How To Pray Boldly To Fight The Real Spiritual Battle

Do you believe in the power of prayer?  To pray boldly is the most powerful weapon we have as disciples of Jesus Christ.  But, can I be honest with you???? Most days I am not praying big prayers – powerful, strategic, or effective prayers.  The thought of becoming a prayer warrior is scary and intimidating.

The first step as we believe big and pray boldly is to commit to praying big prayers every day! Click To Tweet

Why Should Christians Pray Boldly?

Praying big prayers vs. praying small prayers is like practicing punching a bag vs. getting into the boxing ring with the opponent.

My prayer journal is filled with requests for my husband, my children, my lost family members and friends, and the ministries I am involved in.  While those are all important things that touch my life, but they are a smaller part of the bigger picture of God’s story.

This year God has been convicting me to begin praying big prayers – to pray beyond my little circle – to pray boldly to change the direction the world is headed.

God Answers Big Prayers So You Can Pray With Boldness and Confidence

Have you seen the power of God answering prayer in your life?

When I look at my life I see a lot of amazing changes and blessings that came from praying big prayers.  

• My marriage is healing.  
• My children are growing up to know the Lord.  
• The ministries I am involved in are on the right track (as far as I can see anyway).

Seeing how God answers prayers helps me pray with boldness and confidence. However, when I widen the lens of my focus in my life I see the world around me and I get overwhelmed and discouraged.  I see nations divided.  It makes me feel hopeless like my voice won’t matter.

When God’s people feel Hopeless the enemy wins. 

What Does The Bible Say About Praying Boldly?

The reality is, that feeling of hopelessness is a trick of the enemy to keep you from praying boldly at all.

The enemy will try to keep you down – ineffective – and NOT fighting the real battle.  Hopelessness is a tactic he uses.  Thankfully we have real weapons to fight back in the battle! Ephesians 6 is filled with pray boldly Scripture!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 
Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” Ephesians 6:10-13 NASB

Learning How To Pray Boldly Is Important!

My voice does matter… especially when it is learning how to pray boldly and enter into the real battle! When it is praying big prayers.

There is a real battle happening in this world.  Do you see it?

In the Spiritual realm, there is a real battle happening. God calls it out and names some of the players so even though I don’t understand it, I can believe Him and operate from a place of faith… even if I have no idea what He’s talking about.

And in the real battle, God calls us to pray boldly! Boldness is not usually my first response in the face of Spiritual warfare. Anybody else?

Spiritual Warfare Is Real

The problem with our prayer life is that we get confused. Often, we face trials and focus on the wrong things in our daily lives!

1. Who we are fighting.
2. Why we are fighting.
3. What we are fighting for!

Also, we spend too much time fighting for our preferences. Finally, we get so confused that other people look like the enemy.

When we as Christians acknowledge the real battle and identify the real enemy we can fight with real power.  We can begin praying big prayers and see real victories! 

But I have some questions:

• I want to know, what does it mean to pray bold prayers?
• How do you pray boldly?
• How do you pray a strong prayer?
• What are some examples of bold prayers?

What Are Christians Fighting For in the Spiritual Battle? 

How do you pray big?  You first identify what you are praying about.  What is the end goal of this spiritual warfare?

• The salvation of the world.
•  True revival in the church.

The problem is not that the lost nation around us needs to live like they are saved!

No, we need the saved to live like saved and love the lost to Jesus.

We are fighting for our nation to begin humbling itself before God to the point of salvation. We should desire a nation that will begin confessing its sin, longing for our nation to turn from its wicked ways. Only then will God will hear from Heaven and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Revival is the big prayer God is placing in my heart!

Related Post: How Personal Revival Leads to Unity in the Church

What Is An Example Prayer for Boldness?

How do you pray stronger prayers and what are bold prayers?  Look no further than Daniel for an example of bold prayers in the Bible!

The prophet Daniel in chapters 9-10 had been studying the scrolls written by the prophet Jeremiah (say that 10 times fast).  In them, he saw that the Babylonian captivity had a time limit.  

He began praying boldly.  This is a prayer that could easily apply to our nation right now.  I want to give you an excerpt from it and challenge you to read the whole prayer.

