Showing posts with label prophetic intercession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prophetic intercession. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Bobby Conner: Prophetic Intercession That Changes History

Prayer
Prayer was never intended to be a monologue but a dialogue. (Lightstock )
Prophetic Insight, from Charisma Media
Never underestimate your prayers. Your prayer life is a sweet fragrance before the face of Almighty God! Our prayers are a vital part of the worship and adoration at the throne of God. It is important to understand what the Word of God has to say concerning what happens to our prayers in the heavenly realm.
"When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of saints" (Rev. 5:8).
This passage gives outstanding, divinely inspired insights and revelatory information concerning the value of our prayers uttered on earth. What our prayers accomplish is absolutely awesome. Your prayers have the potential to alter history! Many of the defining moments in the affairs of mankind are the result of someone's prayers. Truly our prayers move the hand of God.
Today we discover that the church is at a crossroads and in transition, the saints of God must spend time in God's presence, asking for divine wisdom and Holy Spirit guidance (see James 1:5). It is almost unbelievable to think that the cries of our soul on earth have such a place of prominence in heaven. It is truly stunning to note what Scripture reveals is taking place in heaven's realm because of our prayers.
Our prayers have a place of prominence before the Lamb upon His throne in heaven. Each golden bowl is filled with the flowing fragrance of the incense of our prayers that are ever rising before the Lamb. The aroma of faith-filled prayers is scenting the throne of heaven. Our prayers, being precious and extremely valuable in heaven, are caught and kept in vessels of the purest gold.
Many times the foe of our soul, Satan himself, will seek to hinder and even stop us from praying by slandering and saying, "It's no use! God will not hear nor heed your prayers." We must be reminded that every time the devil speaks, he speaks a lie (see John 8:44). A lie is the direct opposite of the truth, so be encouraged when the enemy tries to lie to you in that way. If he attempts to convince and persuade you that your prayers are worthless, understand the truth: Your prayers are powerful and priceless.
Be confident of this fact: Your prayers are heard in heaven and watched over by powerful, holy angels. The Word of God contains countless precious promises of God's willingness to answer our prayers. The Spirit of God is releasing an anointing for intercession on an extremely high level.
All across the nations saints are being mobilized to pray. It is awesome and thrilling to see prayer meetings are beginning to take place in many of our public schools once again. Powerful prayer gatherings are being led by some outstanding, young radicals who have one goal in mind: establishing God's kingdom on earth.
We can clearly see from these verses that our prayers are priceless. We read in Revelation 8:3-5:
"Another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it onto the earth. And there were noises, thundering, lightning, and an earthquake."
One can clearly see that our prayers always result in action. Never forget your prayer engages heaven's action. We would be blessed to take time to observe some of the examples of answered prayer in Scripture. One such example is the church praying for Peter and the Lord dispatching a mighty angel to deliver Peter from certain death and prison.
Observing the prayer spoken by the Church in Acts 12 on Peter's behalf, we clearly see this was a life and death situation. James had been beheaded and the same fate was facing the Apostle Peter. However, Scripture states, "So Peter was kept in prison. But the church prayed to God without ceasing for him" (see Acts 12:1-12). This reminds us that nothing is too hard for God (see Gen. 18:14). Our prayers release the hand of God to move on our behalf.
When your prayers are spoken on earth and begin to ascend before the throne of God, heaven begins to respond and things are shaken. Notice when the disciples prayed there was an earthquake, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31). Never forget that prayer is a powerful force.
In Revelation 8:3-5 we see not only was there an earthquake but also lightnings, which speaks of God's light and power being released when our prayers are released from heaven back to earth. Thunderings and noises speak of the "Word of God being released." Our prayers release an awesome response from Heaven. When God's voice speaks we will again see the entire world shaken" (see Ex. 19:10-20).
Prayer moves the hand of God. God can do anything (see Job 42:2). The question is posed in Genesis 18:14: "Is anything too difficult for the Lord?" As we enter into the realm of the prayer of faith, we will discover that absolutely nothing is impossible with God.
God has made us a promise that if we will ask, He will answer. We read this powerful promise in Jeremiah 33:3 which states, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." Prayer makes visible the things that have been concealed. The word "mighty" is literally "fenced in" with the connotation of being "cut off" or "inaccessible." In this we understand that God has many things to reveal to us and through us, but we will never receive them unless we call to Him in believing prayer.
God is able to reveal that which has formerly been hidden and He is committed to deliver and to preserve His people. In Deuteronomy 29:29, we discover that God has some secrets that He desires to release to us, if we are willing to set our hearts to seek Him: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
This truth is revealed again in Isaiah 48:6, which states, "You have heard; see all this. And will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them."
Our prayers release God to reveal the things that He desires to show us. Remember the warning, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7).
Once, in a prophetic experience, I was caught up into heaven, into something like a large warehouse filled with arms, legs, hands, feet and eyes. Stunned I questioned, "What are these things?" and was told, "This is what you can have restored on earth if you will pray, believing." In that moment I was painfully aware that much more is available to us if we truly approach the throne of God with pure faith. We have not, because we ask not. It is the Father's good pleasure to give to us the kingdom.
Prayer was never intended to be a monologue but rather a dialogue. What is a monologue? It is when one person is doing the talking. God promised us that if we would ask, He would answer. There are two sides to true prayer—the human and the heavenly. The human is the asking; the heavenly is the answering. In Psalm 91:15 God states, "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him ... ."
Jesus stated in Matthew 21:22 these encouraging words concerning the promise of answered prayer, "And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive." There is a readiness in the heart of God to answer true prayer. In Isaiah 65:24 God promises, "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."
Answered prayer will always release an overflow of joy and raise our confidence in God (see John 16:24).
Bobby Conner: This "Gentle Giant" is uniquely anointed with refreshing humor and razor-sharp prophetic accuracy, which has been documented around the world. Bobby's dynamic capacity to release outstanding demonstrations of the miraculous—healings, signs and wonders—reveals the very heart of the Father toward us! 
Surviving a dramatic abortion attempt by his mother, being rescued again by the hand of God from drug dealing and suicide, the story of Bobby Conner is a display of a man who now walks in his God-ordained destiny to set others free! Highly esteemed as an internationally acclaimed conference speaker, Bobby has ministered effectively to over 45 foreign countries as well as here in the States for many years. Visit him online at bobbyconner.org or email manager@bobbyconner.org.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

