🌟 Tonight’s the Night! Episode 8 of The Birthing Room w/ Dr. Pat Pettaway Ward 🌟

[00:00:01] Hallelujah, thank you, thank you, thank you. Welcome to The Birthing Room everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode here at The Birthing Room. I am Lorena Whitehead, your host of The Birthing Room. I'm so excited about tonight's broadcast. We have an amazing, amazing, amazing woman, teacher, preacher and we have Dr. Ward with us today who is the author of an amazing book. We're going to get all into it.

[00:00:26] So grab something to drink, phone a friend, share this broadcast with somebody else and we can't wait to hear what the Lord has to say on today.

[00:00:41] Okay, and you all know the water, when you see the water, you know the water represents the spirit and something is about to birth in the atmosphere.

[00:00:50] So I hope tonight inspires you and encourages you to birth something today.

[00:00:54] So we have our wonderful, wonderful guest, Dr. Ward and I met Dr. Ward through another guest that we had, Dr. Sheree.

[00:01:03] She was talking about her book and then she mentioned Dr. Ward have written a book and the book is called Family Matters and it is a roadmap for the intercessor.

[00:01:12] And you all know we have the battlefield of intercessors, ministry.

[00:01:16] I was so excited.

[00:01:17] I can't say, I need to teach this in our class and I can't wait to hear and share it.

[00:01:21] So I just want to ask some questions today, Dr. Ward.

[00:01:24] Thank you for being our guest on our show.

[00:01:27] Welcome.

[00:01:28] Thank you.

[00:01:28] Thank you.

[00:01:29] I appreciate the opportunity.

[00:01:31] I am excited to share with you.

[00:01:34] I am always excited to find another intercessor because I believe that in this time, in this season, our assignment is very serious.

[00:01:44] And so I think God really encourages us when we find and discover each other.

[00:01:51] Yes.

[00:01:51] I'm going to tell you, let me tell you something I never shared with somebody, anybody on live.

[00:01:56] When I first discovered I was an intercessor and I went and I was like, I think I told my pastor, like, listen, I said, the Lord called me to be an intercessor.

[00:02:04] Um, I was met with some resistance, like, okay.

[00:02:09] Uh, everyone's told it's called the intercede, intercede, you know, it's in the scripture.

[00:02:13] I said, but there's something else.

[00:02:15] I just feel a, I have an unction.

[00:02:17] I have, I have, is something else going on as I'm being called into prayer.

[00:02:20] So when I meet other intercessors, it's a relief that I heard the Lord and I always get encouraged and I found my tribe.

[00:02:28] So I'm excited.

[00:02:30] So it was such a pleasure to meet you.

[00:02:32] So I want to just dive right into it.

[00:02:33] We have some time.

[00:02:34] I want to all to be about you today.

[00:02:36] So I want to hear, uh, just give us your testimony, how you really, um, learned and first got your call to be an intercessor.

[00:02:45] So, um, it is, uh, I want to say interesting how you would share that you received a little, uh, resistance because my story is a little bit different.

[00:02:57] Okay.

[00:02:58] Um, always curious about prayer and it has a lot to do with, you'll read it in the book of watching my mother pray.

[00:03:06] And her seriousness about prayer.

[00:03:09] And so I want to say, um, through a friend, niece, I ended up at new destiny fellowship at that time.

[00:03:19] It was greater Bethel.

[00:03:20] Okay.

[00:03:21] Shortly after that, I became a member and I've been a member ever since.

[00:03:24] But one of the things that attracted me was the group of women who prayed and our pastor.

[00:03:33] So he always had platforms for us to pray.

[00:03:37] And so for me, I did not understand it until after being a little bit more mature, but being persistent with engaging.

[00:03:47] I found out that everything I do, I have to pray.

[00:03:51] Yes.

[00:03:51] That made me curious about learning about prayer because I'm like, it seems like other people get away.

[00:03:58] Why?

[00:03:58] Why?

[00:03:59] And then one thing led to another.

[00:04:01] And then the prayer, it, it expanded from just me, my family to being concerned about others.

[00:04:10] What made me begin to pursue what an intercessor was.

[00:04:15] Yes.

[00:04:15] I hadn't heard that term before.

[00:04:18] And this was, I want to say 87, 88.

[00:04:21] And so since that time, it's been following that path.

[00:04:25] And when you mentioned Dr. Manlove, how we really first met was I was teaching Sunday school on prayer.

[00:04:34] And I gave her, we were going through, I'm not sure if you're familiar with him, but Larry Lee's guide, can you not tarry one hour?

[00:04:42] And so I gave her to her.

[00:04:44] And I said, you're going to need this.

[00:04:46] And that started our friendship.

