Pray Now with Authority | Ep 9

In this episode, Keith and Megan challenge their listeners to pray right away when they encounter a need. Often people say, "I'll pray for you." Rather than waiting until later, pray right now!

Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome to the Everfree Podcast.

I am Keith Peeler and I'm here with my amazing wife Megan Peeler.

And babe, we have a passion for prayer and prayer that sets people free, don't we? 

We sure do.

And the purpose of the Everfree Podcast is to share stories, biblical principles, concepts, and tools that are going to help you find freedom in a relationship with Christ that is naturally supernatural.

Welcome to episode number nine, where we're talking about praying with power and authority right now.

Hey friends, welcome to the podcast today.

We are going to start in prayer again, so hey, join me.

God, thank you for what you are doing in us and through us, whatever we are facing today, it is only by your allowance.

It is only by your hand of protection that we face our greatest fears and trials, that we have our greatest joys.

It is only in your hand and by your will that we live.

And so father, bring us through the word today, bring us through the spirit today, bring us through whatever it is that you have for us.

Let us learn to pray with power and authority the way you intended, that we would take our rightful place as your sons and daughters and pray as such.

Blessed in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So friends, we are talking about prayer, and of course everything we talk about is prayer, but specifically, okay, total disclosure, Megan and I have some pet peeves that are going to come out on this podcast.

It's true.

We're human and we have pet peeves.

But what we intend is that these pet peeves...

Are encouraging.

...are encouraging.

We want our discomfort to challenge you.

Just kidding.

It's not discomfort.

It's really more about...

I think that there's a growing frustration that we have by the lack of training in prayer, the lack of, I think, strong voices speaking to what does it mean to really pray with power and authority.

We have so deeply been impacted by learning how powerful prayer is, that we want everyone to have these tools.

We want everyone to see in the Word what does it mean to pray with power and authority.

And we also want to navigate why it's hard.

Why are people feeling insecure or what we have encountered when we meet with people for prayer and what's holding people back.

Yeah.

I think there's this whole...

I'm going to be just real honest.

I think there's this whole like just manby-pamby prayer stuff.

Meaning it's like this wish.

It's a wish.

It's not a prayer.

Because prayer is about intimacy with God and prayer is about connecting with God, making our requests known, listening, hearing from Him, getting our marching orders, if you will, that that listening to God and connecting to God is about tearing down strongholds and fighting for justice.

And I think most of our, and I say manby-pamby prayers are...

It's like we all grew up in Sunday school and never grew up in prayer.

Yeah.

And in Sunday school, it was, does anyone have a prayer request? 

And as little girls and boys in Sunday school, it was like, yeah, my grandma's sick.

My dad just died.

I mean, it's just all these like, well, you pray for this.

But actually I was leaving the prayers to the leader.

I was never asked to pray and no one in my little Sunday school was asked to pray for me, which is interesting to think about now.

Yeah.

I think I had a mixture of that.

I think that there were times, I can remember times in like Sunday school or youth group where we're like, okay, who, you know, we would ping it, right? 

Like, okay, Megan had a request.

Who wants to pray for Megan's request? 

But never grew up into standing firm as an adult.

Like to pray with power and authority means that I understand my identity in Christ and then I'm praying from that.

So the last episode that we talked about on authority, we really highlighted the position from which we pray.

And I talked about how I felt like I was on the earth and I had to pray through the atmosphere in order to get to finally get to God.

But my position is that as a co-er in Christ, that I'm praying with the authority of Christ.

It's not Keith's authority.

I think we say that enough, but let me just be very clear.

When we're talking about praying with power and authority, it is not Keith's power or Megan's power.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is the power of the blood of Jesus.

It is the father, the son, the Holy Ghost doing the work.

But if I'm not activating that, if I'm not stepping into that in participation with the father, then I'm missing out.

And then my prayers look like this, dear God, would you please help this or help that or do this or do that? And there's no commanding.

Now, I'm not commanding God to do anything, but I am commanding darkness.

I am commanding evil, the things that are below me.

I'm commanding, I'm declaring, I'm blessing, I'm sending, right? 

So we just had a phone call with a dear friend who's a ministry partner and it was a great opportunity for us just to think about what we do every day and how we pray for people, right?

 Yeah.

And she sent me a text just saying, hey, would you guys pray? 

Would you agree with me in this? 

And I said, could we pray for you right now? 

It would have been just as easy to say, sure, I'm praying for you.

But I felt like she needed to hear the spoken word.

And actually, I felt like the spirit realm needed to hear the spoken word because she was under attack.

