Enlist Prayer Warriors for Your Next Battle!

           Prayer Warrior is a funky term to call a human especially since God fights the battles. Prayer may not look like fighting because God is the Warrior, the best a prayer warrior can do is to cast off their crown, humble themselves, worship, plead, commit and expect in Christ.

            Wikipedia says the Prayer Warrior term has a specific reference to someone who engages in spiritual warfare –therefore not necessarily someone who prays daily for me, or shouts and wails with tears lapping down, or only praying from the kneeling position (though at times these may occur).

The prayer warrior is…

·         a student of the Scriptures.

·         faithful and actively tests and approves God’s will.

·         in prayer daily, seeking God.

·         fluent in how sanctification and the Armor of God works.

·          wise to how the enemy schemes. 

             The homeland of the prayer warrior is the worship of God and the glorification of Jesus Christ. They seek Him first because He is worthy to be sought. The Word of God serves as the fortress from within the homeland where the prayer warrior is most familiar and able to know what to pray for and how. When off to war, a prayer warrior knows that memorization and praying back Scriptures recalls home from any place in the battlefield! 

              Prayer warring is tactical. A prayer warrior reads up/listens to the prayer needs in the hopes to pray with specificity. They know the terrain of the person they are interceding for. This means the warrior should receive updates from the person they are praying for. Then this soldier seeks after God to find in Him possible comfort for the person they are fighting for. A prayer warrior can hypothesize a Kingdom response to the problem in accordance to God’s providence and will. There is always enough humility in a prayer warrior to know that seeing a prayer go unanswered doesn’t mean defeat, but that God is still working.   

               The intercessor can be called “a prayer warrior" because they are on the same team, united in Jesus Christ. But wait there’s fruit!  Jesus found and freed me when I was a POW chained up by sin and selfishness. I know of two people who were burdened to pray for me daily as years went by before I ever came to Christ. So I know first-hand that a prayer warrior is a brother’s keeper who doesn’t give up no matter what trial a brother or sister is in.

                          I remember hearing a missionary once say “I covet your prayers.” My knee-jerk reaction was “That’s spiritual pride man.”  Now that I have walked with God and grown in maturity with Kingdom eyes, I delight to think back to that missionary. What a demonstration he was showing, it wasn’t pride but a dependence on God. He had desperation to seek God through intercessory prayers for his life and ministry.  We cannot be pleading on our own with God we need reinforcements. Ask others to pray for you regularly! I too covet your prayers.

Modeling Prayer

Public prayer should help us pray in private. 

Our personal prayer life can be healthy made up of the right words, past victories, and predictable routines of prayer. That is all good. But should slipping occur and prayer is no longer vibrant, where do we turn? Private prayer can crash and burn and nobody has to know about it. It can be dull, legalistic, half-hearted, selfish, mindless-ramblings etc...  Have you experienced seasons of this? What to do in the Doldrums?

My niece Isabelle wants to be an Olympic skier. She practices and studies the terrain more than any 12 year old; She already has a number of first place victories from skiing competitions. However, Isabelle is growing unsure of her goal as other interests grow and affections are competing for her attention. I am confident that if she met with Olympian Lindsey Vonn she would refocus and be sold out again for ski racing and dreaming of being on Team USA with Lindsey. There is a special confidence that my niece would have thanks to Lindsey, no amount of practice could bring that.

 Scripture: Luke 11:1 “Jesus was praying in a certain place and when He finished. One of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

Some of the disciples followed John the Baptist and knew about prayer, but now they were motivated to know Jesus’ model of prayer. We need this same curiosity about prayer. Here the disciples confess they want to learn how to pray. They wait until Jesus is done praying to approach Him, perhaps they were observing Him. Then the disciples asked Jesus for help. Have you ever asked Jesus to teach you to pray?

The living Savior is alive and well in His followers. It’s time to rub shoulders with great prayers warriors or older Christians who have walked with Jesus longer than you. Be influenced by mature Christians, expose yourselves to good praying and simply agree with their prayer. Listening and agreeing with another person's prayer unites yourself to their plea. We are in accord, in Christ, in prayer. That is why community prayer is needed.  We must allow ourselves to be taught this language of prayer. This agreeing in Christ brings a confident education to our prayer life. We should observe and mimic prayers that inspire while avoiding putting that prayer warrior on a pedistool. They don't have to know you are observing and modeling their prayers.

A praying community is blessed by the young prayer warrior too because they contribute prayers that are raw recalling often the mercy and grace afforded by Christ. Also newbies don't have polished, glossy words but they have a surrendered heart! That prayer learner can share in prayer wrong thinking about God thus giving an opportunity for discipleship and teaching. The mature prayer warrior must show the young believer that God promises otherwise, on the side. What else is interesting amid young prayer warriors is that they can bring up sins and issues that are overlooked at times, they can inspire the mature believer to pray for a need or remember a life God spared them from.  

People pray differently, different isn't automatically wrong. Lets humble ourselves and be impacted by the prayers of others because Jesus is in them! It is the Holy Spirit who gives burdens to pray for, He gives a timely word to say. It is ok to hear someone pray and want to pray in the same manner, the disciples heard and wanted to pray like Jesus.  Have you ever asked someone for help to pray? Can God teach you to pray no matter where you are in your walk with Jesus?

Soon by God's grace, this influence of worship and prayer will impact your private prayer!

Jesus' Teachings on Prayer

-Matthew 5:44 As a way to show love, pray for people who wish you harm, who persecute you.

-Matthew 6:5-15 Pray intimately, alone when possible, to the Father. Give glory and thanksgiving to God. Ask for forgiveness, for God’s will to be done and for you to forgive.

-Matthew 7:7-11 Ask God persistently in prayer for your requests and it will be done so according to the will of God. God delights in giving good gifts.

-Matthew 9:38 Pray to God that He would raise workers for feeding His kingdom people.

-Matthew 18:19-20 When restoring a sinning disciple be unified in prayer.

-Mark 9:29 Prayer and fasting combine in spiritual warfare to compound intercessions.  

-Mark 11:17 God’s house, dwelling place ought to be filled with prayer not anything else.

-Mark 11:22-26 Pray boldly with faith like you have already received your request –not doubting at all. You must always forgive others or else why would God forgive and hear you.

-Mark 13:33 Prayer is a way to be alert, watching and waiting for Christ to return.

-Mark 12:40 God hates prayers that are said communally only to get a reaction from people.

-Luke 6:46 Calling out to Jesus isn’t receiving Him as Lord. Acting on His teaching is.

-Luke 11:5-13 Persist in prayer even if it’s met with a seeming “no”. Ask for the Holy Spirit.

-Luke 18:1-14 Pray always and don’t discourage. God will grant justice. Humble yourself in prayer and search yourself honestly.

-John 4:23-24 Pray biblical truths and in the Holy Spirit.

-John 14:12-14 Pray that Jesus would be glorified in all your answers to prayer.

-John 15:7 Remaining in Christ and praying according to His revealed will creates answers to prayer.

-John 15:16 A fruitful life with Christ means we can approach the Father in Jesus’ name and be assured that He will answer our prayers.  

-John 16:23-27 Address your prayer to the Father, sign the prayer in Jesus’ name.