GOSSIP AND THE INTERCESSOR

By Ann Wanjiku Mathenge

BROKEN BY GOD.

Before God can use you effectively as an intercessor, He deals with your eye. He deals
with the way you look at people. How you handle their mess, their mistakes, their
flaws, their sins, their weaknesses, and their nakedness.

Because for you to stand in the gap for other people in the courts of heaven or before
the Throne of God and plead for their cause, you must be full of compassion, mercy and
love, just as Christ Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, and
became the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, so that He can now be an effective
High Priest who understands and identifies with our weaknesses.

So He has to remove the critical, finger-pointing eye. And many times, He does it by
breaking you. Over and over again. He turns your eyes inward, so that you see yourself
as you really are. He focusses your eyes on the planks of wood in them, so that you can
realize that what is in the eyes of others is just a tiny, little speck compared to your own
need for God's help.

He opens your spiritual eyes to how helpless your own soul is without His grace and
how merciful He has been to you. He allows you to go through what is commonly
referred to as "dark nights of the soul" so you can come face to face with how helpless a
human soul is without the love, grace and compassion of God.

He takes you through experiences that break you so much that you realize there is no
goodness in you except that which Christ brings by His presence in your life. He has to
do this because if He doesn't, you run the risk of standing before Him like the Pharisee,
nose stuck in the air, and flaunting yourself before Him, "I am not like those others
Lord...I am better."

You may begin to pray for others from a platform of accusation or without feeling. Then
your sacrifices on their behalf would be rejected. He wants you, instead, to offer
sacrifices that are sweet smelling and acceptable before Him, sacrifices from a heart that
recognizes His grace and mercy, like the tax collector who was approved, because He
approached God with, "Have mercy on me, Lord" kind of heart.

So He humbles you. Oh, how He humbles you. Then no matter what you discern in the
Spirit concerning others, or see, hear physically about them, you are quicker to fall on
your knees and weep for them, and groan for them...as you would for yourself.

Yea, an intercessor knows what it means to be broken by God to the level where you
lose every confidence in your own flesh. And when God does this in you, your tongue
sticks to the roof of your mouth where gossip and slander are concerned. Your eyes
become tender and full of compassion. Your heart bleeds for people as He bleeds for

1|P a g e
them. You're broken by what breaks His Heart. And then, He is able to fill you with His
tears for others.

Hebrews 4:15-16 New Living Translation

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same
testings we do, yet He did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious
God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need
it most.

Isaiah 64:8 New Living Translation

And yet, O Lord, You are our Father.

We are the clay, and You are the potter.
We all are formed by Your hand.

2|P a g e
It is inevitable that sometimes, an intercessor will receive some information about
people through hearing it from others, because we live among people.
Nevertheless, an intercessor must live within boundaries that ensure that as much as it
depends on you, you do not find yourself roped into conversations that discuss people
unnecessarily and which end in gossip and slander.

Such conversions actually start 'innocently.' Something like, "I have been sensing this
about so and so..." "I had a dream about so and so..." "God told me..." "We need to pray
for so and so because I feel in my spirit..." It sounds really spiritual at that point.
Everything sounds God-driven and balanced, until it slowly and subtly degenerates
into personal opinions, observations and hearsay, intended to 'validate' what is being
discussed.

This is wrong on so many levels. Firstly, peradventure you really heard from God, you
shouldn't be discussing it with other people. You should be praying. Additionally, you
are being unfaithful with another's person's secrets, and that Person is God. Should He
trust you tomorrow with the secrets of people's hearts?

Moreover, would you want people to say they heard from God about you, and then
gather in groups or even in two's and threes over a cup of coffee to analyze you based
on what they were 'told?' The principle of doing unto others what you'd like them to do
unto you applies here.

Now those other people are in a place where they'll see that person differently and
maybe even find it hard to love the person as they should because of the information
you gave them. And that defiles them and becomes a stumbling block in their own
lives.

To prevent all this, you are to be so soaked in the love and compassion of God, and so
consumed with His burden for this person, that you have no energy or even time left to
invest in gossiping about them. Indeed, an intercessor must be so dealt with in the
closet that even the capacity to talk too much is removed from him/her. It is written,
that in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking.

Secondly, be so prayerful that you spend more time with God than you spend with
people. It is in the process of spending more time with God than you do with people
that His character is imparted into you, spirit, soul and body. And this includes His love
and compassion for others, as well as the capacity to ably carry them in your heart
through prayer, for without vital union with the Person of Christ, we can do nothing.

3|P a g e
Thirdly, spend as much time or even more time studying, meditating on and
memorizing scripture for your own spiritual growth as you do praying. Do not neglect
Bible study in favor of intercession time. The Word of God must be your bedrock in life
as well as your foundation for seeking God for yourself and for other people.

And finally, but most importantly, your identity and relevance as a person is not in the
ministry of intercession. You are, first and foremost, a child of God and a believer in
Christ Jesus. Spend time with God, not, primarily, to intercede, but to develop and
build up your personal intimate relationship with Him. Peradventure He shares
burdens with you as you bond, then flow with His Spirit from that place of intimacy
with Him.

4|P a g e
About two years ago, God had been teaching me extensively on gossip and slander, and
I had come into a place of agreement with Him on the severity of this sin, desiring to
never be caught in its trap for the rest of my life.

One day, I was coming from somewhere when someone that I used to be close to
stopped me. Within minutes of sharing pleasantries, she began to give me stories about
other people. My heart churned within me. The more she spoke, the more vexation my
spirit suffered. I tried to stop her but couldn't gather the courage, and for some reason I
felt trapped by some force, and couldn't even excuse myself to leave her presence.

So I stood there feeling really helpless. I didn't really contribute to the conversation or
agree with her, but I stood there passively and listened for a long, painful time.
Mercifully, she was called away to attend to something, at which point I found my way
of escape and left. In my heart, I consoled myself that I hadn't said anything, that I
wasn't even for it and had only listened to her for peace's sake.

Though restless and disturbed about the whole conversation, I let the whole issue go
and went to bed that night without thinking further about it. What woke me up from
sleep that night was sudden pain in both of my ears. It was horrendous, excruciating
pain. I can't explain it. It was bad. I woke up in shock, and started crying to God.

But the Lord responded with a sharp rebuke, "Why did you stand there and listen to
her?"

"I felt helpless Lord. I couldn't gather the courage to stop her or walk away for some
reason," I tried to explain to Him.

"But I told you to never engage in gossip, not even to lend your ear to it!" He rebuked
me sharply.

The more I heard His voice, the more the pain in my ears increased. The pain was
horrible! I wept. I cried. I promised to never stand there and listen again. Finally, the
pain stopped. I'll never forget that night. Now, even if it costs me friendship with
someone, I don't tolerate gossip. I tell the person to their face that I do not talk about
people.

Sure enough, this has cost me some relationships, but I would rather suffer in the hands
of people for obeying God, than suffer in the hands of God for disobeying Him.
I don't gossip, because I also have my own flaws and wouldn't want people talking
about me behind my back.

And most of all, God is against it.

5|P a g e
Leviticus 19:16 AMP

You shall not go around as a gossip among your people, and you are not to act against
the life of your neighbor [with slander or false testimony]; I am the Lord.

Proverbs 17:4 NLT

Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip;

liars pay close attention to slander

Proverbs 20:19 AMP

He who goes about as a gossip reveals secrets;

Therefore, do not associate with a gossip [who talks freely or flatters].

6|P a g e
Gossip is one of the most undermined sins in the church, but, unbeknownst to many
believers, it is also one of the most damaging to the Body of Christ. Many believers do it
without any sense of remorse. The excuse is often that, "We're just stating
facts/commenting/discussing the reality on the ground," but what they are really
doing is taking an individual and stripping them naked, and then stabbing them.

This is immensely destructive.

It is especially common when they see the weaknesses of others. Or when a believer
falls into sin. It may start as an innocent conversation, but in the multitude of words,
gossip often sneaks in and individual after individual is stripped naked, analyzed and
then stabbed, over and over again with the knives of their tongues, discussing things
they wouldn't say if the person was sitting there with them.

Many people don't realize that when you sit down to gossip about the weaknesses of
your brothers and sisters in Christ, you have taken knives, swords and other weapons
in your hands and are now stabbing them and destroying them. Gossip defiles your
tongue, takes away the sweetness of your words and pollutes the fountain you carry
within.

Gossip dulls and contaminates your spiritual sensitivity and makes you see people
through the lenses of the gossip you've been engaging in as opposed to seeing them
through the eyes of Christ's love. Gossip damages the person you're gossiping and
damages you when you gossip.

When you gossip, you're communicating to the spiritual realm that you consider
yourself better than the person you're gossiping which is a trap that will ensnare you in
the days to come, for with the same measure of judgement that you judge others, so
shall you also be judged.

I cannot stand gossip. I can comfortably lose a 'friend' over it. I confront it boldly and
openly when it happens in my hearing. This is my reasoning: I too have weaknesses. I
would hate to find people discussing me behind my back instead of correcting me at a
personal level. And because I wouldn't want someone doing that to me, I don't want to
do it to others.

If someone genuinely loves me, they will not use my weaknesses as ammunition to
attack me. They will call me aside and correct me. Gossiping me would mean they don't
love me at all. So if I engage in gossip against someone else, it means I don't love them.

7|P a g e
Remember:

1. You cannot redeem a person you've already judged in your heart.

2. You cannot effectively intercede or pray for someone you've been gossiping about.
3. You cannot minister effectively to someone you've been pointing fingers at.
Sweet and bitter water cannot flow out of the same fountain.

2 Corinthians 12:20

For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may
not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.

James 4:11

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother
or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law,
you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

Leviticus 19:16

Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that
endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.

Proverbs 11:9
With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the
righteous escape.

8|P a g e
 In a vision, The LORD allowed me to see something that happens during gossip. I
watched a tongue moving up and down in gossip. All the while, the person thought
they were releasing words either to 'just comment,' or lower the reputation of another in
people's eyes or elevate themselves above them in image.

