Prayer Doesn’t Do Anything! –
Lies of the Enemy #24– Purity 1036
Purity 1036 05/04/2023 Purity 1036 Podcast
Purity 1036 on YouTube: Coming Soon!
Good morning,
Today’s photo that I have taken the liberty to
entitle “Tranquil Sunset of Joy” comes to us from Dave Baun Photography. Dave
shared this awesome photo, with no identifying details, as his 9th installment
of a “my life is good” challenge which people on social media are passing on to
their friends encouraging one another to post photos that bring them joy (with
no explanation) in an attempt to spread joy, because we all need joy in our
lives. I share a photo with each of my “Purity”
semi-daily encouragements because I completely agree with this sentiment, but I
also do it to give glory to God and to encourage my friends to understand that
God created the scenes we see and that He is present in them. God is not in a “box” or locked into the
confines of a church building or even the pages of the Bible. God is every
where and the things that bring us joy all had their beginning in Him.
So the appropriate thing to do when we experience
joy is to thank God – for our lives, for our health, and for the things we
experience. Well it is Saturday and even
though my shifted schedule has me working today, I can rise above any
resentments or disappointments of this fact because my focus is on God and all
the wonderful blessings He has given me, that many take for granted.
One of the blessings I am currently receiving stems
from my acceptance in Deeper Walk International’s School of Prayer Ministry. I am blessed by the material we are studying
but I am perhaps learning more from the people that I have encountered in the school
– my fellow cohort students, my instructors, guest speakers, and a certain
prayer Minister, Christy Edge.
As part of our training and education as Prayer
Ministers, the students are required to undergo 6 sessions as “clients” of a prayer
minster or counselor to give us the perspective of what being “a client” is
really like. When I heard of this
assignment, I planned on utilizing a counseling pastor at my local church to
meet the requirements of the assignment but when I was presented with the
opportunity of being ministered to by one of the student’s of Deeper Walk’s
School of Prayer Ministry previous cohort, I decided to step out of the box and
go through these six sessions with someone who had received the training that I
want to be educated in. I figured that
it would be good to step out of my comfort zone and that it would be a really
good experience to see what it was like to do prayer ministry according to the
methods taught by Deeper Walk. I would
not only meet the requirement for the course, but I would also see a Deeper
Walk Prayer Minster model the process I wanted to learn! Smart right! I consider myself to be Free in Christ so I didn’t
really expect much to happen through the sessions but was open to whatever the
Lord wanted to “bring up” and deal with.
As a graduating student of the school, Christy Edge had the assignment to counsel
someone in prayer ministry to be fully certified so she generously offered her
service as a prayer minister to our cohort.
I didn’t know anything about Christy other than she was from Franklin
Tennessee, she was in the cohort before ours, and that she had “been working in inner healing and trauma
healing for 10-15 years and would love to walk alongside any of you as the Lord
leads!” While there was one other
student offering the same service, I felt moved to choose Christy to help me
and prayed that one of my fellow students wouldn’t beat me to the punch. I was fortunate no one did and Christy and I
met for 6 sessions of “Deeper Walk Prayer Ministry”.
And that brings us to our current series, the Lies
of the Enemy, which is
an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into
our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to
doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow
the Lord with the way we live our lives.
Today’s big lie is:
Lie
#24: Prayer Doesn’t Do Any Thing!
This
lie is spoken by many an unbeliever, and some who would claim to believe who
haven’t received what they asked for. In
my pre-Christ I remember a non-believing friend call out to God to strike her
dead. The Lord was gracious and allowed
her to live but she took His mercy as evidence for the nonexistence of God or
the fact that He doesn’t answer prayers. Others who have earnestly prayed for
health or other blessings who haven’t received what they wanted also echo the
sentiment that “Prayer doesn’t do anything!” and some of those have taken their
disappointments and rejected the Lord or any ideas about following Him.
The
enemy encourages people not to pray because it is through prayer that we can
connect with God and know that He is with us, that we can find Him when we seek
Him.
There
are many “principles for answered prayers” that people try to teach to
encourage our prayer life but we have to remember above all the little things
we can do to help our chances of receiving what we pray for that God is sovereign. His will is what will be done and we can’t
twist His arm to give us what we want when it is against His will and purposes.
Sometimes disappointment, pain, suffering, and heartache are the natural
consequences for our actions or are what is ordained to test us and to mature
our faith.
There
are many testimonies of unanswered prayers leading to good. There are other
testimonies of God working miracles after someone prayed for them. So we should pray and believe that prayer
does do something!
Whether
we receive what we pray for our not, our prayer life brings us closer to our
Heavenly Father. It is a means of communication
with God. We can not only send our petitions to Him, we can also ask Him for
strength and guidance and listen to what He tells us in our spirits. So while we may not receive miracles, we can receive peace, comfort, strength, and
guidance when we continually meet with the Lord in prayer.
And
that’s where I will testify to the Lord doing something in my prayer session with
Christy Edge. While I have been free
from addictions to alcohol, drugs, and sexually immorality and the oppression
of the negative mind states of anger, anxiety, fear, bitterness, and depression
for years, I would still struggle with periodic comfort eating, overspending, and
a nagging sense of rejection from time to time.
