “everydayness” of living this life and cultivate a sensitivity to God’s voice.

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THE POWER OF AGREEMENT

IN PRAYER

I recently read the testimony of a group of young men and women who went to Disneyland for a day. After enjoying a few rides, they stopped at a food court and noticed a young man whose arm was in a sling. Someone in the group felt impressed to pray for the young man’s healing and did so. When the prayer was over, the young man was completely healed and could freely move his arm. He started crying with joy because he was the star football player for his school, and his injured arm would have sidelined him for the upcoming season.

For the next four hours, over one hundred people lined up in this food court at Disneyland and got healed through the prayers of a group of young men and women who stepped out in faith. An equal number of people gave their hearts to Jesus because they saw the power of God. It all started because someone followed the nudge of God’s Spirit to pray. The “Happiest Place on Earth” became its namesake when God showed up in power.

The release of God’s presence and power through prayer takes place when we come into agreement with the will of God. When we pray in agreement with God’s will, His supernatural power is released into areas not accessible by human logic and reasoning. The continual and persistent prayers of the Church are the battering rams of heaven.

In the Azusa Street Revival of the early twentieth century, a small group of believers gathered for months to seek the face of God in prayer. They had a passion to pursue God, and that passion worked its way out into fervent prayer that called down the power of God into a building once used as a livery stable.

Frank Bartleman, one of the leaders at Azusa Street, wrote to Evan Roberts during the Welsh Revival to get instructions on how to experience an outpouring of God in Los Angeles. Roberts advised gathering those willing to surrender, praying together daily, and believing God’s blessings. Bartleman followed this advice, and history proves what happens when people gather to pray for God to make Himself known.

Jesus taught His disciples about the power of agreement in prayer:

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this illustration: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You would say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ He would call out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and we are all in bed. I can’t help you this time.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you what you want so his reputation won’t be damaged. And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.”

—Luke 11:5-10

It is easy to study the mechanics of prayer and create a methodology for it. When we do this, we can forget what actually motivates people to pray—the need for results. To pray without the hope of God showing up and actually doing something will soon shift our praying into a labor-intensive effort where the answers fall back onto us for fulfillment. At this point we burn out, and the joy of prayer lifts.

CLOSED DOORS WILL OPEN WHEN WE PRAY

Jesus’ teaching in Luke 11:8 gives us insight into what happens when we pray: “if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you what you want.” When we seek God and knock, closed doors will open.

The illustration Jesus uses here needs to be seen in the context of the culture at the time He spoke. The image is of a home all closed up for the night. In the Middle East during that period, people left their doors open all day long, but at night the family and livestock would bed down in their one-room home. At night this single living space was crowded and easily disturbed. Any knock at the door would wake up everyone and everything in the house. When the door closed at night, it was only opened for emergencies.

When God answers persistent prayer, doors will open that may even violate cultural norms. This kind of prayer greases the hinges of obstacles and swings them open to access the realm of heaven. When heaven is manifested upon the earth, supernatural things begin to take place, like star athletes getting healed at Disneyland or someone being healed in the check-out line at your local supermarket.

In the Azusa Street Revival, those who chronicled the miracles said that when the church would begin to sing in the Spirit, the manifestation of miracles, signs, and wonders would increase. These prayers, when sung in the language of heaven, opened up access into the heavenlies, and what was hovering above the prayers fell into the midst of those gathered. Sometimes we don’t know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit does. We simply partner with Him in agreement.

SUPERNATURAL PROVISION WILL COME WHEN WE PRAY

Jesus said, “For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Notice the repetition of “everyone.”

Jesus used the persistent prayer of the friend to release the bread of heaven. Like the manna, the bread came because God was the only One who could provide it. The bread of answered prayer exists behind doors only opened in agreement with God’s will.

So much of what is missed in understanding prayer has to do with our perception of God. Jesus ended his illustration of continual knocking by saying:

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

—Luke 11:11-13

The word “confession” means “agreement.” When we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God that something is sin. The ability to see is the first step toward wholeness. The act of agreement applies to all areas of life, not just sin. Once our understanding about anything comes into agreement with what God is seeing, whether it is confession of sin or asking and knocking in prayer, real change is then possible. This is why so much of prayer is about seeing what God sees.

