How to progress in our Christian life

Sermon by Pas. Alex

“In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.

Acts 4: 27

All the people mentioned in this verse played a part in what was happening there. In the same way, in the last days, the evil man will rise and many things will happen around us. We must focus on what God has worked in our hearts and what He has called us to do.

There are specific trials reserved for the last generation. The God who called you and me by name knows that we have the substance and capacity to outlast and overcome these challenges. Two parallel paths are going on now. One is the
pathway of the world, and the other is the pathway of God. We know that the path of the world or the devil will end in destruction, but our path will end in complete victory. We as a church must continue to stay on course and finish the work He has given us. Even if the Antichrist manifests, everybody will fulfill only God’s purpose. Our job is to stay connected and finish the race with Christ.

People are at different levels of spiritual maturity. The journey of Israel in the wilderness is a picture of the spiritual journey of an individual and the journey of the church. We must each look at the internal things preventing us from crossing over.
A simple 11-day journey extended to forty years of going round and round in the desert. If we are going round and round with the same troubles and challenges, then we are going through our wilderness experience. Externally we may be very active, but internally we may be going around in cycles. We are not progressing into what God has prepared for us. The ten trials faced by the Israelites are the same as we will face in our journey. Only we can decide to deal with and overcome all these.

Sometimes we look at the lives of good people. They are sincere, yet we don’t see them progressing into what God has prepared for them. Is God unfair? Every year you see them trying to overcome the same struggles. They seem to overcome for a short time, only to repeat the cycle the following year. Why does this happen?

Every trial God brings into our life is a stepping stone to the next level. Our response to the situation determines whether it is a stepping stone or a stumbling block.

The Israelites were tested for their response to various trials in the wilderness.

Trial 1 – The opposition of the world. This trial came through the Pharoah coming up against them to bring them back into bondage. The type of friends, the temptations, and the persecution that comes up to our accepting Christ. These are our modern-day Pharaohs. Demas started well with Paul but when problems came he ran away. Paul said he went after the world. When everything including the law of our land comes up against us, how are we going to respond? Our first reaction is to pray. The Bible says that we have to go through certain things. For instance, many years ago, America went into Afghanistan. Just before the attack, 20 missionaries were held hostage by the Taliban. Many prayed for their release including me. God asked me – “What makes you think this is my will?” When I learned God desired something different I changed my prayer. Later I came to know that special forces went in and rescued them. When we hear about or experience persecution, we should ask God”What is your will in this, your intent in this Lord so we can pray accordingly”
Trial 2: The bitter water of Marah. Hurts, disappointments, and bitter experiences are all part of life. We have to rise above and move on. Only God can change the bitterness in our lives to sweetness. Pouring out our hearts to Him, receiving comfort and healing and being made whole is our birthright.
Trial 3: Hunger. Hunger represents economic trials. Whenever we encounter financial challenges does our loyalty and commitment to the Lord shift?
Trial 4: Thirst. Thirst represents dry and boring experiences – Ritualistic religion. In some churches, they know Jesus is God and that he can heal but they have never really encountered him. Their walk with him is very dry and boring.
Trial 5 : The Golden Calf. It implies idolatry. Anything that takes up the place of our reliance on God and our love for Him is an idol. It can be a
ministry, position, role, skills, and abilities we have, or it can even be a person.
Trial 6 : The sixth testing came in their habit of complaining about everything. An attitude of complaining implies doubting the faithfulness of God.
Trial 7 : An ungrateful heart. They did not appreciate what God had given them freely.
Trial 8 : Gluttony. They began to ask God for quail and when He gave them quail, they began to gorge upon them. This represents excessive and ungodly desires.
Trial 9 : The ninth area they were tested in was criticism. They were constantly criticizing God, their leaders, and their situation. A critical spirit will destroy our destiny.
Trial 10 : Unbelief. When they finally reached the border of the promised land, they expressed unbelief influenced by the ten spies. They doubted God and did not think He will fulfill what He said to them. As a result, they never entered the promised land.
God wants us to have complete victory in all these areas. Then why do things continue? Evaluate cycles of defeat in your life. Take one area and work on it. When we consciously and intentionally work on one area we will find a way out of it.

