Stephanie Okafor - The Power & Purpose of Intercession

When you give yourself to intercession, it heightens your spiritual sensitivity, It heightens your discernment. That is why Elijah could discern that what you may see as a cloud the size of a man's hand is actually the abundance of rank coming. When you give yourself to the place of intercession, you begin to see the moves of God when people don't see it. You see opportunity where people see closed doors. Heavenly Father, we thank you, we love you, Lord Jesus, for all that you're doing and all that you are. Lord. There is that which you have purpose to do today, and we thank you. Lord. We thank you that you are so mindful of us, and for how you meet us, how you visit us, how you speak to us, how you bring correction to us. And to Lord, I thank you for that which you have already desired for this moment. And I pray that I will not be in your way, but that you would have all everything that you want to do today with your people, how you want to activate them, how you want to raise them up. Lord God, that you will speak clearly to your sons and daughters. And I think you Holy Spirit, because you are here, and that you would glorify Jesus. Amen, Amen, you may be seated, just going to open my notes here. You know, as we have been in the conference, and just as Pastor mentioned raising a territorial army, one of the burdens that the Lord put in my heart as I began to pray for this conference had to do with intercession, because you know, and there's been such a grace even in the conference that the Lord is raising up intercessors. Intercession is such a pivotal part of the plan of God because it is the place of partnership with the will and the purposes of God for it to be manifested on the earth. Intercession is what gives permission for God's agenda to invade Earth. You see, from the very beginning, even when we look at creation, when we look at the garden of Eden, there were things that was held back in creation until the man was formed. And so we see that the Lord will not even allow it to reign. It talks about how the plants did not even sprout because there was no man to till the ground. And so from the very beginning of creation we see that there was the need of man for stewardship, and in the same way, because the scripture tells us that the earth has the Lord given unto us. And so in the same manner, there are things that the Lord desires to do, and it requires you, it requires partnership with humanity in order to bring it forth. And so we're going to be reading a scripture today. There's a lady in the Bible name by the name of prophetess Anna and such. You know, her story is really captured in two verses. But those two verses have so much weight to them that from those two verses we're really going to I want to extract from that seven principles when it comes to intercession, because I strongly believe that even when you look at the time that we are in, you know, the days are evil, and for what the Lord desires, not just what he wants to do in the nations, even for what the Lord desires to do in your life, in the life of your family, in the life of your community, and in the nations, intercessors must arise. If intercessors don't arise, even when you think of it in a practical sense, the world as we know was shaped by words. When creation began, God spoke creation into being and so our words have the ability to create and shape worlds. Where there is no intercessor, the words of witches prevail because they also intercede in darkness. You see, as the Lord began to show us a new assignment when it came to Los Angeles, and the first instruction the Lord gave was gather a team of intercessors, because as we began to pray together every single day, then the Lord will begin to reveal and expose things in the territory so that we would pray with precision and accuracy. One of the things that I've learned about intercession is that it is spiritual architecture because it is what gives the platform. It is what gives us the understanding, the design, the structure, the arrangement of what God desires to do on the earth. And without it, there are things that will not last. You see. I thought it was so interesting because one of the questions I remember, you know, early on, just in my walk with the Lord, I used to always ask this question, Lord, why even you know, like it comes up sometimes until the Lord really began to teach me about the intersection, and the question is, like, Lord, you already know everything. Why do we need to pray over and over and over and over again about one thing if you already desire to do it. And I am saying, here, Lord, I'm available, don't I just need to pray once and it's done. But you see, it's so interesting, you know, even when you consider the man the prophet Elijah, why is it that the Lord will tell him it would rain? But yet Elijah is interceding and asking his servant to keep checking the cloud until the servant comes to him and says that he sees a cloud in the form of the hand of a man. And then Elijah recognizes, now there's going to be an abundance of rain. Why do we always see this need of intercession before the move of the Lord. And there was something that struck me, even because you see everything it's teaching us about who God is. Creation reveals the Creator, and it's so captivating. That elephant. It takes an elephant twenty two months to literally go through, you know, to carry your pregnancy twenty two months. Now we complain about nine, I cannot imagine twenty two. But in contrast to the elephant, there is an animal called the Virginia apossum and it takes them twelve days for delivery, twelve days conception, twelve days development and delivery. And