A Spiritual Checkup For Intercessors

(2nd Edition)
By Teresa Seputis
resa Seputis
Lesson 1
How To Become An Effective Intercessor

This next series will touch on several areas that are very relevant to intercessors in
their walk with God. Have you ever wondered what the difference is from an
effective intercessor and someone who simply likes to pray a lot? There are two
types of differences. One is measurable and observable, but the other is more an
attitude of the heart.
First, an effective intercessor is one who's prayers are answered -- quickly and
frequently and often powerfully. Another characteristic of an effective intercessor
is that their prayers tend to be full of God's life and to carry God's heart. If they are
praying for someone out loud while present with that person, e.g., ministry prayer,
the person goes away feeling very ministered to and touched by God. There is a
dimension of their prayer that seems to breath (or deposit) God's life into the
person, or into the situation, that they are praying for.
However, there is a more important difference, one that may not be measurable to
the casual observer, but that is it key to the whole thing.
An effective intercessor is one who walks in deep intimacy with God, who knows
how to hear God's voice, who does not come to God with their own agenda and ask
God to perform it. They find out from God what His agenda is, and even get their
prayer strategy (petition, authority, blessing, calling things into being, etc) directly
from God for the situation. They are Spirit-led in all they do. Yes, many of these
have had natural training/knowledge that they apply. But they do not "pray" out of
their knowledge. Instead they draw into God's presence, get their instructions from
God, and then follow them.

These are the ones who God considers "highly effective", the men and women who
He can trust because they are committed to doing things God's way instead of
asking God to do things their way. They are committed to seek and pray God's will
for each situation rather than asking God to meet and bless "their will" for this
situation. These are the type of people described in Psalm 37:3-6:
3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe
pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the
desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him
and He will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like
the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
That passage describes people who are committed to walking in holiness before
God and obeying Him. God's priorities become their priorities and what is
important to God becomes important to them. They learn to identify and distain the
things that God distains, because they are so hungry for God. They walk in close
intimacy with God where He is their personal friend. They are confident in their
relationship with God; they know they can approach Him in confidence because
they are His and they love Him so dearly. The attacks of the enemy (shame,
disqualification, guilt, fear, etc) loose power over them as they are filled with God's
truth and light. They know they are cleansed by the blood of the lamb and
personally commissioned by God. They know how to discern and recognize God's
voice. These men and women of God are fully committed to obeying Him, no
matter what He asks them to do.
And that is what God is looking for in His intercessors.
Are you willing? Is that what you want? Does this type of radical relationship with
God appeal to you? Are you willing to give it all up (Matt 13:46) to pursue God's
Lordship in your life? Jesus said in Matt 14:15, that if we really love Him, we must
be committed to obeying Him. God is looking for men and women like that. He is
looking to raise them up as His faithful and effective intercessors. Take a look at
what He says in 2 Chronicles 16:9:
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward him.
Are you one of the ones God is looking for? If you are, stop right now and tell Him
so. Invite Him to teach you how to become an effective intercessor.

A "Roadmap" To This Teaching Series

The remaining lesson in this series will touch on topics to help you learn how to be
more effective as an intercessor. But your real teacher must be the Holy Spirit.
If you want God to teach you this, He will. Just tell Him (and really mean it) that
you are willing and ask Him to teach you. God will enter into a covenant with you
to do this. Your part is simple: you commit to obey Him when He shows you
something clearly, to cooperate with Him as best as you can. His part is to teach
you and to show you and to transform you. He will do His part if you will do your
part.
Here is a roadmap to what we will be covering. Our next lesson will look at just
what prayer and intercession actually is. This will be basic review for most of us,
but it is critical enough that it must be covered. After that, we will look at a model
for effective personal intercession and a model for corporate intercession (or
praying together). Then we will begin to explore some topics pertinent to being
effective intercessors, covering a different topic each week. Topics include:
hearing God's voice
committing to God's Lordship in your everyday life
God's Lordship in personal finances
worship
overcoming condemnation
(The first "edition" of this teaching used to cover the topic of fasting. However, we
now have an excellent and in-depth teaching series on fasting at
www.godspeak.net/pr_lessons/pr26_index.html. We have removed the fasting
lesson from this series, and we recommend you read that teaching series on
fasting.)
I hope this series will be a blessing and inspiration to you. The series is a tool, but
the real teacher is the Holy Spirit. So why not take a few minutes right now to
invite Him to come and be your teacher for the next 14 lessons as we invite the
Holy Spirit to give us a spiritual checkup and to make us effective in prayer and
intercession.

Lesson 2
Building Relationship With God

What do you think of when you hear the word prayer? Here are some of the more
common answers I get when I ask this question:
Prayer is talking to God. (Some people who answer like this
go on to address Bible Study as God talking to you.)
Prayer is taking your needs before God
Prayer is petitioning God for the needs of others
Prayer is spiritual warfare
What do you think of when you hear the word "intercession"? Is it a subset of the
above? Here are some more common answers that I get:
specialized praying for others
bringing a list of petitions before God
spiritual warfare and fighting demonic forces on behalf of a
person or place or event
Prayer and intercession encompass all of these elements, but prayer is not just
asking God for things. Prayer is building a relationship with God.
Prayer Means Building Relationship With God
Someone once described prayer to me as a one way phone call. They explained
that in prayer, we talk to God, tell Him our needs, share with Him the needs of
others, etc. They feel this is all that prayer entails.
That is a terrible and wrong model for prayer. Think about it. How would you like
to receive a phone call like that? Someone calls you, talks at you without letting
you get in a word edgewise and then hangs up? You would not enjoy that very
much, would you? Do you think God enjoys that type of interaction with us?
God wants our prayer time to be two-way, to develop a place of intimacy with
Him. Look at it like "building a relationship with God." Any time we want to build

a relationship with someone, this involves spending time with that person. The
same goes for building a relationship with God. He is our Heavenly Father. Just
like earthly fathers love to spend time with their kids, God enjoys spending time
with us. We don't have to be phony or "on our best behavior" to spend time with
God. We can be "real" and transparent with Him. We can't fool Him, He knows
what we're really like. And here's the good news -- He likes us anyhow!
Romans 8:14-16 tells us that were are secure in our relationship with the Father, He
has adopted us into His family and He's not going to kick us out. It says, "14 For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. 15 For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption
by whom we cry out "Abba Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are Children of God."
Despite the assurance of Romans 8, some of God's children feel "unsafe" to
approach God the Father. (That type of fear can get seriously in the way of
building an intimate relationship with God, so it must be addressed and dealt with.)
Some see God the Father as scary or foreboding, hard to please, etc. Some see Him
as wanting to punish them and Jesus standing between God the Father and them to
keep them from being clobbered. That is not the type of image that that God wants
us to have of Him. He wants us to feel safe with Him, to be able to come to Him
any time. Gal 4:6-7 tells us, "6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' 7 Therefore you are
no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
In fact, Jesus Himself assured us that we can have a loving and intimate
relationship with God through Him. He said, in John 15:9-11, "9 As the Father
loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My
commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's
commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you that
My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." In other words, God
likes us and He wants us to be happy and in a close and personal relationship with
Him.
Once we get past the "God doesn't like me" fear, we can begin to move into a
deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. We do this by spending time with
God, by learning of Him, by worshipping Him, etc.
It is important to build our relationship with God. But we need to be practical in
how we begin building this relationship. We have to be careful we don't set such

big goals that they are unobtainable. Let me give an example. I once knew a man
who decided to set aside three hours one day to seek God. So he blocked off the
time, went to his prayer room, sat down and waited for God to meet him. He
waited and waited. He checked his watch, and only 10 minutes had gone by. The
next three hours were the most miserable of his life -- he never knew three hours
could take so long and he was never so bored. By the end of his grueling ordeal, he
was convinced that intimacy prayer does not work. The problem was that he has
set too big of a goal. His expectations and practices were unrealistic for someone
just starting off.
I shared that story with someone else one time, and they said, "Man, I can relate. I
had a date like that. For our first and last date, we went to dinner to talk at a very
slow service restaurant. When we tried to talk, we just could not find anything that
we were both interested in. Time dragged by forever. We were both so
uncomfortable that we skipped dessert just so we could get out of there sooner.
That was the longest dinner of my life!" Hopefully none of you have ever had dates
like that!
And hopefully you have never had "prayer experiences" like that either. But if you
have, put it behind you, draw up a clean slate, and let's start over.
We know that when we first start building a relationship with someone we tend to
have shorter meetings and we tend to have well defined activities. Perhaps we start
with a brief phone call. Or perhaps we catch lunch or a cup of coffee together and
chat briefly, or take in a movie... as we get to know each other, then the
relationship builds. We find more and more common ground and we begin to know
how the other person thinks, what they like, what interests them, etc. At some point
we become so close that we can just sit and "do nothing" together and be
comfortable. Or we grow so close that we can spend hours and hours together and
not feel bored or strained or stressed. That is because we put in the time together
and build a good solid relationship.
Most of us will need to use this principle when we build relationship with God. We
build the relationship gradually, spending time together and building relationship.
If you have not spent any intimacy time with God before, start with something
small and manageable... like maybe 15 minutes twice a day. Then build from there.
Get to know Him, find out what His opinions are on various things (the Bible is a
great guideline and launching pad). Ask Him questions, invite Him to speak to you
about your own life and relationship with Him. Invite Him to show you your
misconceptions about God and invite Him to transform you.

Lesson 3
Prayer And Intercession

In Prayer, You Don't Just Talk To God, He Talks To You Too

In our last lesson we mentioned that prayer is not just talking to God like a one
way phone conversation. It is a two way relationship. And in any real relationship,
there is effective two-way communication. In other words, you don't just talk to
God in prayer, He also talks to you and draws you into a closer and more intimate
relationship with Him.
So, what are some of the things God might choose to talk about, especially in the
early days when you are first building that deep and intimate relationship with
Him?
One of the first things God will do is to expose areas of your life that He wants to
change. He will bring them to the surface and make you aware of them. Don't
become afraid and pull back when He does that. The first few weeks where I spent
time in intimacy prayer with God, all that seemed to happen was that God would
bring up past sins and failures. At first I would be horrified by what He showed
me, then I would repent and experience His cleansing. Something happened inside
of me, some sort of inner transformation. I became free from these things as I dealt
with them before God. They stopped having power over me. And I think that was
the reason that God brought them up and forced me to deal with them. We did this
for so long that I became convinced my prayer life would always look like that and
all I'd ever do in my intimacy time with God was to repent and receive forgiveness.
But we eventually moved out of that phase. He still brings things up from time to
time it has become a much smaller part of my prayer life than it was in the early
days.
When God brings conviction, the enemy will usually try to jump in and tell you
that you can't approach God because you are "dirty" or not holy enough. That is
just a lie designed to divert you from this process with God. Don't believe the
enemy lies. Instead, believe what God says on this topic. He has quite a bit to say
on it. Let's look at some verses.
Ro 5:8 tell us that God loves us even when we have sin in our life. It says, "But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us."

There are several verses that assure us that if we get ourselves dirty with sin, God
will clean us up and forgive us. Is 43:25 says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your
transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins." 1 John 1:9
tells us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Hebrews 10:22-23 tells us that we don't have to be afraid to approach God, because
He is faithful to forgive us. "22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
wavering, for He who promised is faithful."
We don't have to be afraid to approach God, fearing we are too dirty. God doesn't
want us to run away from Him in fear. That is not "fearing God," that is being
afraid of Him because we don't trust that the blood of Jesus will really work in our
case.
Fearing God is a reverent respect for Him, it draws us to Him, makes us desire to
do things to please Him. Fear of God drives us to God on His terms, we desire to
do things His way. On the other hand, being afraid of God pushes us away from
God, it makes us want to avoid Him, to run from Him, to be afraid that His desires
for us are unpleasant, etc. We are not to be afraid of God, but we are to fear Him.
We are to respect Him and desire to please Him and to be willing to do it "His
way".
We don't have to be afraid when God brings conviction and cleansing to us. At first
it may seem like the only item on His agenda. But we will get past that stage. Then
He will start to talk to us about many other areas as well. He will speak to us of our
calling and destiny. He may tell us about how He wants to move in our day-to-day
life. He may reveal a deeper understanding of His nature to us. He may even tell us
about something that is about to happen to us or in world events. He may choose to
answer some of the questions we have been asking Him. He might tell us how He
feels about certain current events. There are many different things that God might
choose to speak to us about in prayer.
We have just spent a lot of time talking about what prayer is. Now, lets change
gears and talk about what intercession is.
What is Intercession?

