The Ministry of Prayer

✨ New Episode – Faith for Your Family with Michelle Steele ✨

In our newest episode, Michelle Steele shares a powerful teaching on the ministry of prayer and the anointing God gives us to boldly approach His throne on behalf of our loved ones. Discover how prayer connects heaven to your family’s needs and releases God’s help into every situation. 🙏💛

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Faith for Your Family. My name is Michelle Steele, and I am so honored to have this time with you. Today, I want to talk to you about the ministry of prayer. When we're ministering to the Lord in prayer for our families, we are conducting spiritual business. We are employing the power of heaven. We are connecting to the will of God for our family members. And that is so important for us to have confidence in this time. When I began to see that God wanted me to have confidence when I came to him, that he wanted me to have a confidence that his desire was to answer my prayer, that his desire was to move on my behalf. It changed the way that I prayed. And I have a scripture that I want to share with you. It's from 1 John chapter 5. It's verses 14 and 15. And it says, now this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Now I read it that way, and I want to also read it this way. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we've asked of him. God wants you to know that you have the petitions you've asked of him. He wants you to know that when you ask in line with his will, knowing that it's his will to hear you and answer your prayer, and knowing what it is his will to do. So there's a twofold application there. Knowing the will of God gives me faith for the asking. When I know it's the will of God for healing, for instance, I don't have to twist God's arm and talk him into it. Lord, please, please, I would feel so much better if you heal me. Please, God, I really need you to heal me. Please, please. Trying to get him to do something that he's already chosen to make available in the covenant. So instead of me having to go asking him to please do it, I come to him in faith. Father, I thank you that by the stripes of Jesus I am healed. I lay hold of that healing. You've made it mine in the redemption that Jesus provided for me. And so, Father, I come in the name of Jesus and I lay claim to what you've made mine. And so now I'm approaching, not on that basis of trying to get him to do something, but recognizing what he's already done. So this confidence is important, then, isn't it? Knowing what his will is takes us from that position of is he going to or not? To now I know that whatever I ask, it's already his will because I found it in his word. I've got the scripture for it. So this is the will of God. Now he hears me because I'm asking in line with his will. He hears me. It's what he wants to do. He wants to answer my prayers. He wants to bring a change to this situation. So we know that he hears and we know that we have. And that brings us into a different level of this relationship. This brings us into a place of confidence, knowing the will of our Father, knowing his way of doing things, knowing how he responds to when we ask in line with his word. And so this confidence is a major part because it is our ministry. The prayer is part of the ministry that we have in our walk with God. I'm using this word ministry because, for instance, the scripture in 1 Peter 2.5, let's look at that for example. 1 Peter 2.5 says that you also, as living stones, are built up. You are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So you and I, we are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a household, a spiritual household, a holy priesthood. And we offer spiritual sacrifices that God accepts through Jesus Christ. Those spiritual sacrifices would include our praises. It would include our petitions. We're going to see that today. How our petitions, our prayers are around the throne of God. We are a holy priesthood. We're anointed with the anointed one and his anointing, Jesus Christ. We are anointed and so we are equipped to approach God. There are people who don't have a relationship with God, and they are not in the same place. They could be. If they accepted Jesus as Lord, like I did, if they let the blood of Jesus cleanse them of their sins and change their nature, they could be in this position too, but they're not yet. We want them to be. But because I am washed in the blood, because I am cleansed and made righteous by that precious holy blood that was shed for me, I have an approach to God. I have an ability to enter into his presence. I can, by the name of Jesus, enter into the presence of God. It says in the book of Hebrews that Jesus has made a new and a living way. And so this new and the living way, he said, because you have this, this approach to God, this new and this living way, so that you can approach God, come boldly. Receive help in time of need. So because we have access, and what's the access for? To enter into his presence, to come before his throne, to make petitions, and to receive help in time of need. Because we have it, he says, let us draw near. In other words, because you have access, use that access. Come, come. And you know, when we're talking about our family, sometimes there are decisions that our family members have made. They're walking in the darkness, they're bound many times by deception. They're bound by unbelief. They're bound by the shame of their sins. And I remember what it was like when I was in sin and I was under the shame and the weight and the guilt of all that sin. I didn't think I could go to God. I surely did not approach him. I surely did not feel like I had access to go into the presence of God. And so I stayed as far away from God as I could. And even when I would be in the worst of the worst of the worst, the worst of the worst, the worst of my situations, when I was facing the possibility of spending 10 years in the state penitentiary, when I almost died from an overdose, when I lost my first husband to an overdose, when I was losing my custody of my children. When in all of those situations, I did not ask God to help me because I didn't think he would. I did not think he would. I thought he's not going to listen to me. I am a dirty, rotten sinner. I am the worst of the worst sinners. I mean, the people who are bad people don't want to see me coming. And so I surely did not have any desire to go to God only because I thought he hated me and he did not have any interest in helping me at all. So I did not ask him for help. Not until some pushy preacher came in to the hospital where my first husband was being kept alive on machines and push me into going to the chapel where they preached the gospel to me for the first time. Did I ever have any hope that God would hear me? So I say all that to tell you there's a lot of