what is the difference when an elephant gives birth. An elephant cove is birth in a place where they are extremely developed. And that's why when an elephant call is born, they immediately can stand, they can walk, they can follow the herd. Their brains are fully formed. But a virginia apoons them when they're born. They are extremely underdeveloped and so they are more vulnerable to death. But a baby elephant, when the elephant CoV is born, they are ready for the storms of life. And if an elephant CoV is born prematurely, it is said that it has up to seventy two hours to live, that it will not survive. I'm talking about an elephant born in the wild in its natural habitation, that if it is born prematurely, that it will die within the first three days. You see, there are certain things that the Lord requires us to intercede about, because intercession is where things are developed behind the scenes. There are certain things that when it has visibility before there is intercession, the enemy can attack it and actually his intended outcome could happen. You see, it's not enough for you to just want to be married, for example. But when you begin to intercede for whoever your family would be, when you begin to intercede for your children, when visibility comes, when the spouse comes, when the children come, there is something in the invincible that is backing it up. There is a spiritual force that is fighting alongside you. That's why you will see. There are some couples, no matter how much they they're not going anywhere. There is intercession that prevailed, that something is always drawing them back to work it out. But there are times that when there is no intercession and you're just looking at something for the casual you know, desire of it. When visibility comes, there's no roots, and so any little thing the enemy can use it to affect your perspective, your perception. They are certain jobs you might desire, and when they you lack intercession, any little thing offense or you see, when intercession goes before you, there is an anchoring, there is a backing. Have you ever met people that, regardless of how crazy they may seem, they keep running back to the Lord because you don't realize the parents, the grandparents that had interceded for their children and their children's children, that no matter how far this person goes, Lord, they would always return to you. Now, this does not mean that if you have not interceded about certain things in your life, that it's too late you start. Now, Intercession is what gives longevity. Intercession is where there is partnership, that the things connected to your life are not sustained by you, but is sustained by the Spirit of God. You see, for the things that the Lord wants to do on the earth, for the territories that you are called to bring the advancement of God's Kingdom into, it is going to require intercession. And we're going to talk about seven principles of intercession. Seven things that we will learn about this. Even when we look at the life of this woman by prophetess Anna, and so let's go to let's read the scripture and look too from verse thirty six to thirty eight, and the scripture says, now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Farewell of the tribe of Asha. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And the woman was a widow of about eighty four years who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day, and coming in that instant, she gives thanks to the Lord, because what is she coming into, literally the baby Jesus in the temple. Coming in, she gives thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked for Jerusalem, I mean, who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Now there are a few things that want us to we can even take note of these things. But number one, you know from her we learned that first into session is the means of establishing God's kingdom on earth. You see, Anna, as the Bible says, was a prophetess, and that is very significant because in Amos three seven we see the Lord of the Lord says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secrets to his servants, the prophets. What is that saying that before the Lord will do anything, it must flow through a prophetic stream because the revelation of that which he desires is what enables partnership. And so it's not that you have to be a prophet or a prophetess of the Lord, because now you have the spirit of God, and so you have access to prophetic insight. You have access to know the heart of God. And so when the Lord begins to reveal his heart, when the Lord begins to reveal his will, we partner with it through intercession. So it's so powerful when that they tell us that first of all, Anna is one who knew the counsel of God. You see, this is what is developed even in the place of prayer, because not every prayer is not intercession. There is prayer that is petition when we're just petitioning God for something and it ends with thank you Jesus, and we move on to something else. But when you when you have a habit of prayer, when you have a lifestyle of prayer, it starts to make you sensitive to the heart of God, and all of a sudden you begin to sheare in the burdens of God. That is why you can start when the Lord begins to call you to the place of prayer. And perhaps maybe there are times are the Lord to say, hey, meet me every day at a particular time, because what he's trying to get you to is the place of consistency that you would start to die to self and be awakened to the desires of the Lord. You know, the scripture talks to us about how the Lord would give you the desires of your heart. And it's not that the Lord that anything your heart desires, the Lord is