Prayer Secret #4 - State Your Case Before God

Prayer Secret #4
Stating Your Case Before God

he first 3 prayer secrets talked about in the Prayer Section of our site all lay the groundwork for you to be able to properly approach God the Father with your specific prayer requests. This particular prayer secret will now be the first of several that will get into the real heart of directly praying to God the Father.

This particular prayer secret is coming off of two very simple, but extremely powerful verses back in the Old Testament. When I first saw the three specific phrases that were located in the middle of these two verses, I saw major prayer secret written all over it. I believe that God the Father is giving all of us a major revelation with the three key phrases that He has in these two verses.

The three key phrases in these two verses are that we can approach God to "reason together" with Him, that we can "state our case" before Him, and that we can "contend together" with Him.

Think of the implication of these three statements - that the one and only all-powerful and all-knowing God of this entire universe is willing and open to listen to our reasons, to our contentions, and to our cases if they are properly brought and presented before Him!

Here are the two specific verses giving us this profound revelation:

"Come now and let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ..." (Isaiah 1:18)
"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake: And I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted." (Isaiah 43:25)

Though both of these verses are talking about being able to get forgiveness for our sins before the Lord - I believe that God the Father is giving all of us a major revelation with these three key phrases. If we can approach God to state our cases before Him, and to try and reason and contend with Him on the matter of some our own personal sins - then I believe we can also take this same principle and apply it in our own personal prayer life with the Lord.

I believe God the Father is giving all of us an open invitation to enter into intimate dialogue with Him with the way that He has worded these two verses. These three key phrases are telling us that God, at times, will want to hear what we have to think about a matter. He will want to hear our thoughts and He will want us to fully express our feelings to Him about any specific matter or topic we may want to discuss with Him.

If God is all-knowing and already knows what we are going to think before we even think it - why would He want us to go through the process of talking with Him and voicing our opinions about certain matters? If He already knows what we will need before we will even need it - why would God even want us praying to Him in the first place? Why doesn't God just rely on His perfect knowledge on all things and just give us what we will need without us ever having to ask for it?

I believe the answer to this question is only one possible answer. And that answer is because God wants more than anything else that we enter in and attempt to establish a one-on-one, intimate, personal relationship with Him.

If we never had to approach God for prayer to voice and express any of our thoughts, feelings and opinions on anything - then we would never be entering into any type of dialogue or personal conversation with Him. And if we can't establish any kind of good two-way communication and dialogue with the Lord - then no real close personal relationship is ever going to develop between Him and us.

The only way that any kind of a good personal relationship can be developed between two people is through good, personal, free-flowing conversation and dialogue where both parties are totally free to express all of their thoughts, opinions and feelings about anything they want to talk about.
This is what makes a best friend relationship so unique and so wonderful - because you are so in tune to your best friend and so comfortable with him or her - that you are totally free and totally comfortable in being yourself and releasing and expressing yourself to your fullest potential.

Good, personal, free-flowing dialogue and conversation is the lifeblood of any good personal relationship between two friends or two spouses. Nothing will shut a marriage or a good friendship down faster than if one or both of the parties start to pull back on the good personal conversations and communication they used to have.

Just as good, personal, free-flowing conversation is the lifeblood in our own personal human relationships - this same principle also applies and carries over to our own personal relationship with the Lord. This is why God has these three specific phrases mentioned in the above two verses. God the Father is giving all of us a major clue and a major revelation in that He is open and willing to have personal two-way dialogue and conversation with each one of us.

As I said numerous times in some of my other articles, God the Father wants you to be available 24/7 for intimate prayer and dialogue with Him - not just one time a week in a two hour Church service. God wants you to be able to talk and dialogue with Him with the same amount of frequency and with the same amount intensity as you would with your best friend. Except with God, He wants to become your best Friend - over and above any of other best friends you may have in this life.

God has to become #1 in your life. He will not settle or accept a #2 or a #3 position. The Bible tells us that God the Father has a consuming type of fire love for all of us, and He is very possessive and jealous over every single one of us with this kind of intense and passionate love.

With the above revelation telling us that we are free to boldly approach God's throne and not to be afraid to state our cases and contentions before Him, and not to be afraid to try and reason with Him over certain issues and topics - what this now does is open up a whole new realm of possibilities in your prayer life with God the Father if you were never aware of this possibility before.

