COURTS OF HEAVEN - THE PLACE OF PRAYER

Granting God the Legal Right to fulfill His passion and Answer Our Prayers.

For you to operate in your optimal levels in the matters of heaven and get new answers from your prayers, you must understand God and His Justice system.

You and I want our prayers to make a difference and God wants that too. He want to answer our prayers but he must be just and righteous in answering them.We must have a revelation of these two principles of how God works if we are to get the answers that we and God want. We have operated in this principles when we received answered prayers but we probably did not understand what was happening and why.

 Prayers:

Most people I know believe intensely in prayer. Even those who would not consider themselves Christians, actually believe in prayer - especially in times of trouble, trauma and tribulation. Yet, even with this strong belief in prayer there is still a great deal of frustration concerning how it operates and what we need to do to see our prayers answered. We have all found this frustration at the lack of answers to our prayers to be real and at times confusing.

Many people have ended making conclusions about Gods response to prayers to God answers all prayers; sometimes his answer is yes and we get what we are petitioning God for, sometimes his answer is no and we do not receive what we were praying for and sometimes his answer is wait because it is a timing issue.

I have watched people pray prayers that I knew were in agreement with God’s will, heart and timing, and yet the desired answer did not come. I watched these unanswered prayers result in relationships being destroyed, businesses going under and even premature deaths occurring. Devastating consequences took place because there appeared to be no answer from Heaven.

So what is the problem? Why does Heaven sometimes remain silent when we pray from the earnestness of our hearts?The answer is found in where the spiritual activity called prayer is actually taking place.

What is prayer?

Prayer, at its very core, is where we insert ourselves into a spiritual conflict. Prayer is not just an asking or petitioning of God for some things. When we pray, we engage the Lord Himself, but we are also engaging powers of darkness that want to resist us in our prayer activity. We see this in the book of Daniel. Daniel is interceding, asking God for understanding regarding the Scriptures. Satan does not want this knowledge released to Daniel and high powers of darkness seek to stop him receiving the answer to his prayers. After 21 days, Daniel finally receives the answer to his prayer and also gains understanding of why the answer took so long to come through.

(Daniel 10:12-14) Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

Daniel’s words stirred Heaven, but also stirred up hell.

We are moving the powers of heaven for God’s kingdom will to be done, but we are also engaging the forces of darkness that are resisting that will from being done. This is the power of our words that are directed toward the Lord

Paul speaks of “one who beats the air” but doesn’t land the blows. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air (shadow boxing) (1 Cor. 9:26).

Paul says he doesn’t run with uncertainty, yet we certainly have. We participate in spiritual activities wondering if any of it is doing anything in the unseen realm.

If you shadow box in a real match, you will simply wear yourself out and not do any real damage to your opponent. You can be sure he will take advantage of your weakened position, knock you out and win the match.

If we are to get unanswered prayers answered, we must first rightly discern where the conflict is in which we find ourselves. Most teachers on prayer and spiritual warfare teach that we are on a battlefield. I have come to believe deeply that, at the least, initially our prayers are in the courtroom of Heaven and we need to learn how to operate there if we are to get answers released and unlocked.

The protocol of a battlefield will not work in a courtroom and neither will the protocol of a courtroom work on a battlefield. These are two different arenas and we must discover where we are in prayer if we are to be effective. When we come off the battlefield and get into the courtroom and learn to function there, verdicts come out of the realms of God’s throne that put in place the cry of our hearts. We must know how to be a part of the legal process of Heaven that grants God the legal right to fulfill His passion on our behalf and in the Earth

Where is the conflict? Understanding where is the conflict.

I am convinced that prayer is an activity that takes place in the courtroom of Heaven. There are petitions, accusations, arguments and evidence presented in the courts of Heaven just as there are in the courts on Earth. And just as there is protocol in a natural courtroom, there is protocol in the courtroom of Heaven.

I believe, through Scripture, that the place of the initial conflict is in a courtroom and not on a battlefield. The first place of intercession should be in the courtroom of Heaven. It is there that we must first win our verdicts before going out to win on the battlefield.

The problem is that most Christians believe that when they pray they are on a battlefield. They rush into a conflict without securing a verdict from Heaven. This is a critical mistake that has caused us to experience defeat, chaos, backlash from satanic forces and even destruction in our lives. We rush into places of prayer only to see things get worse rather than better. This is because we stir things up on a battlefield without first having established a legal precedent to be there.

Many Christians keep rushing in and yelling at the devil, making decrees and offering up prayers that do more to stir up demonic forces than dismantle them. All of this happens because no legal precedent has been gained from the Throne of God. As a result, no answers come from Heaven and we experience casualties rather than victories. What absurdity!

 Isn’t there a better way to do this with the right results? I say ‘Yes!’ The answer is to move off the battlefield and into the courtroom of Heaven. In Revelation 19:11 we see how Jesus Himself approaches this.

 Now I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war (Rev. 19:11).

1. The first thing we must see is that Heaven is open. This means that there is revelation and things that we need to discern in the Heavenly realm.
2. Prayer and warfare should not be a shot in the dark. We should be able to pinpoint the things that need to be dealt with and touch them with accuracy.
3. We must be able to pray within the will of God. We CAN find the needle in the haystack when Heaven is open and revelation is flowing.

John the Apostle said if we ask anything according to His will then we have the petition that we are asking of Him. (1 John 5:14-15) One of the critical steps to effective prayer is understanding the will of God and praying in agreement with that will.

The main thing I want to point out in Revelation 19:11 is that Jesus, Who is faithful and true, judges in righteousness and makes war.

Notice the order of this wording. This is very important. Jesus judges, then makes war. When the Bible speaks of ‘judging’, it is speaking of judicial activity. There is a decision and a verdict being rendered concerning a situation, petition and/or request. That activity is being judged and there is a legal precedent that is being established concerning it. Out of that judicial activity which is flowing from the courts of Heaven, war is made. We must learn to only make war based on judgments, decisions and verdicts that are received out of the courts of Heaven.

To try to make war without a verdict and judgment from the court of Heaven is to suffer defeat and even satanic backlash because we have no legal footing to be there or be engaging in such activity

On the other hand, if we can get legal renderings concerning a situation in place, then we can march onto the battlefield and win every time.

The problem has been that we have tried to win on the battlefield without legal verdicts from Heaven backing us up. We must learn how to get these verdicts and judgments in place so answers can come to our prayers and the Kingdom cause of Christ can land on the Earth.