But then, I saw a wonder. Instead of those words only going outward, the person was
also, unbeknownst to them, chewing those words and swallowing them. These words,
these toxic words began to fill the belly of the person who was gossiping and the person
not only became defiled, but also began to eat the fruits of those exact words. The
words they spoke, became them. They began to reflect those words. It's almost as if by
gossiping, they were speaking those very things into their own lives! Gossip is deathly.
It may taste juicy, but the sweeter the juice, the faster it’s going to destroy the one who
gossips.

I also see, that as someone is gossiping, they start going spiritually blind. Not only can
they no longer see into the spiritual realm, but even more importantly, they lose ability
to see into THEMSELVES. When one cannot see into himself/herself, delusion and
deception sets in. And most likely the person will think more highly of themselves than
they ought too. How tragic it is, says the Lord, if the light in one's eyes goes out and
becomes darkness! Then, the person’s whole body will be full of darkness! Gross
darkness! Gossip veils the person gossiping from being able to access, encounter, enjoy
and be a channel of the Glory of God.

It is not the character of God to gossip. Doesn't matter if what they gossip is about
involves known, obvious facts. It is still a sin before God...and the wages of sin, any sin,
is death. Gossip gives the enemy a foothold to steal, kill and destroy in the lives of
those who gossip. The Lord calls you into repentance today. Whatever it will cost you
to not gossip, yield yourself to the Holy Spirit to enable you do it. Even if it means
speaking less or even separating from some people.

Psalm 141:3
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

Ephesians 4:29
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good
for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those
who hear.

Proverbs 16:28
A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.

9|P a g e
We are spirits, living in human bodies, and we are never really alone. So when you
gather with one or a few people and sit to discuss someone...in bad light, speaking
against them, gossiping them, pointing accusing fingers at them and backbiting them,
you may feel secure because the person may never know, but in the spirit world, it is
public knowledge.

And as you were discussing the person, demons were gathering that information and
using it as evidence of agreement on the earth, with the intention of using that
information as legitimate reason to attack the person. So the person experiences attacks
or disturbances and wonders where they are coming from, without knowing that there
are people who gossiped him or her, and those words of accusations were taken as
word curses against them that demons could use to attack.

In some cases, while you are gossiping the person, you were literally stripping their
clothes off and exposing them in the spiritual realm so the enemy can access them
easily. That's one of the reasons why I hate gossip so much. I want to have discussions
over tea with people with whom we can talk such sweet, pure stories that the Holy
Spirit Himself will get involved in those discussions and speak to us as we speak with
one another in His presence.

I want to sit with people with whom we can share such pure, love-filled stories that
don't strip anyone naked or tear them apart in the spiritual realm. Stories so pure and
led by the Holy Spirit that they are recorded by angels and taken up in the councils of
Heaven for further deliberation. Stories so pure that God Himself becomes a part of
them. I don't want to spend time with people in discussions that attract demons who
come to confirm that was is being discussed is exactly what they think in the camp of
the accuser of the brethren.

Imagine that. Sad! Imagine believers seated somewhere talking about other people, and
instead of the Holy Spirit sealing the discussions as the Heart and Mind of God, demons
gather to record the confirmations that finally, there are people on earth who agree with
the enemy's accusations against the people being discussed. God forbid it in the name
of Jesus Christ.

Whether what is being said about the person is true or not, why give legitimacy to the
accusations of the enemy and give him, the accuser of the brethren power of agreement
to continue harming the person? Is it not better to intercede for the person, weep over
them, travail for them in private until Christ is fully formed in them? And if you need to
speak about what you see in them that needs correcting, to go to them personally and
tell them the truth in love...instead of gossiping about it? Is this not a better way?
But of course, a gossiping tongue cannot intercede, because for you to gossip about
someone, you must first hate them with a passion in your heart. You cannot speak evil
of someone you love to other people. It's just not possible.

10 | P a g e
 In fact, if you love someone, and you enter into a place and find people gossiping about
them, you will either confront them openly, or leave the room. The love you have for
them will not allow you to sit or stand there, to even listen to what others are saying. If
you cannot defend them, you will leave the room, making an open declaration that you
are not in agreement with the accusations.

And so because intercession and hate cannot exist in the same heart, it is not possible
for you to gossip about someone and then claim to also intercede for them. It doesn't
work. Your gossip cancels out every prayer you ever made for them. A fountain cannot
produce both sweet and salty water.

11 | P a g e
GOSSIP AND THE INTERCESSOR.

Because of the nature of their calling, people who are dominantly positioned by God in
the Body of Christ to intercede for others have a way of discerning gaps and flaws in
people and places. They receive revelations from God about what needs to change, the
issues in people's hearts, God's plans, the devil's schemes and all sorts of things.

Sometimes these revelations come in dreams and visions, and other times as streams of
information as they are communing with the Lord in prayer. The expectation of God is
that He has called them as wombs or birthing agents in the Body of Christ, so that He
can use them to conceive His seed or the seed of His purposes. He expects that they will
incubate these purposes and revelations and nurture them in the place of prayer until
the will of God is done on earth as it is in Heaven.

But if intercessors lack wisdom, they will use their time and energy to talk instead of
pray. They will take what they are supposed to be using as leads to know what to pray
for, and instead, form gossip groups where they discuss people. The moment
intercessors allow their tongues to engage in gossip, they lose authority to use those
same tongues to pray for people. You cannot bless people using the same tongue that
you used to gossip them. Your fountain will have become contaminated already.

Gossip also affects the intercessor's discernment. The moment intercessors tamper with
the purity of their flow by engaging in gossip, they corrupt what they are hearing and
seeing in the spirit. It becomes diluted. It comes defiled. It becomes subjective because
it's mixed with information from people. And in worst case scenario, the devil finds
room to inject outright lies and deception. The intercessors may still think they are
hearing from God, and thus may end up causing a lot of damage in the body of Christ.

When intercessors leave their positions of humble, broken travailing and groaning for
others in prayer and begin to gossip, they are no longer standing in the gap for other
people. Instead, they have become unrighteous judges over them. Now they sit and
point fingers at others.

When this judgmental spirit comes into them, you can see it in their eyes. They develop
a prideful, judgmental, evil eye towards others. Intercessors are supposed to have the
gentlest, dove-like, innocent, lamb-like and childlike eyes because they are called to
operate from the bowels of God's tender mercies and compassion towards others. But
when they become proud and arrogant, they lose that purity and innocence.

Of course, when intercessors start gossiping, its camouflaged in words like, "We really
need to pray for so and so...because I feel, I dreamt, God told me, I am discerning..." But
if that conversation was not initiated by the Holy Spirit but by self, it quickly

12 | P a g e
degenerates into outright slander and backbiting. By the time those intercessors are
done gossiping, they are dirty, diluted and spiritually impotent.

Intercessors must be willing to pay the cost of quietness, the cost of being slow to speak,
and the cost of being more with God than they are with people. Settle it in your heart
that over 90% of what God reveals to you is not meant to be revealed to anyone else.
God is giving you direction for prayer. It may need to be communicated, yes...but
maybe later...or maybe by someone else even. If you will reveal anything God showed
you in secret, be very sure the Holy Spirit told you to.

If you're faithful in allowing God to keep you hidden, He will trust you more and more
with His Heart. But if He sees pride or a desire to use what He shows you to promote
yourself as one who 'sees into people' or 'hears from God' He will not be pleased with
you.

James 1:26

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their
tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

James 4:11

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother
or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law,
you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

13 | P a g e
Gossip is a demonic weapon used by the accuser of the brethren to obtain the power of
agreement on the earth, which he uses to accuse people in the spiritual realm. If
something is legitimately giving you a reason to be concerned about someone:

1. Take it up as a prayer burden. Make that person part of your intercessory list.
Travail. Weep. Cry before God for them in secret, without telling anyone else,
until Christ is fully formed in them. Maybe even in the process, God will allow
you to see the root causes of what you have observed, seen or heard about them,
and you may actually come to realize that what they need is a lot of compassion
and support. Not another person pushing them, in addition to all the forces of
darkness that are fighting against them.

2. If the Holy Spirit leads you to, go to them in person, and speak the truth to them
in love, if it is something they need to correct about their lives. Ask God to give
you the wisdom on how to do it.

When you feel, even what may be a legitimate concern about someone, and then,
instead of using the above protocol of love, you go about backbiting the person, you
poison many people in the process. Now, even people who didn't have a problem with
the person start feeling they don't like them that much. You become a channel or an
agent of the spirit of hatred.

People will now hate the person maybe even for issues that are none of their business
because you spoke of him or her to them. Maybe some of the people you gossiped the
person to were divinely meant to be a destiny helper to him or her. But now that you
have destroyed their image and reputation and given them a bad name, the people God
had positioned to help them start struggling to open their hearts towards the person.

See now, the enemy has used you as a vessel to close people's doors of blessing. God
forbid in the name of Jesus Christ. What you wouldn't want done to you, don't do it to
other people. Remember sowing and reaping times are real in the spiritual realm. And
the measure you use on others will also be used for you, when your turn comes.

Leviticus 19:16 NLT

“Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. “Do not stand idly by when
your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the Lord.

Psalm 41:6 NLT

They visit me as if they were my friends, but all the while they gather gossip, and when
they leave, they spread it everywhere.

14 | P a g e
Proverbs 20:19 NLT
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much.

If you have walked in the ministry of intercession for a while, or you have been praying
for specific people in your circle for some time, you must have noticed that you tend to
see gaps, cracks and missing links very easily. This is a good thing, because that's where
you are called to cover, fill in and fix, on your knees, with your tears and travail
through the power of the Holy Spirit. God has enjoined you to Himself to be burdened
by what burdens Him and weep over what makes Him weep, so that you may also
share in His joy and His glory.

For you to be an intercessor after God's own heart, beware of the trap of gossip against
people, and in this context, gossip against the people you have been mandated to
intercede for. You are called to pour your heart out in prayer, not to discuss what you're
observing physically or even what God is saying to you in private, with other people.

