My Testimony of How the Lord Trained Me
hen
I was a youngster, I committed myself to the Lord and began to grow in him. I
had a really stupid idea that I was an intercessor. You may wonder why I say
that. Do I think that intercession is stupid or is no longer relevant
nowadays? No. Intercession is one of the most powerful things that the Lord
can use you in, but I had no idea then that I did not have a clue about what
intercession really was. I thought that it was just a case of praying for
every Tom, Dick, Sheila or Fred and bringing a long list to the Lord. However,
I was to learn that this is not the case …
In this article, I want to
share my personal testimony in answer to this. I had some serious
misconceptions about what true intercession was about until the time that I
met Les. I think many people have the same misconceptions and wrong ideas
about it today. There are others, whom I believe are called of the Lord to
move powerfully in intercession, but do not know how to begin to develop it
and all the ins and outs of moving in this realm.
It has taken me a long time to
grow and develop in it, and the Lord has trained me over many years and taken
me through various stages. It is my desire now to show you what He did and how
He trained me in order to bring me to the place of knowing His authority and
the power of his words flowing through me as I release into other people’s
lives.
My Early Years
I grew up with a very limited,
basic knowledge of the Lord right from my school years. Like so many children,
I was sent to Sunday School. My parents figured it was the ‘right thing to
do’, so I knew about the Lord but there was no real commitment there. I also
received a bit of knowledge of religion because I attended a private all-girls
school, which was originally run by nuns. It was Anglican-based and we had to
attend communion services a few times each term.
If I think back on those years
I realize that even then I developed an awareness of praying, even though I
did not have a clue what I was doing! I guess, because I attended an Anglican
church, and because of the same denominational emphasis at my ordinary school,
I thought that the strange old English language that they used in the Prayer
Book was the way the Lord expected you to pray. I did not have any other image
to relate to, unfortunately.
I can remember at about the age
of six or seven, lying in my bed one night and praying to the Lord – in the
same kind of language used in the Prayer Book! The words were hard to
pronounce, never mind understand for a person that age, and eventually I came
to the conclusion that maybe this was not the right sort of thing to do, and I
started talking to the Lord in my own way. On reflection, I realize that the
Lord was busy, even then, building a prayer orientation into me. The first
step was to realize that he was not an unapproachable figment of my
imagination, but someone I could talk to on a personal level.
Much Prayer, Much Fear
During my childhood years,
right from school-going age, I was a real worry wart! It was during this time
that I developed a determination and perseverance in prayer. I can remember so
clearly being afraid concerning my and my family members’ protection. I do
not know where this fear came from, because we were never attacked, molested,
etc., but nevertheless this was a problem for me.
From as early as I can
remember, I can recall scenes where my parents went out to a party or
something and we were left at home with our maid to baby-sit us. Do you know
what I did? I was obedient and went to bed as she instructed us, but I did not
sleep. No. I lay awake, praying continually for the Lord to bring my parents
home safely. To a young child, those three or four hours were an absolute
eternity!
I prayed and prayed and asked
and asked, and I sometimes wonder if the Lord did not get mad at me and say,
"Okay, please… keep quiet! Here are your parents, home safely." I
tell you what, though, I never had a problem with protection when I was
younger and I got into some pretty close shaves at times. I think my poor
guardian angel was busier than most. But there again, the Lord was teaching me
from that young age about perseverance in prayer.
Upheaval and Spiritual Development
Well, I grew up, and at the age
of fourteen I did make a commitment to the Lord Jesus. I began to know a bit
more about Him then, but I did not know Him as a person in a real way. Then
when I was in my early twenties I met and married my first husband. He was a
Christian and we were involved in mostly youth groups, etc., but I did not
really become actively involved in anything related to prayer during this
period.
During this period I began to
seek the Lord more to get to know him more intimately. He became a solid rock
that I could run to, because my first husband was often ill, and the Lord
Jesus was my only source of solace that I had during those times of upheaval.