times when we say, well, if our family members really wanted it, they'd call out to God. They might not think God wants them to call out. They might not think God would hear them. They might be so, like I was, convinced by the shame that God hates them and God does not want anything to do with them, that they don't even get their hopes up to ask God. And so that means if anybody's going to ask God on their behalf, it's going to be us. We're going to have to be the ones to come to Him and say, Lord, they need your help. They don't know they need it, but I know they need it. And so I'm asking you to open the eyes of their understanding. I'm asking you to send laborers across their path. You know, when I I look back and I was in that situation. And do you know who was asking for prayer for me? My kids went to Sunday school and asked their Sunday school teachers to pray for me. My kids were at Sunday school, and so here they my the childlike faith, my kids are getting prayer requests for their mom. But look what the Lord has done. And I'm telling you that it doesn't it doesn't necessarily mean you have to know all the details of how he's going to do it, but if you'll just trust God, that God wants to save your children, he wants to save your grandchildren, he wants to reach into your loved ones' life and make a difference in their life. And if you'll go to God with that confidence, and if you'll be the one ministering to the Lord in his presence, giving him voice on their behalf, God, I'm asking you to make a way where there doesn't seem to be a way. I'm asking you to reach into their situation. God is faithful and he wants you to approach him that way. Your approach to him is the is an anointed approach. You're anointed to approach him. You are sanctified and set apart by the blood so that you can approach him. You're a holy priesthood. You're like, well, Michelle, I don't feel like a holy priesthood. Only because you haven't just been going and being. Just go and be. You don't have to feel it. Just go and be what Jesus has made you. Go and be anointed to approach the throne of God. You know, in my situation, let's say, for instance, I'm going to give you an example. In my marriage, there's no one else who has access to my husband that I have. Because I am his wife, I can speak to him and tell him what a wonderful man he is. I can speak to him and encourage him in ways that it would be inappropriate for other women to encourage him that way. It would be inappropriate. They can say nice things to him, they can give him compliments, but there are some compliments, there are some things that for them to say it is going to be inappropriate, right? And so uh for them to give those kinds of building up uh uh words to him, I'm anointed to do it. I'm set apart for that purpose. I'm set apart to pray for him in a way that nobody else can pray for him. I'm set apart to speak to him in a way that nobody else, well, I'm sure not going to withhold that, those words of encouragement. I'm not talking about anything wrong. I'm talking about words of encouragement, words that build him up. I'm equipped to do that with an anointing to do that as his wife. There's an anointing on me as his wife to say some things that can encourage him in ways that no other woman could speak to him. So I'm surely not going to withhold that from him. In the same way, you are anointed to approach God. Don't withhold that. You're anointed to go to God. You are you are equipped by the blood and the the anointing of the the anointed one and his anointing that's on you, Christ the anointed one, on you. So approach God. Go to him, make those petitions. There are few people in our families. I mean, overall, in the families, most of the time, in families, there are few, fewer than more of the believers in the family who know how to really touch God, really know how to reach heaven, really know how to use their faith and apply the word and work the word in their their situation. So we may need to work extra sometimes, but let's not withhold it. Isaiah 61 in verse 6 says, You shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. So the word of God says that we will be named priests of the Lord, and people will call us ministers of our God. So we are equipped to bring sacrifices to him, and we are equipped to receive uh uh for in it as representative as well. So we we receive his will in the situation. We we use our faith and we we lay hold of what we know God wants in that situation, in that family's life. Revelation chapter 1, verse 5, it says, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our own sins in his blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. This speaks of Jesus having paid the price to give us this entry point and then not only cleansing us and washing us from our sins, but he's made us kings and priests. And so when we recognize this is a dual working of the anointing of God, I'm anointed as a king to represent and govern. It says that those who have accepted this gift of grace and this righteousness, we will rule in life. And so there are situations we govern, there are situations we take authority over, there are situations in our family that we say, this is not the will of God for my loved one to be in this situation. It is not the will of God for them to walk in this darkness, it is not the will of God for them to be deceived this way. And so, Father, I exercise the authority you've given me on the earth. I'm anointed as a king. I'm also anointed as a priest. I can bring sacrifices to God, sacrifices of joy. I can I can offer up to him a living sacrifice of my obedience to do his will, to be a doer of his word. And that's priceless. And so that positions me as a king and a priest to make these petitions. This ministry that we have, ministering to the Lord with our our lifestyle of righteousness, our lifestyle of obedience, this ministry, part of that ministry is bringing forth fruit in prayer. And Jesus talked about the fruitfulness, how it glorifies God when we bring forth much fruit. And he's talking about prayer fruit. He's talking about the fruits of righteousness are that which is produced because I have been given right standing with God. I can get some things done on the earth that someone who does not have this right standing in place, they're not operating in it, they can't get these things accomplished. They have to go to the one to get the mediation, to get the cleansing, to get the establishing of who they are in Christ so that they can operate. But but I've already been established, I've already been cleansed. I can now work the business of the kingdom in his stead as his representative. So Isaiah 56 says, even them will I bring, verse 7, 56, 7, even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. So prayer is an important part of this ministry that we have in our lives to God. And we are anointed for this ministry, and we're anointed for prayer. It's part of what the house does, what we do in the household of faith. The church collectively is God's temple or God's house. 