The Revell Concise Bible Dictionary gives us one definition of intercession. It

says, "Intercession, addressed to God, is prayer for another person, usually to
obtain God's help. Intercession is embedded in the concept of the priesthood,
especially the Role of the High Priest, Heb 5:1 'Every High Priest is selected from
among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer
gifts and sacrifices for sins'."
Another popular definition of intercession comes from Ezekiel 22:30, which
defines intercession as "Standing in the gap" on behalf of another, of asking God to
have mercy on them and forgive them instead of giving them what they deserve
and punishing them. The verse reads, "I looked for a man among them who would
build up the wall and stand before Me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would
not have to destroy it..."
Standing in the gap is born out of a personal friendship with God. It is basically
asking Him to withhold judgment on someone else for the sake of your own
relationship with Him. It is the same concept as what Moses did when the Lord
became so angry with the Children of Israel that He wanted to destroy them all and
start all over building a new people from Moses. Moses used his intimacy and
relationship with God to say something along the lines of "God please don't
destroy for the sake of my relationship with You, and the relationship of my
fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." And for the sake of those relationships,
God spared the people of Israel and did not destroy them like He wanted to. You
can read the account in Ex 32:9-14.
Intercession is very biblical. It seems that God expects His children to both pray
and intercede. We are admonished to intercede for each other in the New
Testament. 1 Timothy 2:1 says, "I urge you, first of all, that requests, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone." James 5:16 says, "... Pray for
each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful
and effective."
While all believers are called to pray and intercede, God calls some of us to it at a
deeper level; He sort of gifts some of us as intercessors. If we feel called as
intercessors, we are in good company, because Jesus intercedes for us. First, His
death on the cross was intercession for us. Isaiah 53:12 puts it this way, "Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered
with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors."

After rising from the dead, He continues to intercede for us. Hebrews 7:25 says,
"Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him,
because He always lives to intercede for them." and Romans 8:34 says, "Who is he
who condemns? It is Christ Who died, and furthermore is also risen, Who is even
at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us."
And Romans 8:26-27 tells us that the Holy Spirit also intercedes for us. It says,
"26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express. 27And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
So, intercession is "agreeing with God for His perfect will on behalf of others."
God reveals His will to us in two ways -- the Bible and the Holy Spirit speaks to us
and leads and guides our prayers.
From the Bible, we know that:
God desires for all to be saved (2 Peter 3:9)
God desires for His kingdom to advance (Luke 11:2)
God desires to give good gifts to His children (Matt 7:7-11)
God desires to meet our needs (Luke 12:22-31)
God desires for us to be fully equipped (2 Timothy 3:17)
God desires us to be mature in Him (Colossians 4:12)
God desires the fullness of Christ to be manifest in our lives
(Ephesians 4:13)
God desires for us to obey Him (John 14:15, 15:14)
God desires to be our Lord/boss (Matt 7:21)
God desires for us to be in unity (John 17:23)
God desires for us to be full of His love and joy and peace
(Gal 5:22, John 17:13)

 God desires that we lack nothing (James 1:4)

If you are a bit stuck on how to pray for someone, then look to the Bible for God's
will for that type of situation and pray that over them. You can never go wrong by
praying in agreement with scripture.
However, intercession is also being led of His Spirit to find what He desires to do
in a given situation. Here is a simple four-step approach to be spirit-led in our
prayers: 1) draw near to Him, 2) ask Him what His will is, 3) wait for Him to
answer, 4) pray His will. (We will look a bit more at hearing Him speak to us in a
future lesson.)

Lesson 4
A Personal Prayer/Intercession Model
(part 1 of 2)
We have already defined prayer as a two-way deep and intimate relationship with
God, where there is effective two-way communication -- e.g., you talk to Him and
He talks to you. We also took a look at a few aspects of intercession, which
included petitioning for others in our role as a high priest, standing in the gap on
behalf of another, and coming into agreement with God's will for a person, group
or event.
With all that in mind, how do we pray effectively? How do we build that intimacy
with God in our personal prayer? And what about corporate prayer? How do we
pray effectively together?
I would like to begin to explore those questions by presenting two different prayer
models to you. One is a model for personal prayer and the other is a model for
corporate prayer, or praying together with others. We will spend the next two
lessons looking at the personal prayer model and then spend the following lesson
on corporate prayer.
Please understand that there are many excellent models for prayer. I am only
sharing one personal prayer model and one corporate prayer model with you. This
is not to say that they are better than the other models or should be used to the
exclusion of all other models. My intent is to give you a model that works well, so
that you can begin to experiment with it if you don't already have a different model
that you prefer to use.
A PERSONAL PRAYER/INTERCESSION MODEL

This model is built on the concept that prayer is a two way relationship with God.
It understands that we can (and often do) come to God with prayer agendas, but
there will be times where God decides to supercede our prayer agenda with His
own agenda. These concepts are built into this prayer model. It is meant to be
flexible. It is a tool you build and launch from, not a rigid set of rules to hold you
back or to grind you into a routine.
There are six basic steps to this model. They do not necessarily have to be done in
the order presented here.
Step 1 - Praise And Worship
The purpose is to remind yourself of what God has done for you and then to thank
Him for it. Think about Who you are praying to. Think about the good things He
has done for you and be grateful. Remember past answers to prayers and thank
Him for what He's done. Let your mind dwell on times where He has been good to
you, where He has come through for you, where He has brought His glory into
seemingly impossible situations.
There are lots of wonderful praise and worship prayers in the Bible. You might
want to rephrase and personalize some of them as a worship for God. For instance,
I have personalized one of Paul's prayers from 1 Cor. 1:4-9. "Thank You Lord for
the grace that You gave me by Christ Jesus. I have been enriched in everything by
Him, in all utterance and all knowledge, even as His testimony was confirmed in
me. I don't lack or come short in any gift because you have given me all I need.
And I eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm
me to the end, that I may be blameless in the day when I stand before my Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, you are faithful. And I have been brought into fellowship with
you because of what Jesus Christ did for me. Thank You for all You have done for
me!"
If that particular prayer doesn't work for you, then you might want to select some
worship passages from scripture that do work for you. You don't have to read them
each time you pray, but it is helpful read worship passages from God's word from
time to time.
During this portion of prayer time, you may find worship music helpful. You might
want to strum a guitar, put on worship tape or read sections of Scripture to remind
yourself of God's goodness, His faithfulness and His wonderful promises to us.
Some people may want to dance before the Lord as a part of their worship, and that
is fine. Worship can be loud praise and celebration, even with shouting and
clapping. It can also be very quiet, such as deep intimacy songs. Or it can even be
things like taking popular songs and making up Christian words to sing to them,
sort of like Whoopi Goldberg did in the movie "Sister Act."

You don't have to use music to worship effectively. At times I like to get very quiet
and still before the Lord and sort of mentally review various experiences I have
had with Him and various things He has done for me.
There is not a right way or a wrong way to worship. What works best for one
person may not work for another. So, if you use music during the worship portion
of your prayer, please try to select music that works for you, music that helps you
enter into God's presence, to become mindful of Him.
There is a sample worship prayer:
"I pray to My Lord Jesus Christ, who died for my sins on Calvary and rose from
the dead, defeating Satan and death. Thank you for loving me and forgiving me
and thank You for giving eternal life to me. I also pray to God my Father Who
loves me and I thank You for adopting me as Your own child. I also pray to the
Holy Spirit Who empowered the early Church at Pentecost and now lives inside of
me. Thank you for leading and guiding and teaching me every day."
Step 2 - Invite God to lead your prayer time
It is actually very Scriptural to do that. Ps 31:3 tells us, "For You are my rock an
my fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me." Ps 25:12
days, "Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He
chooses." And Ps 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He
delights in his way."
God delights to lead and guide us in prayer. He wants to be deeply involved with
us in the process. So invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your prayer time. Ask
Him to lead and guide you as you pray. Give God permission to supercede your
agenda and change the "syllabus" if He wants to. Ask Him to guard your mind
during prayer; that He keep out things He does not want you praying about (or put
a check in your spirit) and that He also brings up everything He wants to cover.
In short, invite God's leading and God's presence in your prayer time. Along with
that, take authority over enemy interference during the prayer time. (If you are
feeling particularly laden with guilt/condemnation, you may want to do step 3
before you do this authority prayer. Otherwise, it is good to do this prayer before
you examine your heart with God. It does not have to be drawn out or fancy, and
the precise words are not important. But you want to take authority over the enemy
and forbid him to interfere in the prayer time. Here is a sample prayer:
In Jesus' name, through His power and authority, I forbid any enemy spirits to be
involved in this prayer time. I take authority over this room and I command any
spirits that do not willingly bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ to leave, right

now. I forbid confusion or fear or condemnation to any other spirit to become

involved in this prayer time.
Lord Jesus, I turn this prayer time over to you and I ask you to please lead it. Do
not allow anything to happen here that is not lead of Your Spirit. Holy Spirit,
please lead and guide me. Make me sensitive to Your will.. able to hear Your voice.
Please alert me if I inadvertently wander into any area You do not want me to cover
and please remind me of all that You do want to do here today.
I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Lesson 5
A Personal Prayer/Intercession Model
(part 2 of 2)

We are exploring a 6 step model for personal intercession. We looked at the first
two steps in great detail in our last lesson. Let me review them briefly for you here,
as a reminder.
Step 1 was to have a time of praise and worship, were we remind ourselves of Who
God is and of what He has already done for us. Then we feel and express gratitude
and worship to Him for this. Many people find it helpful to use some form of
music during worship. Some like to dance before God as an expression of worship.
Some like to read worship passages from the Bible. Some like to meditate quietly
before the Lord as they worship Him. There is no right or wrong way to worship
God, providing your heart and mind are dwelling on Him and seeing some aspect
of Who He is and responding to Him.
Step 2 was to invite God to lead your prayer time, and to take authority of the
enemy to keep him from interfering with it.
Now let's move on to the remaining four steps.
Step 3 - Assure You Are Right With God
Invite the Lord to show you anything in your life that displeases Him. Ask God to
show you anything in your life that separates you from Him. Then immediately
deal with anything He brings up by confessing and repenting and asking for
forgiveness. Allow God to wash you in the blood of Jesus and make you holy.
Repentance is useless if we don't receive the forgiveness that Jesus has already
purchased for us on Calvary.

