A Heart for the City — Part Two

Yesterday in Part One of this Message, I addressed unresolved emotional issues.

Today, my hope is also to inspire you to walk in the fullness of your Spiritual Authority, and to understand The Keys God has given to each one of us.

Keys are symbolic of Authority and Power, and we have been given these Keys to enforce our Father’s Purposes.

Keys are used to turn and to either lock or unlock Doors, as we make prophetic declarations and decrees.

As I read Daniel 9:16, Daniel was praying prayers of identificational repentance and renouncing the sins of their fathers, seeking a breakthrough over his city.

Daniel’s prayer came as a result of him studying Scripture. He realized that their time of captivity was almost at the end of the 70-year period that had been prophesied by the Prophet Jeremiah, and there was a promise of restoration IF the people truly repented for their sins.

Daniel was concerned that the people had not really cleansed their hearts in a way that would please God, and he did not want them to miss out on the blessing of restoration, so he got involved in corporate confession, where he accepted personal responsibility for the sins of his people.

This is what intercessors do. Then in Daniel 10, the Angel Gabriel showed up and said he had come to give Daniel understanding of a Vision he had been given.

He said he would have arrived sooner, but he was busy doing battle with a ruling territorial spirit that had been hindering answers to prayer. The heavens had been shut up.

So what we understand from this portion of Scripture, is that ruling territorial spirits block both Revelation and Answers to prayer. We need Angels to clear the heavens, so that breakthrough can come.

Ungodly leaders and corrupt governmental systems are Satan’s strategy to stop the advancement of The Gospel and hinder The Kingdom of God on earth.

There is always authentic godly authority, and there is also a counterfeit authority established by the enemy. Our prayers, declarations and decrees are necessary to help bring breakthroughs in a multitude of ways.

We need breakthroughs in our families, in our cities, and in our nation.

I believe we can even help our Military penetrate enemy territory, and gain the advantage through our prayers and decrees. Prayers and Decrees, have turned the tide of many wars.

Let me give you an example from history. In early December 1944, General George Patton’s Third Army was poised for battle, but the weather conditions posed a formidable problem.

He called James O’Neill, the Head-Chaplain of the Third Army, and asked if there was a good prayer for weather. O’Neill researched and found none, so he wrote his own prayer and submitted it to Patton.

The prayer asked God to restrain the rain and grant them fair weather for battle. It also asked that the soldiers would be armed with God’s Power and that He would help them advance from victory to victory, to crush the oppression and the wickedness of their enemies, and to establish God’s justice among men and among nations.

Patton had 250,000 copies distributed and had every man in the Third Army pray that prayer. Let me read a quote by General Patton, from a conversation with Chaplain O’Neill.

“Chaplain, I am a strong believer in Prayer,” said Patton. “There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by Praying.

Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown.

That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes.

Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything. That’s where prayer comes in.”

The day after the prayer was issued, the weather cleared and God helped them win the Battle of the Bulge, which proves that specially crafted prayer along with multiplied prayers in one accord can be quite effective.

General Patton is quoted as saying,

“Those who pray do more for the world than those who fight; and if the world goes from bad to worse, it is because there are more battles than prayers.”

We all know what prayer is, but let me clarify something about declarations. In Biblical terminology, a “Declaration” is a Message or a Word that makes known what is already true about something. The purpose of Declarations, is to make known The Truth about who God is, and what He has done.

God’s Word is His Law, but a law in itself does not ensure it will be obeyed. Many people break the law all the time, including the enemy.

So, it’s not only the Law that is important, it’s the enforcement of the Law that counts. When someone breaks the Law, someone with Authority has to enforce it or nothing happens.

All of God’s Laws have a binding Legal Authority that people under its jurisdiction are required to obey. Jesus told us in Mark 3:27 we must first “bind the strongman” before we could take away the spoils of the enemy.

When we enforce God’s Laws by restating what His Word declares; the enemy MUST obey God’s Word, because it’s what has already defeated him.

