Recently I awakened with this phrase going over and over in my heart: "Strategic, prophetic intercession must be properly aligned with apostolic government for spiritual breakthrough and harvest of a region to occur." I saw that if intercessors entered into a new level of praying, and connected with apostolic authority within regions, the Lord would have dominion over the harvest fields of the earth. Dominion is a good word to understand. This word has been abused and misused so many times that I feel it is necessary for us to review. Without understanding the word dominion, we can never take apostolic authority of a region. Dominion means the power to rule which forces a territory to recognize and subject itself to an authority or government. Even though dominion and authority can be greatly abused, there is an incredible principle throughout the Word of God concerning boundaries, dominion, and authority. I wrote in the last Global Prayer News, "When the Lord placed Adam and Eve in the garden, He told them to "tend" or "watch after" the garden boundaries." They did not do well in this assignment because they broke relationship with a Holy God through violating their boundaries over their available supply of the Garden.

We later see the Lord find a person-a man named Abram. Abram had been called out of Ur, a Chaldean city whose predominant worship was of the Queen of Heaven, to follow a Holy God into boundaries of liberty and prosperity. When Abram responded to God’s call to leave the form of worship he was practicing and follow Him, the Lord formed an agreement, or cut covenant, with Abram. This released new authority and actually resulted in changing Abram’s name to Abraham. So again, the Lord released His breath into a person on earth. This caused the nature of God to enter into Abram’s life. We find in Genesis 15 that the Lord then established the boundaries of Abraham’s inheritance. Abraham’s obedience would always move him just a little closer to occupying and receiving the full promise that God Almighty had spoken to him. We are grafted into this same covenant authority (Galations 3:15-29). Even though He did not fully see the fulfillment of God’s word manifest in these covenant boundaries, Abraham imparted this promise into the generations to follow. This established a precedent for mankind from generation to generation. God has an inheritance for us. Your inheritance is that portion God has agreed with you to give you on earth. Our inheritance or portion has physical boundaries determined with its allotment.

Jesus came to fulfill the redemptive plan of the Father on earth. His obedience on the cross allowed us to be "grafted into" God’s covenant plan (Rom.11:17-24). This made us children of Abraham. This gave us access to all the principles and promises that applied to Abraham’s life. How does this apply to our portion or inheritance now on earth? In the New Testament we find the same example of boundaries. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul is discussing spiritual warfare. He then begins to declare the reality of his apostolic authority and the limit of its territorial boundaries. Verse 13 says, "We however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere that God appointed us-a sphere that especially includes you." I like what the New International Version says: "We will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us …." Once boundaries are established we can UNLOCK the inheritance that lies within these boundaries.

Within every field on earth, there is a harvest. When you study harvest in the Bible, you find that there was a short window of opportunity to gather the crops of the field. I believe we are entering into that harvest window of opportunity and must begin to pray accordingly. Each of us has a field of assignment. In that field are many resources. The most precious resource is people. When the Lord talks of harvest He expresses His heart of harvesting a field in relationship to mankind on earth. In Matthew 9:36:38, we find:

 

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To operate in the Lord’s call to harvest we must have eyes to see the multitudes, a heart of compassion, and a willingness to be sent to the fields that the Lord has assigned us. To accomplish God’s call to harvest there are material resources that have to be unlocked as well. Without the wealth necessary to harvest the field, the field becomes fallow. Notice how this passage of scripture concerning harvest introduces the commissioning of the disciples to go forth into the field. This is how apostolic authority begins. Remember these were the Lord’s disciples. The word "disciple" means learner. However, the word "apostle" or "apostolos" means a special messenger, a delegate, one commissioned for a particular task or role, one who is sent forth with a message. Apostolic authority must be established in our field to unlock the harvest of the field. Therefore, we find in Matthew 10 the Lord promoting and commissioning His disciples into a new apostolic realm to go forth and cultivate the harvest where He sent them. We find a great pattern of how the Lord cultivates and harvests a region. The pattern is as follows:

 

1. He instructed His disciples concerning the scope of their mission. He told them they were not called at that time to the Gentiles or the Samaritans but rather they were called to the Jews-the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

2. He instructed them in the substance of their message. They were to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Therefore, each of you must understand how God’s Kingdom rule is to come to a boundaried territory.

3. He determined the works they were to perform. They were to have power over unclean spirits and cast them out, they were to heal all kinds of sicknesses and diseases, they were to cleanse lepers, and they were to raise the dead. Everything the Lord had shown them so far by example and experience they were to go forth and do in the fields they were sent to.

4. He also determined the amount of equipment or supplies they were to have in each field. He wanted them to become dependent on the place they were going. This would be one of the ways that the Father would determine the unlocking of the region. If the people received them and gave to them and provided their needs, then they would stay. If they would not receive them, they were to leave and not even take even dust from that territory. This would determine the Lord’s judgment of the area.

