Bob has the gift of intercession and as he prayed I could sense the darkness shake in our midst as he called on heaven to break the strongholds in our city. After a group of us finished praying on a Saturday morning for our city I had the privilege to talk with Bob and thank him for his bold prayers. In the course of our conversation he told me about a missionary to the Muslims in North Africa, Lilias Trotter.

 

The story blessed and encouraged me; I hope it inspires you as well. Lilias was a single woman who spent a good portion of her life sharing Christ’s love in the spiritually dark environment of Algiers Africa in the early 1900’s. Many who converted to Christ were killed and Lilias and others were continuously opposed and attacked for their work. Lilias became a powerful prayer warrior and believed her persistent prayers would break the strongholds of satan in Algiers and usher in a move of the Holy Spirit in the country.

 

God revealed to her in a tangible sign of how this would work in a very unexpected way. One day the building where she lived collapsed. When the investigation was completed the reason why was pinned to the bread baker who worked in the basement of the building. For 7 years the machine to knead the bread caused vibrations that daily penetrated into the foundation of the building, and eventually cracked the foundation leading to the fall of the entire building. Here is Miss Trotter’s amazing spiritual interpretation of the event:

 

For there is a vibrating power going on down in the darkness and dust of this world that can make itself visible in starting results in the upper air and sunlight of the invisible world, “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” Each prayer-beat down here vibrates up to the very throne of God, and does its work through that throne on the principalities and powers around us, just as each one of the repeated throbs from below told on the structure of our house, though it was only the last one that produced the visible effect. We can never tell which prayer will liberate the answer, but we can tell that each one will do its work: we know that “if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us, and if we know that He hear us we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”

 

Each prayer has powerful effects and over time prayer pulls down strongholds in the heavenly realm:

 

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Cor. 10:4

 

So take courage and continue to persevere in your prayers believing your prayers are powerful vibrations that Abba Father in time will use to destroy the strongholds of addictions, false religions, strangling fears, and anything else that will stand in the way of knowing the healing love of God the Father.