Key scripture- [Jesus said] “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9-10).

Do you want to take your prayer life to the next level? If that is what you want, then when you pray you should start your prayer with these powerful names of God and they will amplify your prayers.

If you start your prayers by praying the names of God it will help you understand who you are praying too and what He can do for you. You will also be starting your prayer with praising and worshiping the Lord.

If we remind ourselves of who God is when we pray then it is easy for us to submit to Him. That is why Jesus said to start our prayers with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” because He is our Heavenly Father, therefore, He is not limited to what we can do or what our earthly fathers can do, because nothing is impossible for God.

Below are some names of God that you can pray based on your circumstances.

Elohim – The Creator. The God who said, “Let there be light.” This shows the power and the strength of God. This is the God that spoke the world to existence. He didn’t have any raw material to work with when He created all of this. He created the world and the universe out of nothing, and He can do the same thing in your life, He can create something out of nothing. You need to know that he is Elohim because there will be situations in your life where no way no how can you get yourself out of the mess that you are in. When there is no raw material to work with, God is going to have to and He will create something out of nothing. This is the type of situation where the doctors have done all they can to fix your health problem or you have no more ideas or answers on how to fix your financial situation or your family.

That is when you need to know that Elohim does not need raw material to work with. He speaks and things come into existence. He does not need any materials in order to change things in your life. God does not need something in order to come up with a solution. He transcends raw materials. Elohim turns a mess, your mess, into a miracle. Get on your knees and come before God and pray, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, You are Elohim, You speak and things come into existence, I come before You in prayer today and I am at the end of my rope, I have no more answers, but You do, because You are Elohim.”

El Elyon – The Most High. When everything in your life is out of order, when it is total chaos, confusing, and unorganized, you need to know God’s got a name called El Elyon . Which means He is on top of all of this. It is like He is in a helicopter and He sees it all from beginning to end. So you can say to God, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, You are El Elyon and I’m in a mess down here, I do not know what to do, but I know that You have it all under control, You see the beginning and the end, so I’m just gonna let you take care of it. I’m gonna let you handle it.”

EL Shaddai – The Lord God Almighty. When you are completely dry and have no strength, your get up and go has got up and went. God is saying to you, “You have not exhausted all of your resources because I am El Shaddai, your strength.” Get on your knees and pray, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, You are El Shaddai, You are the strong One for me because I am weak, I am so weary right now that I am ready to throw in the towel, but I will lean on Your strength, El Shaddai.”

El Roi – The Lord that Sees. So if you think you can hide from God or that He doesn’t see what other people are doing to you, you are wrong. If you think nobody’s watching you need to know God is watching you. He is also watching what people are trying to do to you. He sees them plotting against you at the office or when people lie about you and slander you. So you don’t need to run around frantically trying to find out what people said about you or what they are trying to do to you, because God’s got it all under control, He is El Roi, He sees it all. Go before God and I cry out to Him and say, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, You are El Roi, it is so comforting to me that You see it all, You are always watching, and You will protect me.”

Yahweh Tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness. Have you ever withheld yourself from the place of prayer because you felt unworthy and ashamed. You may have failed, fallen or stumbled in someway, or you feel ashamed about an attitude that you have had or a choice that you have made, so you hold yourself back from the place of prayer as if somehow you can make yourself better and you can qualify yourself to talk to God. But the Bible teaches us that when we have faith in Jesus Christ we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Your qualification to come before a Holy God is not your own performance, but it is the fact that when God looks at you and me and He sees us through the Righteousness of Christ.

What an awesome motivation that is for us not to pull back, but instead to come boldly before the throne of God in prayer and cry out to him and say, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, Yahweh Tsidkenu, You are my Righteousness, Jesus is the reason that I can come before You in prayer today.”

Yahweh Mekoddishkem – The Lord our Sanctification. God is sanctifying and changing us. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God is sanctifying you, He is working on you, He is changing you. Can you feel God working on you?

You may not be what you could be, but you are not what you were. You can look back over your life and see how God has changed you and improved you and made you more like Jesus. Sometimes you may feel like you are going three steps forward and two steps back, but that is a step forward, so keep walking forward. God is at work in your life and He is the one who is sanctifying you and changing you. You cannot sanctify yourself anymore than you can save yourself. If you feel like you are struggling in your faith then all the more reason to get on your knees and pray to God. “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, Yahweh Mekoddishkem, You are my Sanctification. I can come before You in prayer today because You and only You can sanctify me.”

