If you’re in the Kingdom, you’re in a battle.
That battle can be initiated by people or circumstances. It can attack your reputation, your finances, your health, or your family.
But because of your position in the Kingdom, there’s always a tie to the spiritual world. Paul says,
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).
If that’s the case, then maybe the best place to start in resolving whatever is coming against you is in a warfare prayer.
The Believer’s Warfare Prayer
In the early days of New Song, I felt spiritual pressure constantly and some sort of threat to the church’s existence daily.
Someone handed a printed prayer to me by seminary professor Victor Matthews called, “The Believer’s Warfare Prayer.” I haven’t met Dr. Matthews, but his prayer has contributed significantly to my ministry.
I prayed his prayer out loud, verbatim that first day and the spiritual pressure I was feeling abated. The pressure returned the next day, so I prayed it out loud again. I found that every time I prayed the prayer, I felt relief. It was like the Lord and I were pushing back Satan, claiming territory and victory.
I began to pray the prayer daily. This went on for years.
As New Song grew and our members matured, more and more people were lifting me up in prayer, so that I began to experience their “prayer shield.” I prayed my Warfare Prayer less often. I didn’t seem to need it as much.
Then, a few years ago, New Song appeared on the Outreach 100 Fastest Growing Churches list. That seemed to paint a target on my back. The church and I have experienced spiritual attack over the last two decades, but never like this.
Proverbs 15:22 tells me that plans fail for lack of counsel, so one day I went to see a counselor. You know what she told me?
“You should remember that these attacks you’re experiencing have a spiritual basis to them.”
Good call! I dug out my Believer’s Warfare Prayer and began praying it again. It’s helping. A lot.
Every Christian leader I know feels attacked, discouraged, disparaged or hopeless from time to time. Leaders are pro-active, so we start by addressing the symptom of our problem, but it makes sense to go deeper and attack the root.
The Believer’s Warfare prayer is a sound spiritual exercise. God can hear our inner-most thoughts, but Satan can’t. I find that praying it out loud has a two-fold benefit: God hears and responds, and demons hear, and flee.
My encouragement to every believer who feels attacked is to pray this daily until they find themselves back in a smooth place, and then to pray it weekly or monthly thereafter. The prayer takes six to eight minutes to pray out loud, and it’s well worth it.
I pray the prayer exactly as written. When I stumble over a sentence, I reread it accurately. Words matter, and Victor Matthews is a genius. His prayer is an excellently-crafted, well-rounded, Biblically-based prayer that contains crisp theology.
Now What?
Why not pray it right now? Then, download a copy so you can pray it often.
BELIEVER’S WARFARE PRAYER
(To be read aloud)
Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before You. I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection. I surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to You. I take a stand against all the workings of Satan that would hinder me in my prayer life. I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of Satan in my prayer.
(I command Satan, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all of his demons. I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between Satan and myself.)
Heavenly Father, I worship You and give You praise. I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise. I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the Blessed Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer. I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that You have loved me from past eternity and that You sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die as my substitute. I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ came as my representative and that through Him 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; You have given me the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ so I am now justified. I am thankful that in Him You have made me complete, and that You have offered Yourself to me to be my daily help and strength.
Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I might see how great You are and how complete Your provision is for this day. I am thankful that the victory the Lord Jesus Christ won for me on the Cross and in His Resurrection has been given to me and that I am seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. I take my place with Him in the heavenlies and recognize by faith that all wicked spirits and Satan himself are under my feet. I declare, therefore, that Satan and his wicked spirits are subject to me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am thankful for the Armor You have provided. I put on the Girdle of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of Peace, and the Helmet of Salvation. I lift up the Shield of Faith against all the fiery darts of the enemy; and take in my hand the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. I choose to use Your Word against all the forces of evil in my life. I put on this Armor and live and pray in complete dependence upon You, Blessed Holy Spirit.
I am grateful, Heavenly Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself. I claim all that victory for my life today. I reject all the insinuations, and accusations, and the temptations of Satan. I affirm that the Word of God is true and I choose to live today in the light of God’s Word. I choose, Heavenly Father, to live in obedience to You and in fellowship with Yourself. Open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please You. Work in me to cleanse me from all ground that would give Satan a foothold against me. I do in every way stand into all that it means to be Your adopted child and I welcome all the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
By faith and in dependence upon You I put off the old man and stand into all the victory of the Crucifixion where the Lord Jesus Christ provided cleansing from the old nature. I put on the new man and stand into all the victory of the Resurrection and the provision He has made for me to live above sin.
