Are You Praying Up or Down?

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I’ve often wondered the point of prayer. If God knows everything, then why do I need to pray?

I’ve been taught that prayer isn't about changing God but about changing me. That's true, but there is so much more. If you don't believe that prayer really changes outcomes, it's hard to pray with any kind of power or real faith.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He told us to say “Kingdom of God - Come! Will of God - be done!” (Matt. 6) This passage in original Greek is in a command form. Jesus didn’t teach us to say, “Well, if it’s your will God, maybe you could do this or that.” He actually taught His followers to pray with authority and to pull heaven down to earth.

Have you noticed that our world is really crying out? There is much strife, suffering, violence, and injustice going on in our world. Papa God is not sitting back on His laurels not caring about human beings. However, sometimes we pray like He is.

I want to suggest that when we flip the direction of our prayers, everything begins to shift. We can pray up our requests and complaints, or we can pray with the Holy Spirit and call heaven down. (Heb. 7:25, Rom. 8:26-27) Holy Spirit is always making intercession on our behalf. What if our prayers matched His?

Here are some examples of prayers that bring heaven down:

• Papa, You say in Your Word that You were wounded for our sin and crushed for our iniquities. That by Your stripes we are healed. (Is. 53) So Father, I know Your heart for our world is healing, wholeness, and Shalom. You desire for all people to come to know You (2 Peter 3:9). So Lord, release Your healing, wholeness, and Shalom into the earth. Send Your angel armies to fight, defend, and protect human life.

• Break the chains of injustice and the calluses of indifference in our hearts. Open the floodgates of real love, that men and women would find their true identity and worth in Your perfect love. I break off the spirit of confusion around identity, and pray that your sons and daughters would know who they are by how You see them.

• Send Your Spirit of Wisdom and divine strategy over our government, the CDC, and all leaders and organizations working in our world. Surround the decision-makers with divine wisdom and people full of Your heart.

• Father, in the name of Jesus, I bind the enemy and his cohorts - that every lie would be exposed, that every enemy strategy and tactic would be stopped. I declare that for every inch taken by the enemy, a mile would be returned and redeemed back to You.

• Rain down mailbox money for those in financial distress. Pour out new businesses and strategy to earn a living for those without jobs. Ignite the fires of new ideas, innovation, and vision. Give people all over the world an ability to be nimble and shift quickly.

• Show up in dreams, thoughts, and in the midst of obedience. Reveal and release the complete cure for Covid and not just that - but for many viruses. Accelerate the coming of the cure. If it is already here, expose and highlight it. Bring the cure for cancer while we seek out answers for Covid. Surprise us with infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.

• Holy Spirit, comfort the lonely. Remind them of their significance, and shut off the voices of suicide and depression. Don't let the guns go off. Reroute the trains. Thwart every plan of suicide. May it simply not work. And restore purpose, beauty, and peace to every tormented mind and soul.

• Jesus help the kids. Provide new avenues for kids to have interaction, learn, and be loved.

When praying for heaven to come down…some of my favorite words to use are:

•  Release

• Restore

• Revive

• Awaken

• Defeat

• Crush

• Break through

• Send

• Launch

• Open

These are all action words that release faith as you pray. There are a million more, but I wanted to give you some concrete examples.

Prayer is powerful when we get into the Word of God and start using the words of God.

When we get clarity about what God desires, there is no limit to the power of our prayers in Christ. The fire, faith, and fervor of our words skyrocket into the ears of God.

I believe prayer actually changes things. I believe it changes outcomes. It's not that God changes His mind, it's that our prayers pull down what God wants to see happen. Our prayers activate angels and break demonic strongholds.

We are in a spiritual battle, but we are not fighting alone. We are fighting with all of heaven for the hearts and souls of people.

We need all Christ-followers on deck. It's time to understand our authority as children of God. When we pray with God's thoughts and heart, we are echoing the prayers and words of the Holy Spirit. And that kind of prayer is POWERFUL!

Let’s pull down heaven, and may all heaven break loose!

Joyfully,

Rachel B.

Push and Praise

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Sometimes we need to push and praise simultaneously. This is one way we ACTIVATE our faith. Faith means we push with our prayers all the way for the breakthrough. We praise in the middle of the pressing in, and then no matter what the outcome is…we keep praising.

Push and Praise. Start doing this is your everyday life, and you'll start to see your prayers and intimacy with the Lord come to life. Why? Because faith always pleases God. He actually likes it when you push, when you press in. He tells us to come boldly before the throne of grace. (Hebrews 4:16)

No more weak-willed prayers asking only once. Be persistent, believing that what you are pressing-in for matters to Him, and it honors Him. If it's in His Word, and it's how He teaches us to pray, and we know it's His will…there's nothing holding you back. Nothing. Press in for that request. Press in for that healing. Press in for that financial breakthrough. Press in for that acceptance letter. Press in for that new job or career.

I think we often miss out because of two reasons.

• We don't get certainty about God’s will. We’re afraid to pray the wrong thing. But God’s will is not a mystery anymore. It’s revealed through Jesus in His Word. The Scriptures are full of descriptions of His will and ways. You can learn the ways of God, and know how He moves. His will is revealed through the actual life of Jesus and the pages of Scripture. Go find the clues. Go find the heart and principle behind it. It will make your prayers have exponential impact because you'll begin to pray in partnership with God.

