Meetings: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
I will be leading us in Communion at the end of today’s post. If possible, pause your recording and/or reading and get some juice/wine and bread ready so you can join me. Communion is more than remembering and honoring; it is a declaration of, the release of, and celebration of victory!)
If you have not yet seen the following explanation of why we are taking Communion daily from now through the end of the year, please do so in the following review. I won’t read it, for time’s sake. This will enable you to understand why I’m leading in Communion for the next few weeks.
REVIEW
[On January 2 of this year, my friend Greg Hood was given a dream which I have visited often throughout the year. In this dream, the Ekklesia and the kingdom of darkness were contending for America; this was pictured by a baseball World Series, called the World Seers Series. It was the last game of the series, the eighth inning, and we were winning by a score of 20-22.
I and others felt that the 4 batters we sent to the plate in this inning represented prayer assignments for the 4 quarters of 2022. For those of you who would like to see the entire dream and my comments regarding it, you can use the following links (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4). Today, however, I want to talk about the batter/assignment for the fourth quarter of this year, which we are obviously now in. The assignment for this quarter was to remove the voice (influence and control) of Baal, the ruling principality over America. We did so by hitting the baseball into his throat, with a bat taken from a box marked “Communion,” and engraved with “Ephesians 1:17,” a verse referencing “the spirit of wisdom and revelation.” In the dream, it was said to this fourth batter, “If you hit the mark it will change this game.” “Hit the mark” is one of the definitions of the Hebrew word for intercession (paga). If we do and pray as Holy Spirit instructs us, we will change this nation!
I have known since 2007 that Baal was “the strong man” (Matthew 12:29) over America. Demons and angels do not have physical bodies and, therefore, do not die. The same spirits that operated in ancient history are still alive and active today. Baal was a principality mentioned often in the Bible, who was frequently used by satan to oppose Israel. His influence produced violence, blood sacrifices, and great immorality, including all forms of sexual sin. He is no doubt the spirit behind abortion, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, and the blatant attempt to defile our children with sexual perversion. The sudden escalation of activity in our nation to promote abortion and sexual perversion - even to small children - is no doubt due to this spirit’s desperate attempt to remain in control.
My purpose in this post is to focus on the method God gave us in the dream - Communion - with which to end Baal’s control over America. And I will be doing several more posts between now and the end of the year on this subject.]
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In the World Seers Series dream, it is interesting and significant to me that Holy Spirit uses the symbolic picture of hitting Baal Zephon in the throat with a baseball to take him out. The phrase “hit the mark” is also significant: “If you hit the mark, it will change this game,” Holy Spirit said in the dream. I write about both of these pictures and analogies in my book, Intercessory Prayer!
Meetings
I had a very memorable meeting when I was in the sixth grade. Its ramifications would remain with me for the rest of my life. A baseball met my front teeth. The baseball won - they usually do. I have two nice crowns on my front teeth as a result of that meeting. (Dentists used to call them “caps” but now they are “crowns.” That’s an attempt to fool us into thinking they are pleasant, something to look forward to. But I am not fooled. They’re a pain.)
Believe it or not, the baseball meeting my teeth is a picture of intercession. Although in our thinking intercession has come to mean prayer, paga does not necessarily mean prayer, at all. The Hebrew word for intercession, paga, actually means “to meet.” It pictures a connecting, a joining, a coming together, a meeting. It is easy to see how these meanings can be applied to prayer. When we pray, we meet with God; and our meeting with Him creates meetings between He and others. Prayer meetings are aptly named.
Not all meetings are pleasant, however. At the Cross, Jesus met the powers of darkness and shattered their teeth. “You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; you have shattered the teeth of the wicked” (Psalm 3:7).
Like Christ, we intercessors also meet(1) the powers of darkness. We do so in prayer, not to re-defeat them, but to enforce the victory of Calvary! The baseball meeting the throat of Baal in the dream is an appropriate picture of spiritual warfare prayer, as long as we remember that we are simply releasing the victory of Christ, not attempting to re-defeat the enemy. Remember, in the dream, the baseball bat came from the “Communion” box, which pictures the finished work of Christ.
But enforce it, we MUST. Satan is a thief, a liar, and does not honor what is true and right. He will disregard what occurred at Calvary, unless someone takes the delegated authority of Christ and the power of Holy Spirit, and enforces that victory. This is why in the dream Holy Spirit said, “IF you hit the mark, you will change the game.” “Hit the mark” is another meaning of paga. “If you - through prayer - release the fruit of My victory at the Cross, it will change the game. It will remove the voice of Baal.