For the believer, when we declare God’s Word, it means God’s Power is “standing by” — ready to unleash itself to bring about His preferred-will, through Faith.

That is why, every time we pray, we should return God’s Word to Him, because that is how we are enforcing HIS LAWS.

By doing so, we also bind the enemy to the judgment of The Law, and force them to comply with The Law of God.

1 Peter 2:9 says we are a Royal Priesthood and Revelation 1:6 tells us we are kings and priests. Priests intercede for others and reconcile sinners to The LORD. Kings exercise Governmental Authority.

A King’s word is his Decree. It is a Royal Order, or a decision by virtue of a Superior Authority, given by a King or Queen and it has to be followed.

This is how we meet with God and release HIS VOICE in the earth. The Word of God is King Jesus. In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.

Speaking Decrees is sending King Jesus and the angelic armies into the enemy’s camp, because JESUS IS THE WORD.

Psalm 103:20 says,

“Bless The LORD, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.”

The more we declare God’s Word, the more we release angels into their assignments that will also release signs, wonders and breakthrough.

A decree is an example of us being given “all authority” over the enemy. (Luke 10:19)

The words “all authority” found in Luke 10:19 speaks of delegated authority, being given jurisdiction and legal empowerment to act in accordance with faith towards God’s revealed Word. (See Exousia, #G1849 in the Strong’s Concordance).

This word “exousia” is the Greek word for authority. This is the full definition from the Concordance:

1. Power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases.
2. Leave or permission.
3. Physical and mental power.
4. The ability or strength with which one is endued, which he either possesses or exercises.
5. The power of authority (influence) and of right or privilege.
6. The power or rule of government; the power of Him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed.
7. Authority over mankind.
8. The power of judicial decisions.
9. Authority to manage domestic affairs.
10. Jurisdiction.
11. One who possesses authority.
12. A ruler, a human magistrate.
13. The sign of regal authority; a crown.

Declarations and Decrees partner in Faith with God to enforce what He has already spoken, and to ‘call those things that are not into existence’ (Romans 4:17).

Many people today still don’t understand what is available to them. They feel timid about exercising their authority. Either they just haven’t been taught, or they don’t know what to pray to utilize God’s Word.

I write Decrees to help people articulate what is stated in God’s Word, because a lot of people do not research or write prayers of their own.

But, here is the main reason I do: The Word of God is what has already defeated Satan.

Whenever Jesus was face to face with the evil one, He always responded with what was written in the Scripture. It’s the only thing that Satan is obligated to obey. We should all sound like Jesus when dealing with the enemy.

There is a scripture in Job 22:28 that you may be familiar with. It reads:

“You will decree a thing and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.”

We have often misinterpreted this Scripture. The word ‘decree’ in the Strong’s Concordance is the word gazar which actually means to cut, to cut down, to exclude, destroy or divide.

If we consider that it actually means to cut, exclude, divide, separate or destroy, this is one way of using the word as a form of dividing the enemy’s house, so that it can be conquered. It also means that when we speak Scripture, we bind the enemy to The Law of God’s Word.

The enemy always thinks, plots and plans strategically, but we don’t, and that’s why it can feel like we’re not getting anywhere in prayer.

James 3:15 tells us that the wisdom from this realm is sensual and influenced by the demonic. This is information censored and manipulated by the Prince of the Power of the Air.

If we only pray what we see or hear in the natural, we will miss our mark in prayer because we are attacking issues with incomplete or erroneous information. We must proclaim what God’s Word has already stated, because it never misses the mark. It works 100% of the time.

Perhaps it needs to be mentioned that prayer meetings are not a social gathering, where it’s appropriate to discuss every topic under the sun.

Again, we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by what we hear in the natural. It is not the place for conversations, that one might share in a different environment, or engage in discussions that veer off topic.

Those can easily become distractions that create confusion and prevent people from coming into one accord, and they should be recognized as such.

