PRAY YOURSELF
By all means do seek the Body of Jesus Christ through fellowship for prayer in all things, for Jesus says when two or three are gathered together I am there with you
Jesus says, “Again I say to You that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
– Matthew 18:19-20 (NKJV)
Yet one does not always have another member of the family of Jesus Christ with them, though Jesus is always with us, and the Holy Spirit equips us with what to pray with our groans, pains and tears.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.
– Romans 18:26 (NKJV)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (KJV)
The second-best advice I ever received on prayer was the words spoken to me
“Pray Yourself”.
I was attending healing sessions at one of the local churches for my Dad who had been diagnosed with cancer, I guess in ways standing in the middle as an intercessor with the other members of the body of Christ seeking Jesus for my Dad’s healing, wellbeing and deliverance of the situation presented.
This particular pastor was known to have a large following with his healing ministry, so I went to partake in the healing prayer process with one who had been ministering for decades to the church people.
From this I learnt that I didn’t need the church or the pastor to pray to God for big things and learnt to petition the Father and Jesus in many more areas in my life and the life of the communities as I sat in my room. I too had already for decades been praying to God the Father for big outcomes in my young childhood years as I lay on my bed, without going to church or a priest.
Jesus says, “But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. – Matthew 6: 6 (NKJV)
Praying with one’s whole heart for those we love are heart felt cries and you know God hears us. There is strength in those prayers, especially if one can dedicate more time in prayer to the family member then perhaps what a priest could in his daily workload of hopefully praying for the greater community.
Such a practice of praying for situations myself has upheld me in my greatest times of need and spiritual afflictions targeted at me from the enemy.
For it is during these trials when I am in the greatest persecution and suffering of the devils and witches firing their arrows that I have learnt to pray without ceasing, petitioning the Heavenly Father in Jesus name to remove the spiritual entity that is making me quite ill, learning to rebuke the situations In Jesus name more and more. One time I heard “I fought death tonight”.
We as Christians underestimate the devils trials in our life. Satan came at Jesus more than once, and when the Devil’s tricks failed during his forty days of temptations directed at Jesus who was full of the Holy Spirit and in the wilderness, Satan did his darndest to destroy Jesus at the cross. Satan thought he had won this time. Same as with you and I, Satan will not stop persecuting us, the devil wants us to quit and give up. It is written the devil comes to steal and destroy.
Jesus says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. – John 10:10 (NKJV)
Jesus also states, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Which do you prefer, then hold fast to Jesus and all that He offers and the promises of God.
Keep going no matter how tough it gets, with each time that you overcome it gets easier; the persecution doesn’t stop but yes each time it gets easier and one overcomes more quickly each assault targeted at a believer.
When I am in these dire circumstances, I am the one immediately in the suffering and the trial, usually the majority of the spiritual warfare assaults of an unseen spiritual affliction do make me ill and lay me up on my bed, including trying to prevent me from going about my business.
From unseen spiritual bands placed upon my head that cause great pain and block one’s thinking and clarity of thought, a shadow on my back that has me getting up to vomit in a chain of moments from the perpetrator targeting the creature thing on my back, the assault on the right-hand side of my face that resulted in Bell’s Palsy; this took ten days to heal and the paralysis was gone through prayer without ceasing, every hour and waking moment, I did not stop till my upside down smile was back right way up. I will seek healing and deliverance from all the spiritual assaults targeted at my body. ( I am fortunate and blessed that God the Father has gifted me with a form of discernment that when an unseen entity lands upon me, I can feel it and at times the restrictions it has placed upon my body and thought processes. I also am able to discern whether my illness is natural or supernatural and is the result from afflictions by the things that are unseen of a spiritual nature.)
With each moment that I endure of the affliction that causes me grief or debilitation I keep praying till I have relief. I hate being sick and so I keep petitioning God the Father until I have recovered again. It is the reason that it is good and beneficial for the believer to continue to pray without ceasing in the trial for others may not be praying as much as you would like. Especially if a demon is hammering you on your bed with painful afflictions and you are in the midst of a spiritual battle there and then, it will be your prayers and cry’s to Jesus that will deliver you more quickly, then the one at church who you asked to pray for you. Yes the prayers of the believers join with yours but your time of need may not be at their specific prayer time, even at two in the morning when your prayer chain maybe sleeping. When I’m under attack I don’t wait for everyone else’s prayers to cover me (with the exception of Jesus), I go to battle there and then wherever I am to shut down what is trying to knock me off my feet. I trust the Holy Spirit to equip others to pray if it is necessary, and at times have asked the Holy Spirit to equip a church member to pray for me at the same time.