So many times I remember going
to a quiet spot somewhere, in nature if I could, because I always felt the
Lord’s presence better in that environment. I would sit there and literally
pour out my heart to Him, getting all the tension and frustration that I was
feeling off my chest. It was sometimes hard to talk to anyone, because nobody
seemed to understand what was going on. But He did! I could feel His love more
and more and He became the most important person to me. Without Him I would
have crumbled in those stressful days.
Misconceptions
I was widowed after seven years
of marriage, and spent ten months on my own before meeting Les. During this
period I fellowshipped with various singles groups and tried to become as
involved as I could, but somehow I never quite fitted in. I continued to find
solace from the Lord, and began to spend time in prayer early in the morning,
prior to going to work. I really thought that I was an intercessor then. I
took myself a notebook and began to write down, very systematically, a list of
the things I wanted the Lord to answer. It had the date of the request, what
the request was, then another place for the date when the Lord answered. To
me, this was intercession. I could not have been more wrong. I was very
diligent in prayer, but oh so misdirected in that diligence!
Then along came Les and he
shattered my weird ideas about intercession! I soon learned that intercession,
to quote his words is: "… not coming to the Lord with a
prayer list, but coming to the Lord to get a prayer list."
That was a rude awakening! How did it change, though?
Praying Together
The Lord began to lead me
slowly but surely from the time we were married. Intercession was to Les like
breathing is to any normal human being. He had learned in his own prayer
times, direct from the Lord, what to do and how to move in it. I was green
with ignorance, but I had a zeal to learn more from the Lord, and so He used
Les to direct me and develop this gift.
During the first year of our
marriage Les imparted much, spiritually, to me. The first area I began moving
in was visions, which I had not really done much in the past. I realized that
I had actually been receiving visions prior to meeting Les but had not been
aware of them, nor did I know what to do when I received them. I actually
thought it was my imagination.
However, Les channeled it and
helped me much during that first year. We would get up early in the morning,
before going to work, and have a prayer time together. We had so many
wonderful times in the Spirit and the Lord led on a daily basis and gave us
direction. I found out how to work in conjunction with him. He would see a
vision, I would see a vision, then he or I may see something else, and the
Lord would dovetail the whole thing together and show us where He was leading
us. It was tremendous to have exposure to the spiritual realm, but under Les's
protection and covering. I grew in leaps and bounds during that year.
It was also during this time
that I truly desired to have a baby, but I was having difficulty in falling
pregnant. I dislike the idea of going to a gynecologist to find out what was
wrong, so I decided to try Word power instead. I took a promise from His Word
and I stood on it until I knew that I knew that I had received my heart's
desire. Sure enough it wasn't long afterwards that the Lord moved on my behalf
and I fell pregnant with my son. (I deal with this issue fully in my article
on pregnancy).
Change and More Word
We remained in that house until
after my son was born, and when he was a few months old the Lord directed that
we must move out of there and make a fresh start. We did so, and along with
the different location came a whole new different lifestyle and change in many
areas.
Les and I no longer prayed that
much together. He was busy with much business activity, and of course, a young
baby just rearranges your whole life for you, so I began to pray more on my
own then. I remember one day I was sitting journaling, asking the Lord
questions and writing down what He told me, and He said so clearly to me,
"I want you to be a giant in prayer and in the Word! You will indeed be
this." It was one of the clearest things I had heard the Lord say and it
kept solidly in my spirit from then on.
One of the first things the
Lord directed me to do then was to get into the Word. I developed a hunger and
zeal for it that was amazing, and Les encouraged me to read through the entire
Bible. It was the first time I had ever done that. Although it took me a long
time to do, nevertheless whenever you saw me during that time, if I was not
doing housework or feeding or caring for my son, there I was – reading the
Word, reading the Word, and reading the Word some more!
I grew like a giant then, I can
assure you. I learned so much of the Word it began to pour out of me and I
gained a basic knowledge of how the Lord works. This is vitally important in
intercession, because you cannot decree and release into other people’s
lives unless you know what the Word says. Anything contrary to the Word is not
acceptable and will lead you into deception. This is why the Lord directed me
to the Word first, before anything else.
As I read through the Bible I
began to see many wonderful promises in it, and I began to put a circle around
the number of the verse when I saw a promise that I liked and wanted to
remember. It became a goal, to see how many promises I could find as I read.