It is a very good idea to examine your heart with God. James 4:8-10 says, "8 Draw
near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and
purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your
laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. 10 Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."
The area that comes up the most often for most people is the area of forgiving
those who wrong us. It is very important to forgive; in fact, it is crucial.
Unforgiveness is the area that most often hinders our prayers. God considers
unforgiveness a sin, and it must be dealt with before you can pray effectively. If
you find it too hard to forgive someone, discuss it with God and ask Him to help
you.
Look what Jesus said about forgiveness in Mark 11:25. He tied our ability to
approach God in prayer to forgiving those who we have ought against. He said,
"And if you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone." That is a
pretty clear-cut command, isn't it?
In fact, Jesus made an even stronger statement about forgiveness in Matt 6:14-15,
"14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses."
Suffice it to say that you cannot harbor unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart
and enter into effective prayer. God is not going to listen to your prayers unless you
have released bitterness and unforgiveness. The good news is that He will help you
to truly forgive if you ask Him to. He will empower you to do it.
Step 4 - Invite God To Change Your Nature To Be More Like Him
This is my favorite step.
We want a relationship with God where we do not grieve the Holy Spirit. But there
is a fundamental problem that gets in the way of that goal. We have a sinful nature
that makes it very easy for us to grieve Him. Our fallen natures makes us want
things that He doesn't want. It makes us like things that He doesn't like and think in
ways that are contrary to His nature. We want our desires to line up with God's, so
that we will naturally please Him. But how do we make this transition from the
wrong desires to the right ones? How do we transition from wrong thinking patters
to right ones?

One way to move in that direction is to ask God to change your nature and make
your more like Christ. Invite Him to change your desires to line up with what He
wants to do in your life.
I prayed that type of prayer every day for a few years. I did not realize it while I
was in process, but God began transforming me daily as I prayed. The changes
were a little here and a little there. The things I enjoyed doing changed over time,
and the things I disliked changed as well. Then one day He used a friend to call the
change to my attention. My friend said to me, "You're not any fun any more. All
you ever want to do is God-stuff." That incident caused me to back up and see how
much He had transformed me, and I was amazed.
I would like to give you a sample prayer along these lines, because when you
regularly and persistently ask God to transform you, He does. The exact words of
the prayer are not important. What matters is the heart and attitude behind the
prayer. Here is the prayer I prayed:
Lord, please transform me and make me like You. If I could change
myself and present myself to You perfect, I would -- but I can't. So
I am asking You to please change me.
Please change the very desires of my heart to line up with the desires of Your heart.
Make me want the things You want. Let the things that are important to You
become important to me. Let me love what You love and hate what You hate. Make
me to distain the things You distain.
Please change my personal ambitions and even the motives of my heart to line up
with Your motives and with Your plans and purpose and call on my life. I want to
be like You. I want to desire what You desire and I want to want what You want.
Change me Lord, transform me. Teach me to look at things from Your perspective,
to see things Your way. Give me ears to hear Your voice and a heart to obey You.
Amen.
There are a lot of Scriptural references for this type of prayer. Let me share a
couple of them with you. Ps 40:8 says, "I delight to do Your will, O my God, and
Your law is within my heart." Ps 51:10-12 says, "10 Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your
presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of
Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."

Ezek 36:26-27 shows us God's desire to answer that type of prayer. He says, "26 I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of
stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My judgments and do them."
Step 5 - Prayer Time Topics
Having done all that preparation, give God control of the prayer time and trust Him
to lead you, as per John 16:13-15. "13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has
come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority,
but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He
will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All
things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and
declare it to you."
Here are some of the things He might want to do in prayer time:
Intimacy (no petition or requests)
Deal with areas of your life that He wants control of
Heal past hurts or help you to forgive someone
Review your day with you
Have you intercede for someone else
Share your delights with Him
Have you tell Him about weakness or fears and turn them
over to Him
Make plans with Him: little ones (planning your day) or Big
life-impacting ones
We need go give God free reign to visit and change any area of our lives, as per 2
Thes. 3:5, " Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the
patience of Christ."
Pray your agenda if God did not supercede it. Most of the time He will allow you
to prayer your prayer agenda, He does not always supercede it. While praying, if
you notice that the dimension of His life and power is not there ... or if you notice

that the divine intensity or unction is missing, stop and ask God to examine what
you are doing with you. Invite Him to redirect you if you've wandered outside of
what He is doing. Tell Him you desire to be led of His spirit as you prayer. Then go
back to prayer, trusting He will direct you.
Step 6 - Ending Your Prayer Time
Remember that "Amen" is not "The End." Thank God for what He's done. Ask
Him to keep you close to Him during the day. Invite Him to call on you anytime
during the day for whatever He wants. Drop into prayer frequently throughout the
day, even if only briefly. Remember you're building a relationship with Him. So
spend time with Him and abide in Him throughout the day.
John 14:23, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'if anyone loves Me, he will keep My
word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home
with him."
Ps 37:3-6, "3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His
faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires
of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your
justice as the noonday."
So abide in the Lord throughout the day, and delight yourself in Him.

Lesson 6
A Corporate Prayer/Intercession Model

We just spent the last two lessons looking at how to pray and intercede privately.
But not all of our intercession is done in the prayer closet. We need to know how to
pray effective together.
Jesus seemed to think that it was important for us to come together and agree in
prayer. He seemed to value corporate intercession. He said, "For where two or
three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). Jesus
also said, in Matthew 18:19, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree
about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
There are many different ways to pray effectively together. Let's take a look at one
of them.

A CORPORATE INTERCESSION MODEL

Corporate intercession is praying together. As a group, we come before God and
waiting on Him and catching His heart and then agreeing together on it. The big
goal is unity in the spirit. If you don't have unity, if there is tensions and
unforgiveness and such between members of the group, stop and deal with that
before the group tries to pray together.
Let me share five practical guidelines with you.
1. Start With Lots Of Worship
We like to start our corporate prayer time in the same way we start our personal
prayer time, with worship. When we have a group of people come together to
worship, we typically need some type of worship music and some type of worship
leader. It is ideal if you can use worship songs that most of the intercessors know.
If the intercessors are all from the same church, then it would be most ideal to use
the worship team or worship leader from the Sunday morning service.
Corporate worship accomplishes several important things so it is important that we
don't rush this or cut it short. Worship helps each person to focus their hearts and
minds on God, so that they can hear the Holy Spirit more clearly as He directs the
prayer time. Worship also helps people bind together in unity, to come into a
common an united purpose of being assembled together. At most group meetings,
different people will come with different prayer agendas. Most won't be all that
interested in the other people's agendas, just in their own. But as the people come
together and worship, there is often a connection in the spirit that makes everyone
more sensitive to God and to each other.
Finally, worship tends to usher in the presence of God. And when God shows up in
a tangible or perceived way, all sorts of good things happen in a prayer meeting.
Also, if God shows up in a service in a tangible way, it is not uncommon for some
of the people there to experience conviction of sin, and for them to need a bit of
silence to each individually repent before God, forgive someone God brings to
mind, etc. So there may be a need for times of silent waiting on the Lord during
worship.
Another thing that happens when God "shows up" in response to worship is that
either the prophetic or healings may break out. If that happens, give place for it.
2. Publicly Give God Control Of The Prayer Meeting

This piece needs to be done by the leader, by someone who is recognized to have
leadership authority at the meeting. It is typically a prayer that one person leads
and the others agree with. There are three elements to this. It doesn't matter which
order they are done in, but it is important to do all three.
TAKE AUTHORITY - You need to take authority in Jesus name over any enemy
spirits that might want to interfere with the prayer meeting. Here is one example of
an authority prayer:
In Jesus' name, through His power and authority, I forbid any
enemy spirits to be involved in this prayer time. I take authority
over this room and I command any spirits that do not willingly
bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ to leave, right now. I forbid
confusion or fear or condemnation to any other spirit to become
involved in this prayer time.
INVITE GOD'S PRESENCE AND GIVE HIM CONTROL - Ask God to come and
be present during this prayer meeting. Invite Him to lead the meeting. Tell God that
you are giving God total control over all that happens here. Ask Him to make you
aware of any changes He wants to make so that the agenda is entirely His. Ask
Him to prevent or "short circuit" anything that would be out of His will for this
particular meeting. Invite Him to be in charge to have His way it the meeting.
EXAMINE OUR HEARTS - Give God permission to examine our hearts and to
convict us of anything that displeases Him or that will interfere with our ability to
pray effectively together. You will need to build in a little time to wait on God as
He works silently with individuals to example their hearts and speak to them. This
might be silence or it might be soft instrumental music. But it is very important
that if you do invite God to examine our hearts, you set time aside to let Him do
that.
3. Give Practical Logistical Instructions
You need to give the group some practical logistical instructions of how to pray
together. The model I use is to have folks pray short prayers on a single topic, so
we can to build on each other's prayers. I let them know that they can pray more
than once on a given topic, and that periods of silence are ok. If the meeting is
large enough that we are using a microphone, I let them know they need to come to
the microphone to pray so everyone can hear their prayer. (People can't come into
agreement with a prayer when they can't hear what is being prayed.)

There are the general guidelines I tend to use:

1. Silence and waiting on the Lord are OK. Someone does not
always have to be talking during corporate prayer
2. Pray short prayers, but pray multiple times if you desire
o Keep any one prayer short... 2-3 minutes
o Keep your prayer to a single subject at a time
o If several subjects are quickened to you and there is a
long lag where it is ok to introduce a new prayer topic,
choose one of those subjects and pray on it. Feel free
to jot the others down so you won't forget them.
o Feel free to pray more than once on a given topic
o When you hear a brother or sister pray something, the
Holy Spirit may quicken something else to pray about
the same subject. If so, feel free to do that. This is
building on each other's prayers as the Spirit leads.
3. Pray a subject through / Build on each others prayers
o One person starts off a topic.
o Everyone prays along the same topic as the Holy Spirit
leads.
o It is OK to pray more than once on a given subject.
o feel free to share scripture that goes with the given
subject as God quickens it to you.
o build on each other's prayers as the spirit leads.
4. After long pause it is ok for someone who feels led to change
topics and group press in on new topic.
4. Intersperse Worship Between Topics
We have already stated how important worship is in a corporate prayer meeting.
We have lots of worship at the beginning, maybe even 30 to 45 minutes worth.
Once we start praying, we keep the worship short (one song) and at obvious times

-- when there is a long break in the prayer indicating that we will soon have a
change of subject to another prayer topic.
5. Save Personal Requests And Personal Ministry For The End
In most groups there are varying levels of maturity and expectations. The highest
level of maturity is to come to minister in prayer and intercession with no set
agenda and without expecting to be ministered to personally. But many people will
who come to a corporate prayer meeting will not have that level of maturity. Many
will come with their own prayer agendas. Some will come with their own needs
and hope to receive some form of prayer or ministry.
What I like to do is to tell people at the beginning that we will have personal
ministry at the end. That can take various forms. Sometimes there is a prayer team
that prays for individuals. Sometimes we divide people up into pairs and ask them
to take 15 minutes to thoroughly pray for each other's personal needs. Sometimes
we allow people to share their requests before the group so that the group can
intercede for them.
I like to let there be worship music going during the personal ministry time at the
end of the meeting. I also like to do what I call renewal style prayer, where each
person has hands laid on them and we ask God to come and fill them and meet
them and to surround them with His presence.
The bottom line is that in most groups, it is good to have a time at the end where
intercessors can receive personal prayer and have their own needs ministered to.

Lesson 7
Hearing God's Voice

Our God is a communicating God and He is constantly speaking to us. Even when
we don't think we can hear God's voice, God speaks to us in a variety of manners:
the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, object lessons, through Holy Spirit
arranged "coincidences", through Bible verses jumping out at us, etc.
You probably know what most of those are, but let me explain what an object
lesson is. An object lesson is when God points our attention to something in the
natural and then suddenly reveals a spiritual truth to us. This is a very common
way God speaks to many of His children.

