How to Win Your Spiritual Battle: Prayer

Prayer is simply communication with God. How I communicate and how you communicate can be very different but God hears us both. Most people think they have to say “thou” and “thee” in prayer. That is a misnomer. Prayer is talking with God and sharing our hearts with him. It really isn’t that deep. There are various types of prayer, but I’m going to talk about six types today. I guarantee you, if you pray these prayers your battle won’t be as hard as it is now.

Confession – Means to clean your self of all known sin. It is very important that you start your prayers this way. Don’t go before God with your list of what you want him to do when you are filthy from your sin. I had to say it like that because that is exactly what most Christians do. Most Christians never confess their sins. We want to keep our sin and tell God to get us out of trouble. God pays very close attention to this aspect of prayer. Here’s proof: Jeremiah 7:9-11: Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

TRANSLATION: Do you have the nerve to waddle and live in your sin, then have the audacity to come in my face and say I am free to do as I will! Your sin is not hid. I see it!

We do ourselves a disservice when we think we can do what we want then approach God as if we are clean as a whistle. When you confess your sin you acknowledge your wrong doing so that there is nothing standing in between you and your communication with God. Believe it or not many people do not see battles won because of this area. Why should God get you out of an area when he knows you are going to go right back in and do the same thing again?? It really doesn’t matter the order in which you pray, but I would suggest you confess first so your conversation can get started with God.

Supplication – Means to continually ask for a heartfelt desire (deliverance, protection, guidance, material goods, favor, wisdom etc). What is it that you want God to do for you? Do you want a new job, better housing, greater anointing, peace, joy, a wife, a husband? To supplicate means to ask. Battles are sometimes won just by us asking God for what we want. Christians are sometimes bitter and jealous because someone has what they want. Well, ASK GOD! Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. This scripture means that you are to continually ask. A great metaphor to use is a child who continually asks their parent for a toy. Children don’t ask just once, they keep asking. They ask so much until they get on their parent’s nerve. Asking God for what you want relieves your burden. You may be fighting unnecessarily because you are too stubborn to ask God for what you want!

Intercession – Means to pray for someone else (deliverance, protection, guidance, material goods, favor and wisdom). Is your child on drugs, sexing it up with all the women and men they can see, being lazy, rebellious? Is your husband prideful? Is your boss a tyrant? Are there shootings in your neighborhood? Is your mom/dad sick? Then it is time for you to intercede! To intercede means to set up a hedge (barrier) between two things. You have the power to set up a hedge between life and death!. You don’t believe me? Ezekiel 22:30 - And I (God) sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. See that! God is looking for someone to pray for others so destruction can be stopped. But we are so busy thinking of ourselves that we don’t have time for others. Most times we are trying to solve our problems outwardly. That does work, but there are also times that you must go into the spirit and get your answer.

Thanksgiving – Means to show appreciation and gratefulness to God. How many times have we been in battle and have expressed our ungratefulness? Many! We’re riding in a Honda, and we sulk because we want a Lexus. We are eating chicken and are complaining because we don’t have steak. We are making 10/hr and are mad because we want 20/hr. Sad to say, Christians can be most ungrateful! If you possess that attitude, then go into prayer thanking God for what you do have. And pray that prayer until you mean it!

Worship – Means to show honor and reverence to God. You ask nothing in worship, you just take time to extol him. Your prayers should contain phrases like: I honor you God; You are high an d lifted up; You are worthy; You are Great. Worship keeps God in the forefront of your battle. Worship also causes you to be humble before God. When you are worshipping you are never to give God any of your righteousness or credentials! They mean nothing in his Presence! Your whole demeanor should be that of a humble servant, bowing down in the presence of the Almighty God. He is greater than your battle and you should tell him that. He is Jehovah Jireh (Provider), Jehovah M’Kaddesh (Sanctification), Jehovah Shalom (Peace), Battle Axe and Weapons of War (Self explanatory). Worship let’s God know that you have power to do NOTHING and that you are totally dependent upon Him to fight for you!! Whew, I wish I could write more but there’s only so much room!

Declaration – Means to speak your outcome to your opponent in the spirit. This prayer should contain phrases such as: I am the head and not the tail, above and not beneath; I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread; I am more than a conqueror though Christ Jesus; Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world; I will not be defeated; Who shall separate me from the love of God!. See that? You are speaking directly to your opponent in the spirit. You are boldly professing the outcome of your battle – EVEN THOUGH YOU DON’T SEE IT YET! This takes faith because it may look like you are losing. You may be getting sicker, but you MUST DECLARE WHAT YOU WANT IN THE SPIRIT SO YOU CAN SEE THE OUTWARD RESULTS! Yes, yes…it seems stupid, but that is what faith is. It is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen! Sometimes when I am declaring I tell the devil that he is the thing that he is trying to get me to be. For example, when he tries to get me to believe that I am sick, I tell him he’s sick! Sickness does not belong to me, sickness belongs to him! When I don’t have any money and he tries to tell me that I’m poor, I tell him that he is poor! Poverty is his portion, not mine! I don’t care what it looks like outwardly!! When my children act up, I remind him that my children belong to God! God told me “My children will be taught of the Lord and great shall be their peace!”. I don’t give a hoot-nanny what my children are doing. I declare my outcome, not the devil!!

Yes, ladies and gentleman, fighting is hard but the more you fight the better you will get! Cause believe me, you will be fighting something every now and again. Either you are going to fight your flesh or the tactics of the devil or your own mind and will or something! So, it’s better for you to start learning how to fight now.

One thing I can say about the years of fighting I had to do is that I never laid down for the devil! NEVER! He may have blacked my eye a couple of times, but I never gave him the satisfaction of him putting his foot on my neck! And neither should you. Whatever the devil stole, get it back. Whatever you gave to the devil, get it back! Stop whining and crying and put your hands up and FIGHT. And if you don’t win Round 1, win Round 2. And if you don’t win Round 2, win Round 3. Keep fighting until you win.

AND DON’T YOU DARE COME OUT OF THE BATTLE EMPTY HANDED!