War Room
But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. [ Matthew 6 : 6]
Not too long ago, I was having a moment. You know those moments, right, when suddenly a wave of sadness washes over you as you think of the longings of your heart, your deepest desires, the promises yet to be fulfilled. Every time I find myself in this sunken place, I refuse to enter the dark valley along with my feelings. I refuse to give into despair instead remaining stoic in my resolution to rise above it all. It isn’t easy, I can tell you that for free, but it can be done.
Whenever I experience such moments, I try to inject a bit of humour into the situation and think to myself, God must be going “Whelp, there she goes again, she’s having a wobble! She’s having a wobble! “ I wonder what I must look like in the spirit, ambling about the place as I stagger in my walk of faith. Anyway, I digress. As I was saying, I went through a rough patch recently. I’m not really sure what triggered it, all I know is I was really struggling to shake it off. I tried all the tricks in the book. I blasted worship music, shouting at the top of my lungs that I would wait on God, confident that He would renew my strength. That gave me a temporary moment of rest. A few hours later, sensing that nagging feeling again, I started blasting fire prayers and speaking in tongues in a bid to calm my spirit down. Usually that works but this time, my mind refused to separate itself from my spirit - it was almost as though my consciousness was doggedly clinging to my spirit, determined to take me down the dark abyss of hope deferred and a sick heart. I went out for a drive, did a bit of work, cooked a late lunch. Thus I survived the first half of the day. Alas! by late afternoon as I settled down to watch a nice wholesome movie, the flood of feelings washed back over me. By this time I was at my wits end. Tears were threatening to come down my face in floods and I was desperately struggling to keep them at bay. I thought to myself, honestly there’s only so many times I can listen to Elevation Worship & Maverick City’s “Wait on you” before I can’t listen anymore. As I was flicking disinterestedly through Amazon Prime in that desolate state, God came through for me.
I must say I very rarely watch TV. When I do, I am careful to vet the stuff that I watch, choosing to keep my eye gates clean so I can hear clearly when God speaks. This intentionality has yielded amazing results and one of the greatest benefits I have noticed is that I have become increasingly spiritually sensitive. So in that moment of deep sadness, when the movie War Room suddenly popped up on my feed, I read the synopsis and felt an immediate stirring in my spirit to rent it. (Sidebar : If I already pay for Amazon Prime, why do I need to buy or rent some movies? Like, what is up with that?)
Anyway I rented the movie for £3.49 (not that anyone asked) and settled down to watch it. As I did so, I experienced such a profound epiphany I instantly felt my spirits lifting. For those that haven’t seen it, War Room is a movie about an older woman (Miss Clara) teaching a younger married woman (Elizabeth) the power of warring for her marriage in prayer. Elizabeth, following the lead of her mentor and taking the words in Matthew 6: 6 quite literally, empties out a small walk in closet and makes it her dedicated prayer closet. She pulls together some dangerous written prayers collated from different scriptures and tapes them to the closet wall. Each time she goes into that room, she prays strategically as she partners with God to bring His will to pass and shine His light in every dark area of her life. One beautiful nugget I recall from the movie is a scene from Miss Clara’s hallway. This dear old lady had framed her answered prayers and proudly put them on display for all to see what the Lord had done! Talk of the one leper that returned to say thank you!
When the movie ended, I sat down in a state of deep thought. To be honest, I was a bit dumbstruck. I asked myself why I was here feeling sad and despondent instead of getting on my knees and praying earnestly. I believe the Holy spirit ministered to me that afternoon and brought me to an understanding of a few things .
Some of you are really not going to like this, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m convinced that the first assignment of a woman is in the place of prayer. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. As women, we represent gates in the spiritual realm. That is why when the enemy wishes to deceive and ensnare a lineage or a generation, it is easy for him to go through a woman and approach her as an angel of light. Deceive a mother and she will bring her children to him, knowingly or unknowingly. Ensnare a wife and she will present her husband to the Kingdom of darkness on a platter, ripe for the taking. Women represent access in the realm of the spirit. That is why we must pray without ceasing; pray and then pray some more as we stand in faith that God our Father will hear us and answer our prayers.
