A clear, illustrated guide to Robert Henderson’s 7-session teaching on the Courts of Heaven: how prayer works in heaven’s courtroom, with video, Scripture and practical steps.
🎬 Start Here: Watch the Teaching
This page explains the teaching Robert Henderson gave on the Courts of Heaven. Begin with the two-minute story, then watch the full seven sessions whenever you have time. Throughout the page you will see ▶ buttons: each one jumps the video to the exact moment where that idea is taught.
⚡ The Two-Minute Story
A short story that shows the idea at work: a deliverance that ended, not in shouting, but in a courtroom in heaven.
🎓 The Full Teaching: Seven Sessions
Robert Henderson, “Courts of Heaven.” About 5 hours 49 minutes. Recorded at a conference weekend in New Zealand, August 23–25, 2019 (the video carries the victory.net.nz mark). English subtitles and verse captions are built into the video.
The video is large, so it only starts loading when you press play.
Most believers have prayed for something for a long time: a healing, a breakthrough, a child, a calling. The prayers agreed with Scripture, the prayers were sincere, and still nothing moved. Henderson’s answer is not “pray harder.” It is that heaven has a judicial system, and that something legal can be standing in the way of the answer. Find what is legal, deal with it in heaven’s court on the basis of what Jesus has done, and the answer is free to come.
In one sentence: Prayer is not only a battle to be fought. It is also a case to be presented before God, the righteous Judge.
⚔️ Battlefield or 🏛️ Courtroom?
The core question
⚔️ Battlefield prayer
How do I defeat this enemy?
🏛️ Courtroom prayer
What legal right is this enemy claiming, and how do I remove it?
Typical tools
⚔️ Battlefield prayer
Binding, loosing, commanding, rebuking
🏛️ Courtroom prayer
Repentance, the blood of Jesus, evidence, testimony, a request for a verdict
Where it happens
⚔️ Battlefield prayer
The battlefield, where the powers of darkness operate
🏛️ Courtroom prayer
The throne room, before God the Judge
What ends the problem
⚔️ Battlefield prayer
Overpowering the enemy
🏛️ Courtroom prayer
Silencing the accuser’s argument, so he has no right to stay
Henderson’s order
⚔️ Battlefield prayer
Second: “make war”
🏛️ Courtroom prayer
First: “judge” (Revelation 19:11)
Henderson is not against spiritual warfare. His point is the order. “Judge is judicial activity. Making war is battlefield.” First the courtroom, then the battlefield, because “if you try to make war with the powers of darkness before their legal rights are revoked, they will backlash.”
7sessions
5:49hours of teaching
3dimensions of prayer
5kinds of evidence
👤 Who Is Teaching?
Robert Henderson is an author and teacher who has taught the Courts of Heaven around the world for well over a decade. In this series he says that he and his wife, Mary, had been in ministry for about 35 years, that he pastored for 22 years before he began to travel, and that he began teaching the Courts of Heaven around 2010.
His ministry, Robert Henderson Ministries, describes its mission as discipling nations, and calls the Courts of Heaven “one of the main elements to the discipling of nations.” He has written a series of books on the subject (see Go Deeper).
This page is a study guide to the recorded teaching. For his official materials, visit roberthenderson.org.
🗓️ Recorded August 23–25, 2019
📍 A conference weekend in New Zealand
🎤 Seven live teaching sessions
🌐 In English, with subtitles in the video
📖 Why He Went to the Courts: A Personal Story
Henderson does not begin with theory. He begins with a season in which, in his words, “everything fell to pieces,” and the kind of prayer that had always worked stopped working.
🌪️ Three years of falling apart
His reputation was attacked, money was tight, his children were making poor choices and his marriage felt the pressure. Each crisis was followed by another before the first was over. Breakthroughs that had always come before would not come.
🌍 A bloodline prayer in South Africa
Invited to teach at a conference, he was told before he stood on the platform that the ministry would cleanse his bloodline. A seer in the room named a covenant with a demon god somewhere in his family line. When they searched the name, they found a spirit whose chief trait is to “suck dry.” He had known nothing about it in the natural, but suddenly he understood why everything was being devoured: reputation, money, children, marriage.
🙏 One simple prayer, and the devouring stopped
He repented for himself, renounced every covenant with that spirit, and asked for the blood of Jesus to speak on his behalf (Hebrews 12:24). He says the devouring stopped “instantly,” and a season of restoration began. His finances, his reputation and his children’s direction all began to turn.
🗣️ “Bring Adam to my courts”
For two years he had prayed for his son Adam, who was deeply depressed after a painful divorce. He bound, he loosed, he shouted, he cried, and nothing moved. Then one morning he heard: “Bring Adam to my courts.” He did not know how, so he followed what he sensed: first repent on Adam’s behalf; then repent of his own critical words about Adam; then prophesy Adam’s destiny from the books of heaven; and only then rebuke the spirit of depression.
⏱️ Fifteen minutes
The whole process took about fifteen minutes. A week and a half later Adam phoned to say that the depression had lifted. Adam, now a pastor, says: “I am a product of the court of heaven.”
“What I had not been able to do in a two-year period on the battlefield, I did in fifteen minutes in the courtroom.”
