Laying Hold Of The Plan In The Heart Of The Father

We’ve been talking about the importance of pursuing God’s plan for our lives, ministries and church services so that they look just as God originally intended rather than like man’s plans. We’ve also been talking about the role prayer has in the plan of God being fulfilled in the earth.

Today, I want to share more with you about how we are to make the plan of God a target for our prayer life. It’s clear in the Bible that we, as the church, must lay hold of God’s plan in prayer for it to come to pass.

Making God’s Plan our Target in Prayer

Romans 8:27

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth WHAT IS THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT, because he maketh intercession for the saints ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD.

The term “the mind of the Spirit” refers to the plans, purposes and intentions of the Holy Spirit—which, according to this verse, is the will of the Father Himself. This verse is saying the Holy Spirit has the will of God in mind as He helps us pray. He is using us to pray according to the will of God.

You and I cannot access the mind of God if we bypass the Holy Spirit. Only He has the Father’s plan—He’s the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and He’s showing men the plan in the heart of the Father.

Praying in the Spirit, as Romans 8:27 says, is accessing the mind, will, purposes and plans of the Father. As we give ourselves to prayer concerning God's plan, the Spirit of seeing and knowing will come into manifestation, and we’ll begin to recognize more fully and accurately what God's plan is so that we can lay hold of it.

Those Who Pray Get Previews

I Kings 18:41-42

And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for THERE IS A SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,

This verse describes a man hearing the plan of God in the Spirit realm, even before anyone else hears or sees it in the natural realm. If we, as believers, will stay consecrated, live full of the Spirit and maintain a vibrant prayer life in fellowship with God, we (like Elijah) will also begin to see and hear the plan of God in the Spirit realm before there is any indication of it in the natural realm. Only then can we lay hold of it, praying it out so that it comes to pass.

Jesus Himself operated in the earth this way. He said He just did what He saw the Father do and said what He heard the Father say as He prayed. We, as New Testament Spirit-filled believers, can and should operate the same way. As we do, we’ll begin to hear things that others don’t yet hear or see things in the Spirit realm concerning God’s plan that need to be laid hold of and prayed out.

How do we lay hold of God’s plan? First by faith, but also by praying it out in the Spirit. As we see in Elijah’s story above, God’s plans for the earth need prayed out, and the Holy Spirit is standing by to help us do just that.

Because we are the ones in authority down here on the earth, God needs us to labor together with Him in prayer about what we hear or see. Like in Elijah’s case, there is a laboring to take hold of God’s plan that we must enter into. People of prayer get previews of what God is doing and are equipped to work with Him in prayer to bring it to pass.

Entering into the Cry of the Father’s Heart

As we fellowship with God in the Spirit, God's plan begins to form within us, and the desire for what He longs for begins to rise up within our own hearts. We begin to enter into the God cry about a thing, and we do so before others are even aware of what the Father longs to do. And let me remind you, one great desire in the heart of the Father concerns the rain, which is the move of the Spirit to gather in His precious harvest (James 5:7; Luke 12:49).

God is looking for someone on the earth who will get ahold of the cry of heaven and express it back to Him because He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him. We enter into the desires of God’s heart through feeding on His Word and prayer.

Those who do this could be called the remnant. They see God’s plan long before others are even aware of it and are used of God to bring it to pass. They aren’t responding to what has already begun moving in the earth. They’re responding to what they see in the Word and in the Spirit. And, they are the catalyst that brings the movements of God in the Spirit realm into the natural realm. They pray it out.

There will always be a remnant in the body of Christ who will get a hold of God's plan and move with it in prayer before others even know about it or have a heart for it. The rest of the church will need help because they live more in the flesh, just responding to what happens around them down here on this earth rather than being a part of bringing God’s will in the Spirit realm to pass through faith and prayer.

The Spirit Falls in with Your Heart’s Desire

The cry of the Father’s heart—the God cry, is fervent. God is not half-hearted about anything. When we yield to the cry of the Father's heart in prayer, we’ll ask for His plan with urgent desire. Not a desire that originated with us—worked up by man, but one that originated in the heart of God. In ourselves, we don’t have a great desire for God’s great plan here at the end of the church age. We’re only interested in what WE THINK immediately affects us. We can only get HIS desire from HIM as we fellowship with Him.

God is looking for someone on earth who will lay hold of the cry of heaven and speak or express it down here. He’s looking for someone who’s interested! An interested man will stay in prayer long enough until He can pick up the heart of the Father. We’re talking about the kind of prayer that receives revelation of God's plan, takes on the heart cry of God and lays hold of His plan.

In this place of urgent desire for His plan that we received in prayer, our words of faith are what bring the answer. The faith cry in our hearts, expressed back to God concerning His plan, becomes a creative cry and makes our words in prayer creative.

One of the definitions of the word “intercession” in Romans 8:27 is “to fall in with.” As we give ourselves to a life of prayer concerning God's plan, we begin to take on the heart of the Father and develop a yearning and desire for what His heart cries for in the earth.