Gossiping about people you've been called to intercede for pollutes, defiles and poisons
your tongue and the spiritual flow coming through you. You start praying from your
head and emotions that are not yielded to the Holy Spirit, and you lose His intimacy
because you are no longer walking in love.

When you start gossiping about them, it means that you have concluded that you're
better than them, that if you were in their shoes, facing the unseen spiritual battles they
face, and given their historical background and everything, you'd have done better. You
have entered into finger-pointing, judging and condemning the very people God
entrusted you to protect and incubate over with the Love of God.

Instead of weeping over them and travailing over them until Christ is fully formed in
them, covering them with His love and mercy so the enemy does not take advantage of
them while this happens, you have stripped them naked and exposed them to demonic
attack. Now you can no longer trust what you pick up about them in the spiritual
realm. Don't trust it. Don't, because as long as you're not walking in deep love and
compassion for somebody, what you sense about them in the spiritual realm is
subjective, poisoned and corrupted.

If intercession is not done in love, it is noise, it is a clanging cymbal, it is nothing.

Gossip exposes one as a hypocrite. It exposes a person as being pretentious and two
faced. A gossip will tear you apart in private, and then smile at you in public. They
won't tell you to your face what they say about you in private. You see, if someone has
a loving, sincere heart, when he sees the weaknesses of another, he will pray and
intercede, and maybe look for a way to correct the person directly and privately, if need

15 | P a g e
be. But when you use the weaknesses of someone as ammunition to attack them, then
your heart needs to be converted.

Search out every scripture that talks about gossip, slander, condemning others, pointing
fingers, and judging others. You can also look up scriptures on the sins of the tongue
and scriptures on talking too much. The words of God are spirit and they are life. Chew
on those words, read them over and over and use them to pray concerning your speech
and to repent over the mistakes you have made over time.

I give you this assurance from the Lord. His Word is a fire. It will burn these things out
of your heart. His Word is a hammer. It will shatter these strongholds into pieces.
The Word of God will change you from the inside out. For it is written, you shall know
The Truth, and The Truth will set you free. And when He sets you free, you will be free
INDEED.

Oh, you will hate gossip so much that when choosing who to get close to, you will also
consider how much someone talks. You will not only stop gossiping personally, but
also, you will stay away from people who talk too much and people who gossip about
others.

Your social circle will be purged. You will not be afraid to stop someone when they try
to gossip someone else with you. You yourself will not gossip, and you will also not
allow yourself to listen to gossip. Gossip is only juicy to the unregenerate heart. When
the Word of God circumcises your heart in this area, gossip will be revolting to you.

With time, you come to understand people who gossip. You know when they've been
talking behind your back, even before you hear the news about it, because when the
gossiper sees you, they will run to you and hug you and be warmer to you than any
other time. Because gossip is a hypocritical spirit. It pretends to love those it is secretly
destroying.

Psalm 101:5

Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;

No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

People gossip about others because they think they are better than the people they are
gossiping about. Gossip is rooted in pride. Humility causes one's eyes to be turned
inward in self-evaluation and deep repentance. When humility is produced in you,
you'll be so busy removing logs from your own eyes, you won't be looking for the
specks in other people's eyes. Pride points the finger. Pride judges. Pride condemns.

16 | P a g e
Pride gossips. Humility is careful with the tongue. It is slow to speak about other
people.

You cannot pray for someone and gossip about them at the same time. Gossip will
nullify all the intercession done. If you stop gossiping about them, your prayers for
them will start being answered. Your discernment about them will start flowing in all
purity. But as long as you are gossiping about them, even what you perceive in the
Spirit concerning them will be subjective, corrupted, defiled and superficial. God loves
people. He will not let you know the secrets of their lives if you usually gossip about
them.

17 | P a g e
GOSSIP COUNCILS.

These are some of the most destructive forces in this world. They are as destructive as
the networking and unity of men that tried to build the tower of Babel was. The only
way God can deal with gossip councils is to scatter them, separate them and tear down
what they have been building.

What are gossip councils?

These are people who come together, whether by an instinctive drawing or attraction of
their hearts to one another or by circumstantial connection, but who believe they are
better than other people, and so they find pleasure in pointing fingers at everyone else,
and pulling them down using the weapons of gossip.

Any networking of people can turn into a gossiping council e.g. an executive group of
staff in the office, a clique in the church or office, or even a department in the church.
When you observe them, you notice that whether they are together or apart, they carry
that spirit around them. A haughty, arrogant, judgmental spirit that looks down on
others.

They live in a world of illusion or in a bubble in which they imagine that they are
superior to everyone else. Usually, these cliques, teams or groups have quite some level
of influence in their area of operation. This is one of the reasons why they develop
arrogance and haughtiness. Because they know by agreeing on something concerning
someone, they also have the power to use that information against the person, to
sabotage them, destroy their reputation completely, or hinder their progress.

A board of directors, leadership team, or even an intercessory department can turn into
a gossip council, for example. Instead of being governed by the Holy Spirit in their
deliberations and seeking the Heart of God concerning matters, or basically just
choosing to be level-headed and objective, they use their meetings to gossip and
analyze in the flesh, those they are called to lead and serve.

It is terrible if this happens to an intercessory group or department, whether it's just a

group of people who have come together with the agenda of praying together, or a
group set up by a church or organization, mandated to support in intercession.

If such a group loses focus on why God brought them together, then they stop fixing
their eyes on God and start getting mixed up in their affairs of men. They start being
intrusive, busy bodies, meddling with other people's affairs. They descend from the
mountain of revelation into the valley of information, distorted information. Then they
start using that information as revelation, leading to a lot of pollution in the system.

18 | P a g e
Such a group, instead of receiving burdens from the Holy Spirit based on the love of
God for people, will watch people's lives from the pinnacles and heights of arrogance
and self-righteousness, and will use their positions to pray accusatory prayers against
others, bind people in prayer, pray witchcraft prayers against people etc.

Simply put, they move out of the Spirit of Grace, and now simply use their position,
power and authority as intercessory ministers to bring people down, fight them, block
them, limit them or hinder their blessings. Indeed, if intercessors move from operating
in the Holy Spirit, they are lured unknowingly into the trap of the enemy. They become
gossipers or gossip councils, and start operating in the spirit of witchcraft against
others.

When such intercessors meet, whether casually over tea or dinner, or officially for
meetings, their discussions are not birthed from the womb of God but from the
platform of gossip. It starts innocently. It seems as if they are sharing prayer requests
with one another, but all they are doing is gossiping. Even when they start off with, "I'm
sharing this as a prayer burden...about so and so" or "God showed me about so and so"
"I saw a vision or had a dream" all they want to do is spread some gossip.

You will notice that they talk more than they pray. They discuss and gossip about a
matter for like an hour, then they pray for five minutes and part ways. And the prayers
they will make are accusatory and full of poison against the people they just gossiped
about. When they part, because of the poison they just ate together that has gone down
into their innermost parts, they have dreams, visions and revelations about the matter,
and they assume because they are intercessors, it must be God speaking to them,
confirming what they discussed.

But God is not speaking to them. Their fleshly suspicions have given room to the thief
who comes to steal, kill and destroy, and he is now showing them things so they can
continue to serve him, thinking they are serving God.

If you look at the eyes of intercessors who have fallen into this trap, you'll see that spirit
in their eyes. They have this hateful, judgmental, evil eye, full of suspicion and pride
towards everyone else. Their eyes are not harmless like a dove's as a pure intercessor's
eyes should be. Theirs is full of fiery darts, and the enemy uses their eyes to attack
people and release darts against them.

He uses their eyes because intercessors are gifted to see. So if their eyes are corrupted
by pride and gossip, the enemy takes that same power and channels witchcraft through
their eyes to attack other people. Meaning a person who was called to intercede for
others can instead just be looking at people with an evil eye and scattering their lives.
They become full of bile. If you're sensitive in the spirit, you can taste that poison in
their words. Even if they're praying out loud, you'll taste that bitter poison in there.

19 | P a g e
Woe unto you if you allow such a person or a group of people into your life. At first,
they will pretend to be very friendly as they weigh you, test you and investigate you.
Then, at the slightest opportunity, they will turn on you and tear you into pieces using
gossip and 'prophecies.'

James 1:26 New Living Translation

If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and
your religion is worthless.

Proverbs 25:23 New Living Translation

As surely as a north wind brings rain,

so a gossiping tongue causes anger!

20 | P a g e
When intercessors become friends or start praying together as a group, one of the most
common pitfalls that the enemy will try to make them fall into is gossip.

It starts very subtly.

"Did you notice this and that about so and so in church? Let's pray for him."
"God revealed to me in a dream about so and so. Let's pray for him."
"I really have a burden for so and so. The Holy Spirit has been telling me..."

On the surface, these are very innocent statements. But depending on the motive or the
environment in which they are spoken, they can end up being very destructive.
What began as two or more people "sharing burdens" with each other turns into a
group of people uncovering the nakedness of others, biting, devouring them and
tearing them apart.

The intercessory group becomes an elite, gossip, social club. Before you know it, they
are now holding hands, to pray, in that toxic atmosphere! What's likely to happen when
intercessors gossip about someone and then 'pray' for the person as a group?

1. They will pray from a place of defilement in their souls.

2. They will pray negative prayers against the person, releasing negative energy against
him.
3. They will 'hear' things subjectively. Either they will hear things made up from their
own souls and think it is God confirming their gossip, or the enemy will find a foothold
to lead them deeper into the oath of deception. They start hearing and seeing very
strange and totally off things about people and situations but are persuaded they are
hearing from God. This happens because there is no safety in operating spiritually
outside love.
4. Their eyes lose the dove- innocence that an intercessor is supposed to have because of
being so broken before God and full of compassion for others. Instead, you notice a dry,
dead, or evil, hateful look in their eye, because they have stopped standing in the gap
for people and started being their unrighteous judges instead.
5. They become dangerous people. The moment an intercessor loses love for people and
the bowels of mercy and compassion towards others and their weaknesses dries up, but
the intercessor continues 'praying' for people in that state, that critical, judgmental,
hateful spirit will be used by the enemy to destroy people rather than build them.

