Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 156
TRANSCRIPT
I think we have all heard the children’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” If not, here you go: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my Soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my Soul to take.” Prayer is something we often discuss, yet it is rarely practiced. I want to examine prayer from an RTF perspective. Come along, I ‘pray’ that this podcast helps you.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations, and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. When I was in seminary, I took a class on prayer. It was a very insightful look at prayer from a theological point of view. I think at the time, I took 15 pages of notes about the subject of prayer. The one thing we did not do during that class was we did not pray. We talked all about the subject of prayer, but we never spent even a minute praying. I have also been in churches where there was a Sunday School class on prayer, but yet again, no actual praying. Why is that? Hopefully, in this podcast, we can examine prayer from an RTF perspective.
According to the dictionary, prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship/higher power. If you have listened to these Hope Healing and Freedom podcasts, you know that I was raised in a pretty legalistic church. There were many requirements to be considered to be a good Christian. Prayer was on that list. It was never actually taught this way, but it was implied that a good Christian would pray for an hour a day. It was also implied that a good Christian would read their Bible for an hour a day. As a young Christian who was easily distracted, I regularly failed to fulfill the hour of prayer and another hour of Bible reading. Being part of a legalistic church, I felt condemned for not being able to fulfill these requirements.
Thank God for RTF! Let me explain how RTF has helped set me free in my prayer life. As you know, the first area that RTF ministers to is the family baggage we inherit from our ancestors. And in the area of prayer, I had a lot of baggage. The legalism in my church was due to the influence of a religious spirit. This religious spirit takes the simplicity of having a personal, intimate relationship with Father God and complicates it with rules and requirements. The religious spirit is where that one hour of prayer requirement came from.
I know you will recognize this religious spirit, but here are some of the characteristics of this religious spirit:
Excessive Rules: This spirit takes the simplicity of the gospel and a relationship with Jesus, Father God, and the Holy Spirit, and it makes it into a long list of rules and regulations. It took the simplicity of the Ten Commandments and turned them into 613 laws that the people had to follow.
Legalism: I remember being in a charismatic church that believed they were walking in freedom, only to recognize that our church was maybe just as legalistic as some other churches we were trying not to resemble. We were just legalistic about our freedom. Our legalism said things like you have to worship this way, and you have to pray this way. And you don’t dare sing one of the old hymns because that is legalism. Yet out of our desire to walk in freedom, we had adopted a liturgy that would rival traditional denominations. This spirit twists well-meaning believers into something they don’t want to be. I had an interesting conversation with a young man the other day who is a very devout member of a Christian denomination, which I will not name. His struggle was with some of the people who worked in his office, who were Catholic. He was adamant, according to his legalistic denomination, that Catholics could not be saved. I think his church was being used by this spirit to cause more division in the body of Christ.
Religiosity: Have you been around someone who is so religious that it makes you want to gag? This spirit causes some people to sound so religious that they are obnoxious. It is not the people; it is this spirit.
Works Mentality: This spirit wants people to get so busy about the work of the church that they miss out on having a relationship with God. This is what happened to the older brother in the story of the prodigal son. He was so busy serving his father that he missed out on having a relationship with his father.
There can be other baggage that hinders our prayer life that needs addressing. Things like unbelief, fear, or shame. It is important to apply the RTF ministry steps to each of these areas of family baggage to stop the iniquity from continuing to put pressure on you.
The first thing that needs to happen to free up your prayer life is to get rid of any generational family baggage that might be affecting your prayer life. Ask Father God if any generational iniquities are hindering your prayer life.
Next, we must break any lies that are making prayer more difficult. Prayer is talking to God. As you think about prayer, are there any lies that are hindering your time talking to Him? Many people struggle with the fear of not doing it right. What if God does not hear my prayers because I am not praying correctly? Can I say right here, there is not a wrong way to pray.
Most of us think we need to stop what we are doing to pray. Some believe that the only effective way to pray is on their knees or going into their prayer closet. What if we just made talking to God a part of our everyday life? I heard one guy say he doesn’t say Amen signaling the end of his prayer, because he never stops praying. He just pauses his conversation with God and then starts back up with Him at a later time. I also think we can make prayer religious by having to close our eyes and bow our heads to pray. Where does it say that in the Bible? What if we just talked to God like we would talk to a good friend? He is more intimate than any friend. Try having a conversation with Him as you go about your day. See what a difference it makes. Ask Father God if any lies are negatively affecting your prayer life.