As we begin to express those desires back to the Father in prayer, the Spirit “falls in” with us. The Spirit becomes one with us, harmonizing and uniting with us—helping us to express our desires for the will of God. He takes the yearnings and longings of our heart and enables us to express them back to God in terms of the will of God. As we yield to Him, we also fall in and become one with the Spirit who is giving us the yearnings and groanings to express to God.

This is how we bring forth the plans and purposes of God in the earth.

Earnest, Heartfelt Prayer

We’re not talking about the prayer of faith here. We’re talking about the prayers of supplication and intercession. The very definitions of both supplication and intercession stress the sense of need or urgency. There is a high level of desire in a man’s heart when he is used of the Spirit in supplication and intercession because the Spirit has given him a higher awareness of the plan of God—HIS heart’s desire. A man supplicating or interceding urgently needs what he is praying for.

James 5:16 AMPC

...The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].

Notice the term “earnest heartfelt.” There is a kind of prayer that is fervent. Taking on God's heart creates a call to prayer in the heart of a man—it summonses him to stand before the Father. And, out of compassion for wayward humanity and what they need, he becomes one with the Great Intercessor and takes up the desire of the Father to move on their behalf.

The Spirit falls in with that—taking hold together with him concerning his desire for the Father’s plan to come to pass.

Laying Hold Calls for Consecration

Philippians 3:12

...but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

The remnant—those who are hearing the plan of God in the Spirit for our day—begin to lay hold of what belongs to us concerning God’s plan. As this verse says, they lay hold of what the Spirit has laid hold of for them to pray out.

You may be reading this and saying to yourself, I want to be a part of that! But, to join this remnant, there is often a greater level of consecration that one has to step up to. One must give themselves sufficiently to fellowshipping with the Father’s heart in prayer until he moves beyond just praying about his own needs. He must come to where the Spirit of God can impart the yearnings and desires of God into his spirit that are BEYOND his own personal needs. That’s the man God can use as He wants in order to bring His great plan to pass.

Yes, God longs to meet our personal needs, but He longs for things beyond us as well.

So, if you want to be used of God in this era, begin to express to Him your desire to be used in this way. Consecrate yourself to a lifestyle of prayer and let God put His desires into your heart. Then, practice responding to the Spirit as He begins to move on you to pray out the plans in God’s heart. God will respond to that and begin taking you on into the things of the Spirit.

Fitted into God’s Good Plan

Romans 8:28 (AMPC)

We are assured and know that [GOD BEING A PARTNER IN THEIR LABOR] all things work together and are [FITTING INTO A PLAN] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

This verse is often interpreted through traditional religious thinking rather than what it actually says. I want to remind you that verse 28 is in the context of the previous two verses concerning praying under the anointing of the Spirit. Things don’t all just automatically work together according to God’s good plan if the Spirit is not allowed to be involved through someone yielding to Him. But, if the Spirit gets His way through someone yielding to the kind of prayer mentioned in verses 26-27, He will help them bring the will of the Father into manifestation for every situation.

How does verse 28 apply to His great plan for the end times—the rain, the glory and the harvest?

Notice the term used in the Amplified Classic…“are fitting into a plan.” As a man prays under the anointing of the Spirit, God begins to work His plan—fitting men into it in order to bring His will to pass. It’s a good plan, full of the glory and power of God, but He works it through men!

How does He do that? As we pray concerning God’s plan and our part in it, something begins to form deep inside of us and others—a place much deeper than our intellect or our reasoning. God's plan begins to form in the hearts of those whom He wants to use and then begins to rise up to enlighten their minds.

Because God doesn’t do anything apart from the body of Christ, God begins to reveal His plans to His chosen laborers. And, as this verse in the Classic Amplified says in so many words, He begins to fit them into His plan—He prepares them for their part in advancing His plan in the earth.

The Spirit takes hold with us as we pray and begins to move on those He wants to use as laborers, preparing them and equipping them for the work ahead. Because of this kind of prayer, those He wants to use as laborers begin to discern God's plan and their part in it.

Prayer Helps More See the Plan

You see, when it comes to those laborers God wants to use, God has to get them to the place where they recognize His plan and consecrate themselves to carrying out their part in it. Praying for them in this way helps them do that.

When men begin to see their part in His plan, our prayer helps them begin to separate themselves from their own plans and purposes and move with God. As a result, God begins to give them the revelations, impartations and endowments that are needed to advance this era. These men and women begin to be raised up by God to have a voice into the body of Christ—speaking to God’s people concerning what the Spirit is saying.

As a result of continued prayer, more and more people begin to recognize the voice of those who are speaking by the Spirit—they recognize the voice of their shepherd speaking through them. They begin leaving the voices of men and gathering themselves around those speaking by the Spirit. As men begin to unite around these voices and begin moving with God, bringing their own faith and prayer to what God is doing, God’s plan will continue to make progress in the earth (Jude 1:20 AMPC), and the job will get done.

God is looking for those who recognize what He’s doing, are willing to take on the longing of His heart and will consecrate themselves to prayer. As men respond to Him, an end time army will be raised up who will carry out the plan of the Father.

FULLNESS WILL COME, AND THE HARVEST WILL BE REAPED.