Therefore, today I put off the old nature with its selfishness and I put on the new nature with its love. I put off the old nature with its fear and I put on the new nature with its courage. I put off the old nature with its weakness and I put on the new nature with its strength. I put off the old nature with all its deceitful lusts and I put on the new nature with its righteousness, purity, and honesty.
In every way I stand into the victory of the ascension and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all the principalities and powers were made subject to Him. I claim my place in Christ as victorious with Him over all the enemies of my soul. Blessed Holy Spirit, I pray that You would fill me. Come into my life, break down every idol and cast out every foe.
I am thankful, Heavenly Father, for the expression of Your will for my daily life as You have shown me in Your Word. I therefore, claim all the will of God for today. I am thankful that You have blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I am thankful that You have begotten me unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am thankful that You have made a provision so that today I can live filled with the Spirit of God with love and joy and peace, with longsuffering, gentleness and goodness, with meekness, faithfulness, and self-control in my life. I recognize that this is Your will for me and I therefore reject and resist all the endeavors of Satan and his wicked spirits to rob me of the will of God. I refuse in this day to believe my feelings and I hold up the shield of faith against all the accusations and distortion and insinuations that Satan would put into my mind. I claim the fullness of the will of God for my life today.
In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I completely surrender myself to You, Heavenly Father, as a living sacrifice. I choose not to be conformed to this world. I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and I pray that You would show me Your will and enable me to walk in all the fullness of Your will today.
I am thankful, Heavenly Father, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, to the casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in my own life today I tear down the strongholds of Satan and smash the plans of Satan that have been formed against me. I tear down the strongholds of Satan against my mind, and I surrender my mind to You, Blessed Holy Spirit. I affirm, Heavenly Father, that You have not given me the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I break and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today and I give my emotions to You. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my will today, I give my will to You, and choose to make the right decisions of faith. I smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my body today, I give my body to You recognizing that I am Your temple. I rejoice in Your mercy and goodness.
Heavenly Father, I pray that now and through this day You would strengthen and enlighten me, show me the way Satan is hindering and tempting and lying and distorting the truth in my life. Enable me to be the kind of person that would please You. Enable me to be aggressive in prayer and faith. Enable me to be aggressive mentally, to think about and practice Your Word, and to give You Your rightful place in my life.
Again, I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and pray that You, Blessed Holy Spirit, would bring all the work of the Crucifixion, all the work of the Resurrection, all the work of the Glorification, and all the work of Pentecost into my life today. I surrender myself to You. I refuse to be discouraged. You are the God of all hope. You have proven Your power by resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead, and I claim in every way this victory over all Satanic forces in my life. I pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving. Amen.
© Victor Matthews, Emeritus Professor of Theology at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary.
Blessings!
Hal
Hal Seed is the founding and Lead Pastor of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, CA. He mentors pastors who want to lead healthy, growing churches with resources at www.pastormentor.com.
Start Here to learn more about the resources available for you at PastorMentor.
Thank you for this prayer. Printing it out and using it as part of my morning devotional time. Great blog!
You’re welcome Beth!
Thank you for useful prayer
You’re welcome Ricky!
Thanks for the wonderful prayer. May God continue to bless you
God bless you Paul!
This prayer is really helpful to me
It’s truly a great and useful piece of information. I’m satisfied that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome!
Thank you Pastor Half for sharing this wonderful prayer. I downloaded it and read it once. I must tell you that GOD is Almighty and faithful. We’ve gone through a lot of changes and it was hard. Funny how every time, this prayer was on my phone and it somehow was always opened in my browser every time all on its own (I believe it was GOD!) I’ve prayed it now daily and praise GOD for He answered our prayers!!! A resolution and finally some peace amongst family that came by the Grace and Mercy of GOD through the answer of praying this prayer. Humbled and Grateful. Yay GOD!!!
Oops sorry Pastor Hal. I misspelled your name.
It’s alright Caroline. I’m just glad the prayer has blessed you and your family.
Thank you for this wonderful prayer, it’s like God led me to this page to read what i needed to hear and the confirmation i needed for today and always.
You’re welcome Claire. This is a universally helpful prayer. It’s been helpful to me in my darkest days, and it’s been downloaded by over 35,000 people since we posted it, so you are not alone Claire! Every believer needs the presence, power, and assurance of God’s Spirit to ward off the attacks of the enemy.
Thank you for this prayer. I like the way that Victor has interwoven verses from the Bible into the prayer.
