Proclamation Prayer

In our last lesson, we discovered that Jesus has given us His authority and He expects us to use it to accomplish His Father's will here on the earth. We also discovered that proclamation prayer is one of the ways that we can use God's authority to accomplish His purposes. There are two components to proclamation prayer. The first is to determine what God's will is, and the second is to speak it forth in His authority.

That all sounds great in theory, but it might be a bit confusing to figure out how that walks out in our day-to-day prayer lives. So what I would like to do is to give you a few real-life examples of what it looks like and of the type of results that it has.

Example of Prophetic Proclamation

Prophetic proclamation is where God puts His words in our mouth as we pray, and we are prophesying as we pray. Let me share what may have been my first prophetic proclamation prayer experience with you as an example.

In the summer of 1978, I went to the U.S. Center for World Missions in Pasadena for some graduate school summer classes. The center met in some buildings that were a converted apartment complex and served as dorm rooms. The classroom was what used to be the "rec" room. Across the street from us was a large campus occupied by a cult called Summit International. Several of us would go across the street to walk the campus, witness to the cult members and also pray and intercede. One time we were praying and suddenly some words came out of my mouth. It actually surprised me at the time.

I began telling the campus that it was going to be used for God's glory and that a church would rise up on this property where God's tangible presence would dwell. I did not understand prophetic prayer back then, and that prayer seemed a little odd to me. But God's Spirit came on the others I was with and they began making similar prophetic prayers.

Some time after that, the cult moved out of the property, and the U.S. Center for World Missions took it over. Then the renewal broke out in Toronto and it also came to Pasadena, and to a church leasing one of the buildings on that property from the U.S. Center for World Missions. That building is known as Mott Auditorium, and the church that uses it is pastored by Che Ann, and is known as a place where people come to meet God, where God's tangible presence dwells on an ongoing basis.

There are times when God will lead intercessors to make prophetic proclamations in prayer. There are many examples of this in Scripture. Let's look at one, the prophetic prayer from the man of Judah to the idolatrous altar that Jeroboam was sacrificing on. We see this in 1 Kings 13:1-2:

"By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. He cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: 'O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: "A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you." ' "

We see the fulfillment of this prophetic prayer in 2 Kings 23:3-8. (It is a bit of a long passage, so I am not including it here, but please feel free to read the passage in your Bible.)

Example of Non-Prophetic Proclamation

I used to participate in telephone conference calls with leadership from Bethel Church in Redding Ca. They started mentioning how they were doing a proclamation prayer for financial breakthrough when they took their offerings. Shortly after they started praying this prayer, they started seeing amazing financial breakthroughs in the lives of them members.

That immediately perked my interest, and I tried to get a copy of their proclamation. I asked several different people, who all promised to send it to me, but none of them ever did. I reminded one of the staff to send to to me on three separate occasions, and he still did not. It seemed like something (either God or the other side) was deliberately frustrating my attempts to get this proclamation.

In the meanwhile, the Lord began giving me a new revelation of kingdom resources and of His ability to provide. I had seen it more as getting what you need in advance and then doing what God put on my heart to do with it. The Lord changed my view to His provision being like a stream that constantly flowed above my head. The Lord showed me that I should just do whatever He showed me to do without worrying about whether or not I had the resources for it--then anytime I needed resources to accomplish His plans, I could just reach up and grab what I needed from that ever flowing stream. I could give you all sorts of testimonies of God stretching my faith to spend before I had, and them Him coming through with so that I never went into debt. But I never got to see that proclamation from Bethel that interested me so much.

I was still curious about Bethel's financial breakthrough proclamation, but I did not feel as hungry for it because the Lord had reworked my understanding of His provision and I was not feeling the "need" for a financial "breakthrough" in my own life. But I did eventually get to see the proclamation.

That happened because the Lord led our senior pastor to start doing that same proclamation as a part of our offerings. And each week he would have different people share testimonies of how God was providing financially for them as a result of this proclamation. And that caused everyone's faith to grow, including mine.