Daniel’s Bold Prayer

“I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said,
Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and loving-kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.
We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.
Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—”
O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! and O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”  Daniel 9:4-19 NKJB

When he finishes praying he has a vision. It troubles him so much he goes into a state of shock, fasting and praying in desperation for three weeks!

Related: How To Fast and Pray in A Way That Pleases God

God Gives Clarity About Spiritual Warfare When We Pray Boldly

Those were bold prayers!  Did you see the hope Daniel had?  And we see as we read further, that God answers bold prayers. 

“Then he (the angel) said to me,
“Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia” (Daniel 10:12-13 NASB).

This angel had been trying to come to Daniel for three weeks but another spiritual being had been fighting with him.  As Daniel persisted in prayer and fasting another angel came to aid in this battle.

Can you picture this scene?  

Can You Imagine Spiritual Warfare?

Use your imagination with me, please.  Picture the physical ancient world.

A King of Persia is ruling and dictating from a throne room some thousands of years ago.  He is dressed in a purple robe, sitting pensively having a scroll read to him.  He may be deciding what new law to approve over his people.

Superimpose a spiritual world above him, sort of ghostly because no one else can see it.  

There is a “spiritual” king of Persia whispering in the “physical” king’s ear, agitating him as he hears about the Jews in Babylon. This stirs an emotional environment created so that this king will dictate harm to God’s people.

Daniel’s prayers made a real impact in that battle. Daniel’s prayers stirred up beings he couldn’t see, doing things he couldn’t even imagine.

How To Pray Boldly

Our prayers can be just as effective as Daniel’s prayers.

The truth is, we must pray boldly if we ever want to see change in our nations.

There are real spiritual forces at play in the downfall of the nations of the world. Each year the world becomes darker and more evil. Why? They are mostly being left unchecked by Believers who are so distracted fighting with each other or hustling for our own comfort that we have forgotten our mission while on Earth!

But how can we learn to pray boldly in a day and age when Christianity is a minority worldview?

1. Remember your mission.
2. Accept boldness as a gift from God.
3. Embrace grace.
4. Use Scripture to pray boldly.
5. Pray strategically.
6. Fast and pray.
7. Pray with others.

Remember Your Mission To Pray Boldly

It is past time to wake up and engage in the battle mission Jesus left us in Matthew 28:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV)

Jesus clearly left us here for a purpose. That purpose was not health, wealth, and prosperity. We are on this Earth to win the lost to Christ, baptize them, and then disciple the saved.

It is too easy to be lulled to sleep spiritually by the persistence of the culture’s message that we only have one life to live and we should live it for ourselves. NO! We only have one life to live and people are dying every day going straight to hell because of our selfishness and laziness. (I say to myself first because the Lord has been convicting me of this very thing)

Wake up and get back on mission!

Accept God’s Boldness

Hebrews 4:16 gives us clear bold prayers meaning to guide us as we learn how to wake up and start engaging in the war around us.

“Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” (Hebrews 4:16 NASB)

But, what is the confidence to pray bold prayers?

• We are God’s children.
• He called us and equipped us for a purpose.
• We have God’s Word to guide us in how we live and how we pray.
• He has given us permission to come boldly before Him and pray for what is in His will. We know it’s in His will if it’s in His Word!
• He also gives us grace for our times of need.

We can pray in Jesus’ name because of the blood of Jesus poured out on the cross!  

So we can come to Him boldly in prayer in our time of need… when we need to… and, Christians, we need to!

Embrace God’s Grace

Then, we need to remember to embrace God’s grace. His grace is why we can come boldly before the throneroom. It is the throneroom of grace!

But all too often we feel like we need to fight alone, do it ourselves, and not bother God because He has bigger things to deal with. But He is gracious and wants us to come before Him.

He says to accept His grace to you. To accept His grace daily!

Remember, He is our Heavenly Father. We have Christ Jesus interceding for great things in the life of ever child of God!  The Spirit of God lives within us reminding us of the promise of God to always be with us!  That’s good news for those who need His grace!

Add Scripture To Pray Boldly

I can not overemphasize the power that is in Scripture. God’s Word is alive and active and sharper than any 2-edged sword! Why aren’t we using it as the weapon it is in our prayer life?