These are Henderson’s own accounts. Read them as testimonies that illustrate his teaching, not as promises about how any particular prayer will turn out.
🏛️ What Are the Courts of Heaven?
Henderson’s first point is easy to miss, so he makes it early: the Courts of Heaven are not a method of praying. They are a place, a dimension of the spirit realm that Scripture describes and that believers can step into by faith.
“The court of heaven is not a method of praying. The court of heaven is a spiritual realm. It’s a spiritual dimension.”
The throne room of heaven, as pictured by the artist.
The clearest picture in the Bible is Daniel 7:9-10. Daniel is allowed to see into the unseen realm: thrones are put in place, the Ancient of Days takes his seat, ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him, and the court is seated while the books are opened. Henderson’s reading is that every time Scripture describes the throne of God, it is describing not only a place of worship but the judicial system of heaven.
“I watched until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came out from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set. The books were opened.”Daniel 7:9-10
Why can an ordinary believer step into such a place? Because Hebrews 12:22-24 says to believers: “you have come” to Mount Zion, to God the Judge of all, and to the blood of sprinkling. Henderson’s point is that you are not trying to get there. By grace you are already positioned there, and you access it by faith (Romans 5:2).
But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.Hebrews 12:22-24
📝 A note on wording: where Henderson reads Daniel 7:10 as “the court was seated,” the World English Bible quoted on this page reads “the judgment was set.” Many modern Bibles use the word “court.”
🔑 Three Things to Understand First
🚪 A place, not a formula
Results come from praying from the right place, not from using the right words. Henderson tells of praying nearly the same prayer twice for his wife, Mary, who was in severe pain. The first time nothing changed. The second time he “stepped into a spiritual dimension,” and she was completely healed. “Where you do something from has everything to do with the results you get.” As he puts it, “It’s not so much that God’s presence came as that we stepped where he was.”
🙌 Faith, not special gifting
You do not need to be a seer or a prophet. Henderson says he sees very little in the spirit; he mostly hears and feels, and he does it “by faith.” Spiritual senses grow “by reason of use” (Hebrews 5:14). “You don’t have to be some super spiritual person to do this.”
🩸 Entry by the blood
What qualifies a person to enter is not performance. It is “the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Henderson is firm that the court is for ordinary believers, and that it is as much for your family, your city and your nation as it is for you.
👥 Who Is in the Courtroom?
Henderson walks through Daniel 7 and Hebrews 12:22-24 and names everyone present. Knowing who is who is what lets a believer find their way around the court.
The cast of the courtroom: the Judge, the witnesses, the angels, and the accuser.
👑 The Judge: God the Father
“The Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25). He is righteous, and he is not an unwilling judge who has to be talked into helping. Henderson stresses that Jesus told the story of the unjust judge to make the opposite point: if a persistent widow could win a verdict from an unjust judge, how much more from the righteous one (Luke 18:1-8)?
✝️ The Mediator: Jesus
“The mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24), who “lives forever to make intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25) and is our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). For Henderson, Jesus’ present intercession is a living testimony that the believer agrees with.
🕊️ The Helper: the Holy Spirit
Henderson calls the Spirit the believer’s “legal aid,” from the Greek paraklētos. He shows you how to find your way in the court and prays through you when you do not know how (Romans 8:26).
🐍 The Accuser: Satan
The Greek word for “adversary” is antidikos, one who brings a lawsuit (1 Peter 5:8). “Accuser” is katēgoros, a complainant at law (Revelation 12:10). Henderson’s central claim is that the enemy cannot do as he pleases: he must find a legal right.
☁️ The Witnesses
“The spirits of just men made perfect” and “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:23, 12:1). Henderson understands them as people whose testimony still speaks in heaven. He adds a guardrail: any encounter with them must lead you to love Jesus more, or it is not from God.
👼 The Angels
An “innumerable multitude of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). In a courtroom, someone carries out the verdicts. Henderson believes the Holy Spirit and the angels help carry out what the court decides, as in Zechariah 5, where an angel opens the prophet’s eyes to a flying scroll of judgment.
🏛️ The Ekklesia: the Church
The Greek word for church, ekklesia, was a governing assembly that decided matters for a city. Henderson says that, in heaven’s eyes, the church is a legal body able to represent a family, a city or a nation before the Judge.
🧍 You: the Petitioner
You come with a case: asking for mercy, presenting what God has said, answering the accusations, and agreeing with what heaven is already doing. You do not come alone: you come with the blood, the Advocate and the Helper.
You do not come to the court alone.
🙏 Three Dimensions of Prayer: Father, Friend and Judge
Henderson says what finally put the Courts of Heaven in context for him was seeing that Jesus teaches three dimensions of prayer. They are not rivals. Most of his own prayer time, he says, is spent before the Father.
🏡 Father · The secret place
“When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven’” (Luke 11:2). Intimacy, fellowship and your own needs. Jesus says to pray to your Father “who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6). Henderson says what you touch in the spirit there is later “made manifest in the natural.”
🤝 Friend · The council of the Lord
A man goes to a friend at midnight on behalf of another friend (Luke 11:5-8). This is intercession: standing between God and someone else. Abraham, “the friend of God,” stands before the Lord and pleads for Sodom (Genesis 18). Jeremiah 23:18 calls this place “the council of Yahweh.”