Later on I typed them all out and categorized them and printed them out. I
also put them onto small cards, which we used for a long time when we needed
encouragement or upliftment from the Lord.
Tongues
Once I had developed the Word
and developed the power of standing on the promises, Les encouraged me to
begin to pray in tongues for long periods of time as he himself had done. I
was very strong in the Word, but not so strong in the spiritual side of
tongues and allowing the Spirit to speak through me. This one I battled badly
with. I never seemed to be able to break through, and to be perfectly honest,
if I could have left it and just got into the Word, I would have been happy.
But it was making my prayer life unbalanced. The Lord gave me a vision once to
illustrate it. He showed a boat that had capsized, because it was weighed down
on the one side compared to the other side. He then showed a similar picture
of a plane flying upside down, i.e. it had flipped upside down because it had
too much emphasis on the one side.
I worked at it to the best of
my ability, but it was not something that I found easy. However, just the
little bit that I did during that time increased my capacity to have visions
and to know the mind of the Lord more, but I did not move in true intercession
yet. I was still praying for our own needs and allowing the Lord to show me
what He wanted for us, rather than coming on behalf of other people’s needs.
I was still learning.
Prayer Load
Well, strange as it may seem,
we moved house again! This time though, the Lord gave me experience in
carrying the prayer load entirely on my own. Les was heavily involved in
computer programming, and he really did not have time to get involved in
praying because of the pressure of work and other events in our lives then, so
he handed the full load of responsibility over to me. It was hard, but a
necessary training in diligence for me.
The Lord had shown us before
that we should be confessing, as done, what we had seen Him give to us when we
prayed. So, ever so dutifully, I wrote down a list of everything that we
wanted the Lord to help us with – from physical, mental, temporal and
spiritual needs. Then every hour, on the hour, I took that list and I
confessed that the Lord had given those things to us and praised Him for it.
It was a difficult time for us,
because things went amiss in the business, and it seemed that no matter how
much I prayed there were still not many results. What the Lord was teaching
me, though, was to keep going in spite of no apparent results. The Lord
continued to encouraged me and He showed me that even though there were no
outward results I was denting the heavenly realm and making progress at the
same time.
This has been so valuable when
I have wanted to give up hope. If you are to move in intercession, you will
have many times when you do not always see results quickly, but you need to
realize that the Lord is busy all the time working behind the
scenes to bring your request to pass, according to your faith.
In due course (I am talking a few months down the line) we looked back at that
list of confessions, and do you know that almost every single thing had come
to pass at that stage. The Lord will not let you down. You just sometimes need
to learn diligence and perseverance in prayer, regardless of what you see.
Full Move in Intercession
Following this difficult time I
did not do terribly much in the way of prayer for a good few months. I still
kept in the Word and still prayed in tongues and sought the Lord, but I went
through a dry patch. It did not last long, though, and at the end of that
period I began to move more fully in intercession. We moved into another home
that had a beautiful, open garden, and I learned to pace up and down the
garden, seeking the Lord and praying in tongues. I began to see things in the
Spirit more, and the Lord began to show me things to pray for in other people
that I knew, but it was not that fully developed yet. It was just the early
signs of things to come, and most of what I prayed for was still related to
us.
I started learning more about
authority and the power that the Lord had put into me and I began to use it
more and more. Anybody who saw me during those days would have thought I was
rather insane, because I had learned along the way that you release things
through words and actions. The Lord had shown us this clearly, and I started
using this very graphically. I would pace up and down with my eyes closed (it
is amazing I didn't walk into a tree or something), and I would act out to a
large extent what I was seeing and doing in the Spirit.
So for example, suppose I was
coming against the enemy for attacking our finances. If in the Spirit the Lord
showed me to snatch the money back that Satan had stolen from us, I would
point my finger at him and move my hand as though I was grabbing something
from the enemy! If I was pushing the enemy back in the Spirit, I would put out
both my hands and ‘do it’ physically. Fortunately we had a quiet
neighborhood, but to be honest I didn't really care about anybody seeing or
not seeing me. I was beginning to develop more of a boldness in Him.
