"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth [...] to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down..." Jere. 1:10
Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast I downloaded in iTunes in which an intercessor, Tommi Femrite, was speaking about the different types of intercessory prayer. (It was a really good teaching and free to download, by the way. I believe I found it by searching for Dutch Sheets in the iTunes store search box.) Anyway, I was listening to a message on intercessory prayer and feel led to share a certain prayer experience I had. This experience would definitely fall under the "Crisis Intercession" category that Tommi Femrite was speaking about and is a great example of the way the Lord puts His words in our mouths to destroy the plans of the enemy.
One night, about a decade ago, I was abruptly awakened. It was as if someone were standing near my bed and shook me awake. Immediately, I heard the Lord say, "Get up and pray." I sat up with this overwhelming feeling that something was incredibly wrong. I went into my living room, sat on the edge of my couch, and began covering my entire family in the blood of Jesus to protect them. I remembered reading in a Cindy Jacob's book (I think) that if you feel a burden to pray but aren't sure what to pray about, begin with your family. So, I started with my parents, then began praying for my oldest brother, who was living with his family of 5 as missionaries in a foreign country. Once I began praying for them, I had a knowing this was it--this was the area of danger, the area in which the Lord was alerting me that satan had plans and Jesus wanted to abort those plans.
As I prayed for them, I knew there was death being planned and my heart was gripped. I wept and prayed in tongues and wept some more. As I was doing so, I saw a vision of my niece, my brother's middle child who was in her pre-teen years at the time. In the vision, I saw her in an alley with two or three dark-skinned males who had black bandanas on and one was slapping my niece. There was a dumpster in the alley and I knew that the plans of the devil were that she would end up in that dumpster. When I saw that I knew the Lord was showing me that to do something about it, not to just accept this as her destiny. Boldness came over me, as I stood and declared the Word that God was putting in my mouth to speak: "She will live and not die! and declare the works of God!" Over and over, I said those words, and each time I felt like those words were destroying satan's plans for my niece. At that time, I was single and living with my parents. My mom, entered the room and told me she had been awake, too, praying for my brother and his family. Together, we held hands and continued covering my brother's family in prayer, the spirit of intercession was so thick. About an hour later, the burden lifted and we knew it was time to stop praying--God's will would happen and the devil's plans had been aborted.
I knew better than to call my brother and tell him everything I had seen. And truthfully, to this day my brother and his family have not heard the details I just spoke about. They were missionaries, living in a foreign land; their smallest child was 2 years old when they moved there. I wasn't going to tell them what I had seen because I didn't think it was wisdom and I didn't want to instill fear especially in my sister-in-law and her children. Instead, I immediately emailed my brother, casually telling him that my mom and I were praying for them and telling him I felt he needed to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading. That was a Thursday night.
Friday, I checked my email and there was no response. (I found out later, my brother's email was down.) I then felt like God gave me another impression about my brother and his whole family, about the importance of their lives and the people they would touch. Tears fill my eyes right now, remembering all of this. I just started thanking God for what He did the night before. I started calmly thanking God for everything He had planned for my brother's family, for every person God would touch through them. I started declaring over them that God's plans would be done. Then, I really felt strongly that God has so many plans for my niece. I didn't know details of what would happen in her future but I knew the plans He has for her are big and will impact many. And her fluency in Spanish would be important. So, I started asking God to fulfill everything in her life that He has planned for her. I felt so much love for her and knew I was feeling God's love for her and His excitement about her future. So, I prayed that out loud, declaring it would be so, just as God has planned.
Saturday, my brother called. People who know my oldest brother know that he is not a person who overly spiritualizes or overly dramatizes anything. When he called that Saturday, he emphatically told our dad that he almost died that day and said if their oldest child had been with him (like they originally planned) he would certainly have died. Apparently, my brother had a white-water rafting trip planned that day with several ministers from the states. The water was so turbulent that it turned over their boat and they were underwater, being swept downstream over rocks and waterfalls. Everyone made it out of the water safely, but it wasn't without a fight. Being rushed underwater, so disoriented, he wondered if he was going to make it. My brother said he'd never held his breath that long and had never come that close to facing death. He was convinced that if his oldest son had been in the boat, he would not have made it out of the water alive. At the last minute, my brother had decided not to take his son with him that day. I do not for a minute believe that was a coincidence. Without even knowing it, the Lord directed his decision.
I never heard of any "close call" happening with my niece, my other nephew, or my sister-in-law. And I never told them about the vision--again, I didn't feel I should. Hearing about the water rafting trip was enough to prove to me that God not only woke me up to pray, but He also heard those prayers, and used those words to totally destroy the plan of death that satan had for my brother and his entire family.
That's what can happen when God shows us bad things that will happen in the future. He shows us these things, many times, to pray in order to change the future--to abort destructive plans of the devil. In Jeremiah chapter 1:9-10, the Bible says,
"Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth, and the Lord said to [Jeremiah]: 'Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant'"
That Thursday night, I have no doubt that mine and my mom's prayers destroyed the plans of death over my family. Then, the next day, God used my mouth to "build and to plant" by praying His will to happen in their future in place of the destiny that satan had created.
No comments:
Post a Comment