Latest / The Rooted Woman Podcast / Prayer is NOT Magic: How to Use Prayer as a Weapon

Transcript

Prayer is NOT Magic: How to Use Prayer as a Weapon · The Rooted Woman Podcast

• Courtney: Welcome to the Rooted Women Podcast, the place for Christian women who are ready to grow deeper in their faith, find freedom from the things keeping them stuck, and confidently walk in the calling God has placed on their lives. Here we're getting rooted in biblical truth, having honest conversations about real life, and learning what it looks like to actually live out our faith. I'm Courtney, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. Let's get rooted. What a fun episode we are about to walk into today. We're gonna be talking about prayer as a weapon and how to pray scripture when you don't know what else to say. Raise your hand, even if I can't see you. Raise your hand if you have ever gone to pray and you just don't even know what words to pray because things feel so overwhelming. We talk a lot about survival mode on my page. I talk a lot about being overwhelmed and how to work our way out of there. It doesn't mean that you just have the words to pray from the get-go, right? It doesn't mean that you have it all figured out. It doesn't mean that you know exactly what the Lord is doing. It doesn't mean that you can see the direction in which he's moving in. We don't have to know all those things. But I think that the beautiful part about the word of God and the gift that it has been in my life, the gift that it is to you from the Lord, is that we can pray those words when we have no other words to pray. They are already written for us. We don't have to think about it. We don't have to second guess it. We can open our Bibles and we can pray over ourselves. according to his will because we're reading his word over our lives. There are moments when maybe prayer feels super easy for you and you can still pray scripture over yourself when things feel easy too. So I'm not saying this is just for the hard moments, right? There are times when I sit down and I'm like, I can't stop praying. I'm praying over myself. I'm praying over my kids. I'm praying over our home. I I can't stop thinking of things to pray. And then there are other days where I'm like, God, I don't even know how to come to you And make these requests, but I know that you know the desires of my heart, and I know that you know what I'm dealing with. And in those moments, I just wish that I had more to say. And that's when I turned to scripture. I think that learning how to pray scripture over yourself is one of the best tools that we can have as Christians because it gives us a place to run to. when again we don't have the words ourselves, when we don't know what to pray, when we don't know what to say, when we don't know what to think. And often when we pray those scriptures and we're getting in the word, it reveals to us a truth about our situation or a way to look at our situation from a different lens because we're looking at it with God and through his word versus through our own perception or perspective that we have. There are times when fear feels really, really loud or maybe it's shame feels really, really loud. Try praying the scriptures over yourself. It's going to take you to a different place spiritually because God has already given you words to pray. And those words will directly combat the things that the enemy is trying to do. Today I want to specifically talk about prayer as a weapon and walk through one of the passages that I come back to time and time again, which is Psalm 91. So I want to clarify something before we get into Psalm 91. When people say that prayer is a weapon, I don't mean prayer is a formula that we use to manipulate. Different circumstances. Okay. Prayer is not magic. And I think that if you understand that, you'll be less disappointed if your prayers are not answered because sometimes we can't see the full picture of what the Lord is doing. And one un unanswered prayer really could just be protection so that He can move in the direction that He needs to move in to be able to answer a bigger prayer that you just don't know how to pray yet. So I wanna understand that that prayer is not magic. It doesn't mean all of a sudden someone's gonna be healed, all of a sudden things are going to be easier. And we don't use prayer to manipulate God, right? But we we can come to God in prayer and it's powerful because of the God that we are praying to. So just understand that because I think I I've I talked to people before, like, why do those th these things happen? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why didn't God answer this prayer? How come this person prayed this thing over that family member and they saw this prayer answered? But when I prayed that prayer over my family member, that prayer wasn't answered. This is is not about that. This is about having a pure heart coming before the Lord and having words to pray when we need that that bigger picture when we don't have the words to say ourselves. Ephesians 6 gives us the picture of the armor of God. And Paul tells believers to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, readiness from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, right? And then he says in Ephesians 6, 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. I love that prayer is woven directly into Paul's instructions about what it looks like to stand firm. Because prayer truly is a posture. Instead of panicking, we move to prayer. Instead of trying to figure it all out, we