BIRTHING THE WILL OF GOD

“I question if any believer can have the burden of souls upon him – a passion for souls – and not agonize in prayer.”  Martin Luther

Each day we are seeing yet a new development of the enemy being exposed as the darkness continues to spread. There must be repentance before God but also intercessory prayer. I believe our true sin is prayerlessness. So, if we are not praying for souls, we are a sinning. 1 Samual 12:23

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. 24 Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

If you are unaware of this sin, let the Holy Spirit teach you, it’s very conflicting. Another conviction of mine is that there will never be a spiritual revival until God has brought his church to the point of personal desperation. 

This desperation happens when our confidence in our “self” is smashed, and we realize our own wretchedness, blindness and nakedness before God! I also believe this point of desperation won’t happen until believers learn intercession. I have been shown we cannot think, talk, or taste a revival, without intercessory prayer. 

We are to become his united church that agonizes in prayer for God to open heaven and come down and cause the mountains of hindrance, sin and unbelief to be washed in His presence? This is revival, hallelujah! 

I believe God is looking for those who are willing to pray for him

“I looked for someone 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, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.” Ezekiel 22:30-31

If you hearing the enemy whispering into your ear that your prayers are not effective or that you are not worthy to pray! Then please go back and read my post about negative talk, called Pillar of Fire. Let the Holy Spirit teach you about Sonship. We are kingdom royalty and knowing this fact cancels every negative voice! We are to persist like the tiny ants to go higher with God.

Please God, I pray you bring your church to this place of desperation so we can become your intercessors to usher in a revival of souls!! Lord show us the areas where we need to mature to become effective intercessors. Thank your Father for you son Jesus, Amen.

At first glance, intercessors and prayer warriors might seem synonymous because they both engage in deep prayer. However, the intercessors act or plead on behalf of others. They are the go-between of the individual or territory to carry burdens to the Throne of God with persistence and humility. While prayer warriors are intercessors too, not all intercessors are prayer warriors! I believe prayer warriors actively confront the forces of darkness with militant prayers while intercessors partner with the Holy Spirit. 

Recently, I heard a well known pastor say “In that season when I was praying to take a territory, I had an imp on my should whispering lies from the devil.” What an excellent description of the darkness trying to penetrate our minds through a little demon imp!! 

My dear Saints it’s time to travail!!

Who gets to travail? 

Every single believer is called to travail. 

It is not reserved for those who are seemingly gifted or holy. In Romans 8, Paul speaks of people, those who have firstfruits of the Spirit and who are weak, not knowing how to pray as they ought. He says that prayer under the unction (grace) of the Holy Spirit with groanings that are unintelligible, is accessible to all believers.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you “travail”. This sort of prayer not only frees those we are praying but takes us deeper into the things of God! We are to become His Grenades in the Spirit realm! In giving ourselves as willing vessels to the Holy Spirit of prayer we enter into the prayer travail of the Godhead. We become the blow-back from God. We give expression to the unspeakable yearnings of the Saviour’s heart for souls.

I am praying for a town near me and the blow-back hasn’t come, but as I travail, darkness is promised to invade the hearts of those living in this little town. I am convinced God will move so I will not give up! We are told “the Light” comes forth by our hearts in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.

1Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry,a we do not lose heart. 2Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”b made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.c

Paul also records in Romans that at times the Holy Spirit will intercede through us with holy ‘groanings’ (Romans 8:26). The heart cry is so intense that words can no longer express such infinite yearning. All that is left are groanings of the heart, impossible to describe by human wisdom, but understood by God (Romans 8:27).

The American Heritage Dictionary defines ‘groan’ as “To voice a deep, wordless, prolonged sound expressive of grief”.

At times this inward groaning becomes so intense that the Scriptures liken it to the travail of a mother during childbirth. Paul spoke of travailing in prayer when he said, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,” (Gal 4:19 KJV)

I am finding at times my prayers are filled with many tears. I cry and grieve over the church just as much as I cry and grieve over our sin sick world. There are many references to tears in the Bible (Ps. 42:3, 56:8, 126:5, John 11:35, Acts 20:19, 2 Kings 20:5, Heb. 5:7 and Acts 20:31) Our tears are a viable and valuable form of prayer. A gift from God. There is another form of prayer, however, that can reach levels of intensity marked only by the Holy Spirit as a burden to bring forth something new. 

God may, therefore call on any believer, at any time, to travail in prayer for birthing his kingdom purposes. This is a challenging issue which the enemy has exploited. It has, in many cases, created much tension in our churches and ministries. 

Dutch Sheets in the brilliant book ‘Intercessory Prayer’ defines such prayer that brings to birth as:

“A form of intercession that releases the creative power or energy of the Holy Spirit into a situation to produce, create or give birth to something”

Travailing prayer isn't something that you can muster up on your own. Only God births travail. It can come upon you at any place and any time. It is a prayer for all times and a prelude to all seasons. I believe God is calling His people to travail again. We have only just begun to birth the new things of God and we won't know what this travail is until we yield to it. 

