Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end.  Isaiah 9:7
Clo DiPilato
Author and Editor of this website
Reserves All Rights, 2011
  Be careful for nothing;  but in every thing by prayer and supplication with  thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God .     Phillipians 4:6 
HERALD OF HIS KINGDOM

A Prayer for our Cities
 16And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.  Luke 5:16
Clo's Articles on Prayer:

Outstanding Articles on Prayer by Other Intercessors and Prayer Warriors:
Selected Prayer Websites, and 
E-books on Prayer:
The Golden Gate of Prayer
by JR Miller 
The Power of Persevering Prayer
by Andrew Murray 
Ed Corley's Teachings on Prayer
On this one, you must check the left side navigational panel of his website. HIGH QUALITY teaching on prayer!!!!

A personal heritage of prayer:

The Lord blessed me by giving me the heritage of people who pray. Down through the years, I've shared some of the stories of prayer that have been passed on to me through my mother, and my grandmother, who  were greatly influenced by the intercessory prayer life of Mary Crandall, now in her heavenly home in the presence of Jesus, and all His holy angels. Her life of prayer and supplication before God resulted in one of the most prominent Spirit-filled churches in Brooklyn, NY, as well as her being used of God in the foundations of the Pentecostal Holiness movement.

This woman of God also brought forth sons and daughters....both of her own flesh and blood, as well as spiritually...who went on to do the Lord's work in pioneering two Bible Colleges, planting several churches, as well as ministering on foreign soil at appointed times and seasons. I only remember seeing Mother Crandall one time when I was 11 years old. My mom took me into Brooklyn and we went to her home, and it was as if I were seeing an angel. She had the "glow of the glory of God" all about her being.

My own grandmother, Sister Minnie Kemery, traveled from California to New York City in 1948 based on a word from God. She did know know anyone in the city, and when she got into a taxi cab, and the taxi driver learned her plight...that she was there with basically no where to go...he knew of Mary Crandall, and dropped my "Grandma Minnie" off on Mother Crandall's doorstep. Mary Crandall welcomed her into her home, but let her very quickly know that they spent their time in prayer, and that she would be expected to be up, dressed, and ready to pray by 7:00 a.m. My grandmother was most grateful for a place to stay, and found it quite easy to comply with this request!

Afterall, my grandmother loved the Lord, and how could there be any problem with praying? The request was only music to her ears.

The next morning, Grandma woke up early, made her bed, ate a simple breakfast, and went into the living room to join Mother Crandall in prayer. She thought they were going to have a little prayer meeting of a half an hour, maybe an hour at the most, and then they would get on with their day. Not so!!! This was not Mother Crandall's way of praying at all!! My grandmother's imagination about how the time in prayer would go was quickly put to rest when dear Mary Crandall pulled the "prayer cushions" out from underneath the couch, and she began to pray. And she prayed. And she prayed. And she prayed. The minutes turned into hours, and the day was filled with prayer. They literally spent 8 hours of the day in prayer! It was what Mary Crandall was called to do, and she did it with all her heart, and those who came into her presence received impartation to pray themselves because of her disciplined prayer life.

Some years later, I would hear a man of God who also learned the life of prayer through Mary Crandall, tell this story: He asked Mother Crandall where she learned to "pray that way". This was her answer: It was during the time of depression before the welfare programs were enacted. For reasons I am not sure about, her husband left her with the care of 6 children, and a new baby.

She said every bit of food she put into the mouths of her children she had to "pray in". She would go out to a rock behind her house, and cry out to God that he would meet the needs of her little family. She specifically recalled a time when she cried out in desperation to the Lord, and there was a knock at the door. Some humble little soul left just a single diaper for her new baby, and this young, praying mother received it as if were a whole box of pampers (not yet invented back then)....with great joy, thanksgiving, and praise to God.

Mary Crandall would pray, and God would send people to meet the needs. The point in time came where the Lord caused Mother Crandall to realize that her own personal "school of prayer" was not just so she could pray for her own little ones, but so that she would have the capacity to wrap her arms around first her own community, then her city until God finally had her embracing the world in prayer, as in her latter years she ministered in China.

Her influence in the life of my own grandmother caused my grandmother to surrender her own life to a discipline of prayer that could only be accomplished by a true overshadowing of the Lord and a call to "come aside" to seek Him. For many years, Grandma had the habit of waking up at 6:00 a.m. to start the day with prayer for a couple of hours before the rest of the household would be awake. And then after the house was settled at night, she would remain awake until 2 a.m., and she often would walk as she prayed. She never went back to bed in the morning. She told me, "If I go back to bed, I miss the blessing". She would be released to take a nap in the afternoon, if she felt a need to do so, but for the most part, she stayed awake throughout the course of her day.

