When the spirit realms respond.

prayer assignments and the mild to major chaos they cause.

Last year, I shared about the prayer stand-off that we were having with our neighbours. The contending of two spiritual altars, one in my home and one in my neighbour’s home.

The Battle of the Altars.

Here is part 2.

I strongly recommend you catch up on part 1 before continuing to read.

🧡

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Praise God the midnight chanting had stopped.

Like, Praise. God.

Our sleep was no longer disturbed, our night-times were peaceful again, and I was no longer worried about the drums and gongs waking up my daughter.

31 nights of prayer from 12 am - 1 am established a prayer altar in our family home that was superior to that of our neighbours. Honestly, I was surprised that it only took 31 days. In fact, their prayers and worship stopped only a few days into 31 day prayer ‘siege’. The remaining days of my prayers were to complete the assignment that God had given to me to complete.

You see, I didn’t spend those 31 days praying for the destruction of their altar of worship (that came later) or for protection over our home. I spent those days praying on the very specific topic that God had given me to pray about.

And that was for my husband.

For 31 days from 12 am -1 am I prayed in the spirit and in words for every aspect and area of my husband’s life that God led me to pray for.

I didn’t understand how praying for my husband would be the key to overcoming the idol altar that was contending for our spiritual territory. I didn’t understand how it linked together. But I understood that Jesus is the captain of angel armies, and He alone holds the battle plans that lead to victory.

And so I prayed.

I prayed for a fresh revival in my husband’s life, for his family and for the breaking of generation curses and reclaiming of generation blessings attached to him. I prayed for his protection, for wisdom and fortitude. I prayed for strength and clarity of vision. I prayed for leadership from the Holy Spirit in his work, and in the leading of our family. I petitioned for his healing and victory in the areas of spiritual warfare.

I prayed my little heart out.

My husband didn’t fully understand what was happening but he understood that God had set me on an assignment. He would say that those days were high stakes for him. You see when the spiritual realms begin to be stirred around you, the physical realm responds.

They are intrinsically linked. One does not move without the other.

Movement in one realm has consequences in the other.

And prayer is a way to access one realm from the other; the spiritual realm from the earthly realm. In prayer, by Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, we begin to interact with what we cannot see with our physical eyes or touch with our physical hands.

Just think about the time when Peter was in chains held in the prison cell. The church prayed unceasingly. And heaven responded.

An angel (!) came unchained Peter and led him out of the city (!!!).

The praying church and their activities on the earth reached into the heavens and activating a ‘spiritual’ response.

Or Daniel who went into prayer following his discovery of Jeremiah’s prophecy which revealed that freedom would come to the Babylonian exiles after 70 years. His prayer was heard in heaven and Gabriel (another angel!) was sent with the answer to his prayers.

Heaven responds to prayer. The spirit realms are listening to the prayers of the saints. Both the dark side and the light side.

They are not mistaken about the power of a believer’s prayer.

Only we, the human believers, are deceived into believing that our prayers have no impact, are unheard, and unimportant. No other spiritual being thinks this.

Never underestimate prayer, never underestimate what your words do in the spirit, and the power that your declarations carry when prayed in Jesus name and in accordance to His will.

And so I prayed, the spirit realms heard, and my husband’s life went into mild (to major) chaos. Old things were brought to the forefront of his life, temptation vied for his attention, and hard choices were brought before him.

Whilst I prayed and battled in the spirit, he battled too only his warfare manifested in the physical realms.

God sustained my husband through those days and freedom was won in so many ways.

We saw the end of decade long battles, we saw forgiveness flow, reconciliation come with ease, the flourishing of business and a burst of new life in our marriage.

Freedom was being won but it was all at a cost and for a price.

First and foremost a price paid for by the blood of the Lamb.

And then a price paid for by those made in His image, a cost of time, energy, faith, emotion, and the life of things we held dear.

‘For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection’ - Romans 6:5:

I need to hand it to my husband, he didn’t sign up for those 31 days of chaos. But he persevered and remain stayed on Christ. Even when he didn’t understand what was happening my husband understood that warfare taking place over his life.

And whilst many people may have asked for the prayers to stop, he encouraged me, whilst in the depths of despair and confusion, he implored me not to stop.

And so we both fought on, I in prayer in the midnight hours, and he fought on in the 12 hours of waking and the 12 hours of sleeping. He endured.

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I knew that something significant was happening during that time.

Over my short years of leaning into intercession and prayer, I have learned to read the signs of effective prayer. Rarely, does intercession for breakthrough start with ease, flow and joy (though this can definitely be a part of it). Most of the time, intercession is hard to enter into and the results can feel like resistance in the spirit and mild (to major) chaos in the physical realms.

As you begin to declare the name of Jesus and the promises of Jesus over your circumstances, things begin to shift. The spirit realms begin to react. Just like we read in Daniel 10, Daniel’s prayers were registered in the heavenly and a spiritual battle was incited as a result.

