Ministries
1st Quarter 2008 (January, February, March)
PrayerNotes
By Lynne Hammond
Dearest Friend and Pray-er,
It happens to every praying person. At one time or another, we all get stuck. We find ourselves caught in a rut—and no matter how much we rev our spiritual motors, we can’t seem to move forward.
When that happens, you won’t stay stuck very long if you’ll remember what I’m about to tell you. You’ll connect with the resources God has provided (the ones designed to keep our praying fresh and powerful) and before you know it, you’ll be out of that rut and moving on down the road.
I don’t mind telling you, in these days it’s vital for us to do that. We can’t afford to waste time spinning our wheels in prayer. With every passing moment, we are moving closer to the second coming of Jesus and there’s a great work of prayer that must be done before He comes. So we must all stay on track. We must stay energized and effective in our praying.
How can we do that?
We do it by availing ourselves of the three major prayer resources the Lord has given us: the Word of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the corporate anointing. In these last days, if we are going to get the job done in prayer, we will need all three of those elements functioning in our lives.
The Foundation of the Word
Although I’m not going to write a great deal about it here because there are other things I feel impressed to emphasize, let me say this right up front: the Bible, the written Word of God, is first and foremost the foundation for all of our praying.
There are many things we can (and should) pray straight from the written Word in simple faith. And we can always pray those things with boldness because the Word contains the clear, unchanging will of God. As 1 John 5:14-15 says:
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (nkjv).
We can always pray with unwavering faith the prayers that Paul wrote in his letters to the New Testament churches, for example. We can pray and receive our healing whenever we are sick, knowing that the Bible says by Jesus’ stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24). We can ask for and receive provision because the Bible promises God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
But there are many things we must pray about that are not plainly declared in the Word. Many events that surround the second coming of Christ and what needs to happen to prepare for it are mysteries to us. Even though the Scripture sheds some light upon those matters, we still know about them only in part. Therefore, to be effective in prayer, we must have piles of help from the Holy Spirit! We must have specific revelations and leadings from Him.
If you’re a Spirit-led pray-er, you already know that. No doubt, you’ve received many wonderful promptings and insights from the Holy Spirit that have helped you pray. But here’s the hitch. Sometimes even the most Spirit-led people get their own thoughts and opinions mixed in with those leadings. When that happens, we can end up praying our will instead of the will of the Lord.
From Revelation to Rebuke
If you want to see how easily that can happen, think about Peter. He was one of the elite. One of the twelve men that Jesus spent the most time with during His ministry on earth, he received one of the most vital, Spirit-inspired revelations ever.
At a time when other people were saying that Jesus was Elijah, Jeremiah, or John the Baptist re-incarnated, Peter tapped into the hotline of the Holy Spirit and declared that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. When Jesus heard him say that, He commended him saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17 nkjv).
I don’t know this for sure, but I’d guess that Peter was just like the rest of us. He probably felt pretty good about himself after that. He figured he’d learned how to hear from God. He knew how to receive insights from heaven. He had inside information.
But, as the Bible says, pride goes before a fall. So just a few verses later, we find Peter rebuking Jesus for saying He was going to die on the cross. Peter—all full of self-assurance—assumed he was still hearing from heaven. He thought he was promoting the will of God by saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matthew 16:22 nkjv).
But he was wrong and Jesus let him know it in no uncertain terms. “He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men’” (verse 23 nkjv).
One translation phrases Jesus’ statement like this: Peter, you are in My way. For you think just like every other person. You mind the things of man and not God’s thoughts.
Stay Out of the Driver’s Seat
Of course, none of us can criticize Peter. We’ve all made the same mistake. We’ve all disconnected from the leading of the Holy Spirit at times and prayed according to our own, human thoughts and understanding.
A few years ago, the Lord gave me some instructions to help me guard against that. He said, “Keep a loose hold on your own thinking and understanding of events that are to be. Keep a firm hold on God and His revealed will.”