The act of confessing truth in prayer even effects how we see God Himself. In this process of revelation, we will begin to see the Father differently. We will see Him as Someone who wants to bring His goodness into our lives. As we confess His goodness in prayer, our spiritual eyes are opened to see His heart and purposes more clearly.

We need to avoid reducing God to someone who only gives to us based on how good we think we are. If we make that deduction, we are saying that our actions change His character. God’s character is intact and unchangeable. He is good and will remain good throughout all eternity. He is good, not because we fully understand prayer; He is good because He can be nothing else but good. God loves to open doors for us if we will come into agreement with Him.

13

LIVING IN THE

“GREEN LIGHT” OF GOD

Several years ago, Jan and I had the privilege of having lunch with David and Deborah Crone who pastor The Mission, a church in Vacaville, California. When I get together with leaders like the Crones, I often ask what guides them in their ministry. When I asked David this question, without hesitation he said, “We live in the green light of God.”

David’s words deeply impacted my spirit. An adjustment of my life paradigm occurred as David’s words hung over the lunch table. Deborah added to David’s comment by saying that God is faithful to give us the red lights when we need to stop if we will simply live in His green light. As Jan and I drove home after lunch, David’s words began to rearrange certain areas of my life and ministry. I knew I had received an impartation of truth.

Some of our prayer lives resemble beautiful and powerful automobiles that are running at idle while waiting at an intersection, even though the light is green. It has been “green and go” since the Day of Pentecost, yet some of us still wait, continuing to idle and going nowhere. I sense that God is asking His Church, “What are you waiting for?” The reality is that the heavens are open, and the Spirit has been given to us. We are seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father on purpose. The green light of God is present in His people. It is time to invite the Holy Spirit to reveal why some of us are stopped instead of moving forward. It is also time to renew our minds and begin to live as people positioned by God to do more than just wait at intersections and idle our engines of faith.

Many of us have forgotten that we really are children of the Most High God. We have allowed lies to remain embedded and unchallenged in our lives. We have created a performance-based relationship with the Grace-Giver. We live in fear of failure, and so we avoid stepping out in faith, thinking that failure means rejection. Some of us are afraid to move forward in boldness because we still believe that God can only love us if our performance is without fault. This fear has immobilized the prayer of faith in some; it blinds us to the green light and keeps us from pressing down on the accelerator pedal and moving forward. We displace this lie by remembering that we are loved not as the result of our performance but out of the very nature of God. He can only love. He is love. He is unchangeable in His love.

Fear of failure and rejection can redirect the focus of our prayer back onto self, and when this happens we become the ones responsible for the results of what we have prayed. We take on the burden of outcomes. “What if I pray and the person is not healed?” “What if I turn to the table behind me, say the word You asked me to give, and they reject it?” If we feel that we are responsible for the results of our faith, we will inevitably live in the prison of performance because the perceived power source is with us and not with God. This prison holds our life and faith captive to personal doubt instead of the open road of freedom that comes from living in the green light of God.

In John 15 Jesus said that He would no longer relate to His disciples as servants. He would now relate to them as friends. The shift here was not simply about using a new word to describe their relationship but rather how being a friend would radically change the way the disciples would relate to Jesus in the future.

Remember: servants live with a list of things to do. Servants execute lists of performance, and when they are done performing, they go back to the servants’ quarters. A friend is different. A friend lives in anticipation of what their friend desires. They have a relationship that is powered by intimacy and union. They see an open road and the green light of relationship and freedom.

ALL THE PROMISES ARE “YES”

As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, never wavers between yes and no. He is the one whom Timothy, Silas, and I preached to you, and he is the divine Yes—God’s affirmation. For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in him. That is why we say “Amen” when we give glory to God through Christ.

