This series on intercessory prayers is based off my handwritten notes, which I took as I attended a church conference on this topic in Aug 2024.

Introduction:

• God gives us His ‘logos’ word: Bible
• God also gives us His ‘rhema’ word: Word in season to us, by the Holy Spirit
• Holy Spirit: Counsellor, one who searches the deep things of God

Satan’s ploys and strategies:

• Satan and his demons knows they have lost on the cross, and it’s the word that he fears
• Because the word destroyed him, when Jesus was tempted, He responded to them: “It is written”
• So Satan will try to distract us away from God’s word
• For example, he will convince us to watch YouTube sermons, WhatsApp sermons
• But we need to read God’s word ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us from there
• He knows very well, when we pray in the Holy Spirit to God, he doesn’t know anymore how to intervene, as he does not understand
• Satan’s job is to distract us, keep us busy, and away from Bible reading, cell
• And convince us a Scripture we have read, is not important / worth praying
• God will confirm, but He will not do the work for us, we have to pray
• And if we pray in Jesus name, the demon cannot attack us, unless we allow it
• We have Christ in us, the hope of glory is in us, and we have the Holy Spirit, and have been restored as reflection of this hope of glory
• But you may say I don’t feel the glory, but it’s not according to our emotions (Satan’s ploy again to get us focus on our feelings / how we feel, please refer to Intercessory Prayers Session 2: Foundations of Intercession article), but according to God’s word
• Satan fires us with darts to try and weaken us, although Christ has already won
• We need to make time for the Holy Spirit too, not just say Holy Spirit do whatever you want in our tight schedules
• Satan is not a creator, he cannot come up with new ideas, but God is and He can even show us the masterplan of Satan

Satan attacks on the mind and breaking strongholds:

• 1 Pet 1:13: God asks us to deal with the mind, because 99% attacks are from devil, are on our minds / emotions (as discussed above)
• Num 13:33: Satan influenced their minds, that the spies actually saw themselves as grasshoppers
• James 4:6-7: Therefore, we should be humble, power in prayer comes out of humility
• And we need to resist the devil our ownself, taking the authority we have been given, nobody else will do it for you
• Spiritual warfare: Worship Jesus (humility), resist the devil, and pray God’s word
• Also devil may keep us away from fellowship with Christians, but we need to surround ourselves with a godly community too
• 2 Cor 10:4-5: Satan starts his attack by planting seeds / thoughts, and if we keep / believe them, and allow it to take root, the devil puts brick by brick in just like building a wall in front of us, and thus putting us in our strongholds
• And then the devil next attempts separate the body of Christ, according to thoughts trapped in their minds
• But we as believers have the power / authority to break the stronghold, and we have to be the one that climbs out of it
• So stop crying Jesus please set me free, because we got the power already, but use God’s word to break the strongholds, they are weapons
• Why people lose their fire, because they stop reading the Bible, praying / fasting, fellowship, and spending time with the Holy Spirit
• 5 steps to break strongholds:
• a. Worship
• b. Humility (James 4: Submit yourself to God)
• c. Resist the devil (James 4)
• d. Break the stronghold
• e. Declare God’s word
• Most important are not the steps as the Holy Spirit will teach us, but using our authority