And this is the pet peeve.

Yep.

This is the first, I'll be honest, it's Megan's pet peeve.

It's a little bit mine.

It's a little bit mine, but it's mostly Megan's.

And it is, I'll pray for you.

And that's not enough for me.

Like I...

Say more about that.

When we were talking about this earlier, you said, it makes me crazy when I'm with a group of women or at a Bible study and I'll say, I'll pray for you.

What exactly do you mean when you say that? 

What I want to happen is for someone to lay hands on me and say, can I pray for you right now?

Right now in this moment.

And I think maybe fear stops people or insecurity or time even may stop people from doing that.

But man, I feel so covered and with peace and love and just truth when I have friends that will do that, when they will just call me up and pray right then and there.

And this friend that we have, this partner knows that.

And she wasn't asking us to call her right away, but our response was, hey, we have this thing we're doing right now, but in 30 minutes, we're giving you a call.

Does that work? 

Yep, it works.

And what we did was we thought through, okay, what did we do when we prayed? 

Well, we always say Susie, her name is Susie.

So we called her and what was the first thing that Susie started saying to us? 

She started confessing her fear of what she was having to walk through.

In that situation.

So what we're doing is we're listening.

Okay, we're trying to be good listeners.

She tells us the problem.

As we did that, what did we do as soon as she told us what was going on? We just reflected back to her, what she was saying, and then asked her if we could pray for her over those things.

Yeah.

And look, some of this stuff that we've learned along the way is just basic mental health professionals teaching us in marriage how to listen.

So some of this is just a good, your prayer life will be directly determined on your ability to listen.

That's true.

So friends, some of you think you're good listeners.

You're not.

And I don't mean that as condemnation.

I'm just saying to you very carefully and very directly, I want to exhort you lovingly.

Many of you are thinking about what you're going to say next as the person is speaking to you.

Many of you might be trying to solve the person's problem as they're speaking it to you.

In the father's business, it is much more about listening than it is speaking.

And certainly it's definitely about listening first and then speaking, which is one of my pet peeves.

And so what we're doing when we reflect back, there's a process of listening very well to her and saying, hey, Susie, here's what we hear you saying.

Is that accurate? 

Are we hearing what you're trying to communicate to us? 

Is there more you want to say? 

And that gives that person the opportunity to share more.

After we did that, what was the next thing that we started asking her to do as we're listening? 

We asked her to identify any lies that she was hearing as she was having to walk through these difficult situations in her life.

Yeah.

And that's a process of listening, right? 

So now we're asking some follow-up questions.

And this is all in preparation for exposing the love of God and the truth that he wants to reveal to her.

Yeah.

And so at that point, we're both on the call and we're both listening.

And then I felt led and sometimes Megan does it, sometimes I do it.

We don't, you know, it's not always me or not always her.

We're just sharing that as we feel led.

And so I just started praying.

Okay.

And so I'm just blessing her first.

Susie, I just want to bless you that, you know, God is for you.

He's not against you.

And I start sometimes just speaking basic scriptural truths over that person.

In fact, one of the verses that we've talked about that we love in regards to like praying right now, praying for an issue, praying for like something is from James, right? 

Do you want to read that for us, babe? 

Yeah.

It's James 5, 13 through 16.

Is anyone among you in trouble? 

Let them pray.

Is anyone happy? 

Let them sing songs of praise.

Is anyone among you sick? 

Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.

The Lord will raise them up.

If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

And so our biblical framework of prayer is very clear.

We on behalf of God, like we are the priesthood of all believers, so we're praying on behalf of one another with one another.

And so as we're praying for Susie, we're talking to her, we're kind of checking in with her because our prayers are very reflective in the moment.

So they're interactive.

Yeah.

So why don't you give an example, babe, of sharing that with me? 

Like, you know, as we're checking in with each other, what are some things that we might ask as we're praying? 

So I just said, Susie, I want to bless you to this.

What are some questions that we might ask along the way? 

We typically ask, what lie are you hearing right now? 

And then if they say, I feel shame and that's a lie.

They've already reflected that that's a lie.

Then we'll say, Holy Spirit, come and Jesus, would you reveal truth to who Susie is? 

Yeah.

Is she a person of shame? 

Does she need to sit under shame? 

And he all, he reveals things that are so unique and directly in communication to what that person needs in that moment.

Yeah.

That it wipes shame away.

And as we're praying for Susie, I actually will start to skip pictures.

And I saw this, like the enemy saying like a mean parent saying shame on you and pointing a finger.

