Have you ever wondered, “Just how did I get started on this journey of Prayer? How did it really begin?”

It is a very awesome journey with our marvelous maker, heavenly Father, faithful Friend, and wonderful Counselor.

As we interact with Him in Prayer, we enter into the reality that that He is our everything and are truly awakened to a never ending adventure as we partner with Him in Prayer.

Let’s suppose that you are one of the ‘Mission Impossible’ agents being beckoned by the very heart of God. I would say at some point, you have said, “I want to REALLY know you LORD!”

I love the song sung by JoAnn McFatter that asks “Were you born to walk with HIM in the heavenlies? Were you born for the spirit? “

Then she proclaims, you’ve been invited as director to bring heaven on earth.

WOW! That really puts a new spin on the musing of the Psalmist when he said,

“What is man that you are mindful of him?” Psalm 8:4.

It is mind boggling to think you are co-laboring with the God of the Universe.

The heart to know and seek God is birthed in us by God himself. It certainly is not something that can be forced upon us, but it becomes a natural desire of our heart as we “taste and see that The LORD is good.” (Psalm 34:8).

Intercession is a Hidden Ministry

As we steal way into the King’s Chambers, the Secret Counsel of The LORD is imparted to us.

John Sandford states in “The Elijah Task” that Intercession invites God to come between man and his sin with the stopping place of the cross.

For the cross is ultimately the stopping place of everything. Intercession must be rooted in the cross. It is not the work of man. Many time man moves over into the flesh as he tries to control the praying and that becomes witchcraft.

In 1 Corinthians 14:6, Paul says, “How can I benefit you unless I bring you some fresh revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?”

Intercession must be done through men, but it is only accomplished by The LORD. (Read Hebrews 9:15 and Hebrews 7:25).

So once again, Intercession is praying God’s heart God’s way — taking our mind, will, and emotions and setting them aside — taking our hands off of the situation, and laying down all desires to “FIX IT!”

Are you a Fixer? Most of us would like to fix what we have “judged” as wrong or “out of order”, but the truth is, unless we have the mind of Christ (“let this mind be in you….” — Philippians 2:5) regarding the issue, unless we take our position seated in Heavenly Places, looking at it through The Eyes of The Father, we are the ones mostly “out of order.”

Beloved, we must beware of the mind of the flesh that presumes, assumes and desires to give our opinion. There is no place for that in the heart of a true intercessor.

Jesus Christ is our model

Jesus Christ is our model, and He sits at the right hand of The Father ever making intercession for us.

The LORD spoke to me one time, “Sandi, you LOVE them, I will judge them!” That gentle, yet firm correction is written on my heart.

My sole desire is to have clean hands and a pure heart as an intercessor. As a result, I endeavor to walk in Truth, seeking Him and guarding my heart daily.

When I am tempted to bypass asking The LORD to show me my heart before I rush into Prayer, I have no starting point. The Word confirms the Truth — that we do not know our own hearts….

Let’s pause and look at Matthew 7:4,

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (NASB).

The Berean Study Bible says this:”DO NOT JUDGE. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

That puts it is perfect perspective. This becomes very evident as we intercede for our families or those closest to us.

First of all, we must discover The Will of The Father and then move in confidence that He is working out His will as we yield ourselves to pray as He directs.

We are not called to manage and direct God. May we have the true heart of God as we pray and ask this one question, “What sins of mine or theirs may block God’s rescue and saving action?”

Our Spiritual Authority

Our Spiritual Authority is proportional to our HUMILITY and total DEPENDENCE on God.

That dependence is always demonstrated by looking to The LORD for His direction. This one question sets INTERCESSION apart from PRAYERS initiated by man involving thanksgiving, petition or praise.

Thus, Intercession ALWAYS begins with God, not man.

The scripture says in Romans 8:7,

“And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

Literally, The LORD searches the hearts. That is plural, because the person of The Holy Spirit has the power to search the heart of the entire Body of Christ and represent each one before the throne of Grace all at the same time.

This ability is what makes HIM GOD. So when The Holy Spirit goes into my heart to search it, He already knows something very important: the mind of The Spirit.

That’s what Paul is referring to in Romans. He is speaking of God’s Plan for mankind that became subject to the fall of mankind but was redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ.

So, He is praying The Will of The Father as He makes intercession. He is a prayer partner like none other. He is your Fiend who always hits the target, Who is all knowing.

He knows the beginning from the end, and the icing of the cake is: HE knows God’s Will and Plan. He has God’s perspective and will in every circumstance that occurs! Isn’t that WONDERFUL?

Our ability to be the generation that prepares the Way for The LORD and His ultimate purposes on earth will always be determined by which of two ministries we become a part of…”ACCUSATION OR INTERCESSION.”

Isaiah 58 is the scripture we know as ‘The Fasting Passage’, has many conditions that must be met along with many promises.

One of the promises is, IF we put away the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, THEN your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will become like midday.

“The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to dwell In.” Isaiah 58:11-12 NKJV.

So remember, always when we miss it or get bogged down in the crisis and allow our feelings to take over, stop, REFRESH and RECHARGE. It is time to wait upon The LORD in the secret place before moving on.

