As we worship, the Lord will place upon us, His yoke or his burdens for prayer, rather than our own. Many people are truly unable to intercede for the Lord's will, they have their mind full of what should happen. They end up praying out of their emotions rather than by the Holy Spirit. But Mattew 6:33 tells us "To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you."
When God orchestrates our intercession the whole group will move together with the moods of the Holy Spirit. You might have, for instance, a time of BARAK when you adore Him silently. Other times you might lift your hand or clap. You might then have a time of proclamation: "Violence shall no longer be near in our land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders; but shall call your walls salvation and your gates Praise!" (Isaidah 60:18) Procalmation means call out God's attributes--His name, His character and nature.
All these expressions of intercession and praise will be present during your private prayer time or during corporate prayer if you are meeting with a group that allows the Spirit to move freely.
So you can see that if we just pray and we just use the word against the enemy, we are still leaving holes in our worship, and prayer life. Which brings us back to our opening statement, all of these weapons have been given to us to help set us free and maintain intimacy with God.
You may have heard my testimony by now, how I was baptized in the Spirit. After this wonderful expereince happened to me, because I knew no other people who had received the gift, I prayed 6 months by myself for two hours every night at a nearby park. The person who had lead me in this great adventure left the next day for Europe and I was not to see him again for over three years. At that mountain top, physically and spiritually, God began to teach me through His Holy Spirit about Himself. I learned to read the word and then pray in my prayer language. I just knew when it was time to switch from one to the other. I learned to pray over my children and my family. The Spirit would give me scripture references during this time and I would write them down. Just the references. One day He told me to speak the references to my oldest son. He was 12 at the time. I gave him the references and he looked them up while I watched. He began to weep as he read. To express the feelings I had at the moment I could not, but my son received the Lord that day and has walked with Him ever since. He is a mighty man of God. Many times I would get up at night to find him praying in his room for hours. All my family know the Lord now. He taught me to read scripture references over and over in proxy for my youngest son, my greatest patience builder. And then this void came when I was praying, my spirit was missing something. I was using my prayer language, reading the word and meditating on it. I was even raising my hands while I prayed, because the Lord had told me to lift up holy hands without wrath. As I sat there I began to sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...and suddenly I began to sing in my prayer language. At the time I was journaling what happened every night, I wrote, "THIS IS JOY UNLEASHED!" It felt as if my spirit was lifted into the heavenlies and any measure of reality was gone. I sang for two hours straight. I was singing in tongues. People would think I was crazy, but who cared...it was so joyful. Little did I know that this was an unleashing of the Spirit in my life. From then on when I came into hard times a song would come and the tongues would flow from me. To this day I sing in the spirit when I pray and the peace that passes all understanding surrounds me and emcompasses me.
I found that the more time I spent in my prayer language and spiritual song the more my ability to hear God's voice. My problems paled in comparison to singing to Him. My heart lightened as I cast my cares upon Him and raised my hands and heart to glorify the Saviour. Even when I am with others now, I can feel His presence flooding me and the I am alone with God. My tamborine has become an instrument of warfare as I dance and sing songs of deliverance. Praise and worship, coupled with the word and empowered prayer demolishes strongholds in me.
As we grow in Him we realize that we can affect no changes in others, just ourselves. We must learn to turn others over to Him and surrender ourselves for His renewing. |
