Who is laying hands over you.

Not every hand that is placed on your head in prayer is carrying a blessing some hands carry a curse, or manipulation, some carry spiritual contamination, and some carry agendas that have absolutely nothing to do with the will of God for your life. Yet you stand there with your eyes closed  hands rise and you said Amen, and you received it all without questioning who was pouring into your spirit.

 1 John 4:1 (NIV)

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

 Too few Christians apply this verse to prayer especially when someone is praying directly over them and that blind spot has caused more spiritual damage than most believers are willing to admit. Prayer is not just words spoken into the air it is a spiritual transfer and who is transferring matters. This is not about judging someone's past it is about discerning someone's present.

Every believer sins, every one of us falls short and the grace of God. But God covers our failures when we come to him with genuine repentance. There is a huge difference between a person who struggles with sin and fights against it and a person who has made peace with their sin and has no intention of changing and yet they stands in a position of spiritual authority to pray over others. How can someone who refuses to submit their own life to God effectively intercede for yours.

Isaiah 59:2 (NKJV)

 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

There prayers are hindered by their unrepentant lifestyle what exactly are they transferring when they pray over you.

James 3:10-11(NKJV)

¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?

Before you allow someone to pray over your marriage, over your children, over your finances, over your health, ask yourself honestly does this person have my best interest in mind. Does this person have a controlling spirit, does this person pray for God will over you, or just pray just to impose their own will over you.

This is the most spiritually dangerous type of person because it disguises itself perfectly inside the language of prayer. If someone's prays over you and it leaves you feeling trapped obligated guilty or spiritually bound to their agenda that was not from God that was a yoke from a person who has confused their authority with God's authority, you have every right and every biblical responsibility to reject that prayer that seeks to control your life rather than surrender it to God.

In some churches and in some cultures there are people who have earned titles of positions and platforms not because of they walk with God but because of their social status their financial contribution or simply because they have been around for a long time and because of that position they are invited to pray over people. But position without relationship is empty authority. The Sons of Sceva in Acts 19 they attempted to cast out an evil spirit using Paul's name and Jesus as a magical formula but were overpowered and beaten by the possessed man.

Acts 19:13-16 (NKJV)

 ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 

These men had no personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the evil spirit responded with one of the most chilling lines in all of scripture Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you and then it overpowered all seven of them, the story is not just about exorcism it is about the danger of operating in spiritual authority that does not belong to you.

When someone who does not genuinely walk with God prays over you their words have no backing they are writing spiritual checks from an account that is empty. In some cases the spiritual realm recognizes the vacancy and responds accordingly.

 Matthew 7:22-23(NKJV)

²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

 Never let someone motivated by pride pray over you some people pray over you not to bless you but to be seen, because it looks exactly like genuine spiritual authority from the outside, the words are right the tone, it sets the right motivation but it’s entirely wrong and God who sees the heart knows the difference even when you cannot.

 I’ve been in church services where someone was called forward for prayer and the person praying over them seemed more interested with the audience that was watching him then the person standing before him. The prayer was loud, the language was impressive, the performance was polished. I once watched a man pray over someone at an altar call and midway through the prayer he paused to look around the room to see how many people were watching in that single moment his priority became visible. He was not there for that person; he was there for the reputation.

Matthew 6:5 (NKJV)

 ⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

A prayer motivated by pride has already spent this entire reward on the approval of man there is nothing left to deposit into your spirit. If someone’s prays over you and it feels more like a performance. Stepped back, you are not obligated to receive a prayer that was never truly meant for you in the first place.

Every person who offers to pray for you must be filled with the Holy spirit and with a genuine loving spirit and be with the authority of God. When a righteous person prays over you with pure motives and a clean heart that prayer carries power that can change your life, your family, and your future.

James 5:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective that word righteous is not there by accident it is a qualifier it tells us that the spiritual condition of the person praying directly affects the power of the prayer.

So, don’t stop receiving prayer, but if someone ask you can I pray for you or tells you that they have a word from God for you, make sure it's done under the authority of your pastor, He will be able to discern if it's truly the Holy Spirit or Not. So, before you bow your head and close your eyes open your spiritual eyes ask God to use this man, this women and to show you if he or she is carrying God’s authority and is he or she praying for the will of God over your life.

God Bless, Israel