5. He explained what I call persevering, apostolic faith. Disciples have to be willing to persevere even in the midst of persecution. There were false apostles and there were governmental controls that were "anti" Kingdom of God. The Lord even explained that there would be family members resistant to this message in a territory. Therefore, without persevering faith they could never break open a territory.

Praying with apostolic authority is a real key to breaking open territories. Apostles have the ability to orgive what has not aligned with the purpose of God in a territory. We find this in John 20. Apostolic authority is a key measuring stick on how the Lord releases blessings or judgments on a territory. Apostles have the authority over demons of a region. They have the ability to demonstrate supernatural power that draws a whole region to a Life Giving God. We can become an apostolic people. People with an apostolic spirit pray differently. Apostolic praying is more pioneering, birthing, and penetrating than normal communal prayer. This is a time for intercessors to find the apostolic strength of each territory within every major region of the earth and connect with their vision for harvest. We must assist these leaders, encourage their spiritual growth and maturity, and declare that their influence will begin to expand all over their area. This will bring clarity of the harvest in their region.

I love the book of Ephesians. I love to study the revival in the city of Ephesus. We can find a record of this revival in Acts 19. In verse 2 is the key question that changed the course of history as Paul arrived in Ephesus. He met Apollos, who was an apostolic figure in that region, and he asked him, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Apollos had never heard of the Holy Spirit. He had only been baptized into "John’s baptism." Therefore, Paul laid hands on Apollos, he was filled with the Spirit, spoke with tongues and prophesied. He also baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. This started a chain of events that changed the course of Christian history and gave us a great example of apostolic authority affecting a region after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We find a great pattern of apostolic praying when Paul prayed for the Ephesians to have spiritual insight concerning who the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth was. He then prayed that they would have insight into the hope of their calling in that region. He then explained that they had an identity that was no longer of this world that is ruled by spiritual darkness. He gave explicit instructions on how they had been seated in heavenly places above all powers and principalities. He taught how the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave had also enlightened them and raised them into a position where they could have victory over their environment.

He admonished the Ephesian believers to seek to understand greater love and to be established in Christ’s love. He then began to talk to them about their relationships. Paul actually said, ‘Make sure all of your relationships are in God’s order. Husbands and wives should have right relationships. Children and parents should have right relationship. Servants and masters should be right with each other in their daily relationships. Once this is in place he instructed them to war against demonic forces that were ruling their city and gripped by these dark forces’. That’s what Ephesians 6 is all about. Paul knew there was a system of idolatry in that city that was linked to Diana or Artemis. She was the ruling "strongman" and she had dominions and powers below her that infiltrated every aspect of society. These forces ruled all their economic, government, education and worship systems of the region.

However, I love what Ephesians 2:1-3 says, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desire of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." And then he makes one of my favorite statements in the whole Bible. He boldly says: "BUT GOD." Paul knew that the love of God could change the course of society for the Ephesians. He knew the mercy and grace of God could create a new identity in this people and that identity could overthrow Diana’s system that ruled their society. BUT GOD! Paul knew since he had been commissioned to go to the city of Ephesus by the Spirit of the Lord, he could have victory. When apostolic authority enters into a territory a passion and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is demonstrated. This causes what was cold or even frozen to heat up and thaw out. Then the fire of God is loosed and the territory becomes ablaze to God’s purposes. When Paul entered Ephesus, he exampled a strategy we need to model today!

 

1. Find current apostolic leadership and release in them a new anointing. I’ve already explained how Paul did this with Apollos. Therefore the Holy Spirit began to manifest in the leadership of that region in a new way. The Bible even says he found twelve key leaders in the region (Acts 19: 7).

2. He proclaimed the truth to the present religious system concerning the Kingdom of God in an attempt to shift their paradigm into present truth. He reasoned daily for about three months in the synagogues trying to change their paradigm.

3. God worked unusual miracles at Paul’s hand. For example we have recorded in scripture how evil spirits left people’s bodies and many people were healed from disease. Therefore, Paul demonstrated the authority of the name of the Jesus Christ above the name of Diana. Acts 19:20 says, "So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed."

4. He confronted the Queen of Heaven in their economic system. A silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana called together all of the businessmen that made these idols and said, "Men, you know we have our prosperity by this trade." And then explained to all of them gathered how Paul was causing their trade to fall into disrepute. And if he continued to destroy Diana’s magnificence, they would lose their means of revenue.

5. He brought the city structure ruled by a demon force into confrontation with the Kingdom of God. This produced much confusion, but brought the city out of control of this demon force and released a major awakening of God in that territory.

This is what will happen in each geographical boundary if we pray apostolically. Once these two patterns above begin to occur, we will see breakthrough and harvest from field to field throughout the earth. Pray that strategic, prophetic intercession and apostolic authority connect throughout the earth for spiritual breakthrough. We will then see great revivals like the one that occurred in Ephesus, occurring today.