This is not a principle that applies only to this dream; it is a general principle of prayer. The great pastor and teacher, Jack Hayford, in his book Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, says,
“To see both sides of Jesus is to see both sides of prayer. It is to see the need for compassion, for care, for concern, for weeping with those that weep, for sympathy, for groaning, for aching deeply because of what you sense transpiring in human lives. And it is to learn the place and time for anger, when we see satan’s wiles successfully destroying; for indignation, when the adversary’s program violates territory that is rightfully Christ’s; for boldness, when demonic hordes announce their presence; for attack, when Holy Spirit prompts an advance.” (2)
One fascinating verse where paga is used to describe a violent meeting is Proverbs 17:12. “Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.” Obviously, this is not a scripture verse regarding prayer. But it is a verse that pictures in a natural setting how spiritually violent intercession can be. I’ve met some fools, but I’ve never met a mama bear in the wild with her cubs, and I hope I never do!
Satan made the mistake of getting between God and His “cubs.” He should not have done that! The devil’s worst nightmare came true when, after 4000 years of pent-up fury, Jesus met him at Calvary. The earth rocked with the force of the battle, and I do mean literally (Matthew 27:51). The sun grew dark as the war raged (verse 45). At the moment of what Satan thought was his greatest triumph, he and all his forces heard the most terrifying sound they had ever heard: God’s laugh of derision (Psalms 2:4)!
The laughter was followed by the voice of the Son of Man crying with a loud voice, “Tetelestai-Finished!” The word means, among other things, “paid in full.”(3) The earth shook, the sun reappeared, the centurion was terrified (Matthew 27:54), and some Old Testament saints were resurrected (Matthew 27:52-53).
And yes, behind the scenes, it was violent. Captives were rescued (1 Peter 3:19; 4:6; Isaiah 61:1), bruises were inflicted (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24), keys were exchanged and authority was transferred (Matthew 28:18).
An interesting word is used in 1 John 3:8 that adds insight to what happened at the Cross. The verse reads, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (KJV). “Destroy” is the Greek word luo, which has both a legal and a physical meaning. Understanding its full definition greatly enhances our knowledge of what Jesus did to satan and his works.
The legal meaning of luo is 1) to pronounce or determine that something or someone is no longer bound; 2) to dissolve or void a contract or anything that legally binds. (4) Jesus came to dissolve the legal hold satan had over us and to pronounce that we are no longer bound by his works. He “voided the contract,’ breaking satan’s dominion over us.
The physical meaning of luo is to dissolve or melt, break, beat something to pieces or untie something that is bound. (5) In Acts 27:41, the boat Paul traveled on was broken to pieces (luo) by the force of a storm. In 2 Peter 3:10, 12, we’re told that one day the elements of the earth will melt or dissolve (luo) from a great heat. Jesus not only delivered us legally, but He also made certain that the literal consequences of that deliverance were manifested: He brought healing, set captives free, lifted oppression, and liberated those under demonic control.
Again, our responsibility is to enforce that victory as we also meet the powers of darkness. Jesus used the same word, luo to describe what we, the Church, are to do through spiritual warfare. Matthew 16:19 tells us, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose (luo) on earth shall be loosed (luo) in heaven.”
Although Jesus fully accomplished the task of breaking the authority of satan and voiding his legal hold upon the human race, someone on Earth must represent Him in that victory and enforce it.
Pray with me:
Father, as tens of thousands of us hold this bread up before You today, we are swinging the bat of “it is written,” hitting the baseball of “it is finished” into the neck of Baal. Christ’s victory at Calvary is all that is needed to deliver America from the control of this spirit. We exalt Christ’s destruction (luo) of satan’s works and enforce this victory now, loosing (luo) America from Baal’s activities. They are broken. (Take the bread now.)
And we raise the victorious, covenantal blood of Jesus before You, Father. This alone is our victory. This is our mercy, our grace, our cleansing. With it, You won the game for us! We enforce this victory now in the mighty name of Jesus. We release the power of His blood to meet the evil spirits that have influenced our nation. Their hold is broken! Their rule is ended! Their reign is over! We proclaim Christ’s victory and partake of this forever victory NOW.
Portions of today’s post were taken from my book Intercessory Prayer.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
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Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver, Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), p 803.
Jack W. Hayford, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible (South Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1977; revised edition, Bridge Publishing, 1995, p 45, 1977 edition.
Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary (Iowa Falls, IA: Word Bible Publishers, 1992), p 1375.
Spiros Zodhiates, Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible - New American Standard
(Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1984; revised edition, 1990) p 1583.
Ibid.