Introduction
When believers pray, many of us beg or plead with God to give us what He has already promised.
The Bible contains thousands of promises God made to mankind, but many in the Old Testament have “ifs” attached: if you do this, God will do that. For example, Deuteronomy 28 clearly lays out all the blessings you receive “if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands” (verse 1, NLT).
According to 2 Corinthians 1:20, the “ifs” are removed when we give our lives to Jesus! It does not say His promises are ours if we earn them. It’s not sometimes yes. It is always yes.
For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are [all answered] “Yes.” So through Him we say our “Amen” to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1:20 (AMP)
Rather than begging or pleading, our prayers should be a declaration of agreement with what God's Word says.
Going back to the list of blessings in Deuteronomy 28, you can declare that you are blessed in the city and the country. Your children are blessed, and you are blessed in all aspects of your career. God blesses you coming in and going out. He defeats your enemies for you. He lavishes you with good things. He throws open the doors of Heaven for you. He enables you to lend to others, not borrow. He makes you the head, not the tail; above, not beneath.
Just to drive the point home, the promises are sealed with “amen,” which means “so be it.” You cannot add anything more to what Jesus has done. The verse in 2 Corinthians points out that “amen” is spoken by us. In other words, when we get in agreement with God on His promises, it brings them into our life and brings glory to Him!
This process of declaring what is yours is vital—and powerful! As you pray, you need to verbally claim God’s promises of healing, wisdom, protection, victory and peace here on Earth.
Now, let's talk about six things prayer does in your life!
Prayer Forms Your World
According to the Word of God, your words determine the direction of your life. It’s not your parents, your doctor or your teachers. These may have had an influence over your past, but the words you speak now have great influence over your future.
When you speak, your words affect your mind, emotions, body, beliefs and the spiritual realm. Your words are powerful.
What do you want more of in your life? Speak those promises over yourself. And what about the people around you? You can have a huge impact on their lives by claiming God’s promises for them too!
For example, if you know someone who doesn’t know Jesus yet, claim 2 Peter 3:9 over them. Say something like this: “Father, You are so good. You want everyone to come into relationship with You. Thank you that Your will is not for (name of person you’re praying for) to perish, but for them to come to know You.”
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
You can claim 1 Timothy 2:3-4 for them too. It says that Jesus wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. Inspired by this verse, your prayer might sound something like this: “Father, Your Word says that You want all people to be saved and to know the truth. ALL people, which includes (name). Thank You, Father, that this is Your will for their life!”
God created the world with words, and you can create yours with words too. Take advantage of this powerful ability He’s given you!
Prayer Brings Healing
According to 1 Peter 2:24, you can access healing because of Jesus.
At one time in my life, I had bone chips in my ankles from injuries incurred when I was younger. Now and then, one of my ankles would lock up on me when I was just walking along. The pain was so excruciating that one time I almost passed out from it.
I had seen the doctors about it, which is something you should always do when you’re dealing with a health issue, and they were considering surgery. In the meantime, I decided to pray. For a couple of months, I spoke God’s promises of healing over my ankles.
After a while, I noticed that my ankles had stopped locking up. The truth is, if I would have needed surgery, I would have gone down that road without feeling bad about it at all. But in this case, surgery wasn’t necessary.
As the Scripture says, “Through His wounds, you were healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 (VOICE)
You can claim God's promises for healing too! Inspired by 1 Peter 2:24, you could say: “By Jesus’ stripes I was healed. Healing belongs to me. I’m not trying to do something to earn healing; I have healing right now because of Jesus.”
Based on Romans 8:11, you might say, “Thank You Father that Your Spirit dwells in me! Your Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, so He will have no trouble giving life to my mortal body!”
Psalm 103:2–5 holds another great promise. Say, “Father, I won’t forget Your benefits. You forgave all my sins and You heal all my diseases. You satisfy my desires with good things and my youth is renewed like the eagle's!”
No matter what kind of healing you're believing for right now, whether it's physical, spiritual, relational or mental—there are countless verses you can pray and declare over your life!
Prayer Commands Angels
The third thing prayer brings to your life is the power to release angels on your behalf.
Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.
Psalm 103:20 (NKJV)
Psalm 103:20 is worded very specifically. You might wonder why it doesn’t just say angels listen to God, because that would be accurate. But that’s not what it's saying here. It says angels heed the voice of His Word, which means you can speak His Word and cause them to go to work on your behalf.
Hebrews 1:14 (AMP) says that angels are “ministering spirits sent out [by God] to serve (accompany, protect) those who will inherit salvation.” Isn’t that incredible? If you’re a believer, angels are here to serve you! You need to know that they are on standby, ready to spring into action when you speak God’s Word!
