Category: Spiritual Warfare

The Horse Gate

This gate speaks of battles and as Christians we are in a spiritual battle.     We have an enemy, Satan,  who doesn’t want us to mature spiritually and discover the fullness of who we are in Christ.     The enemy will try and discourage you, hinder you and stop you.     He will do what he can to put thoughts into your mind and build strongholds there to frustrate your Christian walk.     He will try and deceive you, tempt you, cause you to be fearful,  to give up because you are weary, frustrated, anxious and being a Christian just seems too difficult.

Let us not give up but let us fight the good fight.    Ephesians 6 says “Finally, my bretheren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

God has equipped us through the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the word and Christ with the ability to stand against and overcome our enemy.   The bible says that when we submit to God, resist the enemy then the promise of God is that “he will flee”.      Jesus said that he overcame the world and so we can too.

The Warrior’s Prayer

The Warrior’s Prayer   (Author unknown)

Heavenly Father,

Your warrior prepares for battle.

Today I claim victory over satan by putting on the whole armour of god

I put on the Girdle of Truth

May I stand firm in the truth of Your Word

So I will not be a victim of satan’s lies

I put on the Breastplate of Righteousness

May it guard my heart from evil

So I will remain pure and holy,

Protected under the blood of Jesus Christ.

I put on the Shoes of Peace

May I stand firm in the Good News of the Gospel

So your peace will shine through me

And be a light to all I encounter

I take the Shield of Faith

May I be read for satan’s fiery darts of

Doubt, denial and deceit

So I will not be vulnerable to spiritual defeat

I put on the Helmet of Salvation

May I keep my mind focused on you

So satan will not have a stronghold on my thoughts

I take the Sword of the Spirit

May the two edged sword of your Word

Be ready in my hands

So I can expose the tempting words of satan

By faith your warrior has put on the whole

Armour of God

I am prepared to live this day in spiritual victory

Amen.

 

Beware the backlash

We have experienced a backlash from the enemy on a few occasions when pushing forward in prayer and engaged in spiritual warfare.    The enemy hates to lose ground and will try and re-establish himself/his stronghold and it is important to be aware of this and stand firm when the assaults come.   Recognising them and their origin is key to dealing with them.   Attacks can come in all forms & guises -doubt, fear, jealousy, arguments, strife, lies – the fiery darts, the barbed words – even from family and friends – and other Christians.   These attacks always seems worse when our guard is down, we are tired or feeling a bit low and discouraged.    They can knock us back and cause us to retreat, but I hope you will feel encouraged by our testimony not to give up but press forward into what God is calling you to do.    Submit to God, resist the enemy and he will flee from you.   Quench his fiery darts with the shield of faith, rebuke the barbs and forgive those who deliver them.

Fear seems to be a weapon of choice of the enemy.  If the enemy can instil fear in us then we can be overcome.   Faith and trust in God are essential when faced with these types of attacks.    The word of our testimony and the blood of Christ are keys to overcoming.   I have a few examples from my own experience which I feel led to share.    Early in our prayer ministry my friend and I had just finished a deliverance session and were praying to cast out other demons when she felt a scratch on her throat.  She didn’t think much about it at the time but the next day her throat had swelled and she was admitted to hospital with trouble breathing.   She said it felt like a vice around her throat.  She couldn’t speak.    I can’t tell you how much this frightened me but I also knew that this was the work of the enemy.   All sorts of thoughts were going around my head though.  I felt fearful that my friend was going to die and guilty that she was in hospital because of me.   I was really struggling and wanted to give up and not carry on with any future deliverance ministry or spiritual warfare.    This was all a strategy of the enemy to bring fear into my life and stop the prayer ministry.   These were lies of the enemy but I was taking it all on board.     Thankfully, we cried out and prayed to God about the whole situation.  We gave it to Him and the Lord told us to trust him, not to fear but to go and anoint our friend with oil and she would be healed.    We duly went to the hospital to do this, but God in his faithfulness had already gone before us to prepare the way.    One of the elderly gentlemen at our church was in the hospital visiting someone else, had seen my friend and prayed and taken communion with her.   She had felt a lot better after communion and once we had anointed her with oil, her throat immediately felt better.   She could speak properly and the restriction and swelling in her throat went.     Later in the day though after we left, my friend took some medicine which the doctor in the hospital prescribed and immediately her throat got worse again.    She recognised the cause -when the medicine was prescribed she felt in her spirit that she didn’t need it but instead of declining it she took it.   Immediately she felt ill again and so she repented of taking the medicine and her throat was healed.    This taught us that the enemy is always looking for a way back in and to cause us to doubt our healing- he just wants to kill, steal and destroy.

