Groaning, Warring, Wailing and Weeping (Part II)
CHAPTER THREE
TRAVAILING IN GROANING
Let us look at Isaiah 53: 11-12, "HE SHALL SEE OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL, AND SHALL BE SATISFIED: BY HIS KNOWLEDGE SHALL MY RIGHTEOUS SERVANT JUSTIFY MANY; FOR HE SHALL BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES. THEREFORE WILL I DIVIDE HIM A PORTION WITH THE GREAT AND HE SHALL DIVIDE THE SPOIL WITH THE STRONG; BECAUSE HE HATH POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH: AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE TRANSGRESSORS; AND HE BARE THE SIN OF MANY, AND MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS;"
The scripture here talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, that He shall see the travail of His soul. Travailing is part of what accompanies groaning. To travail like a woman, like we saw in Isaiah chapter 42 means that the Lord shall travail like a woman in labour. So the scripture is saying here that He [Christ] shall see the travail of His soul.
Let us consider further, Isaiah 66: 7-10, "BEFORE SHE TRAVAILED, SHE BROUGHT FORTH; BEFORE HER PAIN CAME, SHE WAS DELIVERED OF A MAN CHILD. WHO HATH HEARD SUCH A THING? WHO HATH SEEN SUCH THINGS? SHALL THE EARTH BE MADE TO BRING FORTH IN ONE DAY? OR SHALL A NATION BE BORN AT ONCE? FOR AS SOON AS ZION TRAVAILED, SHE BROUGHT FORTH HER CHILDREN. SHALL I BRING TO BIRTH, AND NOT CAUSE TO BRING FORTH? SAITH THE LORD; SHALL I CAUSE TO BRING FORTH, AND SHUT THE WOMB? SAITH THY GOD. REJOICE YE WITH JERUSALEM, AND BE GLAD WITH HER ALL YE THAT LOVE HER. REJOICE FOR JOY WITH HER, ALL YE THAT MOURN FOR HER."
We have been talking primarily about groaning. Groaning is to roar like a lion, to cry and shout, but now we look at the word TRAVAILING. The promise is that the Lord Jesus shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied: those of us who are born again today and are still living and those who have lived and died in the Lord are the results of His travail which of course includes all His sufferings on the cross. Also Zion, the True Church, the Body of Christ can only bring forth through travailing. Groaning drives out the enemy and break the power of demons and sickness in our bodies but travailing brings forth that which we desire God to do.
Apostle Paul revealed: "my little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." You see groaning is like destroying and scattering what they enemy has done, travailing is giving birth and planting the new thing God wants to do. Jeremiah's call and commission to be a Prophet to the nations reveals this principle. He was first to pull down, to root out, to destroy and to throw out of the way and there after to plant and to build. Groaning is to break and scatter the soil as a farmer before he plants. As soon as Zion travailed she gave birth, this is an unchanging principle in the word of God. You see when we travail we give birth to spiritual things in the physical world. You may find out sometimes when you are groaning, that at a certain point you begin to raise your voice in a violent manner which may be warring mixed with groaning. Let us look at Gal.4:19-20 & 27; MY LITTLE CHILDREN,OF WHOM I TRAVAIL IN BIRTH AGAIN UNTIL CHRIST BE FORMED IN YOU, I DESIRE TOBE PRESENT WITH YOU NOW, AND TO CHANGE MY VOICE; FOR I STAND IN DOUBT OF YOU. FOR IT IS WRITTEN, REJOICE, THOU BARREN THAT BEAREST NOT; BREAK FORTH AND CRY, THOU THAT TRAVAILLEST NOT FOR THE DESOLATE HATH MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHICH HATH AN HUSBAND."
The passage shows us how to deal with spiritual and even natural barrenness and desolation in our lives and in the Church. When a person begins to travail in the realm of the Spirit he is going to give birth to spiritual things which may manifest in the physical.. Spiritual desolation speaks of a life or a n assembly or a people that is void of the presence of God. In the Kingdom of God nothing happens without travailing and the same holds true for an individual. Without travailing all that God has made available to us in the realm of the Spirit cannot be released. The presence of God may be talked about but it will not be a noticeable reality. That is why Paul admonished: you barren, travail, break forth into cries. So we see that groaning will break and loose and scatter, while travailing will bring forth.
