“Bowls of Intercession”, Joel 2, and the Gospel

There are untold millions of people on the planet today who are praying and crying out for
God to pour out His Spirit like He promised He would in Joel chapter 2.
.
I am here to tell you that He has already done so.
Lots of folks sing songs about this stuff with lyrics like “Come like you promised…” and
“Release the fullness!”
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As if He somehow has been hiding this whole time? As if there is anywhere we can go
without Him?
The apostle Peter said the following about Joel 2 in Acts 2:16-18:
“This (speaking of these supernatural things they were witnessing)
is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy. “
God did not scoop up his spirit back into heaven, pour it into a bowl, and now is sitting
there waiting for people to pray enough to ‘fill the bowls of intercession’ so that He can
finally, once again, pour out His spirit once the ‘bowls’ are filled with enough prayers that
God finally decides He can answer.

The doctrine that is very common in the church today teaches the opposite.

It creates a mentality that God has been holding out on His people but that through their
works (prayer, fasting, discipline, worship, etc.) they can somehow eventually convince God
(as long as you get enough people doing so in large numbers) to answer once again.
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The trouble is that doctrine (of the bowls of intercession) comes from a single verse, taken
very much out of context.
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Defining our lives and ministries around single verses rather than on Christ is extremely
unhealthy and easily will lead people into religious deception.
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One such verse that is commonly used to defend these practices is Revelation 5:8:
“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell
down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
There is nothing anywhere about the bowls being poured out and that being equated with
God pouring out His Spirit and finally deciding to answer His people.
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Luke 12:32 says it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
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Matthew 7:7 and John 14:14 says if we ask anything in the name of Jesus that He hears us and
it will be given to us.
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Jesus didn’t say “If you ask in my name, and as long as you keep asking enough to fill up the
bowls of intercession, and get enough intercessors fasting and praying, I will answer.”
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These mindsets keep people in a perpetual state of crying out and begging for God to:
1.) do something He already did through Christ
2.) do something He told us to do
3.) not do something He won’t do (like send judgment on a nation for sin) because of the new
covenant through Christ’s blood
The Gospel is simple.
.
Jesus’ mission statement, from His own lips, was as follows:
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” – Luke 4:18-19
Preach the Good news to the poor (financially and spiritually).
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Tell captives that they are free because of Christ.
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Open the eyes of the blind (spiritually and physically).
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Set the oppressed free (healing, deliverance, etc).
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Proclaim God’s favor (He’s not angry. Sins are forgiven. Turn to Him.)
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Our lives MUST be centered on Christ and what He said to do.
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He told his followers to preach a certain type of message in Matthew 10:7-8:
“And as you go, preach THIS MESSAGE, saying, ‘Repent, The kingdom of heaven is at
hand.’
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely
give.”

There is absolutely nothing anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus instructed His
followers that they must fast and pray and ‘cry out’ and ‘fill the bowls of intercession’
before they could see a city transformed.
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The Gospels say absolutely nothing about needing to fast and pray and ‘cry out’ to ‘pierce the
heavens’ or ‘push back the spiritual darkness over the region’ before ‘revival’ could break
out.

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The Gospels say absolutely nothing about needing to cast down principalities over cities
before we go into them to bring the Good News.

Here’s a newsflash: light pushes back darkness.

Every time.

Darkness can’t even argue when you turn a light on.

The trouble is, we’ve got millions of people who have been taught to beg God to turn the light
on when He already told you that you were the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

Seems a lot of folks are putting their lamp that God already lit under a bowl (Matthew
5:15).

Pun intended? Maybe.

Joel chapter 2 and the outpouring of God’s Spirit has been fulfilled (Acts 2:16, 2:33) and now
it is 100% the responsibility of the CHRISTIAN to do as Jesus instructed His disciples upon
His resurrection and go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation with signs and
wonders following (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-20, John 20:21).

If this is contrary to what you have been taught, I’d highly encourage you to look into this for
yourself.

If you’re someone who has been taught you must ‘cry out’ and do a whole lot of fasting and
prayer (for an unspecified period of time) and especially those of you who have been doing it
for years—I ask you this–how’s that working out for you?

Are you seeing the results that Jesus and the apostles saw? And more importantly, why are
you doing things that have absolutely no Biblical backing in the life and ministry of Christ?

Ask hard questions of your leaders and those around you. Look into these things for yourself.
You will see them to be true.

Be free.
It is Christ-in-you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27, Gal. 2:20, 1 Cor. 6:17).

He is not holding out on you. He has answered.

If He indeed does live inside of you, you have everything you need to be the answer to
the prayers of the world around you.

It is finished.

I used to do all of this, folks.

I used to be the one crying out in the prayer rooms. I used to be the one repenting over and
over for the sins of my nation pleading with God to pour out His Spirit. I used to call myself
an ‘intercessory missionary’. I used to pray to ‘fill the bowls of intercession’. I know all the
lingo, I’ve gone to all the meetings, I’ve rocked back and forth, I’ve travailed, I’ve cried, I’ve
moaned, I’ve wept, I’ve prophesied a ‘future revival’…I’ve done it all.

Then I read the New Testament and found out that there is no such thing as a ‘coming
revival’. I found out that God has already poured out His Spirit and that Christ has
accomplished an amazing task by fulfilling God’s end of the ‘revival’ deal.

I found out that the Gospel really is good news and that God is no longer counting man’s
sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19) and that He has forgiven the sins of the whole world (1
John 2:2).

I found out that Jesus never even once mentioned 95% of the stuff you hear in popular
charismatic churches today and it all made sense why I wasn’t seeing things happen in my life
or in my city. And now we are seeing things happen worldwide that would blow your mind to
hear about.

The sick are healed, the dead are raised, demons are cast out, the Gospel is preached and souls
are saved—and it is entirely dependent not on millions of people fasting and praying for God
to “move” (He is not stuck)—it is dependent on the reality of the finished work of the New
Covenant through Christ and the loving obedience of people just like you and me who
are no more or less ‘anointed’ than anyone else (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27).

The deficiency was on my end—by not understanding what Christ had really accomplished on
the cross.

So you get to decide.

Are you going to get offended because I ask the questions that everyone has but is too afraid
to ask for fear of “dishonoring leaders” who aren’t really leading anybody anywhere except
into more religious bondage?

Or are you going to actually look into this stuff for yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to guide
you into all Truth and a revelation of the finished work of the cross and the New Covenant?

The choice is yours.

I only offer you the Truth–nothing more.

Are you ready to wake up?