On another occasion, after another time of intense prayer for our area a witch came into our church to presumably try and place a curse on me or cause me some sort of harm.    On the morning, the Lord had warned me that a witch was going to come into the church but not to be fearful.   I had not mentioned this to anyone in my fellowship group as we generally all sat together.   On the morning, one of the stewards came towards us with a woman who we had never seen before.  He explained that she was new and she had asked if she could she sit with us.   I immediately recognised that this was the witch that the Lord had warned me about.   I did not say anything and we all welcomed her.   I don’t think anyone else knew that she was a witch at that time.   She took a seat directly behind me and next to some of my other friends.    During the time of worship, I noticed that she had her hands pointed out towards me – at the small of my back.    A friend who was sitting next to me suddenly turned to me and said that the Lord had told her to tell me that I was standing in His circle of protection and that no harm would come to me.    She had seen a picture of me and it looked as though a glass shield was all around me.    I was encouraged by this and took no notice of the woman behind me although, I could tell she was getting very agitated by this time and more agitated as the worship went on.   Whatever she was trying to do with her spells or curses clearly wasn’t working.    The Lord told me to turn around and tell her that He loved her – He really loved her and had died for her.   She just nodded and smiled at me and then at the earliest opportunity left and we never saw her again.  I hope she remembers those words though and if she hasn’t already, finds Jesus as her saviour.   Jesus died for everyone even those who oppose him.    Jesus’ heart was love for that woman and we are commanded to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us.

God is faithful and He is our defender and protector.   I love the words of Psalm 91 – “I will say of the Lord “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him will I trust.  Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.  He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.  You shall not be afraid of the terror by night.  Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.  A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”.     Thank you Lord.

 

 

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Rooting out the enemy

The enemy has a strategy against individuals and fellowships but our God knows all things.   Through prayer, revelation, the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority we have in Christ, we can root out the enemy, expose his strategies and demolish his strongholds.

Some years ago the Lord revealed to us that the enemy was at work in a local fellowship and was hindering the gospel message which was being broadcast into Asia by a radio station associated to that church.    We were loosely involved with the church because one of our ministers was helping the local minister with the church.  He was also a patron of the radio station and broadcast an evangelical message regularly.

We were first made aware by the Holy Spirit that there was a problem when our minister became ill and the Holy Spirit revealed that he was under a spiritual attack.    As we prayed for him, the Lord revealed that the source of the attack was from demonic influences in that church.    The Lord confirmed to us that if we went to the church, He would reveal the source of the attack and the demonic strongholds which needed to be brought down.

We prayed and agreed to visit the church with our minster.   Not all of our group on the first visit but a few so that we did not attract attention and stand out.    The Lord impressed upon us that we must be completely surrendered to Him and walking in His righteousness, authority and truth.   If we were not then the enemy would have advantage of us.

During the evening service, the local minister asked if everyone who was involved with the work of the radio station would stand up.  The Holy Spirit led us to pray for them and the minister felt led to ask us all to leave the church and go to the radio station to pray then and there.    We felt this was the Lord revealing to us that the source of the enemy’s work was in the radio station and this was the leading of the Holy Spirit.     We had a very powerful time of prayer in the radio station.  The Lord confirmed that he had heard and would answer our prayers and things would happen fast.  Strongholds would be broken in His name.

The next week after our prayer time at the radio station, I was met by the minister before the church service who was very agitated and said that “all hell had broken loose since we prayed”.    The local minister had been arrested after the radio station manager claimed that the minister had stabbed him.   We knew that this was an attack of the enemy and was designed to strike fear into our hearts so that we would stop praying.  We also believed that the Lord had exposed the root of the enemies’ stronghold.  The Lord impressed upon us that we should not fear but should trust in Him, press on and we would see the victory.  It was a very serious situation.   We sought the Lord, prayed about everything – especially our fears and anxieties but we declared that we would stand and trust our God.   We particularly prayed for the local minister who was in police custody, for him & his family to have peace and for the truth to be revealed.  During the week that followed, the police discovered CCTV footage which completely exonerated the minister and he was released from police custody.   The radio manager had actually stabbed himself and tried to frame the minister.    The Lord had exposed the lies, the work of the enemy and delivered his servant.  The radio manager was subsequently fired.