—II Corinthians 1:18-20

This kind of friendship with God that Paul described, and its resulting prayer, looks reckless to people who have yet to realize His friendship. Friendship with God looks reckless because you end up blasting past people who are still parked at the intersection with their foot on the brakes. Friends of God travel right through intersections because they are fulfilling the anticipated desires of the Master: living in the green light of God.

In the area of Oregon where I live, the police and fire vehicles are equipped with transmitting units that send signals ahead of them to change traffic lights from red to green so that the responding public safety personnel can reach the emergency site unimpeded. The vehicles carry with them the ability to change the function of the traffic light. You and I carry the presence of Jesus Christ. That presence changes everything.

Followers of Jesus Christ live in the green light of God’s promises. All of God’s promises are “yes.” “Promise” is a word that can be translated “to announce upon.” Jesus told the disciples in Luke 24: 49, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” When Jesus said these words, He was assuring His disciples that in the near future God would “announce upon them” the Spirit.

The prophet Joel announced the promise of the future outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days. On the Day of Pentecost, timeless eternity announced the reality of Joel’s prophecy down upon earth.

Right now, God is announcing His promises upon the earth through His Church. This really is a new day. The fires of revival are sparking and igniting upon the earth on every continent. The promise of God has been announced to us, His friends, and we are the chosen voices of heaven to speak truth into our world by believing that all the promises are “yes” in Christ and by speaking that “yes” into a fearful and hesitant world.

14

A MATTER OF TIMING

The other day, I watched a television program about modern technology. The narrator described a new breed of missiles that have the ability to loiter; they can be flown to a distant location and then circle around until it is time to strike their intended target. Up to that point I had always thought “loitering” was a form of prohibited hanging out. In the small town where I grew up, the local policeman would walk up to groups of kids standing beneath the “No Loitering Allowed” signs and tell them, “move along.”

Modern missiles loiter. They can now be launched from hundreds of miles away and sent into a targeted region before an attack begins. Computer-savvy warriors fly these missiles in a way similar to someone using a joystick to play a video game. Once the missiles arrive in the targeted region, they simply fly around in circles, loitering behind a nearby mountain just out of range of the enemy radar. When the time is right and the target is acquired, a new command is sent to the on-board computer, and the “smart” missiles fly over the mountain and into the adjacent valley, destroying the target. Depending on the fuel economy mode, some of these missiles can do this for hours—even days—if needed.

When I heard of this futuristic weaponry, I thought of prayer. Many of us pray for the immediate needs of our families and ministries: the things we see and feel. But have you considered that God has us pray for future battles? In future battles, places where our lives have yet to arrive on a distant battlefield, our current prayers are being sent up into eternity to loiter until the time when the Commander of our faith releases them into a future target. As the Spirit prompts us to pray, our prayers are gathered. Then, in God’s perfect battle plan, they are delivered back into time in a massive onslaught against the encampments of hell. Our prayers wait for the voice of the Lord to deliver their payload of victory.

Revelation describes an end-time scenario that speaks of stored prayers released at a later date:

And as he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense—the prayers of God’s people!

—Revelation 5:8

Some of the prayers that will be released in Revelation 5 will be thousands of years old. You and I are praying some of those prayers right now from both earth and the throne of God. In these golden bowls are the prayers of the Apostle Paul and other believers from the Early Church. In these golden bowls are the prayers of the persecuted Church of today coming from a distant village deep inside China. The bowls in heaven contain prayers that span thousands of years of Kingdom history.

In the Book of Joshua, the great warrior himself is about to die. He is reviewing Israel’s history and future with God and how their battles will be fought. Speaking for the Lord, Joshua said:

And I sent hornets ahead of you to drive out the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your swords or bows that brought you victory. I gave you land you had not worked for, and I gave you cities you did not build—the cities in which you are now living. I gave you vineyards and olive groves for food, though you did not plant them.

—Joshua 24:12-13

Maybe this is what Paul was talking about when he told us to put on our spiritual battle garb and simply stand. You and I may show up on a battlefield dressed for war with a sword and a shield, but the battle always belongs to the Lord.

Throughout history, the Church has walked among the ruins of hell’s encampment knowing that God had already gone before them and destroyed the enemy. We will also walk into these similar places of victory. We will realize that the prayers of our ancestors have been poured out upon our impossible situations. We will be humbled and amazed at what we see around us.

