The #1 movie right now at the box office is “War Room”, which was sorely underrated by movie critics at first. It’s about the relevance and power of prayer to change people and situations when all seems lost. In the movie, a seasoned intercessor teaches a budding intercessor how to war in prayer to save her marriage and family. The novice intercessor learns how to set up what’s called a war room (or prayer closet), and the only ammunition she uses to save her marriage is the infallible, inerrant, incorruptible, eternal, omnipotent Word of God straight from the Bible. God’s Word always prevails if you pray in faith believing! If you haven’t seen War Room yet, it’s a must if you want to know how to pray to protect your family. Here’s the link to the check it out: War Room Trailer

Prayer is one of my passions. The other is worship dance. They flow together as a part of the river of thanksgiving, praise, worship that I get to lavishly minister unto the Lord because of my love for Him. It’s in my secret place that I encounter the glorious manifest presence of my God. This 3-fold cord of thanksgiving, praise and worship naturally flows into the violent, fervent river of intercession, where Holy Spirit leads me in strategic prayer on behalf others and for specific situations until I hit the bullseye.

I have learned over the years that prayer is a lifestyle. Not an option. Jesus was a man of prayer who got up a great while before day to pray and who often went alone to pray. Daniel prayed 3 times a day. David prayed 7 times a day. Some Muslims pray 5 times a day. Jews pray 3 to 5 times a day. And Christians … well, some of us want somebody else to do our praying for us. However, in the end times we are living in, it’s time for the army of God to rise up and pray now.

You see, the more you ask people to pray for you, the more you weaken your own faith in God. Many times believers don’t pray for themselves because they’re lazy. Now it’s ok to agree with someone in prayer, but don’t do all their praying for them, unless they’re a baby Christian. We are the army of God, not the babies of God.

You must consistently pray every day just like Jesus, giving thanksgiving to God in everything for He alone is your Source. As an intercessor, and all believers are called to intercede for the lost and oppressed, you are a conduit, the go-between, a change agent in the earth through which God releases His glory bringing divine transformation.

According to Genesis 1:26-28, God created man as a speaking spirit with a soul that lives in a body or earth tent, and gave him dominion over the earth. Man is a tripartite being – spirit, soul and body. You contact God with your spirit, but it is your body, which contains your soul (mind, will, emotions, intellect and imagination), that gives you legal authority in Jesus’ name to rule and reign in life as a king. If you have a navel or belly button, you have a legal right to live on earth. Your words are containers of power that bring life or death, so think before your speak because you have what you say.

The enemy, which is an illegal spirit or alien, knows that God made us in His image and has given us dominion on earth. This is why He constantly attacks your mind with deception and lies. He wants to wear you down by forming strongholds in your mind that can lead to the enemy demonizing or influencing you in a portion of your mind, and therefore your actions.

As a speaking spirit, prayer is a powerful vehicle for growing in intimacy with God. Prayer is how we commune and communicate with our heavenly Father in the Spirit, receiving divine strategies, revelation, ideas, solutions and grace to overcome life’s problems. Furthermore, prayer is how the Most High God, the Creator of heaven and earth, downloads new kingdom paradigms, while releasing heavenly angels that rout principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.

Do you desire to fulfill your purpose in life? Do you desire to encounter more of God’s presence in prayer? Do you ache to operate in signs, wonders and miracles to heal and deliver, compelling many to confess Jesus as Lord? Then increase the quality time you spend with God in prayer and in His Word. Every great man or woman of God that has ever lived spent much time with God. This is the more excellent way.

For example, William Seymour, a blind African-American man of God, birthed through prayer the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California from 1906 to 1908. He prayed 7 hours a day for 1½ years before this revival erupted in LA. This was the birthing of the Pentecostal movement. Charles Mason, founder of Church of God in Christ, lived a life of fasting and prayer and saw tremendous miracles. John Wesley, co-founder of the Methodist Church, said “It seems God is limited by our prayer life; that he can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him.”