Once you have decided that you have a certain prayer request that you would like to present before God the Father - the first thing you should decide is how strong you need to go in stating your case before Him. If your prayer request is something very simple, you do not need to get all worked up and give God 55 reasons as to why you would like Him to grant your prayer request. Just ask God once or twice and then have faith that He will answer or grant the prayer request if it is in His will for your life.

However, where this principle will really come into play is when you have a request that is on the more medium to heavier side. A perfect example of something on the heavier side is when you may be praying for someone who may be dying of cancer. This principle will really come into play on this type of emergency situation.

What you do in this type of case, is that before you start shooting healing and battle verses and start asking God to heal the one you are praying for - stop and form out your case as to why you would like God to heal this person. Stop and analyze the person's life that you are praying for. Form out your own personal arguments as to why God should consider healing and extending this person's life.

What you are doing is exactly what the above two verses are trying to tell you to do - you are stating your case before God, and you are stating your reasons and contentions as to why He should consider healing the one you are praying for.

Below I will give you a personal testimony where this particular principle literally turned the tide on a healing case I was brought into by a woman I used to work with. Her 47 year old brother was dying of terminal Hodgkin's disease. She had tried pleading the blood and asking God to heal her brother, but to no avail.

She then called me and asked if I had any other suggestions that might get God to move on her behalf. I will give you what happened after she asked me, and then what God had me do in the battle prayer I ended up drawing up for her that literally turned the tide and got this man to be fully healed within a matter of 2 weeks.

Another analogy that I can give you that will show you how effective this kind of reasoning and contending can be with the Lord is with our criminal and civil court systems. In many civil and criminal trials, cases are sometimes won on the closing arguments from either the prosecuting or defense attorney.

When each side gives their closing arguments before a jury, each attorney will properly summarize the facts of their case, and then they will try and tell the jury why they should find in their client's favor.

What they are doing with the jury is stating their cases before them, and then trying to reason with them to try and get them to rule in their client's favor. They are trying to persuade the jury that they have the stronger case and they are giving them their exact reasons as to why they should see things from their point of view.

I believe we can sometimes take this same kind of approach in our prayer life with God the Father - depending on what we are asking for. You obviously have to know when you can go into this kind of mode with God the Father. This is where the Holy Spirit will be helping you out. You will have to learn through trial and error when to take this kind of approach with God the Father.

You need to properly analyze each one of your prayer requests and decide if you need to go into this kind of heavier mode with the Lord.

If you have something that you are really wanting from the Lord, or if your prayer request is on that heavier side and you have a good release from the Holy Spirit to be approaching God with these kinds of arguments and contentions - then I would go ahead and give it a try and see what happens.

You will have nothing to lose in trying to incorporate this prayer principle into your personal prayer life with the Lord from time to time depending on exactly what it is you are asking Him for. It just may be the key to help turn the tide to get more of your personal prayers answered with Him.

One of the things I felt like the Holy Spirit has conveyed to me in reference to being able to get God to answer more of your prayers is that you have to somehow create a desire in God to want to answer your prayer in the first place.

And one of the ways that you can create a desire in God to want to answer more of your personal prayers is to give Him all of your personal reasons and contentions as to why He should consider answering them in the first place.

As the above two verses are trying to tell us - God wants to hear your arguments, your reasons and your contentions as to why He should answer your prayer.

If you can learn to go into this kind of mode with the Lord when the situation dictates taking this kind approach with Him - not only will you possibly be able to get more of your personal prayers answered - but you will also find yourself drawing and becoming much more closer to the Lord in your own personal relationship with Him.

The reason for this is because you will start to see and feel that God really does care for you, and that He really does want to have personal two-way dialogue and conversation with you. You will learn that you can fully trust Him and that He will always treat you fairly, honestly and justly.

Now I want to give you two good examples of where this particular prayer secret was put into actual operation - and in both of these cases this principle completely turned the tide and got God to move to answer the prayers that were being presented to Him.

Moses Goes Into the Gap

The first testimony is from the Story of Moses. Moses personally did one of the most amazing things in all of the Old Testament - he got God to change His mind from what His original intentions were going to be!