Move to Mexico
A few years later, the Lord
made the move to call us unexpectedly to Mexico and we ended up in Tijuana. It
was here that we ended up starting GMRN in the early days of our stay.
After a while of doing ordinary
ministry the Lord led us to begin developing, initially, the Prophetic School
and we began to get our very first students in. This is when the Lord launched
my full intercessory ministry. My job was to pray for the students, to lift
them up to the Lord and see what He wanted to do in their lives. I also began
praying for the School and for its protection. The Lord often showed me if
there was pending attack and I could move to remove the attack.
I began to do this diligently
on a daily basis, and I felt the leading of the Lord to write down what I saw
in a book, and what He showed me to pray (in tongues) as I saw it. It became
an exciting adventure. I was now moving fully in intercession. I only brought
our basis needs to the Lord at the end of my prayer session. For the rest of
the time I prayed in tongues for the School and the students, and made a note
of what the Lord showed me.
I prayed through in tongues and
made a note of what I released as the Lord directed me. Even though I was
praying in tongues, I knew in my spirit what I was praying. I then left a gap
in the book to see if the answer was confirmed. It was amazing to watch the
development of this ministry. At first it was rather ‘hit and miss’. I had
more misses than I had hits. But as I continued and developed more sensitivity
to listening to the Lord in the spiritual realm, and as I followed his leading
more and more, I began to have greater results.
It came to the stage where Les
developed confidence in the ministry the Lord had given me, and he used to say
to people, "If Daphne saw it and spoke it forth, trust me, it will take
place." The point I want to stress here, though, is that it did not
take place instantly! It took me a long time to develop this gift
fully, and a long time to develop the confidence to know that what I was
seeing was of the Lord, and not my mind or an image from the enemy to confuse
me or lead me astray.
During this time I really ‘cut
my eye teeth’ in intercession, and I became a junky for it! I prayed every
morning before starting anything else, although at that stage I did not even
have a computer so it was really not difficult to do. Then again in the
afternoons, I would often have another time of praying in tongues and standing
on the Word. I continued to make a note of everything and developed a greater
capacity for knowing what was real and what was not.
Yes, I did miss it. I missed it
badly at times, but it was in the Lord’s plan. There were times when I
decreed things that were not of the Lord, and opened doors that were not of
Him. I felt shaken and devastated when I realized it, but the Lord was showing
me that I had to rely on Him and Him alone, and develop that intimate
relationship with Him that is so important.
If you miss it yourself in
prayer, do not beat yourself up about it! You need to simply submit yourself
to the Lord, confess it and then resist Satan for trying to deceive you. In
terms of James 4:7 he will have to flee from you. Hey, the Lord can take your
mess-ups and turn them into successes. He knows all things ahead of time, and
He is certainly not caught by surprise when you do mess up. So be encouraged,
persevere and continue and do not let Satan destroy the power in your spirit
that the Lord is leading you in.
Ground Layer
After praying so much for the
students, the Lord led me for a season to simply pray in tongues and I did not
have much visions or revelations at all, nor did I have direction to speak
into the lives of others. What I found happening was that Les would suddenly
rise up, get a word of direction from the Lord, speak it forth powerfully and
things would happen almost instantly. I began to get confused and I said,
"Lord, what’s going on here? What’s the point of only praying in
tongues and not getting revelation? And now Les just speaks one word and
everything falls into place. Am I missing it?"
He showed me a vision of a
farmer’s field, all messy, full of weeds and rocks, and in no state to sow
in. He then showed me that I was going through the field and pulling out all
the weeds and discarding the rocks. Then I dug up the soil a bit and got it
into a good state for sowing in. When all that hard work was over, the farmer
came along and sowed the seed. He had the easy part and received all the
rewards of a good crop!
The Lord said, "This is
what you’re doing. You are like that farmhand who is laying the groundwork
for the farmer. Your job may be hard work, but if you don’t do it
effectively the farmer will not do his job efficiently and there will be no
harvest! Don’t give up. Your job is vitally important!"
