2 Chronicles 26:5 ESV “He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.” This was talking about Uzziah who sought God in prayer.
Christianity is spiritual, and when true spirituality is the foundation for true dominion and exploits in the Kingdom of God, prayer models for spiritual dominion become essential. When we understand His greatness and ability to exert power in all spheres of existence, we will see why God wants us to achieve dominion through prayer.
In Genesis when God first created man, He gave man the mandate to have dominion, Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and the cattle, and all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ”
One of the major foundations for exerting dominion in your life is prayer. No man or woman can become spiritual enough and live life to the standard God intended for them without prayer.
To appreciate the role of prayer in life, we must ensure that our prayer in communication with God, produces results. Prayer is not something you do. Like driving, it is something you are taught, and trained in. Like driving which you master with practice, as you pray more and more you begin to master it. There are many things that we can do during prayer, that capture the attention of God. We can have prayer positions that you use, and also different kinds of prayer or prayer models.
Most people pray having been brought up by prayerful families, praying at intervals, but they never saw much results. Your understanding of prayer needs to grow beyond how we were taught to pray at church or home and also grasp how to pray according to the bible.
Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, and when they asked Him to teach them from Luke 10:42-11:4 They wanted to learn how to be efficient or effective in prayer. They needed results because they saw how Jesus prayed and had results. You too must have results because God always wants you to see the fruit of your prayer, answered prayer gives you joy, John 16:23-24.
God has tenets by which He is moved. He is touched by the feeling of your infirmities (weaknesses), but He is also moved primarily by His word. So your emotions may touch God with compassion but He answers to His word, and His word is exalted above His name. James 4:3 NIV. What works in prayer, is engaging the word, as a primary principle.
God appears unto man principally by His word, he sets or establishes you principally by His word. He heals by His word. Place a lot of value on the word of God, and cultivate a hunger and passion first for God and then for the word of God, because when the word is in you the prayers you for become more potent.
The prayer models you can use in prayerPraying in the spirit (deploying the prayer language of tongues)Declaring scripture from the bible during prayer (not just quoting scripture).The prayer of enquiryWarfare prayerThe prayer of thanksgiving
Ephesians 6:18 NIV say, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the Lord’s people.”, in other words, there are different kinds and different models of prayer that we can do at any given time.
There are examples of prayer that are important for this teaching. Click to read some here: Mark 11:23-24, Luke 18:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, James 5:13, Luke 9:29, John 17:1.
Praying in the spirit (deploying the prayer language of tongues)
We find guidance from 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 NIV “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.”
Distinctively Apostle Paul shows us that there is a difference in prayer between the two. There is praying in the spirit (unknown tongues) and praying in understanding.
This kind of praying is also for personal edification, 1 Corinthians 14:2-4 KJV.
Every believer who does not engage in prayer in the spirit will rob themselves of many dimensions that will have been experienced in their faith life from God. Understand that your mind has some limits to what you can think at one time, through your own will and emotions that many times, if not most, are not in harmony with God’s plan for you per time or season.
There are also spiritual things that need to be dealt with that can only be fulfilled when you pray in the spirit. This is how dominion happens over those things that you fave and have no answers to, because the Holy Spirit helps you pray to God and address urgently them this way, Romans 8:28.
The Holy Spirit prays out through you, according to the will of God. God in knowing that man’s mind has limits per language, has given us access to this prayer model of using the language of the spirit, which is granted you by the Holy Spirit, every true believer Has an opportunity to receive this gift directly from God.
He allows the Holy Spirit to take advantage of your faculties so that the Holy Spirit prays through you, and edifies you, but also beyond that, you participate with the Holy Spirit, establishing God’s purpose and will on the earth, Philippians 2:13.
Knowledge of the will of God concerning the matters in our lives allows the Holy Spirit to cause the will to happen. Sometimes you may not find in scripture the direct answer to your problem immediately, but the Holy Spirit buys into the wisdom of God and reveals what is consistent with the blueprint of the plan of God per time and season.
Acts 1:8 and Acts 2:1-5 This model of prayer, helps you to access and release power over situations, and circumstances. Especially in situations where you don’t know what to do. Do you want to know what God thinks about something? Pray in the spirit, are you feeling down and depressed? Pray in the spirit, are you expecting a miracle, pray in the spirit.
Sometimes your decisions may look right, but until the will of God is revealed to you through this prayer model, you might eventually discover that you have veered off track from the absolute (perfect) will of God for you per time or season.
Declaring scripture from the bible during prayer (not just quoting scripture).
