Archive for the ‘prayer’ Category
Some time ago a friend invited me to go with her to a one-day seminar that covered areas of bondage in which Christians can find themselves. In fairness, I should say that from the start I did not see eye-to-eye with the presenter, who held some very outdated views about women and their needs. (It never ceases to amaze me how many men think they are experts on “what women want” – but that is a totally other soapbox that I won’t climb up on today.)
At the end of the day he gave handouts with pages of written prayers that people were supposed to use when they were involved in spiritual warfare. Now there was nothing scripturally wrong with what was written in these prayers, but I am absolutely convinced that for most people they would be totally ineffective for spiritual warfare.
I also understand that for many, they would have been exactly what they wanted – a “how-to” manual, cut-and-dried, just add your voice and no thought required. I understand that, because it’s what so many people ask for – “spiritual warfare prayers” that they can simply repeat and have the problem go away. What they want, basically, is a verbal “magic wand” … and that is precisely one of the reasons why it won’t work!
God does not work through “magic wands”. Ritual and legalism serve only to keep us distant from His power, not to release that power through us.
Our victory in spiritual warfare is based on three things: firstly, the finished work of Christ at Calvary, by which He once and for ever defeated satan; secondly, our personal relationship with Him and the authority He has given us; and thirdly, our understanding of those truths. Without those three things, we are at the mercy of the devil. It doesn’t matter how much Scripture we quote, or how many cookie-cutter prayers we read, if we don’t have that personal relationship and are not absolutely sure of Christ’s victory and our authority in Him, then we will be no better off than the sons of Sceva who tried to cast out demons “in the Name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.”
Now just in case someone thinks I’m saying that we shouldn’t pray as part of spiritual warfare, let me clarify that I am talking here about set prayers that someone else has written and we just parrot off. True prayer – prayer in which we actually express our heart and connect with God – is very much part of spiritual warfare. However, we also need to understand that, as well as prayer, we need proclamation – directly addressing the forces that come against us and declaring Christ’s victory and God’s will in the situation.
“Spiritual warfare prayers” might serve a purpose in giving you some understanding of how to pray, but they will never replace the expression of your own heart and mind.
Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com
Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod
This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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If you have been a Christian for more than five minutes, you have probably experienced times when hearing from God has been difficult. We know it shouldn’t be that way – after all, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice” – but that doesn’t help very much when our prayers just seem to bounce off the ceiling and God seems a million miles away.
There’s also the old guilt-producing line that “if God seems far away, He didn’t move, you did.” Of course, that is sometimes true. We have allowed busyness, problems or pleasures to get between us and the face of God, and we need to repent and get back to the intimacy of our relationship with Him. Other times, though, it is simply not true. We desire Him as much as ever, but try as we may we are simply not receiving the answers to our questions.
Daniel faced this problem, recorded in chapter 10 of his book. When an angel finally arrived with the answer to Daniel’s prayer, he explained that Daniel had been heard as soon as he prayed. However, there was a ruling principality over the area who had a vested interest in keeping Daniel from hearing what God had to say. That spiritual prince had wrestled with the angelic messenger, delaying him in bringing the answer to Daniel.
We may find this hard to understand. How can demonic forces hinder the message that God wants to give to His people? Sometimes we need to suspend our desire to understand: not that God wants us to be mindless Christians, but some things are simply beyond our human understanding. God’s Word clearly tells us that this is what happened, therefore we need to be able to simply accept it.
Unfortunately, many Christians live in blissful ignorance of the spiritual forces that surround us, and the constant battle that is being waged over this world. Just as those forces did not want Daniel to receive his answer from God, they also want to prevent us from receiving ours.
However, there are two things that are very different for us than they were for Daniel. The first is that, if we have been born again, we have the Holy Spirit, who is God, living within us. He has restored our human spirit as the part of our being through which He can communicate with us. As we learn to develop our spirit, we have a means of hearing directly from Him – something with which external forces cannot directly interfere.
There are times, though, when answers have to be dispatched not from the Spirit within us, but from the Throne Room. That’s where our second difference kicks in. Daniel had no authority over the battles in the spirit realm, but we have been given authority over all the power of the enemy. (Luke 10:19Luke 10:19
English: World English Bible - WEB
19 Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.
WP-Bible plugin) Jesus said that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. In other words, we have the power to enter the battle and fight on the side of God’s angels.
We need to be pro-active. Simply putting our petitions out there and waiting for the answers to come is not enough, particularly when our prayers relate to issues which will bring damage to the kingdom of darkness. We need to be actively standing against any force which would hinder the answers coming to us; we need to be binding (forbidding) the enemy from hindering or delaying those answers; we need to be declaring an open heaven; and we need to be actively expecting to hear.
Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com
Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod
This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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“In Jesus’ Name.” How regularly we tag those words on to the end of a prayer. Often we do it without even really thinking about what we are saying: it is just a formula, an extension of the “amen” which for most of us is simply a meaningless word, another way of saying “I’ve finished praying now.”
“In the name of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of England.” Would we use those words as easily? The idea seems almost laughable! Proclamations in the name of the Queen can only be made by those who have been given authority by her. Even then, the thing they are proclaiming has to be something that the Queen has actually decreed. No-one would even think of declaring in the Queen’s name something that was purely out of their own wishes and desires – and if they did think of it, and carried that thought into action, they could expect to face at best a lengthy jail term. On the other hand, when someone who has been authorized by the Queen makes in her name a proclamation that she has decreed, then that proclamation has authority to see that thing carried out, or to enforce penalties if it is not.
This applies even at a more mundane level. If mother tells Johnny, “Go tell Bobby I said to come in from play now,” then when Johnny goes to deliver the message it is the same as if Mother were speaking to Bobby personally. There is no use Bobby saying, “But it was only Johnny who told me!” Johnny went in Mother’s name, and therefore with her authority. However, if Johnny takes it upon himself to tell Bobby, “Mother said you are to give my your baseball bat,” it’s a totally different story. Mother said no such thing, and Johnny had no right to attach her name to his wishes. Not only does his demand not carry Mother’s authority, it is also likely to earn Johnny some strong discipline.
Jesus told His disciples, and through them, us: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.” Many of us have taken that as meaning that we can ask for anything we please, and as long as we tack “in Jesus’ Name” on the end, those words will be the magic wand that make God give us what we want.
We’ve got it back to front! The person issuing a decree in the name of Queen Elizabeth must first go into her presence and hear what it is she wants, and how it is to be said. If the decree is to carry the Queen’s authority, then it must be exactly what she wants. Johnny must carry to Bobby his mother’s wishes, not his own.
If this is true of any human situation where we speak in the name and authority of another, why can we not see that it is also true when we dare to speak in the greatest Name and the highest authority, that of the Lord Jesus Christ? His Name is not a magic wand to materialize our wishes. His Name is His authority, and His authority is based on His will.
Before we tack His Name on to the end of our prayers, we need to come into His presence. We need to bring our situations, our needs, our desires to Him, and hear from His throne what He wants to do about them. Then, confident that we are declaring the will of the Lord, we can add “in Jesus’ Name” to our prayers and decrees, knowing that indeed they are backed by all the authority of heaven.
If we don’t, we risk not only not having the authority of heaven, but actually being in defiance of God. Remember the commandment that says, “Do not take the Name of the Lord in vain”? We have taken this to refer to blasphemy, but surely using the Name of Jesus to back decrees that are not His but ours qualifies as using His Name “in vain.”
Of course, there are those who go to the opposite extreme. Rather than bring their own desires and declare them to be authorized by Jesus, they pray “if it be Thy will” prayers – and still tag “in Jesus’ Name” on the end of them! “If it be Thy will” prayers are meaningless. They are basically a way of washing our hands of the situation and saying, “God, do whatever You want.” They are an abdication of our responsibility to find God’s will in the situation and pray accordingly.
Some people base this kind of praying on Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not My will but Yours.” Jesus, however, was not saying, “I can’t be bothered finding Your will so just do whatever You please.” He knew the will of the Father: it was that Jesus go to the Cross. Rather than avoiding that will, Jesus embraced it. He said in effect, “Everything in My human will wants to avoid this, but I know that this is Your will, Father, so I submit My human will to Your will. I choose what You want, not what I want.”
Jesus wants us to pray in His Name. He has given us authority to pray in His Name. But our authority is always a derived authority. To speak effectively in His Name, we have to be speaking the things that He wants. We have to take the time to hear His heart and will in the matter. When we do, we will find ourselves speaking with an authority that heaven will not resist – and that hell can not resist.
Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com
Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod
This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
WP-Bible plugin)
Recently a team of scientists decided to test the power of prayer in relation to healing the sick. They took a group of sick people and divided it in two. One half of the group would receive prayer, the other would not, and neither group would know whether they were the receivers or the non-receivers. They then asked people around the world to pray for the first group. At the end of the experiment, the group which had received prayer had not made any better recovery than the group that had not, so the scientists in all their wisdom concluded that prayer for the sick simply does not work.
What could have caused this outcome? Very simply, the terms of reference given to those who were asked to pray. They were told to pray to whatever god or supreme being or spiritual force they worshiped. Thus many prayed to false gods, some prayed to dead people, and some “prayed” to no god at all, simply “directing good wishes” toward those for whom they were praying. No wonder it didn’t work!
In a very real sense, the scientists’ conclusion was right: Prayer doesn’t work! There is nothing in the act of prayer itself which has any ability to release power into any situation, other than the psychological comfort of “having prayed”.
The power is not in the prayer, but in the One to whom the prayer is addressed.
We see this graphically illustrated in the Old Testament in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). All day these false prophets danced around, shouting and even cutting themselves in an effort to get Baal’s attention. If prayer worked, the outcome of this story would have been very different than it is! The point of the story is, you can’t get the attention of someone who does not exist. If the object of your prayer is not real, then you can pray till you turn blue, but you will never get an answer! Likewise, if the object of your prayer has no power, then no amount of prayer will invest it with power. Prayer, in and of itself, does not work.
How different when Elijah prayed! He did not need to scream and shout and jump around. He simply presented his cause to the Living God, and God’s power – not the power of Elijah’s prayer – did the rest.
Prayer is like a pipeline. When the pipeline is connected to a water supply, you can turn on the tap and expect to get water. If the pipeline is connected to nothing, then no matter how fully you turn on the tap, nothing will flow.
The flip side of that, of course, is that even when the pipeline is connected to the right Source, we still need to turn on the tap. The water will not flow until we do.
There is only one God. He is the God of the Bible, the God who manifested Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only source of life, of wholeness, of power, of supply, and of every other good thing. If you are praying to any other god, your prayers will not work. Your pipeline is connected to emptiness.
If, however, you have a relationship with the Living God through the Lord Jesus Christ, then your prayers to Him have the ability to release His power into whatever situation you are bringing before Him.
Very simply, prayer in itself doesn’t work. Our God does.