When Moses was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights with God the Father getting the 10 commandments and many of the other basic laws and commandments that God was wanting His people to live by, the Israelites were down at the bottom of the mountain making a false idol by way of a golden calf.

When God sees this, He becomes so furious that He is literally wanting to consume all of the Israelites right there on the spot. However, when Moses sees how mad God is getting and what God is wanting to do to these people, Moses immediately steps into the gap for his people and begins trying to reason and plead with God as to why He should change His mind and not kill them.

Here is the verse that tells you word for word exactly what Moses said to God to get Him to change His mind:

Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: "Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’

Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. (Exodus 32:11-14)

Notice what Moses does before the Lord. Instead of just asking the Lord to change His mind and not kill the Israelites for what they were doing at the bottom of that mountain - he goes one step further and starts to give God his specific reasons and contentions as to why He should not do it.

Notice this verse actually starts out with the words that Moses "pleaded with the Lord." In other words, he was properly pleading his case before the Lord by giving God his main reasons and contentions as to why He should consider changing His mind.

And then notice what happens next. Not only is God willing to hear what Moses has to say about the matter - but then He actually "relents," changes His mind and then answers Moses' petition. And all of this was accomplished because Moses properly stated his case before God and gave God several good reasons as to why He should not kill any of the Israelites.

This is a perfect and classic example of someone who put all of the above revelation in actual operation with the Lord and was thus able to save quite a few people's lives that day as a result.

Again, you have to know when you can go into this kind of mode with God the Father. But realize that this is a possible option, and that at times, it can be a very powerful and persuasive option with the Lord.

Personal Testimony

This next testimony where this principle turned the tide was the personal one I mentioned above. Here is what happened on this case.

A woman who I used to work with called me up one day and told me that she was facing an extreme emergency. Long story short, she had a 47 year old brother who was slowly dying of terminal Hodgkin's disease.

When she called me, he had been in the hospital for about 3 weeks battling a severe case of pneumonia. His immune system was starting to weaken and the doctors were having no luck with the antibiotics they were giving him. The one doctor told her that he had literally tried 50 different antibiotics, but none of them were working or turning the tide.

When she called me, she was frantic and did not know what else to do. I then asked her if she had been praying for him and she said she had. She said she had been pleading the blood and quoting some healing verses back to the Lord - but nothing was happening. She then asked if I had any other possible suggestions as she was afraid her brother was going to literally die right there in the hospital. I then told her I would pray about it and see if the Lord would give me any other suggestions that she could try in her own personal prayers to Him.

As soon as I got off the phone and tapped in and asked the Lord if He had any other suggestions on how to handle this crisis - two things immediately popped into my mind from the Lord.

The first thing He wanted me to have her do was to go longer on her stating her case before Him as to why He should consider extending his life. In other words, He was wanting her specific reasons as to why He should want to heal him.

The second thing that came up loud and clear was that He was wanting more battle and healing verses put into the actual prayer itself. This was a very serious life or death situation - and God was wanting some more meat put into the prayer. As a result, this battle prayer ended up coming in a little bit longer than some of the other ones that are listed in the Testimonies Section of our site.

After receiving the above advice from the Lord, I then called my friend back up and told her what I had picked up. She then asked me if I could draw up the battle prayer for her since she did not know how to really form out this kind of battle prayer with these kinds of healing and battle verses all incorporated into the battle prayer itself.

I then asked her to give me as much information as she could about her brother, so that I would know how to word out the first part of the prayer in the right way - since that would be the part of the prayer where she will be stating her case before God and giving Him her personal reasons as to why He should consider sparing and extending her brother's life.

This compete testimony is listed in the Testimonies section of our site. The title of this testimony is "Battle Prayer Against Terminal Hodgkin's Disease."

To show you how I worded the first part of the prayer where she is pleading her case before God and giving God her specific reasons as to why He should consider healing her brother - I will go ahead and restate it below for the purposes of this article. The part I will state below is just where she is pleading her case before God. If you would like to see how the rest of the prayer was worded with all of the healing and battle verses incorporated into the prayer, click on the above link for rest of this article.

