Blog

Here the podcast episode where you can listen to this topic. It’s about 17 minutes long.

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/prayer-warriors–75110327

Here the YouTube link where you can watch the 17+ minute video of this teaching.

https://youtu.be/SL7pkBE_DUQ?is=3LsfMBb65MK4Gwx8

Prayer is for warriors and champions.

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 

Think of Jacob who wrestled with the Lord in Genesis 32.  He said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

Think of Abraham interceding in Genesis 18. He started with 50 and continued praying in descension of number and probably a decline of hope until he reached 10. Valiantly he wrestled in intercession as he was engaged in bargaining for the mercy of God in prayer. 

I just read (while studying on prayer) that there are nearly 200 times in Scripture where we are exhorted or commanded to pray. It’s a continued plea and challenge throughout Scripture. God is ever recruiting warriors.

I’ve heard that John Calvin, John Knox, and another brother entered into an agreement that they would hold each other accountable in a commitment to pray as individuals for at least 2 hours a day. 

It is said that Benny Hinn use to pray 6 hours each night just before his public ministry took off. 

Athanasius, an early Church father, reportedly prayed 5 hours a day.

Bernard of Clairvaux is said to have started each day with 3 hours of prayer 

Someone noted how Charles Simeon prayed from 4 to 8 am each morning.

John Wesley had usually prayed 2 hours every day before the sunrise. 

Francis Asbury would wake to pray at 4am. Imagine the commitment of someone who wakes up at 4 am—to pray. Everyday.

Before the Lakeland Revival where countless incredible miracles took place, the guest minister, Todd Bentley, said he prayed 4 to 12 hours a day in soaking prayer.

I can’t condone everything Hinn or Bentley has said and done, but what they did right was chase hard after God.

Men such as TL Lowery and Lou Engle have been known to live lifestyles of prayer with intermingled fasting, especially 40 day fasts. 

Paul said he prayed in tongues “more than you all”in 1 Cor 14:18.

Again, my ministry theology doesn’t usually align with Copeland’s, but I remember Kenneth Copeland teaching on how such a thing such as extended, continued hours of praying in tongues is possible: He taught—pray all the time, even walking through the grocery, or driving in your car.

Praying in tongues is a blessing of a broader language. We don’t run out of words and we don’t run out of things to pray and say. Plus, it isn’t taxing on the mind. 

These men mentioned above fasted 40 days straight, or prayed daily before sunlight, or late beyond midnight, or 2-12 hours daily. I say such discipline of lifestyle and commitment to prayer makes them warriors in this field. They prayed.

So…What about me and you? Will we pray? 

Gateways

• gateways are spiritual highways. 

• Gateways have gatekeepers. 

• Gates are Spiritual Access Points

A Door is how you gain access to a House, or Church, or Building. A Gate is how you gain access to a City, or Property, a specified Area. 

A key holder is a keeper. For example—doorkeeper, or gatekeeper. If you hold the key, you have authority over what comes in and what stays out and what comes out. If you hold the key, you are the keeper. We are key holders of our body (temple). Men are to be keyholders of the home (family). 

—Matthew 16:18 mentions gates. 

—Matthew 16:19 mentions a key. Binding and Loosing is introduced. 

This ministry of doorkeeping  is about acquiring and using spiritual authority. 

John Baptist was a gatekeeper, opening up the spiritual highway for the Lord to come in. Accordingly, John was boldly speaking to spiritual highways. 

Symbolic: for example, the area I live in is nicknamed the gateway to the mountains. There’s symbolism that we must understand about the gateways. The symbolic attachment  that is associated to certain gates or gateways often reveals the spiritual territory and also presents clues or insightful and helpful hints regarding regional spiritual warfare. 

Doorkeepers, as seen in the heart of the Psalmist, are about manning the spiritual doors, gates, gateways, so that there is an open Heaven above us. 

As an overview, Consider these Scriptures:

Psalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Psalm 24:7  Lift up your heads, you gates, And be lifted up, you ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in!

Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in

Here are a few important keys and tools of the trade for spiritual doorkeepers 

• God inhabits our praises (Psa 22:3). 

• when we pray, God responds (Jer 33:3). 

• when we speak words infused by holy faith, mountains must move (Mk 11:23).  Mountains, by the way, are blockages that try to stifle gateways. Mountains are hindrances that stand in the way of us and God’s manifest presence or God’s plans for us and our places of assignment.

• Lastly, I believe that when we come together in His name, He’ll meet with us (Matt 18:20).  Therefore, intentional gatherings are meaningful. 

Here’s a podcast link if you’d like to hear me discuss this for 12 minutes.

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/spiritual-gates–74751661

And here’s a YouTube link if you’d like the video of me sharing this message.

https://youtu.be/ZOUfJK4ZHYY?is=n1OfZSLqG5QHAAl5

Isaiah 49:11
“I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up.

Highway of Holiness

* Isaiah 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness

The Wilderness Road

* Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

 Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness

* Mark 1:3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

Donkey Street

* Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey

Here’s a link to hear a 10 minute podcast featuring a summary teaching on this:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/god-s-highways–73396977

And here’s a link to watch the 10 minutes of summary teaching on this:

https://youtu.be/7hOMBAbgCe0?is=2MfpGYH2gkv7Lt6R

Don’t discount the seasons of feeling like you’re in the wilderness.

Don’t discount that wilderness road.

Don’t reject the wild ones. Don’t dismiss the ones that are wilder than normal. Don’t overlook the one with a wild voice. God sometimes uses a wild prophet. John Baptist had a following. The wild ones? So did Jesus. Jesus wasn’t so tame Himself. And Jesus had a following—still does.

Mark 1:3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

This verse speaks to us about the wilderness as a prophetic setting.

Wild is the root of the word wilderness. But we could also say wilder is the root.  Ness is a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun. It indicates the state, condition, or quality of being something (e.g., happy becomes happiness, kind becomes kindness, and dark becomes darkness). So, Mark 1:3 speaks to us of a wilder voice. A wilder way. A wilder path, and something that is free from the norms, traditions, expectations, and religious protocols. That’s the trail that John blazed, and it’s the pathway Jesus walked.

Sometimes God comes wildly. When Holy Spirit came, He came via a wild wind. Who among us will say “let the wind blow.” Or will dare to pray “Have thine own way.”

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – President John F. Kennedy, 1961 address to the United Nations

Allow me now to give you a Scripture of breaking free into the new, the wild, the wilder way

Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness

It is those that say such things as “we’ve always done it this way” that are perpetuating traditions of man. Such traditions may have been enacted because they were God breathed ideas for a moment. But yesterday should never be granted power over our todays and tomorrows. The wild ones are those who are willing to break out of dead protocols, systems, cycles. Holy Spirit isn’t like an animal at the zoo. Holy Spirit isn’t a power that we make a circus act out of. Holy Spirit is a person. And Holy Spirit’s demeanor is more wild than tame. 

“Holy Spirit is a gentleman” is not a Bible verse. Holy Spirit is power. 

Here’s a podcast episode of me talking about this subject:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/wilderness-road–73182788

Here’s a video of me teaching this topic:

https://youtu.be/HDp3CHF__s0?is=m2grDl64gC9u_t48

Podcast episode link is here…

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/highway-of-holiness–72974520

YouTube video link is here…

> Holiness is an ancient pathway that man walks with God

Isaiah 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it

“Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man” -Oswald Chambers

Isaiah 49:11 my highways will be raised up.