I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night.You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isa 62:6-7 NKJV

History belongs to the intercessors – those who believe and pray the future into being. – Walter Wink

One of the great privileges of my young ministry began with a Romans 8:28 moment.

The team from Maine had changed their return flight home to a week earlier without bothering to tell me, the only team member from the West Coast. I was stuck in Kigali Rwanda by myself for a week! It was the summer of 1998.  We had just done an awesome reconciliation conference between Hutu and Tutsi pastors that had rocked the city (for years in return trips there I would meet pastors who had been in those meetings, still with a smile and a glow on their faces when it was mentioned). But I was left behind! All things, dear ones, all things…

This was 1998, four years after the genocide – terror still stalked the land. The government had banned all night time meetings. But my friend Paul G had favor with the government to run meetings of intercessors all over the country. Later I would help Paul plant his church and would be asked to give the ordaining prophecy over his ordination, but what opened up that week for ‘left behind Kevin’ was an opportunity to train his intercessors in night time meetings, all week long there in Kigali.

Please let me talk here about some of the things I talked to the Rwandese about there.

INTERCESSORS DISCERN THE HEART AND PURPOSES OF GOD

He made known His ways to Moses… Ps 103:7 NKJV

A private in the defeated and retreating British army in north Africa in 1942 prayed this prayer, “Lord give us leaders through whom it will give You glory to give us victory!” Some weeks later, the British general commanding that army was replaced by Bernard Montgomery, a Bible believing man who led that army to victory against perhaps the shrewdest general in any army in WW2, Erwin Rommel. The man who prayed that prayer was Derek Prince.

Prince was not yet the spiritual giant that we know him to have been today. He was just a simple medical corpsman who got saved in an army barracks reading his bible, yet he walked with such profound holiness and humility that his army buddies didn’t tease him, but held him in great respect. He discerned the heart of God regarding the Brits and the manifest evil of the Nazis, and prayed until his prayers changed the course of history.

INTERCESSORS WIELD AUTHORITY OVER THE EARTH

The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. Prov 21:1 NKJV

And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for the Lord made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. Ezra 6:22 NKJV

Now is the best time to test the Bible in wars, because we are in one ourselves. – Rees Howells

War is a crisis, and a crisis is what brings to the forefront the ministry of intercessors. Rees Howells and his band of about one hundred intercessors in the Swansea Bible College, prayed daily, from 1936 through the end of WW2 for the defeat of Naziism. Howells team saw themselves as soldiers with the same level of dedication to victory as any in the British Army.

In 1936, the Lord showed Rees that Hitler would be the devil’s agent to stop the return of the Jews to their home in Israel. At Munich in 1938, when Hitlers spirit guides were commanding him to start the war, the Lord told Rees Howells to ‘bend Hitler,’ meaning to change his will. In the one time he said he didn’t listen to his spirit guides, Hitler did not go to war, instead signing the Munich Agreement with Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, allowing England another year to prepare for war.

And on and on through the war, Howells and his team won the battle of faith by revelation – at Dunkirk, at the Battle of Britain, in north Africa, with the invasion of Soviet Russia that sealed the Germans fate. The Lord told Rees that He wanted to bring judgment on the soviet system to bring freedom to the Soviet Union.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Josh 24:15 NKJV

Why does God bring judgment? This explanation really caught the ear of the Rwandese, because all around them they could see judgment. The Lord permits judgment so that people can change, and make a choice to do what is right. Things are done wrong, evil choices are made which requires judgment from a just God…and people are faced with the reality that they must change, or die. The Rwandese chose rightly…

It is recorded in Rwandan history that a revival broke out in Kigali in 1998 that changed the face of the nation. My friends Joshua and Paul played leading roles in that move of God. The beautiful city of Kigali today is a testament to the fruit of that revival…

MOSES THE INTERCESSOR

And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Moses knew the heart of the Lord, that He didn’t want to destroy the children of Israel. The Lord takes no delight in the death of any man. But someone had to stand in the gap. See that ‘let Me alone’? If we don’t intercede, things can go south real fast. We often ask God to save someone, but we don’t tell Him WHY! Watch how Moses ‘argues the case,’ like a defense attorney, for mercy for the children of Israel.

Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

‘Lord, You did all these wonderful miracles before when Israel was just as stubborn and wicked, and NOW You are going to throw them under the bus? Why now?’ Moses is presenting his argument.

Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’?

‘Lord, You are going to look bad!’ You see, when Christians are crushed and defeated it makes God look bad. The Muslims say, with derision, ‘Christianity is a poor man’s religion.’ No! Through humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life (Pr.22:4). So, we intercede for our brothers and sisters, in times of crisis, so that the enemy’s mouth is shut, and God is glorified.

Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.

‘Lord, turn things around, that You may be glorified.’

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” 

Finally, he argues the covenant! The new covenant, sealed by the blood of Jesus, is far greater than the old covenant established in Abraham (Hebrews 9:13-15). Listen! When interceding for born again ones, your best and final argument is to argue the new covenant with the Lord!

So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. Ex 32:9-14 NKJV

Disaster averted! In your intercession for people, cities and nations, know your facts and argue your case with clarity before the Lord. Why should God avert the judgment on your city? Tell Him! What is the redemptive call on your city, that must be fulfilled? Remind Him! Perhaps you can even argue the ‘ten righteous families’ argument that Abraham made over Sodom and Gomorrah. In prayer with your soul, know your facts and argue your case with clarity. Your faith will turn the heart of God! But let me show you even more powerful intercession with your spirit…

SUPER INTERCESSION

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession (Grk. HUPERENTUGCHANO, super intercession) for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Rom 8:26

Your spirit man is enabled by the Holy Spirit to make super intercession according to the perfect will of God. When a word is only used one time in the original text it becomes marked out and emphasized, singularly important to understand. The great power of God that released in intercession when we pray much in tongues – super intercession – has great impact, tremendous power.

How does this practically work? I was convinced that it was God’s will for Mr. Trump to win the American national election for President in 2016. The night of the election, I was in Ghana, about six hours ahead of the east coast of the USA in time zones. So, I asked the Lord to give me seven good hours of prayer in tongues and with my soul to make my case before the Lord. I prayed in tongues and with my soul from seven thirty in the evening to two thirty in the morning. When I went to bed, things weren’t looking good for Mr. Trump, but I had made my argument, and rested my case. Now it was all up to the Judge! When I woke up a few hours later, Mr. Trump was the president-elect. As I told people later, I went to bed with ‘the twilights last gleaming’ and woke up with ‘that star spangled banner yet waving!’

Dear Ones, you shape the future by the prayers that you pray, the intercession that goes forth and the cases that you make. Make your case to the Judge! The Lord has given authority over the earth to His sons and daughters. What we make of it is our gift to glorify Him, and our gift to future generations. Join me on the walls, will you? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…