Powerful Prayer Meetings

Monday nights became a special time of prayer. The majority of the people came. We didn't gather to pray for our personal needs but came to wait on the Lord for the Holy Spirit's direction in prayer. We sought the Lord for what was on His heart for us to join with Him in prayer.

Many wonderful directions came. One night someone shared they saw a vision...a dark cloud was over Manila and shafts of light were breaking through. That night we prayed for Manila through the whole meeting, everyone spontaneously joining in the theme of the Lord, each expressing their heart for that nation. The Holy Spirit moved upon us all in song and everyone sang their prayers to the Lord. The following Monday night the Holy Spirit moved us to pray for Manila again and as we prayed He directed us to separate a team to go there. 14 responded and were set aside for this ministry. I went ahead and found a casino that had been shut down by martial law and was available to rent. I asked the Lord to hold the building until the team arrived a few weeks later. Sure enough, the Lord kept it and we all went together to pray through it. The atmosphere in the building was terrible because of all the evil activities that had previously gone on in it. After two hours of prayer the whole atmosphere was filled with the presence of God. Every dark thing was gone.

We started gatherings on Sunday afternoon and within two weeks the place was full and God began to move. At the end of each gathering there were many seeking the Lord and as I looked around I saw the team ministering to every one individually without being organised or told to. It was such a joy to see.

From this place the Word of God went forth throughout the nation...through teaching booklets, a Christian teaching paper and seminars. On one occasion the team was asked by the Catholic Charismatic Movement to be on their committee. Also, they were invited to take a retreat for nuns and priests who fasted for two weeks, praying that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. They were! And even the Mother Superior was rejoicing and dancing before the Lord.

The Monday night prayer meetings in Sydney were so exciting and fresh each time we didn't know what the Lord was going to do. Everyone came in great anticipation and readiness to move with the direction of the Lord. One Monday night we gathered and before I could begin the meeting, like a glorious cloud descending upon us all, the Presence of the Lord filled the room. So awesome was His Presence, so glorious was the realisation of His love, no one could speak a word. Some knelt, some sat with hands raised to Him, some lay prostrate before Him, but all bathed in His love for two hours. At the end of the two hours the sense of His Presence lifted. Everyone looked around at one another still filled with awe. I got up and said, with a smile...

"Well, this is suppose to be a prayer meeting....let's close in prayer."

Intercession

The Lord also taught us as we prayed. A wonderful intercessory ministry developed and we observed, both from how the Holy Spirit moved and from the Word, that there were four specific anointings of intercession.

Bearing the burden of the Lord

Romans 8:34 says...

"...Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."

In prayer, the Holy Spirit laid burdens on our heart so that we felt the Lord's heart as He interceded for a particular situation. In the same way he wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-42) we felt his heart for different cities and people.

Identification with others

Many times the Holy Spirit gave us the capacity to identify with the needs of someone so as to actually feel what they were going through. One time Bunty was driving with the children in heavy rain and when she stopped at the lights the car behind her skidded into her. She was left with severe whiplash so that she could hardly move her head. The following day was Sunday and during the break in the meeting, while she was making a cup of tea, one of the intercessors, Laura Payne, came up to her and asked her if there was anything wrong with her neck.

"I couldn't sleep last night" she said. "I kept thinking of you and had to keep rubbing my neck."

Bunty stiffly turned her head towards her and said..."As a matter of fact..."...and told her what had happened. Laura prayed for her and immediately the stiffness and pain left and her neck was back to normal again.

Another time, a young woman came into the Sunday afternoon gathering. She was a drug addict and an alcoholic. She came staggering down to the front of the meeting fumbling for drugs in her bag. Two intercessors came out to stand with her. I comforted her, telling her everything was going to be all right...the Lord was going to help her. I called everyone to begin to pray and told the intercessors to take her upstairs. As we all prayed, they interceded and identified with her under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and within a few minutes she was absolutely free.

Spiritual labour to bring to birth

Another expression of intercession we experienced was the deep groanings of the Spirit to bring something to birth in the spiritual realm. The apostle, Paul, describes it in Romans 8:26...

