This series of visions are so important -  They demonstrate how faith, prayer and fasting are imperative to seeing the hand of God move, and perform miracles.  Because a few people in our church were willing to pray and fast, we saw one of our pastors, in the 4th stage of cancer, become totally healed and now he is a pastor of his own flock.  Ten years have passed, and he is still living in victory as a great example of the power of God's healing. 

The following was written as a letter I shared with intercessors, ten years ago. 

It grieved me so to see a great gathering of "the faithful" succumb to the enemy's suggestions.  Hope in the Lord lost out to fear and doubt.  I saw it, I have regretted it - I have prayed over and over.

One passage of scripture kept running through my mind.  The words I heard were: "Will I find faith?"  Early this morning, I tried to find this passage because I thought it was the key to what we were missing.  I found the full sentence in Luke 18:8.  It begins with the word: "however."  It reads:  "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

What was this question, (implying a lack of faith),  compared or contrasted to?  We find what directly precedes it, is this:  Luke 18:6  "And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?  Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly."

How long have we prayed, "Lord, show us how to pray?"  I have heard so many pray that prayer.  God is trying to teach us.  The answer is simple.  We pray and continue to pray until we see what we are praying for manifest.  

We can no longer wait for the time to be appropriate, or the occasion to be right to offer prayer. Too often we compromise what God wants to do.  We pray for the easy, non-physical, non-tangible, "safe" things in order to be successful in prayer.

God tells us that, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."  We must pray for and expect the miraculous.  We can no longer succumb to the enemy's suggestions.  The powerful thoughts, and suggestions that the enemy makes are these:  "Why should we get ourselves all charged up to pray now, after all this isn't  really a convenient time or place for it?  It's in God's hands anyway - It will happen in God's timing - we just have to wait.  After all, what would happen any differently than in the past? - We'll pray and nothing will happen and everyone will go home as usual."

What God wants us to do is simple - just pray  - and keep praying.  The Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says."  What did he say?  Luke 18:4  "For some time he refused.  But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"

Many months ago, I spoke of a vision God gave me when I was praying for Pastor "ABC."  I asked God, "What are you going to do?" In answer to the question I immediately saw a hand writing in the sand.  The letters became red as they began to spell the word "Rhema."  But the hand stopped writing before the word was complete.  (Rhema means "utterance" or "thing said."  It is a word from God, that he speaks to us individually in the present, regarding a specific thing or circumstance.  Something that is for now, perhaps a word of knowledge or a word of direction.)  

Next. I saw a Dixie cup filled with alphabet pasta, cooked and sticking together.  The letters were shaken from the cup onto the table, but nothing was legible because the letters were clumping together.

Next, I saw a refrigerator.  I opened the door to find a shofar in its blue velvet case at the back of the refrigerator.  

This is what God was saying to me.  The rhema word in answer to my question was not complete.  The specific answer to my question, "What are you going to do?" is this:  It depends on us.  The future of this man has not been revealed because God wants us to do our part.  If we pray he will live - if we fail then....

There is a battle in the heavens for this man.  Just as Moses hands were lifted up in the battle, we have to lift up our pastor in continual prayer.  When Moses' hands began to fail - the battle swung in favor of the enemy.  When we fail to pray in earnest for the pastor - we see the enemy getting the upper hand.

There is much more at stake in this battle than the life of a man.  The enemy is determined to break our spirit.  He wants to defeat us spiritually and render us "powerless and hopeless" in our own eyes.  He would like nothing more than to keep the pastor in a sickly state - to parade him around the church as his captive.  The enemy wants to gloat over us saying, "You tried to save this man - see your prayers fall on deaf ears!  I am the one in control here.  I rule and my presence abides in this house!"

In the vision, the shofar was still in its velvet case and in the refrigerator.  It was not ready, it was hiding in the refrigerator - in a place no one would think to look for it.  But we must sound the alarm, we must blow the shofar to call the people to prayer - to wage war in the spirit on behalf of our pastor.  As Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing."  We must be the forceful people that will lay hold of it.

I received this next vision when I was in prayer for the same pastor.

I saw a large room with a very high ceiling.  There was a very tall, very strong man with blonde hair trying to push over a supporting column.  The column was slender, and made of metal with a top plate attached to the ceiling.  The man jutted his chest forward and pushed against the column.  It became detached from the ceiling and began to bend under the strain.  I addressed the man and tried my best to get him to stop.  He wouldn't listen.  Then he put both hands on the column and pushed even harder.  Each time the man pushed against the column, the bricks forming the wall in front of me, began to compress, and crumble under the pressure.  I immediately thought - "I've got to get help - he's not listening to me."

I ran up the steps behind the brick wall, and found only one person - the head pastor.  I found a long table and a piece of paper.  We sat at the table and I began to draw what was going on downstairs.  I drew the courses of bricks and explained that the wall was being compressed and crumbling.

After I explained the circumstances to him, I stood up and saw a large transparent fish coming towards me.  It was 4 feet long and 14 inches in diameter.  I could see right through it.  He swam through the air and attacked me from behind.  I placed my hands behind me and he started nibbling on my fingers.

This is what I believe the vision means:

The pillar, or column represents the pastor who was sick.  "He who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God."  Revelations 3:12

The tall strong man is a demonic power.  I believe his name is "Fear and Doubt."  When fear and doubt exert force upon the pillar, it will separate, and become detached and be unable to perform its intended function.  

The wall of bricks represents the faith of the believers, with each brick representing the faith of one individual in the church.  Every time the pillar bends under the strain, the faith of the believers is crushed.  The enemy's plan is to cause more and more bricks to crumble.  His plan is to make our prayers seem worthless and for our faith to give way under the strain of fear and doubt.

God was showing me that for the sake of our church - we must fight the good fight of faith.  We must engage the enemy.   We must pray as if everything depends on it.  We must not give up.  We must win this battle or we will die in spiritual complacency and remain a powerless, useless, faithless church.  

We cannot push this rock up hill alone.  We cannot begin to push and stop halfway up the hill.  the rock will rollback and crush us. We must not stop exerting spiritual pressure until that rock is seated on top of the hill.  We cannot stop praying for the pastor until he is healed - until he can shout from the top of the mountain, "Look what the Lord has done! He healed my body!"

I am asking all "spiritually able bodied," Christians to begin fasting and keep watch. To pray continually - pray alone - pray in groups - pray with a friend - lift his name up in prayer (and others) morning noon and night.  Give God no rest.

He will answer.

If you fail to respond in prayer and fasting - then heaven help you!  "He who does not gather with me, scatters."  Matthew 12:30.

Don' t forget to pray for each other and pick up the wounded.  Encourage one another for we do "see the day approaching."