The Power and Prophecy of Prayer: Perspective for February 2024

A Monthly Inspirational Viewpoint of Life’s Journeys with Sonia Wignall.

Episode Twenty

Sometime in late 2016 or early 2017 a woman I knew invited me to join a prayer group of African women from Liberia, by phone, in another state.

I had been hearing a lot about the way and praying power of the people from and in Africa. My friend also mentioned the power of the group prayer time.

Did you say “power’? I was all in. I agreed to join and pray. Their prayer time began at 5 am in the morning. Say what?

The group was indeed powerful. It was started and led by a Liberian woman who was a mother, a health care worker, a wife and a powerful and anointed prayer warrior. The group was primarily Liberian women with a mix of other countries as well. The Liberian head of the group had spent 5 years in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, when her family fled Liberia during the war. Her story is powerful.

These praying women were on fire. They were excited fervent prayer warriors. They were out of the closet in full prayer garment before the Throne Room of God. They had been praying like this for over 12 years.

I could not keep up. I lacked the stamina, discipline, and dedication to stay awake and engaged. I did not have the prophetic revelation that this group was part of a specifically “called and assigned” global group of prayer warriors. That the spirit of God had called them forth and equipped them for such a time as this. I prayed for a while, then, I dropped out. The group however had left an indelible impression on me. Their discipline and fervency made me realize how light weight and undisciplined my prayer life was.

A short time later a close friend called me to pray for her daughter who was battling deep depression. I was known amongst my friends as a woman that can pray.

My friend was on vacation, so we agreed to pray early every morning. By the end of the month, my friend went back to work and we no longer had that prayer time together.

God however rewarded my obedience and perseverance in prayer. Through those moments of consistent prayers He had been preparing me, waking me up early and calling me into the ministry of prophetic prayers. In August 2017, our group officially started with a 5:30 am call to prayer.

We prayed through my Fathers illness and death, (he was living in our home at the time), and many other life cycles, health, marriage and financial challenges. We became a community of sisters loving, helping, spiritually supporting and praying for each other and our families.

During those early years the group changed a lot. Many women came and went. During one very disappointing week, I too wanted to quit. Through wise counsel however, I have stayed the prayer and leadership course.

Today we continue to pursue God in prayer. He pursues and blesses us also.

We have learned the power of being called as part of God’s global group of prophetic praying women that are praying around the clock 24 hours a day 7 days a week in different countries, languages and time zones.

We have come to understand the resilience and prophetic power of prayer. We have been taught grace, wisdom, and have experienced great revelation and increased knowledge. We have held each other up when burdened, and carried each other’s pain.

“The power and prophecy of prayer has been revealed unto us.”

To rise that early and consistently 4-5 days a week demands a discipline that is richly rewarded. We pray for each other, our husbands and future husbands. We pray for all our children, our spiritual gifts, our health, finances, work, investments, legacies and for the powerful calling and assignments God has on our lives.

We encourage and bless each other. We cover any of our sisters and their family very specifically in prayer when they are not present on the line that morning. We have come to understand and believe that the meditation of our hearts and the prophetic words of our mouth through prayer frames the trajectory of our lives and that of our families. Consequently we are very intentional in our pursuit of God’s will for all our lives through prayer.

Are we perfected? No. Have we failed? Yes, many times over.

Yet, at 5:30 am we collectively surrender in worship and gratitude to the King of all Kings. We surrender in reverence to The Perfected God that has called and graced us to participate in the global Omni powerful and prophetic spiritual realm of living a life of prayer.

As someone recently said, “we pray to remain constantly and desperately connected to God”

“It is your breath Lord in our lungs so we cry out in praise to you.”

“God’s time is always near,” He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free. I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, theLord would let them take me.” She prayed, “I’m going to hold steady on to you [Lord], and I know you will see me through.”

…..Harriet Tubman

Though her brothers eventually turned back, Harriet traveled ninety miles to freedom on the Underground Railroad through and by the grace and protection of God.

When she finally reached Pennsylvania, she remarked, “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. I felt like I was in Heaven. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me…my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with…my brothers and sisters…I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there. Lying all alone on the cold damp ground, ‘Oh, dear Lord,’ I said. ‘I haven’t got no friend but you. Come to my help, Lord, for I’m in trouble!’”

And God did, indeed, come to her help. Tubman made 13-19 return trips to the South. She estimated that she personally led at least 70 slaves to freedom and instructed another 70 along the trail, though her biographer, Sarah Bradford, claimed Harriet personally delivered at least 300 fellow slaves. Despite the lofty reward advertised for her head, Harriet was never caught, and she never lost a “passenger.”

Harriet Tubman was a fervent and prophetic prayer warrior. Richly rewarded for her faith.