FROM BACKLASH TO BREAKTHROUGH

HOW PRAYER MIXED WITH STRATEGY HELPED OUR CHURCH TAKE TERRITORY IN OUR CITY

Not everyone who prays for breakthrough in the land has authority in the land. It’s a question of authority, maturity and strategy.

When I was young in ministry, I had the privilege of leading a revival among the youth and young adults in our city. Much of our city where our church was located was established by city fathers who were Free Masons.

Freemasonry, really is a worldwide oath-bound secret society concealing many of its rituals, customs, and activities from the public. They say they believe in a supreme being, but they do not believe the being is God. As a result, they actually call upon, and are involved with, demonic spirits of deception, manipulation and control just to name a few. Despite how it may appear from the outside, Freemasonry is truly a demonic group with deep roots in ancient witchcraft. It has a spirit that takes and occupies territory in cities and regions. It is territorial. While you may want more information about this secret society, do not attempt a study of the subject without proper covering and protection. Freemasonry can be very powerful in the kingdom of darkness.

In the heart of our city, an open air theatre was built in the city park. The funding for establishing this theatre came from one of our city fathers, who was a high-level mason. Believe it or not, the money came with some strings attached. He donated the money to the city on the condition it was never used for religious, specifically, Christian use. 

During the revival in our church many of our young people became very active in impacting our city for Jesus. We wanted to hold some services at the theatre, located in the core of our city. Of course this was not permitted. As these young people and I started praying for the chains and bondage of freemasonry to be broken over our city, we targeted this particular building in the park. It was like all Hell broke loose when we did this. To start with, some of our young people became strangely ill among other things. This even included patterns of repeated types of sickness even. It seemed as though our prayers aroused a significant response from a demonic power, and we were on the losing side! 

WE DON’T PRAY TO TWIST GOD’S ARM - WE PRAY TO SEE STRATEGY

Then I received a dream from the Lord I will never forget. It may have even saved my life. In the dream I was in a baseball game, and up to bat. As the pitcher threw the ball, I hit it high and far. I dropped the bat and started running. As I ran to first base, I suddenly found myself high in the air watching the game from above. I immediately saw the baseball “diamond” I was running around (myself on the ground), morph into a free masonry diamond symbol. What a visual! I knew this was a God-dream as I also know I could never have come up with this on my own, and at that point Freemasonry was not on my radar as we prayed for the city. This was real. 

As I watched myself running the bases I suddenly had a revelation from the Lord while still dreaming. If I ran those bases all the way to home plate, I would be struck with cancer. Yikes. Knowing what I now know about significant attacks of the enemy against Christian leaders who attempted to advance the cause of Christ in our city, this graphic revelation in the dream was very believable. In fact, I found out our city actually has a history of this. 

Now in the dream, as I made it to first base, I noticed my father, who was a pastor and key leader in our city, was the first base coach. He waved me past first base as I then continued running the bases. At that moment I understood the revelation of my father having the authority to tell me to keep running and moving forward. 

HERE WAS THE WISDOM PRINCIPLE

As long as I operated on my own against this very powerful city principality, I would be taken out. I was young, and the youth of our church, although very zealous and on fire for God, were also young in their faith and understanding of authority in Christ. The Lord then revealed a specific strategic intercession plan that needed to happen by city leaders with authority. As they engaged in this prayer plan, their prayers would strip the strongman of his armor, and we could then bind him and see city transformation. The Lord revealed through the dream that as I came into alignment and agreement with my father, there was enough authority for me to complete the task. My father was the coach in the baseball game in the dream, and he had the authority to wave me through to home plate. If these radical on fire youth could walk in agreement with the senior generation of leadership, we would have covering, with combined unity and authority, to take territory!

GOD IS IN THIS CITY

Out of this revelation came a combined strategy between the senior leadership of our church and the youth movement. We held a campaign in the city streets called “God is in this City.” One facet of the plan included open-air meetings where many came to Christ. 

But more strategically, we mobilized a number of the youth to stand on the busiest street corners at the busiest times of the day holding massive signs that read “God is In This City!” Now you can imagine this created no small stir on our streets. You may ask, what was so significant about standing on street corners holding big signs? This was a prophetic act given by the Holy Spirit birthed in prayer, covered by and aligned with authority structures. Many of the general street signage marking the borders of our city were funded by the Masons. They said things like “Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part” as people drove in and out of the city borders. Little did we know, these signs had demonic spiritual power almost like gates in our city. As a result, when our young people held signs declaring “God is in this City” it became strategic living intercession with tremendous spiritual power!

HERE’S WHAT WE LEARNED

Rather than holding a prayer meeting yelling “I bind you” to a principality hoping he hears us and decides to abandon his occupied territory in our city, we used a prophetic attack given to us by wisdom, covered and aligned with authority. This produced power. Not long after this prophetic campaign, the theatre in the downtown core was opened for Christian use. In fact, one of our History Makers Academy graduates, Bruce Richardson, holds a yearly event called “Church in the Park” bringing churches in the city together in unity and worship. But that’s not all that took place in our city. This act was just the beginning of a transformational breakthrough. With the strongman bound without his armor, the Church started taking ground back from the enemy in the city. 

Do you see the power in doing spiritual warfare properly? God’s way is not always the easiest one and it’s almost always not the world’s way. It is a way God reveals to you as you spend time with Him in prayer, meditating over the Word of God, hearing His heart, and learning His ways.