CHAPTER FOUR
HEALINGS AND MIRACLES THROUGH GROANING
Now we go on to Mark 7:32-34:
"AND THEY BRING UNTO HIM ONE THAT WAS DEAF, AND HAD AN IMPEDIMENT IN HIS SPEECH; AND THEY BESEECH HIM TO PUT HIS FINGER INTO HIS EARS, AND HE SPIT, AND TOUCHED HIS TONGUE: AND LOOKING UP TO HEAVEN, HE SIGHED, AND SAITH UNTO HIM, EPHPHATHA, THAT IS, BE OPENED"
Now what did Jesus do here? They brought somebody to Him. The man had two problems, one is deafness, the other is impediment in his speech. That means he was a stammerer. So having come to Jesus He spat and touched his tongue and the tongue was loosed. Was that not so? Yes, but when it came to healing the ears He fixed His fingers (probably the index fingers) in the ears and groaned or sighed {groaning and sighing are the same}. He did not pray. He just groaned. He just groaned, Ah! Ah! Ah! and the demons that were blocking the ears came out and left. I believe you are seeing clearly the point I am making. When you groan while ministering to the oppressed as led by the Lord the demons must loose their hold and leave.
Let us look at Mark 8:11-12:
"AND THE PHARISEES CAME FORTH, AND BEGAN TO QUESTION WITH HIM, SEEKING FOR A SIGN FROM HEAVEN, TEMPTING HIM. AND HE SIGHED DEEPLY IN HIS SPIRIT, AND SAITH, WHY DOTH THIS GENERATION SEEK AFTER A SIGN: VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THERE SHALL NO SIGN BE GIVEN UNTO THIS GENERATION." Why did Jesus groan when the Pharisees were asking His questions? He did because He knew that there were demons behind the Pharisees, influencing and pushing them to come and ask Him those foolish questions. And instead of answering them and arguing with them, what did He do? He groaned. You can imagine the expression on the faces of the people who questioned Him. It was a public place where they came, asking questions. He knew the spirits behind them and in order to break or neutralise their power, Jesus groaned, Ah! Ah! Ah! No wonder many times they (the Pharisees) thought that Jesus was mad, a man "besides" himself. Jesus did really a lot of strange things. Can you imagine Him healing blind eyes by mixing sand with spit and rubbing it in the blind man's eyes. That looks uncivilised and unhygienic and cannot be found in any medical book. The word "sighed" is the Greek word "stenadzo" which was translated in Romans 8: 23 and II Cor.5:2, as "groaned", means to snort as a horse does in fear or anger, to be very angry, to be moved with indignation. Snorting in the public like an angry horse might not look dignified, it might be below the sense of decency of the Pharisees of His days and indeed the Pharisees and the skeptics of our 21st century. But that is what the Son of God did to heal the deafness of the boy we have seen in Mark 7, and to deliver Himself from the nonsensical questions of the religious leaders of His day who were looking for sign instead of believing the word.
I was told of an incident that took place in a part of Lagos sometime ago. A gang of robbers armed with cutlasses, clubs, etc broke into a house where some Christian brothers were living. Having been taught about groaning, so while others were shouting and screaming in confusion they began to groan. For no apparent reasons the armed robbers took to their heels in fright. That is exactly what Jesus did to the Pharisees, this disarmed them and He (Jesus) could continue His ministration. It is wonderful to see the power behind groaning. It brings deliverance from demons, snares of men and even death.