Can you imagine what it will be like to know that many of us are about to walk onto battlefields where we will see the enemy already devastated? Many will walk into the shattered encampments of hell and know that something supernatural has visited the battlefield prior to their arrival. The prayers sent into a future battle had loitered until the timing of God was complete, and then a victory came.

When God makes a promise, there is always that space of time that exists between God speaking the promise to us and the time when that promise becomes a reality. Sometimes that span of time is a moment, and sometimes it can be a lifetime. When we have prayed all that God has asked us to pray, what do we do next? How do we live in the “until times” of life when the answers to our prayers are still in process?

THE UNTIL TIMES

The Book of Joshua is a great book about courage and conquest that always speaks to me. In chapter 8, Joshua and the nation of Israel were about to conquer the city of Ai. Their first attempt ended in failure because of the greed of one man. This was their second attempt, and they wanted to get it right.

The battle raged. In verse 26, we see that “Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.” Something struck me about the word “until.” The battle continued successfully as long as Joshua held out his spear, until everyone who lived in Ai was completely destroyed. Those are heavy words. People were being slaughtered. An entire city was being decimated.

Had Joshua not held out his spear, there would have been no victory for Israel. Simply holding out a spear in Joshua’s day (or having a modern-day commander point his pistol in the direction of the battle) is dramatic-looking, but it’s really only a gesture.

Something more than a gesture was taking place as Joshua stood with this spear raised. Miracles occur from the postures God has us assume in the “until time” seasons of life. In each “until time,” there is an assignment for those who are waiting. Our cooperation with God links us with His planned victory. Prayer is our posture of faith in the “until times.”

I did a search on the word “until” in the Scriptures and discovered that it is used hundreds of times—483 times to be exact. The word “until” was used in conjunction with winning battles, believing for God’s promises, staying on track in ministry, and simply living life. Here are several of those occurrences to help illustrate what happens in these “until times”:

Genesis 8: The dove Noah released to search for dry land flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had evaporated. This “until time” required the earth to get ready to receive the survivors of the flood. Noah, his family, and the animals all wanted to get out of the Ark, but it was still too early. “Until times” teach us the value of waiting on God. His timing will always provide us with a place to live and survive. A muddy world is a premature world that can bog us down and get us killed if we launch out too early. Our prayers and declarations from the throne of God carry His timing, not ours. Patience in the wait reveals whether we truly are trusting God.

Exodus 17: Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms until the Amalekites were defeated. Arms down and they would lose. Arms up and they would win. With assistance, Moses’ arms stayed up, and the Israelites won the battle. In battles we need help. In the “until times,” we learn the value of faithful friends who stick with us in the fight and hold our arms up. These are the people who are there to celebrate the victory with us because they remained faithful to us in the battle.

Exodus 33: Moses was hid in the cleft of the rock; the Lord covered Moses with His hand until the presence of God passed him by. The hand of God covered the man of God so that he could survive the glory of God. In these experiences we learn to stay in the places of spiritual safety God has assigned for us.

Numbers 32: An entire generation wandered in the wilderness until the unbelieving ones died off. It took forty years. Unbelief had to die off for the promise to be seen. Unbelief only sees giants. Belief sees God standing over giants. In the wilderness wanderings, attitudes had to be checked daily to make sure they aligned with the promise. In this “until time,” God’s people learned that the smallest element of unbelief has to be confronted early, or it will lead to death and wandering.

Joshua 3: The priests stepped out over the waters of the Jordan River at flood stage, and the waters parted when their feet touched the foaming torrent. God stacked up the water, and the ground became dry, remaining dry until all the people passed through. It must have been nerve wracking to look up at a wall of water suspended in an other-worldly form. A reality surfaced that day; if the Israelites wanted to get to the promise they would have to trust God to hold back the flood until they crossed over. They learned a new level of trust in the “until time.”