just going to answer it, but that he would begin to plant desires in your heart. This is when the Lord begins to share burdens with you because you have made room for him when you can show up in the place of prayer. This is why praying and the spirit is so powerful, because when you're praying your understanding, you know, there's just so much that you can begin to pray for. It starts with you, your family, and then maybe the things are that maybe prayer request that you're aware of. You pray for your nation. But when you begin to pray in the spirit, you tap into the mind of God all of a sudden. Praying in the spirit is so powerful because it flows from then and then it starts going into You may have visions or things become a burden in your heart. There is something that you have a knowledge for because the Spirit of God is translating to you what you're praying about. That is why oftentimes you will see that even as ministers, when we start to pray in the spirit, then we go into our own language because we're translating what the spirit is saying. Because as we're saying it, then all of a sudden we have an understanding of what the Lord is doing in the place. So when we make space for God, we become sensitive to the burdens of the Lord. And that leads me to the second thing, because you see, even when we look at the life of Anna, we see that Anna had a burden, because intercession is activated by burdens. You don't just become an intercessive just because you desire to. You will get burnt out. You will do it in your own strength. Because Anna, how is it that a young lady who got married as a virgin and then seven years later her husband dies. It is also safe to say that she didn't have any children. This is a young lady who, from the looks of it, did things way according to the will of the Lord. Was a virgin when she got married and was expecting that Lord I did this right. Then year one goes by, no children, Year two, no children, Year three, no children, year four, year five, year six, year seven, her husband dies. This is the place where many people lose their faith. This is the place where many people get discouraged, but yet Anna devotes her life to prayer and fasting. This can only be marked by a burden. You see, when you don't allow your disappointment to draw you away from the heart of God, and you draw closer onto him all of a sudden, because you see, Anna is in a place where she's looking for hope, she's looking for redemption, she's looking for restoration, and she didn't draw away from Jesus. She drew closer to the Lord, and in that place he began to communicate to her that not only are you going to find hope in me, but I, as the hope of the world, is coming in time. There was a burden she was marked by. You see, when you allow your disappointments to bring you to the cross, it becomes a place of encounter, and in the place of encounter the Lord, it begins to reveal to you mysteries, mysteries that mark and change your life forever. Seven years easily, she could have desired to remarry many things, but this reveals that Anna had a burden once she could not shake off, one that brought her every day to the temple of the Lord to intercede for the coming of the Messiah. You see the enemy. Whenever you had you face discouragement, the enemy tries to use it as an opportune time to draw you away. And as Christians, we often fall into the same error that they did in the time of Job. In the time of Job, they had the philosophy good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, And even until today, we often fall into that error. When I was pregnant with my first and I discovered that I had fibroids, I almost fell into that error. I said, Lord, how could this happen to me? I'm your person. I waited until marriage. I started listening all the things. We start falling into this mindset of Lord not me, and then the Lord will now humble you. What makes you any different? Can I trust you with this? Because this is not just about you? There is a story I want to tell through this. Can I trust you with this pain? And what the enemy wants to do is to pull you? Do you know what? You know what it meant? Because this is the temptation of where the flesh begins to rise up when you have prayed for people and seen, you know, people healed of things that are more difficult and more complex than a fiboord. And then I'm now dealing with a fiboord. But it's humbling because it's for you to remember you're just the vessel. You are the distributor, not the one who manufactures. So there are times that the Lord reminds you and he brings you back to the place. I'm not just gonna trust you with glory, but can I also trust you with pain? Will you still be at my feet even when it doesn't make sense? And it's in those moments that if you can steward your pain well, that your pain leads you into a place of encounters with the Lord. Anna had a burden. We also see that intercession is marked by love that you know whenever you one of the signs. First of all, one of the things I love so much about Jesus is that really his ways are not our ways. When the Bible talks about it's higher than our ways. Because as people, you know, it's very easy for us to become very critical of people, very judgmental love people, but then the Bible will talk about pray for them, even pray for your enemies. When you truly intercede for someone, it is impossible to hate them when you truly intercede. That's why there are certain things when the scripture talks about you know what, when you are trying to take a spec out of someone's eye, it says, check the log in yours. Because when you truly begin to intercede for who people really are, there is a love that furnishes your heart. Intercession