Prayer Tools | Conducting the Power Of Prayer: Safety Measures

James 5:16, NLV“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

Prayer is powerful! It’s important to actually believe that when we pray we are conducting power. It IS producing results, but just like Spiderman’s Uncle says, “with great power comes great responsibility”. So today we are going to look at some safety measures of prayer so that we can conduct this power responsibly.

THE BLOOD of Jesus is our first safety measure.

-It protects us. When we plead the blood of Jesus it separates us from the works of the enemy. We can also plead the blood over others in prayer separating them by the blood of Jesus so that God can do a mighty work in their life.

-The blood speaks!

Romans 3:24-26 NLV says, “Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”

It is our perfect witness in the courts of heaven. And it ratifies our covenant with God.

I like to remind myself that it doesn’t just speak on MY behalf. It speaks on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the Lord too! ( husband, wife, children)

I have three boys. Two of them are “little Brothers” so I get a fair amount of tattling in my house. I cannot tell you how this wears on me when a little person I love comes to me with charges against another little person I love. Especially because they are suppose to love each other.

I often say this to them, “The Bible calls the devil our accuser. HE goes before God to tell Him of all the bad things we have done. But the Bible calls Jesus our advocate who pleads our case before our heavenly Father, God. Now children, whose team do you want to be on?!”

When we come to God let’s position ourselves on Jesus team, His team is called LOVE. Love is the last safety measure that we will talk about today, but you will see it’s thread all throughout this teaching. It’s the biggest thing on my heart and our greatest safety measure.

Back to the Blood, it connects us as a family to Jesus genetically, in our appearance, and our life source.

Romans 11:17 NLV says, that we have literally been GRAFTED into God’s family.

Ephesians 1:5-7 NLV, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.”

I don’t recommend this but when I got married I started to get a revelation of what it means to be grafted in to a new family; and especially because I was marrying into such a full of faith for healing powerhouse family.

So, I had all that new wife medical history paperwork to fill out and I decided I was going to fill it out based on my new heritage in Christ, which made it super fast to answer all million pages just checking “no” all the way down.  There’s no history of cancer or high blood pressure in God’s family, right?

All silliness aside, I still believe this, but I do fill out my paperwork the way the doctor prefers now.

SUBMISSION is our second safety measure.

John 4:7 NLV, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Submission to God is the first of the submission safety measures. We can’t expect God to move in our lives if we are resisting Him by trying to live our lives our own way. The way WE see as best which never really works out like we thought it would. We may get our way but it’s always empty.

Colossians 2:20
”Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules”.

Submitting to God brings us safety. The bible says there is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.”

The Bible also tells us to submit to authorities:

Romans 13:1-2 NLV, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”

We are to submit to authorities whether we like them or agree with them or not. When Clinton was in office I was pretty verbal about the fact that I wasn’t exactly his biggest fan. Everything I had to say about him sounded pretty smart and spiritual.

Then Bush took office and I LOVED him, but not everyone agreed with me. Everywhere I turned there was someone mocking him and slandering my favorite president.  I was SO angry and that’s when I began to develop this little lecture.

“ Whatever happened to honoring those in authority in this country?! And people wonder why our youth are so disrespectful to teachers and police officers, blah blah blah”

The Holy Spirit then reminded me of all the bad mouthing I had done when someone else’s favorite president was in office, who was also ordained by God. He had not been impressed by my “smart” and “spiritual” comments.

I was experiencing the same judgment that I had judged others with in my little lecture until I repented and God forgave me.

What about church leaders? It’s not uncommon to come across people who have been offended by church leaders. But the same principle applies. We are to submit to our church authorities as well.

When we really believe the truth in the Word that God has ordained all authority then we realize that we are not putting trust in a leader’s ability. We put our trust in God that His purposes will be established.

This goes for government officials, bosses, husband, pastors, and parents (if you have not married and” leaved” to cleave). I don’t submit to them because they are perfect. I do it because I know that God has my best interest on His heart. I trust who HE is even if I don’t trust my authority figure and God protects me.