Spend some time Fasting and Praying in The Spirit to get the mind of The LORD. Prayer should be focused on the objectives at hand and have some sort of structure to keep people on track and in agreement as they pray.

That is why I offer the document, “Strategic Prayers to Open the Heavens and Bring Revival.”

It can help offer some structure and guidance how to move through various topics and keep things on track.

When we use The Word of God, we become The Sword of The LORD in His hand, and Angels are released to carry out God’s purposes.

Psalm 149 says the High Praises of God shall be in our mouth and the two-edged sword in our hands brings judgment upon the enemy.

The word ‘bind’ in this Scripture, means to tie, bind and imprison. It speaks of absolute authority. We are to execute the written judgment upon the enemy.

Decrees cut, divide, and separate the enemy’s forces as God directs the placement of our prayer strikes.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,“ Ephesians 6:17.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,“ 2 Corinthians 10:4.

Ephesians 6:17 tells us to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God because, as we read in 2 Corinthians 10:4, The Word of God has divine power to demolish strongholds. This is what breaks open the stubborn hearts and begins to open the heavens.

Allow me to talk to you for a minute about strategies of war.

One military strategy is known as the Blitzkrieg Strategy. It means “lightning war.” Blitzkrieg is a German word for an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory.

It means to overwhelm the resistance of the enemy with speed and suddenness. It basically catches your opponent off guard and disorients them. You strike hard and fast before your opponents have the opportunity to think or prepare a counter attack.

It puts the enemy off his game and makes people prone to error. This strategy was very effective in the early years of WW2. The Blitzkrieg strategy was effective, because it implemented a new strategy of war. At that time for the Germans, it was the tank.

Then came General Patton, and he unleashed his own Blitzkrieg Strategy on them when he organized his troops to pray.

Patton got all the third army praying in unison. He multiplied the prayer power and brought his men into agreement on what they needed to pray.

One of the things they asked for in prayer was favor with God on land, in the air and in the sea. From whatever direction the enemy might strike, He petitioned God for favor and support, and God gave it to him.

So, when they actually went to battle, angels were already there, ready to help the troops secure the victory. Patton implemented a spiritual strategy when he circulated the prayer and got his army praying in unity.

Because of his ability to get his soldiers to pray in one accord, he obtained help in the unseen heavenly realm where the Germans had no ability to see or know where the strikes were coming from. Angels were directing the artillery strikes.

Job 36:32 says,

“His hands are covered with lightning that he commands to strike his designated target.”

The heavens are the place where spiritual battles are fought. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

According to Ephesians 2:6, we are seated in heavenly realms next to Jesus. If we are seated next to Him then we are seated and surrounded by His glory.

We breathe the air of heaven and we are in the place of victory where the privileges of the Kingdom of God are dispensed. In the Spirit, we are actually in the place where answers to prayer are dispersed.

We rule in the midst of our enemies and declare the word of God to enforce the victory Jesus has already won for us. Angels are ministering spirits to come to give us assistance.

Imagine every decree you speak launches a missile right into the enemy camp. The power of even one missile is great, but imagine if we organized prayer teams to launch a multitude of prayer missiles simultaneously.

The power of the Decree shakes up the enemy, and the enemy doesn’t know where the prayer bombs are going to go off, so he has no ability to prepare. The enemy is completely vulnerable, when God’s People come together to pray in one accord and release Decrees.

It is time to put team warfare into action. We all have a common enemy that has waged war against us. He has waged war against us personally, our families, the people in our cities and our nation, but we are an army of intercessors that understand how to get heaven to move on our behalf.

Leviticus 26:8 says that 5 can chase 100 and 100 of us can put 10,000 to flight, and our enemies will fall by sword.

We need an army of prayer warriors in one accord to take authority together, as we come together in Jesus’ Name. We have multiplied power as we pray in unity.

Patton’s Army had success because he circulated over 250,000 prayers to the entire third army and had everyone pray.

