WHAT IS COVENANT PRAYER?

If we’re going to take back our nation for the Lord, it will have to be one territory at a time. It will require regional strongholds to be pulled down and Kingdom practices to take hold if we are to truly “possess the land” that God has given.

But what kind of authority does it take to disarm regional principalities and powers? Can any believer in Christ take down territorial spirits as a son or daughter of the Most High? Based on the current fruit, or lack thereof, it is apparent that territorial spirits and regional principalities do not easily bow to someone’s personal claim of spiritual ranking, or even our collective rebukes and declarations. And though we have understood the need for repentance and having clean hands and a pure heart, we have yet to see the tangible results we long for on a larger scale. Even as we persevere in corporate intercession, I believe there is a key element that has been sorely lacking. And I believe it’s our spiritual adversaries who reveal a missing link.

In a recent YouTube video that went viral, ex-satanist, James Kawalya, shared some of the strategies that occultists have used in taking down churches, pastors, and prayer groups over regions. His own story to redemption is shocking, but is an eye-opening account of the enemy’s tools in shutting down the power of prayer. Yet, even in the midst of these targeted schemes to bring disunity among believers, Kawalya revealed a kind of covenant authority in prayer that even the highest ranking witches over nations cannot touch.

The kind of covenant prayer Kawalya talks about is not just people agreeing to pray together for a specific length of time. It is not even a weekly commitment to a prayer ministry or agenda. Nor is it determined by the length of our fast or the fervency of our prayers. It is a depth of commitment to one another that requires a circumcision of the heart and rending of our flesh in order to see principalities and powers fall. He described a covenant agreement that involves consecration, sacrifice, and mutual submission that is extremely powerful in the spirit. And yet few have fulfilled this depth of covenant agreement to see the tangible breakthroughs needed. We either get offended and quit, or allow our differences to become stumbling blocks instead of stepping stones. 

Those who pursue the works of darkness know the power of agreement. Witchcraft is founded on covenants, oaths, and vows in order to accomplish a goal. They know the power of making covenants in order to illicit change through supernatural means. They are so committed to their cause, they will even sacrifice loved ones if it means fulfilling their deadly covenants and gaining more power from the evil one. This level of commitment should convict us. It should cause us to consider our own understanding of covenant and how our commitment, not just to God but to one another, ultimately affects our cause.

As I have begun to study this kind of prayer, I would like to offer some basic principles that might help us better understand what covenant prayer is – and isn’t. Consider how these factors might be influencing your own prayers, or the prayer initiatives in your own cities and territories.

WHAT SETS COVENANT PRAYER APART?

• Covenant prayer requires collective consecration and repentance on a consistent basis. (We must set ourselves apart).

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. (Nehemiah 9:1-3)

• Covenant prayer calls for all idols of the heart and mind to be fully surrendered. (Idolatry within regions will not submit to believers who are personally compromised.)

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7:9-10)

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

• Covenant prayer requires each participant to be free of offense, bitterness, and strife, aiming for oneness of the heart and not just unity of purpose. (There is no unity when offense is stirring.)

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

• Covenant prayer requires perseverance in the midst of likely conflict and contradiction. (Don’t let the enemy divide you.)

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. (Nehemiah 4:7-9)

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!  It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!   It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. (Psalms 133)

• Covenant prayer that seeks breakthrough in cities and regions asks those called as shepherds and overseers to lead the way by demonstrating personal consecration. (Pastors must take ownership and engage).

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions)… and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God (2 Chronicles 5:11-14).

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4)

• Covenant prayer honors the agreements made and perseveres together until the completion of the assignment. (Don’t quit!)

And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:29-31)