Read how David responded to Saul. He was a great example of how to honor the most difficult authority. But notice that even he did not allow himself to stay in an abusive situation though he continued to love and hope for Saul to change his heart and do the right thing.

Esther honored her husband the king under difficult circumstances.

Abraham submitted to God when he brought his son to the altar as a sacrifice.

It’s easy to be submissive when we agree, but with adversity comes depth of character when we submit ourselves to God’s ways through it.

SUBMIT TO CORRECTION and remember that God corrects from the top down. If you see things in those in authority over you take it to the Lord, but do it from the position of love seeking to cover them and bring healing and restoration. But also be ready to listen closely to God’s response to you. Chances are He will also address some things in YOUR own heart that need corrected while your at it.

SUBMISSION TO THE WORD OF GOD is another safety measure for us in prayer.

SUBMITTING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT is another safety measure. It is prideful to think that we always know how to pray out situations and circumstances in our own life and the lives of others.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12 AMP, “There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.”

Thank fully God has provided a way for us to pray out His will.

Romans 8:26-28NLV, “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Carin likes to call this “praying to pray”. When we pray in the Spirit, remembering to always also pray for understanding, then the Holy Spirit:

1. Shows how to pray
2. Gives us the right heart and attitude to pray
3. Allows us to pray out His will

Love is probably THE most important safety measure.

Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31NLV, “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”

Never pray for someone out of an angry or bitter heart! Don’t misunderstand what I am saying, we DO need to pray when we are angry, but our first prayer is for God to change ME-NOT the other person.

Relationships are God’s special tool for refining us and especially in teaching us how to love like He does. We love to quote “Iron sharpens iron” but the reality of that is that it will make sparks. And sparks often start fires.

When we find ourselves in a relational fire don’t think that God is using you to change another person. That’s a little attitude I like to refer to as PRIDE.

There was someone in my life who God was using to teach me about His love and she was…let’s just say…stretching me. In order for me to get through some days I literally had to pray in the Spirit ALL DAY LONG; cause every time I stopped I felt angry again. Whenever I asked the Lord to show me how to pray for her, the word that came to mind was always MERCY.

So the Holy Spirit would get my heart right again and I would pray that God’s mercy would be new to her every morning. That she would find mercy at His feet and wherever she went even form me.

I was recently talking with a friend who is going through a difficult situation in her church. She is on the worship team and the pastor of that church wants worship to go a different direction than most of the rest of the congregation. People are even beginning to leave. She wanted to get a team together to pray about this. She believes in the power of prayer and loves her church and her pastors, but I had to caution her.

It’s good to pray instead of grumble, but what happens SO often is we get together to pray, but instead we spend a bunch of time talking about the problem instead of praying for the solution.

We pray out our frustrations and accusations, basically inviting a spirit of dissention to bring about a church split. Remember, we don’t pray out our own “way that seems right”.

Remember where the Bible says that leads?  DEATH!

Don’t allow yourselves to become enemies with God by praying from the wrong team.

Pray in love. This is always your position in prayer. Sometimes we need to pray to pray so that the Holy Spirit can get our hearts where they need to be.

Jude 20-22NLV, “But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

^{One of my favorite quotes is from Carrin Prickett. I even have it posted on my FB. “ Maturity isn’t casting out demons or healing the sick. Love is the mark of maturity.”}

^{What does godly love look like? We see a lot of things in the movies that the world calls love, but what does God say love looks like?}

^{1 Corinthians 13-14:1}

^{Love covers: Proverbs 10:21 NKJ}

^{Not critical Matt. 7:1-7}

^{Forgives Mark 11:25 ; Matt 5:23-24}

^{It is God who does the work in us as we submit to Him. We don’t have the power to change ourselves. That’s why we have a Savior. Philippians 2:13 NLV, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him..”}

Galatians 5:22-23NLV, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”