A good example of this, was in October 2021, [mind you I began drafting this essay in January 2020, a reminder that the enemy will make one so busy and slow one down & block the work required if one lets it, a reason why I can share this 2021 experience (and now it is Sept 2023 & I am editing this essay to get it ready for the blog, that I only now uploaded February 2025)] whilst at work a known aggressor was standing back-to-back with me in the work cubicle; I had prayed against this one’s spiritual assaults many times over the years. Eventually I started to get very nauseous from her attacks and I started to pray to the Father that I was under spiritual attack and I needed help. This one was upping the ante of her assault and I was getting weaker and struggling to stand, though I kept praying saying help me God and I was rebuking the situation in Jesus name and seeking the Father’s discipline of her assault. I was close to hitting the floor; I kept praying, singing and rebuking the assault to keep my legs from going out from under me, fighting to stand against this one’s spiritual assault. A customer I was serving at the time, was acknowledging I needed to get off the counter as I was not looking well, I was also praying that God would reveal to this customer who was concerned about me what the other staff member was doing to me. The customer left my counter and walked the length of the shop to advise the supervisor that I wasn’t well and needed to get off the counter. As soon as I finished serving the caring customer and another one after that I left the presence of one I deem a witch who was standing less than a metre behind me, back to back. I went and served from another register and began to recoup and get well so that I could continue on with the day’s work. (I guess this whole event happened over a twenty-thirty minute period on the shop floor; it can happen quickly and if one doesn’t stand one’s ground one could be leaving work in an ambulance.)
If I had not begun petitioning the Heavenly Father in Jesus name for healing and deliverance and disciplining of the one coming at me at my detection of the start of their assault against my person, I would have hit the ground and been unable to continue in my work shift and may not even been able to drive home. Another moment of similar spiritual assault is shared here in the witches in my workplace moment as shared in my eBook #CalledtoStand.
The more time I spent with the Lord in topping up on His energy and empowerment, I realized they were coming and stealing this from me. I now understand the term energy vampires. This was so prevalent during my shift at work on the day I had tickets to the ‘Triffids Tribute Concert’ at The Brisbane Powerhouse. I bought my ticket weeks ago, though I didn’t share with anyone that I was going. I have found in the past if one speaks of an event, then someone is all too willing to throw a spanner in the works. Often this dark world finds out and knows where I am headed at times. Was this one of those occasions? God knows where I am at all times. I don’t feel the need to share my days’ plans with everybody. If I do it is for courtesy reasons. I went to work in good health, by the end of the shift I could hardly stand literally. I had a place to be tonight. I could not wait to get out of the working environment and start my recovery. Most of my shift I had my back to the rest of the CSR staff and the surrounds due to being placed in aliquoting and courier transfers in this section in pathology. The other CSR members are to place the required samples behind me, so that I can aliquot the work as it is receipted and prepped on initial entry to the laboratory. For somewhere between six to eight hours that day I had a specific CSR member (note, one who God had revealed I had worked with before in the bank and He brought to mind a specific event that happened in this suburban city branch), rushing up behind me as she placed many racks of blood sample tubes on the counter beside and behind me. I noticed initially in the morning that she was coming right up close to my back which was not necessary. She was obviously playing her witchy games (TONE, that I am all too familiar with). I acknowledged it as just another one of her tormenting games. I could feel force each time she did this. By halfway through the shift I could feel the strength of the force rushing up behind me and being quite strong, throughout the afternoon the force and speed was increasing. It was like the strong wind of a truck that rushes forcefully at you as it drives past. I was feeling weaker. I handed the situation to the Lord each time and questioned what was going on. By the end of my shift I was ready to go home and was questioning whether I was going to make it out tonight, even be able to drive home. I suspected that what had been happening all day with the increase in power and speed from this woman, was that she was stealing the energy and power source that God topped me up with daily to get me through this oppressive environment, through my discipline of spending time with him in silence waiting and being. This can be quite substantial considering what I have to go through each day. It felt that she had taken everything and zapped me of all I had and left me with nothing. I trusted the Lord and knew His outcome of the situation will be the prevailing one, no matter how it all appeared. I drove to my mother’s home, showered, and asked her to wake me if I was not up by a certain time. Then I rested on the couch for the next two to three hours silently praying for deliverance and strengthening…My faith and trust in God that afternoon and evening and my spiritual disciplines, got me to the event where I was purposed to be at with many messages transpiring on this night. Especially the one where I heard, “you fought death tonight.” Oh my God, you make me weep, with how much you keep saving me and with those you place around me to help lift me and continue me into perseverance. Many things happened that night, I told God before I left home, I would need a chair at this standing event as I was too weak to stand up the whole night. Not long after my arrival all the patrons received a message from the convenor that the gig was being performed in another room due to the number of people and the standing event changed to a seated event.