"It's Time to Pray! The Sign of the Praying Mantis" - Jennifer Eivaz


"It's Time to Pray! The Sign of the Praying Mantis"
Jennifer Eivaz, Turlock, CA
The Elijah List

"There It Is Again!"

I had just spotted another praying mantis. It was sitting like a king on top of the door-knob of my front door. I kept noticing these praying mantises here and there. They were usually stationed on my front door as if to make sure they were noticed. This went on for a few years, although I didn't realize its significance until much later.
I also started having dreams. Dreams about... you guessed it... praying mantises! I began dreaming about all sorts of praying mantises. I even dreamt about a huge army of praying mantises marching in ranks on my front porch!

Was this some type of strange obsession? It was starting to feel that way. I couldn't grasp yet that this experience was rooted in the Lord somehow. Could God be speaking to me through a bug?!(Photo via Pixabay)

By this time, I had developed a fairly strong intercessory ministry at my church. I was growing in my intercessory role, preferring to spend time in prayer much more than anything else. I also began teaching about prophetic intercession in a handful of churches, including my own. I was fascinated when a few churches had a little bug appear on their property doors soon after I left. They too were visited by a praying mantis.

After a decade of praying mantis visitations and lots of prayer experiences and prayer testimonies, I finally wrote a book about prayer titled The Intercessor's Handbook. It had been in my heart to write about the subject, but I couldn't find the grace to do it. I'm a busy pastor, an itinerant minister, a wife, and a mother to two young children. I simply didn't have the time.

Things supernaturally changed after a woman wrote to me about her dream. She dreamt that I had written a book on prayer. "It's some type of handbook," she said. I felt the anointing of the Holy Spirit once I read her note. Through the vehicle of her dream, I had just received the supernatural grace to write. It took two years, but I published it during the summer of 2013.

