Birthing Revival Through Prayer

                               

                                                                                                                                                     

Around the beginning of 2013 I felt that God begin nudging me in the area of prayer. As I oversee the prayer ministry at our church I felt He wanted me to encourage all of our ministries to up the level of prayer. The phrase He gave me was to 'up the ante of prayer' in every area. As the year rolled on and all the busyness involved in church life took it's toll, it seemed we were spending less and not more time in prayer.

So, as 2014 rounded the corner the burden for prayer began to intensify in my heart. God had spoken over the past couple of years lots of prophetic words about our church body and it's place in the city and more than that, it's place in a coming outpouring of God's Spirit and resulting harvest. I knew that a concerted movement of prayer would play a significant role in seeing the fulfillment of these words.

It was during this time that something unusual happened. I was wearing a silver charm bracelet that had a single little silver key charm. One day, glancing down I noticed the silver key charm was gone. I looked around everywhere but could not find it. A couple of days later my husband found the charm in the carpet at our house. Then, just a few days later, I was wearing a necklace that had several charms on it, one of them being a key. I happened to look down and notice that now this key was missing! Again, I searched but did not see it. Then, later that day, Richard and I were standing in the foyer of our church and he noticed the key on the floor and picking it up said, "Honey, did you lose another key?" I immediately knew that God was speaking through this repeated event, (we call this the language of the Spirit, and it is a way that God speaks to me) but I didn't have any idea what He was saying.



I began to pray and ask God what He was saying to me, but I didn't hear anything right away. It was about a week after losing the keys, and Richard thankfully finding them, that just as I was dropping off to sleep one night I heard, "I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:19) Don't let the keys fall to the ground". I knew that once again He was speaking to me about prayer.

A couple of weeks after this I had a dream. In the dream I found myself seated at what seemed to be my own dinner table. Richard was seated beside me and we were seated across from Bill Johnson. I should mention that I greatly admire Bill because of His walk with God and commitment to go after the Presence of God no matter the cost. As I found myself seated at this dinner table I realized that we were somehow hosting Bill Johnson for dinner. I observed the plates that were set on the table and noticed that none of them matched. Even worse I noticed that most if not all of them were chipped and broken. Then I was mortified to see that the food on Bill's plate was a mass of frozen meat. In my embarrassment I offered to warm up his food and Bill acquiesced. There was a microwave close by and I stuck it in to warm up the meat. End of dream.

When I woke up I felt it was a God dream, but once again I didn't have a clue what it meant. I made it a point to ask several different people if they had an idea what it might mean, but no interpretations rang true to me. So I continued to pray and ask God to interpret the dream for me. A couple of Sundays later during the Sunday morning worship service Richard was sharing all of the different prophetic words that had been given to True Life for the year 2014. In one of the words that someone had given, they mentioned that when you have a dinner party at your house you prepare. You prepare to host.

When I heard these words, it was as if God instantaneously dropped the interpretation of the dream in my spirit. I felt I heard Him say, "You are not prepared to host the Presence". I realized that Bill Johnson represented 'The Presence' to me in the dream, and we found ourselves unprepared to host him.

Again, I felt that this was a strong exhortation/warning from the Spirit of God that prayer would be the thing to prepare us to host His Presence.

In that same Sunday morning service where Richard read the prophetic words, a prophetic friend of ours approached during the worship and shared that she felt God had given her a word for the body. We decided to let her share the word at the end of the service and this is what she shared: "I saw an angel standing on stage with a torch, ready to go! But there was no flame yet....the Holy Spirit gently told me: He is waiting for MY command! This is MY special angel for carrying MY fire to the nations, MY GLORY! Tell MY people: it is not by might or by power but by MY SPIRIT shall those things happen..."

After hearing this word there was one phrase that stood out to me like a flashing neon sign...."there was no flame yet". As these words burned inside of me, again I felt I heard Him say, "it will be the prayers of my saints that release the Holy Spirit to light the flame of the torch and the prayers of the saints will keep the fire going". I was reminded of Lev. 6:13, "The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out." In the Levitical law it was the job of the priest to see that the fire on the altar burned continuously. It was never to go out day or night.

It continues to baffle and humble me that God has chosen to partner with the prayers of His people. He is looking for those who will stand in the gap. He is looking for a people who will say "Yes!" to co-laboring with Him in bringing His kingdom to earth through prayer. So much is at stake.

A. T. Pierson said this: "There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."

And Watchman Nee said this, "Our prayers lay the track down on which God's power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, His power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails."

I'll end these thoughts with a short video that I shared with our church the same Sunday that I shared these thoughts with our congregation. These words by Banning Liebscher stirred me deeply!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXuCbJ9exYE



Worthy of It All


Words by David Brymer

All the saints and angels bow before Your throne
All the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and sing

You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all
For from You are all things, and to You are all things, You deserve the glory

Day and night, night and day, let incense arise
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise