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Court of Heaven Notes
Edited by Paul Schneider Jr.
CHAPTER 1. BATTLEGROUND OR COURTROOM
We are servants and
stewards of the mysteries of God (I Cor. 4:1).
We are in a time when the mysteries of God are
being unveiled for the impregnation of the
Ekklesia for this time and season, so that we as
the Church can accomplish all that God wants us
to accomplish.
Granting God Legal Right To Answer Our Prayers
From His Fatherhood,
God desires to see restoration, desires to see
life, healing, redemption and reconciliation
come, but there is may be something legal
resisting Him. When we pray, there are times we
may need to enter into a courtroom setting. In
the courtroom of heaven, we are indeed “Granting
God the Legal Right to Answer Our Prayers”. Let
me explain.
When I first heard
this phrase, it just didn’t sit right with me.
Why must God be granted a legal right to answer
our prayers? Isn’t He God? Isn’t He sovereign?
Why must we grant Him a legal right? You see,
God isn’t only our Father, but He is also Judge.
In Heb. 12:23 it says that God is the Judge of
all.
Even though our
Heavenly Father loves to answer our prayers that
are according to His perfect will, there are
times that His holiness keeps Him from doing so.
In Rev. 12:10 it says that the accuser of the
brethren (Satan) “accused them before our God
day and night”. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour.” In Strong’s concordance, the word
“adversary” is “an opponent in a lawsuit”. Devil
means “slanderer”.
So, our opponent in a
lawsuit, the slanderer, walks about like a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He
accuses day and night. What does the devil gain
by spending all his time accusing us? I know
that the devil is incredibly wise, and he
wouldn’t waste his time on something that didn’t
help him in opposing God’s kingdom.
You see, Satan roams
about looking for any way that he can justly
accuse us before the Judge. What he is looking
for is unconfessed sin, or even generational
iniquities in our bloodline that have not been
repented for. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us of all
unrighteousness.
Jesus blood is
efficacious for all sin, but is only applied
when that sin is confessed. Yes, the Judge is on
our side, but He must rule with total justice.
Sin must be confessed in order for it to be
washed away by Jesus’ blood.
So Satan is looking
for any unconfessed sin that he can accuse us of
before God. When he finds something, he then
builds a case against us (remember, he is an
opponent in a lawsuit 1 Peter 5:8). He is
looking for a verdict from the Judge. Satan’s
purpose in doing this is to delay or even stop
the purposes of God in our lives. He hates God’s
kingdom, and wants to hinder it as much as
possible. He knows that his day of judgment is
coming, and is seeking to delay that as long as
he can.
When Satan finds
unconfessed sin in our life, or he finds
iniquity in our bloodline, he then asks for,
even demands the right for our prayer requests
not to be granted. He does this on the basis of
the Word of God. “If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear” Ps. 66:18.
In fact, there are
many verses in scripture that Satan can use in
accusing us so that a verdict against us is
granted to him.
When Satan is granted
a verdict against us, it hinders God from
answering our prayers. When we discover by the
Holy Spirit what the sin is in our lives (or
what the iniquity is in our bloodline), we can
then confess that sin, allowing the blood of
Jesus to cleanse it away. We may then come
boldly before the throne of grace to obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
“Father, I have
confessed and repented of my sin, and now
request that you answer my prayer, the one that
was hindered because of my unconfessed sin.” You
have just given God the legal right to answer
your prayer!
Conflict in the Courtroom
How many of us have
something that we have been praying for, and we
have been praying for it for an extended amount
of time, yet that prayer has not been answered?
We believe with all our heart and understand
from the Word of God that what we are asking for
is in agreement God’s will. Perhaps God has even
shown you clearly that He wants to answer your
prayer, and yet it has not been answered. Many
times the reason it hasn’t been answered yet is
because something legal is resisting you in the
spirit realm.
Everything is legal
in the spirit realm. In Dan. 10 we see a story
of Daniel praying and fasting for 21 days. At
the end of that time, suddenly an angel showed
up and said, “Daniel, from the first day that
you began to pray your prayer was heard before
God, but the Prince of Persia, a principality,
came to resist me from coming to you with the
answer. But Michael came to help me, so that I
could break through and now come with the
answer. Daniel, we have now come because of your
word.
Daniel’s prayer
stirred up both heaven and hell. It stirred the
angels of heaven and God on His throne so there
was an answer released, but it also stirred up
the forces of Satan to resist the answer from
coming through. Daniel’s words created a
conflict in the spirit realm. He was heard the
very first day, so it wasn’t a lack on heaven’s
part to answer his prayer. You see, a conflict
ensued in the heavenly realm because Daniel’s
words had engaged both heaven and hell.
Where is the
conflict? It is in a courtroom. Most of us have
been taught and led to believe that the conflict
we are in in the spirit realm is a battlefield.
We picture ourselves on a battlefield. I believe
that what Jesus is teaching us is that the
conflict that we are in, at least initially, is
in the courtroom.
Now if you have ever
been in a courtroom setting you will realize
that there is a very real conflict going on in
that courtroom, even though that conflict would
be different than a conflict on a battlefield.
Why is that
important? Because the protocol of a battlefield
and the protocol of a courtroom are completely
different. In other words, if you try to behave
yourself in a courtroom the way you behave
yourself in a battlefield, then there is going
to be a major problem that will ensue.
The problem will not
only be with the judge, but also with the other
parties in the courtroom. If I am behaving
myself as if I am on a battlefield when in
reality I am in a spiritual dimension and a
courtroom, then I am not going to get the
answers I am looking for. The battlefield
requires brute force, whereas the courtroom
requires legal wranglings, getting legal things
in place, so God’s will can be done.
Prayer and the Father, Friend and Judge
When Jesus taught on
prayer, when His disciples came and said “Teach
us to pray”, we find his teaching in both
Matthew 6 and Luke 11. In Matthew 6 Jesus put
prayer in 2 basic scenarios.
Prayer to our Abba
Father, Matt. 6:6, 9
First, He said that
prayer is like a son approaching the Father –
“Our Father who art in heaven”. Which father has
a child that comes requesting bread and you
would give him a stone? If your child asks for a
fish, would you give him a serpent? If you,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will the heavenly Father
who is so good in His nature give good things to
those who ask Him.
So when we pray, we
are drawing from the benevolence of the Father’s
heart, who is always good toward us and desires
to do us good in all things.
Prayer to a Friend
for a Friend, Lk. 11:5-8
Then Jesus said that
prayer is like a friend approaching a friend.
“Give me what I need for a friend that has come
to me”. Even though a friend might not get up
from bed to give his friend what he needs, yet
because of the friend’s persistence the friend
will give his friend all he needs.
So Jesus is putting
prayer in a friendship relationship. We are
drawing on this friendship relationship to ask
heaven to respond to us as we petition God for
the needs of others.
Prayer Before the
Judge, Lk. 18:1-8
In Luke 18:1-8 we
find prayer in a courtroom setting.
1
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men
always ought to pray and not lose heart,
2
saying: "There was in a certain city a
judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3 Now there was a widow in that city; and
she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me
from my adversary.' 4
And he would
not for a while; but afterward he said within
himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard
man, 5 yet because this widow
troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me.' "
So in Luke 18 Jesus
put prayer in a courtroom setting. If a widow
could get a verdict from an unjust judge, even
though she had no influence, because she knew
how to go into a judicial system and get a
verdict from an unjust judge, how much more can
you and I as the children of God be able to step
into the judicial system of heaven and have our
petitions granted and our prayers answered from
the righteous judge of all who is our Lord and
our King.
In this passage Jesus
put prayer in a courtroom setting and not on a
battlefield. In the courtroom Jesus said that
prayer is like petitioning a judge.
In our court system
in the USA, the last thing that is presented
before the court is called a prayer. It is the
thing that they are requesting the judge to
grant.
Yes, it is called a
prayer. Even our legal system sees prayer as
something legal. When we pray we are stepping
into a legal system and we are making our
petitions before God as judge to grant and
render verdicts on our behalf, to allow those
things to come to pass.
If we can get a clear
understanding of this, it will change our
perspective of what we are trying to accomplish
in the spirit realm. We are seeking to allow God
the legal right as judge to fulfill His passion
as our Father.