Let me share very first time God spoke to me this way. I was 17 and a new driver. I
had hungry for God and praying for weeks and weeks that God would let me see
Him in His unveiled glory. I was in the car, driving through one of those tricky
three-way intersections. It was almost sunset. Suddenly the road curved and I was
headed straight into the sunset. Glare filled my windshield and I could hardly see
where I was going or where the other cars were in relationship to me. As I said, I
was a new driver, and this was my first experience at being blinded by glare. I was
terrified. I prayed one of those "God, HELP!!!" prayers. Somehow I made it
through that intersection without hitting any other cars and the road curved again
and then I could see.
I was still shaking, as only a new driver can do, from the experience. Suddenly
God spoke so clearly in my thoughts that it was almost like an audible voice. It as
the first time I'd ever heard Him speak directly to me. He said, "Teresa, you've
been praying for me to show you My unveiled glory. But if I showed it to you, it
would blind you, just like the glare from the sunlight blinded you a few seconds
ago when you were driving. You wouldn't be able to see where you were going
spiritually and you'd be in danger of falling off of My path for you. So I have to
veil My glory somewhat as I reveal Myself to you, so you can grow safely in Me."
Wow. I understood precisely what He was saying. The spiritual truth made sense to
me because of the natural experience I'd just had... God had spoken to me through
an object lesson. Now, not all object lessons are that dramatic, but the "gist" is the
same.. first you see a pattern in the natural, and then you understand a spiritual
truth from it.
God does speak to all of us, whether or not we are good at recognizing His. But He
desires and yearns for us to know and discern His voice clearly.
This level of discernment, or knowing of God's voice, is born out of intimacy with
Him. We see thin from John 10. First, look at John 10:27-29: "27 My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to
snatch them out of My Father's hand." This is a familiar passage where Jesus
claims that His followers should be able to hear His voice clearly.
But look back a few verses at John 10:11-15: "11 I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the
shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the

sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling
flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good
shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father
knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep."
That passage speaks about the sheep (us) being in relationship with the shepherd.
And that is why we are able to discern His voice, because they knew their
shepherd, they trusted Him with their very lives. And the same holds true for us.
The deep knowledge of God's voice comes out of a loving and intimate
relationship with Him.
By the way, if you want to hear God's voice clearly, there is one drawback that I
should probably warn you about. God expects us to obey Him (John 14:15, 21)
when we hear Him speak to us. Let's look at the verses. John 14:15 says, "If you
love Me, keep My commandments." And John 14:21 says, "He who has My
commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will
be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
That means the more clearly we can hear God's voice, the more He holds us
accountable to do what He tells us to do. In other words, our accountability to obey
increases as our ability to hear Him increases. Jesus stated this principle clearly just
after He told the parable of the men waiting for their master to come home from
the wedding banquet. He said, in Luke 12:47-48, "47 And that servant who knew
his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be
beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things
deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is
given, from him much will be required; and to whom much as been committed, of
him they will ask the more."
I can pretty much guarantee you that if you learn to hear God's voice, there will
eventually come a time when He tells you something you really don't want to hear.
He might tell you not to do something you really want to do. Or maybe He will tell
you to do something you really don't want to do. And guess what? You won't get a
choice in the matter, you will be obligated to obey God.
This even happened to Jesus. He knew it was the Father's for Him to suffer and die
at the hands of man so that He could purchase our salvation on Calvary. But as it
got close to the event, He really began to dread the idea. He did not want to go
through all that suffering. He was in agony of spirit. He was in so much distress
that He sweated blood. In that state, Jesus prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible,

let this cup pass from Me..." (Matthew 26:39). But there was a second part to that
prayer, "...nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." In this case the Father willed
for Jesus to go through with something dreadful that He did not want to do. And
Jesus did it. He had pre-decided that when there was a conflict of will between
Him and the Father, He would do what the Father wanted.
And He expects the same from us. When there is a conflict between God's will and
our will, we have no choice in the matter. We are obligated to do God's will. Jesus
is our role model. When we have a conflict with God's will, guess what? We have
to follow Jesus' example. The bottom line is that we give up our rights when we
commit to obey God. We don't get a vote. If God tells us something, we obey Him.
So, now that you have learned about the price tag -- increased accountability to
obey -- do you still want to hear His voice clearly?
You do, Good! Then read on, and let me share some practical steps to getting
started in this process of learning His voice. We will talk about them in detail in
our next lesson, but let me summarize them for you now:
1. Make a commitment to the Lord that you want to learn His
voice. God would like to enter into an agreement with you.
His part is to teach you His voice and your part is to do your
best to learn and to commit to obey when you hear Him
speak something clearly to you.
2. Give God a vocabulary to speak to you through things like
prayer, spending time with God and
reading/studying/memorizing the Bible.
3. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Recognize that
learning any skill takes time and that you will usually make
some mistakes as you learn. Don't give up, keep on trying.

Lesson 8
Practical Steps To Learn God's Voice
1. MAKE A COMMITMENT TO THE LORD THAT YOU WANT TO LEARN
HIS VOICE.

Decide that you're willing to accept the increased accountability to obey Him.
Make a conscious decision of obedience; a commitment to obey what you hear
regardless of what God asks you to do (or not do).
Then inform God of your decision and ask Him to teach you His voice. We know
that God will teach us when we ask because of James 1:5, which says, "If any of
you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and without reproach,
and it will be given to him."
Once you've asked, trust God to communicate to you. His job to speak so we
understand. When we ask God for good things, like knowing His voice, He assures
that we get good instead of evil. We see that in Luke 11:9-13 where Jesus said, "9
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and
it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks
finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any
father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give
him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
Him."
2. GIVE GOD A VOCABULARY TO SPEAK TO YOU
Increase your prayer/praise life. Get to know God's heart and to build relationship
with Him. Remember, the more you know Him, easier it will be to discern His
voice from any other voice. In addition to prayer, be sure to spend time in His word
and with God. The goal is to get to know His nature and His behavior. That will
make it easier for you to recognize when He speaks to you.
Have you ever had a close friend telephone you and then start talking to you
without identifying who they are? Yet you know who they are because you have
spent a lot of time with them and have learned to recognize their voice. That is the
way it is with God, the more time you spend with Him, the more you read
Scripture and learn His nature, the more you worship and bask in His presence, the
easier it is to recognize His voice.
And you need to read the Bible on a regular basis. Scripture is the word of God. It
is the final authority, where God has revealed His likes and dislikes and His heart
and His nature to us. Pour yourself into it, read it, meditate on it, memorize it! The
more you are familiar with who God has revealed Himself to be through Scripture,
the easier it will be for you discern His voice. And the easier it will be to
identify/discern the false voices that that try to imitate God's voice. For instance, if
"God" were to tell you to go ahead and go out and get drunk and party and have
fun in the world's sense of the word, you would know it was not really God's voice
because it clearly contradicts Scripture.

In my early days of hearing God, the Holy Spirit would constantly speak to me by
recalling Bible verses I'd memorized to my memory. Now, this may seem obvious,
but He could not have recalled them to my memory if I had not memorized them in
the first place. If you want to know God's voice clearly, get His word inside of you.
Read it, become familiar with it, memorize it, meditate on it.
3. GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO MAKE MISTAKES
Learning anything, even learning to recognize God's voice, is a process. When you
learn any new skill, you are clumsy at first and improve with practice. So, do not
give up the first time you make a mistake.
I made a lot of mistakes in my early days of hearing God. Some of them were
comical. One Sunday morning I thought I heard God tell me to go to this specific
church. I looked it up in the phonebook, and sure enough, there was a church by
that name. So I looked up the address on a map and drove there. It was a relatively
short street (only about 6 blocks long). I kept driving up and down that street, but
the address of the church simply did not exist on it. I spent an hour looking for the
church and finally came home frustrated. (Later, I learned that this street was one
of the streets that stopped and started several times, and I had been driving
up/down the wrong segment of the street.)
Had I heard God right on going to that church that Sunday morning? Probably not.
Did I feel like quitting since I'd obviously gotten it wrong? Of course I did. But I
did not let myself give up. Eventually I learned to discern God's voice with a fair
degree of accuracy.
When a baby learns to walk, it often takes a step or two and then falls down. What
if, after falling two or three times, the baby decided not to try any more? That
would not be so good, would it? Likewise, you must not give up on hearing God's
voice if you make a few mistakes in the process of learning. You need to persist in
hearing God's voice just like you persisted in learning to walk. You fell on your
fanny many times, but kept on trying. And eventually you were running all over
the house, your previous failures totally forgotten. If you keep at it with hearing
God's voice, you will eventually learn to hear Him clearly and forget the
frustrations of the learning process. So, give yourself room to make mistakes and
keep on keeping on.
When Things Go Seriously Wrong
The learning process sometimes stops when you are walking in disobedience. If is
actually a kindness of God, because the more clearly you hear, the more
accountable you are to obey. So if you are demonstrating a repeated lack of
obedience, then God will probably put the process of learning His voice on hold
until you renew your commitment to obey Him. You will "know it" if you are in

this situation, because you know that you've not been obeying what you had heard
while you were still in the process of learning to recognize His voice. The solution
to this problem is easy. Repent and get right with God. Recommit to obey. God will
give you a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc chance.
Another thing that impairs the process of learning/hearing God's voice is you've
fallen out of intimacy with God. Chances are you won't be able to hear Him very
clearly if your walk with Him gets distant. Fix this by running back to Him, asking
Him to restore you and walking in intimacy with Him.
Also, unforgiveness in your heart towards another can interfere with your ability to
hear from God and damage your intimacy. Jesus discusses this in Matthew 18:2335, the parable of the unforgiving debtor. You know the story. Someone owed a lot
of money and was about to be thrown into debtor's prison. He fell on his face and
begged mercy and was given mercy. Then he left the court and ran into someone
who owned him a little bit of money. The person begged for mercy but he would
not extend mercy to the person and had them thrown into jail. Let's look at what
Jesus said in verses 32-35:
32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I
forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had
compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And his master
was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to
him. 35 So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart,
does not forgive his brother his trespasses.
I am sorry to tell you this, but about the only way to get around that impairment is
to choose to forgive and to ask God to help you truly walk in forgiveness. It is not
easy, but it is definitely worth it! Intimacy with God and clearly discerning His
voice are far more rewarding than the fleeting "satisfaction" of holding
unforgiveness (no matter how richly deserved) in your heart.
There is one last "problem area" to cover here. That area is: what do you do if you
seem to be hearing really weird things? First, bring it to God and tell Him what you
heard and pray about it. Ask God to confirm if its Him or to correct if it's not Him.
Also, get another believer to pray with you for guidance from the Lord. Run what
you hear against Scriptural principles. If it violates Scripture, throw it out. Finally
you can go to your pastor or a lay leader you trust (such as an elder or home group
leader) and ask them to help you discern if what you are hearing is really from
God.
Remember, God is more interested in talking to you than you are in hearing Him,
but He won't force you. You must desire to hear His voice and be willing to obey
Him when He does speak to you. If you are, God will teach you. And His ability to

teach you to hear His voice is greater than your ability to hear it wrong! You can
trust Him to teach you to hear Him clearly.

Lesson 9
The Lordship of Jesus Christ in Our Day to Day Lives
(part 1 of 2)
I'd like to start by sharing a story about when the prayer-school leadership core
decided to get together and go fishing.
The boat left very early in the morning and all of us brought our thermos full of
coffee. The boat pulled about 300 feet from shore and anchored so that we could
fish. They had a great time fellowshipping and fishing. But as the morning wore
on, the coffee began to work it's way through our systems. The captain of the boat
came out to announce that the restroom on the boat was out of commission.
After a while, the coffee had worked through Elvi Glass's system. So she said,
"Excuse me, brethren", put down her fishing pole, climbed over the rail and walked
on the water to shore. She went behind a bush, did her business and came out
looking very relieved. Then she walked back across the water to the boat, climbed
over the rail, picked up her pole and continued fishing.
I stood there with her mouth hanging open for a few minutes and then turned to
Paul Gaskin and said, "Did you see that!! Elvi walked on water, just like Jesus
did!"
Paul shrugged his shoulders as if that were no big deal and we all concentrated on
fishing for a while. Pretty soon the coffee worked it's way through Paul's system.
He said "Excuse me brethren", laid down his pole, climbed over the rail, walked on
the water to the shore. He disappeared behind a different bush but came out
looking just as relieved. Then he walked back on the water to the boat, climbed
over the rail, picked up his pole and resumed fishing.
My mouth fell open again. I muttered something about Jesus walking on water and
Peter walking on water and now Elvi and Paul were walking on water. I asked
Rodney Hogue if he'd seen that. "Yes," he replied, as if it was no big deal.
After a while, the coffee had so worked through my system that I simply could not
wait any longer. "Well," I said to myself, "Elvi did it and Paul did it. I guess I can
do it too."