In my suffering I know the time and the position of the pain and sickness, this too is usually a good indication of the weapon the enemy has targeted at me.
In the middle of the night when I can be under the most debilitating spiritual assault, it is not really an option to wake another Christian from their slumber and say can you pray for me right now. Yet Jesus says He is there in our suffering, and so I do pray without ceasing to the Father and Jesus until I have found relief. I also know when the relief has come and therefore I know when I can reduce my prayer petitioning of the moment.
In praying myself I have learnt to speak rebukes in Jesus name and authority to shut down that which is targeting me to make me ill or even to antagonise me in situations in the enemies desire to stir up trouble. I rebuke situations because I recall when Jesus wanted the waves to stop He rebuked them in the story of ‘Jesus calms the Storm when the waves beat into the boat’.
(Jesus) asleep on a pillow at the stern of the boat. And they awoke Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace be still.” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. – Mark 4:38-39 (NKJV)
I have learnt to quietly and silently sing on my bed songs of praise to Jesus to quieten and silent the pain or feelings of nausea as the symptom slowly dissipates with each prayer and song of praise.
(a tell-tale sign that one’s suffering is a spiritual affliction is that when one gives God the quiet time in song and the negative effects of your symptoms start to subside, then its spiritual. Don’t stop until the oppression is gone, if symptoms begin to flare up again, hit them with more songs and Praises to Jesus Christ, hallelujah’s and a few rebukes. On odd times the pain may get worse for a moment & then subside as this is when the aggressor doesn’t want you to know your prayers are working to shut down their assault, so they come in harder for a moment but soon one’s persistent prayers have the advantage of what is antagonising you. (Placing one’s hands over the affected area also help to block areas being spiritually targeted.)
I have learnt that much of my sickness and suffering is spiritual wickedness that is at hand and comes to attack my body and make me ill from those who practice in the occult in our communities.
I have learnt to petition the Father for quicker healing and seeking Jesus healing and delivering presence over my suffering body, then laying there in the symptoms just waiting and being. Remember in six days God created the world with the spoken word, so too we can speak and use our authority in Jeus Christ and call upon Jesus name.
I have learnt to petition for deliverance, strengthening and empowerment of overcoming during these trials. At times when the aggressors just keep coming at me and I am annoyed at their assaults I ask the Heavenly Father for disciplining of that which is coming at me. Remember The Father disciplines those He loves, therefore a win-win situation for all concerned.
Jesus says, “As many as I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. Revelations 3:19
Through prayer I have been able to attend work the next day, when under severe spiritual assault at two in the morning (2:00am) has made me so ill that I thought I would be phoning up sick at the first opportunity.
Praying without ceasing, I have attended courses and got out of bed with the Lord Jesus help when struck with serious debilitating illness and no strength at critical times when I needed to be where I had to be otherwise a no-show meant automatic failure of the course.
By speaking into my situation in ‘rebukes in Jesus name’ and seeking the Heavenly Father’s disciplining of the spiritual assaults and through quiet singing of songs of praise and adoration and prayer petition to The Father, Jesus Christ the Son and equipping of the Holy Spirit for my deliverance, healing, strengthening in prayers without ceasing. I recover much more quickly and suffer less than if I just laid there in my suffering waiting for the afflictions of the pain of illness to pass.