I’ll admit, I haven’t always followed those instructions. Sometimes in prayer, I’ve gotten just a little bit too much of myself in the driver’s seat. I’ve started dictating to the Holy Spirit what needs to happen instead of letting Him dictate those things to me.
I remember one particular season many years ago, for instance, when I was praying a certain way about the body of Christ. I had an opinion about some things that needed to happen. I thought everybody needed to be a part of the Word of Faith movement (because it had blessed me so much) so I gathered verses of Scripture and built a case to pray for that. I even had a prayer group that prayed with me along those lines and we were fervent in our praying. We got steamed up about the issue.
One day, I was standing in the prayer room and I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Don’t pray that way anymore. That is not the will of God.”
I was so floored that I ran out of the prayer room. Too flustered to know what else to do, I walked to the water fountain but instead of getting a drink, I just stood there with a sullen face, watched the water run, and thought, Then what on earth am I supposed to pray?
Of course, once I asked that question, the Holy Spirit started answering it. He gave me a revelation of the multi-faceted body of Christ that empowered me to pray in a fresh, new way. That’s how it always is when we get a revelation of the Holy Spirit about something. It causes us to pray with new power.
It moves us out of our rut and lifts us to a whole new level in prayer!
Tapping Into Corporate Anointing
I must warn you, however, that sometimes you may not get the revelation you need in your personal prayer closet. And even if you do, you may find you don’t have enough spiritual strength to pray through to victory all by yourself—especially when you’re praying about things beyond your own life such as the body of Christ, the nations of the earth, or Israel.
I mention those three groups because they are specifically listed in 1 Corinthians 10:32. There, Paul wrote, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles [a.k.a. the nations], nor to the church of God” (nkjv). In the early years of my prayer life, the Lord showed me those three groups represent the three major platforms of prayer. They encompass all the spheres that we, as believers, must watch over and pray about.
Some pray-ers seem called to spend most of their time praying on just one of those platforms. They may be led to focus primarily on praying for other believers and the development of the Church. Or they may find themselves drawn to pray about governments and nations because the Holy Spirit gives them continual revelation about that platform.
Other pray-ers seem more led to skip around to one platform and then another. They might be praying about the government of Nepal one minute and the next minute they could be praying for the Jews in Israel. Or maybe they’ll pray about the Church a lot, but all the while they’ll be carrying a particular nation in their hearts. That’s the way it is with me. There’s one nation that rises up inside me almost every time I pray. All I have to do is get in the presence of God and it will come floating across my mind like a fish swimming across an aquarium.
Certainly, there are times when we can pray effectively in our own, private prayer closets about the Church, or nations, or the Jews. But often, to generate the kind of prayer power that’s necessary to change those realms, we must get together with other believers. We must tap into the corporate anointing.
Why is that?
It is because God created us, as believers, to work together as a body. Even though He lives in each one of us as individuals, He dwells in greater fullness among us when we assemble together in His name. First Corinthians 3:16 says it this way. “Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church…] are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually?]” (The Amplified Bible)
A Divine Collaboration
When God’s people come together to pray, His power is multiplied. Different aspects of His anointing are released because each individual contributes his or her unique supply of the Spirit. Those supplies working together enable us to accomplish greater things in prayer.
Think of it this way and you’ll see what I mean. Imagine that I wanted to move the grand piano in our church sanctuary. I would have a hard time getting that job done by myself, wouldn’t I? I might be able to move it an inch at a time but I wouldn’t get it very far.
If I got a big group of people together, however, and distributed them evenly around the piano so that each one was carrying just a portion of the weight, moving that piano would be much less difficult.
That’s exactly the way it is in prayer. When we get together and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we can collaborate and work as a team. We can release the corporate anointing and get much more accomplished.
The members of the early Church understood that and they did it all the time. Consider this:
The very first gathering of the Church in Jerusalem was a corporate prayer meeting (Acts 1:14).