Let us look at John 11: 32-34, to see further in the scriptures how the Lord practised groaning in His ministry. "THEN WHEN MARY WAS COME WHERE JESUS WAS AND SAW HIM, SHE FELL DOWN AT HIS FEET, SAYING UNTO HIM, LORD, IF THOU HADST BEEN HERE, MY BROTHER HAD NOT DIED. WHEN JESUS THEREFORE SAW HER WEEPING, AND THE JEWS ALSO WEEPING WHICH CAME WITH HER, HE GROANED IN THE SPIRIT, AND WAS TROUBLED, AND SAID WHERE HAVE YE LAID HIM? THEY SAID UNTO HIM. LORD COME AND SEE"
Jesus praised the Father for hearing Him. When did Jesus pray? He prayed, when He groaned. Or did He pray any other prayer there? Why did Jesus say you have heard me? What did God hear? It is the groaning of the Son He heard. We read in Exodus that God heard the Israelites groaning and remembered His covenant. When Jesus groaned and wept before He shouted at the grave of Lazarus, what was He doing? He was releasing God's power to break the shackle of death and to raise up Lazarus. He was not weeping out of human sympathy. But He was weeping because He knew that by weeping He was releasing the power of God and when He groaned the hands of death that held Lazarus was broken. So when He got to the grave all He did was to shout loudly "Lazarus come forth!" and life entered into Lazarus life-less body because Jesus groaned. So we have seen how Jesus used groaning to heal the sick, to answer questions and raised the dead. All these He did openly and they all witnessed the results. Through groaning, weeping and travailing God is giving opportunity to us to prevail over our enemies and to devour them at once, it is something that breaks the hand of the enemy. Oh! yes it breaks the power of the enemy and shatters him. That is why I recommend that when in the night you want to go to bed to groan even if it is for five minutes or ten, the spirits will be afraid. You see the principalities in the heavenlies send these small demons to come and harass people. That is why many times just going through deliverance ministration is not enough, because it only deals with demons which roam about the earth, even when these are cast into desert places the powers in the heavenlies readily and relentlessly send reinforcements. But when you know how to groan with warring you are obeying the scripture in Ephesians 6:12 that commands us to wrestle or enter into combat with them (the wicked ruler in the heavenlies), those little ones that roam the earth and even the ones that are sitting in the heavenlies, you are cutting them off; you are destroying their communication, scattering them and putting confusion in their midst.
THE LORD'S EXAMPLE:
Hebrews 5:7
"WHO IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH, WHEN HE HAD OFFERED UP PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS WITH STRONG CRYING AND TEARS UNTO HIM THAT WAS ABLE TO SAVE HIM FROM DEATH, AND WAS HEARD IN THAT HE FEARED".
How did Jesus pray? He offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying. The prayer life of our Lord Jesus was not something cold, listless, and formal, but vibrant, aggressive or even wild. The Lord was about thirty years plus at this time. You imagine a man above 30 years giving a strong crying, that is weeping, travailing and groaning. The scripture says it was to deliver Himself from death. What kind of death? Untimely death, because the enemy was seeking to destroy Him before it was His time to go to the cross. Jesus knew that He came to die the death of the cross. But He knew also that the enemy was looking for every opportunity to kill Him and destroy Him thereby stopping the work of redemption. But how did Jesus deliver Himself? By groaning and travailing. And you and I can do that. This is one of the most effective ways we can deliver ourselves. As we cry and travail, we can be delivered from unnecessary deaths. We have seen how Jesus did it, but there are a few other scriptures we can look through.
II COR. 5:4
"FOR WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: NOT FOR THAT WE WOULD BE UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON, THAT MORTALITY MIGHT BE SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE".
You see, "being burdened" we groan. Some people will say until the Holy Spirit moves you, you cannot groan, you have to wait until you are in deep prayer and then you can groan. You ask them, "How many times in a year do they get to that stage? Those who are sincere may tell you, maybe once in a year or none at all. If you are waiting until only when you are in a deep prayer before you groan you will not groan as God expects you to do. The bible says Jesus in the days of His flesh groaned. You can see how burdens can make you to groan. Oppressive or depressive situations or spiritual burdens can cause you to groan. The verse says we groan ".... not for that we would be unclothed, but that we might be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." What is mortality? Mortality means death. So that death might be swallowed in life. What is it saying? There is death in this our body. There are things that are trying to take our lives in this body; sickness, disease, etc. But the bible reveals here that when we groan life comes forth out of our groaning to swallow up the death in our body. Just the same way we see the Lord Jesus groaned so as to be delivered from death. When you have headache, that is a messenger of death. When you have pain, a cold, stomach upset, fever, they are all messengers of death. They are all seeking to reside in our bodies but it is clear from the word that groaning is one of the potent weapons that we have, to counter such flow or stream of death, overtake it and its messengers that are trying to destroy our body. That is why we need to groan earnestly. Groaning fights away old age manifestations such as wrinkles, rheumatism, backache, etc. When you groan earnestly in faith these things will depart from you.
