The Power of Communing Prayer And The Christian Believer’s Victory Over Sin, Sickness, Poverty, Demons, Disaster, and Death

1) He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2) I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. 3) Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. 4) He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 5) You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day; 6) Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7) A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. 8) Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked. 9) Because you have made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation, 10) there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. 11) For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12) They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. 13) You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet. 14) Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he has known My Name.
15) He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. 16) With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.

“Where you live determines how you live.”
(George Miller, Reconciliation Ministries International)

It has been said where Christians are concerned that the only failure is prayer failure. In other words, many, if not most, of the moral failures, fractures, and defeats in our lives are based on our own failure to pray effectively.

Pastor Dennis Rouse of Victory World Church says, "Communing prayer is where we contact God, and where God contacts us."

“If we were saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved through His life.” It is through communing prayer around His Word and in His Spirit that we receive the life of God which is eternal life starting now! To commune with God is to abide in God, to dwell in God, to continue in God, to follow God, and to keep in step with God. Jesus promised, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and My Father and I will come and make Our abode with you.” Wow!

Jesus also said, “I am the true Vine, and you are the branches. Abide in Me, for apart from Me you can do nothing; just like a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.” Jesus went on to say, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be given unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” Paul tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.” If we want the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in our lives, we must discipline ourselves to abide in the true Vine. This will require the discipline of putting off certain demands, distractions, and determents of the flesh and putting on Christ daily. Paul also instructs, “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and be clothed in the armor of light.”

John tells us, “as many as received Christ, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe on His name, who were born again, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the will of God.” This word translated “receive” in English comes from a Greek word that means, “to settle down into and be not removed from Christ,” and the word “believe” translated from the original Greek language to English is used here in the present continuous tense which means to believe on the name of Jesus and to keep believing.

Paul also said “if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” This means that we need to experience the presence of God and practice the presence of God in our daily lives through the discipline of communing prayer. In so doing, we will not fulfill the works of the flesh. The works of the flesh are the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit, and they are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Paul goes on to warn us that they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

It is also written, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” This implies a continuing relationship and fellowship with Him, which also means to “pray without ceasing.” Paul recognized his need to continue in Christ to the degree that he was able to testify, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He also said to the Church at Corinth, “I thank God that I pray in tongues (with the spirit) more than you all.” It is obvious that this great transformation was realized in his life through communing prayer. Wouldn’t it be great if you and I could make that same confession with truthful conviction? Well, my brothers and sisters, that is exactly what God is requiring of us if we are going to live victorious over the sins that so easily beset us.

We must learn to commune with God and stay in prayerful communion with Him around His Word and in His Spirit if we are going to be victorious over the enemies of our souls. James tells us, “God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud.” The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the enemies of our souls. “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Lust brings forth sin, and sin brings forth death.” Lustful human pride is what causes us to attempt to live independently from God, void of prayer, and full of prayerlessness, or, if you will, void of God and full of ourselves.

Dependence upon God is true humility, and it finds its perfect expression through communing prayer. May we “humble ourselves therefore under His mighty hand so that He might exalt us in due season.” “If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, I will forgive their sins and heal their land.”

This is the simplicity of the gospel. Mike Bickle points out that simplicity is single mindedness. Let us be single minded, energetic, and enthusiastic in this effort of communing prayer with our loving God, and thereby win a decisive victory over self, Satan, and sin. James said, “Let not a double minded man think that he will receive any thing from the Lord. He is unstable in all his ways.”

Paul exhorts, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you, both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.”

The effort of consistent, continuing, communing prayer is indeed the need of the hour. Let us, therefore, occupy ourselves with the commissioned work of our precious heavenly Father as obedient children of our faithful God, because apart from Him, we can do nothing. The good news is that “all things are possible for him that believes,” and “the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and if we have committed any sins they will be forgiven us.”

Amen!