The new believers who were added to the Church in Acts 2 made it a practice not only to fellowship and break bread together but to pray together (Acts 2:42).
In Acts 3, we find Peter and John going to the temple at the ninth hour for corporate prayer (Acts 3:1).
After the Jewish leaders threatened them, Peter and John responded by going to their own company and holding a corporate prayer meeting (Acts 4:23-31).
In Acts 5, we see the results of that prayer meeting—and they were marvelous!
In Acts 12, after Herod imprisoned Peter intending to kill him, the Church once again responded by gathering to pray—and saw powerful results.
We can assume the practice of corporate prayer continued throughout Paul’s ministry because toward the end of his life, he wrote the Philippian church and told them he experienced the benefits of their corporate prayers. Writing from prison he said, “For I am well assured and indeed know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) this will turn out for my preservation…and avail toward the saving work of the Gospel” (Philippians 1:19, The Amplified Bible).
Amazing Experiences in Prayer
Oh, the amazing things I’ve seen God accomplish in prayer through the corporate anointing!
I’ve seen the Holy Spirit help believers pray about wars and battles years in advance. A group in our church prayed about the Desert Storm conflict in Iraq two years before it took place. We kept a journal as we prayed about it. If anyone had called us, we could have told them just exactly what was going to happen in that war.
More recently, I saw the Holy Spirit uncover a terrorist sleeper cell during a corporate prayer meeting in the southwestern United States. A U.S. Marshall attended the prayer meeting and heard me pray out something about an Al-Qaeda operation in a white building. At the same time, the pastor of the church that hosted the meeting had a detailed vision of a white apartment complex with a certain kind of fence around it. After the service, he told the U.S. Marshall what he had seen.
For an entire year, the Marshall watched for a building that fit the description. Eventually, he received a report about some suspicious activity in a particular apartment complex. When he went to check it out, it was the white building the pastor had described. Sure enough, an Al-Qaeda operative was living there.
During another prayer meeting in a country overseas, a CIA officer was present. We were all just yielding to the Holy Spirit praying in other tongues and that officer heard me pray out in a language only he understood the location of a terrorist military training camp. Later the officer told me that he’d known the camp existed and the government had been trying to locate it for some time, but they’d never been able to find it. The next morning, the Intelligence Agency of that country’s government raided the mosque and closed down that camp.
“But Lynne,” you might ask, “can normal Christians like me pray with that kind of power?”
Yes, especially when Christians come together. The Bible confirms it. It says that “Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, and affections, and a constitution like ours]…” (James 5:17) yet his prayers changed the world. They stopped things and they started things. They changed the course of nations.
If we will use the equipment God has given us—the written Word, the revelations and leadings of the Holy Spirit, and the corporate anointing—we can do the same thing. Dare to believe that. Dare to act on it. And, until I write again, keep praying and always remember…
Testimonies
Manila, Phillipines
Hi there!
My beloved grandma gave me your book entitled The Master Is Calling. The book ministered to me that I actually found myself bursting into tears when I read the prophecy. I am fully convinced that our Father in heaven loves us so much. I thank you, sister Lynne Hammond, for that powerful book. The Lord spoke to me through that book. I am really blessed knowing your site so I could easily browse the net during my idle hours in the office, since we don’t have Internet connection and computer in our home. Because of you, I also have been inspired to minister in terms of praying for my neighbors, circumcised and uncircumcised alike. Thank you so much! I pray that the Lord would continue to use your life to impact others.
G.G.
The Intricacies of Prayer
Exploring the Essentials of Spirit-Inspired Prayer
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The Rise of the Euro Empire
The Euro Empire Is Here
The Euro Empire is now here and its influence is far beyond the thirteen European Union nations that have adopted the euro currency. The Euro Empire is a term I will use to describe the group of nations and territories that currently use, plan to use the euro currency, or their central bank is influenced directly by the euro. The Euro Empire actually consists of 55 nations and territories worldwide—and there can be more to come.