⚖️ Judge · The court
A widow keeps bringing her case to a judge (Luke 18:1-8). This is the dimension where there is a case, an adversary, evidence and a verdict. Henderson calls it the answer to unanswered prayer.
🏡 Father
You come as… A child
You pray about… Your own needs and your fellowship with God
Is there an adversary? No
🤝 Friend
You come as… A friend and intercessor
You pray about… The needs of others, of cities and of nations
Is there an adversary? No
⚖️ Judge
You come as… A petitioner with a case
You pray about… A legal obstacle standing in the way of an answer
Is there an adversary? Yes
The court and the council are close neighbors, but different. In the council of the Lord there is no adversary. In the court there is one, which is exactly why there is a case to answer.
⚖️ Why Some Prayers Seem Unanswered
Here is the claim at the center of the teaching. If you have prayed for a long time, in agreement with what God has said, and nothing has changed, Henderson says: “Something legal is resisting you in the spirit world.” It is not, he says, because God is not hearing, not interested, or does not care.
“Something legal is resisting you in the spirit world.”
⏳ Timing, or legal? “Sometimes you think of the timing issue when it’s actually something legally resisting you.” Henderson says he spent twenty years assuming that delay in his own life was a matter of timing.
The Bible gives the enemy a legal title. In Luke 18:3 the widow asks for justice against her adversary, the Greek antidikos, which Henderson explains means “one who brings a lawsuit.” Peter uses the same word: “Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Henderson’s conclusion: “The devil cannot devour except he discovers a legal right to do it from.”
Believers in the new covenant have covenant rights: healing, provision, protection for their families, and more. The enemy’s lawsuit aims to deny you what is rightfully yours. So the real question is not only whether this is God’s will, but also what case is being made against you.
❓ Why would God let the accuser bring a case?
Henderson sees two ways the accuser can appear in the court. He can be summoned, as in Job 1:6-8, or he can ask permission, as in Luke 22:31: “Satan asked to have all of you.” He is not free to act as he pleases; “he’s on a leash.” And God allows it for two reasons: so that God cannot be accused of injustice, and so that his people can overcome and gain a place they did not have before (Revelation 3:21).
👤 The example of Peter. Jesus told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him, then added: “but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail” (Luke 22:32). Henderson reads this as Jesus standing in the courts and securing Peter’s destiny, even though Peter still had hard things to walk through.
🚪 How the Enemy Gets Legal Ground
If the enemy needs a legal right, where does it come from? Henderson boils it down to the three words David uses for wrongdoing in Psalm 32:5 and Psalm 51: sin, transgression and iniquity.
🎯 Sin · Falling short
In both Hebrew and Greek, sin means to fall short. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Thankfully, a provision has been made for it.
🚧 Transgression · Stepping over a line in rebellion
Henderson jokes that “Christians’ toes have chalk on them” from getting too close to the lines they are not supposed to cross. Transgression is not just failing; it is knowingly stepping over the boundary.
🧬 Iniquity · The history of sin in a bloodline
Iniquity is the pattern that runs in a family line. The enemy looks through that history for something legal he can use to build a case.
🙇 Henderson reframes the “fear of the Lord.” It is not a fear that God will be angry and punish you. It is the realization that if you do not deal with a legal matter, the enemy can use it to devour you and your family.
🔎 Other things the enemy can use
🗣️ Words
Henderson says the enemy took his own frustrated, critical words about his son to heaven’s court: “even his own father says this about him.” Words carry the power of life and death.
📜 Covenants and agreements
Agreements with demonic powers, made by you or by someone in your family line, which the enemy treats as contracts.
💔 Broken covenants
In 2 Samuel 21, a three-year famine under King David traced back to King Saul’s broken covenant with the Gibeonites, decades earlier. When it was put right, “God answered prayer for the land” (2 Samuel 21:14).
🎁 An offering with the wrong heart
Jesus says to settle matters with your brother before you bring your gift (Matthew 5:23-26). Henderson teaches that an offering carries a “testimony,” and that the adversary can use the wrong one.
🤝 Unforgiveness
In several stories Henderson tells, unforgiveness toward a parent or a spouse was the legal right that was holding someone in an affliction.
🕯️ Occult involvement and bloodshed
Witchcraft or other occult involvement, and bloodshed, in a family line are among the things Henderson says he has seen the enemy use.
🌟 God is never the source of evil. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Henderson says that when evil comes, it is “only because the enemy has discovered a legal right to produce evil with it.”
🧬 Bloodline and Iniquity
Because iniquity runs in families, Henderson spends time on what it does. He names four effects.
1. It opens the door to temptation
The enemy finds a legal right to tempt a person in an area where their family already has a weakness. Henderson says that nearly every stronghold has roots in iniquity.
2. It shapes how you see yourself
In Isaiah 6:5-7 Isaiah sees himself as “undone,” worthless and unclean. The moment his iniquity is taken away, he is volunteering for God. Henderson’s point: your innermost thought about yourself is often fashioned by iniquity.
3. It can cost you your destiny
The enemy uses iniquity to pull a person off course, so that they give themselves to what the iniquity is driving instead of to what is written in their book.
4. It is used to build a case
In 2 Samuel 21:1, a famine came because of a broken covenant made long before. No amount of praying helped until the old wrong was dealt with.
🌙 A dream about a great-great-grandfather
After about twenty years of delay, Henderson dreamed that something his great-great-grandfather had done through negligence was now a judgment against him. He understood the message: an ancestor had “stolen the dreams” of someone, and the enemy was claiming the right to steal his. He repented on behalf of his family line and asked the blood to speak. Within a week, he says, doors began to open and have kept opening.
📏 How far back? Henderson’s “statute of limitations”
Henderson explains that he used to teach people to open their bloodline “all the way back to Adam and Eve.” He now teaches it differently. Scripture speaks of iniquity visited “on the third and on the fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5), and Paul warns against “endless genealogies” (1 Timothy 1:4). So, he says, God has set a limit, and praying back to Adam gives the enemy a right that God never gave him.
His practical prayer is to ask that, on the basis of God’s word, the enemy has no legal right to use anything against you beyond four generations. He compares it to a courtroom, where the judge decides which evidence is admissible. He adds that this makes the work finishable: four generations can be researched and prayed through, and where you cannot find something, God can reveal it.
✋ What this does not do. Repenting for your ancestors does not change anyone’s eternal destiny (Hebrews 9:27). What it does, Henderson says, is grant “God the right to revoke the devil’s rights to use their sin against you.”
🔁 Do not get stuck in a loop. If you have already repented, perhaps through deliverance or inner healing, you can ask the court to “call into record” that earlier repentance instead of starting over. Henderson warns that “if the devil can’t stop you from repenting, he’ll get you caught in a repentance mode so you never move past it” (Hebrews 6:1-3).
🩸 The Blood That Speaks
In Genesis 4:10, Abel’s blood “cries to me from the ground,” and God passes a verdict on Cain. Hebrews 12:24 says the blood of Jesus “speaks better than that of Abel.” Abel’s blood called for judgment; the blood of Jesus, Henderson says, cries out for mercy, forgiveness, redemption, destiny and purpose.
“The blood is not that which spoke. It is that which is speaking.”
In his framework the blood has a specific job: it dismisses the cases the enemy brings against you. When you repent and agree with what the blood says, it silences the voices that were speaking against you.
💡 Walking in the light matters.First John 1:7 says the blood “cleanses us from all sin” as we “walk in the light.” Henderson’s reading: coming out of darkness and into the light is repentance, and without it you cannot agree with what the blood is saying about you.
A declaration he often uses is built on Colossians 2:14, where Jesus took “the handwriting in ordinances which was against us” and nailed it to the cross:
I declare, in agreement with your word, that the enemy has no legal right against me. Every handwriting of ordinance that was against me, Jesus took out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
📚 The Books of Heaven: Present Purpose, Not Just Need
Daniel 7:10 says that “the books were opened.” Psalm 139:16 says all your days were “written” in God’s book before any of them existed. From this Henderson draws one of the most distinctive points in the teaching:
“It is not the place you bring your need. In the court of heaven is where you present purpose.”
In other words, a case is built from what God has written about you, your family or your nation, not from what you wish for. If the books are closed, nobody can prophesy and no case can be presented (Isaiah 29:10-12). That is why Henderson says worship matters: it helps open the books.
🔍 How do I know what is in my book?
Henderson gives two tools. First, look back at the significant words God has spoken to you. A friend asked God how to know what was written in his book and was told to review every significant word he had ever heard from God. Second, look for the grace. “Purpose is what is written in the book. Grace is the ability and the power to fulfill it” (2 Timothy 1:9).
✅ Five signs that grace is attached to a purpose
You enjoy it. What you were made for will be “life to you.”
You have gifts for it, often gifts you did not know you had.
It bears fruit. Real purpose tends to succeed over time.
There is a way to provide for yourself through it. God, Henderson says, “doesn’t want you miserable.”
The right people bear witness to it. Not everyone will, but the right ones will favor you and help you.
🗣️ What it sounds like
Henderson describes presenting a word God had given him years earlier: “Lord, you said that I would disciple nations, so I present this before your courts.” Then, once purpose is presented, he can ask the court to judge whatever is resisting it, as he did for his son Adam: “Now, Lord, judge the spirit of depression.”
🧰 How to Present a Case: Step by Step
This is the practical heart of the teaching. Henderson builds it on Revelation 12:11: “They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony.” The blood dismisses the cases against you. Your testimony presents your case.
I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.”Revelation 12:10-11
🔑 The breakthrough does not come from defeating a demon on a battlefield. It comes from silencing an argument in the courtroom. “When you silence the voice of the accuser, the full breakthrough is now free to come.”
🪜 The Steps, as Henderson Models Them
🚪 Step in by faith
Come before the Judge by faith. Thank God that the blood of Jesus gives you access, and present yourself as a living sacrifice (Hebrews 10:19, Romans 12:1). Henderson often begins by picturing the door of the court and stepping across the threshold.
🔍 Invite examination
Give God the right to look at you: “Search me, God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23-24). Ask him to reveal anything that needs to be dealt with.
🙇 Repent, and let the blood speak
Repent of sin, transgression and iniquity, including what is in your family line, within the four-generation limit. Ask the blood of Jesus to speak for you. If you have already repented, call that earlier repentance into record.
🔇 Silence the accuser
Ask that every voice claiming a right against you be silenced and its claim revoked (Isaiah 54:17). Henderson declares Colossians 2:14 over the situation.
📜 Present your evidence
Bring the evidence you have, as set out in the five kinds below. A judge can only rule on what is put before the court.
⚖️ Ask for a verdict
Say plainly what you are asking for. “Judgment simply means a decision rendered,” Henderson says, and “you can never have justice without judgment.” End your case with a clear request.
🔁 Agree, decree and persist
Agree with what heaven is saying, and decree the verdict until you see it. If the answer comes in layers, keep going “until every legal argument that is standing against you is removed” (Luke 18:1-8).
🗃️ Five Kinds of Evidence
Henderson tells of a court interpreter who watched a young lawyer ramble on until the judge stopped him: “I know what you’re trying to do, but you’re going to have to give me a reason.” Passion and a good heart are not enough. You have to give the court evidence.
📖 1. What is written in your book
Your purpose and calling, as God has shown it to you. For example: Lord, this is what you have said about me. Let it become reality.
🗣️ 2. Prophetic words spoken over you
Take them to the court and name the one who spoke them: Lord, your prophet said this about me. Henderson points to Daniel, who understood Jeremiah’s prophecy and then prayed and repented so that nothing could delay it (Daniel 9), and to Paul telling Timothy to “wage the good warfare” by the prophecies given to him (1 Timothy 1:18).
✝️ 3. What Jesus has done
Remind the court of the cross: his death, his blood and his sacrifice. Henderson says this “carries great weight in heaven,” and that it has to be presented: “If it’s not presented as evidence, then it has no bearing on the case, even though the court would know.”
📜 4. The promises of God’s Word
State what God has said. Henderson tells of praying for a sick leader and sensing that he should bring the case on the basis of Psalm 41:1-3, which promises that the Lord will sustain and restore the one who considers the poor. He says the person was healed within two hours.
🎁 5. An offering with the right testimony
Henderson teaches that giving carries a testimony in heaven, for good or for ill. See Giving, Trading and Testimony below.
✍️ The courtroom format: “Whereas … therefore …”
Henderson once read the legal papers his son’s lawyer had prepared: statement after statement beginning whereas, and finally a therefore asking for the verdict. He says believers should do the same: state the evidence, then say therefore, on this basis, I am asking.
📋 An illustration (not a quotation):Whereas Jesus died for my sins and his blood speaks better than Abel’s; whereas God has said in his Word that …; whereas I have repented of …; therefore I ask the court to revoke every claim against me and to grant …
🙏 A Sample Prayer Pattern
This pattern is built from the way Henderson prays in the sessions. It is a pattern, not a script.
Father, I come before your courts by faith. Thank you that the blood of Jesus gives me access, even when I feel unworthy. I present myself to you as a living sacrifice. Search me, and show me anything that needs to be dealt with.
I repent of any sin and any transgression, and of any iniquity in my family line that you show me, within the limits you have set. Let your blood speak for me, better than Abel’s. Let every voice that accuses me be silenced, and every claim made against me be revoked.
I present what you have written about me in the books of heaven, the words your prophets have spoken, what Jesus has done for me, and the promises of your Word. Whereas you have said …, whereas Jesus has …, therefore I ask for a verdict: …
Let it be recorded in heaven. I agree with what Jesus is saying about me, and I thank you. Amen.
⏱️ What to expect
Sometimes the change is immediate: Henderson’s bloodline prayer in South Africa stopped the devouring “instantly.” Sometimes it comes in layers: “sometimes there’s a need for an ongoing persistent presentation of a case.” He adds an important caution: “I’m not teaching you a formula here.” The point is a relationship with the Judge, not a technique.
🏙️ The Church as Heaven’s Governing Assembly
So far the focus has been personal, but Henderson insists that “everything applies on a personal level, but it also applies on a corporate level.” The key is the Greek word for church, ekklesia. In Greek cities it was the assembly of elders at the city gate that decided legal and governmental matters. When Rome took a territory, it sent an ekklesia to change the culture to Roman ways. Jesus says, “I will build my assembly” (Matthew 16:18), and sends his followers to make disciples of nations.
In Hebrews 12:22 believers have come to Mount Zion, which Henderson calls a governmental place: from Zion the Lord sends “the rod of your strength” (Psalm 110:2). What a people do there, he says, can bring breakthrough not only to individuals but to whole cultures.
🧑🤝🧑 Representing a nation
When Abraham pleaded for Sodom (Genesis 18:22-26), why did he ask whether ten righteous people would be enough, instead of simply asking God to spare the city? Henderson’s answer is that Abraham was not from Sodom. God can respond legally to an ekklesia that comes from a culture and represents it. Like a parliament, it is “the smaller number representing the large number.” Where no one stands, God says, “I found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30).