My grandmother's life of prayer gave her a "hearing ear" so that she could obey the voice of the Spirit of God, and the Lord went before her, making the rough places smooth, and the crooked places straight, as He sent her to Tunis, North Africa where she served the Lord as a missionary for 17 years, and then after that she did God's work in Israel for 23 years, where she had 4 "house churches". My grandmother had the first Spirit-filled church in Jericho. She also had ministries in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Bethlehem Bible College was founded by a man of God who was saved under my grandmother's preaching.

To tell some of the stories of how God moved, the things she saw the Lord do through prayer would make this too lengthy. Rather, I will just share how it was when Grandma would come home to the states to visit.

It seems the Lord sent her at different times when there was a family "crisis". Because she was such a woman of deep prayer, just her presence served notice to the devil that he needed to "back off". But she was not so proud within herself to think she had some special "pull" by just being in the room. No...she prayed. Sometimes the prayers were hardly above a whisper, and at times they were loud, militant, and very authorative. Either way, there was always results. Sometimes the very foundations of hell were being shaken by her prayers, and the atmosphere could get pretty uncomfortable for anyone around who might not be living right, or walking with the Lord.

I recall one time in particular that an accusation was being made by a neighbor against a member of my family. There was no truth in the accusation whatsoever, and the Spirit knew that. A detective came to the house to question whoever would answer the door.  Well, not knowing who was on the other side of the door, my grandmother answered door. She was full of the Holy Ghost, and she informed him with all authority in the Spirit up one side, and down the other that NO ONE in that household was guilty of the crime, and when she was done with him, he was mighty glad to leave the property.

Later my grandmother told me that she knew it was lie because the night before the detective  showed up, she had a dream, and saw the person being accused sitting in a jail cell, but they were clothed in a pure white garment that even glistened. It was God showing her the person was NOT guilty of the crime. That person was me. I was being accused of stealing a coin collection because it just so happened that the morning after the collection was found to be missing, I had run away from home with my sister!! (We were rebellious teenagers, and didn't like all the standards and rules, so we decided to bolt. ) So, they accused us of using the money for our "getaway".     In time, it came out that another neighbor was  in serious debt problems, and that one was convicted of this crime.

I recall another time that Grandma came to my home, only this time I was a grown woman, married and with my own family. One of my sons were not walking with the Lord as he should be, and God sent her to our home just to focus in prayer on this one son. Day and night she was before the throne praying for my son. I must confess I have never prayed for my own children like my grandmother did, and wonder what would be the difference in their lives if I had done so?? Well, praise God, it is NOT too late!!!

At that particular juncture in the life of our family, Grandma also said the Lord sent her to "pray through" that the standard be lifted up. What does it mean to "lift up the standard"??? It means that we give holiness unto the Lord, and not offending the precious dove of the Holy Spirit the HIGHEST place in our home!! We were beginning to be careless about our personal testimony. I won't even go into what I call the "Pentecostal Sin List". 

It's not about that. It's knowing the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and agreeing with what He says so that if He DOES convict you of your "loose living", your drinking, or your smoking, or your cussing you repent of it, and go God's way.

Praying for the "standard to be lifted up" is something that still rings in my spirit, and I again find myself having to pray that we keep the standards raised high! I feel it for my own family, and I feel this prayer often bubbling up in my soul for the people of God. We are at a crucial time in the history of our country, and we need to have no doubts whatosever that we are not only claiming as our own the righteousness imputed unto us because of the sacrifice Jesus made on Calvary's Cross, but that we are also actively walking in it!! It's then that we can pray and intercede with the highest level of confidence:

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence before God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 1 John 3:21, 22.

Little interjections of how her life of prayer affected my own life keep coming to mind, but I just wanted to give a little overview to underscore that those who would be true prayer warriors and intercessors don't pick up and put down the mantle at will. They could very willfully do such a thing, but that is not how they choose to live life. The life they live is very purposely AND purposefully orchestrated to make it daily to the place of prayer, and when one is not ACTIVELY praying, there is always a sense within that things could be dropped at any time to respond to the urgency to pray.

I never could personally claim the disciplined prayer life my grandmother had. My mother is also a woman of prayer, but her spiritual life has manifested more prominently in being a worshipper, and that is another story. I do know that my mother carried a burden in prayer for many years for Long Island, NY. We lived on Long Island in the 50's and 60's, and it was spiritually a desert. She had been in Zion Bible Institute in Providence, Rhode Island where the life of God was manifested in fullness, and she learned the ways of the Spirit through teachers and ministers who had a strong walk of faith. Again, so many stories...too many to share.

Because of that atmosphere, she wasn't satisfied with anything that resembled less than the blessings of the Lord she knew in Zion, and there was a continual groaning in my mother for revival fires to burn. It was actually AFTER we moved away from Long Island that revival began to break out all over Long Island. I believe it was a result of many hungry hearts crying out to God that rivers of Living Water would flow.

