You Cannot Take Territory From a Position of Disadvantage

Sermon outline

Prayer is the believer's language, and when you know from the Word who you are in Christ, you stop pleading from a position of disadvantage and start speaking from the seat of authority.

1. Teach your children to pray

   She is glad to see children's names appearing on the giving records, because parents who teach children to tithe are preparing them for their wealthy place. Children only do what they see, so pray with them, and when the answer comes rejoice with them, because it anchors in their hearts that God answers prayer and instils dominion in them. Keep a victory journal so you can look back at what God has done when you feel nothing is working.

   Illustration: When her sons were small and somebody was needed to stand in agreement, she would bring them and pray with them, and they saw the fruit of that prayer. However sick they were, there was a blanket on the floor of the church and they were in the house of God. She writes prayer requests in her journal and, when God answers, writes over them in red with "Thank you, Jesus".

   “If you don't have a journal, you don't have a victory shout.”

   • Matthew 25:21
   • Matthew 18:19

2. Know who you are, and your language will change

   She speaks so often about the Word because when you understand who you are you are no longer negotiating with the devil but instructing him. She has read The Righteous Nature of the New Man six or seven times and also reads The Language of the New Man, and gives copies away. What you say is what you get, but the language only changes when the heart changes, and the heart only changes when you understand the righteous nature.

   Illustration: She reminds the church that the first book she ever bought was What You Say Is What You Get, which Pastor gave to everyone.

   “So you're not negotiating with the devil. You're instructing him. You're commanding him.”

   • Job 22:28
   • Matthew 12:34

3. Men ought always to pray: engage heaven before you engage the earth

   Prayer is a language with which you communicate with God and on behalf of others. If an unjust judge acted for a persistent widow, how much more will your Father, but unless you engage heaven in your earthly matters there will be no intervention. Build an altar in your home, rise early enough to pray before you start your day, and put the angels on assignment over your contracts and applications.

   Illustration: Flying to Johannesburg on a 6:30 flight, she would rise at half past three to pray for an hour before the airport, and she still rises at half past three to pray before gym. Talking to your neighbour about your child is not the same as taking your child to the Father.

   “Before I engage the earth, I have to engage heaven.”

   • Luke 18:1-8
   • Hebrews 1:14
   • Proverbs 18:16

4. Prayer includes listening

   Prayer is conversing with God in reverence, making requests, and also listening, which is the hard part. In the middle of prayer the Holy Spirit, the umpire, quickens you and explains the rules of engagement for the warfare you face. Prayer is a right and a privilege, but also a responsibility, one of the rules of the house for a son.

   “So in prayer, you need to study to be quiet.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 4:11

5. The prayer of warfare comes from the seat of authority

   There are prayers of thanksgiving, intercession and corporate prayer, but she wants the church to develop the prayer of warfare that pulls down strongholds and takes territory. A stronghold is the lie you grew up with, such as believing you will never have money. Without the Word inside you, you come against the enemy from a disadvantage; with it you declare from the seat of authority. In a board meeting you do not shout, you arise on the inside and pray in tongues.

   “If you don't know what the word says, how are you gonna position yourself to take command or take territory or come against the enemy? You're coming from a disadvantage then.”

   • Ephesians 6:10-11
   • 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
   • Proverbs 4:7
   • 1 John 5:14-15

6. Stop asking for what you already have

   The woman with the issue of blood never asked for prayer; she decided at home, went and touched His garment, and twelve years of suffering ended in an instant, and that was before the cross. We are seated with Christ, so instead of "Lord, please heal me" say "I have been healed and I appropriate my healing", and instead of "Lord, I need money" speak to money as a tither. You were never moulded for the shape of lack, and praying in ignorance of that is praying from disadvantage.

   Illustration: A square peg was never made for a round hole: you were never moulded for the shape of lack, sickness or insufficiency.

   “I have been healed, and I appropriate my healing in the name of Jesus.”

   • Mark 5:25-34
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Malachi 3:10
   • 2 Corinthians 9:8-10
   • Luke 6:38
   • Joshua 1:8
   • Hosea 4:6
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Mark 4:39-40
   • Mark 11:23

7. Meet the conditions

   Some of what we pray for we already have, but we will not fulfil the conditions. God asks what you are prepared to lay down so you can pick up, because you cannot keep both hands full and ask for more.

   Illustration: Her granddaughter asked for a rabbit and even fasted for three days, then said the fast did not work. The condition had been to sleep in her own room, and the rabbit would have come without any prayer at all.

   “Some of the things we're praying for, we don't need to be praying for them. We already got them, but it's because we don't want to fulfill the conditions.”

8. Your prayers shape the people you pray for

   Prayer builds your faith, changes you, and shapes the person you pray for, until the atmosphere becomes conducive to the answer. Rather than taking sides when there is tension in the family, she takes it to the Master and comes against division and strife. She also refuses to speak out every sadness, because words have power and the devil gets no prime time in her time.

   Illustration: When her two sons, "sons of thunder", each come to her saying "your son", she refuses to be drawn in, goes to prayer instead, and later comes home delighted that they are talking again.

   “Some things don't need to be said, 'cause your words have power.”

In this message