craigmanderson

PRAYER THAT MOVES HEAVEN     MENTORING 26/03/13

Do you want to move heaven?

More to the point, do you want to move the heavenlies? (That is the spirit realm)

The power of God is available to all believers; but we must understand the necessity of both authority and power

Here’s your verse for Authority…

Joh 1:12  But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name–[Isa. 56:5.]

Here the word “power” is the Greek word Exousia meaning authority, jurisdiction, right or liberty. Just as a policeman has authority to arrest people by virtue of his position or badge – we have the authority – divinely given by God to be called the sons of God.

Here’s the verse for power…

Act 1:8  But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

This word “power” in the Greek is Dunamis meaning might, strength, violence.

Now using these two concepts together we have this verse.

Luk 10:19  Behold! I have given you authority and power (Exousia) to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power (Dunamis) that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

When we wan to see Go’s power displayed we must take authority over the works of the enemy and release the dunamis of God

If we want to see lives changed it is a necessity that prayer goes before preaching.

Merely preaching the gospel is actually seed falling on hard ground. There’s nothing wrong with the seed but if the ground is not prepared, little of it can take root.

We are called to make a difference. To Mat 10:8  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely (without pay) you have received, freely (without charge) give. That takes spiritual authority. You cant just do that by preaching alone; you must win the battle in the heavenlies.

• All authority is given us

Mat 28:18  Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

Mat 28:19  Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

• Nothing happens unless we first bind the strongman.

Mat 12:29  Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.

• We fight in the spirit with words – with prayer

Eph 6:12  For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

• Jesus took authority over spirits

Mar 1:27  And they were all so amazed and almost terrified that they kept questioning and demanding one of another, saying, What is this? What new (fresh) teaching! With authority He gives orders even to the unclean spirits and they obey Him!

• He did it first in prayer

Joh 5:19  So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn].

• Now we are called to do the same

Mat 10:1  AND JESUS summoned to Him His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of weakness and infirmity.

IF WE WAN TO SE SOULS SAVED BIGTIME THIS WEEKEND WE NEED TO WIN IT IN PRAYER FIRST.

The gospel is powerful but the battle of prayer is necessary to break the hold of darkness off the minds of unbelievers so that they can hear.

HERE’S SOME EXAMPLES OF PREACHERS WHO BELIEVED IN INTERCESSION

Charles G. Finney & His Intercessors – David Smithers

http://hopefaithprayer.com/prayernew/charles-g-finney-his-intercessors/

Like the prophet Jeremiah, Charles G. Finney was anointed of God to “root out” and to “plant” in the Lord’s vineyard, (Jer. 1:10). He was a man of intense prayer, purity and passion. “Emptied of self, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His sermons were chain lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the stoutest skeptics. Simple as a child in his utterances, he sometimes startled his hearers by his unique prayers.” He could thunder the judgments of God upon sin with great liberty and power and then offer the mercy of the gospel with tenderness and tears. Without question he was a prophetic voice to 19th century America.

His ministry consistently produced revivals, even in areas considered hardened and unreceptive to the gospel. Finney’s autobiography is filled with accounts of powerful manifestations of the Spirit. On one occasion when Finney was preaching in a school house, “suddenly an awful solemnity fell upon the assembly and the congregation fell from their seats, crying for mercy.” Finney said, “If I had had a sword in each hand I could not have cut them off as fast as they fell. I think the whole congregation was on their knees or prostrated in two minutes.” The crying and weeping of the people was so loud that Finney’s exhortation of Christ’s mercy could not even be heard.

“Finney seemed so anointed with the Holy Spirit that people were often brought under conviction of sin just by looking at him. When holding meetings at Utica, New York, he visited a large factory. At the sight of him one of the workers, and then another, and then another broke down and wept under a sense of their sins, and finally so many were sobbing and weeping that the machinery had to be stopped while Finney pointed them to Christ.”

Finney seems to have had the power of impressing the conscience of men with the necessity of holy living in such a manner as produced lasting results. “Over eighty-five in every hundred persons professing conversion to Christ in Finney’s meetings remained true to God. Whereas seventy percent of those professing Christ in meetings of even so great an evangelist as Moody afterward became backsliders.”

Such results were the fruit of hours and hours of prayer. It was not Finney’s prayers alone that secured such heaven sent revivals. Finney’s was supported by the prayers of two of God’s hidden treasures. It was the hidden, yet powerful intercessions of “Father Nash” and Abel Clary that laid the ground work for these mighty moves of God. “Abel Clary was converted about the same time as Finney, and was licensed to preach also, but he had such a burden of prayer that he could not preach much. His whole time and strength was given to prayer. He would writhe and groan in agony, unable to stand under the weight.” “After Clary’s death Finney discovered Clary’s prayer journal. Finney found in the exact order of the burden laid upon Clary’s heart was the order of blessing poured upon his ministry.”

Father Nash lived a life of almost continual intercession. “He joined himself with Finney, kept a prayer list and was no doubt the secret of much of Finney’s marvelous success. He did not preach and often did not go to the meetings, but remained in his room, or in the woods, wrestling with God in mighty prayer. Often before daybreak people could hear Father Nash for half a mile or more in the woods, or in a church praying, and the sense of God’s presence was overwhelming.”

The Church must do more than esteem the history of men like Charles Finney, Father Nash and Able Clary. If we are going to experience revival we must repent and practice the truths they declared; truths of a holy and pure life; truths of hidden intercession and an uncompromising love for Jesus!

REINHARD BONNKE

EVANGELISM BY FIRE – BOOK – http://www.kingdomvision.co.uk/archives/tag/reinhard-bonnke

Reinhard’s passion for the gospel and reaching the lost comes across very clearly. Reinhard not only demonstrates why every Christian is compelled to share the love of Christ with others in the scriptures, he imparts such fire and yearning that every reader of this book will want to go out and do likewise! He reveals the pitfalls that many stumble over, including fear and wrong motives, and teaches how to overcome them.

Reinhard stresses the importance of prayer in reaching the lost and includes the wonderful illustration: “Evangelism without intercession is an explosive without a detonator. Intercession without evangelism is a detonator without an explosive.” Reinhard includes a number of chapters regarding the power of prayer and the promises made in the Bible regarding prayer and obtaining answers to prayer. Reinhard ascribes his own amazing ministry to those who have supported him in prayer and wonderfully illustrates its importance in this book. “Those who had been so inconspicuous will, all of a sudden, be heroes in the Kingdom of God. Their reward will be great. The Lord will not say, “much done” but “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21)