The next step for the release of the church and as part of the preparation to pull down the strongholds was through worship.   One of our group, who was anointed in worship, took a few people to lead worship and sing in the church.    During the worship time there were various pictures and a tongue and interpretation which encouraged the congregation to press into God.  The barriers which were stopping them from pressing in were going to be demolished.   Jesus was going to light a fire among them and release them from their chains.

We then took a group to pray around the church building itself on an evening when the building was empty.   Whilst part of the group was out praying, the rest stayed behind to cover them with prayer.    On the way to the church, we just knew that there was an angel in the car with us.  I could clearly see this angel in the spirit seated on the rear seat.   He was armed and ready to assist us as we prayed.    When we arrived we prayed at the front doors of the church and pleaded the blood of Christ all over the building.  The Holy Spirit revealed several demons in the church building.   We could see them in the spirit and took authority and cast them all out.   We saw in the spirit and had a peace that they had departed.   At the next Sunday service the people testified that the atmosphere in the church was different, they had enjoyed the best time of worship and praise and that the heaviness/restrictions that they normally felt had gone.

The last part of our prayer strategy involved going to the radio station building to pray at midnight.   We had a picture of demonic figures in the radio station building itself and that this was the time to go, cast them out and break the strongholds.   Before we went in the physical we spent time in prayer fasting and seeking the Lord and his battle plan.   We made ourselves ready as the Lord directed us.    As part of the preparation the Lord led us to pray over the building in the spirit.    As we prayed we saw ourselves in the building itself, moving up floor by floor and praying and pleading the blood of Christ over the whole of the building sealing it for the Lord.    We bound the enemy and claimed every part of the building and the radio station for the Lord.

We were then ready to go out to the radio station to pray at midnight.   We met and strengthened ourselves in the Lord, prayed and anointed ourselves with oil.   Again, some remained to pray whilst the rest went.   We had felt that it was important that our minister accompanied us for this time of prayer and he agreed to come.   The Lord had told us that we would be accompanied by His angels and that the battle would be fierce but short.  We were to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.   We went in His authority.    The Lord’s instructions were to order all of the demonic powers that were in that place back to hell itself.    We went and did everything as the Lord led us to do and had such a blessed time of prayer.   We knew that the enemy had been cast out and his plans had been brought to nothing.   In the spirit we saw an army of angels encamped all around the building and when we cast the enemy out we saw great hordes of black demonic spirits leave the building.

The fruit of this time of prayer was that the next week the radio station received more responses to the gospel message than they had ever had before.  More people came to know Jesus and gave their lives to Him.  Praise God.   We believe that the enemy had been interfering with the communication of the gospel message through the radio station and that once his influence was removed the gospel message was received loud and clear.    It says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the enemy blinds the minds of those who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.    We believe that those blinds were removed in prayer and the light of the gospel shone forth.   As Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.   Be bold in prayer, be led by the Spirit, take up your authority in Christ and believe in faith that the strongholds will come down for the glory of God.

 

 

Praying and declaring from a high place

If you feel the call of God and prompting of the Holy Spirit to go up to a high place in your area, city, region or town, wherever it may be,  then I encourage you to do it.  Seek the Lord before going and ask Him to reveal the strategy for your prayers and why He is calling you to this specific place.     We were led by God to pray to Him and declare the Word of God and prophetic words from a high point overlooking our area,  the Clent Hills.    We believe that this was a very strategic place.  A place that had been and was being used by others for purposes which were not of God and were corrupting and influencing our area.   It was a place that we needed to speak out with authority God’s Word and promises over our area for change to happen.