I remember that before I knew groaning I used to have pains all over my body. But as I began tog roan I discovered tremendous changes. This is because the things causing most of our pains usually have spiritual roots. However, as you begin to groan they begin to be uprooted. I am convinced that groaning and travailing have tremendous power to release to us. They are weapons of war against the enemy and the kingdom of darkness. Travailing releases the power to bring forth things or give birth to things in the spirit realm. All these also help us in ministering effectively to others. Sometimes for people who come to you for help, needing deliverance all you need to do is to groan over them. When you groan earnestly over them those demons will not stay; but rush out.
ENTERING INTO THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST REDEMPTION
I want to show you also that for us to enter into the fullness of Christ we must groan. Let us turn to Romans 8: 19-23: "FOR THE EARNEST EXPECTATION OF THE CREATURE WAITETH FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD. FOR THE CREATURE WAS MADE SUBJECT TO VANITY NOT WILLINGLY, BUT BY REASON OF HIM WHO HATH SUBJECTED THE SAME IN HOPE, BECAUSE THE CREATURE ITSELF ALSO SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. FOR WE KNOW THAT THE WHOLE CREATION GROANETH AND TRAVAILLETH IN PAIN TOGETHER UNTIL NOW. AND NOT ONLY THEY, BUT OURSELVES ALSO, WHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, EVEN WE OURSELVES GROAN WITHIN OURSELVES, WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION, TO WIT THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY."
Sons of God are the matured men and women of God. If the whole creation is to be delivered, (and this is the hour for the fulfilment of this scripture), there must be raised by God Himself a people who are pressing in for their fullest redemption rights in Christ through groaning and travailing in order to bring that same redemption to the rest of the creation. The whole creation is groaning, how? I watched a documentary film that showed the formation of islands as a result of volcanic eruption. That is one way of showing how the creation groans. When we see thunderstorms, cyclones, etc, they are part of the groaning. The whole creature is subject to vanity not by themselves, not that they like it but the curse through the sin of man had brought them into that brutal subjection. But it is not only they that groan, we too, who have tasted the firstfruit of the Spirit, or as it is stated in II Cor 5:5, ".....the earnest of the Spirit" {which is to have a foretaste of something; and having an appetiser is an indication that the full course of a meal is coming}. God has given us the appetiser of the Holy Ghost, a foretaste, a measure of liberty of the Spirit in life and in ministry, a tasting of the heavenly power and of gifts that create a longing; any unquenchable hunger to be free from all the limitations of human life and activities that the fullness of the Spirit may be experienced and expressed here and now. But this fullness of the Spirit is yet to come, because when we enter into this fullness then we have entered into the manifestation of the Sons of God.