The most important thing intercessors should guard is not their capacity to pray for
long hours. It is their depth of love for other people and their compassion towards the
weakest of men. Jesus is able to intercede for us before the Father continually because
He feels for our weaknesses and understands them. His intercessory ministry
concerning us is based on selfless love and deep bowels of mercy burst forth. To
intercede in Him, this protocol must be in place within us.

21 | P a g e
PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I come to You through Jesus Christ, asking You to please search my
heart. Search its innermost places. I yield every sense of rejection, insecurity, being
passed over, unfairly treated and discriminated against by You and by others.

I yield every trauma and wound from years of abuse and mistreatment and lack to You.
Oh Dad...here's my heart...You can have it. I can't do this on my own. Take my heart
and replace it with Yours. I confess and repent of jealousy and envy. It is true. It has
been truly hard to be really happy for others.

I desire to genuinely celebrate and rejoice with others when they are celebrating and
rejoicing. I desire to weep with them when they weep, from the heart, and not secretly
gloat especially when they are people who had hurt me. I know in due time You will lift
me up. I choose contentment and godliness now.

You are the One who helps me. I place all My trust in You! Help me value others above
myself. Help me do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Let me do nothing
out of strife and envious competition.

I resist the spirit of jealousy and every spirit that had found room in my heart through
this. I resist strife, discord, quarreling, resentment, unrighteous judgement, enmity,
hatred, anger, fits of rage, gossip and slander.

I plead the Blood of Jesus Christ over my spirit, soul and body. I receive forgiveness. I
receive mercy. I am forgiven. I am free! In the name of Jesus Christ! Now, wherever my
heart was blocked, hindered and clogged so I couldn't enjoy You and enjoy all You
created me for, my heart is open, receptive and responsive to You and to others!

I am healed! I am delivered! I will never ever be the same! Halleluyah! Great is Your
mercy towards me. Your loving kindness towards me. Great is Your Love! Thank You
Lord! Halleluyah!!

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may
be healed The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much

22 | P a g e
THE COURT OF ACCUSATION

You're lying in bed at night, or going about your daily activities. Suddenly, a barrage of
negative thoughts floods your mind concerning a certain person or a group of people.
You can't explain it, but suddenly, accusation after accusation is rising up in your heart
against them. Because the thoughts are coming through your mind, you initially assume
that you're the one making rational, factual, human observations about them.

The truth is, many times when this happens, you have been given access to hearing
accusations being brought against those people in the courts of accusation in the
spiritual realm. You've been allowed, as a believer, to hear what is being leveled against
them.

At this point, you have two options: you can either nurture those negative thoughts,
and come into agreement with them or you can immediately move into intercession for
the person. If you play along with those negative thoughts, agreeing with them, then
you will have sided with the Accuser of the brethren, albeit unknowingly. If you agree
with him, you'll notice that your heart becomes increasingly hardened, cold, indifferent
and overly critical towards those people.

Suddenly, their flaws will be ballooned before your eyes. Your energy will become
negative towards them. You'll take on the energy of the accuser. More and more
accusations will come up in your heart until it shuts down and closes up towards them.
You may even end up hating the person completely, sometimes without them ever
offending you personally.

Simultaneously, in the spiritual realm, you have strengthened the camp of the accuser,
exposing the person to attack, punishment or judgement. On the other hand, if you
discern that they are being accused in the spiritual realm and that you've caught those
frequencies, and you agree with the Advocate, Jesus Christ, He will begin to intercede
for them through you on the basis of the Cross.

Truth is, even if the accusations against them are legit, the Blood of Jesus was shed for
them. Jesus died for them, and it is on this basis that He is continually pleading before
the Father on their behalf because He wants all men to repent, and He doesn't want
anyone to perish.

So you'll be brought into that same intercession in union with Christ Jesus. You'll find
yourself pleading for mercy and grace over them. You may also be led by the Holy
Spirit, deep into travailing and groaning over them, pleading the Blood of Jesus over
them and blessing them.

23 | P a g e
You will notice that the moment you do this, the accusations end. Suddenly, those
thoughts stop and you have peace. In the process of your intercession in and through
Christ, your heart's chambers opened up to the flow of God's love for them, so you'll
sense such deep love for them washing over you and positive mindset replacing the
negativity you felt before.

At this point, you may sense that they have received mercy from God, the Judge of all
things, and that where they need to be corrected, God will do it, but not in anger. That
His mercy will triumph over judgement, so that even where they may have deserved
judgment, God will temper judgement with mercy. You will also sense that the enemy
has lost legal ground to attack them and that they will now be under the protection and
the covering of God even as His grace leads them into godliness.

On the other hand, if you, God forbid, agreed with the accuser and began to point
critical fingers at them, you'll notice that you're increasingly judgmental, and harsh
towards them. You may even begin to attack them directly, or gossip behind their back
and you may feel justified because you are just 'stating facts.' The more you gossip
about them, the more you strengthen the camp of the accuser, increasingly exposing
their nakedness in the spiritual realm as more and more people will judge them instead
of covering them with love and prayers.

Peradventure they go into attacks, or they get punished, or enter into judgement, you'll
feel they deserved it, you may even say you saw it coming, or that it serves them right,
but what really happened is that you were given an opportunity to intercede for them
in Christ Jesus, but instead, you took the side of the accuser of the brethren, and gave
room and space for them to enter into that dark place. God forbid.

The thing is, God often will allow us to know the accusations being leveled against
other people so that we can have an opportunity to sow seed for our own lives. If we
show mercy, we also will be shown mercy. The measure we use for others is the same
measure that will be used for us. If we minister grace to people who are being accused,
that same grace will be stored up for us so we can receive it the day we need it the most,
in this life and in the life to come.

This principle works not only when we sense accusations against others rising up in our
minds and hearts, but also when we hear gossip about someone going around, or we
see them being attacked on social media, or when they are being judged and
condemned in our social circles.

The basic principle is, when you find yourself in the court of accusation, always choose
to side with the Advocate - Jesus Christ, and not the accuser of the brethren.
Now, receive grace for this, in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.

24 | P a g e
CREATIVE INTERCESSION

When the Holy Spirit quickens you to co-work with Him in intercession, He is inviting
you to participate in creating new things on the earth, downloading what is in the heart
and the will of God to become a reality here.

Because God creates all things through His Word, when the Holy Spirit leads you to
pray for someone, for example, to pray for their protection or salvation, go into the
Written Word and find scriptures that speak into that issue.

Meditate on those scriptures until they become a reality and a literal substance in you.
Meditate on those scriptures with the person you're interceding for in mind. Meditate
meaning, read them over and over until you come into the assurance of faith concerning
that matter.

Meditate until your heart is completely one with God concerning His will for the person
in that area. Until the counsel of God has filled your heart concerning the person, based
on what is written in the Word of God.

Read those scriptures over and over until they become a substance in you. Then go into
prayer and speak that reality over that person. Full of the Word of God concerning
protection, now speak that protection over the person God is asking you to pray for.

When you intercede from within the Word of God, you move from begging God to do
things, to commanding those things to happen in and through Him. You become a co-
creator together with Him. And when you're doing this, you can literally feel an
increase in the authority you're exercising because you are praying from a place of faith
in the Word of God.

Praying this way also protects you from praying soulish, panic stricken prayers born
out of fear or born out of what you have heard, seen or experienced. Yes, the prayers
will be very intense, but it will not be an intensity born out of soulish emotionalism but
the passion and fervency of the Spirit of God.

Your depth in the Word will also increase in the process because you're praying while
meditating on the Word of God at the same time. Also, because you've meditated on the
Word of God so reply concerning the matter, what He thinks and feels about the
situation is what will fill your heart, mind and mouth.

Hence, you will not find yourself speaking or thinking negatively after praying.
Remember, when you speak negatively about something you're praying about, you're
literally just canceling the prayers you just made.

25 | P a g e
But when you're full of the Word concerning the matter, that's what will come out of
your mouth, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without
him was not anything made that was made.

Psalm 33:6
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his
mouth.

26 | P a g e
People called into the ministry of intercession as their dominant area of function will
often have a sphere around which they have a recurring burden. By continually
carrying this burden in the Holy Ghost, they are so to speak, hovering and incubating
over those people, issues and territories, travailing until the purposes of God are done
within them.

Thus, they become gatekeepers over those spheres, guarding them from demonic attack
and demonic interference of what God is doing. This means they will often sense what
God is doing, what the enemy is doing and what is going on within the people they are
praying for. They will often sense what is happening by feeling or experiencing it
within their own spirits, souls and bodies.

It can become very intense and overwhelming. If the enemy is attacking using anger
and offense, they may find themselves battling with it and may not immediately
understand that it is not a personal battle. But with time, and as they continue waiting
on the Lord, He helps them distinguish between a personal battle and one which has
come because they are standing in the gap for others.

If the people in the sphere they have been given are battling with sickness, threat of
premature death, lust or impatience, they will sometimes sense it as though they are the
ones struggling with it. If they are passing through a territory and begin to pick up
burdens concerning it, they may start experiencing headaches and other physical
symptoms because they have come into a territory that maybe has a witchcraft covering
over it or other demonic powers.

They will often feel so many things at the same time, pick up so many things in the
atmosphere at the same time and may not be able to process it or understand it fully. It
takes time, training, and a growth process...and most often not an easy one. Apart from
this complexity, because they are gatekeepers and are always carrying the burdens of
others in prayer, the enemy would desire to get them out of the way first so that others
are exposed to attack.

This means that intercessors need a lot of training, grounding in scripture, and
protection. They need to be accountable to someone and to have other people around
them as well, who know who they are and who also pray for them.

Many intercessors prefer to be alone with God than out there with people. But while
this is an integral characteristic of their ministry, they also need to be in community and
work in teams. Two are better than one, for security and ease of burden. One can chase
a thousand - two can chase 10,000.

