Does that mean that we should not ask for prayers for our family or friends here, because you don't know them?
I have had experiences where people with good intentions praying for a particular situation that I was in were, in fact, a hinderance to the outcome that I was looking for. I had not requested that they pray for my situation or circumstances. I was in fact being fully dependant on the Lord's outcome and that whatever that was I was comfortable with.
If God does what I have requested others to pray for, then who is God? Is what I am asking others to pray for placing me in the position of authority, where God is simply doing my bidding? It also is causing those, following the prayer lead of the requester, to step over the line of acting God like in our praying and subsequently sinning unintentionally.
What it does mean is that before people begin praying along the line being requested, they should be asking God for His leading in this matter and praying accordingly.
In a recent "prayer" request, a prayer went into fighting Satan and telling Satan to leave a girl alone who had been sexually abused by a known predator. I personally was not in agreement with this line of praying. The outcome for the girl and her family was not pretty. I considered that the prayer was misguided in her line of praying and it was a demonstration of what not to do.
Satan immediately began creating trouble within the girl's family and they began turning against each other.
After a fortnight, I enquired of one of the grandmothers how the situation was evolving, and she reported that there was now strife within the family of the girl.
I could have begun praying, but I outlined a strategy that the grandmother could use to pray within the family situation of which I was not a member of. Within a week of the grandmother praying along the lines that I had suggested, the tensions within the family had completely changed and a more peaceful environment for the family came about.
The grandmother has not stopped praying for her family but now she is praising God that He has heard her request for her family and is slowly and surely bringing about her request.
There is still a long way to go with the unfolding events to play out in court and more intentional prayers may be required. One of those prayers may be that as God draws the family to Himself that the family, including the girl, in their response of bring draw by God into His purposes for their lives, will be able to forgive the predator for what he had done to them all by his actions.
As this family is drawn further into God's purposes, they will be blessed by God beyond any measure that I could imagine or ask God for.
Cassandra, the person who thought that they were doing the right thing in going into "Spiritual warfare praying" for the family, had not, in my opinion, asked God how she should have prayed.
The grandmother in praying for her family members did so from a more informed perspective and was very effective in my opinion in being God's protective warrior for her family. How she prayed I am not a party to, but I offered her the same sort of advice that I would offer to My Dreams.
A person's ignorance of the circumstances that they have been asked to pray for, can lead to wrong outcomes occurring. That was what I was trying to express above.
PS: - in the situation presented above, I was being led by the HS to speak to the grandmother and provide a strategy for her to follow in praying for her family. After giving her the strategy of how she should pray my role was over and diminished and the grandmother's role increased such that she and her family members had a testimony of the greatness of God in their respective lives to tell.
Shalom
