The Intercessors Handbook

by Jennifer Eivaz

  The apostle Peter warns us, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan is looking for an opportunity to attack, but God is looking to reveal it before it happens. However, He can reveal the plans of the enemy only to those who are alert and remain ready. If we are not paying attention in prayer—if we are spiritually asleep—we will miss God’s divine warnings, and Satan will come in to devour whatever he wants.

  Think about it like this. In my home, we have an alarm system and two very alert dogs that help us feel protected. Occasionally, my dogs will go on barking marathons at night, probably to entertain the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood. I sleep right through those bark fests, giving them as little attention as possible.

  Our security alarm also activates itself in the middle of the night from time to time, which is impossible to sleep through. I think it is possessed, but my husband says it is the batteries or a power outage. I am not sure why, but I never think we are experiencing a break-in when the alarm begins to sound. All I care about is finding the keypad in the dark just to shut the noisy thing off. I never check the house, I never look around, and I always go right back to sleep. I am thankful Ron has a different attitude! He will check around the house and even go outside, fully ready to take out the bad guys if needed.

  Ron carries the heart of a watchman for our home. He guards and protects it, responding to any alarms, no matter what time of night. In the Bible, a watchman was a protector who watched over crops, city gates or walls (see Isaiah 62:6; Jeremiah 51:12; Ezekiel 33:2–3). When an enemy approached, the watchman alerted the people by sounding an alarm.

  In the same way, God is sounding spiritual alarms to His watchmen and watchwomen. He is saying, Wake up. Be alert. Take out the bad guys trying to break in!

  Adam, the original watchman, failed his assignment. God placed him in the Garden of Eden to “tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15 NKJV). This word keep in Hebrew is the word shamar, which means “to keep, watch and preserve.” The word has a protective element to it. When the serpent came, Adam did not raise the alarm. He did not protect the garden. Instead, he let Satan—the ultimate bad guy—come in, and Satan devoured all.

  When we see destruction and evil in our society and in the nations, this is the handiwork of Satan gone unchecked. He is the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy, and somehow he has been let in (see John 10:10). The evil we see also speaks of the need for more spiritual watchmen and watchwomen who will stand guard against the plans of the enemy and boldly declare, “Not on my watch!”

  The apostle Paul exhorts us not to be outwitted by Satan and to be aware of his schemes (see 2 Corinthians 2:11). That means we can be deceived or naïve to what he is really doing. Satan operates under the cloak of deception and darkness. As we stand watch in intercession and pray, the Holy Spirit desires to give us His ability to discern the spirit realm so we can pray intelligently.

  Develop a Framework

  We also need to know that events are happening in the spiritual realm all the time. We are given many glimpses into this reality in the Bible. For example, consider the story of Job. Job was “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (Job 1:3). He was blameless, upright and feared the Lord. He was wealthy and blessed of God.

  And then, in one day, he lost everything. Armies attacked and killed his servants and stole most of his herds. A firestorm and windstorm destroyed what was left, including his children. He became ill, with boils all over his body.

  What was happening here? Was he facing such negative circumstances by chance, or was something else going on?

  You probably know the story. These were not natural circumstances. Job was in a spiritual battle. Satan was competing for Job’s heart, but God was confident Job would stay loyal to Him—which he did, and God gave Job back double for his trouble.

  Through this account, we notice the Holy Spirit pulling back the curtain of the spirit realm to provide a framework for discerning present-day circumstances. We need such a framework because the spirit realm is full of intangibles and things that can be difficult to define. The apostle Paul alluded to this when he was caught up to the third heaven, seeing paradise and hearing “inexpressible things” (2 Corinthians 12:4). I, too, have been to heaven—three times total—and it is true. You cannot define or even speak about what is there because it is too glorious to express. We need a framework to help us understand it.

  To flow in the gift of discerning of spirits with a proper framework, then, we have to learn from the Word the possibilities of the spirit realm. Job’s plight, for starters, was a conflict between Satan and God concerning Job’s loyalty (see Job 1:6–12). In the book of Daniel, we find that a demonic prince of Persia once withheld Daniel’s answer to prayer (see Daniel 10:1–14). In another instance, an army of angels came to fight for Elisha (see 2 Kings 6:15–17). These examples begin to tell us what is possible in the spirit realm.

  In the New Testament, we find more stories to broaden our framework. We see Jesus encounter a man possessed by a legion—thousands—of demons (see Luke 8:26–39), Philip caught away by the Spirit so that he vanished from the place that he was (see Acts 8:26–40) and an angel letting Peter out of prison (see Acts 12:5–11). Again, these provide us with glimpses into the spirit realm and an awareness of the possibilities at work in the situations we face.

  Until we have a good framework for what is possible, we will struggle to discern well. We will not grasp what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us. Instead, we will be presumptuous or naïve about what is really happening. We cannot pray effectively out of presumption or naïveté. We have to pray with the right information if we are going to see the right answers.

