Prayer Overview

Overview

The Gospel is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart and UNBOUND deliverance prayer is a response to this Good News. In UNBOUND prayer, you take up your authority in Jesus received through Baptism and apply it to your life practically; you experience God's love for you!

UNBOUND deliverance prayer consists of Five Keys expressed within the context of a prayer session: sometimes with a team of people, sometimes with a friend or family member, sometimes solo, but always through the operation of the Holy Spirit. In an UNBOUND prayer session, Jesus provides the grace, a prayer team provides prayer support, and the prayer recipient (you) provide an act of the will in order to break spiritual bondage and gain deeper freedom in your life.

A prayer session is truly a Holy of Holies in which the Holy Spirit breaks you out of your smaller story into the larger story of the animating, tender, and merciful love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling within you! Your response to the Gospel opens a whole new world of possibilities for the working of the Holy Spirit during the session!

A prayer session is an opportunity to pray through the Five Keys of UNBOUND with a trained prayer team. The prayer process consists of the following elements discussed next:

  • Intake
  • Preparation
  • The Prayer Session
  • Follow-up

Intake

In order to receive prayer, you must be able to share your story coherently, be sober, and be a member of a faith community. Deliverance prayer fits within the larger context of a life of prayer, Christian fellowship, and worship; the latter are essential for freedom to grow and mature after a prayer session completes. Without a supporting Christian community and regular prayer and worship, freedom gained through an UNBOUND deliverance session may be more challenging to stand in.

If you have questions, we can help you understand if Unbound is right for you. Just send email to info@housesofmercy.net or sign-up for prayer.

Preparation

Before participating in an UNBOUND prayer session, please fulfill ONE of the FOUR following prerequisites:

Ask the Lord for revelation as you learn about the Five Keys of UNBOUND, the authority you have in Christ, what freedom is, and about staying free. Keep track of what stirs in your heart; you may find journaling helpful as you prepare for the session.

The Prayer Session

The prayer session consists of a leader who leads you through the Five Keys of UNBOUND and one or more intercessors that pray silently in the background. As a prayer recipient, you describe what brought you to the session, what's stirring in your heart. The team walks with you and supports you in prayer.

During the session, the Lord reveals your enemies and their strongholds in your life, including patterns of darkness that you live and may not even recognize or understand. This frequently happens in layers and to different degrees for each person. The Lord also reveals his love for you.

Seating Arrangement

The figure to the left demonstrates the seating arrangement of a prayer session. Intercessors pray quietly in the background as the prayer leader and prayer recipient interact face-to-face. At least one intercessor will be present and may be visible to the prayer recipient.

Male and Female Prayer Recipients

If the prayer recipient is female, the team will include at least one female member and vice versa for males.

Duration of a Session

A session typically lasts 1 1/2 hours but varies as necessary. Please ensure that any transportation waiting for you knows the timescale and uncertainty, and has a plan to wait comfortably until the session is complete.

Follow-up

Once Jesus reveals your enemies in the prayer session and their plan for you life, your daily battle changes. Once you know the Father's love for you and His plans and purposes for your life, everything changes. You are an empowered son or daughter of a Good Good Father!

Deliverance is a process in which the Lord draws us into deeper freedom. Layers of our heart are peeled back. Healing takes place. New revelation reveals new wounds and lies that need to be dealt with. Ultimately, deliverance is the process of encountering the person of Jesus Christ intimately, and freedom is one of its fruits.

After an UNBOUND session, it is important to recognize that freedom is yours in Christ and you have to work with grace to stand in it. Deliverance prayer is not a one-and-done event. It is a life-long process that does not end until we are purified and standing before the face of God in the beatific vision (cf. Mt 5:8). Until then, it is an ordinary part of Christian living.

It can take time for our minds to strengthen in the ways of the Lord after lies are revealed and strongholds are broken during a session; this is staying free. The deliverance process transforms our mind and it can take time to strengthen our ability to live in the truth revealed.

Staying Free and Going Deeper

The following are a few helpful recommendations for staying free and going deeper. The process varies in the specifics for each person but is ultimately rooted in an ever deepening relationship with Jesus, a maturing life lived generously for the Gospel.

  • Journaling: Journal what the Lord did for you in the prayer session, your identity and destiny in Christ, your enemies and their tactics. Reread the journal to live in the truth of who you are and who you are called to be, especially if darkness and temptations arise. You can continue to wring grace from the session by revisiting the journal and calling to mind the truth and Jesus' love and delight for you.
  • Reading: Reread chapter 8 in UNBOUND: A Practical Guide to Deliverance, "Staying Free and Going Deeper". There is always more freedom to be had.
  • Five Keys: Now that you know the Five Keys, you can pray them on your own.
  • Discernment: Learn to discern and follow the Lord's voice and promptings. A prayer session helps reveal the enemy's voice, tactics, and lies. It also reveals the Father's delight in you and His tender love for you. In Jesus, we must stand against the former and relish in the latter.
  • Enemy tactics: Recognize the tactics of the enemy in your life and refuse to live with a focus on them. Rebuke them immediately and move on; the enemy wants to drag us down and lead us into discouragement.
  • Prayer and worship: Continue a life of regular prayer and worship. UNBOUND deliverance prayer is one aspect of the Christian journey that helps us grow deeper in the others and vice versa. For Catholics, worship includes celebrating the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confession.
  • Christian fellowship: It is essential to have a good Christian community and friendships to heal and mature in freedom.
  • Life Choices: How free do we want to be? Our responses in life can lead to spiritual bondage; our response to trauma, choosing serious sin, and practicing the occult can impair our relationship with Jesus. How free do we want to be?
  • Another Session: If the Lord provides new revelation about spiritual bondage and freedom in your life, schedule a new prayer session to go deeper.

Further Review

A group of people are slowly reading through and discussing UNBOUND: A Practical Guide to Deliverance on a teleconference call 8-9:30am Monday mornings. Please use the following number and pin to join the call:

  • 515.604.9300
  • Pin code: 690115#

More information about this event can be found here.