TBN Testimony #1
Standing in the Gap
er all of the articles that we have done on how to Plead the Blood of Jesus, how to form out battle prayers, and how to stand
in the gap and be willing to go into intercessory prayer to save someone else from falling off the end of a cliff - below is a dramatic
testimony I heard awhile back ago on TBN that perfectly illustrates all of the above things I have been talking about recently.
This woman was shopping by herself in Home Depot when all of a sudden God gives her a vision
in her mind's eye of a man walking into her husband's office with a gun and getting ready to kill her husband. This woman had to immediately
"stand in the gap" for her husband, go into prayer warfare and engage with the demons that were influencing this man to kill her husband.
This is a perfect example of true prayer warfare in action.
I'll recount her entire testimony below and then end the article with some things that I feel we can all learn from this testimony. Also
notice that I am titling this article as "TBN Testimony #1." From here on out, if I hear any more good stories coming from this Christian station
that I feel we can all learn something from, I will type out the stories and label them #2, #3, etc.
Not only can we learn from our own stories and those of our friends, but we can also learn from other people's testimonies that we do not
know. Some of the stories and testimonies that have been coming in from this station are simply too good to continue to pass up, so I am going to
go ahead and start this series of articles and label them as described above.
IntroductionThis woman's name was Alice Smith. She appeared to be a very anointed woman of God and I had a very good
witness coming in from the Holy Spirit that her dramatic story was true and that she truly was a woman of God.
She has recently written a book titled "Beyond the Veil: God's Call to Intimate Intercession." In this book, she talks about how each of us can get beyond the
veil with God to draw much closer to Him to establish a much more closer and intimate personal relationship with Him. This book can be ordered
through Christianbook.com.
Also in the book is a section on how to "stand in the gap" and how to be used by God to go into intercessory prayer -
especially for emergency type situations. She said that God will give you these types of "prayer assignments" - but only if you
are open to receiving them and only if you are willing to immediately stand in the gap and go into intercessory prayer for someone else.
This kind of deeper activity with the Lord is not appealing to many Christians. It seems too much of a hassle in our frantic, hectic, and fast
paced lives. However, the rewards for those of you who would like to venture into this kind of deeper waters with God will be enormous.
If you are willing to allow God to use you with this kind of heavier activity - you may not only be involved in saving other
people's lives - but you may also get a prayer assignment from God that will save someone else's life that may be very close to you - such as
a spouse, one of your children, a close friend or possibly even yourself.
In these types of emergency situations, God will prompt you to stand in the gap to start praying for someone else. Sometimes He
will show you who and what you are praying for. Other times He will not. You will receive an immediate burden from the Holy Spirit to start
praying. This burden is a manifestation that comes directly from the Holy Spirit. This is not a manifestation that is coming from your own
emotions or out of your own mind.
When the burden from the Holy Spirit comes in on you - you are to try and get away where you can be alone if it all possible and
immediately go into prayer with God until the burden is lifted by the Holy Spirit. When you feel the burden has lifted - you have "prayed it
through" with the Lord. You then end the intercessory prayer at that point with God.
Sometimes you only have to pray one time for something and you will be done with it. Other times, you may have to pray several times before a
final release is given to you by the Holy Spirit that your prayer assignment has now been fully completed.
When you have to pray for something more than one time when using this type of prayer with God - it will come in waves. You pray until you
feel a release from the Holy Spirit that you are done on the first attempt. The Holy Spirit will then bring the burden back up another time when
it is time to go into round two and again, you pray on round two like you did on round one until you feel and receive a release from the Holy
Spirit that you are done.
God will let you know how many rounds you may have to go on a particular prayer assignment before you are finally done for good. In this
particular testimony, this woman only had to pray one time for God to move in and save her husband's life.
When you go into intercessory prayer for someone else under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, the actual amount of time you spend
in each round may vary. It could be anywhere from as short as 2-3 minutes, 5-10 minutes, 20-30 minutes or as long as an hour or two for those who
are conditioned to go that long with God.
For those of you who would be interested in allowing God to use you in this dramatic type fashion - God will arrange and orchestrate in your
normal busy schedules the time and opportunity to be able to do this. It could easily happen on the way to work or on the way home from work. You
simply turn off the radio so there is no distraction and you start praying there right in the car until you receive a release from the Holy
Spirit that you are done.
Since this woman had been doing this with the Lord for about 20 years, God was able to use this woman not only to save her husband's life, but
also the man who was going to kill her husband. The man who was going to kill her husband was also going to take his own life after he had killed
her husband.
This woman was asked by the host to give an example of God using her to stand in the gap for someone else. She then starts to give this
testimony. She said this event occurred about 8 years ago. Here is her testimony.
The Testimony
1. Her husband is a pastor of a church. He had been counseling a medical doctor who was suicidal and who was at his rope's end.
Alice did not know about this man when all of this occurred.
Alice said she went by herself to Home Depot one day. She said she was just going about her normal shopping when all of a sudden she receives
a closed vision from God the Father. A closed vision is a vision that God gives you in your "mind's eye." An open vision is where the vision is
giving directly in front of you and you see it with wide-open eyes.
