Manageable Pieces (Part 2 of 2)
March 18, 2020
In last week’s post, I shared the first part of the advice I gave to someone struggling to pray for a friend whose cancer had returned and spread. My advice was to break the situation down into smaller pieces so it can be attacked from several angles. I covered being a friend, finding healing scriptures that particularly resonate in the situation, finding out if she is saved, and standing in the gap. This second post continues with that multi-angled attack on the illness. Pray out loud whenever you can. If you can pray with the ill person, great! If you can’t, offer your prayers privately.
Bind and Loose. It is the enemy (the devil) who is behind her illness; your prayers should disarm the enemy. We do that by binding and loosing. Bind the devil and loose or release healing, peace, and whatever else is needed into her life. Matthew 16:19 says:
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Any time you see something destructive going on in her mind or body, you will want to bind that evil activity and the evil author of that activity, the devil. Use the name of Jesus in your binding because the devil has to bow to the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-11).
Example: Devil, in the name of Jesus, I bind your destructive operations in (name of friend)’s body. I cover (name of friend) with the healing Blood of Jesus and I loose the healing power of that Blood to go to work in her body. All cancer and the seeds of cancer in her body are commanded to shrivel up and die. I command all parts of her body that have been damaged to be immediately restored and to function properly, in Jesus' name. Amen, so be it!
Agree. Have her agree with your prayers. Matthew 18:19 says:
…if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven.
If she will pray with you, agree with her (only on good and positive outcomes). If you are speaking the prayer, ask her to agree with you. Have her say it out loud, “I agree!”
Medication and treatment efficacy and side effects. Find out what is physically going on in her body and find out what the ideal outcome of treatment would be. You can target your prayers and tell her body exactly what to do. Bind the side effects of the chemo drugs. Talk to the drugs and talk to her body. Tell the drugs to have all the beneficial effects and none of the damaging side effects. Don't talk about the side effects, talk to them - bind them. Should the white blood cells be doing something? Tell them what to do in your prayers.
Ask her how she wants you to pray for her. If she asks you to pray for something that doesn't seem positive or effective, modify the prayer to be more positive. If she says to pray that the surgery goes well, you can also add on wisdom of her doctors, a steady hand and keen eyesight of the surgeon, supernaturally fast recovery, etc. Go big! Think of all the things that you want to go right and pray for those things to manifest in her situation. Focus her attention on the recovery and healing, not the illness and loss.
Finally, never think your prayers didn't work because someone didn't make it. It is a fact that no matter how much you pray, you can't overcome what comes out of her mouth or what is in her heart. If she has been saying and continues to say things like “Everyone in my family dies of cancer” or “Only the good die young,” no amount of praying by you or anyone else will overcome what she truly believes in her heart. So, then your prayer focus will be to bring about in her a change of heart.
Your friends need you to pray for them. They need someone who knows something about prayer and is bold enough to do it and say it out loud. That is you! Never give up on prayer, ever! Your prayers matter. Even if the outcome is not all that you prayed it would be, your prayers helped in hundreds of small ways to ease her pain and her mind and to get her ready for heaven. Heaven is real and Jesus made a way for us to get there! Praise God!