1 Corinthians 3 16 says, Do you not discern and understand that you, the whole church at Corinth, are God's people? This is the amplified, God's temple, his sanctuary, and that God's Spirit has his permanent dwelling in you to be at home in you collectively as a church and also individually. So, yes, individually, the greater one lives in me. The Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, now dwells in my mortal body. He lives in me, he abides in me. Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. The greater one lives in me individually, but I am not an individual in all the totality of how God sees me. He sees me as part of the body of Christ. And so collectively, as the body of Christ on the earth, and the Bible talks about the whole family on the heaven, in the heaven and on the earth. So the whole family of God, we're called by the name, uh, we're named by that name of the name of the whole family. So the whole family, God sees us in that bigger picture, the whole family. We are a house. We're a household of faith. We are a family of faith. We are collective as other people who are bloodwashed. Glory to God. And so that's where the joining together is vital to the plan of God. And I'm gonna go back to 1 Peter 2, 5. It again says a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. And so those individual stones, he says you are lively stones, those individual stones were joined together to make a structure, a house, a wall, a dwelling place. And so this means that we need each other, we need each other's faith, we need each other's um encouragement, we need each other's connection, we need to connect, and we don't need to try to do everything like the Lone Ranger. Anybody remember the Lone Ranger? Yeah, it even he had Tonto. I mean, he didn't do it on his own, and so we don't need to try to believe for the situation on our own, we don't need to try to figure this out on our own. We've got the body of Christ to connect to. We are a a house fitly joined together. So let me finish with this. Revelation 5.8 says, when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders. This is a picture of what happens around the throne of God. When he had taken the book, the four beasts and the twenty and four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of fragrances, which are the prayers of the saints. Glory to God. The prayers of the saints, your prayers are present at the throne of God. Your prayers as part of the ministry of what you're offering to Him. Your prayers on behalf of your family are at the throne today. Your prayers on behalf of your marriage is at the throne today. Your prayers are coming up before him as a sweet smelling fragrance before the throne of God. And so it's part of your ministry. You're anointed for this. You are equipped with the ability of God to stand between the living and the dead. Just like Aaron took the censor and he ran, and his presence of offering that prayer to God stopped the progression of the destruction in that situation. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. The destruction stopped. And when you take your relationship with God and you stand in between what is trying to happen in your loved one's life, and you hold the banner, the blood-stained banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you declare that child, that grandchild, that loved one as God's property. I claim them for the family of God. They are my seed. They belong to my family. And God, you said my whole family would be saved. And you're standing there resisting the destruction. And the presence of God is part of your prayer. He is receiving your prayer. He is answering your prayer. I want you to know that what you're doing in the presence of God is affecting your family for eternity. And I'm so glad that you tuned in today. We've got so much that we desire to help you understand and believe. We've got resources. We've got podcast books, different things that are available. A lot of what you hear me discussing in this podcast is from my book, Intervention Prayers, Powerful Prayers to Rescue and Restore Your Family. I've written it as a devotional, so it's got different daily chapters with how to apply that chapter in prayer, prayers that are designed to apply that teaching in that chapter that you read that day, as well as verses for you to strengthen your faith. And so testimonies of God's goodness, so many different things to help you overcome. I want to let you know how you can get a hold of your copy of intervention prayers and find the other resources that we make available. Be sure to tune in next week as we come back to give you faith for your family. Thanks for being with me today, and I look forward to seeing you soon. Be blessed. Whatever evil force is driving your loved one to destruction, you have someone to turn to for supernatural help. Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. God supernaturally set me free from a life of addiction and crime. I am a result of the intervention prayers my family prayed. I've written this book to help you connect with God's rescue and deliverance for your loved one. Intervention prayers is more than just a book, it's a life-saving manual. It holds keys to unlock the power of God and bring divine intervention. With this book, you can leave behind the desperate begging prayers that leave you feeling helpless and enter the throne room of God with the confidence to get the help you need. Intervention Prayers is formatted with 28 days of teachings from God's Word that will establish your faith and God's will to intervene in your loved one's life. The daily chapters include guided prayers and faith-filled confessions to help you activate the truth you have received. I want you to know that God is willing and ready to intervene and rescue your loved one. Are you concerned about family members who are struggling with addictions or destructive lifestyles? My name is Michelle Steele, and I invite you to join me and Pastor Philip Steele for a powerful weekly podcast dedicated to helping you stand strong in faith and pray for the salvation of your loved ones. With inspired teachings, heartfelt prayers, and encouragement to help you keep believing for positive change. We have new episodes every week. They're available on major podcast outlets. So tune in on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube. You can catch the video versions of Faith for Your Family on the YouTube channels for Faith Builders International or Faith Builders Little Runk. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make a difference in your family's lives. Subscribe now and join us in prayer and faith for the transformation of your loved ones.