  For instance, not every problem is a demon. Some curses come from God; some come from people. The gift of discerning of spirits will help you know what you are really dealing with.

  Here is a case in point, taken from the Old Testament. A famine once took place during the reign of King David, and after the third consecutive year, he asked the Lord about it (see 2 Samuel 21). The Lord told David it was the result of an injustice committed against the Gibeonites by the former King Saul and his army. The Israelites had vowed to protect the Gibeonites, but Saul, in his zeal, tried to destroy them. So David approached the Gibeonites and asked what he could do to atone for the injustice done against them. The Gibeonites requested seven descendants of Saul for the purpose of execution. David delivered the seven men, the Gibeonites executed them, and the famine was broken.

  Now, I am not suggesting execution as a means of atoning for curses. I am using this story to show you that different possibilities exist than we might expect. You need to learn how to discern between a curse and a demonic binding.

  We faced one such matter of discernment in our own city and were able to overturn it through prayer. The city had a long-standing issue with arson, especially in the downtown area. It had been an issue for as long as I could remember. In the back of my mind, I worried our church building might be torched, as we had seen several buildings go down like that over the years.

  By divine accident, I found an old story from the early days of our city about a situation involving the Chinese community.1 The story described early Turlock as having anti-Chinese sentiments. When tents caught fire in the Chinese community in those early days, a saloonkeeper referred to as “Old Purdy” gave the Chinese settlers buckets of kerosene disguised as water to help put out the fires, which resulted in extreme damage. The story said the Chinese men then began hailing curses from God at Old Purdy and the onlookers.

  When I ran across this story, I felt a tug from the Holy Spirit. These tugs feel as if someone is lightly yanking a rope that is attached to you at chest level. That tug was my point of discernment. Through that tug, I knew this curse was still activating the arson events in our city. So at our next prayer service, we said a simple prayer: “Lord, forgive our city’s great-grandfathers for perse
cuting the Chinese community with fire. We bless the Chinese community, and we break the curse of arson off our city.”

  Since we prayed that prayer, there has not been any recorded arson in our downtown city area.

  Like most gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gift of discerning of spirits is multifaceted and functions in different ways, depending on its context. If you are a leader, for example, you may discern various anointings on people’s lives and begin to place them in your church or organization appropriately. If you are a grade-level teacher or children’s worker, you may be able to discern the victories and struggles in your children without being told what they are. If you are a police officer, you may discern the spirits at work in neighborhoods and the places you patrol.

  In the context of intercession, the gift of discernment of spirits provides you with spiritual intelligence so you can pray with precision.

  Use Your Senses

  The gift of discerning of spirits is highly misunderstood in its operation. People think they will discern through their minds. However, you do not discern things with your mind. This is not an ability that allows you to rationalize something through your intellect.

  Rather, you discern through your emotions and your senses—through sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing. You experience spiritual information before you have rational evidence for it. It takes a mature spirit: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14 NASB).

  The Bible shows us a variety of ways this gift can manifest. In Acts 12, for example, Peter is in prison and sleeping between two soldiers the night before his public trial. An angel appears, strikes him on the side and tells him to get up before leading him out of prison. Notice Peter sees, feels and hears the angel.

  Did you know you cannot recognize or identify an angel, as Peter did, unless the gift of discerning of spirits is in operation? Otherwise, you would not be able to distinguish it. Peter did not even think what was happening was real until he was outside the prison and the angel had disappeared (see verses 9 and 11).

  Paul experienced the gift of discerning of spirits, too, when he encountered a slave girl in Philippi. He and Silas had traveled to the area based on a dream, and the slave girl met them on their way to prayer. She followed them for several days, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved” (Acts 16:17).

  Now, I am not saying this was normal behavior, but at best, she could have just been excited. At worst, she could have been behaviorally or mentally challenged. Was the slave girl unable to behave appropriately, or was something else going on?

  If you read the story, you find out right away she had a demonic spirit by which she predicted the future. It is not clear, though, if the apostles knew she had such a spirit at the outset. It was several days before Paul dealt with her. But we see Paul’s reaction plainly. It says he became highly annoyed and then cast the spirit out of her (see verse 18). The reason I draw that out—Paul being highly annoyed—is because that kind of annoyance is often a point of discernment.

  Here is what I mean. One time, a pastor colleague of mine in New Jersey had a church member who was secretly meeting with other congregants to try to start his own church. On the surface, the man and his wife appeared to be serving well. My pastor friend had no reason to suspect anything was amiss.

  The church member had written a book, and a display for his book was in the church lobby when I went to speak at the church one weekend. As I walked by the display, I noticed the joy I had been carrying turned to a sudden and severe annoyance. I wanted to kick the book display over, which would have been crazy. It was so irrational that I wondered, Am I having some kind of fit or breakdown?

  It all came out soon enough. Several weeks later, the pastor of the church called me to share that one of his church members had left the church with several other families to start a new church. He mentioned the man had written a book that the church had displayed in its lobby to support the man and his message. I remembered my strange reaction to the book display and confirmed it was for the same man’s book. My annoyance had been the gift of discerning of spirits in operation.