When you begin to pray the spirit realms begin to respond. All of a sudden it is no longer you and your human words echoing in time and space; but as you partner with the Holy Spirit and speak the words of His heart and within His will, you begin to engage with a world that is beyond what our physical eyes can see.

Your prayers are powerful, they are effective, and they are heard in the heavens.

When your life and heart are aligned with God, you should expect that your prayers begin to stir up activity in the spirit realms and for that to have a direct impact in the earthly realm.

I saw this the most clearly in 2017 when I was newly married. We were going to bed after what had been a hard marriage day. It was clear that the ride was not going to be an easy one.

My husband was already asleep, when I saw in the spirit a vision of a large brick tower in the corner of the room. It was tall and made of red industrial brick like the chimneys of an industrial workhouse.

The Holy Spirit told me what the stronghold was and how it had come to be in my husband’s life. I immediately prayed for its destruction by simply whispering, ‘Be broken in the name of Jesus, you no longer have a hold on his life’ and in one shift motion, I saw the whole thing crumble as if it was knocked down by an invisible hand.

But then, I saw the red dragon that had been inhabiting the tower had come off the tower and was making its way to where my husband was in the physical room.

I began to pray in the spirit and I saw the dragon get smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker. I knew that though it would reach my husband, it would be nothing more than a mild nuisance. I knew that all he would need to do was flick it off.

I prayed and watched the dragon, my eyes were open as I watched in the physical and in the spirit at the same time.

As the dragon reached the bed with the intent to crawl on my husband's leg, my husband, who was fully asleep, kicked his leg twice (!!). I watched as the dragon was flung off him and then disappeared.

I knew it was done and I turned to go to sleep. Astonished by the thin veil between the earthly and spirit realms but too tired to do anything more than wonder about it.

I closed my eyes and fell straight into a dream where I watched a scene of warfare play out in third person. Then from the scene, a dark spirit came directly at me, face to face it came at me. The moment it hit me I was paralysed, but no longer in my dream.

I was paralysed in real life, and the breath was being taken out of my body.

I was conscious, and asleep all at the same time. I guess that is to say that my spirit was very much awake even if my body was asleep. I knew that assignment was fear and a demonic reaction to the freedom just won in intercession. I knew this in my spirit, but instead of fear all I could feel was the deep peace of the Holy Spirit.

The action plan was clear in my mind.

And I began to whisper ‘Jesus’. I could not move, my lips were frozen but my spirit spoke the name.

‘Jesus’

I willed my body to respond until the name of Jesus passed my lips. It was just a whisper but immediately the weight of dread and fear lifted.

The well-known story about Smith Wigglesworth breezed through my mind¹. Inspired I said, ‘Get out of my house in Jesus name’ before turning over to go to sleep with a satisfied smile on my face.

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The veil between the realms is so thin, practically non-existent.

Prayer is our weapon of warfare that impacts both realms, spiritual and physical. Jesus is our battle cry.

We often stop too easily when opposition comes.

‘Maybe this isn’t what God wants.’

‘This is not worth the warfare.’

‘I must be doing something wrong.’

But what if opposition is actually a sign that something is happening? What if the hardness of the atmosphere in prayer is because you are breaking through new ground? What if discomfort in a relationship is because God is opening up space for true and deeper unity to be discovered? What if the redundancy at work is Jesus moving you quickly to the place that you are supposed to be?

What if your prayer is being answered?

There is not a one-size-fits-all for interpreting the situations that begin to occur as a result of your prayers, but there is a deep need for you to lean into the Lord so that you can understand and discern what is happening. There is a need for you to stay steadfast in prayer.

I long to see a people who are steadfast in the place of intercession, people who can pray though the world seems to come to an end, people who can declare the goodness of God even when everything around them is falling apart.

I long to be that type of person. One who is so attuned to the reality of who God is, and is able to do, that all physical realities are but mist on the glass I look through. Not unimportant, just not the focus point.

A praying people are those who will usher in the revival that we long to see in our cities and nations. A praying people are the warriors who will be able to win back the territories that are being claimed by false and inferior gods. But only if these are people who are fearfully and wholeheartedly sold out for Jesus.

We cannot expect to pray effective prayers from our own understanding and with our own agendas. The most effective prayers are prayers that are led by Jesus. The ones that are discerned from His heart and prayed back to Him. They are the prayers that are within the will of God; they are the effective prayers.

So how did praying for my husband fit into the larger picture of the battle of the altars that we were experiencing in everyday life.

Well… turns out that he and his prayers were the key to overturning the demonic altars once and for all.

But I will have to tell you about that another time.

photo credit: Becca Booth

‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.’ 1 John 5:14-15

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This has part of the story been a long time coming.

I am thankful to be able to share it and I pray that it brings faith and strategy for the situations that you are contending in.

Riswe up prayer warrior, God is not finished yet!

Until next time,

Love, Anna x

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Catch up thoughts and posts:

1. The story goes: Smith Wigglesworth awakened in the middle of the night to see a dark hideous creature in the corner of his room. “Who are you?”, he asked. “The Devil”, it replied. “Oh, just you?”, he said as he rolled over and went back to sleep.