I placed my hands on her warm shoulders. I was kneeling behind her, my eyes closed, and I could feel the presence of the twenty other people surrounding us. Linked by touching hands or fingers set atop arms and soft summery cottons, we had gathered in faith to pray for healing over this young woman in front of me. Silence or quiet sniffles filled the spaces between each person’s prayer, words quoting scripture and hope, punctuated by fierce faith and longing for God’s promises to come true. I felt my chest pound as it was my turn, the power in my voice surprising me as it erupted with words I hadn’t known I’d say – words of affirmation, freedom and hope entwined. Afterwards, as I continued to whisper “amen” to the prayers popping up all around me, I felt such honor to be included in this moment. To be used by God. For my pain of the past to come steady into the present in an offering of hope in faith. A prayer warrior.
Nearly a decade ago this would have felt impossible. Because I couldn’t be the prayer warrior. Not only did I lack the faith and the fortitude, I wasn’t even brave enough to pray aloud in the rare moments of eternal certainty. Maybe this is you.
Or maybe you’re like the woman we were praying for: embarking on a journey that will take all you have inside you – and all that God in heaven is willing to pour into you. Because you’re at the base of the mountain looking up. And that mountain is tall. Or maybe you feel like you’re stranded in the deep dark blue ocean. Alone. You need to be delivered but you can’t ask for deliverance. Or maybe you have faith the size of a mountain. But you know this battle will be big. And you need more than you. Because more is always better than less.
Jesus tells us that if two of us on earth agree about anything we ask for, it will be done for us by our Father in heaven. Because where two or three gather together in Jesus’s name, he’s there with us (Matthew 18:19-20). This is a promise. We can take this to the spiritual bank.
When our son lay in a coma in 2009, my husband and I were just learning how to love the Lord. And praying wasn’t our forte. If you’ve read my “Faith to Pray” blog, you know my prayers were something like, “Please God” and a bunch of blubbering. But my husband did something that will mark his legacy forever. He reached out to every single person he knew and asked them to do the same. They had a simple job: pray for our son without ceasing. Because of this request, coupled with our blog, Noah’s Road, we had literally thousands of people praying over our son across the globe. Most days it was our prayer warriors doing battle for us because we couldn’t. They filled the faith gap. Prayer warriors can fill the faith gap Encourage a Friend
Here’s What Our Prayer Warriors Taught Us
- How to pray.
- The power of prayer.
- They helped us understand what it is to live by faith and act in faith.
- They lifted us out of the darkness and were the light of Christ for us.
- They gave us hope when we had none.
- They were our strength in our weakness.
- They altered the course of our life through their faith and influence on our faith.
What if you’re a private person and don’t like your personal business spread across the Internet? Or what if you know far fewer people? What if your prayer is so deep and personal that you need discretion and privacy? I still believe you should call on prayer warriors to help you fight your battle.
Why We Need Prayer Warriors (In addition to above…)
- Prayer warriors can pick up the slack when you are unable to pray. If you’re too weak to pray, if you’re too hurt to pray, they can cover you.
- Sometimes we feel redundant or uncreative when we pray. But others pray differently. To bring all of that creativity to God on your behalf can be powerful.
- Our faith can falter, especially when we’re going through a season in which we require prayer warriors to begin with. Your prayer warriors can build you up and help you sustain your faith when it becomes weak.
The trenches of spiritual battle can be a dark, hard place sometimes; choose carefully who you call into that place with you. You want them to offer light and faith. Here are some suggestions for choosing the people you go to battle with.
What Characteristics Do We Want in a Prayer Warrior?
- Someone mature in their faith and who is living out of an abundance of faith. Their prayers for you need to come from the overflowing in their life.
- Someone who has a consistent prayer life and spends quality time with God regularly.
- Someone who knows scripture well or is actively engaging in scripture to understand it more.
- Someone who has been tested in the past and has come out the other side.
- Someone who has a realistic understanding of our seasons of faith. For example, I would want someone praying for me who could understand that there are days when I do not have the strength to pray myself. And that understanding should come without judgment.
- Someone who has faith we can look up to or aspire to. Any season of suffering or trial when prayer warriors are required can be one of our most beneficial and fruit producing seasons in our life. I believe the people who pray for us and who support us in prayer can be mentors to us in this season. Because in the future, it will be our turn to bless someone else with our faith after we’ve been tested and come out the other end.
- Someone who knows your heart and someone you can trust to hold it in their hands.
- Someone who believes big.
Wherever you find yourself in faith right now, dear friend, either offer to be that prayer warrior for a hurting sister or if you’re that hurting sister, I encourage you to find the courage to step out and invite other people into battle with you. I promise it will be worth it.
Do you feel drained? In promises gone missing? In hurt deep? I’ve been there. When you subscribe to my blog posts, you’ll receive my 7-Day Devotional, Praying to Move Mountains, FREE. I’ve walked the journey of pain, and this devotional was birthed from it. Don’t worry, at the most you get one email from me a week and I don’t sell or advertise my subscriber list. GET THE DEVOTIONAL