But then I saw the Lord send an angel and he said, you got this, we got this.

This is going to be okay.

Yeah.

And so for Susie, what ends up happening is we're pray, reflect, pray, reflect.

Then that gives her the chance to kind of resonate with or help us know if we're praying in the right direction or not.

And so as we did that, she's like, Oh gosh, you know, like, yes, Keith, I'm hearing this and I'm hearing this and I'm just being filled with so much truth.

And so, you know, in her reflection, she's saying, Oh, in this particular situation, all these years, I've just felt like I was kept in this little girl corner.

I kept that I was, I was, you know, I wasn't allowed to know these things or that thing or this stuff or that stuff.

And so she's kind of going through this moment where she's having to deal with some stuff, but she doesn't feel qualified because her life circumstances kind of kept her in that posture.

And so she talked about it like this when she said the word, I feel like I'm a little girl in the corner.

That kind of jumped up in my heart, right? 

My spirit.

And I just started praying for that little girl.

And so I physically, you know, I challenged it and I said, okay, all those little girls, any part of Susie that feels left in the corner, any part of Susie that feels like she doesn't know how to do this rise up, Holy Spirit, what do you want to say to Susie about who she really is? 

And, and that truth telling, it was like, it's all that Susie needed to hear.

It was a visual kind of hearing thing that she got to be a part of both, you know, hearing and visual.

And it, you know, I forget what she said, but she was just like, Oh my gosh, of course, of course.

You know, all these chains were hanging off of her, right? 

But she felt freedom.

She also felt empowered to tackle all the stuff that was just being procrastinated.

She was putting it off to the side and just saying, I can't do this.

I can't do this.

And yet, after we stopped finished praying with her, she felt complete freedom and the ability, she was empowered.

The ability to do what she had to do was like, I got to get off the phone and do this now.

So it was really neat to see her change, even in her tone and her voice.

She felt so emotional and heavy when we first started the call.

And then when we were finished, she just, she sounded so much lighter.

Yes, she did sound lighter.

And it was powerful because it was like you just said, it was empowering her with truth.

And then she kind of walked on.

And then we talked before we jumped on the recording time.

And we talked about a prayer we just had, or I just had with our daughter.

Yeah.

It's our daughter, Hope.

She doesn't mind us sharing stories.

So that's, we have permission.

But our daughter, Hope, who's in college, was just faced with a situation.

And it was just overwhelming, right? 

She's adulting.

She's learning how to adult and she's doing a kick butt job.

But she's walking through some stuff and she had this thing.

And so I'm praying with her on the phone and doing the exact same thing.

Okay, baby, tell me what's going on.

I heard the situation reflected back to her.

And then I said, okay, let's just start praying over this.

Because for that particular situation, anxiety was rising up in her.

And so much like our healing prayer process that we're doing in our two hour prayer appointments, I said, all right, where's the first place? 

Let's ask the Holy Spirit to show you.

Where's the first place that this thing started to affect you? 

And as we talked, she was reminded of the situation that, you know, that was getting to her.

And so we just prayed over that in the same way.

Now, same as Susie, the difference of the thing that we talked about was, what were some of the highlights? 

She'd said something to you that you really wanted to make sure we talked about.

Well, she talked about how she was scared to cry or feel or step into the emotion for fear of feeling out of control.

And yet you had shared with her that, you know what, it's all right to do that, to step in and feel all that you're feeling.

But you don't have to partner with the lies that come with the feelings.

And that was really significant to her because a lot of times Hope will try to feel like she's got it all together.

I can deal with this and she'll just power through by stuffing it and pushing it down the emotion.

And yet she felt the full impact of what she was having to walk through.

And she also felt the freedom of not feeling the enemy attaching to that feeling.

Right.

Because that's the spiritual truth of this.

And we've talked about this in podcasts where the enemy will manifest as a human emotion.

Okay.

So when we're dealing with a trauma issue, we're dealing with a pain issue, we're dealing with something that needs God's touch for healing.

Yeah, like a disappointment.

Yeah.

I mean, life.

Right.

Like everyday life.

And there are places in our life that need deep healing work, traumas, major accidents.

Almost like a deep tissue massage.

Yeah.

Like sometimes we just need that.

And then other times we just need a little shoulder massage.

It's just depending on where we're at.

I'll take the deep massage.

I mean, really.

I mean, that's what I prefer, but I hear what you're saying.

And so in that, what we're identifying, what we want you to hear is, so in the garbage and rats analogy that we have given in previous podcasts, probably more than once, the concept is the same every single time.

Right.

If there's garbage in our life, that will attract rats.