What did God speak to me last year? Did it come to pass? Why did not come to pass? Did I hear wrongly? Is it my wrong desires? If it is a prophetic word, did I position myself accurately so that the word can come to pass in my life? (When God sends a prophetic word He also begins to work in our life.) Did I create space for him to work in my life, or did I just hang on to the word and do nothing and hope that something will happen? Are there patterns in my life that need to be changed? Patterns of thought? Patterns of behavior? Patterns of speech? What needs to change? What needs to become better? As a leader, we must ask ourselves in which area our leadership skills have grown. Is the depth of revelation of scriptures growing? Is my perspective growing? Is my understanding growing? The most important question we need to ask is what have I become? That will be the measuring stick of how God has worked in our lives.

Many times we go by feeling. When we pray for other people, we feel the presence of God. We pray for healing. We preach a great sermon, and we minister to people. We feel we have done something. We feel we have experienced God.
We use that feeling to measure our spiritual condition. All these things happen because we are just a vessel used by God to minister to his people. But the real measure is what he has built inside us. In the working world, they have a term called KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to assess how we have performed over the year. In our churches in Singapore, at the end of every year, all the leaders have to have a KPI evaluation with Senior leaders because they want us to become wholesome and be all that God wants us to be. If someone were to do a KPI over our lives how would that go? We tend to be very kind to ourselves because we consider ourselves spiritual. But if we were to allow someone to evaluate our ministry and our life, how will that be?

Busyness and indiscipline are not part of kingdom culture. We must continually look to improve and become more effective. That’s why we must do a KPI on ourselves, and allow others to do a KPI on us so that we become better believers.
If you want a Christian life that is constantly progressing, there must be constant evaluation. The wilderness experiences that God takes us through are for evaluating our lives. It is where God teaches us to have strength and authority by being alone with him. That’s where he trains us to fight our battles alone.

Psalms 84:4-7 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
As we work through all the valleys of challenges and struggles, we move from strength to strength until we arrive at
Zion, where God dwells.

When God takes us through the desert we go around in circles. Then having nowhere to turn we finally look up. That is when our heart becomes a Highway to Heaven. Now our heart is open to receive Him. As our hearts begin to open little by little to God, He teaches us to draw strength from Him and overcome our battles. That is why Bible says – consider it pure joy when you go through trials because God is going to teach you how to overcome. You will be moving to the next level.

Exodus 4:1-4 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

The principle here is whenever God asked Moses to do something he is not familiar with God first asked what is in his hand. Staff is all the things we are familiar with and we hold on to. God said to throw it down. When he threw down
the staff it became a snake and Moses ran away. And when God told him to pick it up again it became a staff. Many times we do not move forward because we are holding onto our staff. We are so comfortable with the way we do ministry, the way we are Christians, we decide this is how normal Christian life is and we hold on to the familiar. We don’t want to walk into the next level that God wants us to go to. The snake represents the fear of the unfamiliar. We fear things that are new and unfamiliar. God is saying throw down your staff and pick up the snake because I am going to bring you into places you have never imagined. This year face your fears directly and deal with them. Deal with things that are preventing you from going to the next level.

Let this be your prayer – “Lord. Bring us across. We want to cross over and walk into everything that you have prepared for us. In the next level, we want to stop wandering in the areas we are not supposed to be in. We want to move forward into destiny and the place that you have prepared for us. Help us, Oh Lord to cross over to the next level. Help us to see victory in all our battles.”

God is waiting for His Church to mature and His sons to mature.

Be set apart or be set aside.
Set-apart means – consecrating yourself or sacrificing yourself. We are not going to talk about the basic requirements of sanctification; that is being holy and being set apart for ministry. We are going to talk about dedicating one’s life in an intentional way for a specific time and season.

Psalms 4:3 You can be sure of this:
The LORD set apart the godly for himself.
The LORD will answer when I call to him.

In Ezekiel 44 we see two groups of ministers. One group is allowed to work in the temple but they are not allowed to enter the inner chambers of God. Another group is allowed to fully serve the Lord. The context of this is, God is watching our lives. He is watching who is preparing their lives diligently. He is watching for those willing to pay the price. God is setting them apart. If we want to be part of the latter group, we have to live our lives intentionally. It is not what we feel. For example, we feel we are holy because we are doing all these godly things. It is not that. It is what we have become or are becoming. We must develop a strong belief system. Our convictions from the word of God should be strong and clear. These convictions will become our core values that dictate how we live, how we make our decisions and what our boundaries are. If we just know the Bible, it remains as knowledge. If we take the Word of God and make it a core value and decide this is how I live, then it becomes a life principle.