27 | P a g e
Dear Intercessor,

One of your main mandates will be to stand in the gap and carry the burdens of the
Lord in prayer on behalf of people in authority over you. You will begin, in the process,
to see things. Your eyes will be open, increasingly open to the good, bad or even ugly in
and around them.

At that point, you have a choice to make. The direction you take will be determined by
what motivates you spiritually. If Love is the foundation of your assignment you will
choose well. If attaining spiritual relevance in the eyes of men is, then...

The choices you have to choose from will not be complicated when you are seeing the
good...except if you are tempted to seek relevance by using what you see to manipulate,
dominate and control the spiritual atmosphere of your authority figure od church
because 'you can see' and maybe are even seemingly, seeing more than others can.
That, can complicate things.

But that's an easier web to find one's way out of. The trickier bit is when your eyes open
to see the bad and the ugly in someone who is in authority over you. Do you realize
that this puts you in the same situation that the sons of Noah found themselves? You've
received access to see him/her naked as a son/daughter.

Well, Noah had some extra to drink and lay naked in his tent. His lastborn son walked
in on him and looked upon his nakedness without shame. Then he proceeded to expose
that nakedness to his brethren instead of hurrying to cover it first. His brothers,
fortunately, were more enlightened and mature. They knew it was not right to look at
their father's nakedness. So, walking backwards, they slowly covered him without
looking.

Dear intercessor, if you found a grown woman/man, or worse, your biological parents
naked on the road or elsewhere, what would be your first instinct? Would you take
time to intently stare and then call others to stare, or would you rush for some covering
and hide the person's shame, whether they are aware of their exposure or not? I believe
the latter is your answer.

The same applies to spiritual nakedness. When your spiritual eyes open to the
nakedness of another, especially people in authority over you, it is not prudent to focus
on it, look intently into it, dig deeper into it and analyze it...proceeding to expose it to
others, not even in the name of "God showed me..."

God is allowing you to see because He considers you mature and trustworthy enough
to handle it.

28 | P a g e
  To quickly go to your knees or prostrate before Him and plead for the mercies of
God to cover the person.
 To plead the Blood of Jesus Christ over them.
 To cry out to God that He will use those weakest parts of them to infuse them
with even greater measure of grace so that the excellency of the power they carry
may be known to be of God.
 To groan and travail for the person until Christ is fully formed in them in those
exposed areas.
 To cover them over and over again, spiritually speaking, with the Love of God
that covers a multitude of sins.
 To keep what you have seen to yourself, unless God very specifically gives you a
mandate to speak to them, which may not be very common. Most of the time,
your intercession is enough.
When an intercessor does not do the above, several things are likely to happen:

1. You are in danger of pride. You'll begin to think God is showing you your leaders'
weaknesses because you are better, closer to God and more anointed than them. Your
honor will go down, your capacity to receive from them will dissipate...
2. You begin to lose the ability to see your own faults. You become short-sighted and
even blinded by what you are seeing in them, and lose sight of the logs in your own
eyes and so you cannot cleanse yourself before God.
3. You begin to dry up and lose genuine communion and intimacy with God because
He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
4. You become a cynical, bitter, critical and judgmental prophet/intercessor. You carry
an angry spiritual atmosphere in your operation and delivery, and people can feel it.
You may describe it as 'saying it as it is' but they can tell your tongue is not seasoned
with salt, gracious or filled with the pleasant gentleness of the Spirit of God.

Love wins. Love must be our motivation in intercession and prophecy. When it is 90%
or even 99% of our spiritual energy and attention will be spent on our knees, groaning
and travailing for souls and birthing the Heart of God into them. Then when we speak
to them from Father's Heart, we carry creative power that literally imparts His Life into
the deepest parts of their beings.

WE BEGIN ON OUR KNEES

29 | P a g e
Intercession is a foundational grace. It prepares your heart to operate in other gifts.
Before God can trust you to be a channel of His Voice, His Power and His Glory for the
sake of other people, He trains you on your knees. You begin to notice that more and
more of your prayer time is spent praying for other people more than you pray for
yourself. Then you start realizing that it's getting deeper and more specific. There are
specific people, places and issues that you're finding yourself burdened over.

You wake up in the night to pray and that's what you pray for most of the time. Even as
you go about your day to day activities, you realize those burdens are on your heart.
Then God begins to give you certain revelations around those areas. For example, let's
say that you have a burden for single mothers. The more you let God use you to
intercede for them in private, the more you receive wisdom and understanding into the
Word and the Heart of God for them.

The Spirit of Counsel begins to flow in you. Before you know it, single mothers begin to
come your way. You don't know how you meet them - you don't really try, the
connections just come. When they come to you, they open up to you effortlessly,
sometimes before they even really know you. They just feel safe. And you find yourself
giving them exactly what they need - a listening ear, and lots of wisdom from the Heart
of God.

Before you know it, you're now inspired to start an organization that supports single
mothers who are struggling in different ways, whether made single through divorce,
domestic violence, abuse or widowhood. You start doing that and it just keeps growing.
Huge companies and even the government get interested and they come in to support
you. You are now even supporting their children with scholarships and changing whole
families. How did it all happen? It began on your knees! See, whatever gift God will
give you is not for yourself. We exist for one another. He anoints you FOR OTHERS. So
your heart has to be expanded, shifted, realigned until it is completely emptied of self-
interest, selfish ambition etc.

You become other-centered, and filled with love for others, especially those you'll be
sent to help. So don't despise those nudges you're getting from the Holy Spirit to pray
for so and so, or to pray for a certain group of people, or even to pray for a certain
nation. Maybe the reason why you pray for that country so much is because God is
planning to send you there for a divine assignment. Intercession is part of God's divine
pathway for preparation of His sons and daughters for their destiny assignments. Part
of the reason why many destinies have been delayed is because the prayer closets of
many people are empty. Truth is, God has hidden the pathways into destiny fulfilment
in the secret place of intercession.

Before the enemy can attack a people, he first targets the gatekeepers and those
stationed on the wall. This explains why intercessors come under such intense demonic

30 | P a g e
assault. The enemy's intention is to overpower them and dislocate them so that he can
access those who are being covered by the intercessory prayers. For this reason,
intercessors need a lot of protection and intercession themselves. They need to be
covered. Sometimes they don't even know where the attacks are coming from, and it
can be pretty overwhelming for them. If you are a person positioned by the Lord in the
Body primarily to stand in the gap for other people, may God stir up other people also
to pray for you and cover you, especially in this season. May the Lord be a wall of fire
around you. May you have grace to remain in the presence of God, now more than ever
before. In the Name of Jesus Christ.

31 | P a g e
WAITING FOR GOD.

Several years ago, I felt I needed to pray urgently and so I left the house to go to a
prayer center. It was really hot that day. My feet were tired from walking and my heart
was heavy. I had a lot on my mind and could hardly wait to get there and pour it all out
before God. I walked in and settled into one of the chairs, with a plan already in place. I
would pray in other tongues, pour out my heart to God and spend time in the Word.

Then suddenly, I heard an unmistakable, still, small Voice, "Anne, keep quiet."

Wait.

I came to pray. I came to speak with the Lord, my only Help. Why would He ask Me to
keep quiet? Let's do this again, I thought to myself. So I tried to pray the second time,
and I heard His Voice, as clear as before, "Anne, I said, keep quiet."

By this time, I had no doubt that this was the Lord. What I couldn't understand was
why He 'wouldn't let me speak.' As difficult as it was, I finally sat quietly and waited.
What the Lord spoke next changed the trajectory of my prayer life forever.

He said to me, "Anne, remember that I am a Person and that we are in a relationship.
Would you go into your friend's house and just begin to speak and speak and speak
without first waiting to understand what was in their heart?

These are the reasons why I need you to keep quiet. Firstly, you walked into the church
tired and breathless. I need you to keep quiet first and relax. Let your body relax. Let
your mind calm down first.

Relax.

Secondly, I need you to keep quiet because prayer is My meeting. It is I who draws you
into prayer. I AM the One with the agenda. So I need you to keep quiet first, even after
your body and mind have calmed down and relaxed, until you receive My agenda for
our time together, then allow My Spirit to guide you in and through it. This way, you
will be able to pray according to My perfect will and in accordance to what is in the
depths of My Heart.

Thirdly, I need you to begin to cultivate stillness and quietness within your spirit
because the primary purpose of our time together is not to get needs met or even
intercession or the receiving of revelations, but intimacy. Prayer is a time for us to hang
out together, enjoy each other and just be. A chance for you to enter into deeper,
intimate knowledge of My Person, Nature and Character.

32 | P a g e
Be still and know that I am the Lord. Before we get anything 'done' in prayer, I desire
for us to become intimately one in the stillness. I want you to, in the stillness, become
tangibly aware of My Glory and Presence within you. I want you to engage My Person
and My Heart and enter into My embrace and rest.

Whatever else I will guide you into during this prayer time, I want it to proceed from a
place of rest and trust, peace and quietness, not panic, fear, anxiety or worry. Then you
will be able to hear My Voice with clarity...."

33 | P a g e
TERRITORIAL KEYS.

As it is in the physical, so it is in the spiritual. Just as there are physical doors and gates,
so are there spiritual ones that can close or open. These spiritual gates and doors can
either be controlled by demons or angels depending on the availability and
consecration of saints in that territory.

When demonic gates and doors are open in a territory, the enemy has free rein to
deceive, steal, kill and destroy. Lawlessness, addiction, oppression and all manner of
evil finds a home and takes root, even from generation to generation.

On the contrary, where godly gates, the gates and the doors of heaven are open over a
territory, the Holy Spirit has free room to bring life, light and love and influence hearts
to submit to the will and the purposes of God.

Sometimes during prayer, or in dreams or visions, you will see the Lord handing you a
key or keys. These keys represent revelation, access into mysteries and secrets of the
Kingdom and in the Heart of God and also represent authority and control over gates
and doorways in territories.