Joshua 6: During the Battle of Jericho, the children of Israel were told to remain silent until the seventh day. Then they were told to yell with all their might. At the yell the walls of the city fell down. When you seem to have the upper hand in a battle as Israel did that day—they vastly outnumbered the inhabitants of Jericho—it is easy to rush the process with human confidence and move ahead in your own strength instead of waiting for the miracle. The more it seems we can do things in our own strength, the easier it is to yell on day three instead of waiting for day seven. This “until time” in the battle taught the Israelites patience to trust God’s plan.

Joshua 10: The Lord caused the sun to stand still, and He extended the day until the nation of Israel defeated its enemies in a prolonged battle. God asked Israel to continue fighting into times of day normally used for eating and sleeping. This “until time” was an unusual day that God provided in which all the rules and time frames were altered. In this “until time,” the people knew that they had one chance at obedience, and so they stayed in the fight until it was finished.

I Kings 17: A starving widow was told by the prophet Elijah to use the last of her food to cook him a meal. Because of her obedience, she was told that she would have a miraculous provision of oil and flour in her containers until the famine ended. The “until time” for this widow involved waking up each day, walking over to containers that had been empty the night before, and expecting that they would be full.

John 2: During the wedding feast at Cana, one of the guests complimented Jesus for saving the best wine until the last—wine made miraculously from water. This “until time” of waiting to serve the miracle wine taught the disciples that God does better things later in the program when our natural resources have all run out. The disciples learned to live in the expectation that the best was yet to come.

John 8: Jesus talked to a woman caught in the act of adultery who was dragged into His presence by a group of men who wanted to kill her for her sin. When Jesus asked her accusers to throw the first stone, they began to leave, one by one, until only Jesus was left with her. Her “until time” brought her face to face with what a real man should be, not the one she was sleeping with or the ones who felt assigned to destroy her. Her “until time” was a place of revelation where she learned how to honor herself as a woman.

Acts 1: Jesus told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until the Father had sent the gift of the Spirit. The Spirit’s power was required for the disciples to be God’s witness to the world. The Church had assignments that would require supernatural power. This empowering by God would heal the sick and raise the dead. It would require the disciples to live each day in a dependence upon the presence and power of God to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth.

I Corinthians 11: Paul reminded the church that every time they ate the bread and drank the cup they would be announcing the Lord’s death until His return. Each time the Church receives communion, we remember that Someone died so that many could live. These “until times” of remembrance help us learn to not fear death because Jesus has conquered its power.

I Timothy 4: Paul instructed the young pastor to focus on reading the Scriptures, encouraging believers, and continuing to teach the Word until Paul made a return visit. At times, ministry can be a grind. You might wonder what you are supposed to do in the “until times.” Until the church gets a certain size. Until so-and-so hears God. Until a new season unfolds. Until a certain healing is experienced. Paul told Timothy to stick with the basics of his calling, and the rest of it would all work out.

II Timothy 1: Paul wrote a second letter to this same struggling shepherd. Paul shared his confidence in God to guard what he had entrusted to Timothy until the day of His return. Paul was trying to jump-start the fire in this young pastor’s calling. In this “until time,” Timothy learned that God keeps things of value secure in His hands. Anything in Timothy’s hands would become fragile and insecure. This “until time” for Timothy meant learning to live in the grip of God and not in the grip of personal fear.

I Peter 1: Peter told a persecuted church that God was protecting them by His power until they received their salvation which would be revealed on the last day. They painfully and sacrificially learned that the fear of martyrdom would come to them in their “until times,” but when the temporary pain was past, the reward of eternity would embrace them forever.

These people who lived in the “until times” were not superheroes. They were people just like us who were interacting with God in faith. The most profound thing many of them did was to simply obey and continue obeying the last thing God said to them until the “until time” brought them to the promise.

My pastor and mentor, Roy Hicks, Jr., once shared a key to blessing with a group of us who were pastors in training. Roy said, “Just show up.” Just show up in your marriage, and be faithful to your spouse and your children. Just show up at your place of employment, and do the best you can. Just show up when your friends need you, and cover them in their time of need. Simply showing up where we are expected to be keeps us in position for the coming miracles of God. Just showing up where God has called us can be the answer to someone’s prayer. God wants us present when He pours out His Spirit.

