The Power of Prayer

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Narrative: Welcome to Insights on Healing a weekly podcast.  I am Joan M. Blake, author, and I am your host. Insights on Healing Podcast include the reading of scripture, praying, reading from one of my books, or telling  stories of how individuals through the healing power of God, found purpose in their lives. I pray as you listen to this episode, that God would bless you and provide you with hope that you have been longing for.

Today’s podcast is entitled: “The Power of Prayer” how we should come before God, and gives an example of how Nehemiah went before God. The scripture verses will be taken from James 5: 14-16 and from Nehemiah chapter 1: 1-11. I will be reading from the NIV version of the Bible.

What is prayer?

In the simplest way possible, prayer is talking to God, worshiping God,  thanking God, and telling him what you are experiencing and what your needs are. Prayer is talking to and listening to God.

Why Pray? The purpose of prayer

You  may wish to have God give you guidance regarding something important. If you do not listen to God, you would not know what God is telling you to do or how he is guiding you about certain things. When you pray, you are guided to a particular scripture verse in the Bible or you hear in the Spirit God telling you how to do a certain thing. You pray when you have spiritual needs for example, you need to confess and repent of your sins to God, when you have financial needs,  physical, relationship needs, family needs, and more, and you know that only God can heal you, your family members, your friends, and change your circumstances. Never lose sight of the fact that God uses doctors, therapists, counselors, teachers, and others, to do His work as well. I live by the grace of God, but God uses my doctors to help me and the things they suggest have kept me alive.

Let us look at James chapter 5: 14-16

¹⁴ Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

¹⁵ And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

¹⁶ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

We are to call for the elders of the church to pray for the sick and to anoint them with oil in the name of Jesus. We notice here that it’s the faith that is activated by the praying person and of the person who is being prayed for. That prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he has committed sins, he/she will be forgiven. We see that prayer must be activated with faith. According to Matthew Henry’s commentary, it is most common to pray and cry, O give me ease! O restore me to health! But your prayer should rather and chiefly be, O that God would pardon my sins! The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That man/woman should not have iniquity in his/her heart because the Lord will not hear his/her prayer. We see this in Psalm 66:18.

Example of How to pray:

Nehemiah Chapter 1:1-11 NIV

1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, ² Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

³ They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

⁴ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, ⁶ let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. ⁷ We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

⁸ “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, ⁹ but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

¹⁰ “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. ¹¹ Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

I was cupbearer to the king.

We learned today that we must love one another, pray for one another, go before God with a clean heart, without iniquity in our heart, worship, and praise God, confess our sins to God, remind God of his commitment and what He promised us, and tell God what we need. God is sure to answer our prayer according to His will.

Let us pray: Father, we come boldly in the name of Jesus. You are the great I am, you can do all things but fail. You are mighty and the Everlasting God who keep all the promises you made towards us. We confess that we have not obeyed your commandments, but have sinned and fallen short of your glory by the things we do and say. We ask now for your forgiveness for our sins and ask now Lord, God that you will hear our cries for healing and restoration both spiritually and physically in the name of your son Jesus Christ who died and rose again. By his stripes we have been saved.

I want to thank you for listening to this podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, I would like you to subscribe to Insights on Healing on my website at Joanmblake and also on platforms where you listen to your podcasts. I would appreciate that. May God bless and keep you.