---------------------------------------------------------- "STOP PRAYING LIKE A WIDOW AND START TO PRAY LIKE A BRIDE"

A Word Through Graham Cooke

http://www.grahamcooke.co.uk/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Word was given publicly at THE ELIJAH LIST prophetic conference, with Graham Cooke, Paul Cain, and Steve Shultz, in Frederick, MD on April 25, 2002. The Conference was called, "The Church in Transition." This word was transcribed to be published with permission by Graham Cooke.

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This is a word that the Lord gave me, probably three years ago, and I have only really shared it in three places, and only in recent times.

We came out of a season of prayer when the Lord began saying to us in our own church that it was time for us to stop praying like a widow and start to pray like a bride.

--------------------------------- THE TIME FOR IMPORTUNITY IS OVER

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The Lord was saying to us that the time for importunity is at an end. The time to come into a whole new season of praying, and a new strategy for prayer, and a whole new way of praying was coming upon us. I want to read you some verses from the book of Esther 2:9, 12, 13, and 17.

It says this . . .

“Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him, so he quickly provided her with cosmetics and food and gave her seven choice maids from the king’s palace and transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem. And she had 12 months of beauty treatments before she was allowed access to the presence of the king. These are days of beautification and were to be completed in this way: six months with the oil of Myrrh, and six months with spices and cosmetics, and the young lady would go into the king in this way. Anything that she desired was given to her to take with her into his presence. And the king loved Esther more than all women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head."

I believe the Lord wants to say to us that the time of importuning God is drawing to a close, that we are to stop praying like a widow and begin to pray like a bride, that a new kind of watchman is emerging. Jesus, who ever lives to make intercession, changed the rules in Gethsemane when he invited his disciples to “watch with Me�.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- THE THINGS YOU USED TO PRAY . . . YOU FEEL LIKE NOTHING IS HAPPENING

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I feel right now that there are some people here who have been in intercession for quite a while, and you have been having quite a traumatic time recently -- even to the point of feeling like you have lost your anointing. The things that you used to pray on the battlements-- you feel like in recent months nothing much has been happening.

It has felt like almost-- you have not been getting through. You feel like for all the things you have been praying against, nothing really much has changed, and you are wondering what is going on, and part of you has been blaming the enemy. You have almost experienced this drawing back from this style and type of prayer that you have been used to, but you don’t know why.

------------------------------------------------------ HE IS MAKING YOU INTO A FORERUNNER OF INTIMATE PRAYER

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I believe the Lord says to you that it is because He is making you into a forerunner of intimate prayer. He has been taking you out of one type of prayer that has been very successful for you in terms of ministry, and he is bringing you into a whole new season of prayer.

Something has been happening in your own life that you have not understood, but hopefully you will understand after today. Many years ago, I think it was Derrick Prince (in the 70’s and the 80’s) who said, the prophets cannot go further until the psalmists take their place. There was an incredible anointing for new songs, for new song writing, and new forms of worship began to emerge in the earth – beyond what we were used to.

As those new forms of worship began to take hold--- so the prophetic anointing began to increase. I feel like we are here in this place now where I believe the Lord wants to say to us that the apostolic cannot come forth until the intercessors take their place. Because Paul was often found saying, pray for me that an effective door will open for the preaching of the gospel.

------------------------------------------------------- REVIVAL HELD UP UNTIL INTERCESSORS TAKE THIS NEW PLACE

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I believe in many cases, even revival and reformation may be held up until the intercessors actually take this new place before God. You see, real warfare in the kingdom is always concerned with the battle for intimacy. This is a time, the Lord is saying, to come off the battlements and enter a new place of intimate petition. Too many intercessors have become exhausted and burned out.

We need to understand in these days that the intimate love of the King provides a shield of favor. There is a place in the beauty of Christ that is a protection against the enemy. I believe the Lord would have me proclaim a season of intense favor, specifically for intercessors. And there is a year of beauty treatments, a year of deep and profound love, a year of exquisite peace, and a year of excessive joy, and six months of oil.