In the first part of the prayer, I gave her some good Scripture verses to go to God with, telling Him that she will now be standing in the gap for her brother, and that she will be attempting to take a hold of Him and plead her case before Him as to why He should heal and extend her brother's life.

I then gave her some additional verses having her tell God that she will be standing on the wording of some of these verses in that He can fully heal and deliver, that nothing is too impossible for Him to handle, and that He can answer an effective and fervent prayer that is properly presented before Him. I also had her ask both Jesus and the Holy Spirit to intercede with and for her before God the Father, and that all Three of Them move out ahead of her and drive this cancer out of her brother's body.

After I drew up the battle prayer for her, I then emailed it to her with the instructions on how long to stay with it. As it turned out, she only had to say this prayer 3 or 4 times before God moved in to fully heal the man.

What happened is that right after she started to say the prayer, her brother's pneumonia immediately reversed course, and he was literally out of the hospital in 4 days flat after she started to say the prayer. His cancer then went into complete remission over the next two weeks and he was back to work shortly thereafter. All of this took place several years ago and the cancer still has not come back on him.

I really feel that the Lord was showing all of us something with this additional advice He gave me. And the first part of that additional advice was that He was wanting her to go a little bit longer on her stating her case before Him as to why He should consider healing this man. Long story short, this man was only 47 years old, was happily married, had several beautiful and loving children, and had every reason to want to keep on living down here with what he had going with his close family and friends.

Now here is the first part of this battle prayer where she is going before God the Father to state her case before Him and giving Him her personal reasons as to why He should consider healing and extending this man's life.

Georgia,

Per our phone conversation on strategy, it was agreed that plan A would be for you to stand in the gap for your brother Larry since he does not have much of the Word in him and has not been back to church in a long time. You will be the intercessor - standing in the gap on his behalf before God since you do have enough of the Word in you.

The first part of the battle prayer will be you going before the throne of God to state your case before Him and give Him your personal reasons as to why He should move in to fully heal your brother. God says in His Word to:

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord ... (Isaiah 1:18)
"... let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted." (Isaiah 43:26)

These two short, but extremely powerful Scripture verses tell us that we are free to approach God and to freely state our case on whatever it is we want to talk with Him about. This is just like an attorney pleading his case before a judge and jury in a courtroom of law.

"Stating your case" and "contending" with God means to give Him your specific reasons as to why you would want Him to grant your specific prayer request.

I believe this step right here is where many Christians miss getting some of their personal prayers answered - especially on some of the more heavier prayer requests. They simply forgot to state their case before God as to why God should consider answering their specific prayer request. We already know that God has the full power to answer any of our prayers - no matter how big or crazy the request might be.

Many times, the victory in prayer is actually won and secured right off of this first step. I'll give you my two cents on how I would word the first part of this prayer on stating your case before God. However, I do not know your brother, so you will probably think of some additional things that you may want to add to it.

After you have drawn up your request, you'll need to be guided by the Holy Spirit as to how frequently you will need to say this first part of the prayer before God. You may only need to state it once or twice and you will be done with it. God has heard your reasons loud and clear and you thus do not have to keep repeating your reasons back to Him.

However, the second part of the prayer may have to be repeated much more frequently than the first part. Now here is how I would word the first part of this prayer:

"Father,

In the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, I now come boldly before Your throne of Grace. As I know You already know, I am approaching You on behalf of my brother Larry who has now been stricken with terminal Hodgkin's disease. The doctor's have told us that this form of cancer is incurable at this time and that he only has a life expectancy of 4-7 years.

Father, You have said in Your Word that "there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You." (Isaiah 64:7)

That You "saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor ..." (Isaiah 59:16)

Father, in Jesus name, I now come before You as my brother's intercessor. I now come before You to stand in the gap for my brother. I now come boldly before You to take a hold of You in order to help deliver my brother out of this serious crisis. My brother Larry does not have much of Your Word in him. You already know that he has not been in church for quite sometime. However, You do know that he is saved and that he is definitely one of Your own.