These “until times” will accompany the life of one who prays from the throne of God. When we pray this way, we are speaking from eternity into time. Once the word of the Lord is spoken, developing time must yield to His word. God wants us to cultivate a life free from an impatience in prayer; He wants us to understand the purpose of the “until times.” He wants us to live in active expectation as we wait for the answers to our prayers.

15

EXPECTATION IN PRAYER

Jim Stephens, a good friend of mine, is now in his late sixties. He grew up working on his family ranch and was then called by God to walk away from that life and enter the ministry. He has been all over the world training leaders, planting churches, and starting training institutes. He has served God faithfully but has few of the physical possessions our culture equates with success.

Jim wrote something on his blog recently that really touched me:

Sometimes I think, “What would life have been like if I had spent the same years building a business as I did being a missionary and pastor? Where would I be, and what would I have to show for my work at this stage in my life?” So much of what I have now is very intangible. And here’s the scary thing about it—if I stop believing, I have nothing. The only way to have a sense of satisfaction and achievement about how I’ve spent the years of my life, is to believe—to believe that Jesus is real, that God called me to do what I have done, and eternity is what really matters.

I was struck by the phrase, “if I stop believing, I have nothing.” I asked myself: where in my life am I living like this? Where is the raw belief and expectation that causes me to be truly dependent upon God? This isn’t about where we live on the economic scale but where we stand in our belief. A rich man can say this, and a poor man can say this. This believing posture is that place of faith where we choose to make God our only option.

When the Azusa Street Revival was taking place, expectation was high. The people on Azusa Street were in the same place my friend found himself. They knew that unless God showed up nothing was going to happen. All they could do was believe. The saints on Azusa Street expected God to move when they gathered, and He did. They expected the blind to see, the lame to walk, limbs to grow out, and the deaf to hear. And these things happened. Expectation changes the spiritual environment of our lives.

In 1906 people would travel to Los Angeles from all over the world for business and pleasure. Many would arrive by train. Historical records tell us that the glory of God flowed out from the meeting place on Azusa Street into the surrounding neighborhoods. People exiting a train would step off onto the arrival platform and fall down under the power of God. They had no idea that just a short distance away one of the greatest revivals in modern history was taking place. The glory of God was flooding the city.

One young Hispanic boy lived near Azusa Street. Each day, he would look toward the building where the revival was happening. He knew the meetings had started when he saw flames of fire appear on the roof. These were not the flames of a natural fire but of God’s Spirit.

Los Angeles was experiencing the glory of God because the Church was living in the expectation that God was at work in their midst. The hope of a city is the Church living in expectation of God. Real hope for our cities is not found in a newly elected government official, a unique community program, or a well-crafted budget. The hope of a city is the Church rising in her calling and aligning herself with the will of God.

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus instructed His disciples to go out and preach the Kingdom by healing the sick, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He told His disciples that this kind of ministry would bring them persecution. He told them to fear God, not man. He told them to take up their cross and follow Him:

When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went off teaching and preaching in towns throughout the country. John the Baptist, who was now in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him about what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him: ‘God blesses those who are not offended by me.’”

—Matthew 11:1-6

John the Baptist was in prison awaiting his execution. In just a few days, his decapitated head would be presented as a macabre party favor to a dancer in the king’s court. John found himself wondering whether Jesus was the real thing. This is the same John who was there at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry when the skies opened up, the Spirit descended upon Jesus, and the very voice of God spoke from heaven. John saw the miraculous affirmation of Jesus but later found himself wondering. Places of imprisonment can do this to a person. The past miracles are not what comfort us in places like this. We need a real-time word from the Lord.

The answer that Jesus sent back, “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor” is an answer with evidence. The evidence is what John needed to hear to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah.

We need to live in the expectation of evidence from God:

WE CAN EXPECT THAT GOD WILL BE WITH US

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.”

—John 14:18

No matter where we find ourselves, Jesus promises to come to us with the evidence of His love and presence, affirming us as His children.