There is something else we groan for, the redemption of our body. The redemption of our body comes at the end of the journey, there are those who will enter the first resurrection, and those who will have to wait for a thousand years for their resurrection to come. When we enter into groaning now, it is with a view to preparing us for the first resurrection, because in it the mighty Holy Spirit of God moves us to press into the deep things of God. The more we groan; the more we purge ourselves, the clearer our spiritual understanding, and God is able to reveal more of His precious things to us. I am yet to see somebody who groans earnestly and regularly and does not have his knowledge of the deep things of God broadened. I have seen people groaning and as a result, they begin to have serious revelations of the word of God; because the more you groan, the more you are purged and cleansed and become sanctified. Also the nature of God is imparted to you and things to come are more clearly revealed to you, the redemption you are experiencing in your body is preparing your body for the resurrection that is to come. So this is the conclusion of all we are talking about when we teach about groaning and travailing and weeping. God in His mercy has revealed to us that we are not helpless in the face of situations, that we are not helpless before the enemy, we are not helpless in the things God is asking us to do. That we have a weapon that we can use to devour the enemy at once, to break the power of the enemy of our soul, that we have a weapon that will cause death to be swallowed up by life in us. We have seen Jesus using it. He used it to heal the sick, to answer questions, to raise the dead. We have seen the children of Israel, they did it to bring deliverance for themselves. They did it to cause God to change His mind, to make God remember His covenant. As we have seen from the scripture at the beginning of this book that when it was time for God to release the nation of Israel from Egypt He showed them what to do. When it was time for God to release them from Babylon He showed them what they did. Time has come and our great God is delivering His people from the world, He is setting them loose from things that blind, bind, and entangle them. God is also causing us to return to the pattern and life of the True Church because He is restoring the whole truth back to the True Church. Indeed when you look at the practice of groaning it looks and sounds undignified. Some have commented or criticised, that when groaning one sounds like a dog or a goat. But let us know that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, so God in His wisdom reveals and uses things that are weak to confound the mighty and foolish things to confound the wise. We must learn to follow God and despise the opinions of mere men
CHAPTER FIVE
WARRING WITH GROANING
Psalm 18: 29-30, 33-34
"FOR BY THEE I HAVE RUN THROUGH A TROOP; AND BY MY GOD HAVE I LEAPED OVER A WALL. AS FOR GOD, HIS WAY IS PERFECT: THE WORD OF THE LORD IS TRIED: HE IS A BUCKLER TO ALL THOSE THAT TRUST IN HIM. HE MAKETH MY FEET LIKE HINDS FEET, AND SETTETH ME UPON MY HIGH PLACES. HE TEACHETH MY HANDS TO WAR, SO THAT A BOW OF STEEL IS BROKEN BY MINE ARMS."
Also Psalm 144:1
"BLESSED BE THE LORD MY STRENGTH, WHICH TEACHETH MY HANDS TO WAR, AND MY FINGERS TO FIGHT:"
The picture that the scripture paints for us here is that of a man who through God's strength knows how to break through encirclement of attacking enemies. What is a troop? A troop is a band of soldiers or invaders. There is one strategy in warfare that soldiers everywhere use. If soldiers want to capture an enemy in his house, what do they do? They will surround it, creating a ring around it. So if the enemy thinks he will run through the front door they are there, if he goes through the back door they are there. This same thing happens in the spiritual. One of the things the enemy does for people is to surround them with his demons so that where-ever they go they are encircled by these spirits surrounding them and they cannot escape. In the same way the bible says the angel of the Lord encampeth around them that honours the Lord with their lives. So the Psalmist here is giving us a picture by saying - for by thee (God) I have run through a troop, through the enemy is always trying to surround us, making a ring of attacking demons around people.
We must learn how to fight to breakthrough. You war with your hands, swinging your hands physically, like jabbing or making chopping movements in the air or tearing down a web. Sometimes I see myself in a vision fighting with a sword in my hand. There was a woman, a medical doctor, we taught her and others how to groan and war in a meeting at Ilorin in Kwara State. This woman had been afflicted and tormented with strange spirits in her bedroom that for months she had not been able to sleep. The situation had greatly drained her that she looked like walking dead with glazed eyes. In that meeting we spent about one hour groaning and warring and she participated actively, with her husband who is also a medical doctor.
