Watching in Prayer

In this powerful and uplifting lesson, you’ll discover how to:
 👀 Be spiritually alert and watchful in prayer
 🕊️ Develop greater sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit
 💡 Stay engaged and intentional as you intercede for your family and needs

This encouraging message will strengthen your prayer life and equip you to stand firm with confidence and awareness in every season 💖✨

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Welcome to Faith for Your Family. My name is Michelle Steele, and I am so thrilled to have this opportunity for you and I to join together in the Word of God and grow in our faith for our families. We are focused in these podcasts, Faith for Your Family, on strengthening our connection to the Word of God and to the help of God for our loved ones. When we think about the Shunammite woman, we think about a woman who stood for the life of her child. But I like to look at it this way: she became an instrument in the hand of God. If she had not stood for her covenant right to be restored where her child was concerned, he would have died and been victim to the circumstance, the situation. But because she knew God, because she had a covenant with God, because she had honored God in her life, she was able to provide a divine connection for the power of God to flow into her child's life and to bring her child back to a place of restoration and wholeness. And you and I have a relationship with God. And we can take that relationship with God. We can trust in him. We can invite him into our loved one's situation, and we can be an instrument in his hand for his glory as his power reaches into their lives and brings them to a place of restoration. And that's what we're learning about today. We're learning about how to make that connection. And we talked last week, and we're actually dealing with a lesson that is in effective prayer. And effective prayer is a 12-part teaching that I did some time ago. And you can go back and watch the whole 12 parts in the playlist on our YouTube channel for Life of Faith Church. And you can hear the parts, all of the different teachings on the different types of prayer, the prayer of faith, how to be effective in intercession and supplication. But this week we're talking specifically about the watching in prayer. And we we talked a little last week about it and ran out of time. So we're going to go back again and kind of pick up where we left off because we want to learn what it means when it tells us to watch in prayer. And the first thing that we talked about last week was the fact that our praying is in line with the will of God. And so Jesus said to us in Matthew chapter 6, in this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So he's saying, pray this way, in this manner, pray, your will be done. Why would I need to pray for God's will to be done? If God's God and God wants to do what God wants to do, he's going to do it without my praying it, right? And that's why a lot of times we're not making the connection. We're leaving up to God something that He needs our partnership. He needs our authority on the earth. He needs an invitation into the situation. And when you pray in faith, when you pray the word, when you take the promise of God concerning your loved ones and you bring it before him, you provide a legal entry for him into that situation. Just like that Shunammite woman, what would she have done if she would have just said, you know what? If God wants to raise my son, God will do it. And if God's not going to do it, then what good is it for me to get up out of my comfort zone and go find the man of God? No, she knew for me to get God involved, I've got to go bring his word into this situation. I've got to make a connection where his power, the one who's carrying his power on the earth, can come into this situation. And that's why we've been given and delegated the authority of Jesus' name. That's why he said, Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven. So we can loose the power of God into our loved one's life. We can bind what the enemy's doing in our loved one's life. And so our prayers, we're praying the will of God. We're bringing the will of God into effect in this situation. So Jesus said, I want you to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I shared with you a quote from John Wesley. What a great general of faith in the body of Christ this man was. John Wesley taught a lot about prayer, and he said, God is limited by our prayer life. Now just think about that for a moment. God is limited by our prayer life. It seems he can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks him. That God can do nothing for humanity except someone asks him. And do you remember the New Testament example that we're given in the book of James, chapter 5, when it says the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much, and the amplified says makes tremendous power available? But then the example that the Holy Spirit gives us in that scripture is an example of the prophet who prayed for it not to rain and it didn't rain. And then God said, You go tell Ahab it's gonna rain. And he went and prayed again for the rain to come and the rain came. So why did he need to pray? If God said it's not gonna rain, what has my prayer got to do with it? He was praying in line with the will of God. God had given him his word so that he could know what he needed