Listen to how Daniel described an angel he encountered: “His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people” (Daniel 10:6, NLT).
Psalm 34:7 (VOICE) says that the angel of the Lord “surrounds everyone who walks with Him and is always there to protect and rescue us.” Imagine it: these incredible beings are all around you and your family, just waiting for you to give them something to do.
Be the voice of God’s Word. Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV) says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” That’s a great verse to speak over someone. Imagine those angels going to work in the lives of your loved ones, intervening on God’s behalf to make sure that every attack against them is thrown down!
Prayer Brings Wisdom
There is a fight that takes place in Christianity. It’s not about fighting among each other, and it’s not about fighting demons. Our fight is to stay in faith, to keep our focus and stay the course.
To win this fight, you need to keep claiming God’s promises over your life so you can stay in faith. One great thing to pray for is wisdom: the ability to make sound decisions that apply knowledge, experience and good judgement.
For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom...
Colossians 1:9 (AMPC)
One great Scripture to pray over yourself, your family and your friends is Colossians 1:9-10. You can pray something like this, filling in the names of the people you're praying for in the blanks.
“Father, thank You for filling me (and/or someone else’s name) with a full, deep and clear knowledge of Your will. Give me wisdom and insight into Your ways and purposes. Help me to understand spiritual things, so I might:
- Walk in a manner worthy of You, fully pleasing to You and desiring to please You in all things,
- Bear fruit in every good work,
- Steadily grow and increase in and by the knowledge of You,
- And get to know You on a deeper level.”
Claim this verse over yourself and the people you love, and begin walking in greater wisdom today!
Prayer Brings Peace
Do you ever feel insecure, stressed-out, worried or anxious?
When you’re struggling to overcome something, one of the best things you can do is focus on the opposite. Don’t focus on what you don’t want. Focus on what you do want by meditating on what God’s Word has to say about it.
When it comes to peace, God’s Word has a lot to say. Start by taking a look at Isaiah 26:3. It says you can have peace by keeping your mind on God. Look at Philippians 4:6-7 (VOICE) next. It says, “Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come. And I know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One.”
These two Scriptures give you tips for how you can experience peace: keep your mind on God, pray and be thankful. But in John 14:26–27, Jesus also promised that we as believers can have peace just because Holy Spirit is in us. He said that He was leaving His peace with us… as a gift.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:27 (NKJV)
This means that we can claim peace. You can say, “I have peace because Jesus said He’s already given it to me!” In saying this, you are dominating fear. You are walking in the authority you’ve been given and are determining what you will have in your life. Claim His peace today!
Prayer Calms the Storm
Words are powerful.
Mark 4 tells the story of when Jesus calmed a violent storm with nothing more than words. You may have heard this story before, but there are a couple of things I’d like you to notice today.
First of all, as the story begins, Jesus didn’t say, “Hey guys, let’s all get in this boat and hopefully, God willing, we'll get to the other side.” No, He said, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake” (v. 35, NLT).
When the storm began to blow in and the situation didn’t seem to be heading toward what Jesus had spoken, the disciples started to panic. Waking up Jesus, they said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we're going to drown?” (v. 38). They couldn’t understand why Jesus wasn’t as freaked out as they were.
But Jesus had spoken the direction. He knew where they were going, and it wasn’t to the bottom of the lake.
"When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Silence! Be still!' Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm."
Mark 4:39 (NLT)
When storms rise up that are contrary to what God says you can have in your life, get up and speak to the storm. When the situation is contrary to the healing, prosperity, peace or joy His Word promises you can have, tell that situation to be calm because you’re headed to the other side!
What storm do you need to rebuke today? Tell it to leave, in Jesus’ name, and then claim God’s Word.
Conclusion
As believers, we have formidable power available to us. James 5:16 clearly states that earnest, heartfelt prayers cause tremendous power to work dynamically in our lives.
The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].
James 5:16 (AMPC)
I compare the power available to us to the potential held in a cloud of gasoline vapours. When you pour gasoline on something, it forms a cloud of invisible gas. The more gas you pour, the larger the cloud. The cloud has potential power; it’s just waiting for something to ignite it. All it needs is a little spark for it to explode.
You can cause God’s power to go ahead of you in every area of life by praying the prayers in this eBook. You don't need to wait until you have a health problem to claim God's promises for health and healing. You don't have to wait for hard times to come before praying for God’s help. Instead, you can thank God for His favour, wisdom and financial prosperity right now!
