Prayer

Protecting Your Family Through Prayer

Often people want to experience God’s protection for themselves and their families, but they don’t know where to start. They love the Word and do their best to abide in it, but they are unsure of how to take a stand for their family. Let’s look at three ways you can protect your family through prayer.

 

#1 Protect Your Family by Making a Declaration

According to Psalm 91:2, to live in God’s secret place of protection we must make this declaration, “We will say of the Lord, He is our refuge and our fortress: our God; in Him will we trust.”

 

Why is it so important to say such words?

 

Because that’s how we receive everything God provides for us. We believe in our heart what He says in His Word, and confess it with our mouth. We act on what Jesus taught in Mark 11:23: “Whosoever shall say…and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

 

#2 Protect Your Family by Making a List of Promises

Psalm 91:2 is only the beginning. The Scriptures are filled with God’s promises to protect His people, and its time for you to begin proclaiming them over your family.

Search the Scriptures for other promises for your family. Make a list, print out that list, put it somewhere you’ll see it every day and proclaim those promises. And if you need help, check out KCM’s book, Protection Promises.

 

God’s promises don’t just work for us automatically because they’re in the Bible. They have to be activated by faith-filled words.

 

#3 Protect Your Family Through Prayer

Every morning pray for yourself and your family members by name and declare that God is your refuge. Say things like, “Thank You, Lord, for our divine protection. Thank You that it’s like a bubble over each one of us. Thank You for being our Shelter and our Shield today. You surround us so that no weapon formed against us will succeed, in Jesus’ Name.”

 

You can protect your family through prayer. Don’t just accept that you have to take whatever devilish thing comes your way—sickness, disease, accidents, destruction. No! Jesus died so that you and your family could be safe from the enemy’s strategies. Begin declaring Psalm 91:2, standing on God’s protection promises and praying for each of your family member’s divine protection each day. Begin activating God’s promises today and see the salvation of the Lord!

 

Written with permission from Kenneth Copeland Ministries©

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What Things Can Block My Prayers?

Unanswered prayer is not the result of God’s unwillingness to use His power, but because of hindrances we allow to overcome us. The Bible says His eyes look to and fro throughout the earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). When we are aware of these hindrances and how to avoid them, we will experience the joy of answered prayer.

Two of the greatest hindrances to the Christian’s prayer life are doubt and unbelief. Doubt is the thief of God’s greater blessings. It keeps us in a state of separation from Him. Some people doubt there is a God or doubt He will perform His promises in response to their prayers. As a result, they do not respond to His written Word. This hinders His power on their behalf.

Unbelief is when a man knows there is a God, yet does not believe what the Bible says. He may know what the Bible says, but has chosen to believe what he can see and feel instead. This will definitely hinder his prayer life. Pray according to the will of God, and believe you receive when you pray. The Word of God is His will.

Another hindrance to prayer is found in Mark 11:25-26. It says, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” This is vital. Prayer will not work without forgiveness. Strife can also hinder your prayer life. Strife is merely acting on unforgiveness. James 3:16 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” When you take confusion and add it to Satan’s work, problems arise. The absence of strife is the key to getting rid of confusion and evil. It is the predominant, primary prerequisite for answered prayer.

Finally, dwelling on past failures can hinder our prayers. Instead of putting our painful failures behind us, we often dwell on them until those failures become more real to us than the promises of God. We focus on them until we become bogged down in depression, fearful that if we go on, we’ll only fail again. It’s a downward spiral that leads from discouragement to depression to despair. All you have to do to break out of it is to get your eyes off the past and onto your future that’s been guaranteed by Christ Jesus through the exceeding great and precious promises in the Bible. God remembers your iniquities no more (Hebrews 8:12), so neither should you. Instead, replace thoughts of the past with scriptural promises about your future. As you do, the spiritual aches and pains and bumps and bruises that have crippled you for so long will quickly disappear!

 

Written with permission from Kenneth Copeland Ministries©

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