The rats are the demonic.

Okay.

That's the dark forces.

So if we have something that's festering inside of us, unforgiveness or a trauma or something that we're not finished dealing with, there's the potential.

Not everything that happens to us brings demonic torment, but some things do.

And those tormenting spirits come as fear, anxiety, frustration, distraction.

I mean, it could be a myriad of different things that we feel.

So what Hope was clarifying, because she's done this with us for the last few years, is she was hearing in a new way that it's okay to have her feelings, which it is.

But we're not saying is, we're just saying we don't want to partner with, if I'm feeling fear, I'm not going to partner with the enemy coming to me as fear.

So identifying the lies of the enemy in that conversation for her was helpful, for her was anxiety.

And that's what we were doing.

We're identifying the feeling of anxiety.

What was the lie of anxiety? 

What was the enemy using that against her? 

And it was lifting the spirit of hopelessness off of her.

Yes.

And here's the thing, we could have just texted Hope a quick, I'm praying for you, but we felt very strongly that she needed prayer in the moment right then.

And so I think just being intentional about when people are going through stuff, to sit with them and listen with them, you don't have to have the answers.

You just have to have an open heart to want to sit with people and ask the Holy Spirit to come.

Listening.

And listen.

Yeah.

Listening.

Listeners, are you listening? 

Are you listening? 

We are so fast paced in this world.

I don't care where you live.

The world is busy.

You can compare your city to other cities all you want.

Think that this one's more busy than that one.

It doesn't matter where you live.

Okay.

Life is busy and the enemy is manifesting through your busyness.

What that means for you is that you are constantly, I mean, how many times are we talking when your phone goes off or my phone goes off? 

It's so true.

And I get super distracted and frustrated because you can multitask and I can't.

Yeah.

It's true though.

So I get super annoyed if I'm talking to you and then you're texting somebody else or...

I mean, now I trust that you're listening to me.

It's not about...

But for me, it's totally distracting.

And so in that place of prayer, if we're not pausing to listen, because everything around us is moving so fast, pausing to listen is the key to an active and healthy prayer life.

And as you're listening and pausing, the other part of prayer that we wanted to address on this particular episode is not just praying with power and authority, which is where we really want to encourage you, but it's also where do you place prayer in your life? 

Okay.

So we've already challenged one thing and we've all done this.

Okay.

So we're not trying to say we've got this figured out.

You don't know what you're doing.

We're acknowledging how God is changing us and where we're seeing rapid growth and transformation.

And we want that for you as we learn it.

So we're teaching in real time.

We're also sharing with you the insights we've had over the last 10 years of doing this many, many hours a week with people and coaching them and training them and hearing a lot of stories.

Okay.

So it's both and, and the immediacy of prayer.

If someone says, Hey, I'm really struggling, pray for them right now.

Listen to their concern, pray on the phone in person, wherever you are right now.

Can I pray for you? 

Can I do that right now? 

And just watch how God shows up.

The other part is, and this is another pet peeve, is where we place prayer in our gatherings, either at church or our home groups or cell groups or the places where we're doing the work of ministry, either gathering peaceful in our home or whatever.

Where does prayer usually end up in the program, dear? 

Usually maybe at the end, if there's time and the list gets really, really long and there's a lot of people and it's just hard to navigate how to tackle that kind of praying.

Yeah.

So what we want to encourage you to consider is, and maybe you're doing this already.

We're not trying to say this is a blanket comment that everybody does this, but we see it a lot, is what would it look like if you spent the time before you got into the teaching, listening to each other and praying earnestly, deeply in the James five way on behalf of one another, whether you are a physical elder of your church or not.

That verse talks about the elders of the church.

That could be a wise person.

It could be a person that just has strong, healthy, mature faith.

They don't have to be your elder at your church, though there is power in submitting to the authority of your church.

It is more about how are you submitting to each other in prayer.

So we're hosting next Friday, an event.

It's actually this Friday.

It's the 12th.

Well, it's coming Friday, the 12th.

And by the time you hear this, it'll be too late for you.

But if you're on our Facebook page, ever free on Facebook, then you'll know what we're doing, because that's where we're posting things.

I also want to make sure that you're signing up for our email list.

So on the podcast page, there is a form that you can fill out to get our information.

We are increasing our communication efforts and honing in on making sure that you, our audience, are hearing what we're doing and what you can participate in.

Here's a little teaser.

Here's something that's coming up.

We're going to be hosting an online Q&A where we're going to be fielding your calls and sharing a topic of conversation.

