Pray to God with Authority
Luke 10:19
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
Do you pray with the authority that God has given us? We must always pray with the power given to us by Jesus Christ due to his victory on the cross. The enemy was defeated at the cross! So often we pray whimpy, pleading prayers that sound something like… “maybe if God wasn’t doing something better already, if it wasn’t too much trouble, he might possibly be able to help us out when we were in a bit of a jam….but only if it wasn’t too inconvenient.” It is hard to believe God would honor a prayer that doesn’t even sound like WE believe will come true. We need to pray with AUTHORITY and CONFIDENCE in our Almighty God!
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We need to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”. Do you need to do this as much as I do? My mind runs rampid sometimes with negative thoughts that are not of God. The Bible says DEMOLISH these thoughts! We need to pray this scripture with authority to destroy the negative self-talk, depression and despair that often gets stuck inside our own heads. This scripture is for us right now! Turn off the news, shut down the social media, and pray to remove the thoughts that are contrary to our knowledge of God. These thoughts are of the world and designed to draw us away from our authority in heaven. We need to be aware and not be defeated. The Bible tells us that as believers we have overcome.
1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 5:4-5 For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Are you a consistent prayer warrior? Do you approach prayer with passion or passivity? Do you pray the same old prayers out of complete habit, but no faith? Maybe you are faithful at prayer, but passively reiteratering what you have prayed a hundred times before. I am confident that God is still listening, but it is hard to believe he is moved by this kind of passive prayer. I was thinking the other day that if I was in a health crisis that I wouldn’t allow someone to pray over me who didn’t believe to their very core that I would be healed in that moment. If you don’t believe what you’re praying, I don’t even want your prayer. I may be wrong, but it seems like it would just be white noise to God at that point. Matthew 5 gives a pretty good argument why that may actually be the case.
Matthew 5: 5-7, 8
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
I want someone to pray over me that is going to pray like a Girl Scout selling thin mints at my door! Fully knowing I am going to buy cookies and fullfill her prayer! I want to be prayed over with that kind of optimism!
Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
I struggled with having a consistent prayer life for most of my life and even now I don’t think I would win any blue ribbons, but I am faithful to pray often throughout my day. If you don’t already do this, I encourage you to surrender and pray over trials throughout your day. It will help you submit your challenges to the Lord and allow him to show you how he is working through them. Start small if you wish; I am thankful in prayer for every little thing that goes right throughout my day. God gets the glory for everything; people showing up to their appointments on time, great parking spaces, an unexpected sale, etc. I have found it easier to train my brain to be in prayer when I am giving God thanks for everything that I get blessed with throughout the day. This has also allowed me to trust that God is going to work things out for his purposes when I feel less than blessed. Spend time with the Lord and draw near to him, I can assure you that you will not be sorry you spent your time in prayer.
James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Once you have incorporated prayer into your daily life, set aside space and time to be on your knees before the Lord. It doesn’t matter if it is a bathroom floor. Find a place you can focus and be still before the Lord, even if it is only a few minutes every day. Pray with assurance. There are many scriptures here to incorporate into praying with authority.
Romans 8:31
If God is for us, who can be against us?
God will meet you there.
Matthew 5:6
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
My husband often says that our little Cairn Terrier, Logan, is the king of optimism. Logan is convinced that we will drop something if we are in the kitchen. He never misses an opportunity to be at our feet waiting for the next morsel. He has no doubt that he will be rewarded for his commitment. He waits patiently in expectation even when we assure him there is no chance. This is EXACTLY how we need to pray. Expectantly, optimistically and with utter certainty that our prayers will be answered.
Deuteronomy 28
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. 8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. 12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
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4 thoughts on “Pray to God with Authority”
I am new to this site, and I absolutely love it!
I am so thrilled that you love the content here! Make sure to subscribe so you receive weekly encouragement straight to your inbox. Stay tuned, I hope to do much more with the site in the near future. Welcome & God bless!
Love that you included Logan in your encouragement this day. Great example. Keep going Valerie, there are some of us that look forward to your blogs but may not get to them the same day. I for one am very grateful that you can pour your heart out on paper and fill our hearts with encouragement. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. It means a lot to know that my words are filling your heart. God is good!