So I said, "Excuse me, brethren", put down my pole and climbed over the rail. My
feet hit the water, but instead of being able to walk on it, I sank rapidly to the
bottom. As I was going under, I heard Rodney turn to Elvi and say, "Next time, do
you suppose we should tell her where the stepping stones are?"
Ok, I confess -- this is a joke, not a true story. But I bet you can relate with the
experience. From time to time we all notice a discrepancy between what we see in
the Bible and what we see in our own lives. Yet when we try to step out in faith, we
seem to sink.
For some of us, that discrepancy comes from lack of victory over besetting sins.
We read in the Bible about how Jesus overcame sin and death and has given us
power and victory. We see how people in the Bible are transformed by the
indwelling Holy Spirit to be holy and victorious. Yet we struggle with that same
besetting sin over and over again. Each time we fall, we feel truly sorry and
sincerely repent, promising to never do that sin again. But we seem powerless to
keep that promise and keep falling into it over and over again, feeling worse about
it each time.
For others of us, the discrepancy between what we see in the Bible and what we
see in our own lives comes in the area of the Fruit of the Spirit. We read about how
we are to be filled with love, joy, peace. We even see it happening in some other
Christian's lives. But this does not seem to happen in our own life. We find
ourselves constantly worrying about the various stresses and problems of day-today life. Or we find ourselves feeling depressed or struggling with rejection. We
see the blatant discrepancy between how the Bible says we should live (full of faith
and hope and joy and patience and love) and how our lives are actually turning out.
We desire so much to have the fruit of the Spirit manifest in our lives and pray for
it and hope for it, but it just does not seem to be happening. Or if it is happening, it
is happening much too slowly for us.
Some of us read the Scripture where it says "My sheep hear My voice and they
know Me" and they wonder how come they don't know how to recognize the
Lord's voice. We see folks in the body operating in prophecy and word of
knowledge and such -- clear evidence that it really is possible to hear His voice.
Then we wonder why we can't hear it like they do. Is it that God does not care to
speak to us, or is it that we're simply no good at hearing Him or is it something
else? Surely it must be possible to hear His voice like the Scripture says. How
come it is so hard?
And there are many other areas where we may notice a discrepancy between what
the Bible says we should be like and what our lives are really like.
Why is this? What is missing?

I believe that the root of the problem comes from the fact that many of us never
gave Jesus Christ full and unchallenged Lordship in our lives.
Many Christians learn to accept Jesus as their Savior with no clue about His
Lordship. They truly believe in Jesus and are grateful that He has redeemed them.
But they go about their day-to-day lives in pretty much the same manner they did
before. Oh, they make some adjustments here and there to attempt to honor God.
They come to Church faithfully on Sundays and they have a 20 minute or so quiet
time each day for Bible-study, devotions and prayer. But they continue being the
boss of their own lives; they continue to live for themselves.
Why?
In many cases its simply because no one told them that Jesus wants to be in control
of their life. No one told them that our goals and motivations are to change, and
that we are to be doing what the Father is doing instead of doing our own thing.
Jesus is not satisfied to be merely our Savior. Yes He gives us eternal life, He saves
us from the consequences of sin. But in return, He demands that we give our lives
fully and unreservedly to Him. He wants Lordship in our day-to-day lives. He calls
for a radical commitment to Him, including total obedience.
In my own case, I had considered myself a "committed Christian" for 18 years. I
did daily devotions and prayer and I even memorized a lot of scriptures. I watched
my language and tried to behave in a "Christian manner" including appropriate
behavior and strong morals. I shared my faith from time to time and occasionally
led people to the Lord. I was doing everything I knew to do to be a "good
Christian." But, despite all my efforts, it was a very frustrating time for me.
I read about the fruits of the spirit, but did not see them manifesting in my own life.
I read about the victory that He has given us over sin and over all the power of the
enemy; yet I keep falling over and over in besetting sins and could never seem to
gain the victory. I read about the peace that passes all understanding, but rarely
experienced it. I read how His sheep know His voice but had no clue what His
voice sounded like.
Then one day I found this tiny little verse hidden in one of the gospels. When I
grasped what it really meant, that tiny verse revolutionized my entire life. That
little verse is tucked away between some incredible promises of victory, power and
answered prayers.
Look at John 14:12-18:
12 "Most assuredly I say to you, He who believes in Me, the works that I do he
will do also; and greater works than these because I go to My Father. 13 And

whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. 14 "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
15 If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He
will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;
but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave
you orphans; I will come to you."
Incredible promises, eh? Yet tucked away in this passage is the key to all of this -the key to victory and power and abundance in our walk with the Lord. It is stated
so simply that it took me 18 years before I realized it was there.
Did you happen to find it as we read the passage? Which verse was it?
The answer is verse 15, which says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
Another translation puts it this way: "If you love Me, then obey Me."
And obedience was the missing ingredient in my life. I was not intentionally
disobedient, I just did not know any better. They had told me to receive Jesus as
my Savior. No one told me He had to be Lord and boss of my life. No one had told
me that if I wanted to see His power and His victory in my life, I had to be
committed to obey Him and to do all things His way.
Once I discovered that and began to give Him Lordship in my life, things began to
change. Besetting sins stopped besetting me. I started seeing the fruit of the spirit
manifest in my life and I began learning to with some clarity and accuracy. The
missing ingredient in my life, the thing that held me back from being successful in
Him, was a lack of commitment to His Lordship.
What about you? Has your experience been similar to mine? Have you done your
best to live a godly life but find yourself failing? Do you find the power and
victory and joy missing from your day-to-day walk? Perhaps you need to deepen
your commitment to His lordship as well. I will talk about that in the next lesson.

Lesson 10
The Lordship of Jesus Christ in Our Day to Day Lives
(part 2 of 2)
Our last lesson talked about John 14:15 and how we must make a commitment to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our day-to-day life. We must obey what He
commands because we love Him.

What does that mean? How could that little verse be the turning point to victory in
our Christian walk? I believe that Jesus is saying point-blank that He wants
Lordship in our lives if we are to walk in His power and authority and victory.
He puts it another way in Luke 6:46-49:
46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say? 47
"Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you
whom he is like:
48 "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundations on
the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house,
and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
49 "But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth
without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately
it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."
In other words, if we want a solid foundation in our lives -- if we want a
Christianity that stands firm when hardships and trials come our way; we must
make Jesus our Lord and we must do the things He tells us to do. We must start
living for Him and stop living for ourselves. We need to be totally committed to
obey Him and to honor Him in all we do and say, 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.
"Yea, sounds great. But how do I get there? What does it mean in my day-to-day
walk?" I started asking those questions years ago. What I found is that it is a
process and He continues taking Lordship in more and more areas of my life over
time. And as this occurs, I started seeing more victory and more power in my
Christian walk.
I began to ponder what it meant to make Jesus Lord...
What about my relationships with other Christians? Am I obligated to love them
and to try and get along with them -- even the ones who are not giving Jesus
Lordship in their own lives? Have I given up my right to complain about someone
to my friends or to try to avoid that person who is so unpleasant to be around if
Jesus tells me to reach out to him in love? I guess I have.
What if He tells me to do something I don't want to do -- like maybe to share my
faith with that grouchy man who always sits next to me on the subway? Did I give
up my right to debate this command with Him? Did I give up my right to try and
ignore Him when He tells me to do something I don't want to do? I guess I did.

What about those little sins I enjoy? Am I willing to give them up and to invite
Him to shine His light and His presence into that part of my life? What about my
eating habits -- can the Lord really impact what I eat and drink and the way that I
take care of my body, which is supposed to be the temple of His Holy Spirit? Will I
obey Him if He tells me to stop eating sweets because it is unhealthy for my body?
Do I really want Him that involved in my day-to-day life?
Well, what about my finances? If He is Lord of my finances, then He gets the right
to dictate how my money is spent. Hey, wait a minute! I already tithe. Does that
mean that Jesus gets to call the shots on the 90% that I get to keep? I guess it does.
If Jesus is really Lord of my finances, He has the right to tell me to give $100.00
cash to someone in need. Hey, wait a minute -- that kind of gift is not even tax
deductible! Can Jesus really spend my money any way He wants to? I guess that
He is not Lord of my finances until I can answer "yes" to that question.
Well, what about my leisure time? I go to church on Sundays and I do devotions
every morning. Does Jesus really have the right to come into my leisure time and
tell me how to use it? Does He have the right to say, "Forget going to that football
game. I want you to go baby-sit for your next store neighbor so they can see
Christian love in action"? Does He have the right to tell me to stop watching shows
on TV that are violent or sexually explicit or that teach new age philosophy? What
does His Lordship in my leisure time really mean? What about those Science
Fiction and Fantasy books I love to read. What if Jesus does not like me reading
them? Am I willing to stop and to get rid of my book collection? Gee, this is sort of
stepping on my toes. His Lordship can hit pretty close to home.
Giving Jesus Lordship in my day-to-day life really impacts me and makes it
"expensive" to be a Christian. Why on earth would anyone want to pay such a
price? Why should we make such a radical commitment to Him?
There are a lot of reasons. One is because Jesus expects to be Lord, not just Savior.
He gave His life for us, so it should not be surprising that He wants us to give our
lives to Him. That is the main thrust of Gal 2:20, which says, "For I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
Then there is John 14:15 -- "If you love Me, obey Me." That little verse is
sandwiched between incredible promises of power and victory. If we want to be
someone who prays with power and authority, Jesus must be our Lord, not just our
Savior. Of course, I want to walk in that type of power and authority and to be able
to pray effective prayers. Don't you?
And then there was that parable Jesus taught about the wise man building a
foundation under his house. That foundation is a firm commitment to allowing
Jesus to really be Lord in every area of one's life. If we have sincerely made Jesus
Lord, then our faith will not be shaken when the severe trials come. We will be

able to stand firm on the foundation of His Lordship in our life. I'd sure like to
have a firm foundation, wouldn't you?
But the best part is the intimacy with God, that close fellowship that comes from
giving Him total Lordship. Feeling His presence, seeing the fruit of the spirit in our
lives, learning to discern His voice from "not His voice" and being enveloped in
His love. It is only after we give Jesus Christ Lordship in our lives that we truly
begin to experience that Peace and Joy that is born out of a deep fellowship with
God.
Some of you might be thinking, "OK, sounds good. But how do I get started?"
There are probably many ways to get started, and I'd like to share two of them. One
comes from the book, In His Steps, by Charles Sheldon. The pastor of a prestigious
church invited the people in his congregation to an experiment in giving Jesus
Lordship in their lives. He was talking radical commitment to the Lordship of
Jesus in every detail of their lives. How did they do it? They made a commitment
that for a one year period they would ask themselves the following question -"What would Jesus do in this situation?" Then they would do what they believed
Jesus would do, no matter how costly it was for them. God turned the lives of the
people in this story around drastically as they began walking out the Lordship of
Jesus Christ in their lives. Most of them went through some trials at the beginning.
A few gave up, but the others pressed on to incredible victory. What was their
secret? They asked the Lord to show them what He would do in their situation and
then did it. They asked themselves the question "What would Jesus do in this
situation?"
My own approach was not so eloquent, but it seems to work...
I got started by simply telling Jesus that I wanted to give Him lordship in my life,
but had no clue how to walk that out. I invited Him to come and show me how. I
also committed that I would obey Him as best as I could and gave Him permission
to touch whatever part of my life He wanted to. I also asked Him to help me with
my commitment to obey Him, because I figured I was too weak to do it on my
own.
Now there are many areas in My life where Jesus has moved in and taken
Lordship, and He has done a really good job. There are also some areas that still
need to go under His lordship -- I am learning that giving Jesus Lordship is a
process, not a one-time event. We make our initial commitment and He starts to
move in, but He takes one or two areas of our life at a time. When they get under
His Lordship, then He reaches down and takes another area. We can be successful
in this only because He is the one that does the work and transforms us as we
cooperate with Him.

