“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
James 4:2-3
All prayer is not equal. I’m sure if you’ve had people pray over you, you can feel the difference. Some people beg God to have the will to heal them. Some believe God is a good Father, He knows what’s best and they trust if they align their faith to His word, He will do something powerful with that.
People who understand prayer use it as an offensive and defensive strategy and apply their prayers accordingly.
People who understand their authority, pray from a position of power. They recognize the true enemy and bind and release whatever is needed.
- Prayer releases God’s will upon the earth. This is why we must study the word of God to know the will of God. Effective prayer always includes God’s word.
- Our faith is released through our words. We can build up our own faith by recounting what God has done for us personally, the people we know and the testimonies in the Bible.
- We’ve been given authority to bind and loose. This means we can bind the works of darkness (such as sickness, disease, witchcraft, poverty) and we can loose ourselves from the works of darkness.
Our prayer responsibility:
- We must understand the will of God by studying and understanding God’s word.
- Life and death are in the tongue. We steward our lives well by confessing God’s will with our tongue.
I want to share the powerful healing testimony of a friend named Sherry. Sherry was about thirty four and dealing with a lot of personal stress in her life. She noticed weird sensations around her eye and in her face. She went to the hospital and after several tests, they determined she had MS. When she got back from the doctor, Sherry wept and cried out to God, asking Him for guidance. Through teary eyes, she saw a vision of a coat. She wondered what it was, asking God for clarity. He spoke to her spirit: “That’s the coat of MS if you put it on, you will begin to identify with it and this will make it harder to come against. The choice is yours. Do you want to wear MS as if it is yours?”
Sherry quickly replied. “No, Lord! I refuse!” She felt God’s smile upon her. Then heard the simple instruction: “Look up MS and all it entails. The way it effects the muscles, nerves, brain, and body. Then use this knowledge to create a blueprint of prayer. This is your offensive strategy.” Sherry began to get the symptoms of MS. It would travel down her arms, into her legs and along her face. But she continued praying God would protect her myelin sheath surrounding her nerves.
She got a brain scan, and it revealed lesions all over her brain. The doctors said her situation was grim. But Sherry refused to allow that coat to settle on her shoulders. She witnessed several people who were diagnosed with MS that identified with it, because it gave them benefits…they relished the pity and attention, which made them feel special. Sherry was repulsed by pity. She wanted vitality, prosperity, strength, and beauty. MS was a stronghold of destruction. She saw if she responded to the seduction by just lying down and accepting it, she would die before her time and God had so much more to do through her. Sherry took prayer as if it were her medicine. She began telling her body how to function and rejecting every word curse her doctor’s spoke over her. Over time she was feeling better. And better. In fact, she was doing so well when the doctors took her brain scan, they found the lesions had completely disappeared! I just visited Sherry. She is in her 70’s and is the picture of beauty and vitality. She has been cleared from MS for a long time and seeing her is a true testament to the power of our words and prayer.
We must not partner with the natural realm…the things we see and our realm’s limited possibilities. We must partner with what God says and His will. Only then will we have the chance to partner with His supernatural possibilities. For those who are sick of the limitations and options this world gives you, prayer is for you!
Many of these points came from John Eckhart’s book, Prayers that Rout Demons and Break Curses.
