“I know I should be focusing on my mission, but I can’t seem to shake these feelings I have towards her and wanting to pursue her”

“Intellectually I accept that I’m set free from lust however I just keep falling back into my old habits again and again”

“In the last six months I’ve responded to most of the alter calls at our weekly gathering and despite the pastor saying that the ‘physical response which demonstrates the state of my heart’ will cause me to be set free, I’m not any more free than I was before”

“Look man my boss/co-worker/friend/pastor just irritates me when they do X. If only they didn’t do X then I would be so annoyed”

Where is the power of the gospel in these examples?

Where is the power of the Son who sets us free indeed? (John 8:36)

How is He who lives in you proving to be greater than he who is in the world here? (1 John 4:4)

Where is the evidence of the Galatians 5 righteousness that this believer has been given?

These are all things I said, many times over. I had been baptised into the freedom of the cross, declared Christ as Lord, repented and believed in his resurrection - but I felt stuck in my old ways. My behaviour wasn’t transformed to be like the second Adam, I was still living in the shadow of the first.

Through studying the Word and experiencing some excellent modelling from mature believers, I realised that I was praying with weakness instead of power:

“You know God I really don’t know what I’m doing. Please give me some wisdom and show me the right decision to make. Close the wrong doors and open the right ones. Bring the right people to me so I can know exactly what your will is for me.”

Contrast this with a Power Prayer:

“Thank you Jesus that you have made me a righteous son and that despite feeling some uncertainty I know that I am more than a conqueror in you (Romans 8:37) and that you will continue to bless my life because I am pursuing my mission for you. I thank you that I don’t rely on emotions, or for you to change my emotions, to live a Holy life. Thank you that I even though I have sinned, I am not a sinner. Each day my behaviour and knowledge of your freedom is growing and shame, fear and temptation have no control over me.”

When I started having a power approach to my prayer life, my attitude towards my faith changed too. I didn’t need God to make my decisions for me, bring people into my life, or have Him pursue me. Instead I pursued him, I found my direction in the Word and started taking life by the horns and finding ways to achieve my mission.

Despite what many pastors may preach each week, we don’t need ‘another fill up’ or ‘a fresh revelation”. We don’t need another alter call or to spend a longer time singing ‘to get more of the presence’. We don’t need more feel good prayers, sob groups or ‘time away from the World’.

Let the Holy Spirit tame your mind. Dedicate yourself to the destruction of the narrative that Satan uses to twist your understanding of your salvation. You are free, you are forgiven.

The change doesn’t happen overnight. I continually have to work out my salvation (Philippians 2:12), rid (present tense) myself of different kinds of sin (1 Peter 2:1) and put on my new self which is being transformed (Colossians 3:9-10). Discipline equals freedom, the Holy Spirit wants to do the work of Christ in you.

  • What is a power prayer? -

A power prayer is something like: any prayer that acknowledges, thanks or expresses belief in the freedom that Christ has given.

A power prayer affirms what Christ has done and what his Word says about who the believer is and the freedom they have. It does not affirm the believer’s current situation, sin or mistake as their identity, who they are, or that they are ‘stuck’.

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Add any relevant scripture or thoughts in the comments.