🌟 Who does God use?Isaiah 56:7 says God will bring “these” to his holy mountain and make them joyful in “a house of prayer for all peoples.” Henderson reads “these” as the strangers, the fruitless and the outcasts: people who do not fit anywhere. God, he says, “many times chooses those that others don’t value.”
⚖️➡️⚔️ Judge first, then war.Revelation 19:11 says Jesus “in righteousness … judges and makes war.” Henderson says the church should follow the same order. In Zechariah 3, Joshua the high priest could not do his work until the accusation against him was answered, and only then could Zerubbabel finish the temple. Reform in the natural, Henderson says, waited on legal order in heaven.
🪙 Giving, Trading and Testimony
This is the part of the teaching most likely to be misunderstood, so it is worth stating carefully. Henderson is not saying you can buy answers from God: “It’s not talking about buying something from God.” His point is that giving carries a testimony, and testimony is what a court hears.
📣 Money has a voice
James 5:4 says that unpaid wages “cry out.” Henderson’s principle is that what we do with money is saying something in heaven, either for us or against us.
👑 The tithe as a witness
Hebrews 7:8 says that Jesus receives tithes, “of whom it is testified that he lives.” Henderson reads giving as releasing a testimony that you believe Jesus lives as your high priest and intercessor.
🧎 The heart matters
Jesus says to leave your gift and be reconciled first (Matthew 5:23-26). An offering given in fear, resentment or manipulation carries that “sound,” and the adversary can use it. Henderson points to Job, whose offerings were mixed with fear (Job 1:5).
🔄 The cross as the greatest trade
Henderson calls trading a heavenly activity because the cross was a trade: Jesus was “made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and he gives “a garland for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3).
This is one teaching among several. Nothing on this page asks you for money.
🌱 The Real Goal: Faith That Lasts
Henderson says the sessions are about more than getting answers. At the end of the widow’s story Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Henderson’s point is that God can be faithful again and again and it still not produce faith in us. The courts, he says, are meant to revive real faith, especially in people whose “hope deferred” has made the heart sick (Proverbs 13:12).
“Faith is not a quiet believing. It’s a violent pursuit.”
He points to Abraham and Sarah, who both laughed when they heard the promise, because they had heard it so many times, yet came back into faith (Genesis 17–18; Hebrews 11:11).
🔎 Seven Marks of Genuine Faith
👁️ It works in the unseen
Hebrews 11:1 calls faith “proof of things not seen.” Henderson says faith first possesses something in the unseen realm so that it can later appear in the seen one.
🗣️ It is rooted in a spoken word
Abraham kept believing “according to that which had been spoken” (Romans 4:18). A specific word from God, remembered and spoken, keeps faith alive when logic says no. Henderson points to Caleb, who carried one for more than forty years.
👑 It is where authority flows from
The disciples could not cast out a demon “because of your unbelief” (Matthew 17:19-20). Henderson: “the lack of authority is rooted in unbelief.”
⏳ It comes with patience
The promises are inherited “through faith and perseverance” (Hebrews 6:11-12). Henderson says some things he heard from God twenty-five or thirty years ago are “just now showing up.”
🥊 It is a fight
“Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Henderson: “Faith is not a quiet believing. It’s a violent pursuit.”
🏃 It has action attached
In Lystra, Paul saw that a man “had faith” and told him to stand up (Acts 14:8-10). If there is a way to put your faith into action, Henderson says, do it.
🎤 It has a voice
“I believed, and therefore I spoke” (2 Corinthians 4:13). Real faith produces a certain kind of language, and people of faith “guard their words.”
🩹 Applying It: Healing, Provision and Freedom
Henderson says the courtroom principle can be applied in “just about any area”: family, finances, healing. In the last session he shows how.
🪢 Healing: “You are loosed”
In Luke 13:10-13 Jesus sees a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years. First he says, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity,” and then he lays his hands on her. Henderson points out that the Greek word, apoluō, can mean to cancel a debt, to dissolve a contract, or to decree a divorce. So Jesus dealt with the legal hold first, and only then did his touch make her well.
He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up. When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight, and glorified God.Luke 13:10-13
Jesus explains it in everyday terms: you free an ox or a donkey from its stall and lead it to water (Luke 13:15-16). Henderson’s summary: “Getting healed is that simple. Get untied, which is the legal issue, and give him a drink, here’s the anointing.”
⚖️ Not every illness is a legal issue. Henderson says the enemy works from two bases: a legal one, and an illegal one, as a thief and a bully. His approach is to pray for healing first, and if there is no breakthrough, to ask whether a legal right is holding the person in that condition.
📖 Stories he tells
These are Henderson’s own testimonies, retold in brief.
A deaf ear opened
A woman who had been deaf in one ear for many years told Henderson that God had said that if she forgave her parents, her ear would be healed. She prayed a simple prayer of forgiveness. He says that when he prayed for her ear, it opened.
A woman rose from a wheelchair
A woman in her seventies came in a wheelchair with a severely damaged back. Henderson says he sensed the Lord say, “I’m going to do for her what I did for the man let down through the roof,” the paralyzed man whose sins were forgiven first (Mark 2:5). When she agreed to forgive her husband, who had left her with five children twenty-five years earlier, she stood up and pushed the chair out of the church.
