FREEDOM PRAYER at WEST HOUSTON focuses on healing inner hurts, breaking strongholds, and finding a deeper connection with God, using a biblical, Spirit-led approach. Freedom Prayer offers individuals a personal, focused time of prayer with trained team members, creating space for the Holy Spirit to reveal and heal anything hindering a closer relationship with God.
Freedom Prayer Ministry Overview
Freedom Prayer is a personal prayer ministry dedicated to assisting individuals on their journey toward a deeper, more abiding relationship with God. This ministry is focused on equipping individuals to prayerfully examine, with God, the fundamental emotional and spiritual needs that hinder their Christian walk.
Mission and Purpose
The mission of Freedom Prayer is to help individuals find freedom from barriers that may keep them from experiencing joy and peace in Christ. These barriers can include:
- Wounding: Emotional injuries from past experiences that affect current spiritual health.
- Sin: Actions or thoughts that separate individuals from God’s presence.
- Ungodly Beliefs: Misconceptions or falsehoods about God or oneself that impede spiritual growth.
- Entanglements: Spiritual and emotional ties that create strongholds, causing ongoing struggles in relationships with God and others.
How it works
Freedom Prayer is focused on providing solid biblical reconciliation and restoration. The ministry aims to promote a healthy prayer life, leading individuals into a whole and abiding relationship with God. Our Freedom Prayer Ministry offers confidential, appointment-based sessions where trained volunteer teams (usually 2-3 people) guide individuals through biblical principles to find healing from past hurts, lies, or spiritual hindrances, focusing on forgiveness, repentance, and replacing negative beliefs with God's truth, all led by the Holy Spirit in a gentle, non-judgmental way. It's a process to resolve obstacles to a closer relationship with God, involving sharing, prayer, and scripture.
Are there qualifications for scheduling a prayer session?
There are no specific qualifications necessary; but for a person to gain freedom, he or she must be honest and desire to be free, and willing to submit to God’s word. It is ideal if the person is a Christian, ready to deal with sin and repent, and if applicable, willing to be transparent and honest about the places that are hidden that he/she would not want anyone to know about. The person must be willing to forgive others and let go of judgment. He/she must want freedom and not just relief.
Being under clear church authority and accountable to members of the church is also helpful. Finally, one should expect God to lead the prayer time and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, without false expectations or prejudicial notions of what should occur.
Being under clear church authority and accountable to members of the church is also helpful. Finally, one should expect God to lead the prayer time and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, without false expectations or prejudicial notions of what should occur.
Is my prayer session confidential?
Everything that is said and done is held in the strictest of confidentiality. However, the information, as needed, may be shared with other leaders in the prayer team so as to help you continue in the freedom you have gained. With your permission, this may include future meetings with mentors in the church to set appropriate boundaries for your personal and spiritual growth. Furthermore, if there appears to be personal danger to you or to someone else that is discussed during the prayer time, the prayer team may be obliged to share information for your safety or the safety of others.
What type of follow-up occurs after my prayer session?
It is our goal that everyone who receives prayer is in a discipleship relationship and walking in close community with the body of Christ. At West Houston, this ideally means that you are in a Life Group and in a close relationship with people who will continue to walk with you in growing freedom and accountability. While prayer sessions can be powerful times of personal ministry, newfound freedom will be difficult to maintain and grow if you are not walking in close Christian community. If you are not in close community with other Christian believers, our goal will be to help you establish these relationships.
May I sign up for a prayer session if I'm not a member at West Houston?
Freedom Prayer is open to anyone, though we hope that everyone who comes will be a member of a true Christian community for their own spiritual health and growth.
May I sign up a friend or family member for a prayer session?
If you know someone you believe needs prayer, please direct them to this website so they can explore what the process entails and sign up for a prayer time on their own. It is essential that the person coming for prayer understands what they are signing up for and decides that this is something they want to participate in.
What if I am under the care of a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor?
We recommend that you consult with the person(s) whom you are under the care of and get their permission before scheduling a prayer time. While a prayer time will likely enhance your progress towards freedom, we respect and partner with practitioners and would advise that they are aware of the areas covered in the prayer time. While we are a prayer ministry, we are not trained or authorized in licensed counseling or medical practice. We recommend that you continue in whatever treatment you are currently receiving and consult your doctor about your therapy and/or medications.
Who is leading a prayer session?
Prayer times are led by trained team members who have completed an in-depth training program over several months, followed by an apprentice period. Because of the variety and depth of hurts that are encountered, members are trained in confidentiality, and in which circumstances professional or legal authorities should be consulted. Team members are trained regarding when to speak and when to wait; remember, the purpose is to give the Holy Spirit room to do what Jesus promised (John 14:13, 16:18). Team members have also sat in your seat — each having sought their own freedom in prayer times led by a team.
Biblical Framework for Freedom Prayer Ministry
Freedom
For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
Waiting on the Lord
Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him. . . (Psalm 37:7)
Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10, NIV)
The Bible is replete with Scriptures exhorting us to wait on the Lord and meditate on his Word.
Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10, NIV)
The Bible is replete with Scriptures exhorting us to wait on the Lord and meditate on his Word.
Praying Together
Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them (Matthew 18:19-20)
Asking for Greater Knowledge and Understanding
For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19)
I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19)
Confessing & Turning Away from Sin
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect (James 5:16)
Releasing Unforgiveness & Judgement Against Others
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:37-38)
Asking God to Show Us Strongholds & Lies We Believe So We Can Walk in the Light of Truth
For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7)
If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7)
Better Understanding of Our Access to God the Father
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus— he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)— and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22)
When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir (Galatians 4:4-7)
When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir (Galatians 4:4-7)
Looking to the Lord for Healing of Our Hurts & Wounds
The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18)
He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds (Psalm 147:3)
He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds (Psalm 147:3)
To find out more about Freedom Prayer — or to see if there is a church or organization offering Freedom Prayer in your area, visit freedomprayer.org.