move to prayer. Instead of fear, we move to prayer. When shame tries to come in, we move to prayer. And when we truly are praying in all circumstances at all times, again, it changes our outlook on things. I think it allows us to see that we don't have to fight the battles before us with human strength. We can bring them before the Lord because prayer is not this passive thing that we do in hopes of maybe Connecting with the Lord. Like no matter what, the Lord is working for our good and for his glory, even if it doesn't look the way that we thought it was. Prayer is this beautiful dependence on the Lord. And when I think of that relationship, like that is exactly what the the Lord wants of our relationship with him. He wants us to depend on him. He wants us to turn to him. He wants us to surrender to him. He wants us to commune with him. And if you hear that word commune with him and think, I don't know how to do that. with the God that I know, then you need to pray that you know him in a deeper way because he wants to communion with you. Okay, so I wanna jump to Psalm ninety one. Psalm ninety one has become known as a psalm of protection and I pray it like that over myself. I'm I'm gonna read all of it and then we'll kind of walk through it. So my refuge and my fortress, Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear. You up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show my salvation. Jesus himself told us that we would have trouble in this world, right? So Psalm 91 isn't teaching us how to create a life where nothing bad can touch us, or I have just have this supernatural protection around me all the time and nothing is going to happen to me. But it shows us where we can find our security when things feel unsettling or unsafe. And look at verses even one and two. It starts with who God is. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Notice that language there. Dwelling, abiding. This isn't someone that just occasionally, you know, visits God when life gets hard. That's relationship with him. That's what it looks like. I say remain in him often. Remain is just another word for abide. abide in him, remain in him, find relationship with him, get that closeness to him. And then we read that he is the refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust. So if I were praying this passage, I might even say, like, Lord, you are my refuge. Today, you are my fortress. I choose to make my home in your presence instead of you know making my home in fear or shame or whatever I'm dealing with. Teach me to abide in you. When everything around me feels uncertain, remind me that you are not uncertain, Lord, that you get the final say, that you have already won, that you hold the victory. That is a prayer that I would pray to utilize that scripture in prayer, to speak the prayer or the scripture over myself and then turn it into my prayer. That's what praying scripture can look like. you don't have to make it complicated. You don't even have to add your own words if you don't want to. You can literally just read what God said. But I want you to go from reading to understanding it and then speaking that truth back to him in a personalized prayer with him. That's that's what makes it feel for me personally, maybe not for you, but for me, what makes it feel so relational. It's not just I'm reading these words on a page, I'm reading them and speaking them out over myself, over my life. I'm understanding them. I want to understand the context. I want to understand who God is in that scripture, and then I want to pray it back to. To him. In verses three through six, we're naming what we're afraid of, right? So we now describe God's deliverance and protection. you will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day. I love how specific that is because fear has a way of just changing what it looks like. Terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day. Sometimes the daytime, it's like, I'm not really like super afraid, but all of a sudden here comes this slingshot thing at me in the middle of my day. Whether it's a bad phone call or an argument or something like that, right? or at night, sometimes it feels like it's gripping us. We can't fall asleep, right? Those are the things that keep us awake at night. and there are things that maybe kind of fall in between that, right? Just the anxiety of the day-to-day. But scripture does not diminish fear or pretend that fear does not exist. Like this is acknowledging that fear is there daytime, nighttime, right? So if you have been in that place where you are struggling with fear. That is okay. Why would we pray against it? Why would we need protection against it if it wasn't going to happen, right? So know that okay, this is okay, but this is not God's final say for my life and start speaking that out. It directs us also to the one who is greater than what we fear. We have to know that. Maybe you're afraid something will happen to your children, or you're afraid something's not gonna work out the right way, or you're afraid of. Of what test results might say, or you are afraid that you're not gonna have enough money for this coming bill, or that you maybe made a bad choice, whatever it is, bring it to the light in prayer, okay? Because you don't have to all of a sudden like be fearless just because you've read a scripture. God still wants us to share our heart. So share your heart. Tell him what you're afraid of. He can handle it. I promise you that. I've told him many things that I'm afraid of, and God has not changed. God is still