We need to understand
that there is a very real court in heaven. We
see this in many scriptures. For instance,
Daniel 7:10 describes the multiple thrones in
heaven around the throne of God. We see all the
heavenly creature in Rev. 4, all these entities,
that make up the court of heaven.
When we pray to God
as Judge, we are actually stepping into a
heavenly courtroom, even though our feet are on
the floor. In the spirit realm we ascend into
the holy hill of Zion and take our position in
the court of heaven, to make our petition and
ask for a legal rendering from God the Judge of
all to answer in our behalf.
THREE THINGS THAT LUKE 18 TEACHES US
A.
Prayer in a real judicial system in
heaven
I am not stepping
onto a battlefield. You see, Jesus pictured
prayer as a woman who went before a judge, one
who ruled over a judicial system. So when we
pray we are seeking to grant God the legal right
to render verdicts in our behalf.
In a real court
system, a judge can only make decisions on the
evidence that is presented to him. He can’t just
make arbitrary decisions. We must present God
the legal right to render the verdict in our
behalf. Why? In Rev. 12 it says that there is an
accuser of the brethren that accuses us before
God day and night. As you may remember, the word
“accuser” carries with it the idea of “a
complainant at law, a prosecutor, one that is
resisting you on legal basis and legal reason”.
So when Rev. 12:10
says that he is accusing us before God, the idea
is this: Whenever I come before the throne of
God and I ask God for something that is in
agreement with His will, the accuser stands up
and says, “Yes, but You cannot grant that to
him, because I have a case or an accusation
against him.”
But what kinds of
accusations could he bring that could stop God
from rendering a verdict for me that He actually
wants me to have?
1. My own personal
sin can give the enemy ammunition to bring
accusation against me
Ps. 66:18 says, “If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear.” If I regard iniquity God will not be able
to answer me. Why? Because the devil will say to
the Lord, “he has these undealt with issues in
his life, and I am resisting him and accusing
him on the basis of his own sin.”
So I have to repent
of my sin and allow the blood of Jesus to speak
in my behalf. Rev. 12:11 says that “we overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb…” Heb. 12:24 says,
“there is a blood, a sprinkling, which speaks
better things than that of Abel.” In other
words, there is a blood, the blood of Jesus,
which is speaking on our behalf in the court of
heaven. When I learn to come into agreement with
Jesus’ blood, that blood will answer every
accusation that the enemy is thrusting toward me
and take it out of the way, so that God now has
the legal right to answer my prayer.
2. The sin of my
bloodline
This is sin or
iniquity that has been committed by my ancestry
and by those in my history. This is especially
the case when they have made covenants with a
demonic god, especially that involved blood
sacrifice, which allows that demonic god to say
“they belong to me and not you, because they
made sacrifice to me. I have a legal right to
resist them.
Nehemiah and Hezekiah
always repented for their sins and for the sins
of their fathers. “Our fathers made covenants
with demonic gods other than Jehovah, and now
Satan is using these legal things to hold us in
captivity.” (Neh. 9:26) So if we are going
to come out of captivity we have to deal with
the legal things that have brought us into
captivity.
3. The motives of
our hearts may come under scrutiny in the Court
of Heaven
In Job 1 and 2,
angelic sons of God are all summoned to come
before God. Satan comes with them. He had been
walking back and forth, looking for evidence to
build a case. In Ezek. 28, he was going to and
fro. 1 Peter 5:8 we find that he is still
walking about looking for legal reasons to
devour.
Satan accused Job of
serving God with impure or improper motives (Job
1:9-11). So we say, “Lord, purify my heart and
let me do what I do for the right reasons. Lord,
purify everything about me. Let me be a man of
holiness, a man of righteousness, let me be set
aside and set apart unto You.”
B.
Address the Judge, not Satan
In Luke 18, when the
widow woman began to petition the court, she
never addressed her adversary, she only
addressed the judge. We tend to come against
Satan, to bind him or loose things, but this
woman did none of that. She understood that a
verdict from the judge would make her adversary
of no consequence, and that it would do her no
good to rebuke the adversary, to stand against
him, if the judge had not rendered a verdict
that what he was doing was illegal.
This is on a personal
level, but also when dealing with cities, states
and nations. Principalities can only rule
regions because they have found a legal right to
do so, based on our sins and the sins of our
ancestry. If we are going to take the legal
right of the enemy away, we have to silence the
voices in the court that are building cases
against us.