This has become a key part of
my job here in this ministry. I am continually praying things through in the
Spirit and laying the groundwork ahead of time for Les. He then comes along,
and at the leading of the Lord, puts the plan into action as the Lord shows
him. I am often totally unaware of what is happening in the Spirit. I just
know that the Lord is doing something, and I am an integral, if somewhat
naïve, part of the plan!
Warfare
The one area I had not moved in
on my own very much up until this point was that of standing against the enemy
in warfare, but now He moved me into this in much greater measure. I had to
learn to stand on my own feet against the very top level, the infernal trio,
and use the authority that the Lord had given me. It is very important when
you move into this area, that you are fully developed in the Word, because
that is where your staying power is.
I always, always use the Word
when I am standing against the enemy. The Lord Jesus did that when he was
tempted in the wilderness, and that is how he overcame Satan. There is no
greater way to make Satan’s plans fizzle out than when you say, "Satan,
it is written, ‘No weapon formed against me shall prosper, and
every tongue that rises up in judgement against me, I shall condemn!’ "
How can he stand against that? It is the Word, and it is the ‘sword of the
spirit’, according to the Scriptures. It really is a sword. It is offensive,
and you will always get results when you stand on the Word.
Development of Faith
There were now just two more
areas that the Lord developed after this time. The first was he developed my
faith more strongly in Him. I was busy praying about a fairly urgent situation
we were in once, and the Lord reminded me of Hebrews 11:6 which says, "But
without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him."
The words, ‘… a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him,’ stood out to me, and I suddenly realized
that I had often been making a fatal mistake while praying. I had been looking
to the answer, instead of to Jesus to provide the answer. That revolutionized
my prayer life so that I have never ever forgotten it. Jesus is the one who
provides for you and answers your prayers. When you pray, you need to see Him
giving you the answer, no matter how hard it seems to be in the natural.
There is a Scripture that says,
"Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive
them and you will have them." This is one of my favorite verses, and
when you see it in conjunction with what I have just shared, it makes so much
sense. When you ask Jesus for anything, He will give it to you,
right there and then in the heavenly realm. The answer will not come floating
out of the sky from nowhere. You need to ‘see’ the Lord, in vision, giving
you your desire. It then makes it so much easier to believe for the answer,
because it is easy to believe that a person will give you what you need. You
receive the answer by calling it done and by standing on the Word as I shared
earlier.
I put that principle into
action immediately when he showed it to me and I had the most amazing results
in prayer – easily. The Lord was showing me that it is actually easy to have
faith and that it is not something that is ethereal or unattainable. I had
battled for so many years prior to this and really did not know how to trust
the Lord at all. I had been doing it all wrong before, yet the Lord still gave
me results, because I did still trust Him, even though I did it in a
round-about, long-winded way!
Authority
Then, the final thing that the
Lord emphasized was exercising authority. The Lord Jesus has given each of us
His children, delegated authority. He received the ultimate authority from the
Father, and has delegated it down to us, and each believer has the right to
exercise that authority, under Jesus. For quite a long while I went through a
time of battling, spiritually. I somehow felt insecure, even though the Lord
had used me much in prayer and praying for others. He was dealing with inner
turmoils and conflicts that still remained.
During this time He kept saying
to me day after day, "You are a queen. Now rule and reign in
authority!" It took me a while to realize what He was referring to. He
was not only dealing with remaining insecurities in me personally, but the
revelation flowed over into my prayer life and I suddenly ‘realized’ who I
was in the Lord and that I indeed had His authority flowing through me. I had
His God-given permission to be as He was when He walked the earth, and I was
not to take no for an answer because, as the Scripture says, ‘We rule and
reign, and righteousness is our scepter.’
When you ‘know’ your
authority in the Lord you can rule and speak with confidence, because you know
that you know that the Lord is backing your words and you will obtain the
results that He is leading you in. It is like the parable of the talents. When
the go-ahead was given to use those talents and they did so, there were good
results and much fruit.
Putting it All Together
When the Lord had taken me
through that final stage, I began to pray with more results than I had ever
had before, simply because the Lord put everything together then. He showed me
that I was to use all the principles that He had shown me over
that long period of time. When you do this, under the leading of the Lord, you
will always get results, because you are not unbalanced in your approach, but
are using all areas of praying – the Word, tongues, simple trust in the Lord
to answer, yet speaking with power and authority. The Lord finally gave me the
go-ahead recently to pray more publicly, and to use what He had shown me in
private and in my times of training behind the scenes.