We spent a number of evenings in prayer seeking God before going out on this prayer walk as we believed that God had a specific strategy for how we should pray.   The Holy Spirit led us to a number of scriptures – Isaiah 59 – “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord raises up a Standard against Him” and “Arise, Shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is shining upon you”.  Isaiah 60.      Isaiah 59 says “So shall they fear; The Name of the Lord from the west; And His glory from the rising of the sun,  When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a Standard against him; The Redeemed will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob says the Lord.   As for Me says the Lord – this is My covenant with them; My Spirit who is upon you, and My Word which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your descendants.”      God gave us instruction to carry a standard with us when we climbed the hill – a red flag with a picture of the Lion of Judah on it.     By carrying the flag we were making a declaration of the truth of this scripture to the enemy.   We had a picture of God’s Holy Angels being released into the area for God’s purposes – a vast army – to battle with the enemy.     Amos 4 v 13 says “For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind, Who declares to man what his thought is , And makes the morning darkness, Who treads the high places of the earth – The Lord of hosts is His Name.   God was releasing His angels to help us – We declared He is the Lord of hosts.  We also believed that we were “lifting up a banner for the peoples” – Isaiah 60 v 10.

Psalm 24 was a key in preparing us for this time of prayer walk.   “Who may ascend the Hill of the Lord?   He who has clean hands and a pure heart and who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully”.      The Lord searches our hearts and any unconfessed sin has to be dealt with.     It was really important for us to take time to ensure that our hearts were right before God before going into prayer warfare such as this for the area.   The heart is deceitful above all things so we allow the Holy Spirit to bring revelation to us and confess it before each other.

The Lord also gave us a word to declare from Amos 4 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us wine, let us drink!”  The Lord God has sworn by His holiness:   “Behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fishhooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.  You will go out through broken walls, Each one straight ahead of her, And you will be cast into Harmon” says the Lord.

A word also about wicked Rulers Micah v 1-4  – “Hear now, O head of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel:  Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil.  Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones, And chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the cauldron”.   Then they will cry to the Lord but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have been evil in their deeds.”      Leaders cannot do ill, oppress those underneath them who they should be protecting and expect God to hear them.

In our prayer time there was a tongue and the interpretation.  This was to be an invitation to abundant life and call to repentance.  – Isaiah 55 1-13.  “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money Come buy and eat.  v6  “Seek the Lord while He may be found.  Call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.  Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.”  v12  “For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands”.

Also, Hosea 6: 1  “Come let us return to the Lord.  For He has torn us but He will heal us.  He has stricken but He will bind us up.  After two days He will revive us.  On the third day He will raise us up that we may live in His Sight.  Let us know.  Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.    His going forth is established like the morning.  He will come to us like the rain.  Like the latter and former rain to the earth.”.

We fasted on the day that we were to do the prayer walk.   We felt called to do the prayer walk on a particular date.   On the evening of the prayer walk, we took communion together at the bottom of the hill.   We prayed and spoke from Psalm 121. – God the help of those who seek him.    “I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”.   We then walked up the hill, praying and singing as we went.   We played the song by Robin Marks – “Shout to the North” – “Men of faith rise up and sing, of the great and glorious King.  You are strong when you feel weak, in your brokenness complete.  Shout to the North and the South, Sing to the East and the West, Jesus is Saviour to all, Lord of heaven and earth”.   We felt led to walk in a certain order – I walked first as in a spearhead and then we came two by two with a rear guard as well.    We also brought a Shofar with us to blow from the top of the hill and a compass so that we would know which direction we were facing when declaring the Word.

We waved the flag at the top of the hill as we prayed to the north, south, east & the west and declared all the scriptures which God had previously given us.    We poured water and oil onto the ground as led by the Holy Spirit.   We then asked for the angelic host to be released to do God’s will in our area,  to carry out His orders, to help people and to battle the enemy.   We blew the Shofar and called to the wind to blow, for the wind of God to blow across our area and in that moment the wind completely changed direction.    If we had not been flying the flag, we would probably not have noticed the change in direction and we believe this was a sign from God.  We believe that God had heard our prayer and something had shifted in the spiritual realm.  Praise God.

Before we went to pray, one of our group had wanted to start a fire on the hill but we did not have peace about this particularly as open fires were forbidden.   It did not sit right in our spirits to break the law and so we gave that to God and refused permission for that to be done.    When you go to pray as a group you need unity and to be in agreement.   Sometimes,  the leader will have to exercise Godly wisdom and discernment to avoid anything being done which is not right and take authority in those circumstances.  On the evening, as we stood on the top of the hill and looked in the distance we saw a bonfire burning brightly.   There were no other fires in the area and we believe this was the sign of fire which the person had seen in the spirit.   We didn’t need to start a fire the Lord God would do that.   The Lord is an all-consuming fire – He can burn up the dross and purify.    As Elijah called down fire from heaven we called down the spiritual fire of God on our area.   Let us be on fire for God, burning brightly for Him.  Arise, Shine for your light has come, and the glory of God is shining upon you.