Then there is Daniel Nash, a prayer warrior for the renowned 19^th century revivalist Charles Finney. He was a man of fervent prayer that interceded days before Finney would arrive to preach. He would continue to intercede during Finney’s meetings, causing many to repent and confess Jesus as Lord. Here’s are quotes from the book, Prevailing Prince of Prayer by J. Paul Reno about Father Nash:

“On one occasion when I got to town to start a revival a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, ‘Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they haven’t eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn’t know what to do. Would you please come see about them?’ “‘No, it isn’t necessary,’ Finney replied. ‘They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.”

“Charles Finney so realized the need of God’s working in all his service that he was wont to send godly Father Nash on in advance to pray down the power of God into the meetings which he was about to hold. Not only did Nash prepare the communities for preaching, but he also continued in prayer during the meetings. “Often Nash would not attend meetings, and while Finney was preaching Nash was praying for the Spirit’s outpouring upon him.”

Finney stated, ‘I did the preaching altogether, and brother Nash gave himself up almost continually to prayer.’ Often while the evangelist preached to the multitudes, Nash in some adjoining house would be upon his face in an agony of prayer, and God answered in the marvels of His grace. With all due credit to Mr. Finney for what was done, it was the praying men who held the ropes. The tears they shed, the groans they uttered are written in the book of the chronicles of the things of God.”

Kathryn Kuhlman is a Charismatic healer used mightily by God. She prayed hours a day and God would miraculously heal and deliver many during her televised healing crusades from the 1940s to 1970’s. She mentored healing evangelist Benny Hinn.

Even in the Upper Room spoken of in the book of Acts when the 120 plus gathered to pray, Holy Spirit baptized them to speak in tongues birthing the first century New Testament church that is characterized by signs, miracles and wonders. Read the book of Acts to learn more and ask for an impartation.

Listen. You may not be called to do full time ministry like many of those I just mentioned, but every believer is called to intercede for the lost and those in bondage. God cannot set the captives free or depose principalities and powers without our willing participation to pray now. Intercession is the cry of our merciful Father to save and deliver His people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Don’t let problems in your life distract you from your first love and first duty – communing with your heavenly Father in prayer, thanking, praising and worshiping Him for His goodness. As you flow by the Spirit, you will enter into realm of intercession to stand in the gap on behalf of others. When you take care of God’s business through intercession, He will take care of yours.

Let’s look at 2 Chronicles 7:13-16.

¹³When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 

This was a time of great apostasy and sin just like today. God said then and He is saying to us now, when the heavens shut up and there is no rain or you feel like you can’t get a prayer through; or when the locusts devour the land or you feel like there is a spiritual drought in your life or that your finances have dried up; or when there is pestilence or you feel depressed, dried up and burdened, humble (fast) yourself, pray, seek my face and turn from your wickedness and I will bless you.

God said, “If my people who are called by my name will humble (fast) themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

You are that “place” of prayer that God is waiting to strike the bullseye with His prayers, releasing His power and thwarting the enemy’s plans. One of my purposes on earth is to teach people to effectively pray by first cultivating an intimate relationship with God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is in your secret place or war room that you touch God’s heart and He touches yours, transforming you into the image of His dear Son. It is the secret place of prayer that heaven touches earth, causing blessings to rain down. One of the main objectives I emphasize in prayer school is that prayer is first about abiding in Him and He abiding in you. It’s about being transparent. It’s a continuous flow of communion with the Lord all day long. It’s meeting with Him to minister to Him and at the same time He gives you fresh manna sufficient for the day. It’s knowing His voice and obeying Him.

When I look at a believer, I see the potential to be 24-hour prayer furnace for God. Always set on ready to pray if the Lord beckons you. The fire of intercession continually blazes upon the altar of your heart because you love God and His people.

In closing, you are a precious Son of God. One sent to earth as an ambassador of Jesus Christ to represent the kingdom of God and to co-create with our heavenly Father rewriting history by the power of precious Holy Spirit. As Jesus ever lives to make intercession for you, make it your aim to daily commune with God in fervent prayer and intercession. Ultimately the kingdom of God is about saving and delivering souls into the kingdom of light. I challenge you to release your God-given authority with your unique voiceprint to decree a thing and it shall be established. Meet God in your War Room every day and fight for your yourself, your family, city, nation and the lost of the world.