Father, I am now willing to stand in the gap for him as I do have enough of Your Word in me to properly approach You for this request. I have full faith and belief that You can deliver my brother from this life threatening disease. You have told us in Your word to "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

Father, Your Word tells us that:

"The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27)
and "for with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37)
Your Word tells us that You "are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth." (Psalm 86:15)
Your Word also tells us that Your "mercy is everlasting" (Psalm 100:5), that You never change - that You are the "same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

Father, in Jesus name, I now come before You to ask for Your mercy and that You give my brother Larry a second chance to live once again. He is only 47 years of age. His wife still needs him and his two children still need him. It is too early for him to go home. I ask, in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, that You spare his life and fully heal him from this life threatening disease.

Father, You have said in Your Word that "whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). If it be Your will to fully heal Larry - then I fully believe, without any shadow of a doubt, that you will honor my request and fully heal my brother Larry from this horrible enemy which has attacked his body.

You say in Your Word that "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16). I am now going to turn around and take this cancer head on operating under Your authority, Your power and Your anointing.

You have also told us in Your Word that we will have Your power in which to heal all kinds of diseases, that we are to lay hands on the sick and that they will recover, and that You have given us Your power to trample over all the power of the enemy and that nothing by any means shall be able to hurt us!

The cancer that has attacked my brother Larry is his enemy and as such, I am now going to war directly against it. Father, before I go into combat against this enemy, I just want to let you know that I will be standing on Your Word and the promises of Your Word - that you

"... will restore health ... and heal you of your wounds ..." (Jeremiah 30:17)
that You are the one who "... forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases ..." (Psalm 103:2)
that "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles" ( Psalm 34:17)
that "many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit - the Bible also tells us that both of You are also there to help us out in time of need - that we can approach both of You to help us intercede before God the Father on any specific prayer request that we may have. Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit - I now ask that the both of You also intercede on both my behalf and my brother Larry's behalf before God the Father.

I now ask the both of You to also go with me before this life threatening cancer to take it fully out of my brother's body and to restore his physical body back to perfect physical health.

Father, in the name of Your Son Jesus - I now ask that You answer this petition for my brother's life and allow Your healing power to flow through me as Larry's intercessor to fully heal him in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ. I am now going to turn around and take this cancer head on operating under Your power, Your authority and Your anointing."

The rest of the prayer then goes into where she then asks the Lord to now move into battle for her and to totally drive this cancer completely out of her brother's body.

Conclusion

I will leave you with one last thought on this particular prayer secret. Per another article we have in our site titled "God is No Respecter of Persons" - the Bible tells us that God the Father is no respecter of persons.

There are also several other verses from Scripture that tell us that God will be showing no partiality or favoritism towards any man or any woman that He has ever created. What this means is that we are all on an equal footing with the Lord and we all have an equal standing with Him.

If God is no respecter of any persons - then God will be giving you the same amount of time, care and attention that He would be willing to give to anyone else - and this will also be including in your own personal prayer life with Him. You thus have just as much of a chance to get some of your own personal prayers answered with Him as anyone else would.

So the next time you have a prayer request that may be on the more heavy side, or if it is something that you are really wanting and desiring from the Lord - try drawing up your own specific reasons and contentions as to why God should grant your request. If you have to, don't be afraid to write all of it out on a piece of paper and then read it before the Lord if you think you won't be able to recall all of the reasons once you start the prayer with Him.

You already know that God has the full power to grant your specific prayer request. The secret then is to be able to create enough of a desire in God to want to answer your prayer request.

And by giving God your own personal reasons and contentions as to why He should consider answering your prayer - you may end up going a very long way in possibly creating enough of a desire in God to want to answer your prayer.

If God did it for Moses with the way Moses so passionately pleaded his case before Him with the rebellious children of Israel - then God can also do it for you since the Bible tells us that He is no respecter of persons!

Once again, here are the three key phrases. Burn these three key phrases into your memory banks - as they could be the keys that could help turn the tide for you in getting God to answer more of your special prayer requests.

State your case
Let us reason together
Let us contend together

Just as a good defense attorney can possibly win a case with a good, convincing, closing argument before a jury - so can you if you have good enough reasons and contentions to present before the Lord on whatever it is you are asking Him for.

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Prayer Secret #1 - Relationship With God the Father

Prayer Secret #2 - Will of God

Ask - Seek - Knock - Prayer Secret #5

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Scripture taken from New King James Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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Copyright © 2005-2008 by Michael Bradley.

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