Therefore, pray for yourself, your deliverance could be only hours away instead of two weeks, three months or even death.
As an afterthought:
These days when one asks me to pray for them I will offer up prayer there and then in the place we stand and then from that time onward, a moment here, a moment there or when and If I remember.
By the next week I have forgotten to pray for the situation for my many other prayers have come to the fore and crowded some others out.
I don’t tend to jot the prayers down as I believe it is better to not let Satan and his workers know what one is praying for; less hindrance, interference and antagonism from the enemy resulting in quicker answers and results to the prayer.
This was a big battle win for me for a decade or more when I was praying deliverance for some pretty big sectors and groups. God would let someone drop a word and I knew what it meant based on my prayer targets. I knew we were winning the battles in a very significant way. Stupid me, I began to share how God was answering prayer and then Satan upped the ante and sent in his workers to wear me down and put out my fire. It worked, I still prayed but not to the critical battle plan I had before, I was becoming exhausted. Now it is even worse, in October 2020, the enemy was targeting my brain in ways I could not fathom over a two week period at about the same time each morning. I kept taking this to God, saying what are they doing? It affected my short term memory and I am now forgetful in this area that it would pay for me to write prayers down. Yes God can heal this situation, I am not in a hurry. I miss the abundance of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and infilling of what to pray for the way I did for such a long time and so full of the Spirit. Hold onto it when you are in this place for Satan will send in lukewarm Christians and you will think that it is ok and it won’t be. I guess it took less than three years for this one to wear me down and tire me out and I can’t get that prayer life back, along with a big specific prayer battle for life that began in December 2019 & ended January 31, 2020.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things: hold fast which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (NKJV)
I still pray, and God the Father has given me one word to pray for and I realised that one word encompassed everything else that I would pray for the greater good of the people and especially the children.
I do pray daily community and communal prayers for many and for many situations, like the many suffering from addictions, mental health, blessings in the community and family of Jesus Christ, equipping for the many in their situations, peace and understanding in their trials and unity in the Holy Spirit and many other topics that are laid upon my heart.
I believe that if I am praying for individuals overcoming and healing in many situations and Jesus is praying for the people too, then if the third person (the seeker) asks for what they NEED then Jesus and the Father will address the situation more quickly for the benefit of the greater body of Jesus Christ.
Now too I pray the prayers of the bible like the believers prayed as in Acts 4, stating to God what is happening and seeking an answer and like in 2 Peter2 opening the eyes of the believers so they can see and acknowledge the false prophets, church members and wolves and guard their journey.
“Now Lord, look on their threats (they forbid the Lord Jesus name be spoken) and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4:29-30 (NKJV)
Yet these trials equip one to be ready and to overcome as the moment the enemy starts attacking one learns to overcome more quickly through prayer and petition and using what Jesus has equipped one with, His authority and His name.
In the beginning when one is being sifted so to speak it is the worst thing in the world, yet when one overcomes the trial (until the next one) it seems like it was nothing.
Prayer authority discipline :
- I have made prayer sheets and used the decoupage imagery to help me pray.
- I have used a prayer dish with objects to aid in remembering prayers for others.
- I sing hymns from books and the Holy Spirit will give me words to pray as I sing out a verse or chorus and I will slip these prayer words in with the melody of the song.
- Sometimes I will portion twenty minute intervals in a two hour prayer session where I sing for twenty minutes and then I sit in silence and wait on God the Father for word or enjoy the peace of God’s presence or quietly pray what is on my heart; this then results in three times twenty minutes of song and three times twenty minutes of being in the silent places with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the equipping of the Holy Spirit.
- Be aware of the distractions that will interfere with one’s prayer life that aids one in winning the battles in many areas of life and for those one loves.
This I know I should have been doing when my Mum was having a major life or death operation. I sat in the hospital chapel and prayed for 90 minutes though I could have prayed all day, yet I had to move the car to avoid a parking ticket. Mum made it through though there were complications that I believed shortened her life span as the situation was not completely mended.