They had multiplied Prayer Power, because they were in one accord. When we pray in agreement we become an unstoppable force.

Our survival, healing and ability to recover all is based on the success of our army as a whole. We are also tied into the success of our own military to hold the line of defense over our nation.

I am telling you this as a call to action to circulate and pray the prayers and decrees that were specifically formulated to bring destruction to the enemy’s camp and set captives free.

What we are seeing right now is God beginning to turn the tables on the enemy. Sometimes people think, oh, we’ve prayed for God to move and now He is, so it’s a done deal.

We think revival has been prophesied and now it’s at the door, so we think we can let off the prayers. Do not give yourself over to a false sense of confidence. That would be a mistake. Remember the story of a certain King who failed to strike until the enemy was completely destroyed, and only received a short lived victory.

I suggest that we take this to heart and build the momentum in prayer that will cause spiritual explosions to take down the enemies still in hiding.

Remember, there is always a predictable pattern prior to revival, and it is consistent through history. People would stray away from God and worship other gods.

God would send His messengers to His backsliding people. They would be warned of impending curses and disasters, if they did not turn back and genuinely repent.

Many, many Prophetic Warnings have not only been spoken, but Dreams and Visions have been spoken of as letting people know what could potentially occur, if they did not take God’s Warnings seriously.

I also had a recent Dream where I saw huge war planes bombing Philadelphia, and the tower that housed the Liberty Bell, as well as New York.

I saw on the side of one of the planes the seal of our government. In the Dream, people were shocked and afraid when these things happened. It is not my intention to cause fear.

We know we have a responsibility to pray, but how and what we pray determines the outcome and severity of any event.

Whether these dreams are intended to be interpreted literally or symbolically, the meaning is clear. We are at war with our own government, as they attempt to steal our freedoms and eliminate our God-given liberties.

The government feels they have the right to decide what liberties we should have, and are playing god. They must be held accountable!

The second part of the Dream is where I saw myself in a Secret Meeting of ministers, which I will elaborate on a little further in this article.

In that meeting, a person representing false authority spoke up and said that the Harvest was dormant and would not come to pass in this valley.

I knew he was speaking about Lake Elsinore and the Temecula Valley, but I believe it also extends much further than that.

I started to speak up and say I knew that was not true, because of what I had just witnessed with the planes dropping bombs. I knew in my heart, that troubling times would be a cause for many people to turn back to The LORD.

Let me circle back to a point I was talking about in the beginning — Closed Heavens.

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.” 2 Chronicles 6:26-27.

In 2 Chronicles 6:26-27, it references people coming to their senses, knowing the burden of their own heart, and grieving over their own sin.

Then we go over to chapter 7 and again in verse 13 it talks about the heavens being shut up due to unconfessed sin.

That is why, in verse 14 God says,

“If my people, who are called by MY name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

If God’s People would do three things, God would respond in three ways. They needed to become humble — that is, confess; they needed to pray, or repent; and they needed to turn and come back to Him.

The LORD was asking his people to also intercede for others in their prayers, and if they would do that, it would usher in revival and healing of their land.

This is always a pattern that precedes revival. There is no revival without repentance. The problem is, half hearted prayers without personal conviction and a genuine desire to please God won’t cut it.

Sometimes I think people aren’t sure what to pray. That is why I write prayers, to help people understand how to connect with the heart of God.

I researched verses in Leviticus and Deuteronomy where it talked about the penalties for breaking God’s laws.

There are so many things listed, you probably already know what most of them are. I looked at all the reasons outlined in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 and 2 Chronicles 6-7, then wrote a prayer incorporating all those main categories.

These are prayers of repentance and renouncement, that cover things people may not have thought about articulating to God. It’s going to take all our cooperation through prayer to unravel strongholds.

A stronghold exists in people that do not realize they are entertaining lies; therefore they fail to repent and it short circuits their ability to receive the fullness of God’s goodness and restoration.