We must pray for our future husbands. Now I’ll be the first to admit, I really struggled with this one. For a long time, I just wouldn’t do it, I couldn’t. I kept asking “why on earth would I pray for a man who I’m not even sure is praying for me? What if I’m praying for him and he’s busy praying for someone else? Tufiakwa!” But God cured me of this negative school of thought. In time I came to understand that all I should be concerned about is that I’m doing my bit, future husband’s part is entirely between him and God. And what’s my bit? To build a prayer bank, as those prayers are speaking for me now and will continue to cover my family in future.
We must pray for our future children. We don’t wait until we have them, we begin to pray for them now! Ask God that they will be healthy bouncing babies, that they will do great exploits for the Kingdom of God, that they will live to the fullness of their destinies and bless the wombs that birthed them. That they will know God and worship Him in spirit and in truth.
As we pray, we must remember to do so not only for ourselves and to cover our own desires, but to also intercede for those around us and everyone connected to us. That includes family, friends and people who God has led to us. It may not look like it in the natural, but things are shifting in another dimension.
We must pray strategically in the War Room, not just opening our mouths and praying for prayer’s sake. We must ask God to show us what areas He wants us to pray for and against, which of the enemy’s wiles our prayers will weaken. That God will pass his hook through the enemy’s nose and put His bit in his mouth and make him and his minions return by the same road on which they came. In that place of strategic prayer, ask God what time to pray (midnight prayers are a whole entire vibe) and who to pray with for there is power in agreement. The Holy spirit alone will reveal these things to us.
We must pray the word. Far too many Christians underestimate the power of calling upon God’s word in the place of prayer. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. When we pray therefore, it is imperative that we deploy this mighty weapon, pray in scripture, write it down if we must, post the prayers on our prayer walls or in our prayer closets and repeat them over and over again. Until the word becomes flesh and it is inscribed in our hearts. This I call standing firmly on the word of God.
All God asks that we do is pray. He will do the heavy lifting. Is that not in itself an epiphany of epic proportions? I mean, think about it ladies. We don’t have to run helter skelter trying to find some obscure wicked altar in the village to uproot it by our own might. Nor must we face the herculean task of taking our future husbands’ hearts captive and turning them to face their queens (please read Proverbs 21: 1 for more insight on this Biblical narrative). God is saving us the indignity of asking “who did this thing?” as we try to figure out why certain things regarding our destinies seem to be tied up in the spirit.
Instead all God asks is that we pray and have faith and He will do the rest. In our place of surrender and travail, wicked altars will be scattered and those devilish priests will meet the fire of our God as He arises to defend His beautiful daughters and set us free from captivity. The yokes of delay will be broken as God declares that it is a kairos moment for His Hephzibahs, and our prayers said in truth over many years will rise up to strengthen the angels assigned to bring our destinies to speedy completion. The hearts of our Kings, yes those stubborn kings and their equally stubborn hearts, will be diverted like water-streams in the hands of the Lord. It’s a beautiful picture, is it not, the fulfilment of the promises our Father has made to us? It is ladies, I agree, but we MUST pray.
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So how did this rather dramatic saga end, one might ask? In happy tears I’ll have you know. In my forlorn state, God my Father, the Holy spirit my Comforter downloaded the divine strategy I needed to be able to pick myself up and press forward like the warrior that I am. And so that night in my Quiet Time just before I went to sleep, I penned down three dangerous scriptural prayers for my future husband. I prayed that the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, would bend down and listen to my prayer, lift any shroud of darkness surrounding my future husband and open his eyes so that he could see me. I prayed that in accordance with Proverbs 21 : 1 , God would divert his heart to face mine. I stood firmly on the word in Proverbs 2: 1 & 2 as I asked that my Father would grant him immeasurable wisdom, that He would strengthen and guide him and teach him to hear the voice of God with pinpoint clarity. I decreed and declared that I was this man’s help mate in the words of Genesis 2 : 22. And then I closed my eyes and slept like a baby, confident that I had fulfilled my end of the bargain for the day and more confident that the God I serve would do the rest.
So ladies, this one is not by might but by the Lord’s intervention. Go to the war room. Get down on your knees. Stay there. Deploy divine strategies and war until you carry your evidence. In the words of Matthew 11 : 12, since the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. May God strengthen you in your place of prayer, Amen.