I trusted God with Mum’s healing and was aware of the spiritual warfare that goes on in the hospital. There was much that I saw and acknowledged as I exited the door from the chapel. What I saw made me think my Mum was having difficulty in the operating theatre. I later realised that one more intercessor in the hospital all day would have shut down the spiritual warfare coming at my Mum and aided the surgeon more greatly. I should have left my car where there were no chances of parking tickets and walked up and then there would have been no distraction. If I had prayed all day in the hospital vicinity it would have aided many more in the battles that come at so many of us. My Mum was around for perhaps another eighteen months, and again I believe this too should have been longer. Yet I speak of this in my eBook ‘Called to Stand’ under the heading ‘the final demise of my mother’.
I am aware that the spiritual wickedness will cause havoc in the operating. One hears moments where the surgeon knife slipped and caused damage and complications for life.
It is very important for one to learn to seek in prayer God the Father with Jesus name, authority and power and petition our God and Saviour to aid in our deliverance and healing so that we overcome our situations more quickly time after time. Growing and building on our communication, trust and belief that God will and does right the harm being thrown at us time and time again understanding that such petitioning in prayer minimises one’s suffering, for Jesus did come to equip us to overcome and so that we may have life more abundantly. We are called to overcome as it is written many times in the Book of Revelation.
I believe spiritual battles require everything one has got to win and overcome. Not a prayer here or a prayer there, yes the arrow prayers help and work, but if one has half of Satan’s army coming at you and those you love, you want to be praying to God without ceasing to send them to the place He has prepared for them for Judgement Day.
Remember what you loose on earth, will be loosed in Heaven
What you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven. (Matthew 18:18)
In this I have found I am fighting battles that family and community members are loosing in their occultic playgrounds and the choices they made to seek out that which God the Father said to stay away from. The battle in 2019-2020 was of a family member seeking a cult that not only was endangering my sibling’s life, but that of their family and mine. I had to step up to pray to save my own life for the wicked practices this cult uses was sucking life out of me through my connection with this sibling. Yet not just my life but I could see the same afflictions in other members in the community. For the benefit of our communities this battle had to be won.
Ask – seek – knock; keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking until you have the abundant life Jesus came to bring us.
Ask and it will be given until you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.
Matthew 7:7 (NKJV)
- Pray with others
- Pray yourself
- Pray asking the Heavenly Father and finishing with in Jesus name strengthening your prayer as Jesus shared to – and the big amen at the end; So Be It Lord
- Come in agreement with others, rebuke words spoken over yourself or others if you do not like the double meaning or the directive.
He (Daniel) kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Daniel 6:10 (NKJV)
Just as Daniel prayed three times a day, I try to stop what I am doing and to focus on praying the Lord’s prayer three times a day, morning – noon – and evening. If God has given one a specific time of day to pray (a daily set prayer time) then honour that given time for you may be praying at given time as others strengthening the presence of the kingdom in that given time in our communities weakening the effects of the enemy in our surrounds.
Jesus says, “But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you…So then this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be our name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. – Matthew 6: 6-13(NKJV)
Lastly, if one is noticing a repetitive time popping up on their clocks or numbers that represent a digital given time when out and about town or home life, acknowledge that repetitive appearance of figures and be ready for prayer each day ten minutes or more before the clock clicks over on seeing these numerical number. Use your spiritual prayer and worship to override any attempts of enemy weaponry in our communities. A wartime prisoner who was tortured in many forms wrote in his book of the horrors of his time in captivity, yet this prisoner stated that in their locked confines they always knew when it was Sunday, the prayers and the songs of the church goers flooded out to us and the presence of the Holy Spirit filled us and gave us some clarity and lucidness from the negative effects of confusion, hallucinations and sickness from the drugs their captives fed them repeatedly.
Pray and sing without ceasing you never know who needs it. Love you all, Blessings on your and prayers for the Holy Spirit to keep equipping us with all we need. Thank You Jesus, Thank You Heavenly Father, Thank You Holy Spirit.
When I sing my praise to you I am lifted up to higher ground | Something happens in my soul When I lift my voice to worship You | When I worship You Heaven comes to me
Heaven Comes To Me – Noel Richards