We silence them by
the blood of Jesus and other means so that God
now has a legal right to render judgment against
those things that are resisting us. Until there
is a legal rendering from the court, it
accomplishes nothing to yell at the forces of
darkness, to scream at them, to rebuke them or
to bind them. In fact, if we go after
principalities and powers without a legal right
to do so, not only will it be completely
ineffective, but we suffer the risk of backlash.
So much of today’s
spiritual warfare is composed of Christians
standing here and screaming at the second
heaven. But when we take our position with
Christ in the 3rd heaven and start
presenting evidence and doing business, it
grants God the legal right to take away the
principality’s powers and rights against us so
that we can get our prayers answered.
In the Levitical
priesthood, the priest would offer a sacrifice
that allowed God to forgive Israel’s sins and to
cover them for another year. When we go into the
Court of Heaven we enter into our role as
priests. Just like the Levitical priests, our
job is to grant God the legal right to bless His
people rather to judge them. We confess sins and
agree with the blood of Jesus, allowing God the
legal right to cleanse away sins so that the
enemy has no right to cry for judgments against
us. We intercede until the legal rights are set
in place for God to bless.
Once as priests we do
our job in the Court of Heaven, then we step
into our kingship, because we are both priests
and kings before our God. Our kingly job is to
make decrees that now heaven will back up. It is
in our kingship that we step onto the
battlefield, based on the legal things that the
priesthood has put in place, to make decrees
that heaven backs up. Then everything comes to
order so our prayers are answered and the desire
of God’s heart and His fatherly passion are
satisfied.
In Rev. 19:11 it says
that Jesus will judge and make war. Even Jesus
doesn’t make war until judicial things have been
put in place. In Jn. 11:41-44 Jesus comes to the
tomb of Lazarus. First he prays to deal with
every legal reason that the devil had found to
kill Lazarus prematurely, then He makes a kingly
decree to bring him back to life.
Satanic accusations
are why bad things happen to good people. The
enemy has discovered something legal that allows
him to even snatch away life prematurely. When
we learn how to step into our priesthood, and
then step from our priesthood into our kingship,
we will step into dimensions that literally
cause heaven and earth to shift and come into
right order so that the Father can grant us the
request that we’re making. We are granting Him
the legal right as Judge to fulfill His passions
and desires as Father.
C.
God will avenge His elect speedily
(Lk. 18:8)
Instead of answers
being delayed, they will come speedily.
Persevering prayer is not about saying the same
prayers over and over. Persevering prayer is
“Today, I, by the Holy Spirit, recognize that
this is the accusation the enemy is using to
block the answer my prayers, so I take the blood
of Jesus to answer that accusation. Then
tomorrow there is another accusation, because in
a court there is usually more than one
accusation that is being brought to resist the
will of God. So tomorrow there is another
accusation, so I deal with that.
I continue to answer
every accusation by the blood of the Lamb until
those voices have been silenced. Once all
accusations have been silenced and there is no
more evidence being presented that would resist
God as Judge from fulfilling His Father’s
passion and answering my prayer, then answers
come speedily that would not come before.
Yes, when there is no
answer to persistent prayer, prayer that we know
is according God’s desire, it is many times
because something is still resisting us legally.
We probably don’t need to yell and scream at the
devil, or even bind and loose or open and shut.
We need for the Holy Spirit to bring
understanding to us of what is resisting us in
the court of heaven so that through our
priesthood we can legally get things in place
that need to be set in place.
Once legal hindrances
are dealt with, we can then step into our
kingship and make decrees that heaven will honor
and things will move into the order of heaven;
God’s answers will come to us!
“Father, let there be
a stirring in our spirits. May a spirit of
wisdom and revelation come upon our hearts so
that we are able to perceive Your word and grab
hold of it. I take authority over every power of
the darkness that would try to bring confusion.
And I say that in place of confusion there is a
spirit of wisdom and revelation to empower us to
deal with everything legal that needs to be
dealt with, and then to step into our place of
authority and make decrees that heaven backs up.
I say that answers are on the way, and that
which has not happened is beginning to happen
even now, and breakthroughs are being seen, in
Jesus’ Name. May the Lord bless you.”
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