• ESPAÑOL: Confianza en la oración: ¿Crees que tu oración está marcando la diferencia? (Disponible el 17 de junio de 2024)

I did a podcast a couple of weeks back about prophetic prayer, which describes how the Holy Spirit will guide our prayer and actually give us the words to pray. And if we proclaim those words, they have a prophetic anointing.

I shared how during a group prayer meeting, we prayed for a premature baby who was on life support because of sepsis.

The doctors had actually said if there was no improvement, they would be removing the baby from this critical care by Friday. We were praying the Monday before.

During that prayer meeting, I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to pray two words for that baby, ‘come home.’ It was time for that baby to ‘come home.’

It didn’t matter how I phrased the prayer, but I had to work those two words, “come home,” into my prayer. So during that meeting, I prayed for that baby several times, sometimes awkwardly, but always uttering those two words, ‘come home.’

I refer to this as prophetic prayer. Where the Holy Spirit literally gives us the words to pray and because they are words given by God (Jeremiah 1:9), God will ensure that those words are fulfilled (Jeremiah 1:12).

Incredibly, there was a miracle for that baby that week.

But as I worked on this podcast, I decided to tone that section down a bit. Because, dozens of people were praying for that baby, and it sounded a bit arrogant to suggest that my one prayer was the one that made the difference.

Though, it’s true many people were praying for that baby, it is equally true, that when you pray, you should pray with confidence that your one prayer is the one making a difference.

This is how everyone should be praying.

And I believe this is the point that the writer of Hebrews was trying to make when he said, that, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

The verse tells us that we need to come before God with confidence. The Greek word for confidence, parrhēsia, is defined as “boldness, free and fearless confidence, freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, openly, frankly.”

When we pray, we need to come before God with this boldness and confidence, “so” that we can receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

In other words, it is this confidence that allows us to find help in our time of need because we are not approaching our Heavenly Father as a stranger, but confidently as His child and a co-heir with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).

I remember reading an interesting story involving the King of England back in the years before the start of the World War. Several key men had gathered to discuss the concerning events taking place in Europe.

They of course had been summoned and had to go through many protocols to be in the presence of the king.

But, while they were having this very important meeting, one of the king’s children burst into the room crying, holding a broken toy.

The group watched as the king quickly took the toy, fixed something that had fallen off, and sent his child on his way.

The King’s child did not have to wait to be summoned. He was confident that he could approach his father at any time and expect help.

Pray as a child of God.