Receive Your Healing: The Power of Prayer

23 Jul Receive Your Healing: The Power of Prayer

THE POWER OF PRAYER

Prayer can release angels, can activate the gifts of the Holy Spirit (as seen in Acts 10) and makes tremendous power available. Let the Holy Spirit help your prayer life as you pray in the Spirit as well as with your understanding. (See Romans 8:26, 1 Corinthians 14:14 and Jude 20).

James 5:16-18 “Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]; and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. And [then] he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops [as usual].”

Prayer makes great power available. In Acts 12, we read about prayers bringing about the deliverance of Apostle Peter.

Acts 12:5 “So Peter was kept in prison, but fervent prayer for him was

persistently made to God by the church (assembly).”

Acts 12:6-12 “The very night before Herod was about to bring him forth, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared [standing beside him], and a light shone in the place where he was. And the angel gently smote Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, Get up quickly! And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, Tighten your belt and bind on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your outer garment around you and follow me. And [Peter] went out [along] following him, and he was not conscious that what was apparently being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed through the first guard and the second, they came to the iron gate which leads into the city. Of its own accord [the gate] swung open, and they went out and passed on through one street; and at once the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, Now I really know and am sure that the Lord has sent His angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting [to do to me]. When he, at a glance, became aware of this [comprehending all the elements of the case], he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where a large number were assembled together and were praying.”

Another example of fasting and prayer is Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20.

2 Chronicles 20:3-5 “Then Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself [determinedly, as his vital need] to seek the Lord; he proclaimed a fast in all Judah. And Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord [yearning for Him with all their desire]. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court.”

2 Chronicles 20:14-18 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. He said, Hearken, all Judah, you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat. The Lord says this to you: Be not afraid or dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down to them. Behold, they will come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the ravine before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in this battle; take your positions, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord [Who is] with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping Him.”

The rewards of fasting include breaking the yoke of poverty (Joel 2:15-16) and it also includes healing (see Isaiah 58:8-12). Fasting also prepares us to seek God’s face and get definite results. (See 2 Chronicles 7:14). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled (Mathew 5:6).