• We don't pray through. We quit before the finish line. I wonder how many outcomes we might exchange if we just had a faith that went all the way to the finish line. Pray through for the breakthrough.

Friend, I encourage you today to push. Push and praise all the way. Press in to God with your prayers. Press in to agreement with His will and Kingdom. Press in for the things that have not yet come to pass.

Did you know that the Holy Spirit is praying for you? This means your prayer life is actually a partnership-life. You are co-operating with the Holy Spirit when you pray. Press in.

You're not only pressing in TO the heart of God, you're pressing in WITH the heart of God.

 

And always: praise, praise praise. When you praise, you raise your expectation and perspective in Christ.

Praise gives you a raise.

So…get your worship on. Celebrate, thank, and sing of God's worth in your home, car, and spheres of influence.

Push and Praise. This is God's heart and way for you. And it will empower you to “live above the line.”

Joyfully,

Rachel B.

PS - when you pray, you’re not up against a wall. You’re partnering with a God who can collapse walls with the sound of an obedient shout. (Remember Jericho?) #boom.

Affirmation for Healing

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Before we get to today's affirmation, I would like to provide some helpful information. Sickness is a part of the curse, the fall, and it was not God's original intention for us. The Bible teaches this. The primary way we know this to be true, is that man was not originally created to die. Man was to live with limitless communion with God in the Garden - in perfect health, vitality, and life. It was after sin was introduced and chosen that sickness, infirmity, shame, and disconnection from God occurred. Because of this, we know that God's heart towards us is health and life.

I believe we are called to bring the Father's heart and will to our world. This is what Jesus teaches when He taught the disciples to pray the famous "Lord's Prayer". In this beautiful prayer, Jesus says, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done." These are key phrases and clues on how to pray. If we were to dig into the Greek, we would hear the command form of these phrases…and they'd say something like, "Kingdom of God: COME!! Will of God: BE DONE!" They are emphatic and declarative in nature. That's the original meaning and grammatical structure.

Question: Why would Jesus tell us to pray like this?

Perhaps it is because there is so much that happens in our world that is NOT His heart, intention, or will for us. He's not un-powerful or timid, but He does give us the freedom to choose and make decisions. We all make horrible decisions at times. This prayer reminds us to pull the heart of heaven down to earth. It reminds us to be in communion with God and to call down His will and heart for us. Our prayers and words matter.

That's what this affirmation is about. From personal experience, I've seen a lot of people experience prolonged illness. I've walked through it myself. I believe sickness is a plot of the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy. God, however, is so redemptive in nature, that He often uses the sickness, that the enemy has brought on us, to bring glory to Himself and to save others. This doesn't mean that sickness should get glory. Nor that sickness is God’s “fault.” This does mean that God is really good at being redemptive. It also means that when we experience sickness, we should keep our eyes open to how God is going to use and redeem the situation. And, simultaneously, it is right and good to PUSH BACK against that sickness; to go to the doctor, to do the treatment, to seek prayer. We are in alignment with God and His kingdom when we stand up to it, push back, rebuke, and cancel the demonic assignment over our lives.

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What am I saying? Stand up to sickness. Don't let it be the loudest voice. Don't make it comfortable in your body or let it become your status quo. Fight! And if you're too weary to fight, find a tribe that can fight with you and for you! Find your prayer warriors. They are out there. And they are ready to stand with you and do spiritual warfare with their prayers.

I realize eventually we all die. There's no getting around that. And we all get the flu or colds and various things throughout our lives. We don't need to pretend that we aren't sick (if we are). We don't need to sensationalize or make up a miracle. BUT, and this is a big but, our mindset makes a huge difference in our healing.

Our mindset and our words make a huge difference in our health or sickness.

So please, please, be careful little mouths what you say!

Be sure to release and speak life over yourself. Release Jesus' healing virtue over yourself and your loved ones. This is good and right to do. Everywhere that Jesus went, while He was on earth, He healed people. God is in the business of healing! Align with His heart about this. Get it deep into your spirit. God is a Healer, and He wants to heal - even you!

I hope you'll speak this affirmation frequently and fervently over yourself, knowing that you are lining up with God's point of view!

AFFIRMATION

I declare that all sickness, infirmity, affliction, depression and anxiety are rendered powerless over my body, mind, and spirit in Jesus name. All assignments of sickness, infirmity, affliction, pestilence, depression and anxiety are hereby revoked in the name of Jesus Christ.

SCRIPTURES

Isaiah 53:5 NLT “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

Matthew 8:14-17 ESV “14 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’ ”

This Matthew passage makes clear that Jesus not only heals our sin, but also our sicknesses in our bodies. He bore our physical diseases. This is why it is good to stand with Jesus, in agreement, and push against sickness.

You might have a million questions bouncing around in your brain. I certainly don't have all the answers. Healing, as beautiful as it is, sometimes get controversial in the church arena. I really don't know why. I encourage you to keep it simple. Jesus healed and Jesus prayed. Go and do likewise.

Joyfully,

Rachel B.

Over-Achiever PS:

If you want an additional boost on healing in Scripture…

Psalm 91 is a POWERHOUSE, and it's a great one to memorize!