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans thatwords cannot express."

...and in Galatians 4:19...

"Oh, my dear children, I feel the pangs of childbirth all over again till Christ be formed in you." (Phillips)

Warfare against evil spirits

This expression of intercession came as we recognised the powers of darkness arrayed against people's lives, We would proclaimed the victory of Christ over them through the work of his Cross and resurrection.

Many were released from evil spirits. One was a young man called John. He was into drugs with his friends. They would lock themselves in a room. Put the loud speakers against them and "feed" the loud, acid rock, into their bodies which then would cause them to hallucinate. Many times John would come for help. His very long hair was his great pride and we tried to encourage him to get it cut. He tried many times but couldn't do it. Finally, he came one night to visit us while we were having dinner. I deliberately made him wait for two hours before we prayed for him. There is a principle in spiritual warfare - we don't let the enemy (Satan) choose the time and the place of the battle. Needless to say, when we prayed for him, John was set free that night. Just recently, at the Sydney airport, a man came up to me and said "Do you remember me?" I said, "Of course, John". He said "I'm married. I have three daughters. And I drive a taxi" and he was so happy. We never cease to be amazed at the grace of God.

God Pours Out His Spirit

Soon after our arrival in Sydney we hired a cheap hall in Turramurra. Our desire was to see people who didn't know the Lord come to know Him, so we printed some invitations to a Sunday afternoon gathering. Remembering how God had moved so supernaturally in New Zealand (see our post of July 31st, 2006), we assumed that would be the way He would do it again. So we focused it on people who needed healing, encouraging them to come and experience God's power to heal, and distributed the invitations in the surrounding letter boxes.

Sunday afternoon arrived and we went to the meeting hall with a sense of great anticipation. We had no idea who, if any, would come. We were surprised to find about 20 people there. No-one had responded to the invitations but these were believers. They told us they had been travelling to church all the way from the northside of Sydney to the southside every Sunday, and had been praying for a fellowship on the north. They had somehow found out we were in town, heard about the meeting, and there they were.

Among them was an elderly lady whom I had heard of. I knew she played the piano and I asked if she would like to start us in worship. There was just an old piano in the hall. She began to play and lead in some songs. What happened then was wonderful. The Spirit of God fell upon us all and the presence of God was so awesome we worshipped non-stop for two hours. I didn't get to preach at all. Going home, I said to Bunty...

"That was a wonderful meeting. But next week we'll get down to business and I'll preach the Word."

My desire was to see unbelievers there and see them coming to the Lord.

The Lord, however, had other ideas. The next week we met again and there were 40 people there - all believers - and the same thing happened. The Spirit of God came upon us and we sang and worshipped the Lord for the whole meeting. The next week it doubled again and the same thing happened. It now had become evident to us that worship was the key to what the Lord was desiring to do. The meetings began to multiply. We were able to get an old Anglican church hall in Kissing Pt Road in Turramurra and we moved the meetings there. The blessing continued and people came from far and wide. People were saved, healed, filled with the Holy Spirit. The worship was wonderful and there was great anointing on the ministry of the Word. The hall comfortably sat about 120 people but at one time we counted 238. They were crammed in and hanging over the open windows from the outside. Even the animals were blessed by the presence of the Lord. A family of possums would come, with their faces and paws over the open rafters at the top of the wall, and sit watching through every meeting. A house further up the road had a large number of white doves. As soon as we moved to the hall, and the worship began, the doves flew to the hall's roof and that became their new home.

The meetings grew so we moved to St Ives...then Pymble...then Lane Cove...and finally St Leonards. About 500 became the core group and thousands were baptised in the Holy Spirit. People hungry for more of God would freely flow in and out. We made no attempt to gather them but they went back to their churches. Because of this, various ministers kept sending their people to the Sunday afternoon meeting knowing they would receive them back as staunch, Spirit-filled members. The sense of unity was wonderful. People came from every denomination but nobody asked which group they belonged to. Nobody cared. We were all one in Christ.