Healing

The Prayer Formula

by Robert Hooker
02/11/11
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The Prayer Formula

1.  Vomit on God. Psalms 142.  The Bible says pour out your complaint to God. Tell Him all of your hurts, your pains, your anger, your hatred, your sorrow, whatever it is that torments your thoughts and emotions. Buried feelings never die; they always come back to haunt you. So get them out of your system and vent on God. This is the easy part. The key is, don’t hold anything back. You do this, not for God’s sake, but for yours. He knows what is there, but you have to unload it if you want victory. He cannot do that for you.

2. Confess known sin.  I John 1:9. When we have been unjustly treated, we do not feel there is anything for us to confess. We excuse ourselves from responsibility. But we are responsible for the emotions the pain has caused us and for the lack of trust that it has brought us to as a result. Whatever you vomited on God in point #1, recognize the negative emotions the pain caused and confess them. Hatred, bitterness, jealousy, anger, cynicism, distrust, skepticism, worry, anxiety, depression, disbelief- none of those emotions are from God. They are negative emotions that torment our hearts. Do not justify them! Let them go!

3. Forgive. The offender, God, yourself, others. Matt. 18:21, 22. Forgiveness is an act of the will. It is a decision not a feeling. Forgiveness does not exempt the other person from receiving justice, it simply relieves you of the burden of exacting the justice yourself and allows God to deal with them in His way, in His time. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay.”  Believe Him and let it go!

4. Erase the Pain. Ps. 51:10. This if the most difficult step because there is a feeling that if we ask God to erase the pain then we will never be vindicated for the way we have been treated. If you outwardly forgive but inwardly continue to harbor negative emotions, you may have forgiven the offender but you are not trusting that God will vindicate you. You are choosing to become your own defense attorney and keep the evidence so you can remind God that He hasn’t come through yet. This is wrong and is evidence of lack of trust. It is essential that you let go of the evidence and ask God to erase the pain of the memory. Ask Him to not let your mind instantly replay it or associate it with other similar wrongs again.

5. 
   Access the Fruit of the Spirit. Gal. 5:22, 23. There are 9 fruits of God’s Holy Spirit that you have access to any time you need them. The Bible says against such there is no law.  In other words, ask and He will give, no strings attached. Any one of those 9 fruits will combat any negative emotion that you are dealing with. You do not have to fight this battle alone! I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. If you are combating hatred, ask for love- the love Jesus would have if He were in your shoes. If you are combating anxiety, ask for peace- the peace Jesus would have if He were in your shoes. If you are combating anger, ask for meekness- the meekness Jesus would have if He were in your shoes. This is the most important step. Don’t do the other 4 and not do this one!

6. Ask for grace to obey God’s revealed will. Rom. 16:20. Ask God for grace because the battle is going to come again and you must be ready. Satan never goes down without a fight. When the testing comes, two choices- one good and one evil- will be available. Make the right choice! God will give you a command either from His Word, from a Godly teacher, or from a man of God. Don’t second guess the command. Obey it! Just do it even if it does not make sense. Trust the orders. The second you choose to obey, you will feel God fill your soul with Holy Spirit power enabling you to follow through with the command. The filling will not come until you have made the choice to obey.

• It is vital that you repeat this prayer formula as often as you struggle with hurt, pain and negative thoughts or emotions. Some of us have a lot of junk buried and relief is not going to happen in one single session of prayer. We have to push delete on those computer images in our minds every time they pop up on the screen. Therefore, every time they appear, deal with them and eventually they won’t be there anymore.

 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

II Corinthians 10:5

The inability to reconcile intense pain with unconditional love = confusion of mind

Confusion of mind = causes us to question God’s goodness and makes us willing to accept perversion of truth as an acceptable answer to pain

The acceptance of perversion (untruth masked as truth) causes a breach in our spirit

A breached or broken spirit is a very real wound of the heart

To defend ourselves against further pain, we, the victims, put up a wall of distrust (a bandage to protect the wound from further pain)

The problem is: infection sets up in a wound not cleansed from germs; the bandage keeps out the good while keeping in the perverse germ of disease

The disease that sets in = Fear of Trusting God or Anyone Ever Again

Fear of trusting opens us up to torments of the soul (negative emotions of the heart that may not be seen but are felt and suffered by the victim)

“God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”  I John 4:18

Torments of the soul = the need for a comforter to alleviate the torment

Satan gives False Comfort Behaviors that can temporarily relieve the torment but never eliminate it; as the torment returns, the need for comfort becomes stronger

False Comfort Behaviors = always lead to Death

Jesus said that if He went away He would send us a Comforter who would guide us into all Truth.  Then, He said, “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.”  The implication here is that one must trust its promises, not merely have knowledge of it. Freedom from addictive behaviors can only come when obedience to the Truth occurs.