These territories may be your family, your region, or even whole nations/continents
depending on the assignments God wants you to fulfill. The reason why God gives us
keys is so that by co-working with Him, we open up territories to the rule of the King of
Glory, so that hearts can open up to the Lord Jesus Christ and so the will of God can be
done in those territories as it is in Heaven.

1. They are for spiritual warfare and intercession over territories. God letting you know
that you are being called to co-work with Him in this way over regions.
2. They are for binding and loosing on earth as the Spirit leads, so that the will of God
can be done here as it is in Heaven.
3. They are for laboring and travailing for souls in that region.
4. They are for making decrees and declarations according to the Heart of God over that
territory and the people therein.
5. They are for cleansing the spiritual atmosphere of that territory
6. In the spiritual realm, these keys are more real than we can imagine. Demonic powers
look for every opportunity to steal keys from believers who either use their keys to
boast or make a name for themselves, or who do not discharge their responsibilities
with regards to the keys given to them.
7. When you are faithful in discharging your intercessory and prophetic responsibilities
over the territories God has given you, it gets to a point where your presence alone, or
just a word controls and shifts the atmosphere in those regions.

34 | P a g e
There are many things going wrong in our communities today. The Lord has already
given us all power and authority as well as the keys of the Kingdom. We can control,
shift and change spiritual atmospheres over whole regions, even whole nations.

The Lord is only asking for available and faithful vessels. These will be used mightily to
close demonic gates and doors and cause there to be open heavens over the territories
God gives them assignment over.

Your community can change this year, because of your availability to the Holy Spirit.

I hear a call to PRAYER!

Matthew 16:19 New Living Translation (NLT)

And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid[a] on
earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit[b] on earth will be
permitted in heaven.”

Luke 10:19 New Living Translation (NLT)

Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk
among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.

35 | P a g e
It wasn't the first time. You've ever had this person or people in your life who keep
doing the same hurtful things over and over again, even after you've shared with them
how much it wounds you?

That's how it was between me and this person. This person just kept hurting me. And a
few times, we argued about it. And I noticed it didn't change anything. So I stopped
going to them and started going to Daddy with all my pain and tears. I would fall on
my knees each time and weep like a baby before the Lord. I was deeply hurting.

I experienced the Lord's comfort each time. He gave me such peace that I was able to
relate with the person without another argument. And then one day, after yet another
heartbreaking experience involving the person, as I was in the Lord's Presence, He
guided me in prayer in a way that changed my life forever.

The Lord told me to begin to bless the person and confess that I loved them. It was very
painful and at first I was literally forcing myself to do it. I am so grateful for the Holy
Spirit. He enabled me to.

He led me into speaking blessing after blessing over this person. Then suddenly, I
began to see what was happening in the spiritual realm. I saw that the enemy had been
using this person to oppress me and release an atmosphere of heaviness around me.

Before I began to bless them, I was under that weight. However, as the Holy Spirit was
enabling me to bless this person, that yoke was broken and I started rising up. I went
higher and higher and higher and when I looked between me and that oppressive spirit,
I saw a very thick, golden surface beneath me, separating me from that spirit.

The Lord then enabled me to understand that when He tells us to pray for those who
mistreat us and bless those who curse us, it is because that's the secret key to breaking
out of the oppression, weight, heaviness and whatever else the enemy is releasing into
our atmosphere through the offense caused.

Secondly, as we release mercy, the love of God, bless those who curse us and pray for
our enemies, the protection of God comes upon us and encompasses us. We are lifted
far above the offense, the hidden intention of the offense and every strategy of the
enemy that was being executed through the offense and we become inaccessible!

It nullifies every curse! Not only can't the enemy access us anymore, but also if curses
and negative words are being released against us, they all come to nothing!

36 | P a g e
Is there someone you know hates you, has been cursing you or releasing negative
words against you? Is there someone who has been hurting you over and over again? Is
there someone you've been arguing and quarrelling with?

Today, take your position. Go on your knees, not to call down fire, brimstones and
judgement but to release mercy, love, blessing, intercession on their behalf. It will hurt
at first. You will bleed. You will feel like you're not being real. But do it by faith and
watch Daddy heal your heart and nullify every weapon that has been fashioned against
you.

2 Chronicles 20:17 New Living Translation

But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the
Lord’s victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or
discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!”

37 | P a g e
HE HEARS.

Many years ago, I was out of work and tried to find employment to no avail. Frustrated
at not being able to earn my own living, I determined that I would move into one of the
places set aside for prayer and fasting in my country and stay there until God answers
my prayer.

I walked into that prayer mountain angry, with a loud mouth before God and a lot of
noise in His Presence. From day one, I brought out my prayer list and talked non-stop
before Him.

I ranted. I raved. I cried. I prayed myself out sore.

I read the Bible. I looked for answers. I paced.

Day after day, I did this, until one day I realized I had run out of personal prayer points
and because I was determined not to depend on anyone for a place to live or food to eat,
I had to continue staying at the mountain.

So I turned into intercession and drew up a list of people to pray for. I prayed for
them...and prayed...and talked...and talked. Without even realizing it, our very patient
and merciful Father had been working on my heart even in my weak, troubled,
tumultuous, noisy prayers. And the tide was about to turn.

One morning I woke up, and as usual, I freshened up, took my Bible, journal and pen
and began to walk to the prayer gardens, prepared to do what I had been doing before.
When I sat down on the grass, and just before I could start, Father stopped me. He said
to me, "Today, I just want us to lie down here, together, in silence."

It didn't make any sense, because I had never done that before. To me, prayer was
limited to talking, talking and talking some more. Nevertheless, He enabled me and I
lay down on the grass looking up to the sky, and kept quiet. Then I became aware that
someone was lying down beside me. My spirit could sense and see Him, even though
my physical eyes could not. The peace was overwhelming. The rest and the calmness
overtook me. Neither of us spoke for a long time.

The following day, the same thing happened. The difference was, every time, the sense
of His Presence grew stronger and stronger and I began to encounter His love in a
deeper, more tangible way. From feeling abandoned and forgotten by Him, I now felt
so loved and wanted by Him that I forgot there was any other thing out there. I forgot
people go to work. I forgot everything. I became perfectly content to be with Him. He
became ENOUGH.

38 | P a g e
And then one day, in that place of perfect peace and rest, I remember seeing an office
space, within which there was a brown desk and a beautiful green seat. And my heart,
without even verbalizing it, spoke to His Heart and said, "Dad, ooh, how I miss to be in
an office. It's not even the money I am after. I just want that feeling of going to work
every day."

I enjoyed that moment, imagining myself in that office that I saw. He didn't say
anything in response, but I felt my heart's expression accessed His Heart. Two or three
days later, I received a phone call inviting me to an interview. I traveled back to the city
and began attending the series of interviews.

While that was in progress, my dream company invited me for an interview. In my

spirit, I knew God had given me both jobs to choose from by His grace. And when I
entered my dream company for the first time, there was the green seat, and there was
the brown desk!

Many times when we are engaging with God, we may feel like He is not listening or
like He forgot us a long time ago. But He is so loving, so kind, so patient. Persistence in
prayer by His grace and by the power of His Spirit always pays. I have tasted of the
Lord over and over and I know He is good. Sweeter than honey. Dependable. Reliable.
There's none like Him in all the earth. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful
because He cannot deny Himself.

DON'T GIVE UP ON PRAYER!

DON'T GIVE UP ON GOD!

39 | P a g e
JUDGMENTAL TEARS

On many occasions, God allows me to weep before Him and pour my heart to Him in
tears when I am heavily burdened, and it leads to inner healing. Tears have a voice.
They are a spiritual language. When we weep before God, our tears and crying triggers
different responses from His throne.

Therefore, when He knows that the tears I am about to release before Him are going to
activate a response He doesn't want, like judgement against someone, He restrains me
from weeping.

Yes, there is such a thing as tears that birth judgement. I have had experiences where I
was deeply wounded, and in the presence of God, when I began to weep in pain, the
Lord stopped me. Every time I'd feel the strong urge to release my pain through tears,
He would hold me back.

Finally, He explained that if I allow myself to pour those tears out, they will release
judgement against the person who wounded me. And He didn't want me to be a portal
of judgement and punishment, but a portal of mercy and grace. So instead of letting me
weep those specific tears, He led me away into the Word, and there I found joy and
consolation. Then He led me into praising Him. And as I tarried in His Presence,
meditating on Him and praising Him, my heart was healed and I was no longer
wounded.

Afterwards, when my heart was healed, He allowed me to weep over them again, but
this time, my tears had a different sound in the spiritual realm. They were tears of
intercession. Tears that released grace and mercy. Tears that pleaded for them, not tears
calling for judgement against them.

Why doesn't He want me to release judgement against people by weeping before Him
about their offenses against me? Because He is patient and kind. He doesn't want
anyone to be destroyed. He is still giving them time to repent. And He wants me to
cooperate with Him.

And I am in complete agreement with Him, because I am not yet perfect either. I need
God's mercy, grace and patience too. If God was to count our transgressions, none of us
would stand, least of all - me. So, if God holds me back from releasing judgement
against people who hurt me, I will also receive the same mercy in the areas where I
deserve judgement. As it is written, to the merciful, He will show mercy.

40 | P a g e
My Beloved,

There are many times when I have allowed your eyes to see what is lacking, broken or
missing in other people, for no other reason, except that you ought to make intercession
for them together with Me, until I show you that they have become whole in the
spiritual realm.

If you are faithful to do this in partnership with Me without telling them or anyone else,
or even showing them that you can see their weaknesses, but instead, bearing with their
failings, I will do the following and so much more, in you and through you:

1. I will deepen and perfect your love for other people to the extent that you will look at
1 Corinthians 13 and see yourself as a man looking at himself in the mirror.
2. I will start placing you on the paths of other people supernaturally when they need
help the most, and even if you had no prior skill, experience or preparedness, I will use
you as a helper in their lives, and it will result in much Thanksgiving to Me.
3. You will know peace. Perfect Peace.
4. I will start moving and quickening others to do the same for you.

