DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PRAY
by Pam Clark
(pamclark @prophetic.net)


The Body of Christ has encountered many strongholds as we have pressed into the Kingdom of God. Some of them, it seems, we have struggled with for years, and there are some that seem so formidable that it feels like it is a wish more than a hope. Sometimes it can seem so frustrating that we lose heart.

I hear the Lord saying, "Pray again."

Once we get an internal glimpse of the Kingdom, we are changed. Hope is birthed deeper into our beings and a vision is there of something more and definitely something better than our current status quo. When the breakthrough VISION comes, there is a reality conceived that can never retreat. It may be battered, but the Life is stronger than the death.

Because we often can't take it on all at once because of the scope of it, we find that we can have some success in different areas of our new found faith that is growing from "hope to hope, faith to faith and strength to strength." But then there is that big area that is so clear to us that we can almost taste the freedom of it, for we feel that we have experienced it in some small measure.

There are obstacles, and we know it's there, but the enemy has a STRONGHOLD that he is going to wage his own war over. Sometimes he is so skillful at protecting his stronghold that we feel that we have lost or missed it. It can SEEM hopeless in light of all the negative remarks or circumstances, but I hear the Lord saying: PRAY AGAIN.

There are some strongholds in the area where I live, as there is for any area. Recently I encountered a spirit that many of us have been praying against. When I discerned it in a group setting a while back, my heart sank with the disappointment. I wondered, "Just what is our problem here? I know this is not the Kingdom of God!"

I almost resigned myself to look for another alternative course of action but did not get an inner witness for it. Then I wondered if I or we had missed it, if we had failed God again in some way. I felt prompted by the Lord to come against that thing, so I did! My soul prayed, "I bind that spirit of arrogance that comes against the true Body of Christ!"

Do you know that in two days, without ANY negative events or spoken words, that thing was broken. A kindness and a love broke through and honestly I was surprised because there has been a long standing arrogance in some places. But where I targeted it, solely through prayer without resentment towards people, a breakthrough came.

I am so convinced that this can happen in others areas as well, such as healing or needed agreements. Amazingly in the days that followed, even more love was poured out, more than I had even expected. This does not mean that we as intercessors can come off the wall. We must always have saints on the wall, even if we take turns. When we fail to know and love each other and hold each other accountable in our faith, a breach in the wall occurs.

There have been some areas where hardness of heart and insecurities (fear) and unbelief or even outright lies have come against the Body of Christ. But the Lord is saying to: PRAY AGAIN. There are more for us now than against us in the Spirit realm. We have come up to a new level. Our obedience is paying off!

As we reach out to others and come into our personal obedience TO THE LORD, a new power within us is coming forth. When we reject the old forms that hinder us from Love - that hinder us from loving each other and finding our joys in God and not in men - then we will find these breakthroughs.

When the Kingdom of God is first - and the Kingdom is the place where JESUS is the King and we live for Him and not just our man made imposed institutions - then the Holy Spirit is RELEASED to perform in Spiritual powers. And we discern that these powers are for our good and for our health and for a healthy lifestyle that promotes personal growth and happiness and redemption and recovery. The dream is not impossible!!!

Sometimes we just feel flat. It happens to all of us. But when our mind has exhausted all that we know to do, then PRAY AGAIN. The breakthrough may be just around the corner! And all we needed to do was pray.