to loose, what he needed to bind, what he needed to activate, what he needed to deactivate. And that's what you and I are doing. We're praying the will of God. We're making the power of God available to the situation, and we're recognizing that we have a part, especially in our family. You know, who else is going to have that burden to pray for your family like you do? Who else, can you think right now, who else is praying for your family besides you? Can you picture anybody who's praying? Maybe, maybe you've got other family members who know God and they're praying for the family. You know, maybe you can look back and say, well, my grandmother prayed for our family, my mom prayed for our family. Maybe you were blessed to have a praying mother, maybe you're pre blessed to have a praying grandmother. I I look back and I can say, I would not be here today. I don't think I would have made it through the things I made it through if it if it hadn't been for my grandmother opening the power of God for the situation. I even had kids who were being raised by somebody else, raised by their grandmother, who were going to church and praying, asking their Sunday school teacher to pray for me. So this this my children praying for me opened the door for the power of God to sell to set me free, to liberate me from the addiction and from the life of crime that I was living. If it hadn't been for other people praying for me, where would I be? But think about this: who's praying for those other people in your life now? Who's praying for your children, your grandchildren? Who's praying for your aunt, your uncle? Who's who is opening the door to the power of God to move in that situation? So we want to take our place in prayer. We want to provide that open door for God. And one of the things that we're learning from Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18 is about watching. What does that mean to watch? Because Ephesians 6.18 says, praying always with all prayer, all types of prayer, one translation says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto. So there's two verb actions there that we're instructed, two instructions, praying and watching, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. So watching involves a constant diligence. It says perseverance. And you persevere in something that maybe you're tired of doing. If you've ever ran a long race, an endurance race, you've got to persevere. You've got to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even if you don't feel like it. Now, my husband, he's the runner. He's ran marathons, not one, but multiple. And um I've ran a 5K in the in which I did not run the whole time. I still have not yet uh understood why someone would want to run for multiple hours, 26.3 miles. It's in my mind, it's still like, okay, if you want to do it, that's fine. But my 5K, and it was called the frostbite 5k. It was freezing, and and I only did it because he was running like a half marathon, and uh so I'm out there, and so I might as well move around and stay warm, right? And so it's the first and the last one that I did. Not the only 5k I ever did, but the only one in the frostbite 5K. It was so cold, but I I discovered about halfway through, I wanted to stop. I'm like, oh, it's so cold, and I'm I'm I'm done with this. But I did not, I I'd heard my husband enough times say, no matter what, I I refuse to have uh did not finish a DNF behind my name. So no matter what, I'm making it across that finish line, even if I get hurt, and he has injured himself and had to walk out the last few miles. But he said, I did it even with the injury because I I've made that commitment to myself to not have a DNF, it did not finish behind my name. And so to do that, there has to be that commitment, that perseverance. And watching requires perseverance. Watching in prayer is not just that prayer faith that you pray one time, and even the prayer of faith, there's a perseverance to that, isn't it? Because then I've got to stay in faith and I've got to maintain with worship, I've got to maintain with praise. And Father, I thank you. I believe I have received when I prayed. But watching is even a little bit more beyond that because it's staying on call. It's staying in that place of alertness, in that place where I'm looking over this to see if there's anything more I need to pray in this situation. So it says watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication. And you know, supplication is in the New Testament more than intercession, but you don't hear about it as much. Isn't that interesting? I think we need to hear about it more. What is supplication? What are the marks of supplication? And we've taught about it in the teaching on effective prayer. We've taught about the difference between supplication and intercession because intercession is going between, it is applying the work of intercession that Jesus has done in his redemption to break the power of the enemy. And it's also the work of intercession to connect us to the life of God. And so we can pray the prayer of intercession and we can apply the work that Jesus has accomplished by breaking the power of the enemy over our loved ones' life, and we can connect them to the life of God and the promises in the Word of God and the help that God has made available in prayer. Supplication is a heartfelt, earnest petition that your whole heart is in it, that you're you're