God. Okay, and this so then a prayer might look like, Father, your word tells me that I do not have to be controlled by the fear that I'm experiencing right now. I'm giving you this fear that has been maybe keeping me awake, or me during the day and then pray like God guide my or guard my mind and guide my steps and guard my family and guide the words that I speak Lord and pray over you know these things that are going on in my life and help me to trust you with what I cannot control and help me to release this fear because my trust is in you. Pray those prayers. let's go to verses seven through ten. Okay, so Psalm 91 begins describing the chaos that's happening all around the person who is trusting God. I think this matters so much because we assume that peace means we will have peaceful circumstances. I was just talking to somebody this morning saying, I have joy. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. Like I have joy, even though I've been tired and my iron is low and all these things are going on with my health and stuff like that, right? I have joy. But I was telling her I want to enjoy the things around me, which means like I want have the full energy to be able to enjoy my children to the full extent. So you can still have peace without having peaceful circumstances. The way that I can have joy without feeling like I'm enjoying everything to the fullest, because I just am really low on energy right now. And that's okay to be in that place too. Biblical peace is so it's so deep that it cannot be explained. That's peace that surpasses all understanding, right? The word says that. sometimes everything around you feels like it's not peaceful, but you can still have peace inside of you. And in those moments, God might be teaching you that you don't have to become what's happening around you. You have to stick to what you know and the roots that you've put in him and stick to that peace that's inside of you. And that can be really challenging to do when you're in the middle of warfare or bad news and things like that. So look. Looking at those verses, you might pray, like, God, don't let the chaos around me become chaos within me. Keep my mind fixed on you. I always ask God, like, help my eyes to be so laser focused on you that I can't be distracted by anything else. Help me respond from faith instead of fear. God, give me wisdom for what requires action and peace about whatever requires me to maybe surrender even deeper, right? Just asking Him for that wisdom, that discernment, when to act, when to pause, and to be able to have peace. peace in all of because I know for me, I want to take action all the time. That is just like who I am. I'm like, let me act on this. Let me like move forward. I want to do the right thing. But sometimes God just needs me to pray and surrender something. And all of a sudden I will have peace again or I will see things settle around me because I kind of took a step back and let God be God instead of trying to be God for him. So remember that because we need that wisdom to be able to discern whether or not we're supposed to be taking action, pausing, praying, whatever the Lord will have for us, but pray those prayers. And when you go into verses 11 through 13, we want to talk about God's care, right? so for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. There is an unseen, or we call supernatural, right, reality about our faith. Scripture makes that so clear to us if you read the scriptures. I know sometimes talking about supernatural things can be very confusing to people because it's not something that we can tangibly. grab onto or look at in the everyday life that we live. But scripture is very, very clear that there is supernatural, there is warfare, there are things that are happening that are unseen to our reality that impact our faith. Okay. Satan actually quotes this portion of Psalm 91 when tempting Jesus in the wilderness. So think about that. The enemy knows scripture. He quoted scripture while trying to tempt him. And Jesus refused. And that's such an important reminder that biblical prayer isn't just quoting Bible verses, it's understanding them in submission to the Lord. And if we remain submitted and we are not just saying words to say them, but we're submitted and we have a right heart posture and we are praying those words back to the Lord and praying protection over ourselves. How much more can we refuse that temptation the same way that Jesus? Did I want to be like Jesus because in the hard moments I can be tempted? It is very difficult for me to make the right choice to not complain, to not sit too far into the things that are going on around me, right? I think everybody deals with that at times. But just knowing that, okay, I can call upon the Lord and I can not just quote the scripture, but I can live the scripture out and live more like Jesus, the more submitted I am. It just gives me more of a confidence as God's daughter. So we don't use Psalm 91 to demand God to prove. Himself to us, remember that. But we can say in those situations, like God, you you I know you have to protect me here because your word says, and so I'm trusting that you are, and I want to obey you so that I can remain under your wings of protection. And then you use wisdom and you use discernment and you pray for those things in your life. So let's look at verses 14 through 16. The foundation is relationship here, okay? So looking at 14 says, Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. In verse 15, when he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. Man, so good. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Okay. Don't dismiss these words. Like God would not put this in here if we didn't need to cling to things like this, right? You you might pray this and be like, I don't know. I feel like he's not with me in this moment of trouble right now. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean he's not working on your b behalf. The same way we just talked about the things in the supernatural. Just sitting and trusting and knowing that he will come and he will rescue. Because that is just who God is. And then when he does, write it down so you remember, okay. If God did this for me before, I know that he could show up in this situation. So God, I'm saying I trust you. I might not know what it looks like, I might not know your. timeline, but I trust you, Father. And I I don't want to grieve where you have not yet moved. And so God just help me to remain here in peace and and have wisdom and understanding about it. And just being able to be okay with that as we're praying, right? And I'm not saying you always have to pray Psalm 91. I just love praying this over myself. So I use this as an example today. But how do you start praying scripture over yourself? Like maybe you're thinking right now like okay Courtney this sounds good but I don't know how to do this for me. Well you won't know how to pray scripture if you're not reading scripture. I'm gonna say that again. You won't know how to pray scripture if you're not reading scripture. Read scripture and the Lord will highlight things to you. There are scriptures that I will have read so many times. And I read it again, but it jumps out at me differently because of my situation or something I'm in. And I'm like, whoa, I really feel like the Lord is highlighting this to me right now. Let me sit with this a little bit longer. And then I see how I can turn that into a prayer, right? I love going through the Psalms just because And I mentioned this in the last episode, but because I do feel like I can relate to them so much in the different seasons of my life, I've just been there being like, God, where are you? Like, no, God, you're right here. You're so good. And so you can start there. If you feel like I really don't know what this looks like, go through and read them and read it slowly and don't rush and don't try to force figuring out how to pray scripture, but just get in the scriptures and read them and try to understand them and ask, what does this teach me about who God is? And what does this reveal about me? me and is there a promise here or a command or a warning or something that I need to surrender and then turn that truth into conversation in your prayer time with God. And maybe it's hard for you to say it out loud, then write it down. Write it down. Get a journal and write it down. I think starting there is starting somewhere. And when you start somewhere, the Lord will only amplify that and and help you to grow in that area because He wants us to have prayer as a weapon. Are you kidding me? Why would we be told to pray at all times? I think it is is so important. right, let's talk about praying in the spirit. Okay. so what what is praying in the spirit? Well, I want to first look at First Corinthians 14, 15, where it says, so what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but also with my mind. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. And in Ephesians six, eighteen it says, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the saints. in Jude 20, it says, but you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. So what does this mean? When you look at the Greek word pray in, when you translate that, it can have different meanings. It can mean by means of or with the help of. I love that. Also could mean in connection to praying in the spirit does not always refer to even the words that we're saying, but just the posture that we are saying it with. Where is the spirit leading you to pray? What is the spirit leading you to pray for? And really asking those questions, right? In Romans 8.26, it tells us 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 with groans that words cannot express. Let the Spirit lead you in your prayer time. Let him lead you in your prayer time. Go through scripture when you feel that prompting, start praying that scripture, start making it real. Try to understand it. Who is God? What is his promise here? How can I pray that over my life? And let the spirit lead you in the way that you are praying. that is my my biggest encouragement to you because again when you don't know what to pray and you don't know how to cling to maybe even the truth of scripture in that moment because things are so hard. It's okay, but be led by the Spirit in the way that you're praying and see how your your prayer life transforms. I can guarantee you your prayer life is going to transform. That's my challenge for you. This week I want you to choose one passage of scripture and pray through it every day. You don't have to take 30 minutes to do this and journal and all that. Just literally open scripture, maybe have it open next to your bed or bookmarked, you know, on your phone, whatever. Maybe make it your background on your phone so it's easy to do and just pay pray one passage. Of Scripture and pray through it every single day, at least once per day. Read the scriptures, start praying. Let scripture give you language that maybe you don't already have on your own. And maybe write one verse somewhere will where you'll, you know, see it throughout