by Joyce Meyer
God’s Word is extremely valuable to Him and should be to us as well. In fact, the Amplified Bible renders Psalm 138:2 as follows: “I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!” This verse indicates that God magnifies His Word even above His name. If He honors it to that extent, we need to make a priority out of knowing the Word, studying the Word, loving the Word, getting the Word deeply rooted in our hearts, esteeming the Word more highly than anything else, and incorporating the Word in our prayers.
When we honor the Word and commit ourselves to it, as I have just described, we are “abiding” in it. Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” As we can see from this verse, abiding in the Word and allowing the Word to abide in us is directly related to confidence in prayer and to having our prayers answered. When we pray the Word of God, we are less likely to pray for things not in God’s will for us.
Abiding in the Word and allowing the Word to abide in us is directly related to confidence in prayer and to having our prayers answered.
Andrew Murray writes, “Nothing can make strong men but the word coming to us from God’s mouth: by that we must live. It is the word of Christ, loved, lived in, abiding in us, becoming through obedience and action part of our being, that makes us one with Christ, that fits us spiritually for touching, for taking hold of God.”1 He also says, “It is abiding in Christ that gives the right and power to ask what we will: the extent of the abiding is the exact measure of the power in prayer.”2 Jesus Christ is the living Word (see John 1:1–4), and as we abide in the Word, we abide in Him—and that brings unspeakable power to our prayers.
Word-Based Prayers
God’s Word is such a treasure. It is filled with wisdom, direction, truth, and everything else we need in order to live purposeful, powerful, and successful lives. We need to incorporate the Word in our prayers, confessing it over every circumstance and situation. The word “confess” means to say the same thing as, so when we confess the Word, we are saying the same things God says; we are putting ourselves in agreement with Him. If we really want a deep and vibrant relationship with God, we need to agree with Him, and nothing will help us do that like confessing the Word. Our confession strengthens our knowledge of the Word and our faith in God, which increases the accuracy and effectiveness of our prayers.
In order to confess the Word, we need to know the Word, because we can only agree with God when we know what He has done and what He has said. I often encounter people who are asking God to give them something they already have or to make them something they already are, and I want to say, “Stop praying that way! God has already finished the work you are asking Him to do.” Prayers that ask God for something that He has already given us are totally unnecessary. When we pray God’s Word back to Him, or put Him in remembrance of it, we need to do so in the proper way, which is to declare what the Word says He has done, instead of asking Him to do something He has already done. For example:
• Instead of praying that we will hear God’s voice, we need to thank Him that we do hear (see John 10:27).
• Instead of praying that we will be set free, we need to thank God for already setting us free (see Galatians 5:1).
• Instead of praying and asking God to have a good plan for our lives, we need to thank Him for already having a good plan (see Jeremiah 29:11).
• Instead of praying that God will make us righteous, we need to thank Him that He already has (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Instead of praying and asking God to bless us, we need to thank Him that we are already blessed with every blessing (see Ephesians 1:3).
• Instead of praying that we will be accepted, we need to thank God for already accepting us in Christ (see Ephesians 1:6).
Model Prayers
I believe that the way people pray and the things they pray about reveal so much about their character and spiritual maturity. There was a time when my prayer life did not indicate much spiritual maturity. Even though I was a born-again, baptized-in-the-Holy-Spirit preacher, my prayers were pathetically carnal. When I prayed, I had a list of requests I thought God had to say “yes” to before I could be happy—and all of them were natural things: “Lord, make my ministry grow. Give us a new car; do this; do that. Make Dave change. Make the kids behave,” and so on.
In response, God simply said to me, “I want you to examine the prayers of Jesus and the prayers of Paul. Then we’ll talk about your prayer life.” Of course, there are many prayers throughout the Bible, especially in Psalms, but God told me to pray the prayers of Jesus, which are found in the gospels and the prayers of Paul, which are found in the Epistles.
When I began to pray the way Jesus prayed and the way Paul prayed, I discovered that there really is no more powerful way to pray than to pray the Word of God because it shows us what is important to Him. Just take a look at some of Jesus’ prayers:
• “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
• “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17).
• “I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me” (John 17:23).
• “But I have prayed especially for you [Peter], that your [own] faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32).
• “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me” (John 11:41).
