Bits and Pieces
Miscellaneous Teachings & Testimonies
On Subjects Relevant To Intercessors

Introduction

This teaching series came about in a rather unusual way. I began to pull it together to solve a "crisis." The crisis arose because I expected to have three Surprisa Sithole tapes transcribed so I could edit them into a teaching series on "The Spirit-Led Life." Both transcribers had almost two months (plenty of time) to transcribe these before I absolutely needed them, and neither transcriber managed to transcribe the material they had committed to do. This is quite unusual, but it turned out that neither transcriber was in a position to finish their transcription before mid-June, when I leave on a 5-week missions trip to Africa. The "crisis" was that the current teaching series ends the week after I leave for Africa so I really needed this teaching series so I could run it next. I would not be able to use the Spirit-Led Life series as I originally planned on, and I had nothing to replace it with. I was going to be gone on an extended ministry/missions trip, so I had to solve this problem before I left.

So I resigned myself to try to prepare a new teaching series for the prayer-school before I left for Africa. But I could not come up with any ideas about a topic for the new series. I was absolutely blank on what subject to teach on. I prayed and sought God for direction on this. I also did a bit of complaining about how I had been put into this situation. But no topic came to mind and I did not know what to do to solve this "problem."

Then one evening I was in prayer and I reminded God about the problem: I did not have the next teaching series for the prayer-school, which would be needed just as I left for Africa (in just over a month).

Then God told me, "Sure you have it already, you just have to pull it together and do a bit of editing on it."

I responded the way I usually respond when I don't understand something that God said to me.

"Huh?"

Then God began to pour a strategy into me. He showed me how I had many different individual teachings I'd written over the years on various topics that were of interest to intercessors. They had never been put out in a teaching series because each of them were stand-alone teachings and they were each much too short to comprise a teaching series. God suggested that I put them together into a series and do a bit of editing to update them and fill in gaps, etc. He also suggested I collect a few of My testimonies about various intercessory experiences that I had over the years and share them as well.

"Say, God, that is not a bad idea!"

So that is how this teaching series came together. I began to pour through some of my individual teachings and testimonies, looking for things that might be of general interest to intercessors. And I came up with a collection of many different short topics related to intercession and spiritual warfare.

Overview

We will discuss a lot of individual topics in this teaching series. There will be seven teachings on intercession followed by six testimonies and logs of actual intercessory experiences. Here is an overview of what each lesson will cover.

Lesson two talks about holiness and about our authority in Christ. This is important to us as intercessors because all effective intercession arises out of a deep and intimate personal relationship with God, where we walk in obedience and in personal holiness. So we need to talk about holiness. Also, intercession is based on praying in authority, so the intercessor needs to have an understanding of their authority.

Lesson three continues the topic of God's authority and also examines how the enemy frequently responds to us when God's tangible presence is on us.

Lesson four talks about how God prepares us and develops His character and giftings in us, so that we can serve Him more effectively. It also talks about what God expects from us as He does this process in our lives. This is helpful in our own lives and also in understanding how to pray for others as God works in their lives.

Lesson five examines some factors to keep in mind to be spirit-led in our prayers. It talks about how to go to God for prayer direction. It also looks at some of the things that may be happening in the spirit when people are attacked with various types of health problems, and how to pray into that.

The next three lessons explore the realm of exercising authority over demons through intercession. Lesson 6 examines the topics of soul ties and inner vows. Lesson 7 discusses curses and generational sin. Lesson 8 covers discerning of spirits.

After that we switch from teachings to testimonies of intercessory experiences. Lesson 9 shares a couple of demonic encounters I had early in my intercessory walk, where the enemy sent demons to try to scare me. It also shares how God gave me victory over those demonic attacks.

Lesson 10 shares a couple of testimonies where I have experienced the power of other people's prayers. These are cases where intercessors prayed for me, and their prayers effected me in a noticeable way. It was these types of experiences that helped me to understand just how powerful intercession can be.

Lesson 11 revisits the topic of intimacy with God. As I said earlier, it is crucial to be in a close and intimate relationship with God if we want to be effective in prayer and intercession. These testimonies share a few experiences of developing deeper intimacy with God, and may give you some insights that you find helpful.

Lessons 12 to 14 are chronicles of actual intercessory experiences, where God gave me a prayer assignment and then moved in powerful ways as I prayed for that assignment. The first assignment was when God sent me to intercede in New Orleans just before hurricane Erwin was scheduled to hit. Lessons 12 and 13 are the chronicle of when Billy Graham came to town, and God gave me a series of intercessory assignments related to his crusade. The two lessons comprise a single testimony -- God did so much that it was impossible to fit it all into a single lesson.

The intent of the testimonies is to inspire you, because God wants to do the same type of things in your life and prayer ministry.

I hope you will enjoy the series and find it helpful.