the day. If you drive to work, put it in your car. Like I said, you could put it in the background of your phone because fear or shame or whatever it is that you've been struggling with, it will try to come back. And you don't have to have like a brand new response or brand new prayer for it. Just go back to that same scripture. Go back to that same prayer. Go back to the truth over and over again. Prayer is not your last resort. You constantly have access to the Father. You constantly have it So let's pray based off of Psalm 91 together. Heavenly Father, you are the most high. You are the Almighty. You are our refuge. You are our fortress. God, you are God. And today I just pray that we can trust you, that you are God. We can trust you. You hold the pen to our stories. Lord, you are in control of everything, even where we are not in control. So I just pray for the woman that's struggling with trust that she can trust you. God, teach us what it means to dwell with you instead of only running to you when maybe fear or shame or you know unforeseen circumstances pop up. Us learn what it looks like to abide, Father. For the woman who's listening, that maybe is struggling with fear and shame, Lord. I pray that you meet her there. For the woman that's struggling to have peace, Lord, I pray that you meet her there. For the woman that's struggling, waiting on an answer, and just really, really having a hard time with that piece of patience right now in her life. God, I just pray that you meet her there. For the woman that is in an uncertain situation or in transition or maybe making a big decision and things feel a little shaky right now. I just pray that you give her wisdom and discernment. For the woman who is fighting with thoughts that That have been just stealing her peace, that she's been uptormented through the night. God, anchor her mind in what is true, Lord. Protect our rest, protect our sleep, protect our homes, Lord. God, we ask that you protect our minds and our marriages, our children, guard us from any temptation and give us discernment where we need discernment. Give us courage, God, where we need courage. Help us to recognize and differentiate between the voice of the enemy and your voice in our life, Lord. Teach us how to trust you. God, let us remember the track record that you have in your word, but also in our lives, Father. And Lord, when you don't remove the trouble or the situation or we can't see past our circumstances right now, let that not diminish the trust in you and trust that you are with us and that you are working for our good and for your glory, Lord. And that even if we can't see it, we can put our hope in you because you are perfect and you know exactly what you are doing. And we don't have to second guess that God, you are God. And so let us move out of the way. Let us be patient. Let us be filled with peace. Let us be filled with hope, God, and let us remember that. That you are there, Lord, that you are in the trenches with us, that you have not left us or forsaken us. God, that you are our refuge, that you are our fortress, that you, God, are there when we are feeling panicked. God, that you can give us so much peace, God, that you can restore faith where faith has been maybe a little bit shaken, God, that the woman that is struggling to just surrender over that control. It's like I've given you half of it, but I can't give you all of it. I just pray, God, that you just help us to you how to surrender it, Lord, and that we can. Trust you in a newfound way, God, that we can see you in a newfound way, God. And that any area where maybe our trust, our faith, our hope, God, our even our prayer life has been, you know, just distorted, or the word I'm looking for, like there's just been distraction there, or there's been brokenness there, or there's been pain and hurt there, God. I just pray that you come in and that you redeem and that you restore because you are a redeeming father and you are a restoring father, and we trust you. And I just pray for the woman that is. Is listening to this and is just in shambles right now. Like I don't know how to pray over myself. I don't know how to pray over the circumstances in my life right now. God, that you're just meeting her right there. Maybe she's in her car listening. Maybe she's got this playing while she's taking a shower or just trying to wind down for the evening. Lord, I just pray, God, that you meet her right where she's at right now, Father. She's in her kitchen cooking. I just pray that you meet her right where she's at right now, Father. And that you just restore her and you heal her and you redeem what the enemy has tried to take from her, Father. And that you give Give her hope, God, that after she is done listening to this, Lord, that she just feels so refreshed and renewed in her hope in you, Father. God, we just thank you for who you are, that we can call upon your name, that we can lean on the truth that you have given us, God, that you have given us such good gifts. God, and we just surrender it all to you and just pray for supernatural protection this week. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for tuning into the Rooted Woman podcast. I am just so grateful for each and every woman who is listening here, for each and every share of the podcast. If you have listened to this and you feel like you know somebody who needs to hear this, share it with them. Encourage them. Lift each other up, edify the body of Christ. And let's continue to go deeper with the Lord together. I'll see you back here next week.