Anyone given to the ministry of intercession knows that there are special moments in prayer that are met with a certainty of God’s immediate intervention. These are breakthrough prayers—dynamic, forceful and perfectly in sync with the purposes of God.
Knowing how and when to apply a specific prayer strategy can make a difference in a situation’s outcome. But why are some prayers seemingly more in tune with the will and timing of God than others?
The Right Prayer at the Right Time
At a ministry conference a woman approached me who was obviously in pain. “Please pray for my daughter,” she cried. “We taught her the Word of God. Jane knows the right thing to do, and yet she has walked away from it. She is now living with her boyfriend, and we haven’t heard from her in months.”
Jane’s mother had prayed constantly during this ordeal. Now the request for additional prayer was desperate.
“Heavenly Father,” I began. “You are a father and understand the agony of this mother’s heart. I ask you in the Name of Jesus to bring healing and restoration to this family. Remind this daughter of Your Word. Help her to remember Your goodness.”
Immediately, I sensed the Spirit of the Lord rise up inside me, along with my faith. Knowing the authority Jesus has given us, I spoke into the atmosphere as if Jane were standing in front of me.
“Jane,” I called. “Open your eyes and look. You are in a pigpen. Get up and get out of the pigpen. Come back to your father’s house. Come home in Jesus’ Name!”
A month later I was speaking at a conference held at a Bible school. On the way into the auditorium one morning, Jane’s mother saw me and came running.
“Barbara,” she called out. “You prayed for my daughter, and I have to tell you what happened. When I came home from the conference last month, I found I had received a phone call from her. The time of the call was exactly when you and I were praying.
“Jane left a message that she was coming home. She said, ‘I don’t know what happened to me! It was if my eyes were opened, and I could see. And I thought, This is a pigpen. I’m going home.'”
That night after the conference session, she saw me again and came over. “My daughter is here,” she said, as her daughter walked up and joined her, “and she wants to talk to you.”
“Thank you, thank you, Barbara, for praying,” Jane said, as tears flowed down her cheeks. “Suddenly my eyes opened, and I could see the truth.” Jane acknowledged her blindness in the situation.
I wondered what happened to bring about such a change. What was different about this prayer from previous times of prayer?
Through the study of God’s Word, I found that He has given us the authority to speak for Him. We are His voice in the earth.
I also discovered that God has orchestrated a strategic time for prayers to break through. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will prompt us to pray the right kind of prayer at that moment. Powerful things will happen as we participate with the Lord at these specific times.
Strategic Declarations
God established the church on the Earth to finish the work of putting Satan under His feet. Paul speaks in Ephesians of the work and power made available to the church. He says he was called to “bring to light…the mystery” hidden for ages in God “in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” and declares that God “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:9-10,20, NASB).
Paul indicates that God is going to make known His wisdom through the church. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the word “known” comes from the Greek verb gnoridzo. It means “to certify, to declare, make known, give to understand, to come to know, discover.” To “make known” means that God is going to use the church to make declarations to the demonic rulers and authorities.
Making declarations is the same as making prophetic proclamations. The Hebrew word for proclaim, qara, means “to call out to, call forth, cry unto, invite or preach. It is usually addressed to a specific recipient and intended to elicit a specific response. Rarely does it refer to a random outcry” (Zodhiates, “Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, AMG Pubs).
The Greek language has several words for “proclaim.” One of them is katagello, which Zodhiates says means “to tell, to declare plainly, openly, or aloud.” Katagello has the sense of an offer of information or encouragement.
We find this word used to describe one of the results of the communion table: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).
When we partake of the elements at the communion table, we are making an announcement or giving a report about the Lord’s death.
Another Greek word for “proclaim” that Zodhiates defines is kerusso, a much stronger word. It means “to be a herald.”
A herald was a public crier who was a speaker of divine truth. The message delivered by the crier was a public and authoritative announcement that demanded compliance. When you kerusso, you are like a town crier making an announcement that requires the hearers to comply. How powerful!