The second day they gave a glowing testimony. A major transformation had happened. She testified how she got home and before going to bed that night she spent some time groaning and warring in her bedroom. While she was doing that her spiritual eyes were opened and she saw as she was swinging her arms bluish fire coming from her fingers and the result was that she slept soundly like a baby that night. Whereas many months earlier, her sleep had been fought with strange voices and oppressive presence speaking to her. So you see, when we are led by the Spirit in groaning, warring or doing any other thing commanded by the scripture you may not know what God is doing with it in the spirit realm, it can be fire that God will cause to come out of your hands. It can be a sword and this will go very far to destroy, to scatter and to break whatever the enemy has put in place against you. Sometimes when you are warring, the Holy Spirit will literally takes over your hands so that you do not feel you are the one swinging those hands again. You will experience the Holy Spirit completely taking over your hands for as long as He wills, you will not feel the strain that would have normally accompanied such exercise. You may be experiencing what the bible means when it says "He has taught my hands to war".
By revelation the Lord has shown what often the enemy does to people to keep them under surveillance where ever they go by throwing invisible net around them (like a spider will do to catch insects for food). But the Holy Spirit will lead you to use your hands in spiritual fight to tear such nets whenever it is necessary. The atmosphere is often being purified by groaning and warring and this in turn increases the presence of God around us. A woman can be doing her washing and be groaning, she can be cooking and be groaning and travailing and these will give birth to many things of God in her life. As we begin to learn to put the word of God into effect we will see what God will do to honour His word. The saying "the taste of the pudding is in the eating", is true. For instance if you have never tasted honey before and someone describes to you how sweet honey is, it is mere talk because you have never tasted it before. No matter how you may imagine it to taste, you cannot really know it, like someone who has tasted honey. But if the person gives you honey and you taste it then you can say "ah, I really know what honey sweetness is all about." This is applicable to the issue of groaning, warring , travailing and weeping or any other truth of the bible. All I have said will be more meaningful to you when you begin to practise it.
A lady wrote me from Britain recently saying "when you taught about groaning and warring I never really saw the value", in fact she said she was wondering what spiritual meaning it had. But she said getting to London and being lonely, no fellowship, having nobody around and experiencing attacks of the enemy from all fronts, "I discovered by myself groaning, warring and travailing as a tremendous help". So now she has tasted it, she has seen the power and the blessing that goes with it. The best way to get its blessing is to begin it. Know this as well that the enemy will fight in many ways to cause you to forget or to drop this truth and its practice, but as you receive God's help to do it, until it becomes part of your spiritual life, you will never want to loose the blessing . .
CHAPTER SIX
WAILING AND WEEPING
Hebrews 5:7 "WHO IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH, WHEN HE HAD OFFERED UP PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS WITH STRONG CRYING AND TEARS UNTO HIM THAT WAS ABLE TO SAVE HIM FROM DEATH, AND WAS HEARD IN THAT HE FEARED".
John 11:35 "JESUS WEPT".
These two scriptures show to us something of the prayer life and spiritual strength of Christ. Weeping or wailing is a potent power in the realm of the Spirit when done in the strength of the Lord, and not a product of our emotion, or induced by environment and conditions. When the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, He did not do it out of natural sympathy as men do, for Lazarus or his relations. He was rather releasing power in the realm of the spirit out of the Holy Spirit-induced compassion. Men like David, Jeremiah and Apostle Paul knew the revelation and the release of God's power and favour by weeping from their spirits before the Lord, when facing desperate situations that involved them or others.
In Psalm 56:8, David asked the Lord ".....PUT THOU MY TEARS INTO THY BOTTLE: ARE THEY NOT IN THY BOOK?" This alludes to an ancient practice in which tears shed in grief were stored up in a bottle. This David's prayer shows us that tears shed from our inner man is precious before the Lord and it is stored and recorded in His book. What for? To be used against God's enemies. The next verse, verse 9 says: "WHEN I CRY UNTO THEE, THEN SHALL MINE ENEMIES TURN BACK:..." When the enemy hears the noise or voice of weeping in this fashion he will flee in fright.