I also want us to pay particular attention to some of Paul’s prayers. By the time I read his prayers in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, I was reduced to tears. I felt so bad about the carnality of my prayer life, and Paul’s prayers affected me so powerfully that I have not been the same since. I saw that Paul never prayed for people to have easy lives or to be delivered from difficulties. Instead, he prayed that they would be able to bear whatever came their way, that they would walk in the Spirit, that they would be steadfast, that they would endure and that they would be living examples of God’s grace to other people. He prayed about the things that are important to God, and I can assure you from experience, He releases incredible power to us when we pray that way.
Paul never prayed for people to have easy lives or to be delivered from difficulties.
In Ephesians 1:17, Paul said, “[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.. . .#8221; Following this example, we also need to pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation—and that needs to be one of our primary requests. In fact, I believe that asking God for revelation—spiritual insight and understanding—is one of the most important prayers we can pray. Revelation means “to uncover,” and we need to ask God to uncover for us everything that belongs to us in Christ. We need Him to reveal and uncover the truths of the Word revealed to us so that we will understand how to pray for ourselves and for others. When someone tells you about a biblical principle or a spiritual truth, that is a piece of information. But when God helps you understand it, it becomes a revelation—and revelation is something no devil in hell or no person on earth can take away from us. Revelation is ours because it is God-given.
We also need to ask the Lord continually to give us insight into spiritual mysteries “in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,” as indicated by the end of this verse. Paul continued in Ephesians 1:18 that it was his desire that the “eyes of your heart” (which I consider to be the mind) would be “flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you.” I still pray these words often: “God, show me the great hope that I have in You, so I don’t become discouraged in my life.”
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nbsp; In the next verse, Paul said, “And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe. . .#8221; (Ephesians 1:19). In simplest terms, he was saying, I pray that you would know the power that is available to you as a believer. This is the kind of prayer I am praying over you as you read this book, because I want you to experience the awesome, unlimited power that is available to you as you commune with God through prayer.
In Ephesians 3:16, Paul prayed, “May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].” We need to be praying for this on a regular basis. We need to be saying, God, grant me strength and power in my inner man, and let the Holy Spirit indwell me and flow through my personality. That kind of prayer will transform us.
I also love Ephesians 3:19, in which Paul prayed, “. . .that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” We need to be praying that we will be so full of God that there will not be room in our lives for anything else.
Also, Paul prayed about the love of God. He said, “May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love.. . .[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:17, 19). He longed for people to know God’s love personally—not just to hear about it from other people, not just to listen to a sermon about it, but to really know the love of God for themselves. One of the most life-changing prayers we can pray for other people is that they will really know God’s love in a powerful, personal way. Paul did not pray that people would love God; he prayed that people would know and have revelation of God’s awesome love.
Paul continues this theme of love in another epistle: “And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and. . .display itself in greater depth. . .#8221; (Philippians 1:9). Do you know what he is saying? I want to see you loving each other. I want to see it. I don’t want to just hear about it; I want to see it. Get it on display and let people see how you love one another. Put your love on exhibit and let it grow.
In Philippians 1:10, Paul also asked that those for whom he prayed would not cause other people to stumble. He prayed that they would learn to prize and choose what was excellent, to learn what had real value in life, and to seek after those things. He prayed that they would be stable and that they would continue to show forth the fruit of righteousness during tough times.
He said in Colossians 1:11, “[We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy.” In other words, No matter what you are going through, stay happy. No matter how long the trial takes, withstand it—and don’t mistreat other people when you’re going through it. Be victorious.
Why did Paul pray the way he did? Because he was praying about things that are important to God. I encourage you to get out your Bible and look at Paul’s prayers in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Then, either write them down or type them and study them; pray them for yourself and for other people; let them sink into your spirit. Realize that not one time in any of these prayers did Paul ask for anything in the natural. Do you know why? Because Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (NKJV). And Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” Be like Paul. Understand and pray the things God wants you to pray, realizing that He will take care of the things that are important to you.
Understand and pray the things God wants you to pray, realizing that He will take care of the things that are important to you.
It is not wrong to petition God for things for yourself. We have already established that God says we have not because we ask not. He said, “Keep on asking and it will be given you” (Matthew 7:7). What we ask God for is important. I don’t believe that 90 percent of our requests should be for worldly, natural things and only 10 percent for spiritual things. Once again, all things should be kept in balance, otherwise we open a door for Satan to work in our lives (see 1 Peter 5:8).
