Ministries
November / December 2005
Lynne Hammond
Dearest Friend and Pray-er,
In Minneapolis, we often say we have just two seasons every year. We have winter… and we have road construction. During road construction season, there are all kinds of pesky detours and traffic jams because the road crews are working day and night. But when winter comes, we’re glad those crews did their job because the roads they constructed make the way for multiplied thousands of us to get where we want to go.
In much the same way, there are two primary seasons in the kingdom of God. There’s the coming of the Lord and there’s the preparation for His coming. The coming of the Lord includes not only His major comings like the birth of Jesus and His end-time return but also the moves of God that come in between. The preparation season is much like summertime in Minneapolis. It’s the time for spiritual road construction. It’s the season when work must be done to pave the way for God to move into hearts… regions… and even nations.
Believers like you and me who have heard the call to prayer are God’s spiritual road crew. We’re the ones who are building His highways. We’re called and anointed to help prepare the way for Jesus’ second coming much like John the Baptist was called and anointed to prepare the way for His first coming. We’re called, as he was, to be a “…voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:3 NKJ).
John the Baptist, Elijah… and Who?
Most of us don’t think of John the Baptist as a construction worker but, spiritually speaking, he was. He was sent by God to construct spiritual roads for Jesus to walk on. He helped build spiritual highways that enabled Jesus to reach multitudes of people.
Thank God, John didn’t just cut a little path that a few people could walk on. He didn’t just build a two-lane road. He constructed a super highway so that thousands upon thousands of people could receive from the ministry of Jesus.
How did he build that highway? He did it as Zechariah 4:6 says, “not by might nor by power” but by the Spirit of the Lord. He did it not just by preaching but by dispersing the anointing God put upon him. That anointing was divinely designed to separate light from darkness, bring people to a place of repentance, and get them ready to enter the kingdom of God.
That sounds like a very unique anointing. But actually, John the Baptist wasn’t the first man to walk in it. He was following in the footsteps of another man —an Old Testament prophet named Elijah. We know that because Luke 1:17 tells us that John ministered “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (KJV).
“Well, Sister Lynne, that’s all very interesting,” you might say, “but what does it have to do with me? I’m not John the Baptist and I certainly can’t be compared to Elijah.”
Actually James 5:16-18 does compare you (and every other praying New Testament believer) to Elijah. It says:
…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (NKJ)
How Elijah Fulfilled His Assignment
Clearly, if we’re supposed to pray and prepare highways for God like Elijah did, we’d be smart to take a closer look at his ministry. He came on the scene during a dark and sinful season in the history of Israel, at a time when God’s own people had actually begun to worship the heathen god Baal.
There had been such an infiltration of darkness through Baal-worship that the Israelites —even though they were God’s own, chosen people —didn’t know right from wrong anymore. They couldn’t tell what was of God and what wasn’t. For God to move through that nation again, light and darkness had to be separated once more. The wickedness of Baal-worship had to be removed.
That was Elijah’s primary assignment. He was to prepare the way of the Lord in the nation of Israel by wiping out the worship of Baal.
First Kings, chapters 18 and 19, reveal how Elijah went about fulfilling that assignment. He started by challenging the prophets of Baal to a spiritual contest that proved before all the people of Israel that the Lord —not Baal —was the true God. Then he single-handedly killed 450 prophets of Baal.
No question about it, that was a strong start but much more had to be done. God didn’t intend for just one group of idolatrous prophets to be destroyed. He meant for the whole mess of Baal-worship to be completely annihilated in Israel. Elijah couldn’t do that all by himself. He needed help.
So God spoke to him and told him exactly how to get that help. He said:
Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. (1 Kings 19:15-18 NKJ)
Notice that the Lord told Elijah to anoint three very different men. First, He told him to anoint Hazael who, as king of Syria, was a heathen civil leader. Second, He told him to anoint Jehu who had been a very violent, military man. (He was a General Patton type person.) Finally, God told Elijah to anoint Elisha who was a spiritual leader.
Years after Elijah was caught away to heaven, those three men —a civil authority leader, a military leader, and a spiritual leader —totally wiped out Baal worship in Israel.
God’s Three-fold Prayer Strategy
Peculiar as God’s instructions to Elijah might seem to us today, as praying members of God’s road construction crew, we need to pay special attention to them because if we’re going to properly prepare highways for God to move on, we’ll have to do what Elijah did. We’ll have to pray the anointing of God down not just on spiritual leaders and believers but on government and military leaders as well.
That’s part of our Christian responsibility. After all, Isaiah 9:6 tells us that the government shall be upon Jesus’ shoulder. And if Jesus is the Head and we are His body, then the weight of government rests upon us.