In the vision that was given to her by God in her mind's eye was Alice seeing her husband sitting behind his desk at the church and a man
walking in with a gun. Alice gets an immediate knowing from the Holy Spirit that the man with the gun is going to attempt to kill her
husband.
Alice then gets an immediate knowing and prompting from the Holy Spirit that she is to immediately stand in the gap for her husband since he
has no idea that this attack is getting ready to come his way and to go into intercessory prayer to stop it. Alice said she actually started
praying right there in the middle of Home Depot.
She immediately checked out with what she already had in her basket and then went straight home where she got down on her knees to continue
the warfare praying. She said she was praying in the Spirit, using both her gift of tongues and natural English. She was quoting battle verses
against the man with the gun, against the demons that were operating behind the scenes influencing this man to kill her husband, along with
quoting the battle verses directly back to God the Father asking Him to move in on this situation.
She said she continued to pray until she felt a release from the Holy Spirit that she had prayed it through and that God had heard her prayer.
She said she felt the burden of the Holy Spirit lift from her and that was how she knew she was done praying. She didn't say how long the entire
prayer lasted, but if I were to take a rough guess by the way she was talking, I would say it lasted anywhere from 15-45 minutes.
2. After praying to God on all of the above, she said she waited awhile before calling her husband. When she called her husband
later at work, she asked him if anything strange or out of the ordinary had happened to him that day. He then proceeded to tell her a very
dramatic story that had just occurred.
He said he had been working with a medical doctor who had been suicidal and was not making much progress with the man. The doctor was not
saved. That day the doctor came into his office and told him a bone-chilling story. The doctor had just come from a motel. He had a gun in his
motel and was planning to come over to kill him and then he was going to kill himself after shooting this woman's husband dead right there on the
spot in his office in the church.
However, as the man got ready to leave the motel to do all of this, he "forgot" to bring the gun with him! When the doctor came into the
pastor's office, he broke down and told the pastor exactly what he had just been intending to do. The power of God then moved in on the man and
Alice's husband was able to get the man saved right there on the spot!
The doctor gave his life to the Lord and apparently God was able to get the man straightened out. However, one year later the doctor died of
natural causes. However, since the man got saved one year earlier in his office, both Alice and her husband feel that this man is definitely in
heaven right now.
As a result of Alice's obedience and willingness to be used by God with this type of heavier prayer warfare assignment - she saved three lives
that day - the physical life of her husband, the physical life of the doctor, and the spiritual life of the doctor since he got saved that day
and thus made it into heaven when he died a year later.
Had Alice not been open to being used by God in this dramatic fashion, both her husband and the doctor may have died that day and the doctor
could have ended up going straight to hell. Her reward is the fact that she saved the doctor's immortal soul from an eternal death had he gone
through with what he was planning to do in that motel room. She had also prevented herself from becoming a widow had her husband been killed that
day.
I don't think there is any question that it was God who made this man forget to bring the gun with him when he left the motel that day. This
is what you call God "running interference" to keep something bad from happening.
Remarks
1. The above story is a dramatic example of how God can use anyone of us to help save someone else's life.
It obviously was God Himself who did the actual rescuing and delivering of both her husband and doctor that day. But for whatever reason, God
has it set up where He will not move in on a situation unless we first pray to Him to move.
The Bible says to ask - and then you will receive. But the Bible also says - "you have not because you ask not" (James
4:2). Put those two verses together and the message is that God will not allow or bring into manifestation things we may really need unless we
first ask and pray to Him for those specific needs.
I believe God has it set up this way in an effort to draw us closer to Him in the personal relationship that He wants to establish with each
and every one of us. It causes us to completely and totally depend upon Him to make it through this life in one piece.
2. Per all of the articles I have done on Pleading the Blood of Jesus, warfare type praying, standing in the gap to pray for
someone else's need, and forming out battle prayers to God the Father - the above story is just another dramatic example of those principles
actually being put into a real live "combat situation."
And look at what happened as a result of this woman being willing to go on the offensive against the dark side. She saved three lives that
day, not to mention saving her own marriage life with her husband not being taken home early before his time was really up in the Lord.
For those of you who are interested in treading into this type of deeper waters with the Lord, I will be doing additional articles in the near
future on how to really walk with God's anointing and how to allow God to use you in these types of "rescue and deliverance
missions."
The more of God's Word that you have in you, the stronger your anointing will be in your walk with Him.
For instance, in the above story, Alice was quoting specific battle verses that she had memorized from Scripture. Had she not had those verses
committed to memory, she could not have used them when she needed them on the spot to pray for God's power to move on this situation. If she had
not committed those verses to memory, the Holy Spirit would have had nothing to work with in bringing those verses back up to her remembrance
when she actually needed them.
I have over 95 of the best battle verses from the Bible collected on index cards. I will be doing an article shortly giving you all of those
verses so you can have the ammunition to go into this type of intercessory prayer if you feel like you want to give it a try. God will be more
than happy to work with each and everyone of you if you want to tread into this type of deeper water with Him.
Alice said after conveying the above testimony, that God is really looking for soldiers - for prayer warriors that would be
willing to learn how to engage with the enemy using spiritual warfare.