[00:04:48] And now that's now over 37 years ago.

[00:04:51] So attracting, and I like the word tribe because that means there's always room to welcome someone else on this journey.

[00:05:01] But for me, learning and watching my mother and then joining other individuals that had that same passion.

[00:05:09] And the passion still grows.

[00:05:11] For me individually, if there's anything that holds my interest, that's when I feel like I am accomplishing what I'm supposed to accomplish in prayer.

[00:05:22] If you are a stranger and if we have a conversation within two or three minutes, something is going to spark where we pray.

[00:05:30] Or I recommend that you pray.

[00:05:32] Or I'll be praying for you.

[00:05:34] Just the thing that's on the inside, God's spirit, that that's the way he's designed me.

[00:05:39] I wasn't always accepting.

[00:05:41] And now I appreciate the honor of being able to be one that will call out and pray for others as well as myself.

[00:05:51] Yes, yes.

[00:05:52] And when you said your mother prayed, and those that grew up with me know my mother was a prayer warrior.

[00:05:59] And I do differentiate prayer warriors from intercessors.

[00:06:01] And we grew up in a church where, you know, there were a group of women that worked the altar and they knew how to pray.

[00:06:09] And no one worked the altar but these women.

[00:06:11] And they could be there all night long.

[00:06:13] Yes, tarrying all night long and praying.

[00:06:16] And I remember when I got older, people would say, oh, don't take all of that.

[00:06:21] And I would tell them that, you know, when you've learned to labor and prayer, and you've learned to tell her, I got to get that book.

[00:06:27] I got to get that book now.

[00:06:28] You know, and my mom would be in her room.

[00:06:30] And my friends would ask me, can you go out?

[00:06:32] Like, no, my mother's in there praying.

[00:06:34] Like, we knew she was going to be there for an hour.

[00:06:36] So when you gave Dr. Sheree that book, that was definitely something that I think as intercessors, you always know because another intercessor comes and passes you something along.

[00:06:49] Like passing the baton.

[00:06:50] And that's what happened to me also.

[00:06:52] So thank you for sharing that.

[00:06:54] So even on your journey.

[00:06:55] So let's hear more about you.

[00:06:58] And you say you joined the church and you begin to pray.

[00:07:00] Do you, when you look over your life, I'm sure you have many testimonies of when you had to pray for somebody.

[00:07:09] Let's talk about your teaching on prayer.

[00:07:11] I know you teach on prayer too.

[00:07:12] So for me, I'm always, years ago, someone said or made reference in a homegrown service that that person that the service was for wanted to leave here empty.

[00:07:30] And so that has been something where whatever is in me, I want to pass it along.

[00:07:37] I'm teaching, encouraging.

[00:07:40] I always want to be that person that passes something along.

[00:07:45] So with a combination of that and prayer, I find myself always encouraging people to pray because someone did that for me.

[00:07:55] You know, if my mother were here, she would probably describe me as her honors child.

[00:08:01] So she spent a lot of time praying for me.

[00:08:04] However, she always would make statements of what she would declare for my future.

[00:08:11] I didn't get it.

[00:08:12] Yes.

[00:08:13] You wouldn't settle for me fighting because I would fight.

[00:08:16] I would do those things.

[00:08:17] She would always talk about what I would be.

[00:08:21] And I can remember coming home and sharing with her after joining Greater Bethel that I had received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[00:08:30] And for her, it was like that weight that had lifted.

[00:08:35] Yes.

[00:08:36] Because it's like she finally got it.

[00:08:38] Her prayer was answered.

[00:08:39] When I think about all of those years that she prayed, all of those, this is just me.

[00:08:46] I believe that her prayers for us do not expire.

[00:08:50] No.

[00:08:51] Children, some of her great grandchildren, they are now reaping what God has promised her.

[00:08:57] Yes.

[00:08:58] Yes.

[00:08:58] So it's that wanting to do what God has called me to do, but also valuing prayer because I had an example.

[00:09:07] Yes.

[00:09:08] Now I want to be an example.

[00:09:09] So I want to be that example for my children.

[00:09:11] I want to be that example for my sons and my grandchildren.

[00:09:16] One of the things in teaching prayer is that I believe that when a person and when we're praying, especially for their salvation or their journey with God, if we teach them to talk to him, the rest of it will come in line.

[00:09:32] When they fall in love and respond to his love, the rest of it will fall in line.

[00:09:37] And so for me, every opportunity, whether they're little, whether they're our teens, whether they're our adults, given that opportunity, pointing them.

[00:09:47] I believe right now my assignment and my mission is to point people back to the altar.

[00:09:55] I was about to go there.

[00:09:57] As you would begin to speak and even talk about teaching.