A divorce decree after deliverance
A television host told Henderson that a spirit kept coming back no matter how often he told it to leave. Henderson suggested that, in addition to deliverance and inner healing, he ask the court for a “divorce decree” from the spirit and call his earlier repentance into record. About an hour and a half later the host told him, “I think it’s gone.”
💰 Provision: “your poverty”
In Zimbabwe, Henderson noticed one word in Proverbs 6:11: “so your poverty will come as a robber.” He heard the Lord say that poverty is “yours,” and that its legal right to operate against you has to be revoked. Deuteronomy 8:18 says God gives “power to get wealth.” Henderson teaches that the courtroom helps remove the legal rights that poverty claims.
👑 Priest first, then king. Henderson notes that believers are made a kingdom and “priests” (Revelation 1:6). Priests deal with legal issues; kings decree. At the tomb of Lazarus, he says, Jesus first dealt with the legal issues in prayer, and then stood at the tomb and made a decree. Deal with the legal matter first, then decree.
🩺 A note from this page, not from the teaching: Henderson’s stories are testimonies, not medical advice. If you are ill, keep seeing your doctor and taking your treatment, and bring your questions to the Lord as well.
🔑 Key Words Explained
The teaching uses a handful of legal and biblical terms again and again. Here they are in plain language.
Antidikos (adversary)
The Greek word in Luke 18:3 and 1 Peter 5:8. Henderson explains it as “one who brings a lawsuit,” a legal opponent. It describes the devil’s role in the court.
Katēgoros (accuser)
The Greek word in Revelation 12:10. Henderson explains it as “a complainant at law,” someone who brings an accusation before God, day and night.
Ekklesia (church)
The Greek word for church. In the ancient world it was a governing assembly that made decisions for a city. Henderson stresses this legal, governmental meaning.
Paraklētos (advocate, helper)
The Greek word used of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus (John 14:16, 1 John 2:1). Henderson calls it “legal aid”: the one who shows you how to move in the court.
Apoluō (loose, free)
The Greek word in Luke 13:12. Henderson says it can mean to cancel a debt, dissolve a contract, or decree a divorce.
The history of sin in a bloodline. The enemy looks in it for something legal he can use.
Verdict, judgment
A decision rendered by the Judge. In Henderson’s words, “Judgment simply means a decision rendered.” It is the aim of presenting a case.
Testimony, evidence
What is presented to the court. Revelation 12:11 says believers overcome “because of the word of their testimony.”
The books of heaven
The records in which God has written the purposes for your life (Psalm 139:16) and from which, Henderson says, a case must be presented (Daniel 7:10).
Calling into record
Asking the court to take note of repentance already made, so that you do not have to repeat it endlessly.
Statute of limitations
Henderson’s term for the limit he sees in Scripture on how far back a family line can be used against you: the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5).
The secret place and the council of the Lord
Two other dimensions of prayer next to the court: approaching God as Father, and as Friend on behalf of others.
❓ Common Questions
Do I need to see visions or be a prophet to do this?
No. Henderson says he sees little himself. He mostly hears and feels, and he steps into the court by faith. “You don’t have to be some super spiritual person to do this.” Spiritual senses grow with use (Hebrews 5:14).
Is this a formula that always works?
No. Henderson says clearly, “I’m not teaching you a formula here.” He says it is built on a history with God and a relationship with him: “if you come and you make me first in your life,” then the court becomes a place where answers come.
Doesn’t the cross already forgive everything?
Henderson answers: “The provision for them to be forgiven has been made, but you have to get that provision through repentance.” Repentance and faith are how a believer receives what Jesus did. That is why he says repentance is the first step in the court.
Does repenting for my ancestors change their salvation?
No. Henderson says it does not change anyone’s eternal destiny (Hebrews 9:27). It grants God the right to revoke the devil’s right to use their sin against you.
How far back do I go?
Henderson teaches the third and fourth generation, based on Exodus 20:5, and asks the court not to admit anything older. He used to pray “back to Adam and Eve” and no longer does.
Why would God allow the accuser to bring a case?
Henderson gives two reasons: God cannot be accused of injustice, and the case gives his people the chance to overcome and to gain a place they did not have before (Job 1; Luke 22:31-32; Revelation 3:21).
How long does it take?
Sometimes it is immediate; sometimes it comes in layers. The widow in Luke 18 kept coming. Henderson says there can be several layers, and “you undo this layer, then you undo this layer, until every legal argument that is standing against you is removed.”
What if I do not know what is written in my book?
Start with the significant words God has spoken to you over the years. Look for where the grace is: what you enjoy, are gifted for, bear fruit in, and where the right people confirm it. Ask God to show you, and worship, which Henderson says helps open the books.
Is this only for big things?
No. Henderson says it applies in “just about any area”: family, finances, healing and more.
What if nothing seems to happen?
Henderson’s counsel is to keep going and to keep your faith: Luke 18 ends with a question about faith, not just a verdict. If something remains, he suggests asking whether there is another layer or a legal matter not yet dealt with. It is also wise to seek the counsel of mature believers.