For example, we may want to help the poor whenever we hear a message about helping the poor or we come across scripture where we suddenly remember to help the poor. So it only happens at moments when we come across the word or when a message convicts us. It has not yet become a core value. But if we have decided that even if it is my last 100 Rupees I have decided to give 10% of it because it is something I have chosen to live by. Then it has become a core
value.

In the Christian world, we have believers and leaders who are not disciplined in their walk with God because they do not have core values to live by. They have the Word but they don’t have the core value to live by which is why they continue to walk in an undisciplined way. When we want to build a building we do it meticulously but when it comes to building our lives we are careless.

Nine signs of an unshakeable belief system

1. We don’t live our lives for ourselves but God.
   Romans 14:8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

• What does this mean in your context?
• What are the changes to be made in your attitude and priority?

2. We are people of praise. We give thanks in all situations and we live above our emotions.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18 Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
We have an attitude of gratefulness towards God in all situations.

3. We are people of prayer. We never stop praying.
The above 3 attitudes successfully cover our emotions from being contaminated.

4. We invest resources like our time and money for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Luke 12:13-34

5. We understand contentment
Phil 4:10-13 How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

When we establish points 4 and 5 in our lives we have covered our hearts.

6. We live life with a clear purpose
Acts 13:36 Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
We live to serve our generation well and to focus on our assignment.

7. We have the ability to press on, no matter what trouble or bad experiences come our way, even when our prayers are unanswered, even when we feel God is not with us, we press on until we finish.
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside
God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
You are focused, and you have the power to persevere. These two points cover your mind.

8. Growing into maturity is God’s primary purpose for me
Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Colossians 1:28,29 So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship with Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard,
depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

9. I will not move unless the lord speaks
John 10:27,28 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,

If these two are covered then your spirit is covered. These are simple things that will form structures in our life

• It will help God express himself through our lives

• It is not how many scriptures you know, or how deep you know the scriptures. It is what scriptures you live by

• If you start living by them, you will not compromise, and you will see your life becoming stronger

• This will allow God to move more freely in your life
  
  “Lord! Help me build my life with understanding and the right core values. Let there be no room for the enemy to ambush. In this season let my life become a vessel that is easily available and willing to do your work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
  

2 Cor 10: 13-16 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. 15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to
boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.

We need to know our territory. It is important to know our territory because outside this sphere of influence given by God, we are open to the ambush of the enemy.
First, we have to define territory. Our territory also includes our personal life, our family, our church and the area god has given us, and our assignment. Can we do ministry outside of our territory? Yes, we can.

Judges 17:7-10 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, 8 left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim. 9 Micah asked him, “Where are you from?” “I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to stay.” 10 Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.”

Judges 18:18-20 When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19 They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?” 20 The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people.

So we all know the levites were given certain cities to function in but this young levite wanted something else and he found Micah and he became the priest to Micah’s household. When the tribe of Dan came to attack Micah. they offered
him a bigger ministry and he thought “Praise the Lord. God is expanding my ministry.” He went with them. When we read the story we understand God’s hand was not upon him but he was just doing the works of the ministry. So you can do ministry outside of your territory.

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
They all did their ministry, but God did not recognize them because it was not according to His will. Will of God could also mean they were not in the place that God had assigned them to do. We rule and reign with Christ in our territory
because God gives us authority over that area where he has sent us.

As we mature and grow in stature, our influence and governance over the spirit world will begin to increase. This is why it is important to know our territory. We are designed to fulfill our potential and have the greatest impact within our territory. We find favor of God and favor with men within our territory because we are God’s men in the territory. You don’t measure your success by your numbers. You measure your success by your obedience to what God says to you. Sometimes we are called into one area and we start wondering why we have so few people and nothing is happening or moving. Your job is to obey god. Just obey the last thing He spoke to you. Keep obeying until He speaks again. We can find the resources to finish our assignment within our territory. Whether it is manpower or finance it will come from within the territory God has assigned to you because God does not send us as beggars, He sends us as His sons and daughters. The grace God is building inside you is for your people and your territory. We need to understand what are
the boundaries of our territory, the sphere of our ministry as a minister, and our influence as a believer. Our priority is to build our base well. That is why it is important to decipher God’s will accurately. Did God ask you to go or did you go by
yourself? So are you “I went” or “He sent”?
As a believer are you doing that thing because YOU think it is the right thing to do or did God ask you to do it? Even when the devil was trying to confuse Eve he used the word – Did God really say? So he used the spoken word. So this spoken Word of God is very important. The most accurate way of moving with God is what He said to us; not what we feel but what we sense He is speaking to us. One of the ways the enemy will ambush pastors (is because pastors are naturally very loving, with a very pastoral heart, they want to help everybody.) He will stretch you until you become dry.
What happens when you are stretched, the first thing every pastor will do is he will adjust his time with God. His heart will be – “I am a pastor I must serve the people more. People are more important. They need me.” He compromises his
time with God. His connection is cut and that’s where the enemy begins to work on his emotions, on his mind, trying to confuse him and destroy him The other aspect is to make him so busy that he is not only physically tired but it affects his family relationships. He has no time for his family. You must know who is your priority, who are your children, who are your acquaintances, who are people who just come by for advice. You need to measure yourself and prioritize who you should give your time to most and balance your life. If you don’t know your territory and you are running around here and there you operate with the mindset of ministry. We must
operate with the mindset of what is my territory and what is my area of influence.