[00:10:01] First of all, your mother and our mothers taught us how to create an altar.

[00:10:06] They taught us how to create an altar.

[00:10:09] They had an altar at a place.

[00:10:10] They went to pray.

[00:10:11] And when you said that your job is to teach into leaping back to the altar, we are teaching people how to create an altar.

[00:10:19] If you want to fight and run the requirements for the intercessor is knowing how to fight.

[00:10:25] Because we go from fighting in the natural to fighting in the spiritual.

[00:10:28] We're not scared of nothing.

[00:10:29] You know, it don't matter what you say.

[00:10:31] We're not scared.

[00:10:32] Bring it on.

[00:10:33] We go on altar for altar, you know, and teaching this next generation.

[00:10:38] How to create an altar.

[00:10:40] I was reading in my Bible.

[00:10:41] I was teaching the other day.

[00:10:42] And I'm going to go here so we can just go ahead and spark the conversation.

[00:10:45] We're going to go deep.

[00:10:46] That's all right.

[00:10:47] So I was reading in Judges.

[00:10:48] And I believe it's chapter six.

[00:10:50] And the Lord had told Gibeon.

[00:10:51] He said, Gibeon, you are a mighty warrior.

[00:10:54] And we told him that.

[00:10:56] But Gibeon didn't know what he was talking about.

[00:10:57] And then the next chapter, not chapter, but the next verse tells us how Gibeon went and he erected an altar.

[00:11:06] So what required a mighty warrior was to erect an altar.

[00:11:10] So when you think about the intercessor, we move as militant.

[00:11:14] We're just militant people.

[00:11:15] We move, you know, as one.

[00:11:17] That's why I say I found my tribe.

[00:11:18] I found my tribe because we are in sync.

[00:11:21] We find ourselves together because we're stronger together.

[00:11:25] See, we are movement all by ourself.

[00:11:28] You probably could fight all by yourself.

[00:11:29] But we are forced when we come together.

[00:11:32] Yes.

[00:11:32] That's why they had to gather in the room to cry out for Peter.

[00:11:36] Right?

[00:11:38] So in this season, I see a call back to the altar.

[00:11:41] I see the rise of the intercessor in a true burning altar and why it's important to have an authentic relationship.

[00:11:48] So let's talk about that because we don't hear that often.

[00:11:52] We don't hear those words often, altar and fire and blood and washing.

[00:11:59] So I believe, especially with my book and my focus right now is on family.

[00:12:07] And so but here's the definition.

[00:12:10] The definition is family of family in the book.

[00:12:14] And what I believe in this season is those that are by blood or by choice.

[00:12:18] So, you know, we have some aunties.

[00:12:21] We have for Dr. Mela, her daughter and son.

[00:12:26] Those are my nieces and nephews.

[00:12:28] It's not by blood.

[00:12:29] It's by choice.

[00:12:30] We have a reciprocal relationship.

[00:12:32] And so building an altar.

[00:12:35] It's funny when you mentioned judges.

[00:12:37] I thought you were going to go to chapter two and I would have probably broke down and start crying.

[00:12:42] Because in Judges chapter two, after Moses and Joshua finished their assignment, after that in verse 10, it says, and it's sad.

[00:12:56] And even now it just does something.

[00:12:58] It makes the warrior inside of me because my cry is Lord, not on my watch.

[00:13:03] It says there was a generation that knew that.

[00:13:07] And so for me, that's another place of teaching.

[00:13:13] And I'm like, Lord, who?

[00:13:15] Because it is important for us to take down, take the time.

[00:13:19] Sometimes we have to slow down to be sensitive.

[00:13:22] God will allow us to be that one that will discern sometime.

[00:13:27] And then we become the one that's focused on the issue.

[00:13:30] And then out of our relationship, he will allow things to happen where we interact.

[00:13:38] Yes.

[00:13:38] I want to give two examples of that passion.

[00:13:43] So my youngest son has a blended family, which means that I am now the proud grandmother of daughter, granddaughters and sons.

[00:13:53] And so in visiting with them, the middle daughter, who's a teen, she began to share her interests about the Bible.

[00:14:05] So I'm trying to contain what is happening because I've been praying for them all this time.

[00:14:13] And we had our one-on-one time.

[00:14:15] And so I was there for a week.

[00:14:18] And when we started, every morning before they went to school, we would have prayer.

[00:14:23] And then she would ask me questions.

[00:14:25] And then when I came home, we now do devotionals.

[00:14:28] And so for me, it's still that teaching.

[00:14:31] But being able to, I always ask God to give me something that I can understand.

[00:14:38] So now my practices for my warriors, I see them raising up.

[00:14:43] I see God trusting me to plant into them.