Paul in Act of Apostles 20 verse 19, and Philippians 3 verse 18 to mention a few, showed how many times in his ministry he wept as he sought God for His grace and power to be released for him to be able to influence and turn his hearers to a purposeful living for God. Wailing is a level higher than weeping. While weeping can be a silent sobbing, wailing comes forth with raising of the voice; howling, loud cries, screams and noisy utterances. How the Lord is shown to offer up prayer and supplications with strong crying and tears in Hebrews 5 verse 7, involved wailing. The word strong in Greek is ISCHUROS, which means to be forceful (lit or fig) boisterous, mighty, mightier, powerful, valiant. The word crying in Greek is KRAUGE, it means an outcry (in notification, tumult or grief), clamour. Also in Greek the verb of the word KRAUGE is KRAZO which means to croak as a raven, or scream, to call aloud, shriek, exclaim or in treat. These words throw more light and give us better understanding of the way the Lord often prayed when He was in the flesh. (AND THE QUESTION IS, IF THE LORD OF GLORY HIMSELF PRAYED THIS WAY UNTO HIM THAT WAS ABLE TO DELIVER HIM FROM DEATH, CAN YOU AND I CLAIM TO KNOW BETTER?)
Often in the bible prayer of repentance, in the face of impending wrath from the Lord is called for by God Himself in form of wailing and lamentation .
Jer. 9: 14-20. "BUT HAVE WALKED AFTER THE IMAGINATION OF THEIR OWN HEART, AND AFTER BAALIM, WHICH THEIR FATHERS TAUGHT THEM: THEREFORE THUS SAID THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL: BEHOLD I WILL FEED THEM, EVEN THIS PEOPLE WITH WORMWOOD, AND GIVE THEM WATER OF GALL TO DRINK. I WILL SCATTER THEM ALSO AMONG THE HEATHEN, WHO NEITHER THEY NOR THEIR FATHERS HAVE KNOWN; AND I WILL SEND A SWORD AFTER THEM, TILL I HAVE CONSUMED THEM. THUS SAID THE LORD OF HOSTS, CONSIDER YE, AND CALL FOR THE MOURNING WOMEN, THAT THEY COME: AND SEND FOR CUNNING WOMEN THAT THEY MAY COME: AND LET THEM MAKE HASTE AND TAKE UP A WAILING FOR US THAT OUR EYES MAY RUN DOWN WITH TEARS, AND OUR EYELIDS GUSH OUT WITH WATERS. FOR A VOICE OF WAILING IS HEARD OUT OF ZION, HOW ARE WE SPOILED! WE ARE GREATLY CONFOUNDED, BECAUSE WE HAVE FORSAKEN THE LAND, BECAUSE OUR DWELLINGS HAVE CAST US OUT. YET HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD, O YE WOMEN, AND LET YOUR EAR RECEIVE THE WORD OF HIS MOUTH, AND TEACH YOUR DAUGHTERS WAILING AND EVERY ONE HER NEIGHBOUR LAMENTATION."
We need to come to a place in our spiritual experience where we become vessels wherein such operations of God can be carried out in us and through us. Wailing and weeping are God's weapons of warfare. The matured and seasoned soldiers of Christ we read of in the scriptures and those of the early centuries knew their potency. in this final hour of the last day battle we are being invited to experience what they experienced.
Brokenness which first comes as a result of being dealt with by the hand of God for a long period of time and being baptised with the Spirit of compassion are necessary to enter or experience wailing and weeping. In the natural, crying or weeping is very therapeutic in certain situations. In the spiritual realm when the Lord brings us to this level of praying with weeping and wailing or "strong crying" we will not only bring release to ourselves but to others as well, even to nations.
In conclusion, I share this testimony. Some years ago myself and three or four other ministers were ministering to a young lady that was gripped in some ways by the power of the enemy. We had ministered to her for hours each day for about two or three days without making much progress. We had tried shouting on demons, binding, and some other ways we knew. On one of the days, the leading minister amongst us suggested that we should weep and wail out of compassion for her while she was kneeling down. This we did, and I must confess, this way of ministering was very new to me then. but the power that held the lady captive began to gradually give way after wailing and weeping over her under 30 minutes.
When the Lord brings you to a level, he can move on you to weep and wail in compassion, you will cry and weep like a baby not minding who is around you.
May the Lord visit us again and break forth upon His watchmen with this level of operations and manifestations of His Spirit, that is very crucial and desperately needed today. Amen.