In the book of Psalms 107: 2 KJV it says “ Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
In another verse God tells us to bring our reasons before Him, Isaiah 41:2, as justification for what we are praying about. As you pray, use the word of God, that is specific to your situation or what you desire to see happen, and declare it forth, and make prophetic declarations according to that word, because what you declare is according to what God says in His word, has power over your enemy the devil and all the bad things he sends your way. In Ecclesiastes 8:4 we see what potency declared words have, it says “Where the word of a King is there is power.” Are you a king before God’s eyes?, read Revelation 5:10.
Declare scripture in prayer, call out the word of God upon your person, situation, future dreams, and aspirations, and release the power of the word over your life.
The advantage of this prayer is that you are taking advantage of the power of the word of God as you pray, and as answers come it gives you joy around your life because joy is a key to receive more and more added in your life, John 16:24.
For example, if you wake up in the morning, and you just had a bad dream, don’t sit back and fear, use the word to declare against that bad dream. Verbalise it, loud enough for the situation to hear you, because all situations and things obey the word of God.
The prayer of enquiry
You can inquire of God in prayer about anything and come back with answers. In 1 Samuel 30:8, King David inquired from the Lord, and God responded.
When making defining life decisions, from the man’s view, it can be looking good, but sometimes satan can use good things to destroy your life by the decisions you make, he is desperate for you to fail in life. God wants to give you life, and life in abundance, John 10:10, however many good-looking things can be destructive to your destiny, and Satan can use seemingly good things, to destroy our destinies.
As David asked, “Should I pursue, or overtake?”, this was not a light matter, it was a matter of life or death because if God had not intended for them to go to the war, they would have died. God must answer your inquiries for your safety, to guide and order your steps. If you ask, even when you suspect that God will say no, be ready and willing to accept His answer as a sign that you trust His will.
God can say go ahead, wait or don’t go in that direction. When doing this prayer of inquiry you must first establish that you love God, and trust Him to direct your life because when He shows you the direction He will make your life glorious.
Isaiah 55:11-12 it says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts than your thoughts and my ways than your ways.”
Make sure you ask God questions, make sure you walk according to His guidance because this way you can move into your prepared blessings from God. Only God knows the future of man’s destinies. Even when you make wrong decisions that are out to waste your destiny, still inquire from God, He has a bailout system called “mercy”, and God’s mercy will help you.
Never assume, when making decisions that affect your establishment, let God guide you financially, maritally, ministerially, in your career, in friendships, and all areas of your life. Don’t be afraid of obeying God, when He speaks, because there is a system for defending His name in your life, don’t be mentally calculative and scientific, only believe that he has good plans, and He will see that it works out for your good.
Warfare prayer
Philippians 1:19 says, “For I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance”
Deliverance is not only about fighting what the devil is doing. In the warfare prayer model, you are fighting the good fight of faith, to establish the realities and finished works already wrought in Christ. To turn things to your advantage, whether you caused it or satan caused it. When you do warfare prayers, look at everything from the point of view of God’s sovereign plan, because God in His nature is a good God. It is good for you to keep in mind and always know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28.
Warfare prayer is not about fighting spirits and ending at that, because Jesus finished everything at the cross. Warfare is meant to disengage the hold of evil spirits or forces by light and power from the word of God. To engage and appropriate victory that Jesus won for you, as long as satan has tried to make a negative impact against the will of God. That is why in the bible we are taught from Ephesians 6:13-14 KJV, to engage the whole armour of God, to engage it against the wiles of the devil, and this can be done in warfare prayer.
There are certain Kairos moments in our lives where we cannot afford to slumber. Through warfare prayer you sanitize your spiritual atmosphere, to conform to the atmosphere that is friendly to the movement of God in your life. Matthew 13:25
There are evil spirits assigned to go after believers, callings, regions, families, and any good that you can think of, that are sent to come after you. As far as the attack of spirits the whole earth lieth in wickedness, and nobody is exempt, but when you make it practice to enforce the word of God, in a warfare manner, your warfare keeps satan far from your life, family and the assignment God has given in your life. Dethrone the cohorts of darkness over the affairs of your life and destiny with warfare prayer.
The prayer of thanksgiving
In the fifth model of prayer, Colossians 4:2 reminds us why we should pray with thanksgiving.It says, “Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving”.
Thanksgiving involves many practices. You can do it in all the prayers above with declarations, songs, and even dance to the lord. In thanksgiving, you are giving thanks. Give an offering to God of your material possessions in honour of what He has done for you. It does not just end by saying thank you, usually while praying, God will move you to give.
“Be careful (anxious) for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6
When you bless Him from your heart, and praise him for what He has done and planned for you and your family, you attract more from God to you, God is glorified by you in this way also. Praying with thanksgiving is not just reminiscing on the goodness of God, and what He has done, but ultimately thanking Him to truly Bless His name for who He is.
