Ministry Team Training

General Authority Prayer

Deliverance is a specialized form of authority prayer where you command a demon that has attached itself to a person to leave; you evict it from the person's life. But there are other types of authority prayer as well. Authority prayer is any time we use our authority in Christ to make the demonic stop misbehaving.

Demons can be active and hurtful without actually being attached to a person. Some demons have no access to a person, but they get "assigned" by the devil to follow that person and cause problems for them in some area or another -- maybe their relationships or their finances or to cause the person to be in a lot of accidents, etc. Other demons will not be assigned to a person, but to an area or a situation. And they will attack anyone who interferes in their business by advancing God's kingdom, etc. One of the aspects of authority prayer is to tell the demons to "stop it" when they do those types of things.

You can cancel their assignments and take away their right to attack or torment someone who they are not attached to. In authority prayer over demonic activity, we address the demons who are creating the problem and command them to stop doing it through the authority of Christ. If there is a demonic assignment against a person or group, we cancel that assignment.

In addition to taking authority over demons, we have been given authority over other things, such as nature and inanimate things. For some reason, many Christians find it easier to command demons than to command inanimate things. But Jesus gave us authority over inanimate things. He said, in Matthew 21:21, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done." And the mountain, obviously, is an inanimate object. Jesus personally exercised that authority when He calmed the sea. He commanded nature to obey Him, and it did. And He has given us this same authority!

One of the ways we can use authority over inanimate objects in a ministry setting is to command sickness to leave or to command body parts to heal, work properly, etc.

Please note that authority prayer does not have to be loud to be effective. Jesus gave us His authority, so we simply use it to command demons, sicknesses and situations that are out of God's will to line up with God's will. We can command finances to come forth, we can command "closed doors" (e.g., opportunities) to open in accordance with God's will, etc. Just be sure the Holy Spirit is leading you in terms of what you command when you command in the name of Jesus. (We do only what the Father is doing.)

Also, please note that Jesus did not give us authority over other people's free will and decision-making processes. For instance, we cannot command a rebellious teenager to start obeying and honoring their parents. And we cannot command unsaved people to be saved. We do not have authority over people's free will to make choices. But we can command any spirits that are causing them to make bad choices to stop influencing them. For instance if demons have been assigned to blind people to the gospel, we can exercise Christ's authority to command those spirits to stop blinding the person to the Gospel.

Inner Healing Prayer

Inner healing prayer is prayer that addresses issues in a person's soul, emotions or spirit. These are often the result of some past hurt or traumatic experience that happened to them when they were very young. But they can be caused by other things as well, such as personal sin or even sins committed by a previous generation. There is usually a lot of mental or emotional torment related to this and sometimes it is hard to tell when a person just needs inner healing and when they need deliverance. Emotional pain can effect a person so strongly that it can sometimes look like demonic influence even when no demon is present.

Sometimes the inner hurt lays below the surface until something triggers it. Then the person will have a reaction that is really out of proportion to the situation. They will often be surprised or embarrassed and tell themselves, "I won't ever do that again." But the next time they get in the same situation, they have the same out-of-proportion response. That is because their response is being triggered by deep and intense inner issues. The only way they will get control over that is to receive healing on the past hurt that is causing the out-of-proportion reactions.

God can and does bring healing to a person, so that the pain or a past hurt will stop affecting their present-day behavior. He likes to set people free from things that torment them, so their joy can be full. But most of the time, in-depth inner healing should be done by private appointment, not in an alter ministry situation.

The person requiring inner healing will usually need a large amount of time and attention and love. They will have to open up and expose things about their past or their lives that are sensitive and embarassing to them. So it is better to minister inner healing in a private setting, not at the altar where many different people are close by, receiving ministry at the same time. Also, in general it is better if the person who ministers inner healing has been trained in this area. There are a lot of different aspects to inner healing and most of us require training in that area before we can minister effectively.

However, there are a still some inner healing types of ministry that you can do in a ministry team setting. For instance, if the person has committed sins or offenses, you can help them to confess and repent -- and once they have repented, you should pronounce God's forgiveness over them. That is very powerful to someone who is plagued with guilt or false guilt. Also, after you pronounce forgiveness, break off the power of condemnation in regard to that particular sin.

Also, you can do some effective forgiveness work in a public ministry team setting. If the person struggles with feelings of anger, hatred, resentment or bitterness in regard to a specific person, you can help them begin to release forgiveness towards that person.

But most inner healing ministry is best done by private appointment and by people trained to minister in that manner. If your church offers that type of ministry, you should explain to them how to make an appointment to receive some. If your church does not offer it, you might want to offer to meet with them privately to minister some more, or encourage them to make an appointment with the pastor for continued ministry and care on that issue.

Other Ministry Prayer

At times there will be specific ministry calls and you will be expected to pray for people along the lines of that call. For instance, the preacher may ask people who are struggling with rejection to come forward for ministry because there is a special anointing present to break rejection. In that case, you would pray things like, "Lord, thank You for making him/her secure in your love for him/her. Thank you that he/she is accepted in the beloved. Bind the truth of this to them and right now through the power and authority of Jesus Christ, we break off the lies and deception of rejection over this person and we bless them with a full understanding of the reality of who they are in Christ...accepted in the beloved, holy and pure before God."

Or you might pray along the lines of much God loves them, etc.

Finally there are times when you will pray general prayers as appropriate. The person may have come up for ministry because there is some big issue in their life totally unrelated to what is going on in the service. Maybe their employer is about to lay off 500 people and they are concerned for their future, etc. If the person comes up for ministry for a specific concern, it is okay to agree with them (straight petition intercession) on the area they are concerned about. The one exception is if the call for ministry was very specific, such as a call for people with cancer to come for healing prayer. That is not the appropriate time to intercede for their needs about the job situation. Explain that this is a special purpose altar call and there will be a general purpose call where you can pray with them in more detail on their concern. Say a short (30 second prayer) addressing their concern and invite them to come back up for more in-depth prayer later in the service during the general ministry time.