Mark 4:28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
In Kingdom, the principle is systematic – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. God will build you and increase you systematically.

Luke 16:10 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
So when we are faithful with little we will be faithful in much. We will begin to increase when we are faithful to whatever little God has given us.
Many years ago, there was a craze over the prayer of Jabez – “Lord, extend my territories.” A book came out and everybody started praying – Enlarge my territory. Enlarge my territory. When you are not ready and when you are not built how can God enlarge your territory? In heaven, there are no different places for Mega Church Ministries people or ministries of international reach and local Ministries and village Ministries. Everybody is judged based on their faithfulness and the quality of their life, not on measure of their ministry. Be proud of the people God has given you. Be proud of the work that God has given you no matter how small or big and do it with all your heart. Your identity is not based on the size of your ministry. Your identity is based on who you are in Christ. You are a son. The man with 5000 people is also a son. There is no difference between you and him. Only measure is faithfulness.

“Lord show me clearly my boundaries and territories. Help me rise and rule in my territory. Let favour from God and man be my portion. Let every resource needed to build flow unhindered to me. Let everything that has been stolen by the enemy over the years come back to me manifold so I may finish the assignment. Give me clarity in my relationships. Show me who my sons are, who are my acquaintances and who are my covenant partners. Show me clearly so I can align myself and be accurate in the way I live. In Jesus’ name, Amen”

Life in the spirit
Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

One of the miracles that happen when we are born again is that we have access to both the physical and spiritual realm.

Ephesians 2:22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. We are being built up to be a dwelling place for the Lord. To dwell is to live and abide. Dwell is to have freedom of expression. Dwelling is more than speaking in tongues. It is more than hearing guidance from God. It is more than expressing and moving in the gifts. It is more than moving in the anointing. Dwelling means only one thing – the expression of His life through our life. So life in the Spirit is not doing something mystical. It is not going to Heaven in the spirit. Jesus and his disciples were naturally supernatural. The spirit realm and the physical realm were so intertwined in their lives. They were able to switch easily from one
dimension to another.

Theosis. This was a term used by the early orthodox churches. It simply meant transformation into the likeness or being in union with God. If you look at the other side it is your spirit becoming completely synergized with the spirit of God
when we become Christlike. It is like a hand in glove. When He moves, we move. We know what He thinks. We know what He feels. This is where we will have the power of “knowing” because our spirits are so synergized and connected we don’t have to ask what His thoughts are. We simply know. The power of knowing is having the insight of God, having revelation of God, having awareness of God.

John G Lake, was a mighty man of God. In 1910, when a pandemic
happened (the bubonic plague), the government was looking for paid volunteers. He volunteered to carry all the dead bodies out. He had no fear and didn’t contract the disease either. They placed some of the bacteria on his hand and the moment it touched his hand it died. All this while I was thinking this is a special anointing he carried. Recently I read about a conversation between him and a doctor working with him. The doctor enquired about this miracle, and his reply was – It is the Law of Spirit of Christ. Romans 8 Talks about the law of the spirit. It is like the law of gravity. If you throw something up, it must come down because the power of gravity pulls it down. The law of the Spirit of Christ is when the Spirit works in you and produces a certain dimension of life. Is it Biblical? When Jesus was walking with the woman who
had the issue of blood, the moment she touched His cloak, power flowed out of Him. Even if He was not aware still power was flowing. Peter, while he was walking through only his shadow power was flowing. Before Acts 2 he was still
going around doing some healing but this happened after the baptism of the Spirit.
When Covid started some pastors in Indonesia took John G Lake’s story and tried to do what he did. They eventually died. It is not simply going out in faith. It is about living in that dimension. That dimension is available if we allow the Spirit to do a deeper work in our lives. That is why we move from praying for healing to living in
health. In the coming days, pestilence will be rampant. How is the church going to function then? Are we going to touch a supernatural dimension where we can live above all this and reach out to people or are we going to do what is happening now – Shut down, lock down, and wait for a savior to come? Church in the coming days must move to the next dimension; church in the next level.