"The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant." (Isaiah 42: 13-14) 

Elijah travailed for the birthing of rain: "And Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.' So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees (a birthing position). 'Go and look towards the sea 'he told his servant. And he went up and looked. 'There is nothing there,' he said. Seven times Elijah said, 'Go back.' The seventh time the servant reported, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea.' So Elijah said, 'Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.' Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel." (I Kings 18:41-45) 

Examples of such prayer in Scripture takes the posture of a woman in his day giving birth, and prays intensely for the will of God to be released. The picture is one of birthing the will of God into the earth through travailing prayer. 

Travail brings forth the very purpose of God: we witness Jesus Himself ‘groaning within Himself’ when interceding for a miracle at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:38). The nation of Israel also groaned and cried out to God, who responded with a very great deliverance (Exodus 2:23-24). Such groaning for freedom and deliverance reflects not only the cry of creation itself:

“Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Rom 8:21-23 KJV)

But also the cry of God’s own heart:

“The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation and vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies. [Thus says the Lord] I have for a long time held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant together.” (Is 42:13-14 AMP)

The Scriptures speak of the church (Zion) entering into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings in agonising prayer in Isaiah 66:7-8:

“Before [Zion] travailed, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she was delivered of a male child. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Or shall a nation be brought forth in a moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children.” (Is 66:7-8 AMP)

Paul talked about the danger of using our mental capacity and logical thinking to overcome these areas of warfare, yet our minds do not know the mind of God like His Spirit knows. So, we enter into fellowship and labour together with the Holy Spirit wrestling for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In 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." (Romans 8: 22-26)

This is exactly what needs to happen in every believer across the world. I feel this strongly. 

All those fires in California are not from God, but were set by the enemy. This is God’s wake up for those who innocently or not so innocently following the enemy. We need to travail on their behalf so the Spirit of God will intercede!

I shared on my telegram channel a great explanation by Randy Kay of the devastation fires and why they happened. I want to encourage you to click my telegram link above in the menu and join my channel, “Spring of Zion”. 

Some would argue that travailing prayer, which can offend those who don't understand it, should be reserved for the prayer closet and not exposed to public church life, in the same way as natural labor and birth are carried out in the privacy of a home or delivery room. The evidence of the birth is eventually brought out of the delivery room into public view. 

Ideally while privacy is most desirable, travail can suddenly come upon you and just as suddenly leave. It can be short or come upon you for an extended period of time. The important thing is to yield to the Spirit. The Bible says that Jesus sobbed and prayed openly in the streets while riding into Jerusalem (Lk 19). 

Because of the way travail comes over us and because Jesus himself travailed in public some would say we shouldn't hide travailing prayer simply because some are uncomfortable and offended by it, or fear it. Ultimately, the call as to whether we will travail in public or private is up to God.We can trust that God will give those in leadership the correct discernment. 

Intercessors are not lunatics like we have been shown in the media and religious people, but when the movement of travail comes upon them they need to be allowed to stay with it until the burden is lifted, because there is something that God wants to birth. "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that the child is born into the world." (John 16: 20-21) 

I am convinced that travailing prayer is not only scripturally valid, but it is desperately needed to free souls confined to the enemy’s dungeon and that’s why it’s shunned in churches.

5You will see this with your own eyes, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great—even beyond the borders of Israel.’ ” Malachi 1:5.

If you aren’t familiar with Charles Finney, the famous revivalist, then do your homework. He records in his autobiographical memoirs many accounts of times of travail in prayer:

“My soul was in utter agony. I spent almost the entire day in prayer in my stateroom, or walking the deck in intense agony, in view of the state of things. In fact, I felt crushed with the burden that was on my soul…It was the Spirit of prayer that was upon me; that which I have often before experienced in kind but perhaps never before to such a degree, for so long a time…after a day of such unspeakable wrestling and agony in my soul, just at night, the subject cleared up to my mind. The Spirit led me to believe that all would come out all right, and that God had yet work for me to do; that I might be at rest; that the Lord would go forward with His work, and give me the strength to take any part in it that He desired.” 

God is serious about His working plans. I have been led by The Holy Spirit to read Ezekiel Chapter 7 which speaks of doom coming to those who have turned away from God. For a long time these passages served as a reminder to me of what happens when we turn away from God. However, we see this warning now in the natural realm. People who have turned from God will face the consequences of their actions. We have read, God's wrath will spare no one; the punishment will be as per their conduct, and their abominable idols will be laid waste.

If we look out into the world it appears the enemy is succeeding because God has began to unleash his anger starting in Hollywood, California. We can see the devastation, but as we “travail” for souls ….God will move! Praise GOD!

Intercessory prayer is an essential tool and powerful weapon allowing the Holy Spirit to birth to life, the end-time apostolic purposes of God in our church today. If we do not pay attention to the winds of God, we will find ourselves consumed by them. 

Seleh,

🦋Angela 

Email:aylablue@yahoo.co