And we're going to do it on a Zoom call, and we're going to host it, and we're going to talk, and we're going to get live action with the peelers.

So if you want some live action with the peelers, and we'll pray, and we'll talk, and we'll hammer something.

I mean, because the benefit of most of what I think we're learning in these last few months from this podcast, since we've launched it, is it's gotten us a lot of questions, right? 

So that's our little end of commercial.

So as you're thinking about prayer, where are you prioritizing it? 

And this is not a shaming conversation.

This is an earnest, like, reflection question.

Most of the time, it's left to the end, or I even had a friend say, you know, most of us in the West are kind of like, you know, we got the whole game on our, and, you know, we're taking care of it.

We got the whole football game in our hands, but at the last second, we're calling in Jesus into the huddle to maybe help us with the last play that could win or lose the game.

So what we're saying is, hey, well, you know, before the game even starts, what is the Father telling us our strategy is? 

We do that every time we're going to start a podcast.

Yeah.

We say, Holy Spirit, we're listening.

Tell us what you want us to say.

And some days, the preparation that we've done ahead of time is affirmed and confirmed and blossoms.

Other times we think we're going to talk about this issue or that issue, and the Holy Spirit goes, no, no, we're going to, we're taking this and we're taking this and you're doing it right now.

Yeah.

So we want to be responsive to that.

Well, friends, as we are thinking about prayer, as we're talking about prayer, here is a very simple prayer of authority that we want to give with you.

So I'm going to do a prayer of authority over our home, and I just want you to listen to what that is.

And in fact, you can, you can listen and then repeat it.

I'll pause so that if, where, if you're driving in your car or whatever, that you can pray with authority over your home.

So here's how I might do that.

So, Father, we just thank you for loving us today.

We thank you that we have power and authority in the name of Jesus and Jesus alone.

So, Father, I take authority over my home right now in Jesus name.

Father, I ask that you would send your angels to march to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west and surround my home with angel armies protecting me.

And Father, in the name of Jesus, if anything supernatural or spiritual or of any dark force, any lie of the enemy, any present force of the enemy, anything at all from the enemy, if it's entered my home or my children or my wife, in the name of Jesus, I send it away.

It has no business being here.

Get out.

And Father, I ask, would you fill now our home with the power of your Holy Spirit? 

We know, Father, that your spirit is in us, but we're asking, Father, would your manifest presence be known in our homes, that we might find rest and refuge? 

And, Father, in the name of Jesus, I now speak protection over each and every one of my children.

When they are in my home and away from my home, angels follow them, protect them, bring them peace and comfort.

I forbid any work of the enemy to lie to them, to steal from them.

Any place that they have opened any doors in their spirit or in their mind to believe any lies of the enemy, they're under my jurisdiction and authority.

They do not have the legal right to do that.

So anything they've opened, I close now in Jesus' name as their Father, as the head of this household, as the owner of this property.

I stand firm on that authority.

I've been given legal authority over this property.

I've been given spiritual authority over my family, and I pray for peace.

I pray that this is a house of worship.

This is a house of prayer.

I declare that every person that comes onto this property knows that the presence of God is here.

I do not command the presence of God, but I pray that people's eyes and ears and hearts are opened to the presence of God that already exists here.

That this is a dedicated home, a dedicated property, a dedicated place of worship and prayer and total openness to the Holy Spirit's power.

It's a place of healing.

It's a place of transformation.

And all the authority that I have in the name of Jesus, because of who he says that I am, I pray all these prayers.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Amen.

So friends, did you hear it? 

Now there are times when I need to ask God for things.

My family has needs right now, and we're praying for those needs.

I didn't pray for those needs in this particular prayer.

Not good of.

There's not this prayer is for this and that prayer is for that.

Prayer is just our intimacy with God, communicating with God, and standing firm in His promises.

Maybe as we're wrapping up this Pray Now episode.

Anything else that you want to kind of think about or wrap up with? 

I would encourage you to sit down and maybe look at why it's hard to pray and process through that.

Ask the Lord to show you where are your roadblocks and why are they there, and ask Him to remove them.

I also would encourage you to ask the Lord to open up all of your senses, all of your hearing, saying, God, if you look at scripture, it talks all about your senses experiencing the power of God.

So just asking Him to open up your senses to experience His love.

That's what I do.

I love praying.

I'm a very sensory person.

So for me, when I learned that, that was super, super free.

So friends, we're super excited that you're with us and that the power of God is moving in you and through you and in our ministry and in this ministry.

So thanks for being with us today.

We'll see you soon.

Bye-bye.

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