📜 Key Scriptures
Every verse below is quoted from the World English Bible and checked word for word. Tap a group to open it.
🏛️ The Court and Its Judge
“I watched until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came out from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set. The books were opened.”Daniel 7:9-10
But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.Hebrews 12:22-24
In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.John 14:2
Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?Genesis 18:25
⚖️ The Accuser and the Adversary
Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.1 Peter 5:8
I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.”Revelation 12:10-11
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have all of you, that he might sift you as wheat, but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers.”Luke 22:31-32
Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job?”Job 1:6-8
He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”Zechariah 3:1-4
🩸 The Blood and the Advocate
Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.”Genesis 4:10
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.1 John 1:7
wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;Colossians 2:14
My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.1 John 2:1
Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.Hebrews 7:25
🚪 Legal Ground
for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,Exodus 20:5
There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”2 Samuel 21:1
After that, God answered prayer for the land.2 Samuel 21:14
I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.Psalm 32:5
Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”Isaiah 6:5-7
“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”Matthew 5:23-26
Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse doesn’t come to rest.Proverbs 26:2
No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me.Isaiah 54:17
🙏 Three Dimensions of Prayer
But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.Matthew 6:6
Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’ and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’? I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.Luke 11:5-8
For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it?Jeremiah 23:18
He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”Luke 18:1-8
📖 Presenting a Case
Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.Psalm 139:16
Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.Psalm 139:23-24
Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.Romans 12:1
At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.Deuteronomy 19:15
who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,2 Timothy 1:9
This instruction I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which were given to you before, that by them you may wage the good warfare;1 Timothy 1:18
Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness.Psalm 41:1-3
“I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them.”Numbers 16:15
🌱 Faith
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when longing is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.Proverbs 13:12
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.Hebrews 11:1
Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”Romans 4:18
But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore also we speak;2 Corinthians 4:13
Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.1 Timothy 6:12
We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.Hebrews 6:11-12
🏙️ The Church and the Nations
I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.Matthew 16:18
I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.Isaiah 56:7
I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.Ezekiel 22:30
I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.Revelation 19:11
Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies.Psalm 110:2
🩹 Healing, Provision and Freedom
He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up. When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight, and glorified God.Luke 13:10-13
Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”Mark 2:5
so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.Proverbs 6:11
But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.Deuteronomy 8:18
World English Bible
🗂️ Session-by-Session Guide
The full video is about 5 hours 49 minutes long, so here is a map. Each ▶ button jumps the video to the start of that session.
1️⃣ The Foundation: A Realm You Can Enter · 0:00:00 · 46 min
Henderson tells the story that started it all, then lays the foundation: the Courts of Heaven are a spiritual dimension entered by faith, you do not need to be a seer, and the court works from the books in which God has written purpose.
His three-year season of loss and the bloodline prayer in South Africa
“Bring Adam to my courts”: fifteen minutes versus two years
Jesus teaches three dimensions of prayer. Henderson explains why prayers go unanswered, who the accuser is and why God allows accusations, then the three words for wrongdoing, ending with iniquity in the bloodline and a prayer of release.
3️⃣ Mount Zion and the Governing Church · 1:41:25 · 55 min
Hebrews 12:18-24 contrasts Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. Henderson shows that believers are already positioned in the heavenly courtroom, that the church is an ekklesia able to represent nations, and he introduces trading and the testimony of giving.
Sinai and Zion: where the New Testament believer stands
The “divorce decree”, and calling earlier repentance into record
A guided tour of Hebrews 12:22-24 as a courtroom: the blood that speaks, the accuser, Jesus as mediator and the testimony of Jesus, the witnesses, the Judge, the church, worship that opens the books, the angels, and heavenly Jerusalem.
The blood, the accuser and “a curse without a cause”
Jesus the mediator, and agreeing with his intercession
Back to Luke 18, but with a surprise: the parable ends not with a verdict but with a question about faith. Henderson describes hope deferred, then seven marks of genuine faith, and closes with a prayer for those whose hearts have grown sick.
Luke 18:8 and the purpose of the courts: revived faith
The practical session. Revelation 12:11: the blood dismisses and the testimony presents. Henderson explains the four-generation limit and gives five kinds of evidence: your book, prophetic words, what Jesus did, God’s promises, and an offering.
7️⃣ Healing, Provision and Freedom · 5:08:56 · 40 min
The last session applies the courtroom to everyday needs: money (Proverbs 6:11), healing (Luke 13), the anointing and forgiveness, with stories and a closing prayer of release.
Titles published by Destiny Image. Find them at your bookstore or from the publisher.
Operating in the Courts of Heaven
Receiving Healing from the Courts of Heaven
Unlocking Wealth from the Courts of Heaven
Prayers and Declarations That Open the Courts of Heaven
365 Prayers and Activations for Entering the Courts of Heaven
🧭 A Word of Balance
Good teaching invites you to check it. Paul’s advice is: “Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Read the verses for yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and keep Jesus at the center, as Henderson himself insists. As he says, this is not a formula, and it never replaces the relationship with God that makes any prayer worth praying. This page is also not a substitute for medical, legal or professional help.
🏛️ Ready to Go Deeper?
Watch the full teaching from the beginning, then come back to the sections above whenever you need a reference.