Rachel
You’re welcome Rachel. I like the way Dr. Matthews systematically walks through the authority God has and all that is available to us because of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. This prayer has helped shield and shelter so many people in times of challenge, trouble, and spiritual opposition.
Hello Pastor Hal, I just found this prayer and prayed it this morning and will continue to do so. I feel satan has a tight grip on my adult children. I’m also standing in the gap and praying this over my children – speaking their names throughout the prayer. Do you think God will accept this prayer from me, their mother, on their behalf? They both made professions of faith when younger but seem to be under satan’s influence – living sinful lifestyles, bound by addictions.
Hi Debbie,
I’m glad the prayer is helping you. It’s certainly helped me as well.
Praying over, praying for, and praying on behalf of your children is always a good thing. Each of them has a free will, and God will honor that. But your prayers do and will have great influence in the heavenly realm!
1,000 blessings,
Hal
Pastor, my mind has been under attack for almost a year ever since I made a decision for Jesus. The enemy is relentless, constantly telling me that I have committed the unpardonable sin, that I don’t truly believe. Puts rebellious spontaneous thoughts in my mind. I have prayed and prayed prayed. I will pray this prayer every day. I need help!!!
Hi Debbie,
I’m sorry for the spiritual oppression you are feeling. I encourage you to talk to a pastor at your local church about it. They (and I) can assure you that the unpardonable sin is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit by rejecting Jesus’ gift of salvation. I’m sure you haven’t done that or you wouldn’t want to be walking with Him right now.
We can never have enough prayer, and this truly addresses what so many of us encounter on a daily basis. Satan is on full up overtime and roaring in our world. In good time our awesome God will deal with his vile and wicked ways. Pray my Brothers and Sisters that we remain committed to tri-union of God, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us never become too comfortable with the world around us. Praise God ?
Profoundly rooted in Holy Spirit and powerful in my daily devotion to our awesome God. May God continue to Bless and use you as His instrument of saving souls and inspiring Godly Leaders to step forward. Peace Be With You Pastor ?
Thank you Joe. 1,000 blessings to you as well!
This is all I needed in His name!!!!!
It’s a very helpful prayer, isn’t it?
I just downloaded the prayer, I calling on God to give me the boldness to share the Gospel and a heart for the lost. Amen.
Good for you Paul! All heaven is cheering you on!
Thank you pastor, I’ve been in spiritual warfare for over a month, and I came to your prayer, so powerful that i pray it every day, I’m 74 years old and feel oppressed but as a soldier of God i will continue to fight the good fight and keep the faith, thank you and God bless you Pastor.
Ralph
You’re welcome Ralph!
Pray and persevere! Great is your reward in heaven!
Hal, What a blessing and an honor it is to have this prayer. Thank you brother! I pray God places many jewels in your crown. Also in honoring our Brother in Christ, Dr. Victor Matthew.
This prayer will be a part of my normal life routine and I will share it with others. May God bless you now and forever!
You’re welcome Scott. It truly is a great prayer. It’s been downloaded now from our website over 30,000 times. I think it’s becoming a classic of modern Christianity.
Soo powerful
Very well organized, both doctorinically and theologically sound prayer. God led me to it and it was a very welcome encounter and real blessing. I sincerely thank you for having envisioned that a lot of people benefit from this prayer. May God bless you richly. alemu2460@gmail.com
Thank you for sharing. it will be part of my morning devotion. may God bless you richly..Amen
This has been a wonderful prayer for me since it was sent to me I have seening the hands of God beginning to move repeating it every day since I am believing and trusting him for a miracle not only for me for my marriage, myself and children and I know he will do it because he is truth, thanks for this prayer God bless you
I’m glad it’s been helpful to you Denise. The prayer has helped me greatly as well.
A fellow BSF woman discovered this prayer after being the recipient of a particularly evil attack. She shared it with others, including me, and I just prayed it, too. Thank you for sharing; we need to practice more spiritual warfare!
BSF is an excellent ministry! I’m so glad your group is benefitting from the prayer! Give them all my best, please.
Thank you for the very thoughtful, and word-enriched prayer. Is that OK to get this translated in Tamil (a language in India) and give it for private circulation?
Thank you.
Hi Benny,
The prayer is not mine (it was composed by Victor Matthews, who is deceased.) I’m pretty sure he would be overjoyed if you were to translate it into Tamil!