Let me give you some examples of the testimonies that came as a result of our congregation reciting that financial breakthrough proclamation each time we took an offering. I think it may cause your faith to grow as well. (By the way, that proclamation is included in one of the future lessons, so you will have the opportunity to pray it as well...)

One man shared that he always pays a lot of taxes every year. But this year, he discovered that he was getting a large refund. Another person was having trouble making ends meet to pay his monthly bills one month; things like food, gas, rent, etc. He prayed this declaration each week at offering time and then he discovered a large amount of cash in the pockets of an old pair of pants that he'd not worn for a long time. He had "lost" (e.g., misplaced) the money some time before when finances were not so tight, and he'd never really missed it. Now that finances were tight, it was suddenly found and got him through the tight month.

One lady wanted to go on a mission trip with the senior pastor which cost about $3500. She also wanted to go to Lakeland (a $1000 to $1500 trip from the San Francisco bay area.) She was on a very limited income and God told her to sign up "in faith" and make arrangements for both things. She did, and at first nothing seemed to happen. It was 48 hours before the deadline to pay for the mission trip, and she did not have the money. She prayed and God said, "Trust Me." Then, to her amazement, the $3500 for the mission trip came in (almost all of it from unexpected sources) in time for the deadline. But it did not stop there. The money also came in for her trip to Lakeland. She got back from Africa and a few days later she left for Lakeland, and God financed the whole thing from "unexpected sources."

One of the leaders in the church discovered that every time he went to the gas station, God multiplied the gas. He would purchase ten or fifteen dollars worth (which worked out to 2.5 to 3.5 gallons) and somehow his gas gage would move from almost empty to totally full each time. This went on for several months, so it wasn't a one time fluke.

There were also stories of people who'd been having trouble finding jobs suddenly getting work. And there were were stories of people getting promotions and raises and one man even got unexpected back pay for some evening classes he took for the sake of his job a year ago.

These testimonies were wonderful, but they had an odd effect on me. I felt a bit jealous that God wasn't taking care of me in the same amazing way. I understood that my case was different because I now had the concept of His 'stream of provision flowing over my head,' where I could reach out and grab whatever I needed whenever I needed it. But I still felt a bit left out as I listened to the amazing testimonies that everyone else was sharing and I mentioned that to God.

But God did not leave me out. One day I was doing my ministry book- keeping, and I noticed that the ministry did not have enough money to pay my housing allowance that month. (The only salary I get from GodSpeak is a small housing allowance, and we use on that money to help pay our household bills.)

I mentioned to God that there wasn't money for this and asked Him to "fix the problem" for me. I told him that it would be a great opportunity to give me a financial testimony like He was giving the others at my church. I could not remember the wording of the whole declaration that we prayed every Sunday as a congregation, but one phrase of it kept running through my memory: "unexpected checks in the mail."

Hours later, that phrase was still running through my mind, so I drove to the post office and looked in GodSpeak's PO box. Sure enough, there were two unexpected checks in there--both from people who don't normally send financial contributions to GodSpeak. If you added the amount of those two checks together, it came to precisely the amount of money for one month's housing allowance. God had given me a testimony as well.

I know it may sound "unusual" to make a declaration by faith for financial breakthrough as we take our offerings, but it seems to work. Many people in my congregation shared testimonies of God meeting their financial needs in unusual ways.

There is a reason for this. God has already said in His word that He desires to take care of His people. Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Malachi 3:10-12 says, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,' Says the Lord of hosts. "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says the Lord of hosts."

God has already revealed in His word that He wants to bless His people financially and to take care of their needs, assuming that we give Him Lordship in our finances by tithing. So when we have deep financial problems, this is not God's will for us. The financial hardship comes from the devil, who is opposing God's will for prosperity in our lives. When we utter the proclamation prayer for financial breakthrough, we are declaring God's will in our lives and we are breaking the power of the enemy to hinder that will. We are, in effect, commanding our financial situation to come into alignment with God's will. And that is why the declaration works.