What is Travailing? "Pray without ceasing" ... (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Travailing is a crossing over from the natural into the presence of God. Travailing births the will of God onto the earth. God wants to birth through us and only through intimacy with God and through a willingness to allow Him to use us in travail. I once believed that this sensation was from an indwelling of Holy Spirit alone. When Paul uses the term “travail”, he is not using a term to describe what happens to us physically. This term is used to describe what is happening spiritually – that something new is being birthed truly. When you think of spiritual travail, don’t think of the flesh, of the physical happenings. Too often, no one thinks of what’s happening in the Spirit.
What is an intercessor? An Intercessor prays for others.
Jesus Travailed. He had the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we have the potential of letting Him do anything He pleases through us, according to His will. We don't have to let Him do what He wants. We must be willing. The agonizing they speak of is "travail," as in childbirth, the very thing Paul talked about, "travail …until Christ be formed in you." Understand that through intercession and travail (giving birth) something will come to pass that will never come to pass any other way.
Take His Heart to the World Ministries explains: "During prayer my stomach would tighten and there would be a pushing, a pressure, with extreme tightening of the muscles, like a woman giving birth. All I could do was groan within myself when this event took place. This would happen, over and over, just like a woman having a baby. Sometimes it would be severe and sometimes not so severe. More than once in my life I've had enough pressure build that I thought the vein in my neck would burst. No one can make Spiritual travail happen; it is introduced at the will of the Holy Spirit because, the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The Spirit of God is interceding, not us! It is the Spirit of God bringing life to God's will, what has already been ordained, or spoken by God. I have experienced travail (groanings from the tightening of the muscles) coming on me not only in prayer meetings but also at odd times and places, such as before and during church meetings, on the streets, and during conversations with people. I have travailed for other people. I believe I've travailed for myself. I rarely know what I'm travailing about. This fits, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.
If you are an intercessor and God uses you in travail, you've probably had the same problem I have had of knowing what to do when it comes. The following not only gives a pattern to follow in the church but paints a picture of the whole situation concerning the lack of understanding about spiritual intercession. Travail in the natural parallels travail in the spiritual! At times in church I've left and gone to other rooms and sometimes I've stayed, trying not to be conspicuous. A lot of times the travail is for myself or for the service. We need it because it changes things, whatever it is about. So, how should we handle travail in public places?
All this applies to unlearned Christians being brought into a spiritual travail situation. Understand, "baby Christian," or "mature Christian," refers to education and maturity in the things of God. It has nothing to do with time (how long they have been a Christian) or whether they have the baptism of the Holy Spirit or not. There are people who were baptized in the Holy Spirit years ago who don't know any more about spiritual things than the day they were baptized.
In the natural one never knows the moment the pains of birth will come. Usually, when this starts, the mother is taken out of the public eye, to a hospital, or into seclusion somewhere. We don't allow babies to be born in public unless there is no other way.
In the church, a spiritual birth should be handled the same way. The problem is that, in the natural, the birth will occur no matter what, but a spiritual birth can be shut down because of simply being in a public place. Cut off by misunderstanding of what's really happening.
Once I was with a world-known evangelist who thought a particular person in travail was of the devil and he attempted to cast an evil spirit out of her, an intercessor. Nothing happened except that the intercession was stopped. The person being prayed for was the loser. Yes, there is a false "birthing and travail." In those instances one needs discernment but that's not cause for "unrighteous judgements." The enemy uses the lack of knowledge in Christians to stop what God is doing. Travail is not barking like dogs or mimicking the actions of an animal. Travail in the spirit is what the Bible says it is, actions that parallel natural birthing actions. I've seen people produce groans and moans, thinking they are in travail.
The Bible says, "...the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." "Which cannot be uttered" is important here. This has to do with the contractions and pressures of birth deep within the intercessor, which during the contraction, groanings cannot be uttered. The holding of the breath, and the movement deep within that comes from pushing, is what the Bible is talking about. Basically, groans from the voice box mean nothing but they can come, during and after the contractions take place, as the person's way of dealing with the situation, just like in natural births. I'm not starting a new doctrine here; I'm just revealing something of the Holy Spirit. Paul travailed for people, and Jesus groaned within Himself before He raised Lazarath from the dead. God is the one who knows what needs to happen in our lives. I was delivered from the spirit of anger sovereignly by God, without the name of Jesus and without travail, as far as I know. I've been healed and delivered in the name of Jesus, without travail, so it's not a fix all. But sometimes there is need for travail, as you can see from my testimony. The prayer of agreement in the name of the Lord didn't produce my deliverance from the spirit of fear.
If travail comes, allow it to function, and then learn. Don't beat it with the whipping stick of ignorance. Nurture it and let God reveal right and wrong. God never does anything without a purpose, so if the Holy Spirit brings travail into the picture, it must needs be! Most Christians have experienced this without ever realizing it was a work of the Holy Spirit. At their conversion they sometimes wept and cried, grieved over their sins. Then later they got a burden for the salvation and deliverance of others, and cried over them also. This is known as travailing prayer. When we have a burden for others and become sorrowful over them, it is usually the Holy Spirit crying through us over the situation."
I have come to know the gift of Travailing as liquid prayer because there are almost never words, no petitions, no pleadings, no claiming or declaring. Instead there is strong emotion poured out in weeping, wailing and/or groaning. When travailing comes to a person, it totally bypasses their mind and intellect. It is as if God pours into a willing partner his own emotions about an issue so they then become a point of contact on the earth for God's will to be worked through. The one who has experienced travail has experienced a deep connection to God's heart. That one has felt what God feels and knows that he is a God of very intense emotions.