That is a softening of the heart, coming to a new place of surrender in love for God where there will be upon your life a constant and consistent application of His love, His grace, His kindness, His peace, and His rest. A new place of joy and a deep bubbling up of happiness in Him, that you are embraced by the Spirit, that you are bathed in His personality, and baptized in the Spirit to a deeper place of bridal intimacy.

This six months is a time of cleansing, that God is going to use the oil to cleanse all your pores, and so there is a joyful refining that will take place in this season. Then follows (after that six months of the fragrant presence of the Lord) that through all the norms of your life you are going to put on Christ in a fresh and more exhilarating manner, and you will see Him in everything, and you will learn to become conformed to Him and to His nature.

---------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSFORMED SO IT NO LONGER MATTERS WHAT THE ENEMY THROWS AT YOU

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So you will be transformed in your minds and your personalities, and it will no longer matter what life, people or the enemy throws at you. Like Elisha in 2 Kings 6, you will look beyond the natural and discover the kingdom of God at work all around you. When he was surrounded by an army of the enemy he looked beyond all of that and saw an army of the hosts of heaven.

The Lord says if you will conform to Him in this season, He will teach you to look beyond the natural into the supernatural realm so that you can see the kingdom of heaven at work. As we see Christ in everything our hearts will delight in Him and the desires of our heart will be fulfilled --desires of our heart for life and for ministry.

--------------------------------------------- THIS IS A TIME TO COME OFF THE WALL AND REST

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God is raising up an army of Esthers, an army of bridal intercessors, and the Lord says this is a time to come off the wall and rest in the throne room presence of God. This is going to be a difficult thing for some people to do – to come out of one type of ministry into the discipline of resting in God.

But, the discipline of rest must be entered, so it is a time of laying down ministry to gain fresh intimacy. So, what the Lord is doing with you in this next season is-- He is going to prune your ministry in order to produce bridal love and affection, and out of that bridal intimacy, a new intercessory power will emerge. The Lord is saying it is time to stand down, step back and rest, and be prepared for a greater revelation personally of who God wants to be for you.

----------------------------- WATCHMEN FROM A SECRET PLACE

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In this beauty treatment a fresh ministry will emerge – one that is earthed in favor and worship, where we will become watchmen from a secret place of the heart, and throne room prayer will take on a whole new substance. And, the Lord says in this season you are not going to be looking for the enemy.

Your place as watchman is to look for the return of the King. You are going to look for the coming of the King, and you are going to be found saying, “the King is coming, the King is coming, the King is coming.� And then there will come a day after that when you will be found saying that “The King is here, the King is here.�

In that context, as the King comes, so the enemy will come after Him, and as you proclaim the coming of the King-- so the Lord will say to you, "and the enemy is coming up by this way." So, like Jehaziel, in the time of Jehoshaphat, when the Spirit of God came upon him, he identified where the enemy was and what he was about to do. And the Lord says you will have prophetic revelation in order for us to confront the enemy because the King is here.

Your eyes will be opened to discover more of the King as you learn to inhabit the best place in the house. Your bridal intimacy will produce power to save a nation, and in this next season you are to inherit a new and abiding strength.

------------------------------- YOU MUST PRAY IN A DIFFERENT WAY

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God will bestow upon you the joy of being loved, and you will have fresh favor in bridal petition because the love of the King will provide for you to enter a stronger place of entreaty. In this year, everything you need in order to enter the presence of the King properly will be bestowed upon you. And the Lord says now you must pray in a different way.

------------------------------------------------------- "IN THIS SEASON, YOU ARE NOT TO PRAY AGAINST THE ENEMY"

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Don’t pray with importunity like the widow before the unjust judge; pray with delight and favor. And the Lord says, in this season, you are not to pray against the enemy, but you are to let your delighted prayers cause the King to stir himself and come down. There is an edict coming forth from the King of Kings that will cause protection to come forth over the body and throughout the body of Christ to the earth. And the Lord says this anointing will cause you to intercede with joy that the glory of God will fill the earth.