is marked by God's love because when God shares his burdens with you, he's also sharing with you what he desires to see as the outcome. You see Anna, Anna was not praying out of religious duty. If it was out of religious duty, the moment she sees Jesus, it's like, well, my work here is done. But she sees the Lord and she begins to testify and share with people that all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem, he is here. She went beyond the finish line. She saw the fruit of the labor of her intercession, and she went beyond that. That is one that is marked by love. She was so overwhelmed by the love of seeing her Messiah that she continued to share it with people, people that would not even understand the weight of what she's saying. Intercession is marked by the love of God. There are things that and the reason I'm sharing is there are things that the Lord will begin to call you to intercede about. There are burdens that the Lord will begin to give you, and you have to ask him. Lord, mark me by love. Stay in the place of prayer until you start to sense the love of God for what you're praying about. And even when you don't feel it, asks the Holy Spirit to help you that Lord give me your heart concerning this matter, because until I sense the love of God on it, I've not yet begun. Intercession is not a religious duty. It is partnership with the heart of God. The fourth thing I want you to write down, and this is very key because this is where the enemy normally gets people. Intercession is a thankless labor of devotion. Why this is pivotal because the flesh desires to be seen, the flesh desires expedited results, the flesh desires to be celebrated. But intercession is thinkless. You see one of the reasons why oftentimes, even as ministers, we can come into a territory and with ease things begin to move. It's not just that we are prayer for people, but in the territory their intercessores God has raised. Now you may admire the minister, and that's why idolatry in any form is a sin. The only one word of your to be an idol in your heart is the Lord Jesus. No minister is worth that because some of the things that you may see in a minister you don't realize. There are many behind that minister. But there is a thankless duty. There are summon this church right now that the Lord has commission to intercede consistently. People don't know their name yet there are things that begin to break out and they are part of that labor. The only one you see is the one standing on the pulpit, but there are many behind that minister. Intercession is thankless. You have to embrace it as hidden if you are going to stay the journey, because if not, a fense begins to set in when no one celebrates you, when no one sees you, when you're interceding for a family member and that family member starts to irritate you. When there is the loved one you're praying that the Lord would encounter and they start to do things that are just irritating. The enemy reminds your flesh, just give up, Just call it quits. When you're interceding for two months about the matter and nothing is happening, and actually things are going worse and you're fasting and you're praying, do not give up. It is not the voice of the Holy Spirit. The voice that is telling you to quit is the voice of the enemy, leveraging the desire of your flesh, because it is the flesh that is waiting for expedited, immediate results. You see, in our generation, we have become so spoiled by social media. We have become so spoiled by how quick we can interact with things and receive things that it has. Actually, it's bleeding into our spiritual life. We don't understand what it means to linger in the presence of God. Everything has to be quicken now. So the moment you pray about something after one week is like, but Lord, I've prayed about it. Because the appetites that your generation, our generation and culture is teaching us is that everything must happen now, and so now, even in your prayer life, when things are not happening the way you experience in your natural frustration kicks in. But that is not the way of the Kingdom, because there are certain things that need time to be developed in the spirit before it has visibility. And it is out of God's love and goodness, because if it has visibility before it is developed in the spirit, then the enemy would have a harvest over it. It will not last. And so you have to embrace this because the Lord is going to begin to activate many in the place of intercession. And if you are going to go the distance, embrace the fact that nobody is going to be there to say, wow, thank you, you're doing such a great job. It's for an audience of one. It is between you and your Lord, and what you do in secret, he rewards you publicly. We learned from Hannah number five intercessions sharpens spiritual discernment. You see, it's so fascinating. There was a time Jesus in his earthly ministry when he's asking the disciples, who do men say that I am? And one of the responses was striking They said, John the Baptist, John the Baptist, who is also born at the same time Jesus is John the Baptist who is also in ministry at the same time. How is he someone who already exists. There were religious leaders that could not discern Jesus even as he moved in the supernatural, but a woman could discern him as an infant. You see, when you're in the place of intercession. When you get give yourself to intercession, it heightens your spiritual sensitivity, It heightens your discernment. That is why Elijah could discern that what you may see as a cloud the size of a man's hand is actually the abundance of rain coming. When you give yourself to the place of intercession, you begin to see the moves