you're you're you're you've got the emotional investment in it. And so, yes, you would definitely see um your emotions in an intercession, but it's the work that you're doing in the intercession that sets it apart from the supplication. So the supplication is an earnest request, it's a petition, and you feel it with all that's in you. You're you're invested in it, and you know that's a lot of energy, that's a lot of spiritual energy. So for watching thereunto with perseverance, which is that diligence, that oversight, that I'm on call all the time, and then I'm supplicating. In other words, not only am I watching where I'm having to be alert, but I'm committed, I'm involved in the outcome of this person's life. My supplications, my petitions are have got my 100% investment in them. And so we're supposed to do this praying and watching, watching with perseverance and supplication. So let me give you a definition for the word watching. The word watching, according to the New Testament, um Strong's Concordance, it says to be intent upon a thing, to be intent upon a thing, to exercise constant vigilance over something, to exercise constant vigilance over something. And the definition is drawn from the image of a shepherd watching over their sheep. In other words, I've got the responsibility to keep this situation safe. I've got the responsibility to do what needs to be done. If there needs to be anything applied to the situation, if there needs to be any um uh uh caregiving done here, I'm I'm in that position. So in prayer, if there needs to be anything taking authority over, I'm in the position. If there needs to be any any word applied, I'm in the position. If there needs to be a request made for peace, if there needs to be a request made for the wisdom of God to be made available to this loved one, I'm the one watching. I'm I'm vigilant, I'm watching over to see what needs to be done. So watching requires that we are sensitive to the stirrings and promptings of the Holy Spirit. And if you've ever heard me talk about it in the book, intervention prayers, we don't want to do this on our own thinking, in our own ability. The Holy Spirit, He is ever present to help us know what we need to pray in that situation. We are when we don't know what to pray as we ought in that situation, He comes to our aid, He bears us up, and He He comes alongside us to help, showing us what to pray, prompting us what to pray. You know, um I remember when we had first taken over the uh the Kansas location of our church, Life of Faith. Um, and that's been over 20 some odd years ago. Um, but I remember watching because my husband, he always from the beginning of our relationship, I've known him to be a man of prayer, and he depends on the Holy Spirit in prayer. And we were, it was our first experience pastoring a church, and it was a church that had not had a lot of structure before, and um it was run by the deacon board, and I mean they voted on wallpaper. I'm serious. Like, what do we put the wallpaper with the bears or do we put the wallpaper with the in the nursery, you know, with or the Noah's Ark? You know, what are we doing here? And so they wanted to control everything, and so when it we were there and it was coming time for them to vote on the pastor, the Holy Spirit began to show my husband about certain people in the church that were gossiping, and the Holy Spirit showed him what to do and showed him how to handle it, and show him what to what they were saying and what to pray about what they were saying. It was so interesting because he he had to it he had to hear what the Holy Spirit was revealing to him to know how to accurately uh walk through that situation. Glory to God. And and that's how the Holy Spirit is. He'll show us specifics, he'll show us what to do, he'll help us to know what to pray and how to pray in that situation. So we need to know the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, we need to develop that. Colossians chapter 4, verse 2 says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. So thanksgiving is a tool that we can employ in our watching when when you need to work that discipline of being vigilant over something. Thank you, Father, is a way to help you pray that vigilantly, to help you stay that diligent oversight. So thank you, Father. And that helps you remind, okay, Lord, I've thank you, Father, that you're providing wisdom to my loved one. Father, I thank you that you are the ever-present help in time of trouble and that you will show them. Father, I thank you. So he said, watch with thanksgiving. Watch with thanksgiving. Don't leave your thanksgiving out because thanksgiving helps you, it strengthens you, it helps you maintain that watch. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 13, it says, be keeping a watchful eye ever open, be standing fast in the faith, standing fast in the faith, be showing yourselves to be men, be mighty in strength. And it's talking about being strong, be showing yourself to be stall or men. You're out there like a soldier, and be mighty in strength. And so notice it starts with keeping a watchful eye open. Be and this is the Wee's translation of 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be keeping a watchful eye ever open. How do I do that? You definitely need the help of the Holy Spirit to do this, but you can do it, you can do it just by maintaining that awareness. You know, um, as a mom, I'm aware my child is with me. I'm so, you know, aware that she's with me. I'm aware of of you know what is being said around her, what what's influences in the room, but because I have this radar sense of it's not just my ears that are hearing this, but my little one's ears are hearing this. And and it's not just my eyes that are seeing something, but my little one's eyes are seeing something. And so I have this awareness. And you can develop an awareness in prayer that stays with you all day, that you've got it turned on all day long. And I used the example last week of the person who is on the telephone and they're walking through the grocery store and they're talking to somebody on the phone, and nobody knows except they notice that the earbuds are in their ears, that they're they're on the phone and they're talking to someone, and you can just keep God on the phone all day long. And that's how you can be keeping a watchful eye ever open. Isaiah 21, verse 6 says, For thus has the Lord said to me, Go set yourself as a watchman, let him declare what he sees. This is the amplified version. It says, Set yourself as a watchman. Set yourself as a watchman, and then once you've taken that place, now you are to declare what you see. So, in the position of watching, you're going to see things in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit's going to show you things. He's going to reveal things. Why? Because you have set yourself there so that you can see and say what needs to be said, or we would say, pray what needs to be prayed in this situation. What needs to be bound can be bound. What needs to be loosed can be loosed because there's someone on the wall watching. And I'm going to explain the wall because in the Old Testament we see examples of the watchman took a position. On the wall. And they had walls around the city that provided protection, and it provided the watchman an ability to see what was coming. And so I want to read an example from 2 Kings chapter 9. 2 Kings chapter 9 and verse 17. And this is the New Living Translation. It says, The watchman on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu and his company approaching. So he shouted to Joram, I see a company of troops coming. Send out a writer to ask if they're coming in peace, King Jeram ordered. So when the watchman saw what was coming, there was the ability to have a plan of action. There was an ability for us to have a confrontation, for us to make a put a plan in place so that we are not caught off guard. Just like my husband was alerted to what gossip was going on, the Holy Spirit began to reveal to him and gave him like this vision of uh and and he revealed to him exactly what they were saying. And sure enough, when he went to certain people and said, Did so and so come to you? And they said, Yeah, they came and said such and such, it was exactly what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him. And he had already been able to bind those words and command what the enemy was working in that plan to come to nothing. And so, in this example, he the king was able to say, Send out a rider to find out if they're coming in peace. I've got time to confront this, I've got time to do something about this so that we can prepare ourselves. Verse 18 says, So a hus a horseman went out to meet Jehu and said, The king wants to know if you're coming in peace. Jehu replied, What do you know about peace? Fall in behind me. The watchman called out to the king, the messenger has sent him, but he's not returning. So they were able to determine that and trouble's coming. They were able to determine this is not peaceful, that he's coming to start trouble. He's coming with with evil in mind. And they were able to prepare themselves. So part of what we are doing in prayer is so that we will not be caught off guard, and part of it is so that we will know the steps to take and be able to seek the Lord for a plan. 2 Samuel is another example I want to give, and this is from chapter 18. 2 Samuel chapter 18, verses 24 through 27. While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates of the town, the watchman climbed to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked, he saw a lone man running toward them. He shouted the news down to David, and the king replied, If he is alone, he has news. As the messenger came closer, the watchman saw another man running toward them. He shouted down, Here comes another one. The king replied, He also will have news. The first man runs like Ahimazaz, king, or son of Zadok, the watchman said. He is a good man and comes with good news, the king replied. So the watchman had details. Details not just about what was coming, but he was able to recognize. He was able to identify. He was able to provide details about the situation. I was on a trip. I had left my children. My husband and I went to a conference, and it was back right before 9-11. And the reason I remember it is because we had the whole plane almost to ourselves on this. We went to this conference, and um we had uh two teenagers and and a middle schooler, and we left them with different ones in the church who were friends, family, uh that that so that we could go on this conference. And the morning that we were there, um we had flown in and we had um time that morning, and then we were going to go to the conference that night. The morning we were out taking a walk and we were praying. And