  If you do not know to pay attention, you will miss when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you through your senses. The manifestation of this gift varies from person to person and covers a wide spectrum. For example, one woman I know discerns the presence of the Lord through what smells like baked cookies. Now, the Bible does refer to the fragrance of Christ as a sweet-smelling aroma (see 2 Corinthians 2:15; Philippians 4:18). To this woman, He smells like a Mrs. Fields cookie store!

  My husband, Ron, on the other hand, discerns things through a general feeling inside himself. In his words, he just “knows what he knows.”

  For me, I notice a metallic taste in my mouth. The Holy Spirit has helped me understand this happens when I am near a person who has a spirit of violence on them. I can also “smell” an unclean spirit, “sense” the spirit of fear on my skin and “feel” a religious spirit through a certain kind of headache. For a long time, I did not know these feelings were connected to anything spiritual until I asked the Lord for an explanation.

  When you begin to notice things in your senses that have no explanation, recognize it is an invitation for dialogue with the Lord. He is inviting you into a conversation! As you seek Him for clarity, you can turn the positive points of discernment you receive into worship and the negative points you receive into intercession.

  The gift of discerning of spirits is primarily sensory, and we learn through trial and error to distinguish what we are sensing and then turn it into prayer. If this is a new gift in your life, it can be helpful and even therapeutic to dialogue with a mature mentor about what you are sensing and what you believe it is connected to. Dutch Sheets wrote in his book Watchman Prayer, “Skilled watchmen could sometimes even recognize the runners ‘by their stride’ before ever seeing their faces.”2 There is a connection between discerning well and maturity, and discerning well comes through practice (see Hebrews 5:14).

  Accept the Gift

  Remember that this is a supernatural gift, much like the gift of prophecy or the gift of miracles. It flows in different strengths between different people. There are a surprising number of people who have this gift but do not know it. All too often, they mistake their giftedness for being crazy.

  Here is one such story. Linda (not her real name) walked into our prayer service for the first time one night. The prayer team, full of people who are very sensitive, detected her issues. They were able to keep control of the room’s atmosphere and continue the service, despite what Linda brought in. She would close her eyes at times or drift into Bible reading. Other times, she would look around the room as if confused. She was swift to leave at the end.

  As time went on, various people tried to reach out to her. She would get angry enough to shut them down or argue with them enough to keep them at a distance. I was one of the few people who could reach her, and she finally confessed the problem. She was hearing voices. She wanted my help but did not, in the end, align with what was necessary to bring healing and wholeness to this spiritual sensitivity she had been given.

  I understood what Linda was experiencing. I heard voices even as a small child. I connected it to being in tune with the spirit realm. I shared in an earlier chapter that I did not become a Christian until I was a freshman in college and that a year later I was delivered from occult spirits. I was set free and experienced real authority in Christ, only to be thrown into a very loud and intense world of voices. I was hearing voices in the air, voices in my mind and voices of spirits. It was intense, and things never did quiet down.

  At first, I wanted to be alone as much as possible. Being in crowds was painful, and I began to crave and treasure silence. When things did not change, it left me with the typical questions: Am I schizophrenic? Am I demonized? Or do I have an atypical gift from God?

  The
reason I thought this might be a gift from God was because I had started to hear people’s thoughts. Now, I knew husbands and wives often knew each other’s thoughts without thinking too much about it. I knew it to be a sign of intimacy between two people who know each other well. We also read in the Bible that Jesus could perceive people’s thoughts and would answer their thoughts appropriately (see Mark 2:8; Luke 6:8). This gave Him an advantage in difficult crowds.

  Since I could locate my experience in the Bible, I felt better about it—but not for reasons you might think. I did not know everyone’s waking thought, nor did I want to. Rather, I would hear or feel someone’s strongest thought and would even attempt to speak into it when I felt God’s permission.

  Now, years later, this activity flows quite naturally with me, and I usually do not even think about it before I say something revealing to the person I am with. This has often earned me the uncomfortable rebuke, “Get out of my thoughts!”

  But it took me years to sort out I had received the gift of discerning of spirits. I did not know it for a long time.

  Because everything has a voice to it, through this gift, I was hearing or feeling the voice of pretty much everything until I learned how to manage it. I will try to describe how this works. God created everything with His word, and all creation is designed to praise Him. If the people of earth fail to praise God, the Bible says even the rocks will cry out (see Luke 19:40). I am mentioning this to demonstrate that everything has the capacity to “sound off” under certain conditions. The gift of discerning of spirits will cause you to sense the nature of the sound for the purpose of intercession.

  Now, there is a voice (or “sound”) on land, in the air, in people groups, in animals, in objects, and on and on. That sound can become painful or aggravating when something has corrupted it. I might hear or feel the voice of the problem in my mind or on my skin or in my emotions, just to name a few possibilities.