 As a revivalist and intercessor, I had cried out to God many times… “Pour out Your Spirit Lord,” God’s promise found in Joel 2, as well as Acts 2. I very much desired to see God’s revival rain poured out on my family, town, state and nation. I prayed day and night to see others experience the love and mercy of God, like that of which I have experienced. But one day while reading the Word of God, I felt God say to me, “You need to call down the fire of God before you call down the rain.” If the wicked spirits and principalities aren’t driven away from a territory first, e.g., a person, church, neighborhood, city or nation, then the spirits will have free reign to extinguish the Holy Spirit. I had been reading about Elijah in the book of First Kings in which Elijah prays to God to send the much-needed rain to his land which had experienced a 3-year drought. Yes, we need to pray for the rain of the Spirit to fall and bring life to the dead and lifeless people, churches, and nations. But often, some time after the Spirit has fallen upon a person, church or city, there is a lack of evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. The once fiery flames die down to warm embers or even worse, cold ashes. How many of us have seen this happen? In a loved one who spoke in tongues and couldn’t stop telling everyone about Jesus? In a church whose doors didn’t close because there was a constant flood of desperate ones desiring to worship Jesus? The reason why Holy Spirit is quenched is because there was an existing hidden spirit or principality there prior to the Holy Spirit outpouring. I prayed for my family member Johnny¹ to come to church and he finally did! Then I prayed that Johnny would be baptized in the Holy Spirit and what joy I experienced when months later, I saw Johnny prayed over by a pastor for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I wept as I heard Johnny speak in tongues. In the following months, I witnessed Johnny behave in a whole new way. It was wonderful for me to see His zeal for God. But eventually, Johnny went back to behaving like his “old self.” The zeal was gone. As I prayed and sought God, He revealed to me that Johnny had a spirit of religion that had entered as a child, when he was a member in a church that also had a spirit of religion. This spirit had been hidden prior to Johnny’s baptism, but it got busy to quench the fire that was ignited after he got baptized in the Spirit. God burdened my heart to pray and drive out that wicked spirit and eventually, God gave Johnny the victory. Johnny is once again on fire for God! Years ago, I prayed to see God’s revival rain fall on my church. My pastors went hard after this. They opened the church to 24/7 prayer and lingered in our church services, waiting on God to pour out His Spirit. We travailed on our faces on the floors of the church on many occasions. And then… it happened! We had Holy Ghost-filled services every night for 3 weeks and evangelistic outreach teams were sent out all over the state each day. The church and the people who came were on fire for God and they earnestly sought to bring that fire to the lost souls throughout our state. But within a year or so, the fire died down to cold ashes. As an intercessor and seer in this church, God showed me there was an existing hidden spirit—the Jezebel spirit—a principality that caused the fire to be quenched. After I read about Elijah calling down rain from heaven, I then read about how he called down fire from heaven in First Kings, chapter 18. It’s a story about a showdown to prove who was more powerful—God or Baal. God gave Elijah the victory. Elijah’s enemies—who were God’s enemies—were defeated. We learn from reading the Word of God that He uses His fire to defeat His enemies. “Let God arise. Let His enemies be defeated…As wax is melted by fire, let the wicked perish before God” (Psalms 68:1-2). “Fire goes before Him and consumes all His enemies…Mountains melt like wax in the presence of the Lord” (Psalm 97:3, 5). In the book of Second Kings, chapter 1 we learn how Elijah called down fire from heaven to burn up 2 captains and their companies of men who were sent by the wicked King Ahaziah. God’s fire is a weapon. It is used to bring defeat to His enemies. I feel that God has used His Word to teach me the importance of praying to drive out the enemy from a territory before I pray for the outpouring of His Spirit. I am to do this concerning people in my life, my church, my neighborhood, town, state and nation. Wherever God sends me and to whomever He sends me to. My prayer is, “Lord, show me what’s hidden. Shine Your light on the dark places where the enemy his hiding” (Mark 4:22). After God reveals to me a spirit, I ask Him its name. Then I ask God to give me a strategy to defeat the spirit, which always includes God’s promises from His Word. And lastly, I intercede─WAR ─ to see this spirit driven out. I don’t stop interceding until God tells me that I’ve had the victory. After God gives me the victory, I then give Him thanks and praise, and I’m certain to give Him all the glory! Every circumstance where I’ve seen a victory, I’ve seen a mighty manifestation of fruit for the Kingdom of God following. It is glorious to witness and a privilege to be used by God in this way. Alleluia! All glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit! Notes 1. A fictious name. Comments are closed.
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