it we just had a sense, we had a prompting. The Holy Spirit had us praying Psalm 91 over our children. You think, well, you know, you're out of town, you hadn't left your kids with anybody before, you're leaving them with with, you know, different ones, and so you're you that would be a natural thing. But this was more than just a natural uh sense to pray. It was like a um an alertness, it was like a heavy burden. It was like, yeah, we're gonna pray. And we got started praying that Psalm 91. And and we went through and prayed that psalm over our children. And then that night we went to church and the preacher preached on Psalm 91, you know, it was, you know, fortifying us. And when we walked into the hotel room, and and at the same time we're turning our phone back on because we'd had our phone off, we were in church, and the hotel phone was blinking, showing that there was a message to our room. And at the same time, the phones in our hand are waking up, you know, we turned our phones back on, and we're starting to get alerts that we had missed missed calls and we had messages. And so my husband's on one phone, I'm on the other, and we're calling to find out. And the message, one message was from the hospital asking for permission to treat our daughter, and the other message was from certain of the church family that we had left our our oldest daughter with. And as we understood the scenario, our daughter and her, she was out with two other young ladies from the church, and they had just left them all. And when they pulled out from a certain four-way stop or a certain uh stop sign, it wasn't a four-way stop, I think it was a stop sign, and they pulled out in the path of an oncoming Mac truck. And um when the ambulance drivers pulled up, they looked at the car and they said, We might need the body bags, because I don't see how anybody could survive this. All three of the girls survived. All three of the girls walked out of that car, and it was not because of anything more than the hand of God upon them protecting them. But God had an invitation to protect them, He had an open door, we had sense that morning, and I'm not saying we're the only ones that prayed, but I remember so specifically how we so strongly prayed Psalm 91 over them. Those are extreme examples of how of things that we knew happened. You know, there are times that you may have that sense to pray and you don't know, and you don't ever find out. Just follow the Holy Spirit and pray and and watch and let Him bring through you the power of God into that situation. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are not in the dark, and you don't have to let the enemy steal and kill and destroy in your life. You don't have to be overtaken. Why? Because you're sons of the light. It says you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness, therefore, don't sleep. Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch. So he says the key to not being overtaken and robbed from is to watch. Watch and be sober. The Mark chapter 13, Jesus said, Therefore, watch, give strict attention, be cautious and alert. That's the amplifying. Be cautious and alert, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning. Watch, I say, lest he come suddenly and unexpectedly and find you asleep. So notice it says in 1 Thessalonians that we protect ourselves from the enemy's advancement by watching. And then in Mark 13, Jesus also said that we maintain ourselves ready for anything the Lord needs, anything the Lord wants to say, any movement he has for us, we're ready because we're watching. I'm so glad you tuned in today. Stay tuned. I've got information for you, and we're going to be again next week talking about having prayer, having faith for your family. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you soon. When your loved one is battling drug addiction or alcoholism, who can you call for help? Are they cutting themselves, starving themselves, or tormented with thoughts of suicide? Where can you turn to stop the destruction? I want you to know that you have someone to turn to for supernatural help. My name is Michelle Steele. God supernaturally set me free from a life of drug addiction and prostitution. I am a result of God's intervention. I've written this book, Intervention Prayers, to help you find God's rescue for your loved one. Intervention prayers is more than just a book. It is a life-saving manual. It holds keys to unlock the power of God and bring supernatural 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 confidence to get the help you need. Intervention Prayers is formatted with 28 days of teachings from the Word of God. It will establish your faith in God's will to intervene in your loved one's life. Every day, you're equipped with guided prayers and faith-filled confessions to help you activate the truth you've received. The personal testimonies of God's miraculous deliverance will inspire you to know that God is willing and ready to intervene and rescue your loved one from destruction. Get your copy of Intervention Prayers, powerful prayers to rescue and restore your family. You can call 501-400-8797 or visit lifeoffaith.net. Regardless of what you see playing out in the lives of your loved ones, even if reports tell you things are getting worse, you can stand strong in faith. Go to our website, lifeoffaith.net, or call 501-400-8797 to get your copy of intervention prayers today.