“Changing the Atmosphere”

I recently read a book “Crossing Rivers Taking Cities”. In one of the chapters entitled “Loosing cities from the power of Darkness” the author shares about positioning ourselves to change the atmosphere in whatever situations we may find ourselves in. Our cities, homes and work place atmospheres can be changed drastically, allowing a new surge of the Holy Spirit activity.

The word atmosphere speaks of a pervading or surrounding influence or spirit, a general mood or environment. In 2 Chronicles 5:13, 14, the atmosphere of the Temple was changed by the prayer and unity of the priests, and “the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud."

An atmosphere of Open Heavens: No spiritual hindrances allowed – breakthrough

The forces of darkness can be pushed back through prayer, worship, unity and servant hood. Strongholds of poverty, sickness, crime and violence can all be broken, and God can open the windows of Heaven and pour out hope, healing and revival. In the book of Luke, Jesus sent disciples ahead of him into every town; they healed the sick, announced the kingdom of God and rebuked the demons.

In 1996 our church had an outdoor community outreach with other churches called “Sound the Trumpet,” we worked hard in planning meetings and prayer services for this event. In central Florida we encounter our rainy seasons every year toward the end of May and the month of June. Moving toward the event it rained every day that week from about 4:30 pm till about 7:00 pm the day of the event, Friday we had finished setting up the sound system and other equipment and wouldn’t you know it about 4:30 PM dark clouds began to roll in. Immediately realizing what was happening at that moment we stood in the middle of that baseball field and began to pray, we prayed in power and authority that the rains would be held back this event and the souls God wanted to be reach would come and not be hindered by the rain.

Something interesting happened, there was a very light shower all around the city but not in the stadium, it lasted maybe 5 minutes. The service concluded at 9:300 pm. We had everything packed up and ready to go by 10:30 PM and as we were leaving a mighty down pour came, driving home I realized the atmosphere and the result of the entire evening had been change by prayer, worship, unity and servant hood.