Silencing the Room

As a cop, I learned that when I go into a very tense situation and silence the demonic, the situation calms down. I call this exercise “silencing the room.” It got to be pretty fun when I was training rookies. I would tell them, “Watch this.” Then I would pray out loud and the entire room would go silent. The surprised rookie would ask, “Where did you learn that? It’s not in the academy.”

When you picked up this book, you brought all kinds of false beliefs with you. You can’t help it; you’re human. Anxiety, fear, guilt, shame—all the garbage came with you, and the enemy is attached to it. The enemy has no authority over you. But if you think he does, in that way he does. That’s sort of his game. He asks you to give him permission to run your life, and you say yes by believing his deceptions: “I’m not good enough,” “Nothing will ever change,” “I’m stuck in this situation,” “God will never use me,” “I’m alone in this mess,” and so on. The enemy is ruling your life, and you become what you believe.

So we’re going to silence the room. We’re going to silence the negative voices that disrupt our lives. Doing so puts the room and everything in it back in its rightful order. As we silence the room, your mind is going to open. As your mind begins to unlock, start writing down the ideas, thoughts, or impressions that come to you.

After praying, I’m going to ask God a couple of questions on your behalf, and I want you to write down the very first thing that comes to mind.

Pray along with me.

Father, thank you for this reader. I bless them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Father, thank you for your beloved son or daughter. We come before you, Lord God, the High King of heaven, in the name of Jesus.

Father, thank you that your beloved son or daughter was knit together in their mother’s womb by you, no matter what they believe. It doesn’t matter what any of us believe; the reality is that you knit us together in our mother’s womb. And when you did so, you gave us an identity. You built an identity into our DNA, and your goal for us, your joy for us is that we understand that identity and live it out, and that in living it out, we become one with you. Living out our identity, we become immortal and eternally joyful. That’s what happens.

This is the goal. This has been your plan from the beginning, but we’ve lost sight of it. We’ve lost track of it. So, Lord, we come to you as family in this community, and this is what I confess on their behalf: I confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, that he’s the incarnate one come in the flesh. As much as we understand what that means, this is what I believe. Jesus Christ came in the flesh and walked the earth, and when he walked the earth, he came to do two things. He came to destroy the works of the enemy and to make people well.

This is why Jesus came, to destroy the works of the enemy and to make people well. Lord, he taught these things as he walked around, and he taught us to know you in a different way, in a deeper way, in order to know ourselves and others. Then he was accused and he was betrayed and he was murdered by the will of God. When he died, he descended into the depths of death itself, into the place of the enemy, and he swallowed up death into his life. He rose from the dead by the power of God and in so doing rendered Satan powerless. More than that, Jesus’s death and resurrection freed humanity from the bondage of the fear of death. Death no longer has a hold on those who embrace Christ.

Jesus destroyed death, and he destroyed the power of the enemy. With death conquered and the enemy defeated, he came up out of the tomb because there was nothing there any longer. He came out alive, and he walked around for forty days. In those forty days, he taught his people about the most important thing—what it means to live in the kingdom of God, starting now and on into eternity. When he finished teaching, he ascended to the Father where he sits at the right hand of the throne of God in glory. There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved, but at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Every demon, every angel, every creature, whether there are more in the universe, we don’t know, but every knee will bow.

There’s no competition; there’s no contest; there’s nothing to be afraid of; Christ wins! Every knee will bend. Everyone will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Amen.

We believe that Jesus is a high priest who was tempted in every way just like every person who exists. There’s nothing I can say to Jesus that he doesn’t know experientially. He was deserted, betrayed, rebuked, everything bad happened to him, and yet he did not lose his identity as beloved Son. He didn’t fall short of the glory that God had for him, and his is the name above all names.

God, because of Jesus, we can come right into your presence, into the presence of the living God, right now. Because of Christ our Savior, you say to us, “Come boldly to the throne of grace in your time of need.” We can come right now, especially if we’re in need. Especially if there are things in our life we’re afraid of, ashamed of, and feel guilty about. We come now. This is your desire, God. This is what you are longing for us. We come not by works but by grace through faith, which is a free gift. No one reading this is any better than anyone else.

Here we are, in your presence, Lord, and we ask, God, that you would silence the enemy around us in our mind and in our life. We’re so used to listening to the enemy and the world and our flesh all the time. Silence the voices, we pray in the name of Jesus. We say, “The Lord rebukes you, Satan, in the name of Jesus. You have lost; you are done; you are over. We bow our knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We don’t bow to anyone else. The Lord rebukes you, Satan, in the name of Jesus, whom you must obey.”

Lord, would you fill each of us with the fullness of your Spirit? God, would you sanctify our mind and our imagination as we think about you now? You’ve given us the ability to dream and to imagine. What does it mean to walk into your throne room right now? It’s an actual occurrence that’s happening right now.

What does it mean to stand in the throne room of God? We stand above all creation with Christ.

Here we stand in your midst, Lord, and nobody talks but you. Nobody speaks but you.

Lord, fill us with the fullness of your Spirit. Silence our own voice so that our mind is tied up with your mind, our spirit bound to your Spirit, and Lord, let us begin hearing from you in a deep new way like we’ve never heard before or maybe even for the first time.

Lord, here’s the first question we want to ask you: God, what is the most important thing you want to say to me right now?

In the name of Jesus, amen.