Think about your life. What parts of it are already under the Lordship of Jesus
Christ? Are there any parts that are not under His Lordship? Are you willing to
give Him Lordship in those areas?
What about the areas of your life where you're constantly experiencing defeat?
Would you like to have His victory in those areas? You know He can and will give
you the victory, but it comes with a price tag -- the cost is that you must give Him
lordship in that area of your life?
Maybe you are at that place of just discovering that Jesus wants Lordship in your
life. I'd like to encourage you to silently review your life with Him and then to
consider offering an area of your life where He does not already have Lordship to
Jesus. Realize that this is both the best decision and also the most expensive
decision that you can make.
Select an area of your life and lay it on the altar as a gift to Jesus. Invite Him to
come into that area of your life. In doing so, you will be giving up your rights to
control that portion of your life. But Jesus will bring His beauty and His victory
and His glory into that area as He actively takes Lordship over it. Realize it is a
process and that you may find yourself trying to take back control until He reminds
you that you've given Him the driver's license in that area. If you will commit to
giving Him Lordship, He will commit to walking it through with you and will
continue to bring His presence and His victory into it.
Once you've chosen an area of your life to give Jesus Lordship in, go talk to Him
about it. Tell Him that you are giving up all your rights in this area and invite Him
to come and take lordship of it. Ask Him to teach you how to walk out His lordship
of this area of your life in your day-to-day walk.
If Jesus has only been your Savior up to now, it is time to start making Him your
Lord.

Lesson 11
Faithfulness in Finances

This is a touchy topic for many. But God expects us to be faithful to Him in the
area of our finances. This means the sometimes dreaded "T-word" (tithing). But it
is more than that. God wants Lordship over your purse strings, and He will
undoubtedly test you in this area. Jesus Himself said, "If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon (money and finances), who will commit to
your trust the true riches?" (Luke 16:11).

If you want to be an effective intercessor, God must know that His Lordship in
your life is more important to you than your finances. He desires to trust you with
the true riches of the kingdom -- His power and authority to do with the Father
what the Father is doing. He wants you to realize John 14:12-14 in your life: "12 I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He
will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I
will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Son may bring glory to the
Father. 14 You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it."
The tie between faith and answered prayer is obvious. But you may be wondering
how faithfulness in finances enters into this. It really is simple. Tithing is showing
God that you trust Him to make your tithed 90% go further than 100% would go
without His anointing. If you can't trust God to do that with your finances (a
relative simple task,) then how can you trust God with some of the bigger issues of
intercession?
John 14:12-14 talks about an authority in prayer where we expect to regularly have
our prayers answered. God desires to give us this type of authority in intercession
and in our day-to-day Christian walk. But there is a condition attached to this
promise. Look at verse 15, the verse immediately following the promise: "If you
love Me, you will obey what I command."
Now, God knows that for most of us, the area of finances is one of the most
difficult to turn over to Him. So this is an area that He tests and grooms His
effective intercessors in. He will sometimes ask us to give money, sometimes even
large sums of money, to something He wants rather than what we want. Sometimes
this does not even make sense to us. Let me share a brief story to illustrate.
I had only recently committed to walking out God's Lordship in every area of my
life, and asked Him to teach me how. One of the first "lessons" He gave me was in
the area of finances. My friend Lenora had recently become engaged to a young
minister who lived by faith rather than taking a salary from his small church. God
spoke to me one day and said, "Teresa, Raymond does not have enough money to
buy an engagement ring for Lenora. I want you to give the money to him and to
tell him it is from me." The ring Leona wanted was over $2,000 dollars, and was
nicer than my own engagement ring. Well, I had the money, I'd been saving it
towards something I wanted for myself. I spent a few days making sure it was
God's voice and not the enemy's. The hardest part of obeying God on that was not
giving up the thing I'd been saving for; it was that I'd be paying for Lenora to have

a nicer engagement ring than the one I had! I struggled for a bit then God said, "I
want you to do it this morning."
It was Saturday, I took the money from the bank and went to Raymond's house and
gave it to him, telling him it was from God in answer to his prayers. He did not
look inside the envelope to see how much was there. He did not invite me in. He
simply said "Thank you," and closed the door, leaving me standing on the
doorstep, feeling stupid. But the next day I attend his church and heard his side of
the story as he shared it in a sermon.
He had been on his face praying when I knocked at the door. He was considering
calling off the wedding. Yes, Raymond had faith for himself to live "on faith" but
how could he ask his bride to do this? He could not ask Lenora to live this way. He
complained to God that he did not even have the money to buy her an engagement
ring. And he might not have the money to meet any of her other needs in the future.
So he was going to call off the wedding. Right then his prayer was interrupted by a
knock on the door. It was me, handing him an envelope. After he closed the door,
God spoke to him and said, "Raymond, if you trust Me, I will take care of both you
and Lenora. See, I have already provided you with the money for the engagement
ring. Open the envelope and look."
God used that little test of my obedience in finances to speak to Raymond in a
powerful way, to build his faith and to keep him from calling off the wedding. (By
the way, that was many years ago and they are still happily married.)
I was wow-ed and amazed by what God had done. I began to realize that God had a
"big plan" and purpose, and that if I wanted to participate big time in it with Him, I
would not be able to hold back any area of my finances.
Of course, intercessors need to be tithing if they want to be effective in
intercession. This is laid out in the Old Testament in Malachi, but Jesus confirms it
in Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17 and Luke 20:25. He is asked if people should pay
taxes. He asked them to show him a coin. They He said, "Who's picture is on it."
They replied, "Caesar's." Then Jesus said, "give to Caesar the things which are
Caesar's; and give to God the things that are God's."
From this we see that effective intercessors are to pay taxes and be in right
relationship financially with the government. But even more so, we are to not
withhold anything from God, not even our finances. That belongs to Him. Have
you made a commitment to give Jesus Lordship in every area of your life? If so,

you have given Him Lordship over your finances. Do not be surprised if He moves
in and takes Lordship in that area. Be surprised if He does not, because if you want
to walk with Him in power and authority, He must be Lord of your finances.
Also, there will be times where God asks us to give as a prophetic gesture (or a
prophetic acting out) in our intercession. I have had this happen many times to me.
Let me share one such story with you, from June of 1995.
Sunday, June 4, our pastor shared that finances were way down because people
were not tithing and that if a financial miracle did not happen soon, he would have
to take a drastic measure (like `across-the-board salary cuts' for the Church staff or
lay someone off). He did not make a big plea for money or pressure anyone to
give, but he did inform us of the financial situation. He mentioned that only about
25% of the Church was tithing.
The previous Sunday, I was in Toronto and Jack Deere had preached on tithing and
it's relationship to our release into spiritual authority. He mentioned that we spend
our money on what we value and if we are unwilling to obey God and tithe; we are
telling God that we don't think He is very important. He also demonstrated from
Luke 16:10-12 how God uses our financial rightness with Him (e.g., obedience in
tithing) to determine whether or not He could trust us with the true riches of His
authority. Jack explained that healing authority and the miraculous and even an
authority in intercession all fall under the category of "true riches".
At the end of that Sunday morning service in Toronto, Paul Cain (also present in
the meeting) prophesied that God was going to heal some of the people with
terminal cancer as a sign that Jack's message on tithing was really from Him. And
many people were healed.
While they were praying for people with cancer, The Lord spoke to me and said,
"Teresa, your Church is not tithing."
Now, the following Sunday, our pastor announced from the pulpit that we were in
financial trouble because we were not tithing. I prayed about this when I got home
from service. I figured that I already tithed, so I was "in the clear". But I started
praying for a release from the things that kept the people in our Church from
tithing. I also prayed that the Lord would forgive us for our disobedience as a
Church and would restore our authority.

Then the Lord spoke to me again and told me to "put my money where my mouth
was." He told me to give a freewill offering of ten times my regular tithe above and
beyond tithing. His voice was so clear that I did not have to seek Him for
confirmation.
So the next day I called the Church office and talked with the person who handles
the finances. I mentioned that the Lord had instructed me to give a certain sum of
money and that I hoped this would help defer any salary cuts or other drastic
measures. I had to come to Church for a meeting on Tuesday night, so I dropped
the check off. (Ten times my normal tithe is a lot of money to me, but I was so
confident that this was the Lord's will that I never gave it a second thought. I felt
good about obeying the Lord on this but did not think about it very much.)
When I got home that night and went to bed, the Holy Spirit fell on me and it was
as powerful very powerful. I was filled with extreme joy as soon as my head hit the
pillow. God's presence was very tangible in the room and my spirit was full of His
delight. There did not seem to be any great purpose in this visitation, and the Lord
didn't really speak much of anything to me. It was more like He was playing with
me. I can't give a detailed description of what happened, but it happened for about
three and a half hours. I felt full to overflowing and it was so good just to be in His
presence. I do remember telling Him that I wish we could do this all of the time.
When I woke up the next morning, I wondered why the Lord fell on me so
powerfully that night. It wasn't until much later that He showed me that this was a
blessing because of my obedience in giving the offering He told me to give.
That Thursday at work, my boss walked into my office and handed me a check for
twice the amount of money that I'd given to the Church! It was a totally unexpected
bonus. It did not even occur to me that this was because I had given an offering to
my Church. I figured that the offering was an "intercessory act." I truly did not
expect anything back from God; I was just obeying what He told me to do.
The next day, the Lord spoke to me and told me about the relationship He said that
He is eager to demonstrate to His kids that the principles that He laid down in the
Bible really do work just the way He said they would.
When we Lordship of our finances to God, He is well able to take care of us!
Now it is time to do a spiritual checkup with God in the area of your finances. If
you are not tithing, you need to have a discussion with God about that. But, beyond

tithing, are you really willing to let Him be Lord of Your finances? If you are
willing, stop and tell Him so, and ask Him to empower you to obey Him when He
tests you in this area.