of God when people don't see it. You see opportunity where people see closed doors. And so there are times that there are answers that the Lord has presented in front of you. And it will not be an excuse to say, but God, I did not know, because by this time you see that there is a time and a season when you ought to be something, but you have not stepped into it. And the season is not gonna take the excuse of but Lord, I just did not know. When the scripture will say things like by this time you ought to be teachers, yet you are still needing someone to teach you. What does that mean? Because if by this time you ought to be teachers, that means in the calendar of God, there are certain open doors for a teacher. But when you have not yet stepped into who you ought to be, those doors are shut to you. So when the Lord is calling you into the place of intercession, it is because of who you ought to be by this time in your walk with him, what you ought to discern by this time. Because the things that would be presented before you will not be visible to the natural eye. As an opportunity, the things that will be presented before you will not be discerned by the natural eye. You have to have spiritual discernment. And discernment is not something you ask as an anointing. It is cultivated and built in the place of prayer. So there are things standing in front of you. The unfortunate part is that many times you are standing in the place of your promise. You are standing next to your answered prayer. You are in proximity with your miracle, but yet you can't see it because it is not naturally discerned. It is spiritually discerned and the level of sensitivity you need to discern. It is what you're supposed to cultivate in prayer. So whenever the enemy is attacking your prayer life and you keep giving an excuse tomorrow, next week, you don't realize. I share this during the conference what the Lord said to me that excuses are the food for demons. They feed on it, they are strengthened by it. You're giving excuses, Lord, You see, we have to graduate to not be people that say, Lord, forgive me, You're already forgiven. That language in itself is a deception to keep you small because you think it's just about God forgiving you, to give you another chance, while you ignore the fact that Satan is distracting you. So you miss Cairo's moments. A woman recognized him as an infant. Yet those who were masters of the law could not discern Jesus in front of them. Those who walked with him could not still discern he was the Messiah. Intercession. Intercession, like I mentioned earlier, is spiritual number six. Spiritual architecture fields the unseen structure that sustains what God brings forth in the visible. There are certain things you see there are some things that the Lord has called us to do in Los Angeles. But before we can even do it, he said, you're going to intercede for the land for the very minimum one year. He said, take this whole year of intercession for the land, because in that place of intercession there are many things you must understand. It is the place where you start to move in precision that you are not praying amiss. It is the place where you begin to you receive the counsel of the will of God. You see, there's a scripture I love so much. I actually want to read that. I had it here somewhere. Let me get to it Ephesians one eleven. It says in him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works on all things according to the counsel of his will. God does not work things according to your emotions. God does not work things according to your tears. Unfortunately I've tried. I remember one day I was praying about something. I was so deep in emotions. I was crying looking for tissue that kind of crime. I said, Lord, Father, God, where are you, Daddy? And I remember when the Holy Spirit just said, this is not my will. There are many things I've tried to challenge the Lord. Then, when the Lord would give me an instruction of what to tell a person, I said, Lord, no, I can't say that. I mean, I'm sure you're able to do us something different. Please, Lord, do the opposite. And no matter how much he says, no, but this is my will. Lord. Lord is the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will. If it is not in his will, he is not working it together for you. So you can have a prayer life and not an effective one. If you're not praying according to the counsel of his will. You could pray for hours and it's not effect it's not even striking according Heaven, if it is not according to the counsel of his will. That is why prayer is a place of exchange. It is a place where you also have to receive from the Lord. If you have a prayer life and you don't have any record of revelation from the Spirit of God, ask the Lord to teach you how to pray, because that means your prayer life is only about the things you desire. It's only about what you're pouring out and not what you're receiving from His spirit. You see, there are times that you have to and this is why I say, we have to get back to the place where we learn to linger in the presence of God, because often times it is when you have reached the end of your schedule time that the Spirit now begins to speak. One of the most powerful encouncils I had with the Lord Jesus. I was like, okay, because I'm like there are times where I'm like, okay, Lord, at the very minimum, I will give you an hour, right And that day I was like, oh Lord, there's so much going on in my day, but let me give you an hour. And at the end of that hour, I remember just there was this longing just stay, just stay, and I just began to worship the Lord. Began to worship the Lord. Funny enough, this was right before the last