Praise our Lord Jesus Christ I must confess that this is a God given prayer through His Divine revelation to His servant to The Church. I will always pray this powerful prayer for it touches all human situations both spiritual and physical. This is good for strengthening me us a believer in Christ Jesus……it is an endless prayer praise be to God for the opportunity to pray this prayer I know my life is moved to another level AMEN
This prayer is incredibly powerful for me! I know I am in a spiritual war, and I have been taking authority in the name of Christ Jesus. I was interrupted by strange happenings (I lost the webpage, was unable to retrieve, then recovered it, then my phone shut off and I had to take authority in Jesus’ name to get my phone back on, tried my laptop, had trouble with it– it was weird and notable) .
Thank you so much for this spirit filled prayer! God bless and keep you💟
Your experience is not surprising Lesley! This is one of the great prayers the Evil One would like to keep you from praying.
Be blessed!
Stumbled upon this while researching for something to pray against an attack on our family. So glad I found this and can’t wait to pray it.
This is exactly the type of prayer i needed in my life, i wanted to speak to GOD but i didnt know how, i believe now my troubles are over… im going to share this prayer to everyone…Thank you for the prayer
Blessings and favours my dear Brother in the mighty name of J-E-S-U-S.
I am so happy that God has led me to you as I searched for ‘how to help young persons who come under spiritual attack?’
Some years ago I used to pray this which wrote from a book but I lose it . This had been such great help to me.
Thanks for sharing. Also thanks for the other information.
PLEASE PRAY for my family that we will walk in the Will of God.
I prayed this prayer just now. It feels like most of my life has been a constant spiritual battle and I am ready to not let it overtake me anymore. I can be prepared and suited up in full armor by calling on the name of Jesus. This prayer made me feel so strong and safe. Thank you and God bless!
Good for you Tiff! In times when I feel under spiritual attack, I pray the whole prayer, out loud, every day.
I found this prayer, after looking for how to deal with spiritual attack. I prayed it, and will do so every day. I feel better having found it. Thank you for sharing this, and God Bless you!
I hope you’ll continue to find great comfort in it Di!
This prayer is inspired by the inspiration of GOD for it is GOD’ breath. More anointing. It has actually blessed me as I found peace each time I pray it. Thanks so much. More of His Grace upon you. In Jesus Name.
I have experienced the same thing Ola. It’s a great prayer!
Thank you so much. This prayer is perfect! May God bless you for your serving and sharing the gift of truth!! Amen ❤️
My pleasure Bianca.
God’s peace to you!
Thank you for this prayer. It saved my life. I will read it aloud daily. Bless you!
I’m glad to hear it’s helped you so much Sarita! 1,000 blessings!
Thank you pastor Hal Seed. This is the prayer I have been wanting to pray. This prayer makes me feel confident and to continue believing I am covered under the blood of Jesus Christ!
That’s exactly what the prayer is designed for. God bless you Jordane!
Good morning from McKinney, TX. Hal, I came across your blog and found this prayer to be so spiritually uplifting and encouraging! Thank you for your sharing of this prayer, because it is exactly what I need, after dealing with a spiritual attack from a pastor’s sermon. This is not the first time this has happened to me. But as I was reading your prayer aloud I also noticed I had a smile on and felt loved. Like a spiritual HUG. My spirit has been renewed for today. The Lord is not done working and I’m not done waiting. Will pray this prayer again tomorrow. Thank you Hal. Glory to God.
I’m so glad this was helpful to you Jessica.
1,000 blessings,
Be greeted man of God,i felt the shift in the spirit as I was praying this prayer,this will be my daily bread as I trust the Lord with all in my life, I am from Namibia, be blessed
Your testimony is encouraging me O’linn! 1,000 blessings to you!
It’s really late right now but I think I was meant to find this prayer. I have felt really disconnected from God this past week like something has been trying to keep me from connecting with him. I just finished a movie not too long ago and I felt drawn to pray for some reason and so I started to, and immediately I felt my body get colder, and there was just this feeling of negative energy in the room to the point where I froze for a second. I was scared because this was my first time feeling like this and I believe it was a spiritual attack. I didn’t know what to do so I looked up “prayers to read when under a spiritual attack” and sure enough, your website was the first one to pop up. I read the prayer aloud and it took a while but slowly I felt my body become less and less tense and it became to start warming up. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulder I don’t know how to explain it. I’m also not a “New Christian”, I just never was interested enough in the Bible when I was little, and I haven’t prayed in ages (I just got into it recently). Is it normal for people who have just started to grow their relationship with God to undergo many spiritual attacks or any at all?
Emily – Satan attacks often, and for many reasons. But certainly, when he sees a believer starting to practice a new and positive spiritual habit, he wants to nip that in the bud, so don’t grow. Resist him and he will flee from you! (James 4:7) Keep on praying sister!