The European Union celebrated its 50th birthday during March 2007 to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Rome. European Union leaders regard the euro currency as perhaps the greatest tangible achievement in half a century of EU history. The euro has served well as an effective tool in the quest for the “reunification” of Europe, a term which can only refer to the ancient Roman Empire.
The euro currency began as an experiment and success was necessary at all costs in order to keep the European Union relevant. Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, predicted the Eurozone would last ten to fifteen years, then just split apart. There are no obvious signs of that happening now. The euro has done remarkably well and has accomplished the greatest economic coup in history.
There is little awareness that the euro is used in or directly affects dozens of nations. The euro has enormous influence in the world.
On the reverse of each euro banknote there are five small boxes showing non-European territories that use the euro. But there is much more to the story than this little hint provides. The euro is by no means limited to Europe. In fact, the euro is currently officially in use by nations and territories on nearly every continent.
The Rise of the Euro Empire: 55 Countries and Territories and Counting
The euro unites monetarily many more nations than the 13 Euroland nations. Let’s take a look into the “true Eurozone” and its influences. In total there are 55 countries and territories that now use the euro, will use the euro in the next few years, or have the European Central Bank be involved in their monetary policy!
30 Countries and territories currently use the euro, not just the Eurozone 13.
14 African nations are linked to the euro and the ECB by the Central African Franc.
11 Expansion nations scheduled to join the European Union must join the euro; there is no possibility to opt-out.
The Euro Empire consists of:
Thirteen EU nations and many territories that now use the euro as their national currency.
Six non-EU nations that now use the euro as their national currency.
Eleven EU nations that will join the euro when they meet the economic criteria.
Fourteen non-EU nations whose national currency is linked to the euro and monetary policy is determined with the help of the European Central Bank.
In total, this represents over 44 nations and 11 territories! There is a real need to be informed and to have understanding of the times we live in. In the United States, few people know these facts. Even in Europe, few people are aware of the extent of the euro’s influence.
Believers worldwide should be the most “in the know” and pray for the nations.
The Euro is the official currency of the 13 Eurozone Nations (known as Euroland): Austria; Belgium; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Portugal, including the Azores; Spain, including the Canary Islands; and Slovenia
Also in Europe:
The euro is now the official currency in these four smaller European nations: Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican
The euro is the official currency of the former Yugoslavian republics of: Kosovo and Montenegro
The following 11 expansion nations are full EU members. They are required to join the eurozone when economic criteria are met. The treaties give no possibility to opt-out:Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania
In North Africa:
The euro is used in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla
The euro is the official currency of the French overseas territories.
In the Caribbean: Guadeloupe and Martinique
In the Indian Ocean: La Reunion, Mayotte, and French Southern Territories
In the Pacific Ocean: Tahiti and New Caledonia
In South America: French Guyana
In North America: Saint Pierre et Miquelon
The 14 African nations of the CFA zone (Central African Franc), with 70 million people, are linked to the euro and monetary policy reviewed by the European Central Bank: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo
The Euro-Mediterranean Group Free-Trade Area by 2010
The Euro-Mediterranean Group consists of the 15 EU nations plus the 12 Euro-Mediterranean Conference members: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority. The EU plans to form a free-trade area between these nations and the Palestinian Authority by the year 2010. (Remember that the EU began under the pretext of being a free-trade area.)
This would add nine more nations and one territory to our list. This would make a total of 65 nations and territories under the direct influence of the euro!
As believers, we need to be informed and aware. We must be accurate and knowledgeable; then let us pray and take action!
Reverend John Rood can be contacted at jwhitneyrood@yahoo.com. John and Liliane have served the people of Europe for 22 years. Missionary support for the Roods can be designated “John Rood” and sent to Rhema Bible Church Missions, PO Box 50126, Tulsa, OK 74150.