[00:14:47] And so now show me how to do it, how to strategically listen, be available, not judge them, give them back to, put them in the altar, show them.

[00:14:58] Show them.

[00:14:59] And that scripture still resonates with my heart because as we can see the signs of the time, what I don't want on my watch is a generation that's coming after me that does not know God.

[00:15:11] That does not know God.

[00:15:12] I got it.

[00:15:13] We got to have, we must continue to teach.

[00:15:15] We must continue to be available.

[00:15:18] And I believe that even just the little ones, when they mimic what we do.

[00:15:25] Yes.

[00:15:26] And every time we're in their presence, I believe it's important.

[00:15:30] So to continuously point them to the altar, teach them.

[00:15:35] Someone taught us.

[00:15:36] Somebody taught us.

[00:15:37] Yes.

[00:15:38] Mm-hmm.

[00:15:39] And I truly believe that it is so important, like you said, because everybody else teaches their children how to pray.

[00:15:48] The Muslims start their kids off as babies.

[00:15:51] They come, they invite them into prayer.

[00:15:53] They have to, they have to pray five times a day.

[00:15:58] The Jews teach their children how to pray three times a day.

[00:16:02] They go before the Lord.

[00:16:04] Buddhists.

[00:16:04] They have a routine and a ritual.

[00:16:07] Their children are learning how to pray.

[00:16:09] I was talking to someone the other day.

[00:16:11] They were talking about how they were so upset that they took prayer out of school.

[00:16:14] I said, why are you upset?

[00:16:15] You ain't teach your kids how to pray.

[00:16:17] So if our kids went to school and everybody else was praying, we had the only kids that didn't have on armor.

[00:16:26] Our children were the only kids that weren't dressed for battle.

[00:16:31] So everybody else got a time to go pray because they got to pray five times over here, three times over here.

[00:16:36] Now, our children are on a battlefield with no armor on.

[00:16:40] I'm glad they took it out of church, out of the school because you weren't teaching them at home how to pray.

[00:16:45] So they weren't dressed for battle.

[00:16:48] So it is so important for our children to now see and to have a place to be taught on how to build a relationship and where to go for help.

[00:16:59] You know, my granddaughter, she's so funny.

[00:17:00] She sees, comes in here.

[00:17:01] She's got her the book, the little book.

[00:17:03] But whenever she comes in, she says, we don't jump in here because you're going, you're about to pray, my mom?

[00:17:08] You're about to pray?

[00:17:08] You know, she knows it's prayer time, you know, and doing prayer.

[00:17:13] And I don't, you know, sometimes sit and rock and sing and pray.

[00:17:16] But she knows it's prayer time and she knows when she comes in.

[00:17:19] Are we going to leave her without praying?

[00:17:21] I'm like, oh, no, but we're going to pray.

[00:17:22] You know, so I think it's really important.

[00:17:24] I think it is important in this season for us to get really serious about teaching and having that conversation.

[00:17:30] So I'm glad you brought that up.

[00:17:31] I get excited.

[00:17:32] You see, I get excited because I'm a warrior.

[00:17:36] And warriors still need it.

[00:17:39] One of the things that I really thank God for is being able to trust us with other people in trouble.

[00:17:47] You know, we can cast all of our cares.

[00:17:51] So they're not meant for the cares and the situations are not meant for us to carry.

[00:17:56] But I believe that it's a privilege and an honor to be able to cast, to stand in the gap.

[00:18:02] Because the word says that I sought for a man that would make up a hedge, that would stand in the gap.

[00:18:07] So I want to be that one that he finds that he can trust for trouble, where he can trust to wake me up anytime from three o'clock in the morning on.

[00:18:17] And I realize that the benefit of him being able to trust me, one of the things, and you mentioned we were talking earlier about the pandemic.

[00:18:28] Yes.

[00:18:29] One of the things that I would really believe that God utilized that time to sharpen my iron.

[00:18:36] Oh, that's good.

[00:18:37] I really believe that because I worked for the YW.

[00:18:42] That's the last position that I had before I retired.

[00:18:47] However, as a chief, I could have stayed home, worked from home.

[00:18:51] But I knew that I was supposed to be there with my staff.

[00:18:55] Yes.

[00:18:56] And so that's when a committed time of getting up early, early to pray and to cover us, to cover us as we travel, to cover us in the facility.

[00:19:07] I was in the facility where there's transitional housing, a 99-bed facility.

[00:19:15] And so think of all of those families in there.

[00:19:18] It could have been, I want to say, an epidemic.

[00:19:21] Yeah.

[00:19:22] But he's preparedness.

[00:19:23] And I believe it's because, for me, he utilized that to sharpen my iron.