To my surprise, I began to gather readers from all over the world. People from South Africa, Ireland, Latvia, England, Cambodia, Japan, and of course the USA, were reading the book. I also received testimony again and again from readers that praying mantises were appearing at their homes. One woman in Chicago, for example, had a praying mantis fly to her porch deck the moment she sat down to read.

ElijahList Prophetic Resources

What Was God Up To?

It appeared that He was speaking and spreading the news about prayer through a sign. He was teaching us that when you see a praying mantis, it's time to pray. We see this concept alluded to in Job 12:7 (NLT): "Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you."

Think of what these little creatures teach us about prayer. I've observed that when you approach a praying mantis, they don't consider your size or fly away in fear. 

If they think you are a threat to them, they put up their prayer hands and punch back and forth in the air as you draw near. They are not intimidated and are ready to defend their position. We can learn a lot from that right there! (Photo via Pixabay)

I also found out the word "mantis" in Greek means "prophet." Think of it this way: When we see a praying mantis we are seeing a Praying Prophet. It's a strong reminder that we actually prophesy in prayer instead of just petitioning the Lord. 

This type of praying, known as prophetic intercession, proclaims the Word of the Lord out loud and into the airways. Prophetic intercession is powerful! It creates life and light and shatters the darkness. This kind of praying will put angels into their assignments (see Psalm 103:20) and stop the plans of the enemy.

God speaking like this through creation can be a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g concept for some. You also get the sense that people try to read the Word of the Lord into pretty much anything when it's not the Word of the Lord at all. I understand how that can happen. When I was a new Christian, I believed that if I saw a black cat it meant there was witchcraft going on. It was nothing more than superstition and I could never connect it to anything tangible. If God is speaking to you through creation, you'll clearly connect the dots and be able to prove it.

God Will Clearly Confirm What He Is Saying

Let me share a few examples to bring more clarity:

My friend, Dave Williams (club52.com), received a Word from God several years ago to raise up 52 millionaires in his church for the purposes of funding missions and world evangelism. It was a very challenging word. God confirmed His Word to Dave by sending a flock of exactly 52 birds right to his location on two occasions. (Photo via Freeimages)

Another friend, Brazil Missionary Tom Hammond (riverintl.org), began experiencing angelic visitations and "bird" visitations. Many of us can connect to visitations from angels, but visitations from birds? Tom can't leave his home windows open because a bird will eventually fly in and find a place to perch. 

One time, he had a bird fly right to his shoulder and stay there as he took his walk. I had the privilege of seeing what happened to his tree in his front yard the day before he moved to Brazil. His tree filled with a very large flock of noisy white birds. They stayed there all day and night and never stopped "talking"! Tom says the bird encounters are a sign to him that angels are near and it brings him comfort.

When God speaks through His creation, He will speak clearly and confirm what He is saying. Remembering this truth will help you to distinguish His voice from a false impression. 

I know many people who sincerely look for God's voice in nature, but read things into nature that aren't really there. What they believe to be a God encounter in nature isn't confirmed nor is it connected to anything tangible.
In the meantime, I'm confident that you will see praying mantises from now on with a whole new conviction. I've had too many testimonies to count of people being visited very specifically by praying mantises after I've shared my experience. 

Just remember this: When you see the praying mantis, it's time to pray!

Jennifer Eivaz, Associate Minister
Harvest Christian Center

Jennifer Eivaz is a vibrant minister and international conference speaker who carries the wisdom and fire of the Holy Spirit. She presently serves as an associate minister with Harvest Christian Center (harvestturlock.org) in Turlock, California, and is focused on raising up a passionate and effective prayer community that is tempered with love and hears the voice of God accurately. Jennifer loves the Presence of God and is a prophetic voice to her church and to others. 

Her teaching style is authentic and aimed at the heart having been built on her personal testimony of God's incredible goodness and miraculous display in her life and in the life of her church. Jennifer is a graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is married to HCC's Senior Pastor Ron Eivaz, and they have two wonderful children. She now has two books, The Intercessor's Handbook and El Manual Del Intercesor.

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