No wonder the apostle Paul wrote young pastor Timothy and said:
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-3 NKJ)
That’s God’s three-fold prayer strategy for winning the lost and preparing the way for the second coming of the Lord! He wants us to disperse His anointing through prayer on civil, military, and spiritual leaders. He wants us to pray not only as individuals but also to come together in groups to put our motor mouths to work in prayer sending the anointing into all three of those realms.
Supernatural, Heat-Seeking Missiles
Just this past year when I was in a northern province of China, I saw clearly what God can do if we’ll pray that way. I was standing at the window watching the sun rise over the Himalayas at the time and in the early morning light, I could see the Chinese army marching on the streets.
As I prayed for the leaders of that army and the government officials in China, I realized that through the prayers of the Church, the anointing of God can go into the darkest places on earth. (Just think about what it did for Jesus after He was crucified. It went right into hell and resurrected Him!) When we pray for civil authorities, the anointing becomes like a heat-seeking missile. It seeks out people in powerful places who can open the door for the Gospel to be preached. It seeks out people of influence who can pave the way for godly standards to reign. When we pray for military authorities, the anointing can empower them to enforce laws and bring peace so that God’s work can be done and people can be saved.
If we don’t pray, however, Satan will use government and military leaders for his purposes. He’ll use them to keep great masses of people from hearing the Gospel. Think about how communist leaders in Russia kept people in spiritual darkness for so many years. People couldn’t read the Bible. They couldn’t go to church. It was against the law!
I remember what that was like. I still have a scar on my ankle from the time I tripped over some railroad tracks while running from the KGB during a ministry trip in the Soviet Union. I know how locked up that whole place was.
But, thank God, the Church started praying for that communist government to change. Believers started asking God to anoint and raise up leaders who would open the door for the Gospel. Those prayers prepared the way of the Lord. They made a highway for God. And when that highway was finished, the bastion of communism crumbled overnight!
God anointed an unsaved leader named Mikhail Gorbachev and somehow all the opposing forces around him were silenced while he worked out the plan of God in that nation.
At the same time, God anointed a U.S. leader named Ronald Reagan who, by his own admission, lived way out beyond his own, natural vision. It was amazing to see how President Reagan was anointed to fulfill the plan of God for this nation during the time he was President.
Why did he receive that anointing? Did he get it because he was such a good man? Did he get it because he earned it? No. He got it because the Church prayed!
Remember Your Mission
Many times when we’re praying for leaders as 1 Timothy 2:1 commands, the Holy Spirit will lead us to pray not only for people who are in governmental authority but for leaders in other realms. He’ll direct us to pray for all kinds of people who have influence over others. People who have, you might say, a microphone to the masses.
After the movie The Passion came out, someone sent me a tape of a prayer meeting in Las Vegas about seven years ago where we prayed for —of all people —Mel Gibson! Who in that prayer group ever could have imagined what an impact Mel Gibson could have for the Lord? He has delivered the message of the cross in a stunning way to untold millions. My son was in Bible school in Singapore when that movie came out and he said every night the theatres there were filled with Muslims watching The Passion of the Christ.
No matter what influential people you’re praying for, however, be sure to remember this: our mandate is to get the Gospel to the world. That’s the one mission of the Church. We can’t allow ourselves to get mixed up about that when we pray.
We can’t start thinking that we’re praying for leaders just so that we, as believers, can live quiet and peaceable lives and enjoy ourselves. No, we’re praying to pave the way for the Gospel. We’re praying to prepare a highway for God so that He can move into nations and save people from eternal darkness.
That’s serious business… and there’s no time to waste. After all, there are just two primary seasons in the kingdom of God. There’s road construction season… and there’s the time that’s coming, as Jesus said, when no man can work (John 9:4). Let’s work while we can. Let’s pray and build —not just paths or roads but super highways for our God so that multitudes can be saved!
Until I write again, keep preparing those ways… and keep on remembering—
Your are loved by,
Lynne
Testimonies
Omaha, NE
Today’s GPAN prayer summary ministered, strengthened, and confirmed some things my husband and I are facing right now. We pastor a small church in Omaha, NE and have been hitting a time of spiritual warfare and struggle. Without going into detail, I believe the picture you described of someone being in a deep well and your prayers being a rope of help and aid to them would fit our situation. Just yesterday and this morning, God began to draw us to the Word and to the truth about our situation. We are sensing God’s strength and help at this time. Thank you for praying by the Spirit of God! We appreciate receiving this email daily and being able to touch God with all of you. May God’s richest blessings be upon all of you as you faithfully pray by the Spirit of God!
–D.W. and C.W.
New England, USA
I am very encouraged to receive your daily prayers. We are also praying corporately each morning and God is speaking through us the same here in New England. The very prayers are running parallel to the heart of our Father. Praise the Lord for unity of the Spirit. May God continue to bless you and your congregation and ministry.
–Pastor L.D.