Be still and know that HE is God.

The Earmarks of an Effective Intercessor

And what are some principles we must learn?

It has been said of intercessors that they are much like private investigators or detectives, because they must always ask questions of The Spirit before they begin!

For instance, “Where are the walls broken down?” We somehow, are always thinking about rebuilding the wall. So Just as Nehemiah restored the walls, we build up the wall.

We find ourselves in this hour in a certain season of seeing restoration by The LORD in our lives.

God so delights in delegating His POWER to men, when HE can find willing, believing and obedient servants ready to accept and exercise that delegated POWER.

His Word says in Psalm 24:3-5,

“Who may ascend onto the hill of The LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? One who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to deceit and has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive a blessing from The LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

Simply put, it is those whose hearts are totally dedicated to His Will for them. These are those! They live with His discovered purposes as best they can, and have turned away from self-centeredness and set their hearts to prefer others above themselves.

This should be our commitment. It is one thing to run in and out (like one who has no focus and has become double-minded) but it is another to STAND in The HOLY PLACE.

The manifest presence of His Glory distinguishes us. That is a stamp of His approval. I often pray, “LORD, let The Fear of The LORD clothe me as I enter into your Presence.”

Unconfessed sin in our heart holds back HIS loving hand. We must guard our hearts with all diligence.

Our first work is to connect with God. Our obedience out of fellowship with God is powerful. Are we both willing and obedient?

One of the dangerous pitfalls of bearing other’s burdens, is self-focus. The enemy tries to not only distract us, but tries to get us to look inward.

Identification

The first law of intercession is identification.

We do identify in The Spirit with the person or issue we are or have been praying for, but if we take that identification into our emotions and get caught up in our feelings, we become self-focused and lose the whole purpose of the prayer assignment.

Jesus carried our sin to The Cross. We are never to take that the problem and carry it. We are to apply the finished work of The Cross to bring Freedom and Deliverance and Victory each and every time.

Now this is where we must not allow our human reasoning to get in the way.

We must not jump into the flesh and try to accomplish what God ordained the spirit to do!

The LORD’s Death will work in us and His Life will work in the one for whom we are interceding, (2 Corinthians 9:11-12).

We can’t fake dying in the flesh . We cannot fake weeping . Weeping and wailing and travailing is a work of The Spirit only, but many have attempted to fake it and have gotten over into the flesh.

I have witnessed many who have made a pretty good “show” of it at times.

We must cooperate with Him, fulfilling The Law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 states that The Law of Christ is LOVE — laying down our life for our friends is a good description for this, as found in John 15:13.

Remembering always, we have no life to lay down until we receive the Life of Christ. This is the life He calls us to lay down.

We must make sure not to leave our minds open to the enemy. We must have the gift of Discernment to know and recognize the thoughts that come from the evil one.

We must ask with all our heart, “LORD, make me recognize every word, thought, and every suggestion that comes into my mind from evil spirits.” Then, shut the door.

Weapons of War and The Armor of God

Now is the time to put on The Armor of God. Take the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword. The mind is protected by the Helmet and we must take the Sword of The Spirit and cut through every spirit of oppression in the air.

As you take up the Shield, you envision the quenching of every fiery dart. You must address the mind first because you cannot put the Helmet on if there are fiery darts in the mind from the enemy.

Beloved, we experience a sense of suffocation or loss of breath when our spirit is pressed down by the fierce forces of darkness.

That suffocation will travel through the whole body, if left unaddressed. Stop and remove it. It has to go.

This is a burden in Prayer. Once you recognize the pressure on your spirit man, your discernment is showing you the oppression all around you.

Then apply The Blood of Jesus and fight to peace and victory!

First, the Helmet is for the mind, the Shield quenches the darts, and the Sword cut through the air.

Take a firm stand on Ephesians 6. You have the Armor of Light, put on the Breastplate of Righteousness, gird your mind with Truth and make certain your feet are shod with the preparation of Peace.

These are your Weapons of Warfare. Practice these things as your learn to deal with the accusations and injustices that come to us from the evil one.

We must be slow to anger, begin daily to encourage ourselves in The LORD.

Read Proverbs 16:22,

“Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.”

We must guard our mind and never allow a mindset of darkness. Never forget, Jesus’ last words on The Cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is our weapon against injustice.

Forgiveness begins as an act of the will, to obey The Word. Then, as you walk it out, you will receive a softened heart whose healing only comes from allowing the love of God into the anger and wounds.

Then as we leave the judgment to The Father, we embrace His Love.

It is an act of yielding and a total surrender to the one whose we are. My mother used to say to me when I said “Why?”, she said, “Because I said so!”

So I like to remind myself, He is my Father. He SAID SO…. and His LOVE never fails.

Offenses will come, but we are to be ready and prepared with the girdle of Truth. We are dressed for complete Victory as we march forward in Calvary Love!

We must ‘keep o our love on‘, as taught in Danny Silk’s book. “Keep Your Love On”.