time I came here when we had the gathering. This was when I was praying into the gathering that we had right in this church, and I just began to linger in God's presence, And that was when the Lord walked in and began to give me instructions concerning this season we have to get back to the place of to linger without distractions. You can't just say, well, I pray on my way to work. Now, how think of it practically? You're driving in these roads, okay, very narrow when you think of by heaven, narrow is the way just come to London? Right. Imagine you're just driving and you're like, God, I'm just praying in the car and an angel shows up in the car. You might be meeting the angel much later, as long as all the people that have passed away, right, God forbid. But I'm trying to tell you practically, there's certain things that we don't even make room for, and so we have to get back to the place where we make our time with the Lord a priority. Prayer should be something that happens your life should have a culture of prayer. Pray in your car, pray in your shower, pray cooking. You can literally cultivate the presence of God in everything you do, but they must also be an appointed space that is rid of distractions, where you can linger in the presence of God if need be. Because when you can go beyond your planned activities, that is often when the Lord begins. Many people will say, but I don't hear from the Lord because after you've set a time, you get up. You're talking about the King of kings. He should be worth the disruption of your plans. And so when we talk about intercession, we have to make room so that we can receive the counsel of his will, because when we start to pray according to his will, that's where precision comes, that's where alignment comes, that's where agreement comes, That's when Heaven begins to back us up. You see one of the powers of intercession. It's not just about what you are down. Why certain things take time is because there are things that must first be uprooted in the spirit before you can build upon. And you don't know the ancient structures you're coming up against that you must first uproots before you can establish what is the will and the purpose of God in that territory. When you're praying concerning when you're in your family and you see certain patterns in your family, and the Lord says, begin to intercede for your family, that these things will be no more. You don't know what those ancient structures were built with. You don't know if it was built with the blood of children. You don't know the sacrifices that were made that is tormented and causing the engineering of these spiritual activities. This is why things must take time, and this is where we have faith in God. Everything we do in our interaction and in our partnership with the Lord must always involve faith that you begin to believe that Lord. Every time I show up in prayer, something is happening. I may not understand the full picture of it, but something is taking place. I can never forget this story of a lady. You know. This woman was ministering and she every week the same lady would be at the altar being delivered. So at a point she was like, Lord, what is happening with this lady. It burdened her because she wanted to understand is she really being delivered or is the demons just manifesting? And then the Lord opened her eyes in the spirit and showed her that the demon that has this lady in bondage, you know, is one that looks like an octopus many hands. So every week that the lady is being delivered, one hand is being released. Now she did not know that was what was happening. And then until the Lord opened her eyes and said, keep praying for her so that she will come into the place of total freedom. You have to know that in my partnership with God, something is happening, and that's what gives you longevity. And that's why the final thing I was saying concerning what we see and even in the life of Anna, because actually, even let me even just pause there, because one of the interesting things is that Anna began to pray even before Jesus's parents in the natural were born. Anna was eighty four years old, or at least at least eighty four years old, we don't really know her age, right, She had been interceding for eighty four years, so while she was alive, Mary had not even been born when she started praying. Joseph had not been born when she started praying. Could it be that her prayers were to get the things that would be distractions and obstacles out the way. Could it be that even the moment that Mary would encounter the Angel, there were prayers that preceded that moment that let her be receptive, let her heart be open, let it not bring shame into her life. So all of a sudden, even when the Angel encounters Joseph. He's so willing and we don't realize there was intercession even before they were born, how they would meet the things that he would be willing to cover up for her. Because remember Joseph actually wanted to just silently end the engagement, but there was intercession that preceded, so even when the Angel of the Lord would encounter him, he would not argue with the Angel of the Lord spiritual architecture. But the final thing, intercession labors to manifestation. You have to know this because sometimes we want to end it with thank you Jesus and move on. We do a twenty one day fast, a forty day fast for that individual, a forty day fast for the instructions of what the Lord has given us. And the temptation is just to say thank you Lord. It's done. But you need to see the manifestation of it. You need to be a witness of it. That is where it ends. Satan is not afraid of you as a Christian. Satan is afraid of you as one who is devoted