“Help! I need God to breakthrough for my family member NOW!”

How many of us have had that thought well up from deep in our heart – desperate to see someone we love set free from whatever binds them to trouble?

I have often pondered why some people just can’t seem to escape the trouble they experience in life. No matter how much they wish they could change, they don’t. Or you try talking to them and they won’t listen. Sound familiar?

So what can you do to help them?

We can pray. But not just regular prayer – though that always helps. I’m talking about a different kind of prayer that shatters strongholds and sets them free – without them evening knowing about it.

It’s called Identificational Repentance and it’s very, very powerful. I first learned about it from John Dawson in his book, Taking Our Cities for God. He applied it to cities and I was on prayer team who practiced the methods he recommended. We were amazed at the results!

A few years ago, the Lord began teaching me about this as it applied to individual people. I did not know it could be done that way but it made sense. And again, I was amazed at the results!

Basically instead of praying FOR the person, you talk to God as though you ARE the person.

For example, instead of praying, “Lord, please help Billy get off drugs. You know he’s already been to rehab, but he’s back at it again. He needs you, Lord. Please help him!” you pray this way instead, “Lord, I come to you now as Billy Jenkins. Please forgive me for using drugs instead of turning to You. I am sorry I don’t trust you. Please forgive me for believing the lie that I can do this on my own. I am weak and I need Your love to free me from this addiction. I can’t do this on my own. Please open my heart to Your love and show me how to live. Thank you.”

This is not easy to do – don’t take this lightly. You have to let go of your ego and lay aside your sense of self. You let go of judgment about Billy and what he’s doing. You come before God as thought you are Billy and you ask Holy Spirit to guide you as to what you need to say to God.

It is very powerful and very intimate. If you are trustworthy, God will show you what it is like to BE Billy. And it will probably surprise you. These are secrets you must keep – please don’t share them with anyone, not even Billy. These are between you and your Father.

Pray this way as often as you feel led for as long as you feel led to pray this way. You will see surprising results.

Why does it work?

Legal ground is established by our agreement with darkness – like a contract. We believe a lie (or a partial truth) and by agreeing with it, it has authority in our lives.

When we repent and come out of agreement with the lie, then its influence (or authority) over us is broken.

Sometimes someone is so deeply deceived that they don’t even realize they are in agreement with darkness. They can’t see the lie to come out of agreement with it. It is so deeply entrenched in their psyche that it seems impossible for them to recognize it. We all know people who have struggled for YEARS to overcome addiction. This is an example of an entrenched lie that is deeply hidden. No matter how they change their behavior, they are unable to overcome the lie that is hidden deeply in their hearts and minds. As a result, addiction still has a hold on them.

Here’s a secret: We are all “addicted” in some way or other. Some of us have obvious addictions like drugs or alcohol. Others have more “socially acceptable” addictions like worry, codependence or workaholism. These are all just evidence of our addiction to “self”. We all suffer from this “disease” (the more popular term for addiction now).

So, how do we get free? We turn to Jesus and repent of our false beliefs and come into agreement with His truth.

If someone is not able to do this on their own (because they can’t see the false beliefs), then an intercessor can start the process for them. The intercessor can take the place of the “addicted one” and repent before the Lord for whatever strongholds of agreement the Lord shows them to repent of. These are usually mindsets, patterns of thought or heart attitudes. It could be pride, independence, self-centeredness, fear, doubt, disbelief, etc.

We agree with HIM regarding what the truth is and come out of agreement with the lie – doing all of this as though we are the other person.

How does it work?

We become “one” with the person we are praying for, the one for whom we are repenting. Here are some examples from Scripture of the principle of being “one” with another person.

Husband and wife are one, according to Scripture. Genesis 2:22-24, Ephesians 5:31 and Matthew 19:4-6:

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

If we truly are one and that’s how God sees us, then that means I can “take the place” of my husband before God, if necessary. I can repent on his behalf – as though it was him talking to God, but the words are coming out of my mouth. I can’t change his heart, his mind or his will, but I can remove the stronghold of darkness that is exerting its influence on his heart, mind and will by repenting on his behalf.

All believers are one, according to Scripture. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Colossians 3:11, Galatians 3:28 and Ephesians 2:13-16:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. Ephesians 2:13-16

How about unbelievers? Can we be “one” with them?

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 18-21

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. I John 2:2

What if they are unwilling?

What if they are unwilling? You can’t make anyone receive God’s love. From my experience, the only people I’ve ever met who were unwilling to receive God’s love and forgiveness were people who had a misconception either about God or about themselves. They believed a lie or partial truth that convinced them that either God didn’t really love them or that they were unworthy of being forgiven and loved by God.

There’s no logical reason for anyone to reject God’s love! The only time people reject it is when they believe a lie. We remove the power of the lie by breaking the agreement with it through repentance.

What an amazing masterful strategy from our God!

Once the power of agreement is broken, darkness no longer has any legal right to have such strong influence on their mind and heart. Then they can receive God’s love and forgiveness more easily!

Really – try it! It works! 🙂

I’ve seen it happen in “hard cases” – people who were not able to receive God’s love. Then someone prayed for them in Personal Identificational Repentance. Suddenly God’s love was accessible to them on a very deep level and they completely changed! Their hearts opened up like a flower bud and they blossomed with His Love! It’s an amazing miracle!