God’s servant must keep a single eye, “If the eye is single, the whole body is full of light,” (Matthew 6:22)

As we focus on truth and light, rather than darkness, we are the LIGHT. LIGHT DISPELS DARKNESS. The Greater One, the one who is the Light of the World lives in us.

We must walk in the light as He is in the light and we will have fellowship, one with another. True love must take responsibility to reveal our true identity to the world.

When we honor others, we honor Him . He had given up the keys to the Kingdom. Whatsoever we bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. We cannot bind an evil power if he finds a place in us. We must guard our heart with all diligence.

Spiritual Warfare

There are three kinds of Spiritual Warfare: Defensive, Offensive, and Internal.

The Offensive Warfare as we know it was described in Matthew 16:18 as the church being on the offense:

“And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Gates protect and they defend, but they do not attack. So he pictured the Church (indirectly) as attacking the gates.

The Defensive Warfare is more commonly communicated by the believer.

Every believer must take a stand against the enemy. The enemy is out to kill, steal and destroy our lives.

We must resist, and having done all, stand. We must apply the victory won at Calvary to every battle.

And last of all is the Internal Warfare, when God contends with His enemies that are still residing in us.

Let’s stop right here and hear what The LORD is saying. What does that mean?

Never forget, The LORD is ever interceding for us. He is the convicting power of God drawing us into His Presence.

You know when you know, that you know that you know, He has your attention! That moment of Truth, as He beckons us to come to HIM. He is allowing us to turn — from our sin.

It is a moment of grateful Grace and Goodness. There is never any condemnation. It is a drawing to Repentance that is motivating us to let go and be changed and grow up into HIM.

He is releasing His Grace of Conviction that is bringing Freedom. He is protecting us with His love as He draws us into greater joy.

Condemnation pushes, but His Love draws us into His heart — full of Love — that never fails. He is purifying us.

Holiness and Righreousness

I keep hearing His Voice repeating this to me, “If I can find a people without mixture, I will pour out My Spirit without measure!”

The Spirit of Truth is calling to us today to walk as did the true Zadok priests. Yes, to be holy as He is Holy.

Holiness unto The LORD shall distinguish between the Godly and the ungodly.

I believe many are walking in deception and even denial today, because they do not realize that they have departed from the path of righteousness.

It is time to return to our first Love and be giddy with desire to please Him.

It is the eleventh hour and we must not suppress the Truth to justify the mixture that the world is stirring to rule the world through entitlement and selfish gain.

Change and The Four ‘R’s

It has often been said that we are change agents. I often think about that as I think of Repentance and Reconciliation as well as Renewal and Restoration.

Real change begins in the heart.

Change comes through Repentance, then Reconciliation, Renewal and Restoration follow hard after a heart who has true Godly sorrow and deep Repentance.

I have observed that we must understand as Prayer Warriors and Agents of Change, that have experienced those powerful changes following repentance, it is God’s goodness that brings us to repentance. (see Romans 2)

Intercession moves by the route of repentance. Many experience remorse which has its roots in self-pity and is totally self centered.

But Godly Repentance is a gift from The LORD’s Love and the only route to a changed heart: death to self.

The Call of Intercession

Taking a look at the call to intercession. It is being IN THE GAP, a place between where things are and the way they should be!

As we take God’s stand and stand in that place, we come against the accuser of the brethren and intercede to bring the change.

We must take care not to lose hope or focus on the problem instead of the answer which causes us to get out of the gap and lose the ground that we have taken.

The birth pains shall come as we press into birthing the Truth and bringing Freedom.

If that happens, we must realize that decision was a result of a divided heart. We must not lose our victory between the Glory and the Crisis.

Our eyes must remain on The Glory in front of us and we must never lose our focus in the battle.

When we find we have faltered, we must stop, look and listen to the only one who can Refresh and Recharge us.

Advance The Kingdom!

It is urgent to stand and move on as we advance The Kingdom!

Shall we join our hearts together and return to the Heart of Worship?

It is all about HIM.

Shall we Worship our way back?

The LORD has said, “Worship Me in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:23–24) for that is the place to begin afresh.

He inhabits the praises of His people. (Psalm 95:5).

Come, Let us Worship and Bow down.

Let us kneel before The LORD, our maker.

As we yield to His testing of our hearts, may He find our hearts totally sold out to His Purpose.

May we enter into His Gates with Thanksgiving in our hearts, and into His courts with praise.

May we accept and live in our true identity.

May we see ourselves as true Overcomers as we overcome evil with good, and may we Travail to Prevail unto birth as we bring forth The Father’s heart of Reformation, Revolution and Restoration through Repentance, Prayer and Praise.

 

~ Sandi Holman

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Sandi Holman of Matters of the Heart website was called to the nations as an End-Time Handmaiden in 1984 with Gwen Shaw and served with YWAM Singapore and YWAM Charlotte in missions. Sword of The LORD Ministries came from a divine encounter with The LORD when He came into her prayer room and said, “I have come to put a sword in your hand and was given special instructions on how and when to use it.” She is an author, Prophetic Intercessor and Seer, Chaplain, Teacher, Speaker and Equipper, and Blogger who has also served as a Pastor Online with Beyond the Veil Ministries.

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