How to Pray the Word
Perhaps you have never heard the phrase “pray the Word” and are wondering how to do it. I think praying the Word, or “praying the Scriptures,” as some people say, is the simplest form of prayer available to any believer. All it takes is reading or memorizing words in the Bible and praying them in a way that makes them personal or applies them to someone else. I believe the best way to do this is to preface the Scripture by saying, “God, Your Word says (insert Scripture) and I believe it.”
God’s promises are for you; they are for every believer—and He loves it when we know His Word and pray it back to Him.
If you were praying Jeremiah 31:3 for yourself, you would say something like this: God, Your Word says that You have loved me with an everlasting love and that You have drawn me with loving--kindness. I thank You for loving me so much and for continuing to draw me closer to You with such kindness. Help me, Lord, to be conscious and aware of Your love for me. If you were praying that same Scripture for your friend Susie, who had been struggling to believe God really loved her, you would say something like, “God, Your Word says that You have loved Susie with an everlasting love and that You have drawn her with loving--kindness. God, You know that Susie hasn’t felt very secure in Your love lately, so I am asking You to override her emotions with the truth of this promise.”
I know a woman named Beth who has a great testimony of praying God’s Word for a personal need. She had a desire to advance in her profession. After she worked at one company for quite a while and realized she had little opportunity for a higher position, she applied at another company and was hired in a position of greater influence, responsibility, authority, and opportunities to do the work she enjoyed. She spoke with her boss and gave two weeks’ notice before she planned to begin her new job. He filled her position immediately, giving her job to her assistant. Within five minutes after she had given her notice, her new employer called and said, “Stop! Do not give your notice. Our company is being sold and we may not have a job for you after all.”
Her assistant refused to step back into the assistant’s position, and that boss agreed that the assistant should be given the job as planned, although he agreed to let her stay for four weeks instead of two. Beth desperately needed a job, and she could not afford to lose pay for time off to spend looking for other employment. So, she asked God to impress upon her heart a specific Scripture that she could pray and claim as a promise from His Word.
God’s promises are for you; they are for every believer—and He loves it when we know His Word and pray it back to Him. He led her to Jeremiah 24:6: “For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up” (NKJV).
Beth began to pray this Scripture several times a day, walking the parking lot of her current place of employment during breaks and lunchtimes, saying, “Lord, I know and declare that You have set Your eyes upon me for good. I am praying that You will bring me back to this land, that You will build me and not pull me down, that You will plant me and not pluck me up.” When she prayed “bring me back to this land,” Beth was specifically asking God to “bring her back” to the place she had been working and not to “pluck” her up from that company. She asked, in addition, that she would not miss one day of work or pay.
On her last day of work, at the end of four weeks, Beth did not have a job. She submitted her name to another department in her company, but heard nothing. Still, she continued to pray and believe that God would not pluck her out of that com
pany. At a few minutes before 5:00 P.M. on her last day, as she was gathering her belongings to leave the office, her phone rang. She received a job offer from the other department in her company—along with these words: “We really hate to rush you, but is there any chance you could start working for us first thing tomorrow morning?” Everything turned out just as she had prayed from God’s Word. He did “bring [her] back into [that] land; [He] did not pluck [her] up”; and she knew that His eyes were indeed set upon her for good, knowing her need and making sure that she did not miss a single day of work.
I have heard many stories like this one, and I have had many similar experiences. Let me encourage you, when you are in times of crisis or need, to ask God to impress a Scripture upon your heart and to help you pray it. As you do, I believe that your confidence in God’s Word will grow, your faith will increase, and you will experience the awesome joy of answered prayer.
Prayers of the Word for Your Everyday Life
God’s Word is designed to help us, direct us, and encourage us in our everyday lives and we can find Bible verses or passages to pray in every situation. At times, we can find verses or passages that give us remarkably specific, detailed direction, and at other times, we need to take a nugget of wisdom or a general spiritual principle and apply it to the matter with which we are dealing. For example, listed below are several common, specific circumstances and emotions with which the enemy threatens us and corresponding verses to pray in each case:
• When you or someone you love is sick, you can pray the last phrase of Exodus 15:26, which says, “I am the Lord Who heals you,” and Psalm 103:2–4, which says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (NKJV).