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Has the Lord ever spoken powerful prayer strategies into your heart, compelling you to pray a certain way or for certain things? And if He has, have you ever noticed yourself forgetting, over time, to continue using those strategies?

If so, beloved, I’d like to encourage you today to re-dig those wells of anointing, remember your tools, and believe that God’s divine strategy for your prayers may actually make all the difference. As it says in Hebrews:

Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed (Hebrews 12:12-13 NKJV).

The fact is that, sometimes, we intercessors get tired—and we forget our tools.

What kind of tools am I referencing?

Great question. Intercessors (and Christians in general) have all kinds of tools and techniques at our disposal. These tools and techniques are mighty weapons in the spiritual realm—weapons of warfare that are not carnal, but which are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. For example:

• Perhaps the Lord has spoken to you about the importance of taking daily communion (the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist) while you plead the blood of Jesus over issues that concern you. But, maybe you ran out of communion elements, and you just haven’t remembered to get any more when you go to the grocery store … so you aren’t taking communion anymore.
• Perhaps you fought a long time for a prodigal child to come home and accept Jesus as their Savior, and they finally did. Now, you have real faith and courage to pray for the lost—but perhaps you forget to do so sometimes, being worn out from the battles that rage around you.
• Perhaps the Lord has shown you a key revelation from a certain Scripture in the Bible, and He has put it on your heart to pray for that thing for America (or your family, church, state, et cetera) every day. But, maybe you just got distracted by other things, and that revelation no longer burns so deeply in your heart.
• Maybe the Lord has even given you a powerful spiritual warfare prayer, and you wrote it down so you could pray it over and over. You could even tell others about it, and share copies so they can pray it too! But, it could be that you, yourself, have forgotten to pray it over your own life.

We could all come up with many examples, but you get the picture. An intercessor’s tools are the prayers, Bible verses, and positions of authority with which the Father has endowed us. And if we do not use our tools, we go unarmed …

… and we try to get victory, but we are often not fasting, not speaking the Word, not standing firm in faith, not praying long and hard, not taking communion, not employing our personalized breakthrough prayer strategies from the Lord, and so on.

When we put down our spiritual tools and armor, we become defenseless.

It’s just like what happened in ancient Israel, when the Philistines prevented them from having weapons. As we read in 1 Samuel 13:19-22:

Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.” But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle; and the charge for a sharpening was a pim for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the points of the goads.

So it came about, on the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son (1 Samuel 13:19-22 NKJV).

The enemy cannot prevent us from possessing our weapons. He cannot take away the armor of God, the revelation the Lord has given us, or our ability to pray. However, he can discourage us from using our weapons—and he can harass and weary the saints to the point that we stop caring about standing on the rampart as we ought to do.

As we read in Habakkuk 2:1:

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected (Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV).

And also in Ezekiel 22:30-31:

So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God (Ezekiel 22:30-31 NKJV, emphasis mine).

Beloved, I am concerned that many Christians have fallen off the rampart in these modern times.

Can our God save us, even if we don’t have a good grip on our spiritual weapons? Absolutely; He can do anything. But He wants us to operate in wisdom and obedience! Using our spiritual weapons to enforce Jesus’ victory in the heavenly realm is both wisdom and obedience. We are not to operate in presumption; we are not to tempt the Lord.

Additionally, we have to remember that our God moves on the earth and in nations as we pray. If we don’t pray, He waits for us to do so. So how much time are we wasting while we are tired, worn out, and discouraged?

O beloved, we cannot allow ourselves to be defenseless anymore.

I urge you today to examine yourself in light of this challenge. Have you put down your own weapons? Are you, yourself, praying those important prayers and claiming the Bible promises that the Father has spoken to you? Are you stirring up your most holy faith? Are you standing steady on the rampart?

Or are your hands hanging down, your knees feeling feeble, and your part of the Body of Jesus feeling more dislocated than fit and vigorous?

It’s a question between you and God—but I urge you today, in the name of Jesus, to pick up your tools again if you have dropped them or let your grip on them relax. We need you, beloved. The Body of Christ needs you. This nation needs you standing watch on the wall. And the destiny of our nation, our families, and the American church is at stake.

Is Holy Spirit speaking to you about this today, urging you to pick up your tools? If so, leave a comment below!