Encouragement For You
Now, I want to encourage you if
you are desiring to move into intercession for the first time, or if you have
been wanting to move more fully into it. You do not need to go through those
long years of training as I did when the Lord took me through a stage at a
time. You can take the principles that I have shared and you can begin to put
them into practise even now. You can start moving right now and becoming more
powerful in your prayer life, and in speaking forth results in the lives of
others.
The point that I want to stress
here though, is that it takes diligence and commitment to persevere, even when
you go through dry patches when it seems like the Lord has shut the door on
you. Those are the times when perhaps the Lord has given prayer burdens to
other people to carry, or when He simply wants you to sit in His presence and
break new ground, unbeknown to you, in the Spirit. You need to follow the
leading of the Lord, and practise flowing as He tells you, because the more
you do it, the more sensitive you will become to what He wants you to do.
You know the old saying,
"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?" This is the
hallmark of moving into intercession. Do not give up! Persevere, because you
will become a powerful force to be reckoned with, and you will cause mountains
to be removed in people’s lives as a result.
A Few Practical Pointers
If you are looking for an
adventure in prayer and intercession, take your notebook, and on a daily
basis, preferably at the same time if you can do it, go and spend time in the
Lord’s presence and make a note of what you see and what you spoke forth. I
would suggest that at the beginning you only pray in tongues, because then
your spirit will be praying correctly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
You will then become aware of what the Lord wants you to do in other
circumstances.
Begin by simply holding up your
family or your church members, or anyone for that matter, and pray in tongues.
Then as the pictures begin to flow up out of your spirit and you perhaps see
people in vision, continue praying in tongues as you watch with your spiritual
eyes to know what the Lord is saying concerning that person.
You may see a person on a road
that is blocked with stones, thorns and thistles. What do you think the Lord
is saying to you? This is not of Him, because He is not the author of
destruction and problems. What you need to do in the Spirit, is to command
that those stones and obstacles be removed and the way be opened up before
him. You can do it in English, but did you know that you can do it in tongues,
too? Just speak with authority in tongues. You know what you are wanting to
say in English. Tongues is more effective, though, because your spirit is
praying in accordance with the Holy Spirit’s prompting.
As you do that, you may see the
path clearing. Perhaps you will see angels assisting and removing the stones,
or the Lord driving a bulldozer to remove the blockages, I do not know. The
point is, though, that you will see it clearing. You will then likely see a
wide open road, unrestricted and free, and you will know that whatever was
blocking that person’s path is now removed.
If I were seeing this, I would
put a note in my book of the date that I saw the vision, who it was for, and
what I saw, i.e. the person’s road being blocked, and then what I ‘spoke’
forth to correct the situation. I would say something like, "Saw Fred on
a road and it was restricted and littered with rocks. A picture of him
experiencing difficulties in his walk. Commanded it to be cleared, and saw the
blockages being removed. Then I saw his path free and unrestricted."
Now, you do not even have to
contact Fred (or whoever it was) and tell him about the vision and what you
saw. This is what intercession is about. It is between you and the Lord and
you are speaking change and blessing into people’s lives behind the scenes.
The Lord will often give you confirmation of what you saw, though. So often,
you will receive a letter from someone saying that they had been through a
hard time and suddenly things broke free, and you can then share that it is
confirmation of what you saw and spoke forth for them.
I trust that this has been an
encouragement to you and helped you to sort through the fact and fiction of
intercession and what it is really about. If you thought, as I did, that you
were an intercessor, but now have found out that you were incorrect, it is
great because you can now decide if the Lord really was leading you in this
direction or not. And if you did not have a clue about what intercession was,
but have now been inspired to move in that direction, I praise the Lord too,
because you are about to embark on a wonderful, exciting journey. It is a
journey in which you can pour encouragement and blessing into the lives of
others through this powerful tool that the Lord has given to the Body of
Christ.
Lord bless.
