One Ripper of a Prayer Meeting!

By David Hobbs

We hear a lot about demonic attacks, and I’ve experienced a number of them. But I had never experienced anything like what I’m about to relate to you.

 I’ve started going to this intercessory prayer meeting at my old church led by Stephanie, my long time prayer compadre, and Cheryl, the pastor’s wife, with whom I have spent hundreds of hours in prayer over the last 10 years. Because of the seriousness of the days we are in, the meeting runs 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. We spend the first hour mostly praying in tongues--the first half of which we pray independently, and the second half we sit together in a circle holding hands while we pray. Then we take a few minutes to let people share what they saw or experienced in this first hour praying in the Spirit. The second hour we intercede (“pray into”) those things which people saw in the first hour. Usually there are 6-8 prayer warriors praying, but I have counted as many as 13.

The prayer can be quite intense and I often leave wrung out physically and emotionally, yet energized wondrously in the spirit from crying out to the Lord. Many times I start out with my soul completely dry. I have to go through the motions for a while, but almost invariably the Holy Spirit will come on me at some point and I will be completely quickened. It’s a wonderful prayer meeting!

Two weeks ago to the day we were in the second half of the first hour, circled up and praying in tongues. I sensed a lot of spiritual energy in the room, like static electricity in the air before a thunderstorm, but it wasn’t coming together in focus on any one thing. Then Stephanie launched into a song in the Spirit. Now when I sing a song in the Spirit, it is usually free-flowing and melodic. But Stephanie’s song was martial in character, crisp in cadence like a military marching song--loud and emphatic. It was powerful, but still didn’t draw everyone together. I tried to find a place to flow with it but couldn’t.

When we shared what we were experiencing, I said that I sensed a lot of spiritual energy, but it seemed unfocused. I got some agreement to that. Then we went into the intercession time, but people began slipping away. Stephanie had to leave, and others as well. About 20 minutes into it there was only Cheryl and me and dear sister Sherry, who rarely says anything, though she experiences things deeply in her spirit.

Then it happened!

When I see things in the Spirit I get momentary flashes of mental images, like in my Walking in the Spirit book, where, in the chapter “Spiritual Warfare in the Garden House,” I kept getting images of hideous, angry, demonic faces while feeling their presence in my spirit.

Now, suddenly I saw images of flashing swords, rearing horses, and the chaos of battle. “I think there’s a spiritual battle going on!” I said excitedly to Cheryl, “I’m going to pray into it!" We both started praying and the Spirit swept in and energized us incredibly. The forces of heaven had launched an all-out attack against the armies of hell in the room and we were right in the middle of it!

The battle was no contest. The hosts of heaven were victorious wherever they turned, just like when they went out in front of Israel’s armies in the Old Testament. It’s never a question of who is stronger--God’s forces are always stronger. The question is whether the people of God can qualify for heaven’s help. This morning we had qualified and the battle was engaged. I began casting down demonic strongholds over the area and calling in everything the devil had stolen from us: our health, our callings, our resources, our children, our hopes, our vision—demanding that he restore it all with interest, demanding that he give up all his ill-gotten gain--that he restore seven-fold. We called out for total victory in our area and for the hundred mile radius around us—no more sickness, no more suicides, no more crime, no more demonic influence--the Kingdom of God here on earth just like it is in heaven.

It came in waves. One wave would pass and then another one would come with new images which sparked new prayers. At one point I saw the gates of hell bulging from the pressure coming against them. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church!” I shouted over and over. “The gates of hell shall not prevail!” I saw the gates again in vision form splintering as the pressure against them caused bits of wood to break loose and fly off. I never saw them burst open as I hoped, but they suffered significant damage.

The time went on and on with the fire and glory of God all around us and the hosts of heaven routing the wicked foe on every hand. I really thought that we had entered a new reality in God, that this was Armageddon or something--that we had crossed over a divide never to return.

There are times that does happen in the Bible. Enoch walked with God and one day, “poof!” was no more, for God took him. He entered a new realm in God never to return to the old normal. Joel 3:18 says a day is coming when:

 … the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.

 Zechariah 14 talks about a similar day:

 6It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7It shall be one day which is known to the Lord—neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. 8And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur.

 There definitely are such “suddenlys” in the Bible. But not this time. After an incredible half hour the troops rode off and the prayer meeting ended right on time! Still, I was pumped up all weekend. And even now when I relate the story to someone, I get pumped up all over again. I had never seen God launch an attack on the hordes of hell, let alone doing it right in my presence. It was, as my sister Cheryl so aptly put it, “one ripper of a prayer meeting!”