Lesson 12
Worship

Did you know that there is a relationship between your worship life and increased
hearing in the prophetic and effective intercession?
God wants us to be instant in season and out of season to worship Him. "In season"
is easy, that is worshipping when we feel like it. "Out of season" is a bit harder -that is worshipping when our world seems to be falling apart, when we are
burdened down with the cares of this world, when we are sad, etc. David
understood this and in the Psalms we see a constant pattern of David taking his
eyes off of the circumstances (and boy did he have some get-me-down types of
circumstances) and focusing his eyes on God. Here is the secret: as we focus our
eyes and attention away from the circumstances to God, God meets us and lifts us
up to the Heavenlies, into His presence where there is "fullness of joy".
I was going through a situation that in the natural is very hard for me. If I was to
focus on this situation, I would become overwhelmed and sad, alternating between
wanting to give up and crying out to the Lord for His intervention in it. But God
showed me that He has a better way. He wanted me to focus on Him instead of on
the situation. He wanted to saturate me with His presence and reveal Himself to
me. As I looked to Him instead of to the problem, I was drawn to Him and my
heart spilled out into worship. The problem became small and insignificant in the
presence of almighty God who can do all things and who works all things together
for good. God became so big and so real and so tangible and so awesome.
Worship and intimacy with God go together. As we draw into worship, He comes
and inhabits our worship. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His
people. When He inhabits, we are in His presence and there is an increased
intimacy with God. As His presence increases, we cannot help but respond to Him
with increased worship and as the worship increases, His manifest presence with us
increases. It is like a circle that goes on and on until we are transported from our
circumstances into His very presence. And as God's manifest presence with us

increases, there is an increase of anointing, where we can flow more freely with
God and what He is doing, where we can move more easily in His gifting.
It becomes easier to hear Him speak. It becomes easier to flow in prophetic
intercession. But our goal is NOT to worship so we can flow more and move more
in prophetic intercession. Our goal is to worship to draw closer to Him. The
increase in prophetic worship is a "fringe benefit" that comes as we are able to
flow more easily in His anointing.
Our attention and focus are on Him, not on ourselves, and we desire to do with
Him what He is doing to please Him. We are drawn into new depths of closeness
with God. And incredibly powerful prayers can come from that place.
God told me that worshipping Him is our first and highest calling. It is what we
were created to do. We have another important short-term task while we are alive
on this earth. Jesus has made us His witness, and He has given us the responsibility
to tell others about Him. But that is not what we are created for, it is not our
ultimate destiny. You can think of being His witness like a temporary job. It only
matters while we are alive on this earth and before Jesus returns as the Second
Coming King. The "time of decision," when people can accept or reject Christ and
His salvation, is very short-term compared to all of eternity.
Right now witnessing is a very important job, one that many of Jesus' followers fall
short on. It is much more important to be His witness than it is to get a good
education or a good job or a nice home and a comfortable life. Many Christians
have their priorities wrong, they don't realize that their thinking is based on the
world's values and all this still will pass away. Right now, in this life, we have an
important short-term job to do: we are to be a witness for Jesus. This is very
important and we must not slack off on that job. If we slack off now, that means
that some people who were created to worship God will go to Hell and will not be
able to fulfill their eternal destiny, and God won't get all the praise and worship He
deserves.
It is very important to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus, to
introduce them to their Savior. But it is only a temporary job, not our eternal
calling and destiny. We have to do our short-term job assignment while we are on
this earth. We must e effective witnesses for Christ.
But at the same time, we also have our eternal job to do. That eternal job is to
worship God. Fortunately, one does not exclude the other. We can both worship

and be a witness here on this earth. When we die or if we are taken to Heaven
without dieing -- at that point there won't be any need to witness anymore. That job
will be over and done. But there will still be opportunity to worship God. We will
be able to do that for all eternity.
There are lots of good things we can do on the earth that we won't do in heaven. It
is good to share Jesus with the unsaved. It is good to tangibly meet people's needs
and so manifest the love of God. It is good to pray and intercede and do spiritual
warfare. It is good to minister to the saints. It is good to breathe His life through
the prophetic, to set captives free and empower believers through renewal prayer.
We are to do all of these things, because our Father is doing them and we am to do
with Him what He is doing.
But our greatest ministry and our highest priority is to minister to the Father by
worshipping Him. This is what He created us to do. And as we minister to Him and
come deeper into His presence, we am able to see and hear and perceive more what
His heart is and what He is doing and saying. And then we am able to flow more
easily in His anointing (e.g. with His Spirit to do what He is doing). And He does
delight to use us like this, to let us do with the Father what the Father is doing. Yet
our highest calling and priority remains to minister to the Father in love by
worshipping Him freely with our whole heart, our whole being. For when we
worship God, it blesses Him, it ministers to Him, it makes Him happy.
God wants to teach us how to worship Him. His "school of worship" is incredible.
We can go through circumstances that should be overwhelming, that should really
get us down. Yet our spirit is soaring and we am filled with His joy. (This is
because we have chosen to focus our eyes on Him and to look to Him instead of to
the circumstances.)
God once told me that we have a choice.. we can choose to look to Him and be
transformed into His presence or we can choose to focus on the problems and
circumstances and be dragged down by them.
God told me that to go up "with Him" in worship, we must let go of the things that
hold us down. We must stop clinging to them. If we are willing, He will help us,
even to the point of prying our grasp off of those things that we are holding onto.
Then He showed me a picture of a child's hand tightly grasping a stone. A parent's
hand came along and began gently prying the fingers back one by one until the
child could not cling to the stone any more and it fell out of his hand. God said He
would do this for us, He will help us to release those things so we could go higher

with Him. There will be times when we find it easy to simply let go of what holds
us back and go up into worship with Him. But when it is hard for us to let go, He
will not be upset. He promises to help us (even to pry our fingers loose from what
we am clinging to) if we will choose to look to Him and focus on Him instead of
on it.
A friend of mine put it this way: "Where we focus our attention is where we will
dwell. We have a choice. We can live in the sad-lands, or we can live in God's
promised land. It is up to us."
God desires that we focus our attention on Him and worship Him. And that
transforms us from the sad-lands into His very presence where there is fullness of
joy and pleasures forevermore.

Lesson 13
Overcoming Condemnation
One of the strategies that the enemy will use against intercessors is to try and get us
to disqualify ourselves. No one can take an intercessor out of commission (e.g.,
make them ineffective) more quickly and powerfully than that intercessor
himself/herself. The enemy knows this and he wants to try and talk intercessors out
of "stepping up" to their place of intercession. He tries to focus them on their
failures, their inadequacies, etc. to convince them that they have no right to be
praying or interceding because they are too much of a mess.
One of his favorite strategies is to bombard them for weeks (sometimes for
months) with temptation in an area of weakness ... until they finally succumb
briefly to it. Then, with glee, condemnation and disqualification set in, trying to
convince the intercessor that they can no longer intercede because they have
"fallen" into this sin. The enemy takes a magnifying glass and focuses it on the
person's weaknesses, faults and insecurities. The enemy diverts their attention from
God and His greatness and His love, mercy and forgiveness to their own faults.
Things begin to look bleak, hopeless. And the intercessor is so focused on their
failure that they forget the truth.
The strategy to overcome this type of attack is to let God's light shine into the
darkness that the failure and enemy attention has created. Yes, child of God, you
sinned, you made a mistake or you blew it. Ok, you know you are human and
dependent on God's grace. Now get up, run back to God. Apply the blood of Jesus
and receive your forgiveness. God is not a liar. He said that if you confess your
sins, He would forgive you and make you clean and righteous again in 1 John 1:9.

Let's look at the text: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Did you think that applied to everyone but you? Are you somehow disqualified
from God's promise of forgiveness and restoration because you are an intercessor?
Do you need to be separated from God for a season? Do you need to be punished
for a period of time before you can be restored? Guess what? If you are hearing
and of these type of things, these are not from God and them are not true. These
things are the voice of your adversary, the voice of condemnation and
disqualification whispering into your ear to try and get you to disqualify yourself.
This is a strategy of the enemy against you to try and neutralize your prayers by
getting you to stop praying.
But there is good news. Look at Romans 8:1-3. "1 Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the
law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the
law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering."
This means that condemnation and disqualification are already defeated by the
blood of Jesus! They have no power over you!
(Please note that I am not talking about those who use the blood of Jesus as an
excuse to keep sinning, to do whatever they like. They occasionally repent to be
"right with God incase they die," so that they can go back and sin again. If you are
living like that, you have no interest in God's Lordship in your life, and I am not
talking to you in this lesson. In fact, I have a Scripture for anyone who thinks they
can sin however they want and go through a formality of repenting later to keep
their "eternal life insurance policy" active. Look at Romans 6:1-4, which says, "1
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By
no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know
that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a
new life.")
However, the vast majority of intercessors do not fall into the "Let's keep on
sinning because there is grace" category. Rather they are men and women of God
who love God and desire to live holy before Him. From time to time they fall,
make a mistake or blow it. Then the enemy tries to come in with condemnation and
get the intercessor to disqualify himself or herself. This is a very common strategy
the enemy uses against intercessors. I have fallen prey to it many times, through I
am getting much faster at recognizing and combating this strategy.

Let me share a somewhat recent example with you. My husband, Ed, and I have a
fairly good relationship. We do not fight very often. But one time, about a week
before our 11th wedding anniversary, we got into a real bad argument and both said
terribly hurtful things to each other. We both said things designed to make the other
feel bad. Well, a few hours later it was time for my regular evening devotions, but I
felt too dirty to get into God's presence. So I stayed up all night watching TV in an
attempt to avoid God. I finally fell asleep on the living room sofa with the TV still
going. The next morning I woke up late and rushed to work, not having time for
morning devotions with God. I was lonely that day because God was not in my day
with me. Shame and condemnation had a field day with me.
By that evening, I knew I could not avoid God any longer. I knew I'd blown it and
was not looking forward to what God might have to say to me. But I was
determined to come to Him. I did not care what His terms and conditions were, I
was willing to meet them because I wanted to be right with Him again! I sat down
and told Him so, repenting for my behavior in the argument with Ed and also
repenting for avoiding Him. Within minutes, He told me to get a paper and pencil
and start writing, because He wanted to talk to me. (God frequently does this with
me -- when He wants to speak to me, He tells me to "start writing" and He speaks
to me as I write.)
This is what God said to me. It is very private, and I would not normally share
something like this. But I feel that He wants me to share it with you, so that you
can be encouraged and know of His goodness and grace in this type of situation:
Welcome daughter, come into My presence. You should not have allowed the
incident to push you away from it. Now come back to Me and find My blessings..
for they are surely upon you.
Now, Teresa, who moved? Did I pull away from you or did you pull away from
me? (I did, Lord.)
Well, guess what? If I want to withdraw My presence from you for a season, I can
certainly do it on My own... I don't need your help! Sweetheart, don't decided to
withdraw your presence from Me, it is not good for you. It causes you unnecessary
pain and suffering. It is not My way. Never punish yourself by deciding you are too
dirty to come to Me. Instead come to Me and let Me wash and clean you. Let Me
shine My light on you and dispel any darkness. Let Me shower you in My truth.
Teresa, I am much safer to run to when you feel dirty than it is safe to run away
from Me. You cannot survive apart from Me, don't even consider it. If I wanted you
separated, I would separate you. This is a season of intimacy, so run to Me no
matter how dirty you feel. Have I not told you over and over that I am safe? Yes, I
am a safe place. Will I not forgive you freely?
Yes, daughter, I am a safe place and My arms are wide open to embrace you.

So, child of God, if shame or condemnation is trying to get you to disqualify

yourself, run to God. Embrace His truth and light and His forgiveness. Let Him
reinstate you as only He can do. Run to Him!