WE CAN EXPECT TO BE EMPOWERED BY GOD

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

—Acts 1:8

God promised to send His power to us. What God calls us to accomplish in His name cannot be done in human strength or strategy. God is faithful; we can expect His supernatural power to be there when we need it because He made a promise that we would receive the power.

WE CAN EXPECT TO DO THE GREATER WORKS OF JESUS CHRIST

“The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

—John 14:12

The greater works come because Jesus has sent the Spirit back to the Church:

Now he sits on the throne of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.

—Acts 2:33

The Lord sits above all power structures, world governments, diseases, and demonic powers. We as the Church are now seated with Him in the heavenly realms. We live in two realms: here on earth and with Him in eternity. As Jesus pours the Spirit upon the Church on earth, the descending flow of God’s presence carries with it the power to break the chains that imprison people.

WE CAN EXPECT THAT JESUS WILL PROVE HIMSELF TRUE

During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time and proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. On these occasions he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

—Acts 1:3

Jesus comes to His Church and to the unbelieving world to prove He is alive. His proof is found in the answer Jesus sent back to John the Baptist. This proof is what Peter said in Acts 2:33 when he spoke to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost, “just as you see and hear today.” When God shows up, what He does will be seen and heard. God doesn’t show up as a voiceless theory or an invisible concept. He makes His presence known by bringing the evidence of heaven down upon the earth.

When we expect God to come, that expectant mindset will change everything. No longer is our life a holding pattern for heaven. We begin to believe now, in this present hour, the message Jesus sent back to John in prison. That message helped John refocus on the Lord and then die in peace.

16

EXTENDING AN INVITATION

Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

—Revelation 4:1-2

Around the throne of God is the beauty of precious gemstones, flashes of lighting and thunder, displays of light, and worship that focuses on the One Who sits upon the throne. The throne of God is a powerful place to be and to experience.

In my fiftieth year, I was asked by a friend if I would like to climb to the top of Mount McLoughlin. This mountain is over 9,000 feet high and is the prominent landmark in our area of Southern Oregon. Throughout a good portion of the year, it is snow capped. During the late summer the snow is gone, and many people climb to the summit.

I like to hike, but I am no mountain climber. Thankfully, Mount McLoughlin can be hiked by most people in average physical condition. We left early in the morning and drove to the trailhead. On the way up, it seemed that the summit kept getting farther away. Finally, we made it.

The view from 9,000 feet put the entire region in perspective. Like hundreds before me, I looked out on the surrounding area. I could see the Klamath Lakes, Mount Shasta to the south, and the Rogue Valley before me. As I strained to look over the valley, I could make out the vicinity where our church was located. I had an idea.

I reached into my backpack, pulled out my cell phone, and tried to get a signal. Amazingly, the phone showed a strong signal. I called the church office many miles away and said “hello” from 9,000 feet above the valley floor. I wanted the church staff to know their pastor was looking down upon them from thousands of feet above.

On top of that mountain, I knew that the daily business of life was taking place below me. But here I was high above it all. This is similar to viewing prayer from the throne of God. We call in from a place above the daily turmoil and release a perspective that is only possible from higher elevations.

As we come to the end of this book on prayer from the throne of God, I would like to invite you “to come up here.” Come up and begin to realize where you are seated in Christ. While John’s invitation to come up is something yet to happen in the future, this invitation to come up and add heaven as another prayer altar is available for the Church today.

I invite you today to pray for your family from the throne of God. See your spouse and your children from His perspective. Declare, decree, and prophesy hope to your loved ones. I invite you to come up to the throne of God and pray over His Church in your city from this exalted position and to declare God’s heart over His people and over your place of service. Declare provision for the impoverished. Decree justice to your nation. I invite you to come up and see the world from the Redeemer’s perspective and to prophesy His hope back upon the earth and believe that He has plans to revive our world.

Coming up to a higher place changes everything we see and will eventually change everything we pray. God put us next to Him in Christ for a purpose greater than just seeing the commanding view. He placed us there to command the things of this life to come into line with the destiny and heart God has for our world.