Upgrade Your Prayers: Moving from Defensive to Offensive Warfare

When we pray from the offensive lifestyle, our prayers are strong and mighty because we have spent so much time with God and He has stamped on our hearts who we are.

Out of that relationship of love, we become strong love warriors, taking on the strategies from His heart. We know that, out of our love relationship with our Father, our prayers are mighty. Anything can happen.

God showed me several years ago just how strong our prayers are. In the late ’90s, it was really cool to have a sword at church. Many of us felt like having a sword was saying prophetically that we were in a war and that God was fighting for us. We used them for spiritual warfare and making prophetic declarations. All kinds of prophetic acts were done using swords. I was in a conference where we called all the women up and knighted them for the Kingdom. It was a fun time.

I thought it would be really fun to get a dagger. I liked what daggers were used for in wartime. They used them both to fight and to dig out arrow tips that had wounded them in battle.

I went onto a website to order one, and I found one called the state guardian dagger. Prophetically that sounded good to me. I felt like a guardian over my state. I ordered it and waited six long weeks for it to arrive.

During this season in my life, I felt like I was going through a time of deafness in hearing God speak. It was a quiet time. Well, the day came when the dagger came to the house. I couldn’t believe how big the box was. It must have been close to six feet high. I thought that they must really pack their goods well. As I unpacked the box, I reached in and began pulling out this very long sword. As I pulled the sword from the box, my spirit ears opened up and I heard, “You think your prayers are like a dagger, but I think your prayers are like this sword.”

The sword that I got in the mail that day was a two-handed claymore sword. William Wallace was said to have used this kind of sword as he fought for the freedom of Scotland. They were used in battle. Warriors used both their hands to hold the sword and would control their horses by their legs. There is a place on the sword that has a piece of leather wrapped around it for the second hand. Our prayers are much bigger than we know. The strategies that God gives us to pray are world-changing!

Thank You, God, that the quiet seasons are not seasons of being alone. You are intimately involved in my life in every season. Thank You for this gift of prayer. Thank You that I have direct access to Your heart at all times. Thank You for allowing me to partner with You to see Your Kingdom come.

My prayers are powerful!

Nothing Restrains the Lord

So be in an offensive position in this spirit war is very important. You may ask, “Is it important to go somewhere to pray, or can you just pray where you live?” Yes and yes. Most of the time, I have a very strong sense that it is important to go. Many times I’ve felt that we are going in stealth when we go into an area to pray.

When Jonathan and his armor bearer snuck up on the Philistines, they didn’t tell anyone. I’m sure that if Jonathan had let everyone in on what he wanted to do, they would have tried to stop him, or they would have wanted to go with him. The latter would have defeated the whole plan. They would not have been able to go in secret. A lot of the time, our prayers as intercessors are done in secret. Then the prophetic acts that we go out and do are the fruit of our intercession.

King Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree (see 1 Samuel 14:2). He did not want to take on the Philistines. Comfort was the name of his game. Israel was waiting and wanting their king to fight. Jonathan, seeing all this, had had it. So he with his armor bearer went secretly to take on the whole Philistines’ camp (see 1 Samuel 14:6-14). God is looking for intercessors who are passionate for Him and for His Kingdom to come.

Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6 NKJV).

Don’t you love Jonathan’s courage and attitude? In saying this, he was making pronouncement over his enemies twofold: 1) you are the enemy of Yahweh, and 2) I carry a great multitude with me today. I am under a covenant with the God of all gods and the King of all kings.

That’s the attitude we need in our spirits when we carry out our intercessions. Numbers have nothing to do with what God wants to do in the spirit realm. What matters is just passion and courage. What Jonathan and his armor bearer did that day caused a great commotion, both in the invisible realm and the earthly realm.

When you look at Jonathan in this story, you can see how an offensive life is lived. You can see how nothing is impossible with God. As we carry out those seemingly crazy prophetic acts, choosing to live an offensive life before God, God will fight for us.

I never want to get stuck in my own routine, God. I want to be humble enough to put my prayers into action, to go where You are leading. Father, give me the courage of Jonathan. Help me to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that You are with me and that nothing can stand up to Your presence. I carry a great multitude with me; I am under a covenant with the King of all kings!

Heavenly-Minded Prayers

Intercessors have the ability to pick up many things that are going on in the spirit realm. Often, it seems like intercessors get so focused on what the devil is doing that they don’t look at what God is doing. The question is not, “What is the devil doing?” The question should be, “What is God doing?” This should be the life theme of all of the people of God. But here’s the deal. There are times when intercessors can pick things up from the demonic realm. And some intercessors will get stuck here and even live out of this place. They begin living out of the first and second realms.

Let me explain. There are three “realms” that are mentioned in the Bible. The word realm means a region, sphere, or area. The Bible specifically talks about the first realm, the second realm, and the third realm. The first realm is the realm that you can see with your eyes. It’s the physical realm. “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea” (Rev. 21:1 NKJV). So here you can see that the first heaven is the earthly realm, or what you can see right now. Our bodies, our homes, and our cities exist in the earthly realm. Deuteronomy 10:14 (NKJV) says, “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.” According to the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the word heaven means, “astrologers, compass, earth, heaven, heavens, and the highest heaven.” From the beginning, God created the earth, the heavens, and the highest heavens.

The second heaven, or “midheaven” of Revelation 14:6 (NASB)—“and I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people”—is the demonic and angelic realm where they war with each other. In Daniel, the second realm is also shown to be the demonic and angelic realm (see Daniel 10:13).

Then, there is the third realm. This realm is where the glory of God is. It’s the beauty realm. The apostle Paul calls the third heaven “paradise.” It’s where we can see the great plans of Heaven.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2 NKJV).

He continues in verse 4, “how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words.”

The third realm is where every believer should live. You see, all believers should live from a place of victory, knowing and partnering with the strategies of God. Ephesians 2:6 (NKJV) says that God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” You have heard the saying, “so heavenly minded, no earthy good”? That’s a very impossible saying. I believe that, if you are heavenly minded, you will be of great good to this earth.

Thank You, God, for the gift of sensitivity that You have placed in me. Whenever that gift feels overwhelming, whenever I am picking up all of the frequencies of the first and second heaven, I will turn my face to Yours. I will rise in my spirit above and access Your truth and perspective. Help me to sit with You in the heavenly places.