to praying according to the will of God to see it through. The temptation would always arise for you to drop it, even if you don't see it in your lifetime because of your devotion to it, that burden will transfer to the next generation. But let it be that in your lifetime you are faithful to the burdens that the Lord shared with you. And don't just think that, you know, sometimes we have this thing like you know, I just don't where we don't have the conviction of the burden. But first examine where you are, because there are times that you don't have the conviction of a thing, not because it's not there, just because you became carnal and you lost your sensitivity to it, not that it's shifted. There are things the Lord wants to do in the earth. There are things the Lord wants to do in your alive. There are things the Lord wants to do in your family. And the charge that the Lord gave me is that pray and push until you see it happen, because when you stay in the place of prayer, there are many things that begin to unfold. I remember I shared this on Pastor's podcast the last time I was here. When you know, there was literally a witch in my life who I thought was a friend but was not, And it was in the place of intercession that the Lord began to unfold it layer by layer by layer by layer. In the beginning, I thought that she just needed deliverance. I said, oh, we need to pray for her. She is definitely going through some demonic influence. You see if you there and say, oh, thank you Jesus, oh Lord, we're just gonna cast this demon out. And she could even try to act like she's being delivered. But you stay in the place of intercession. And it was in staying in that place of prayer that the Lord finally exposed this person is a witch. And then she confessed it and confess all their plans and all kinds of things, and the Lord dealt with that matter. But you have to learn how to stay on the thing until you see the manifestation of it. Rise with me. Just let us pray very quickly. Thank you Holy Spirit, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. I just want you to be sensitive in this moment. Have two main prayer points, and we're gonna close. You see already there are people you know you've been here all weekened, and there are people that the Lord has already touched. And you know without the shadow of a doubt that the Lord is calling you to be an intercessor to your nation, and even nations you have never been in. There are people that the Lord is calling to be an intercessor to this house. There are people that the Lord is calling to be an intercessor to your family. These are things you must hold on too, if you're going to stay the chorus. But I want to make sure that I don't miss anyone, and that your heart is ready to receive the grace of God that will come upon you. And so just for a moment, for just a few minutes, just begin to pray. Ask the Lord to burden you with what burdens him. Because the place of intercession is for every believer wherever the Lord will have you start. Start there. It might be a coworker start there. It might be a family member start there. It might be your marriage start there. It might be your children that you have not even had yet. Start there. But begin to pray with conviction, Begin to pray with confidence. Begin to pray that Lord burden my heart, give me burdens. Lord, mark me with your burdens, that I will learn to linger in the place of prayer. Thank you Lord, Thank you Jesus, Heavenly Father. Lord, We thank you for that which you're doing in your room. But thank you for that everyone who is tuned in all parts of the world. Lord God, Lord, I pray because you've already began to touch your intercessors. For the times that we are in, Lord, I pray that they will finish their race. I pray that they will stay the course. And Lord, for those that are seeking grace, Spirit of the Living God, may you touch them now. For those that are needed, Lord, the help of your spirit to get into the place, Lord God, where they labor with you. Lord, activate them in the name of Jesus. Empower them in the name of Jesus. Let them receive the help of the Lord. I thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. In just a minute, we're about to close. I just see the hand of God. Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Empower them God for these times, empower them, empower them. Thank you, Heavenly Father. I see someone that the Lord will call to start into see in for Spain. Let your hand touch that person now, Thank you Jesus. Lord. I pray that their faith will be anchored in you. To know that wherever they are because you are the one that commissioned them, because you are the one that sends them, that they would know that their words are not just empty. And I pray that even not only in the place of prayer, but that they will put a guard over their tongue to understand the weight of their words. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I just see the hand of God still resting upon And there is a person that the Lord wants to touch even now, Thank you Jesus. There are people that the Lord is calling to intercede for nations. And see them. I see Amsterdam, and on top of this person's head, Thank you, Lord Spirit of the Living God, whoever that person has touched them now, thank you, Heavenly Father. Thank you, Heavenly Father. Just place your hand on your head for a moment, and we're going to close. Lord Jesus for the season and the times that we are in. Let us not be behind schedule what you desire out of our lives. We say yes, touch our hearts. Lord, place your burdens in us, that we would partner with you and effectively establish your kingdom on the earth. In Jesus, namely, pray aim many men