As
a CFMA for Freedom in Christ ministries, I have gone through the Steps to
Freedom in Christ and won major victories and have enjoyed my Freedom in Christ,
so I wasn’t sure what would happen in these prayer ministry sessions with
Christy Edge but the Lord knew what needed to be addressed.
Through
the six sessions of prayer with Christy, which utilized the Theophostic-esque “Real Prayer” method, the Lord resolved what I
believe to be the origins of my issues of rejection by bringing to mind some of
my childhood memories where I experienced shame, guilt, trauma, and started believing
unspoken lies about myself. Through
those prayer sessions the Lord healed those memories and revealed the truth and
I have a deep and abiding sense of God’s love like I never had before and freedom
from these foolish things the enemy caused a young boy to believe about himself
that clung to me through out my life in unspoken and subtle ways.
I
would have encouraged you to pray before
these sessions but after the increased freedom I have experienced from them I
would also encourage you to utilize the services of a healing prayer ministry,
preferably one that is Deeper Walk Certified, to let God lead you to a deeper
sense of peace and freedom.
So
don’t believe the lie that prayer doesn’t do anything.
Prayer
does do something. It brings us closer to God and if we trust Him with our past,
present, and future He may do some mighty works through prayer, whether it be
miraculous things out in the world or in the deep recesses of our hearts and
minds.
I
am thrilled to announce that Christy has graduated from Deeper Walk International’s
School of Prayer Ministry and has taken the next step to serve by establishing
a website to proactively offer her freedom and emotional healing prayer
services. To schedule a session go to: Christy
Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer’s website: https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
. I will be adding this link to the bottom of all my posts going forward
because Christy helped me, and I know that she well trained to help others to
experience their healing and freedom in Christ through prayer.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website,
https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verse is :
1 John 5:14
(NLT2)
14 And we are confident that
he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
Today’s verse just perfectly matches our topic of prayer and provides us with a proof text for the prayer principle that we have to pray for things that would be within God’s will.
Here John tells us we can be confident that God hears us when we ask Him for anything that pleases Him.
What would please God?
· More faith,
· To Trust in Him
· more love,
· the ability to forgive,
· the ability to overcome
sin,
· the ability to know Him, His word, or His will.
Are all things that I think would please Him. Are you praying for these things? I prayed for these things and have received…. Just saying..
So when you pray, think about what would please God and ask Him for those things and see what happens. We can’t always get what we want but if what we want what pleases God we can be confident He will hear us.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister
Reality” By June Hunt.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own
private study and to support her work. This resource is available online
for $7.99 (https://june-hunt.myshopify.com/collections/keys-for-living/products/keys-for-living-on-satan-demons-satanism_ ).
Satan, Demons & Satanism
A
Sinister Reality
by June Hunt
Signs
of Possible Satanic Captivity
• Wearing
items such as an inverted cross, pentagram, skull earrings
• Reading
The Satanic Bible
• Collection
of bones and death items
• Cutting
the body destructively
• Puncture
wounds on animals
• Arson
• Multiple
personality disorder
• Suicide
attempts
• Cannibalism:
eating flesh, drinking blood
• Tattoos
of satanic symbols
• Witchcraft
and occult practices
• Cremation
in secret ceremonies
• Sexual
abuse
• Kidnapping
and torture
• Murder
Note: A
single sign alone does not necessarily indicate satanic captivity.
Q “Since all power originates with God, how does Satan get
his power over so many people?”
Initially
Satan was given free will, as we all were, and God gave him limited power
because of his high ranking position in the angelic army. Ultimately, people
choose to give Satan power—some historians believe that Hitler was a tool in
Satan’s hand. Satan takes full advantage of those who let him take possession,
or at minimum, allow him to secure a stronghold in their lives.
“You followed the ways of this world and of
the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit [Satan] who is now at work in
those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:2)
C. What Are the
Physical Symptoms of Satanic Involvement?
The
spiritual and physical are interrelated. Those who have learned to rest in the
peaceful protection of Jesus will avoid many of the physical side effects that
accompany stress, worry and unresolved anger. Likewise, participation in
satanic activity can bring about bizarre physical abnormalities and inner
drives toward self-mutilation … ultimately even suicide. King Saul disobeyed
God and consulted a medium for military guidance.
“Saul
then said to his attendants, ‘Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and
inquire of her.’ ‘There is one in Endor,’ they said.”
(1
Samuel 28:7)
After
hearing the prophecy about his own death on the next day, Saul became so
despondent with fear of the Philistines that he took his own life.
“Saul
said to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and run me through, or these
uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me.’ But his armor-bearer was
terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it.”
(1
Chronicles 10:4)
• headaches
• hearing
perverted voices
• eating
disorders
• vomiting
• supernatural
strength
• vile
or violent dreams
• voice
change
• dizziness
• insensitivity
to pain
• excessive
sleepiness
• convulsions
• cuts,
bruises, burns: self-inflicted
Biblical
Example:
“When
Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to
meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not
even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the
chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the
tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”
(Mark
5:2–5)
Q “What is necessary to cast out a demonic spirit?”
Jesus
stated that prayer was required to deliver a deaf and dumb spirit that resided
within a father’s son. The disciples asked,
“ ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’ He
replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer.’ ” (Mark 9:28–29)[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] June
Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister Reality
(Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 9–10.