Without your awareness, many will begin to receive burdens to cover your weak areas
in much intercession lest the enemy should take advantage of them to steal from, kill
and destroy you. They will also come in big numbers, people I will have supernaturally
appointed and burdened to support and help you when you need it the most, without
you sweating or begging for help for anyone.

They will VOLUNTEER to help you.

But first, the training and the test. I will let you stand in the gap for others, in the areas
of their weaknesses. The measure you use, will be used for you. Do unto others what
you would have them do unto you.

You are called, to HELP.

Your Source of Help,

God.

41 | P a g e
Being an intercessor can be rightly referred to as a thankless job. It is like being one of
the very hidden organs of the body that plays a very key role but no one sees it. An
intercessor best functions in secrecy so deep, that the people you pray for the most have
no idea that you do.

Naturally, the flesh desires to be recognized and appreciated, especially after the
prayers have been answered and the people you have been travailing for are recording
testimony after testimony. You'll be tempted to want a bit of that credit.

And that's where you have to die to yourself. To be okay with being in the background,
get no credit, get no acknowledgement, and maybe even watch the credit go to other
people. Because if you give in to the temptation and go after recognition, you dilute
your potency in the spiritual realm, and deny God the glory that belongs to Him.

Another temptation is to abandon your post in the ministry of intercession and run after
'more visible' ministries. This is especially a temptation for people who are called,
primarily to be intercessors and have not been released by the Lord to be in any other
more visible ministry in the Body.

They start feeling ignored, unnoticed and irrelevant, if they do not realize how great a
pillar they are in the Body. Hidden One, it is best to delight yourself in the Lord and
find your joy and contentment in the intimacy you share with Him.

Intercessor, O Intercessor! Behold, The Lord is your reward!

42 | P a g e
An intercessor, or a person who spends a lot of time in prayer must of necessity also be
an ardent student of the Word of God. Your prayers must not only be based on the
Word of God but also full of the Word. Your faith and basis for fervency in that prayer
point must be drawn from what God has said in His Word, and not merely from the
intensity of human emotions, desires, feelings, thoughts and observations.

By virtue of the grace given to an intercessor and the amount of time and devotion you
invest in being alone with God for yourself and on behalf of others, God will give you A
LOT of information.

This information is primarily not meant to be shared with anybody. If delivered in that
raw nature, it is as toxic and unpalatable as serving uncooked meat to people. 90% or
more of the information given to you is meant to give you guidelines to enable you go
deeper in prayer, praying in the perfect will of God.

This ensures that you are not throwing punches in the air but hitting the issues right on
target. But sometimes, an intercessor will rush out of the place of prayer or wake up
from a night of divine revelation about people, places and things and quickly share
with other people what they have heard without first receiving confirmation from the
Lord that they have express permission to reveal it.

It is best to incubate what you are receiving in the place of prayer. You have been
positioned in the Body as a womb of the Holy Spirit to conceive His burden, and
nurture and incubate it until it is ready to be birthed and after the prayer has been
answered, to give God all the glory and continue to labor together with Him in His
Love for people.

Become someone's intercessor before you go to them as a prophetic voice. Pray for them
concerning the issue at hand until you fall in love with them as much as God is in love
with them, and until you sense a breakthrough on the issue. Then, when you go to
deliver the message, you will not be a prophet who only relays information, but one
whose prophetic words are CREATIVE because they carry the Heart and the Life of
God.

In other words, you will not merely tell people what to do and leave them to figure out
how, for if you do, you'll have laid heavy loads on them that they can't carry.
Instead, the words you speak will carry God's energy and enabling power, literally
lifting them from pits and placing them on The Rock. Prophets of God's Heart are first,
and primarily, intercessors who have fallen in love with the people they are sent to,
until they now love those people as much as God loves them.

43 | P a g e
Intercessors should, as much as possible, engage in a place of complete secrecy with
respect to the people they pray for. If you keep revealing to people how much you pray
for them, how much you fast for them, how many sleepless nights you spend travailing
over them:

1. There is a danger of them idolizing you.

2. You run the risk of wanting to share the glory with God and take credit when good
things happen in those people's lives.
3. You may start expecting them to treat you in some kind of special way because you
are 'their intercessor.'
4. And if they don't seem to appreciate you labor in the Spirit concerning them, your
heart will then be vulnerable to the fiery darts of the enemy, like resentment and
bitterness.
5. When intercessors fall into the trap of wanting to be acknowledged and appreciated,
they can turn into the most dangerous people if they don't get what they are looking
for. They can start praying against the very same people they soaked the ground with
tears for.

To avoid all this complication, STAY LOW. Let Jesus pray through you for others in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and when you leave your secret place, try as much as possible
to keep what happened there between you and God, unless you are very certain God is
leading you to say anything about it for the edification of those people.

Appreciate that intercessory is largely a thankless job but also, that even more precious
is your reward from GOD. Even more importantly, hold it close to your heart and mind
that the only mediator between God and man is Christ Jesus. HE is the Intercessor.

It is by grace that you have been brought into a place of co-laboring with His Spirit for
others in this way. It is an undeserved privilege. You can only pray for others because
that grace has been given to you, undeservedly. Living in this reality keeps you
protected from pride. Wisdom is useful to direct.

44 | P a g e
The nature of the ministry of an intercessor is such that you will know when God is
upset and when His Holy Spirit is grieved over a situation, person, family, or nation(s).
You will even know the consequences awaiting people as a result of their offenses
against God and man, and the dangers that await them. God may tell you like He did
Moses, "Get out My way, and let Me destroy these people."

What you do in such a situation depends on your closeness to the Lord and your
maturity in the ministry of intercession. This is why your spiritual focus should always
be intimacy, not intercession. Because in intimacy you will know the depths of the
Heart of God.

You will know that even when God is very angry, if you go deeper into His Heart,
you'll find His Heart breaking with love and longing to show grace to the person in
question. You will know and perceive in your spirit that even when the situation is so
bad that God is ready to judge, deep in His Heart, what He really desires is to show
mercy.

That's why He's telling you exactly how He feels and sharing His burden with you,
because He wants you to stand in the gap for the people He is grieved about and pray
the prayers they should be praying, go into the courtrooms of Heaven on their behalf
and plead on the basis of the sacrifice and the Blood of Jesus Christ, and grieve over
them as you would for your own sins.

Imagine if, instead of doing this, an intercessor, on knowing that God is angry with
someone, rejoices and gloats over the person and begins to release judgement, threats,
and condemnation against the person. That's a fail on the part of the intercessor! God
was sharing so you could stand in the gap, not expose the person to the trouble
awaiting him/her.

An intercessor will know of impending judgement and consequences of sin in people's

lives through dreams, divine encounters or revelations during prayer, among other
ways. They may even be made privy to discussions in the courtrooms of heaven and
know what is being decided concerning individuals and groups of people, even nations.
God expects you, in response, to stand in the gap in partnership with The Advocate,
Jesus Christ, who lives continually in intercession for us.

Not to gossip about it, threaten the person using what you've seen, or use it to gain
mileage or 'spiritual relevance' by declaring what God confided in you. God has really
trusted you by showing you these things. Do not betray His trust.

45 | P a g e
Numbers 14:11-19

And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will
they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? 12 I
will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation
greater and mightier than they are!”

13 But Moses objected. “What will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” he
asked the Lord. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people
from Egypt.

14 Now if you destroy them, the Egyptians will send a report to the inhabitants of this
land, who have already heard that you live among your people. They know, Lord, that
you have appeared to your people face to face and that your pillar of cloud hovers over
them. They know that you go before them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of
fire by night.

15 Now if you slaughter all these people with a single blow, the nations that have heard
of your fame will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he swore to
give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’

17 “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said,
18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin
and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon
their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth
generations.’

19 In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this
people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

Isaiah 62:6-7

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;

All day and all night they will never keep silent.
You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves;
And give Him no rest until He establishes
And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

46 | P a g e
COUNCILS OF TRANSITION.

There are councils that sit in heaven. Some of those councils are involved with
TRANSITIONS. They are involved with the transition of people from this life into the
next life. And sometimes, especially if you love someone very much, or if you're
someone that God uses to pray for others a lot, you may be brought into those councils
to participate in them in the process of prayer.

You will be allowed to know when there are plans to take someone away from this life,
whether those plans are being made by God or by the enemy. Sometimes it's the enemy
trying to kill the person prematurely, and he may have accusations against the person.
Other times it's time that is catching up with the person. And you get to participate as
an intercessor.

There are people who are allowed to operate in this dimension as part of their
intercessory mandate. For example, prophet Micaiah was brought into a meeting in
heaven that was being chaired by God Himself, where discussions were being held
concerning Ahab's death.

Sometimes there's nothing happening in the person's life to cause you to be concerned
in the natural about their staying alive. But sometimes you may be brought into those
councils when someone is sick and you're praying for them.

What do you do when you've been brought into the councils of transition and you
perceive that the spirit of death is on the loose with regards to an individual or
individuals?

. Use the case of the Cross to plead on behalf of the person. Table evidence before the
court, the Isaiah 53 evidence, pleading for mercy over the person, on the basis of the
truth that Jesus was wounded for their transgressions, crushed for their iniquities, that
the punishment that belonged to their peace was laid upon Him and by His wounds
they were healed. His body was so crushed that it was hardly recognizable as human.
He shed His blood for them, and died for them. On the basis of His sacrifice, plead for
mercy, forgiveness and prolonging of life. This is especially crucial when it is sin in the
person's life that has matured and is now about to result in death.