Lesson 14
Helpful Spiritual Disciplines
We have spent the last 13 weeks running through a spiritual checkup. We have
looked at things like our heart motives, e.g., do we want to be an effective
intercessor? We looked at building relationship with God, and about allowing God
to speak to us about personal areas of our lives. We learned to allow God to
supercede our intercession agenda with His agenda. We talked about learning to
hear His voice and be spirit-led, committing to His Lordship in every area or our
lives (even in the area of our finances), worshipping Him even when we don't feel
like it, and overcoming condemnation and enemy ploys to get us to disqualify
ourselves.
Now, I would like to share a spiritual discipline to help tie this all together and
make it practical in our day-to-day lives. I would like to offer this on two levels: 1)
our personal walk with God and 2) our prayer and intercession life.
Spiritual Discipline For Our Personal Walk With God
Early each the morning, pray and invite God to orchestrate (e.g., plan) your day for
you and to make you aware of His leading and direction in it. Throughout the day,
try to pay special attention to details, asking God and yourself if "this" or "that" is
God's hand. Feel free to pray frequently, asking God what He is doing and how you
can do it with Him.
At night, before you go to bed, put aside some quiet time and ask God to review
your day with you. Ask Him to point out those cases where you heard His voice.
Also review whether or not you obeyed Him and what your attitude was when you
heard Him. E.g., did you obey gladly or obey grudgingly or did you decide you
were not going to do what He asked?
Ask God to reveal to you the times throughout the day (if any) where you missed
His voice all together. If there were any, ask Him how you can be more sensitive to
hearing Him next time, what types of queues to listen for, and ask Him to alert you
next time you "miss Him".
During this review time with God, begin ask yourself (and the Lord) questions
like:

1. What were you doing when God spoke to you? Were you in quiet time with
Him, or were you busy doing day-to-day activity? If possible, identify your activity
each time you noticed God speaking to you or each time you noticed Him
orchestrating your plans. See if there are any patterns.
2. What was your mental state when God spoke to you? Were you in communion
with God or worship? Or were you upset and crying out to God? were you happy
or mad or frustrated or were you just concentrating on mundane things when God
suddenly broke in? If possible, identify the mental state you were in each time God
communicated with you or orchestrated something, and look for any patterns.
3. Were there ways God spoke to you that were easy to identify/notice that God
was speaking to you?
4. Were there times when you were in the middle of something God was
orchestrating before you noticed He was doing this?
5. Were there ways God spoke to you or lead you that were harder for you to
notice, e.g., ways you almost missed?
6. Did you notice any patterns of ways God may commonly speak to you or lead
you? (For instance, when I first started learning God's voice, He would frequently
speak to me through object lessons, pointing something out to me in the natural
and then showing me the spiritual application. Another example is that God used to
speak to me by repetition: first I'd read something in a Bible verse, then later that
day, I'd hear it in a song, then a bit later someone would mention it to me and
maybe an hour later I'd see it an a magazine article until I finally got the idea that
God was trying to tell me something.)
The point of asking all these questions is to look for patterns that might help you
more easily identify when God is speaking to you or leading you.
This exercise (or spiritual discipline) is powerful, even when done for only one
day, but it is effective when done repeatedly for a long period of time, like every
day for a month.
Understanding Our Intercessory Style
Ask God to help you better understand what type of intercessor assignments He
has called you to. C. Peter Wagner has identified four types of intercessors, and
many have found his categories very helpful. When you know what types of prayer
assignments the Lord typically gives to you, it makes you more effective. This is
because you can concentrate on your area of expertise and not waste time on things
you have not been called/gifted to pray for. Briefly, here are the four categories:

1. GENERAL INTERCESSORS
These are people God empowers to pray for specific prayer requests. Their can be
a lot of variety in the prayer assignments they take on, but these tend to be very
specific requests. They would not pray for something as vague as "world revival"
but they might target a specific unreached people group or country and pray for
revival for that group or country. These intercessors expect to see God answer
prayer and many of them like to keep track of how God answers their prayers.
Typically they are ones who will take on a specific prayer requests and thoroughly
pray it through until the request is answered or until God says "stop praying." This
type of intercessor often keeps a prayer list and often keeps a prayer journal with
dates, requests and the date and way the request was answered.
2. PERSONAL INTERCESSORS
These people seem to be assigned to cover specific individuals. They are often in
some type of relationship with this person, but sometimes they don't know them
personally. They will often pray for many different aspects regarding this person,
and may be open to taking requests from the person. But will have difficulty
praying for requests/individuals who they don't feel God has assigned them to.
Personal intercessors may feel called to cover all aspects of a ministry (such as
GodSpeak International) instead of just specific individuals.
3. STRATEGIC INTERCESSORS
These people tend to get specific short term prayer assignments from God. These
can vary from covering an individual to covering an event to covering specific
requests. Assignments can last from a few days to a few months. Often these
assignments come directly from God, complete with some from of supernatural
revelation, and not from formal prayer request lists. Strategic intercessors usually
cannot pray prayer lists, and cannot commit to praying through specific prayer
requests that their friends and acquaintances may bring them. In fact, many
strategic intercessors tend to dread prayer lists.
4. WARFARE INTERCESSORS
These people seem to be called in to direct spiritual warfare, direct engagements
with the enemy under direction from God. This can vary from personal deliverance
to taking on stronger demonic principalities. They often have the gift of
discernment and supernatural revelation from God regarding enemy activity/plans.
These intercessors seem to move under a divine protection, suffering relatively
little spiritual counter-attack for the warfare they engage in. However, if someone
not assigned to this type of warfare were to do the same activities, they will often
get wiped out big time.

Prayerfully pay attention to the types of prayer assignments the Lord gives you and
how they arrive. That way, you can begin to understand of what type of intercessor
God has called you to be. Some people find they fall into two or even three
categories, but most will find that the vast majority of their assignments fall into a
single one of these four categories. Any intercessor will sometimes have a small
amount of prayer assignments that are outside of their prayer style (e.g., category),
so don't be worried if you have one or two assignments that don't seem to match a
given category that most of your other assignments fall into.
Knowing these categories, and where you fit into them, can be quite helpful. For
instances, if you are a general intercessor (my favorite type to have on prayer lists),
then you will be very good at latching onto a request God has quickened to you
and praying it through. You will also be good at discerning when God says it is
time to stop praying for it. You will like to have prayer requests and prayer needs
made known to you, and you will find vague abstract prayer requests rather
frustrating. You will love to receive feedback of how God answers your prayers,
and you will be used to getting lots of feedback of God answering prayer.
On the other hand, if you are a strategic intercessor, prayer requests and prayer lists
will drive you crazy, making you feel frustrated and confined. You would rather be
given general info on a situation and go wait before God and for His instructions
on how to pray for it. So if you are a strategic intercessor and people are trying to
load you down with specific requests ("Molly broke her leg" and "Please pray for
my niece's salvation," etc) you will become frustrated praying these requests. So
you might want to learn to not commit to praying people's prayer requests.
Alternately you might commit to pray them as God recalls them to you or put them
on your heart -- but you don't want to make a daily commitment to pray through
someone's personal prayer request if you are the type who doesn't like to pray from
prayer lists.
No matter which category you fall into, there will always be people who will try to
pressure you to pray outside of your prayer category and outside of your Godgiven prayer assignments. The goal is to better understand how God has called you
to pray so that you can put your focus (e.g., concentrate the largest part of your
time) on the type of assignment that God has specifically gifted you to pray into.
We will talk more about how to use your understanding and fine tuning of what
prayer assignments God has called you to in our final lesson.

Lesson 15
Fine Tuning Your Prayer Assignments

You have to be feeling a bit "brave" for this lesson, as it might turn your prayer life
upside down. The goal is to have our prayer life be Spirit-led, to make us confident
in the prayer assignments He has given us, to identify those prayer targets we are
carrying that God has not assigned to us, and to make us aware of prayer
assignments that we've been missing.
The first step is to sit down and prayerfully comprise a list of all your regular
prayer targets, things you pray for on a regular or ongoing basis. This may include
specific people. It may include specific ministries, such as your local church or
maybe GodSpeak International. It may include places, such as South Africa or
Turkey. (These may be permanent or long-term assignments, or they may be shortterm assignments that you are currently carrying.) It may include people you know,
specific prayer requests that have been given to you, things you read in the
newspaper or saw on the news that sparked your heart. It may include abstract
things like a release of God's power and glory over the church or it may be very
specific and measurable, such as that the murder rate of Oakland would go down. It
may be for people's benefit (such as Lord make Aunt Sue strong in God and a
woman of faith) or it may be for a specific need (Lord, please heal Dan's foot) or it
may for a people group (Lord break financial oppression off of the people in
Mitchell's Plain (South Africa) and release financial liberty among them), or it be
direct spiritual warfare (taking authority and addressing spirits as God leads, etc).
The next step needs to be done at a different time than step 1 was done, like maybe
the next day or later that week. Sit down and prayerfully go over this list with God.
Ask God how He feels about each prayer target, what His heart is on it. Some of
His answers may surprise you. For instance, I had been praying regularly for my
husband's salvation after God had already promised it to me. I continued to petition
for it. He told me to stop praying so frequently about that (though an occasional
reminder was ok) and to trust Him to do what He has already promised. He said I
was wasting prayer time and energy on something He'd already granted even
though I hadn't seen the manifestation of His answer yet. He suggested that I put
that "prayer energy" into other areas that He had assigned to me. It was actually
very "freeing" to not be responsible to pray for Ed's salvation every day, but to trust
God for it.
(By the way, the Lord has since raised up several intercessors who He has assigned
(on and off) to pray for Ed's salvation. Every time I hear of someone God has
raised up like that, it gives me more confidence in His faithfulness to keep His
promises.)

I found that I was not putting enough prayer out in certain areas, like praying for a
close friend's family. Shortly after that, the family suffered all sorts of attack and I
found an increased energy and intensity to pray for them.
I found that I was praying for certain things out of obligation, rather than because
God told me to. I had allowed a person to pressure me into agreeing to pray for
them about something because I was afraid of hurting their feelings. To my
surprise, God was not at all pleased with my prayers in this area. He would prefer I
don't do that since I was not assigned to that area. And there had been some
assignments I'd missed all together because I had been too busy with the
"obligation" prayers.
Talk to God about each of your prayer targets. Do this several days in a row.
God may not say much to you about some of them, and that is ok. But, you will
notice that God will repeatedly tell you "Yes" or "No" regarding certain
assignments. Cross the ones that He repeatedly says "No" to off of your list for a
few days and see what happens. Put the majority of your prayer focus on the ones
that He repeatedly says "Yes" to.
Ask God to teach you not only what to pray, but how to pray for it. Be very open to
His leading. Allow Him to move you in new areas of prayer.
Now, the last step is to ask God to make you aware, each time a new potential
prayer target comes into your prayer life, as to how it comes in, whether or not it is
an assignment from God for you to pray about. I am not talking about the one-time
prayers, but rather the requests and targets that you feel led to "pray through."
Now let's go back to the four intercessor types (general, personal, strategic and
warfare) from our previous lesson. Let me share how this applies what we are
doing now. The reason you need to know this is so that you can ask the Lord to
help you identify what type of intercessor you are and what type of style you work
most effectively in.
Invite God to show you clearly what style of prayer He has gifted you in and called
you to. Ask Him to begin to orchestrate more opportunities for you to move in the
element He created you to be effective in. At the same time, ask Him to show you
the areas (if any) where you are being pressured by man (instead of assigned by
God) to pray, and ask Him to quickly identify to you when you are taking on a
prayer assignment that is not of Him.

Remember, the goal is to prayerfully review your prayer life with God, and to finetune it so that your prayers are even more Spirit-led and even more effective.
Closing Thought
The goal of this series has been to back up and take a look at our prayer life. We
tried to understand what prayer is (a personal and deeply intimate relationship with
God). We discovered that we launch into intercession (praying for others) out of
the place of our own deep and personal relationship with God. Since we don't want
anything to interfere in our own walk with God or in our prayer life, we looked at
some of the more common pitfalls that can render our prayer life ineffective. Then
we did some exercises (or spiritual disciplines) to help us grow in our prayer life
and in our personal relationship with God. Finally, we looked at some specific
details of our prayer lives, so we could identify what is productive (e.g., prayer
assignments that are really from God) and eliminate anything that is unproductive
(e.g., any prayer assignments that God has not given us).
Hopefully that will help us fine-tune our personal walk with God and our prayer
assignments so that we are spirit-led in all we do. That is our ultimate goal. We
need to be spirit-led in our personal prayer and in our intercessory assignments.
That way we can grow even more in our gifting.
It can be very exciting as God takes us from one level up to the next level. New
things begin to open up to us, increased friendship and intimacy with God,
increased understanding, increased power and anointing and sometimes even
increased scope of ministry and more authority in prayer. But all of these things are
not as important as our own close and personal relationship with God.
I hope this teaching series has been helpful to you.
In closing, let me share my prayer for you:
I pray that you will be very sensitive to the Spirit's leading and direction, and that
you will continue to grow into new depths in your relationship with God. Also, that
you will hear His voice more clearly and be continuously transformed to be more
and more like Jesus in all you think and do. Do in Lord! Amen.

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