The third ministry area of RTF ministry is bringing healing to any wounded places regarding prayer. It is not uncommon to be hurt when God does not respond the way we think that He should. Cindi had to get some RTF ministry after her brother-in-law died of cancer. She had prayed for him, and she had taken him to The Healing Rooms so he could receive prayer. Yet he died from the cancer. She was quite hurt. But she did what we teach others to do; she went to a wonderful RTF ministry team and received ministry to get healing for her hurt.
Then the fourth part of RTF ministry is to remove the demonic oppression. Removing the oppression is much easier once you have taken the demon’s legal rights away.
What does the bible say about prayer? This will not be the 15 pages of notes I took in my seminary class, but I trust it will spur each of us on to a better prayer life.
Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” How are we to not be anxious? By praying about everything. I get the picture of walking with Father God and talking to Him about every situation in our lives. Then once we make our request known to our Father God, His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. As you tell your friend Jesus about your requests, He does more than just listen. He moves on your behalf in that situation. And His peace guards your heart and mind.
I misplaced a set of keys the other day. I began to get very upset that I had “lost” these keys. Instead of allowing myself to go to the place of worry and fear, and even anger at myself for being irresponsible with the keys, I applied this verse and made my request known to God. Immediately, I began to experience peace because I had passed my anxiety on to Jesus. Then, almost immediately after that, I looked in a pocket that I had searched previously, and I found the keys. Coincidence, you say. I don’t think so. It is my loving Heavenly Father walking with me in an intimate way.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This is powerful, and frankly life changing. When we rejoice always, it changes our perspective. You have a hard time rejoicing and being in a bad mood at the same time. Then it goes on to say pray continually. We can pray continually by having our minds set on things above. Colossians 3:2-3 says, “Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” That is how we can rejoice always, by setting our minds on what is real and true, and not on the lies of this world. That is also how we can pray continually. We pray continually by not ending our prayer, simply pausing from time to time. Then, picking right back up where you left off. It is not hard to do that when we understand that our life is hidden with Christ in God.
Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” This is a very important verse concerning prayer because there are times, can I say many times, that we don’t know what to pray. People will often ask me to pray for them about a new job opportunity or a situation with a friend. I don’t know what the right thing to pray for them is. This verse shows us what we can pray when we don’t know humanly what to pray. We can pray in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit is allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through you. It is called praying in the Spirit or praying in tongues. Praying in tongues allows God to fill your mouth with a heavenly language that is not coming from your human mind. The words are coming from your spirit, which is connected with the Holy Spirit, putting His words into your mouth. It might sound weird if you have never done that, but it is one of the greatest privileges of the Spirit-filled life.
This verse also points out how to handle a situation that many of us have had. Someone at church asks you to pray for them this week about a situation. I often have a hard time remembering to pray for that person during the week. What I have learned to do is to stop and pray for them right on the spot. Just take a minute and lift them and their request up to God right now. If I am not sure how to pray, I will start praying in English and then shift to praying in tongues when I am out of my thoughts and ideas.
1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” I will also include Hebrews 4:16 with this verse. It says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We, the children of God, can come to God with confidence, knowing that He hears us. We can approach the throne of grace boldly and obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. Those are two amazing promises from Father God.
Let me end this podcast with a few thoughts on prayer. Please don’t make prayer a religious formula. It is meant to be intimate communication between a loving Father and His children. Don’t feel like you always have to bow your head and close your eyes to pray. There are times when we will bow in reverence. There will be times when we prostrate ourselves before the King of Kings. But most of the time, however, we can have an ongoing intimate conversation that has no end. And don’t be afraid of praying wrong. Just talk to God. He loves to hear from you. Over time, you will develop a rhythm with Him that will be your special rhythm between you and Him.
If you are struggling with some of the hindrances that I have mentioned in this podcast, please don’t hesitate to reach out to an RTF minister and receive ministry.
PRAYER
Father God, I am so grateful that You are an intimate and loving Father Who desires relationship with Your children. Thank You that You hear our prayers regardless of whether they are from our knees, from our prayer closet, or driving down the road. Help us recognize that You don’t want a formula but rather You desire friendship.
Speaking of prayer, would you remember the family of Russel Snyder, an RTF minister, in your prayers? Russel lost his courageous battle with cancer. Please pray for his wife Bonnie and their children and grandchildren as they face this great loss.