. Use the case of king Hezekiah to plead on behalf of the person. When God sent
prophet Isaiah to inform king Hezekiah that his time was up, Hezekiah turned his face
to the wall and cried out to God. He reminded God how he had served Him and the
rings He had done for God's glory. Before Isaiah even got very far, God told him to go
back and tell Hezekiah his life would be prolonged for 15 more years. It works. (Isaiah
38:1-5)

47 | P a g e
Remember the story of Tabitha too, in the book of Acts, Tabitha did many good things
for widows and the needy. When she died, they came crying and pleading for her to be
raised back to life. They showed apostle Peter the clothes she had made for them. So
you can also plead for someone's life to be prolonged on the basis of the good things he
or she has done for others and for the cause of the Gospel. (Acts 9:36-42)

Use the case of the parable Jesus gave. Jesus said that the owner of the garden came to
a tree and found it barren and unfruitful for the third year running. He was ready to cut
it down. He said that it was using up nutrients for nothing. But the gardener pleaded on
the tree's behalf. He told the owner of the garden to give it one more year. He said He
would nurture it for one more year, and if it did not bear fruit after that, then yes, they
could cut it down. (Luke 13:6-9)

So even if the axe is on the base of a tree, if an intercessor is found who can plead on
behalf of the person, he or she can find mercy. This intercession will place you in the
gap for the person in the long term. The person may have no idea that you're praying
for them, and preferably so, but you'll be given a burden to stay in prayer for them
especially that they should bear the fruit God desires to see in them. Like Paul, you'll
find yourself caught up in travail for them continually, until Christ is formed in them.

Every realm has protocols and boundaries of operation. Operating in this dimension
needs you to be a person who:

1. Loves people and does not want to see any evil thing happening to them.
2. Does not pray negative prayers against others or wish evil against them.
3. Is merciful to others even when they deserve to be judged or punished.
4. Is not quick to judge or condemn anyone even when the person is clearly on the
wrong.
5. Can keep secrets. Someone who can operate in the courts of heaven and not tell
anyone they are doing it. Often, you're meant to simply pray. If you tell people you saw
them dying without God having sent you to, you'll only release panic and fear. Yes, on
SOME occasions God may send you on such an assignment, like He sent Isaiah to
Hezekiah. However, the purpose was to redeem and prolong his life.
6. Will carry the mandate with the weight it deserves. Someone who will not ignore
what they are sensing or seeing, only to say, "God showed me that person will die,"
after the person has already died yet you never took any spiritual action after being
alerted.

May God use you by the power of His Spirit to stop, prevent and reverse death. May
God allow you to co-work with Him to stop premature death and prolong the lives of
many people for His glory, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

48 | P a g e
THE INTERCESSORY LIFE

God does not just want you to pray for other people once in a while. He wants you to
stand in the gap for people continually. He wants to be able to quicken you at any time
to pray for anyone on His Heart in that moment, and He wants to be sure that you will
not postpone His burden for later.

You see, sometimes when He quickens your heart to pray for someone, it's because the
issue is urgent. Sometimes it may even be a life and death situation. So if you postpone
the burden till later, saying, "I feel like praying for so and so, but I'll do that later," it
may be too late when you finally decide to. You may not even have the grace to,
because when God was prompting you to pray for the person, that is when the grace to
handle the issue was upon you. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

PROTOCOLS OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

If you decide in your heart that you will commit yourself to interceding for spiritual
leaders and that you will let God place you in the gap for them, you will have done
well. As you start being intentional about this, be aware that the devil will fight against
your prayers. He will try to accuse you and your prayers of being "illegitimate and
unlawful" in the courts of heaven.

I experienced that once. I went into prayer, having being led to intercede for spiritual
leaders/pastors. Suddenly, I saw myself walking into a courtroom with petition papers
in my hands. My intention was to stand in their defense with Christ our Advocate, but
instead, I saw myself moving into and standing on the accuser's side.

Puzzled and disturbed, I asked the Lord why I appeared on the enemy's side. He told
me that in my history, I spoke evil of some of them, and was angry with some of them
during different seasons of my life...and that these sins were yet un-repented. I could
not stand in defense of them in the courts of heaven because it was in the records that I
was on the accuser's side!

I was shocked! I repented profusely, renouncing every negative word I've ever spoken
against servants of God, every bitterness, anger or criticism against them in my history.
As I continued repenting, I now saw that I was walking from the left side of the accuser
to the right side where Jesus and many angels were standing. I sensed the approval of
the Judge and the Attorney, and Jesus then placed prayers of intercession within my
heart for His servants.

49 | P a g e
I flowed and flowed...and flowed in the Spirit, receiving assurance that my prayers
were being approved. And I learnt a lesson that day. You cannot intercede for people
you criticize. Your prayers simply won't be approved in the courts of heaven.
They look at the heart first.
Do you love those you are praying for?
Are you for them?
Have you repented of and renounced any negative word, action, thought in your
history in relation to them?

So as you resolve to start keeping your pastor, church leaders and spiritual leaders in
your city covered in intercessory prayer, first ask the Lord to show you if there are any
accusations against you in the courts of heaven with regards to your relationship with
spiritual leaders.

Deal with this by the help of the Holy Spirit and you will have authority in the name of
Jesus Christ.

Psalm 24:3-6 NLT

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in His holy place?
Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,
who do not worship idols
and never tell lies.
They will receive the Lord’s blessing
and have a right relationship with God their Savior.
Such people may seek You
and worship in Your presence, O God of Jacob.

50 | P a g e
IN THE WOMB OF GOD

When you allow the Lord to lead you into the journey of self-denial and dying to self,
howbeit painful, you lose all self-centeredness, selfishness and selfish interest.
Now, you are consumed with the interests, intents and desires that reside in the Heart
of God. When this happens, He draws you intimately and with depth of passion, into
His womb.

When you live in the womb of God:

You become continually conscious of His burden, His passion, His hunger, His thirst,
His pursuit and His will concerning individuals, corporate groups and even territories.

You become conscious of when He is grieved and when He is happy. You know
when His Heart is full of tears and you experience them as your very own. You know
when He is full of gladness and feel that joy as your very own.

You become conscious of His times and seasons. You know when He is about to do
something, you sense when He is changing seasons and when He is moving into
something new on the earth. Sometimes He will let you discern His times and seasons
in individual lives.

Your prayer times and spiritual focus becomes centered on what He is doing,
planning and desiring more than on what the enemy is doing. They also become
focused on His Kingdom being established on the earth and His will being done on
earth as in Heaven more than on your personal needs and interests.

He takes control of your time, which by now you have already surrendered to Him,
and may restrain you in the place of prayer for much longer than before, and much
longer than you had planned to, because there is a burden on His Heart you are co-
laboring with Him to bring to a place of birthing.

Your prayer times become much deeper, more fervent and earnest. They often take
the form of intense weeping, travailing and groaning in the Holy Ghost. It's an
experience that can only be likened to the travailing of a woman whose time has come
to deliver her child. The groans cannot be self-initiated; they come upon you by the
Holy Spirit and He intercedes in and through you with groans that cannot be expressed.
Sometimes you know what the issue is to varying degrees of detail. Other times though,
you have no idea. All you know in that moment that it is of the Holy Spirit and you
flow with Him. The understanding may come to you later.

You start feeling, even when you're not in your prayer closet, that you're tangibly
carrying certain individuals, burdens of prayer, regions, corporate groups in your heart.

51 | P a g e
It feels like a protective, nurturing, loving, tender, incubation of their lives and what
concerns them. You sense the deep affection and care God has for them and you share
in His love for them. Even when you're not praying for them in words/human
language, you go about your day carrying them in your heart in an atmosphere of deep
love.

This may go on for a season, but in some cases you carry them for a lifetime. In the
process you know when they are okay and when they're not. You know what God is
feeling and thinking about them. You become exceedingly protective over them and
concerned for their welfare, sometimes even more than you are for your own.

At the same time, it such a sacred place to be in, so sacred that you wouldn't want them
or anyone else to know that you share God's burden for them that deeply. It almost
feels like the more your heart for them in God is a secret between you and God, the
better. You keep what you sense and hear concerning them even in the place of prayer
private between you and God. It feels like that confidentiality protects the sacredness of
the burden.

And so, you share in what's in God's womb, and know when a burden has been
lifted, either concerning a specific issue or an individual or a region, and you are led to
carry other burdens. The beauty of the burden of the Lord is that though spiritually
intense and sometimes even physically and emotionally taxing, it is not cumbersome or
burdensome because it is the labor of love. Even when it is costly and painful in the
intensity, there is a sweetness that comes with the cost that you cannot exchange for
anything.

PITFALLS TO WATCH OUT FOR:

To last in the womb of God, you are to pay the cost of living a quiet life and minding
your own business. The moment you allow yourself to meddle in other people's affairs,
be caught up in gossip and all, you lose the capacity to carry the burdens of the Lord for
others to full term. You become a weak womb that aborts or miscarries the burdens of
the Lord or delivers wind, because it becomes polluted. Your love is affected, and
diluted by information from people such that your revelation concerning them
spiritually becomes subjective, skewed or biased depending on what you heard from
people.

You are to take care of yourself. The intensity of operating in and from the womb of
God can lead you into spending long hours of prayer and fasting. In the process you
may find yourself over-stretching your vocal cords in the fervency of prayer.
But remember...you need them for many years to come. Engage with the Lord for grace
to pray in such a way that you do not damage your throat/vocal cords. Do not over-fast
either. Let the Lord grant you wisdom to know when to fast and when to take a break

52 | P a g e
to take care of your body. And when you're not fasting, eat strong, healthy meals, so
that your body is able to handle the intensity of fasting.

Charles Finney, one of the great revivalists many years ago, had an intercessor whom
God had placed in His womb for Charles. He was so burdened for him that he would
travel days before a meeting and book himself, alone or in the company of another into
a room there, groaning and travailing for him and for the meetings.

And oh, how effortless the meetings were! Such grace! Such flow of the Spirit! But it
was also recorded that he was not able to live long, because his body could not take the
wear and tear of the intercessory ministry much longer. You need grace to flow in the
intensity of prayer without damaging your body through overstretching or neglecting
it.

God wants to give us Revival in our generation. But for it to happen, He is looking for
people who can allow Him to draw them into His womb for our generation. We have
been feeding from what others labored for before us. It is now time for us to go into the
labor room ourselves and labor, travail, groan and weep with and in the Holy Spirit
until the Rain falls again on the earth.

God says, "I am looking for a man..."

53 | P a g e
54 | P a g e