Prayers for Stourbridge – Rivers of living Water -Part 2

We were led to go and pray at the bridge over the river Stour just off the Ring Road leading up to Amblecote and also at the canal which is nearby.    We felt led by the Holy Spirit to take a red banner down with us to wave as we sang and worshipped and also to take communion when praying for the town.    We pleaded the blood of Christ over our town and declared the power in the blood of Christ to bring cleansing and redemption and break the power of sin.   Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins.   We dropped one drop of the communion wine into the river and canal.    There is more power in one drop of Christ’s blood that was spilt for us than in all the power of evil influencing our town.    The declaration which the Lord gave us to proclaim over Stourbridge was from Ezekiel 47 – the waters rushing in and flooding our area- particularly verses 1-12 -rivers of living waters which get deeper and deeper flowing from the throne of God and which bring healing.  v 8 “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley and enters the sea.  When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.  And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live.  There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed and everything will live wherever the river goes.  It shall be that fishermen will stand by it ; there will be places for spreading their nets.  Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many.  But its swamps and marshes will not be healed and will be given over to salt.  Along the bank of the river on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail.  They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary.  Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine”.    A picture of salvation, healing & fruitfulness for our area.  Let us be rooted in Christ who is the living water. Amen.  Stourbridge – Wells of Living Water Part 1

 

Praying for our nation

We are in a critical season for our nation and I believe that God wants us to pray and intercede with fasting at this time.    In 2008 when we were praying in our fellowship group, the Lord led us to pray for our nation.    As we prayed,  we were led by the Holy Spirit to issue a wake up call to our nation – we blew the wake up call  -just like in an army camp when soldiers are woken up by the Reveille – one of our number used to be in the army and he knew the wake up call by heart so we played it.    We also were led to do a “cock a doodle do” – 3 times to wake up the nation.    It was a prophetic call to the nation to wake up.   In the Spirit, I saw a vision of God’s throne.     God handed a scroll to an angel.   I saw the angel over our nation and the angel took out a large sword and thrust it into the middle of our nation and the earth split – I saw the earth split aside just as in an earthquake.

The Lord said to us that there would be a national recession and at the highest level of leadership corruption would be exposed and satan’s throne in this nation would be exposed.   The waters would be cut off from the land.   This revelation was to be an unfolding revelation and God was going to redeem the land for Himself.  One of our group felt a great heaviness in her hands – she said it was as if she was holding a massive key.     It was not long later in February 2008 that there was an actual earthquake in Market Rasen Leicestershire in the middle of the country, we went into a national recession and corruption in government and high profile people was exposed – the expenses scandals, abuse scandals etc.  God has been revealing wickedness in this nation.

It is not a coincidence that there has been another earthquake this year – in Grimsby on June 9th – just after the national day of prayer in Birmingham.     I believe that this is another sign and we need to pray and fast and intercede for this nation.    I believe that the contents of the scroll which God gave to the angel for this nation which I saw in the Spirit included other decrees for this nation which have not yet come to fulfilment.     We read in the bible that a King’s decree went out in Esther’s day against the Jews.     When Esther revealed the real scheme behind the decree to the King, the King was sad because the decree had already been issued and could not be changed.   However,  the King issued another decree which enabled the Jews to prepare and defend themselves for the day ahead when the original decree was carried out.    The body of Christ needs to pray to God about His decree for this nation.   How are we to pray and prepare for the day ahead?    Is the decree set or can we by fasting and prayer change things for our nation?     God wants us to seek Him at this time.   March next year will be an important time and we can prepare ahead.   The Lord has reminded me about the whale that got stranded in the River Thames in January 2006 – this was no coincidence but was a sign from God that He was going to move in this nation.   The bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God and in times like this when we don’t know exactly what or how to pray we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us.    When I have been praying about Brexit,  the Holy Spirit has given me a completely new tongue to pray in.    I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to do the same for you.