We are so spoiled in this country with all the materialism and self-gratification that people seemed to be so consumed with. Learning how to
be a real eagle - a real warrior for God to set the captives free like Scripture tells us to go after - all seems to be too much of a hassle, too
much of a responsibility and too much of a burden in our fast paced, self-centered society.
As a result, many in the Christian Body could not pray themselves out of a paper sack if they got caught in one as they have no
real personal relationship with God, no real working knowledge of His Word, no knowledge of the enemy and his tactics, and no knowledge on
how to pray or stand in the gap for anyone else to get God to move in with His supernatural power to bring freedom, healing or
deliverance.
As a result, millions of Christians throughout the world are living defeated lives with no real joy, peace or power in their
lives. Various types of storm clouds keep coming into their lives totally defeating and beating them down. They have not learned how to get
themselves protected to keep a lot of this stuff from coming their way - and when it does - they do not know how to get out of it because
they have no knowledge on how to really use spiritual warfare.
God and His supernatural power is the only answer to all of our life's problems and storms that can come our way. Only God can prevent or
deliver you from these attacks when they do come your way.
Your job is to:
- Establish an intimate, close, personal relationship with God.
- Fully surrender your entire life over to the Lord so He is free to do what He wants with your life.
- Spend quality time in the Word to learn more about God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit so as to increase your
knowledge base about the Three of Them and all of Their ways and how They like to work and operate.
- And then put this knowledge to actual use in the battlefield of life. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. You have
to take this knowledge and do something with it. The above story is a perfect example of a woman doing all of this. Her life was in
a full surrender with God the Father, she had established a very good loving personal relationship with Him, she had spent regular quality
time in the Bible learning the ways of God, how to pray, how to quote Scripture verses for what is needed, and how to stand in the gap and
pray for someone else's deliverance.
So when the time came when all of that was really needed to meet a real life emergency situation head on, both her and God were ready to
immediately move in to prevent a real catastrophe from occurring! This is what being a real eagle for God is all about.
Just as eagles are master fliers because they know how to mesh and move with the wind thermal currents to fly higher than any
other bird - so too can Christians learn how to mesh and fly with the presence and power of God to actually walk with God's supernatural
anointing and power to meet the storm clouds of this life head on to achieve total victory.
All of the above is not a guilt trip that I'm trying to lay on anyone. I'm just stating the facts. Part of the problem is that many of the
churches and denominations are not teaching this part of the walk to the believers. The Bible says that God's people will perish for having lack
of knowledge - and not knowing how to spiritually defend yourself is a perfect example.
Had Alice not known how to spiritually defend herself with the storm cloud that was getting ready to come her husband's way - her
husband may have lost his life that day. How many Christians are dying before their allotted times are really up with God the
Father?
>How many Christians are seriously injured and have to spend the rest of their lives with some type of physical disability because
they did not know how to get God's protection on them before the attack came or get healing or deliverance once the attack had come in on
them?
How many Christians are in severe depressions because demons are playing mind games with them and tearing them up on the inside -
all because they don't know that it is demons and if they did - they wouldn't know how to get rid of them.
How many Christians are committing suicide, becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, abusing their spouses, cheating and scamming
others just to make an extra buck - all because they have no real working knowledge on who God really is, how He works and how He can set you
free from any dilemma - no matter how bad or hopeless the situation may appear to you.
God's people are getting killed and beat up because they lack the real knowledge about God and how He operates.
My friends and I have personally seen God supernaturally move time and time again to help someone out of a dire situation. The Bible says that
God is no respecter of persons, which means what He will do for one, He will do for another. We have just all learned how to pray, how to fully
surrender everything over to Him, and how to move with the leadings of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
I will continue to pass additional information on this subject in future articles, along with more stories to show that this stuff really does
work if you will seek to learn it and then apply it in real life combat situations.
The stories that I have passed on to date are fruit - they are proof that God can become very, very active in your life if you are open to
flying like an eagle in this realm with Him.
As I'm sure you can tell from reading my articles, I seek after bottom line-knowledge with God and what the real meaning of Scripture is and
how it really applies to our daily life and walk with the Lord.
The Bible is truly the "real word" of our Holy God and it is full of "working knowledge" on how to properly live this life and how
to live it victoriously - and it is all there for the taking for those who are smart enough to seek after it.
I'll leave you with one last thought. Alice made one more comment after giving the above testimony on TV. She said God gave her a powerful
word one time and the word was - "You can have as much of Me as you want."
Think about this! There is a Scripture verse that says "deep calling unto deep." God is deep and He is
calling all of us to come into deeper waters with Him.
Going deeper with God will give you a:
- Stronger and much more intimate personal relationship with Him.
- And an incredible release of knowledge that will be given directly to you by God the Father through the Holy Spirit who already
resides on the inside of you.
Now that's an incredible one-two punch that can't be beat!
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Testimony of Inner Healing
TBN Testimony of an Abduction
Testimony of a Homosexual Deliverance
Michael Bradley Bible Teaching and Bible Commentary,
Over 150 Free Bible Lessons
Scripture taken from New King James Version.
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