We need to ask The Holy Spirit to convict us of sin where we may not think we have sin. Sins of presumption, comparing ourselves to others, judgments and retaining offenses are so common, and we may not even consider that we actually have those things in our heart.

Ask The Holy Spirit to reveal your own blind spots and to connect the dots in your understanding so that you can see your faults the way God sees those things.

If we don’t, we can still fail to turn and repent from things that hinder our healing and restoration. Repentance weakens demonic authority structures.

There is a huge difference between Brass Heavens and an Open Heaven. When the heavens are locked up, it feels like prayers hit a ceiling and just get stuck.

It’s hard to pray, hard to sense God’s presence or hear Him speak. People give up and feel defeated. They want to move to another area because they have no faith that things will get better.

People are leaving California in droves because it is just incredibly difficult to survive. The enemy has tried to drive the righteous out of our cities to weaken our resolve and prayer power.

This is another reason why people feel like there is no hope and evil seems to be winning. There are also words of unbelief that have come out of the mouths of other Christians that have bound the harvest in this region from coming to pass.

Christians are God’s rightful authority, but if they speak negativity then it authorizes the enemy to bring to pass what they speak. That is why we are warned to be careful of our words, because they carry the power of life or death!

Let me give you two examples. The first is a recent Dream, where I already mentioned the part about the war planes dropping bombs.

In the second part of the Dream, I observed a Secret Meeting of ministers. There were true prophets as well as false prophets represented in this meeting.

The Secret Meeting was symbolic of things said in private that put the enemy on assignment and continued to be enforced.

In the midst of this meeting, a man, who reminded me of an actor and someone I knew represented false authority, stood up and said, “The harvest is dormant in this valley, and will not come to pass.”

Interesting little side note: The word hypocrite, by the way, comes from the Greek word “hypokrites,” which means an actor or a stage player.

It’s made up of two Greek words that translate as ‘an interpreter from underneath.’ Actors in Greek theater wore large masks and they would interpret the story from behind their mask.

It is actually a person that pretends to be someone they are not. I knew God showed me that because those words found a place of agreement (or at the very least were not challenged) and it was enforced in the spiritual realm. That needs to be broken.

Another example, is a local Pastor that told us that when he moved to this region, a few other ministers met with him and told him he had made a mistake.

They reportedly told him that nothing ever changes in Lake Elsinore and it is where ministries come to die!

Think about the impact of those statements. Those are like the 10 spies who came back with a bad report and their unbelief disheartened the people of Israel, so that they did not try to take their promised land. That is releasing a spirit of death over the city!

One intercessor I know, mentioned that when she drove through Lake Elsinore, she saw a graveyard and began declaring God’s resurrection life.

When The Holy Spirit shows you something, you must take action and begin to pray!

Unbelief continues to be a stronghold, and I believe we need to cancel out those word curses and proclaim the opposite. God wants to pour out His glory over Lake Elsinore and all of our cities!

The situation of this city is pleasant. It is a good land, in spite of its problems, but we need to shift the heavens in our favor.

We must utilize a divide and conquer strategy and bring down the enemy’s house. An onslaught of offensive bombardment of decrees will do just that.

It will cause the enemy’s house to come apart at the seams. It creates an ambush from every side, creating weakness, confusion and fear in the enemy’s camp.

Angels are dispatched to rescue souls, administer justice for the oppressed, and clear the airwaves of enemy combatants.

Please click on the following link to access a PDF document of:

“Strategic Prayers to Open the Heavens and Bring Revival.“

 

~ Laura Gagnon

---

Laura Gagnon is a woman who has been blessed with the gift of understanding God’s restorative work through her own personal experience. Through her insights and revelation, God has led her to influence many individuals into a restored relationship with Jesus Christ. She is a woman who stands on the promises of God, encouraging others in an elevated expectation of the miraculous and declares the gift of His life. Laura is the author of Healing the Heart of a Woman and writes for her blog, Beyond the Barriers.

Back to Top