Examples of Promises from Pray-ers

There are so many–so many–promises to you in God’s Word. but it is personal, and His choosing one for you and giving it to you has to happen in that way: made personal by the Holy Spirit. Any list I give you will not be effective and will not hold the meaning or the faith-building like the ones pointed out by the Holy Spirit. When God gives you the promise, it will be a place on which you can stand when everything around you doesn’t match the hope found in that promise, something you can pray in, something that strengthens your shield of faith so you can “quench all the fiery darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

That being said, my sharing some examples of specific promises received by people who love and pray for a prodigal may help you in recognizing your own promise.

• A wife of a prodigal husband asked God how her husband could even be alive since the wages of sin is death. She said before she even finished her thought, she received in her spirit: “I have mercy on him because he’s yours.” She said, “I still get teary and choked up when I think of it. That has been enough to sustain me. It’s the fuel to my faith that keeps me going.” She said she also receives faith from James 5:19–20: “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” She writes, “This keeps me on my toes as far as standing in the gap. And reminds me of how much I love him, too, and that I simply cannot and will not give up.”
• A mom said 1 Peter 5:6 has “come around several times.” It says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
• I know I share a lot of my insights from God, and you may have heard me reference this during the Facebook Live prayer time, but while praying for an individual prodigal who has been isolated by the enemy from his Christian family and friends, restricting their opportunities for them to speak truth and life to him, the Lord spoke to me and said, “I am infusing myself into his ruminations.” That is a promise onto which we can all hold, a promise we can pray in, because the Word tells us He teaches sinners (Psalm 25:8).
• A mom of a prodigal son wrote, “I want to share with you the first time the Lord spoke to me through His Word. The promise is from Isaiah” 49:17, 25–26: “Your rebuilders are hurrying and your destroyers and despoilers will soon go away. I myself with save your children” (Version unknown). She also wrote, “More recently He drew me to His Word in Genesis 19:16”: “When Lot hesitated, the angel of the Lord HELD his hand and LED him outside the city” (emphasis added by the mom, version unknown). She explained, “I find this so reassuring and it revives my hope that even if our prodigals hesitate, our God will hold their hand and bring them home from the land of the enemy.” I had never thought of that, and it encouraged me so much. She sent one more promise, Philippians 2:13, “It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives the intention and power to act.” She wrote, “There are so many promises I hang on it and am believing for them all. There is no escape for our prodigals from our God.”
• If you follow the ministry in other facets, you are familiar with Darlene Vice, because I quote her often, and she prays live on the ministry’s Facebook often. She received a personal promise from God. He said to her, “I know what you see does not match what I said, so put your faith in what I said and not what you see. Wait until what you see lines up with what I said.” Her knowing this truth of this promise was easy to understand—if not easy to walk in—because the Bible says the same thing: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
• A couple of times, when praying through the daily prayer starters from my book[1], the Lord had me pause and continue to pray specific ones, making me know He is targeting these prayers:
  • Our Father, I pray in Jesus’ name that __________ will “Beware lest anyone cheat [him/her] through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). (p. 105).
  • Our Father, I thank You for Your Word. It brings me comfort in this fight for my prodigal. I pray __________ will no longer be childish, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14 KJV). I pray this in Jesus’ name. (p. 138).

Tomorrow is the last part of the series, and I will share about praying the promise in.

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[1] Winkelman, T. (2019). Fighting for your prodigal through prayer: 365 promises, praises, and prayers.