By Dr. Victor M. Matthews wrote this spiritual warfare prayer for strength and protection. Dr. Matthews went to his reward in 2008 after a notable ministry of prayer, pastoral work, seminary education, small group mentoring, and conference teaching. The prayer originally titled “Warfare Prayer” has been revised by Pastor Mike Dixon.
God and Father, I worship You. Please cleanse my heart from all sin as I approach You in prayer. By faith, I stand under the shadow of Calvary’s cross. I reject all the deceptions of Satan that would hinder me as I seek You in prayer. I address myself only to You, the one true and living God, and refuse any role of Satan in my prayer. I resist the Devil and reject all of his evil works and ways. I ask You to bind and restrict Satan, and to unleash Your saving power!
I surrender every area of my life unreservedly to You. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I present myself to You as a living sacrifice. I choose not to be conformed to this world. I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. Please show me Your will and enable me to walk in it today.
Heavenly Father, I give You praise! I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor. I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the blessed Holy Spirit would fill me. I am thankful that You have loved me from past eternity. You sent the Lord Jesus into the world to die as my substitute that I would be redeemed. You have completely forgiven me! You have adopted me into Your family. You have assumed all responsibility for me. You have given me eternal life and the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus. I am now legally blameless, justified by Your grace. I have been made complete in Christ. You have offered Your grace to me for my daily help and strength. I am thankful, dear Father!
Heavenly Father, come and open the eyes of my heart. Show me how great You are and how complete Your provision is for this new day. I thank You for my position with Christ in the heavenly realms, with all wicked spirits under His feet. I am grateful that the victory Christ won for me on the cross, and through His resurrection, has been given to me. Therefore I rejoice that my name has been written in heaven and that I have overcome Satan through the blood of the Lamb.
I am thankful for the armor You have provided for spiritual warfare. I put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the boots of the good news of peace, and the helmet of salvation. I lift the shield of faith against all the flaming arrows of the enemy, and I take in my hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. I want to use Your Word against all the forces of evil working against my spiritual life. I put on this armor as ‘clothing myself with the Lord Jesus Christ’ Himself. By Your grace, I will live and pray in complete dependence upon Your Holy Spirit. I can do all Your will through Christ who strengthens me.
I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Christ defeated all wicked spirits and made a triumphant spectacle of them. Jesus triumphed over them through the cross! I trust in that victory for my life today. I reject all the insinuations, accusations, and temptations of Satan. I affirm that the Word of God is true, and I choose to live today in the light of the Bible’s truth. I choose to live in obedience to You and fellowship with You. Open my spiritual eyes so that there will be no ground to give Satan a foothold against me. Show me any area of weakness. Show me any area of my life that I must deal with so that I would please You. You are my Father in heaven! I surrender my heart to You and the ministry of Your Holy Spirit in my life.
By faith, and in dependence upon You, I take off the old self and rely on all the victory of the crucifixion where Christ provided the cleansing from the old nature. I put on the new self and rely on all the victory of the resurrection and the provision He has made there for me to live above sin. I take off the old nature with its selfishness and I put on the new nature with its love. I take off the old nature with its fear and put on the new nature with its courage. I take off the old nature with its weakness and I put on the new nature with its strength. I take off the old nature with all its deceitful lusts and I put on the new nature with all its righteousness and purity. I trust in the victory of the ascension and the glorification of the Son of God where all wicked spirits were made subject to Him. I rest in my place of blessedness in Christ, victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul.
Gracious Father, please grant me the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Come into my life afresh. Break down every idol and cast out every foe.
Thank You for the expression of Your will for my daily life revealed in the Bible. I embrace that for today. All praise is Yours, God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You have caused us believers to be born again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am thankful that You have made it possible for us to live in the fullness of Your Spirit with love, joy, and peace, with longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness, and with faithfulness, kindness, and self-control in our lives. I recognize that this is Your will for me, so I reject and resist all the endeavors of Satan and his demons to rob me of the will of God. I present all the members of my body to You. Lead me, and use me in Your service today!
I am grateful, Father, that the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but are mighty through Your power for pulling down spiritual strongholds. They enable us to cast down imaginations and every lofty thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We can and should bring every thought captive to obey the Master, Jesus Christ. I pray that You would tear down the strongholds of Satan and the plans he has formed against me. Tear down the strongholds of Satan against my mind as I surrender my mind to You, blessed Holy Spirit. I affirm, Abba Father, that You did not give us a spirit of fear but the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Please break and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today as I give my emotions to You. I refuse to believe my feelings and I hold up the shield of faith against all the accusations that Satan would seek to put into my mind. Please smash the strongholds formed against my will today as I yield my will to You. I want to make the right decisions based upon faith in Your Word, the Bible. Smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my body today as I give my body to You. It is Your temple, dear Holy Spirit. How I rejoice in Your mercy!
Heavenly God and Father, I pray that throughout this day You would grant me spiritual life. Show me any ways Satan is seeking to hinder, tempt, lie, counterfeit, and distort the truth in my life. Grant me full freedom in Christ. Enable me to be the kind of person who will please You since You are my Father. Empower me to be aggressive in prayer. Help me to be aggressive mentally and to think Your thoughts after You. I want to give You Your rightful place in my life.
Please enlarge my heart. Give me opportunities to share the good news with others. Send me today to do your work by your power! Lord Jesus, please live in me and love others through me!
Again, I pray that You would cover me with the protective spiritual shelter of the blood of the Lord Jesus. I pray that You, blessed Holy Spirit, would bring all the work of the crucifixion, all the power of the resurrection, all the work of Christ’s glorification, and all the work of Pentecost into my life today. I joyfully await the return of Jesus, and I refuse to be discouraged. You are the God of all hope! You have proven Your power by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. I claim in every way Your victory over all of Satan’s forces working against my life, and I resist them in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Thank You for all You are doing. Bring glory to Yourself.
Hallelujah! Amen.
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