Now, I wish to share with you about my Dad's life of prayer. My Dad is a man who has always possessed a real zest for life. At 83 years young, he still gets out for a lot of physical exercise, despite a bout with prostate cancer, and some other operations on his shoulders.   If you take a walk with my Dad, you can't keep up with him, except that you run along side of him. He also loves tinkering, working in the yard, and going out for coffee and to shoot pool with "the guys."

He is one of the kindest men I know, and also one of the wittiest. He can find humor in just about anything. I've never met a person who didn't like my Dad. He is one of the most NON-religious people I know, and yet spiritually, when God uses him, he is also one of the most effective. I believe my Dad is NOT a prayer warrior as my grandmother was, but he is a true intercessor.

What is the difference between a prayer warrior and an intercessor?? An intercessor can go for months without uttering a word in prayer, or just saying the cursory prayers over meals, or "quick prayers" when in a fix. But, then when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them with a burden to pray, they cannot help but give themselves over to the spirit of prayer. Down through the years, I saw God use my Dad this way more than once. And it seemed when he had this anointing to pray, he would be in the prayer closet for weeks on end, or showing up at the church to pray in the early morning hours, or after his day at work. He would pray powerfully in tongues, and without any effort on his part, it seems the people of God would rally behind him, and also the spirit of prayer would "jump on them".
He didn't have the "life of prayer" like my Grandmother had, and being a working family man, it probably would have been impossible. What he did have was a heart sensitive to the Lord so that he could be drawn aside to yield to the Spirit as the Lord had need of him.

Romans 8:26 ¶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.


I tend to be more like my Dad in the Spirit than I am like my grandmother. I don't have her prayer life, but many times down through the years, the Spirit of the Lord comes on me as an intercessor, and when it's time for a breakthrough, I can't do anything BUT pray!!

My prayer life has been a bit on the dry side the past year or so. Not that it is "non-existent". It's just been a desert season where it's been hard to pray. But Monday of this very week, the spirit of prayer returned to my house, and my husband and I had such an anointing resting on us to pray that I know there was a breakthrough after some real heavy groaning and travailing in the Spirit. Not of ourselves, but a true sign from the Lord that something GOOD is getting ready to happen!!!

You may have people sending you requests to be one of their "intercessors". The term is used a little too loosely, just as the word "prophet", and the word "apostle" is thrown around a little too loosely. No one is an intercessor apart from the real working and moving of the Holy Ghost within the heart causing prayer to come forth according to the mind of the Spirit.

However, you CAN be a "prayer warrior" on the behalf of someone's ministry. Just like a soldier is one who is trained to be a warrior, trained for a battle, so a prayer warrior can either train himself/herself or come under the discipline of another to be trained to pray. You pray whether you feel like it or not. You pray according to schedule. You pray according to prayer meeting times. You pray over lists. You walk the streets and pray. You'll lay out under the stars in the desert and pray. You'll huddle close to a fire in the snowy mountains to pray. You'll pray driving in your car. You'll come early to church to be part of the "pre-service prayer". You take every opportunity to pray, but that doesn't make you an "intercessors". You are a disciplined prayer warrior, but you're not an "intercessor".

HOWEVER because you have made yourself so available to the Lord, and because you're so willing to pray, you can pretty much count on the fact that God is going to love your availability and sense of responsibility about prayer that He WILL put true intercession upon you!!!

In this "School of Prayer", I believe the Lord is going to anoint me to bring forth different teachings and aspects of the subject of prayer. I'm going to pull together some of the best teachings on the internet from men and woman of God whom I believe are proven and true prayer warriors and intercessors, and I trust that the Lord will cause your own prayer life to be enlarged.

Now, I wish to again share a little bit about my mother. My grandmother and my father were used in my life more to teach me about prayer than my mother was. However, when I would have a problem, I would quickly turn to Mom for prayer. Why?? Because my mother had a "secret life of prayer" that was as if she was making many deposits in the bank of heaven, and when she needed something from God she would QUICKLY get answers!!!
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Whenever I had trouble in my home or sickness with one of my children or an issue in relationships that needed prayer, I would be on the phone to Mom because she seemed to move in the highest level of faith to see a quick turn around to anything that was a problem!!! And her prayers always seemed less flashy and dramatic than some prayed by others, but they always GOT THROUGH!!! I believe a great deal of this was also because my mother is a worshipper.

When I offer to pray for you, I come to you with faith in God because the Lord has been so kind to bless my life with those who demonstrated prayer as a way of life, some are deeper levels than others, but all with their proper place and order. In myself I would not know anything about prayer, or about seeing the results of prayer, but I do know about prayer because I received it from others!! Now, I simply want to share with you what has so freely been given to me.

I trust the Lord will open your hearts to receive from this portion of the Herald of His Kingdom website!!

"Lord, teach us to pray".

In the Name of Jesus and In His Love,

Clo D.

My Personal Heritage of Prayer 
A School of Prayer Article
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
YOUR ONLINE PLACE TO COME FOR PRAYER