​”The prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much” (James 5:16 NASB paraphrase)

God tells us to pray for big things, to pray for good things, to pray in the name of Jesus!  These kinds of prayers are not selfish prayers!  And we would see that if we looked in the Word of God.

You could literally search out pray bold verse and see… actually, let’s do just that!

• Hebrews 4:16
• Mark 11:24
• 1 John 5:14
• 1 John 5:15
• Hebrews 11:6
• John 14:13
• Ephesians 3:12
• Philippians 4:6
• Matthew 21:22
• James 4:8
• James 5:16 (this one is one of my favorite bold prayers for healing!)
• 1 Peter 3:7

These are just a few Bible verses about praying boldly that you can use and claim as you pray bold prayers!

Related Post: How To Pray for Your Husband: 8 Ways and 55 Prayers (PDF)

Pray Strategically

Okay, so after you find the right verses to pray boldly, you need a strategy. You know your enemy has one so why shouldn’t you?  It is absolutely a good thing… in the best interest of every Believer to make a plan.

What is a prayer strategy?

• Think through all the areas in your life that are routinely under attack.
• Find verses that apply to those areas.
• Turn those verses into prayers.
• Schedule time daily to pray over those areas.
• Bonus: Take photos of the prayers written out so you have them in your phone to pray whenever you have spare time!

A prayer strategy is good for any prayer requests in your life, for small things and difficult times!  All of the prayers of the church should be taken to our Dear Lord Jesus strategically!  

Once you have big issues in your own life under control, begin using this strategy to pray over your lost friends and family, issues in your city, and problems in the world. Become a prayer warrior!

Prayer Journal

And to keep myself on task, I love a good journal. I often turn a notebook into a prayer journal. But it’s nice to have one ready-made.

Check out this journal in my shop!

Fast and Pray

“[But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]” (Matthew 17:20 NASB)

Scripture is clear that some issues will not be resolved without fasting. Do you fast?

Fasting is the Spiritual discipline of giving up something you seek for satisfaction in your own strength in order to seek the Lord.

Fasting brings us to an ignited prayer life where everyday normal prayer becomes passionate… where we are praying from the position of a righteous heart… a place of humility.

It could be food, social media, entertainment, shopping, and so much more.

Learn more about fasting and prayer here ~> 15 Steps To Fast and Pray For God: A Free Beginners Guide

Or check out my short book as a beginner’s guide!

Fasting is a way to deal with unanswered prayer by asking for Spiritual eyes to better understand the will of God.  God’s promises reassure us He always answers. We see God answer in both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Word of God. That is a big deal!  He does answer.  Prayer and fasting can help us better understand how to align ourselves in prayer with the great High Priest.  

Pray With Others to Pray Boldly

Another way to pray with boldness is to join others in prayer. I love a prayer group or a prayer calendar where everyone is praying over the same things every day!

This also works when you have a circle of prayer warrior friends who you meet up with often to pray and who you can reach out to for prayer any time!

“When two or more are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NIV)

The church today has forgotten the power of prayer.  There is a kind of doubt that we can reach Jesus face.  But the first time you draw near with small prayer groups in your spere… the first time you get a sense of His presence… when you enter that holy place together.  Everything changes.  

It’s one thing to come boldly into the house of God, but another to sit in God’s presence, to sense God’s power through prayer… you will never be the same!  

Prayers For the Nation

I want to be a Christian who prayer bold prayers! Prayers for the nation would be a great next step. But… we are out of time for today so I will write those next and link them here***

Will you pray with me?

Will You Begin To Pray Boldly With Me For Real Change?

We are talking about bold prayers.  Praying boldly leads to real change.  It’s not hard to pray big prayers and we see through scripture that God answers bold prayers.

Today the prayer challenge is to believe big and pray boldly. 

1. Set a time to pray.
2. Choose some scripture.
3. Join others in the mission.

Will you join me as I take up God’s call to pray boldly for change in the nations today? That is the third step of our plan to pray bigger than our little circle. 

Join others in the prayer! 

We are a community even if we never see each other face to face.  Will you join in prayer? 

Drop a comment below to let us know you are standing in prayer together with us!

in HIM,

If you enjoyed this you will love these posts:

• How Personal Revival Leads to Unity In The Church
• 12 Verses to Pray for Unity in The Church
• How To Keep Hope Alive as a Christian