Beloved, what is the glory of God? According to what God said to Moses when Moses said "show me your glory." God said to him, "I will cause my goodness to pass before you," because the glory of God is that He is good. You are going to be proclaimers of the goodness of God to the body of Christ, to the community, to the city, to the region, to the state, and to the nation to bring down the power and the goodness of the King.

And the Lord says, as bridal intercessors, it is your joy and delight to pray for the goodness of God to come down so that the church can learn that we really do overcome evil with good. The Holy Spirit will give you a new strategy for prayer and for praying through in perseverance, one that contains delight and laughter, one that is full of ardent, passionate love, one that is bathed in fresh worship and one that is coming out of a deeper closeness. Like John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, you will be lying back with your head on the chest of Jesus and He will present you with an opportunity to position Him from restful intimacy, that you will have a powerful confidence in your abiding rest in the Lord.

---------------------- PRAYING TO THE FATHER

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Father I pray in the name of Jesus while I ask that the anointing of God would rest upon us right now. Father I pray that any tiredness, any weariness, any feeling of being burned out while I ask in this next season that you will refresh us and restore us and renew us in the name of Jesus. Lord where we have been attacked by the enemy, while I pray in the name of Jesus for a new season of favor for our health, for our finances, for our growth in the spirit, for our families and for our homes in Jesus’ name, that you will bring us into a place of optimum rest and favor in the name of Jesus.

Father I ask that as we begin to learn the disciplines of rest, as we come into a new place of passion for Jesus and worship, so that our focus will turn from the enemy to the King, in Jesus name, and that we will be found one of a whole new generation of Esther intercessors being raised up to live in the presence of the King and to have favor with Him, that we may come into your presence not as a widow but as a bride who is loved.

As we come and petition you out of this place of intimacy and closeness and worship, so you will be pleased to speak into our hearts the favor and the blessing of God, that not only will our prayers move your heart and move your hands, but the words that we receive from you will begin to be like a balm of Gilead across the nation that churches may rise up in a fresh favor. The attention of the church may be taken off the enemy and put on the King of Kings, that we might be beholders of the most high God, and as we behold Him so we will become as He is.

Lord I pray that the stronghold of God will come down into the earth and that the power of the majesty of the King of Kings so that his feet will touch the earth where we live, and as He touches down amongst us so His goodness will spread out from us so we will touch and impact our communities and overcome evil with good. Father, I pray blessing on all these intercessors that Lord --as we assume a new position before you in your presence so you will pour out your Spirit upon us and take us into a deeper place of relationship with you where favor awaits us, where blessing awaits us and where a new revelation of God awaits us, and we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Thank you Lord for the things that we have learned so far, and I ask Lord that the same Spirit that touched us and impacted us during our time together that you will enable us to take away the things that are most precious to us that you have revealed and put those things into practice.

Father I pray that there will be a performance of all the words that you have spoken to us today in body ministry, and I thank you Lord that you have prepared a place for us that you will enable us to inhabit that place in this next season that Father we may come into our inheritance and that we may come into that favor and that blessedness that you have set aside for each one of us.

I pray that none of us will lose out in this next season but that we will gain our inheritance. For those of us Lord who felt like we had been robbed for so many years, I pray that you will restore what the locust has eaten in the name of Jesus. I ask Lord for a time and a season of unprecedented, unparalleled favor of God upon us that we may come into a whole new place of spirituality, a whole new place of walking with you where we will be convinced of the bigness of God and that God loves us and God cares for us and God is for us and he wants us to succeed and He is on our side. I ask that a revelation of your love for us would fill every single heart in Jesus name. Amen.

Note from Steve Shultz: The entire conference of 9 tapes, from April 23-25, from which this session was taken (Speakers were Graham Cooke, Paul Cain, and Steve Shultz) are available for $59 at: http://theelijahlist.safeshopper.com/342/cat342.htm