2 Kings 6:15-17 When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. 16 “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” 17 Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

This was not a vision. He just switched from the physical realm to the spirit realm. Such a dimension of life is available to us. Anything in God, we must hunger and desire, willing to pay the price.

“Father open our eyes to the deeper dimensions of the spirit. Teach us to tap onto higher dimensions of life you have already made available for us. Holy Spirit, we surrender to you, you lead us into all truth. Let our minds be set free that we will not reject the truth of the dimensions that have been made available to us. Open
our hearts, minds and spirits to the dimensions of life you have prepared for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

The dimension of Prayer
Psalms 149:6-9 Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands— 7 to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, 8 to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains,
9 to execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord!
Right of the believers – authority to shut down principalities.
Rees Howells was a missionary intercessor who lived in Wales. He ran a Bible school from there. He died in the 1950s. After 60 years, a pastor from Singapore bought the same Bible school. When he went into the room Mr. Howells used to pray, the Presence of God was so great, that he fell to the floor. To cut a long story short, he played an instrumental part in WWII. God downloaded how the battles should be fought and they fought by their prayers. Normally people hear what is going on in the war zone and they pray against it but here it was different. God showed him how to pray and when he prayed, it came to pass.

If you are casual about prayer. you will be a casualty.

Rees Howells said there are two types of prayers in the church. One is from prayer warriors and one is from intercessors. Prayer warriors pray with great intensity but they don’t pray until they see things through. Intercessors on the other hand take responsibility until they see things through. God left us examples and
glimpses in history of dimensions that are possible if you are willing to pay the price. The key thing is he learned how to download from God and pray it through.
When we grow in stature, our power to govern in the spiritual landscape will increase. That’s one level. But don’t despise the days of small beginnings. Prayer is warfare and we must come to the prayer room with the attitude of war. It’s not loud or soft voice. Aggressiveness is not shouting. It is an intensity of the spirit and
conviction of the heart. Rees Howells was highly disciplined. The Bible school he ran looks like a small castle and he bought it for 14 shillings; a very small amount. Everybody rejoiced over the miracle but the actual price paid was 11 months of prayer, 12 hours a day until he heard the mind of God in that issue. It’s not the time but the hunger to persist and the discipline to wait until God speaks. When God speaks, everything will fall into place.
Many know about John Knox. The queen of England feared his prayer more than even the army of Scotland. He lived with this attitude – Give me Scotland or I die. When we pray for India do we have a burden – Lord you have to do something for our generation? One day we will govern the spiritual landscape when we grow in stature but till then we need warriors in the spirit. When you receive prayer points, ask God if is there something more He wants to download. Put in that effort. God will begin to respond. Jesus, who represented the five-fold ministry in his lifetime, was a man of prayer. Paul, the great Apostle was a man of prayer. He prayed with tears for the people he was building. Whenever there are a few unsolvable issues we enter into a season of prayer. We pray until we hear from God and then we declare. We pray until we are clear that God has spoken through the problem for us. God knows who is struggling so we as leaders go into battle for a believer in our church. That’s how God gives us strategy to break things in people’s lives – in the prayer closet. When God calls us to pray this way He will give us what to pray, the words, everything He will provide but when we go ourselves we will run out of prayer after 5 or 10 minutes.

“Lord take us into a new dimension of prayers and prayer life. Teach us to war in the spirit. Let us not become weary and discouraged but pursue aggressively till we see your word coming to pass. Let there be a fresh impartation of prayer and intercession into our spirits Oh Lord. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.”

Every great move of God until now started with a small group coming together to pray. When they started they didn’t know what they were praying for. Along the way God hijacked the prayer movement, He began to rebuild them with His spirit and they began to flow with His Spirit and move in the things of the Spirit and began to
move nations. May this become true of each one of us.