Yahweh Shammah – The Lord is There. The Lord is here right now with you. You get in a room by yourself, close the door, kneel down and say to the Lord, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, thank You that You are Yahweh Shammah, You are here with me right now.” What an awesome thing it is that The Lord is right here with you, and He is listening intently to your prayers, to hear what is on your heart.

Yahweh Shalom – The Lord is Peace. Some of you have been tossing and turning, going back and forth with all kind of bad scenarios in your mind. You can’t get a good nights sleep because you keep waking up and milling over your problems and saying to yourself, “How am I going to handle this? What am I gonna do? I don’t know what to do, this is going to destroy me. I don’t know if I can go forward. I am afraid to face tomorrow.”

If your heart is in turmoil, you need to get alone with God get on your knees and say, “Our Father in Heaven, You are the Lord my Peace. You are the one who calms the troubled waters in me. When I wake up in the night, instead of worrying, I need to cry out to You, Yahweh Shalom. I don’t need to get up every morning and think that I need to make it all work, because You are the One who makes it all work, You are my Peace. You bring calm when there is disturbance in my soul. You bring rest when I cannot sleep.”

Yahweh Rapha – The Lord is your Healer. We have a God who heals. He calls himself, “I am Healer”. God is your healer. If you are sick and you have not received good news from the doctor, you need to remember the doctor said a word, but he does not have the last word, God has the last word, the final word, about your illness. We do not know what the Lord’s will is in every situation regarding our illnesses so you need to pray about your health and for healing and restoration, because you do not want to leave this avenue of prayer unexplored. James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask”. (James 4:2b). So get on your knees and pray, “Our Father in Heaven, You are Yahweh Rapha, You are the Healer. I bring this illness before You now for healing and restoration. I know that no matter what the doctors say, it is not over till Jesus says it is over. Let it be done for Your glory.”

Yahweh Jireh – The Lord your Provider. We all have needs, you may be looking for a job, or you have financial problems. The answer to your job and financial situation may be delayed by God so that you can grow in the school of prayer, and so that you can see that the Lord is truly your Provider. Come before Him in prayer and say, “Our Father in Heaven, You are Yahweh Jireh, You are my provider. I bring my need for a job and my financial problems before You, and I know that I will see You provide for me. Let it be done for Your glory.”

Yahweh Nisi – The Lord our Banner. When the Israelites were in a battle fighting their enemy, somebody would stand on the hillside so that everyone could see the banner, which said, “The Lord will fight for You”, so that during the battle, as the soldiers were fighting, they could look over and see the banner and their strength would be renewed. The banner empowered them and gave them strength.

So when the Lord says to you, “I am your Banner”, think about the battles that you’re facing in your life, and instead of looking for help from the people around you, you need to look up and remember, God is your banner. While you are in the trenches, going toe to toe in the battle, you can turn and look up and be reminded that God Himself is your banner. You don’t have some sign over you, you have the Lord Himself, Who is a banner over you. Nothing is better than that.

Whatever your uncertainties are, whatever you are facing, whatever you are perplexed about with regard to the future, you need to remember, the Lord is your Banner, He is over you. All that you need, all that you long for, all that you seek to see in your life, God is the one Who is over your life and He is ensuring you that He will provide those things in your life for His glory. They can be a reality. He is your victory, you will not be destroyed. Come before Him in prayer and say, “Our Father in Heaven, You are Yahweh Nisi, You are my Banner. It is so comforting to know that You are over me, watching out for me, that You will supply what I need no matter where I am, and You are there protecting me, You are my victory. Let it be done for Your glory.”

Yahweh Rohi – The Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord does not just work for you, He cares for you. He doesn’t just carry your burdens, He carries you. He is, The Lord my Shepherd. When you’re lost and don’t know which way to go or which decision to make, remember He is your Shepherd, He will guide you and protect you. Come before Him in prayer and say, “Our Father in Heaven, You are Yahweh Rohi, You are my Shepherd. You care for me, You carry me, You anoint my head with oil and my cup over flows, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You make me lie down in green pastures.”

In addition to praying the Names of God, you should pray for God to give you your daily bread. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Below are four practical things that you can pray for as part of your daily bread.

1. Pray for an adequate income for every household. This is income to meet your needs not to satisfy your wants.

When you’re praying for God’s will, you know based on what Jesus told us in Matthew that God will meet everyone of your needs when you seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33). You do not need to worry about it, or be concerned about it, because you know, like you know, like you know, God will meet your needs. It might not be God’s will for you to have that exact job that you’re thinking about, but he will make sure you have a job. So you need to pray boldly about you having income to meet your needs because that is God’s will and it will be done.

2. Pray for physical health. You can pray confidently for physical health and physical healing. God will reveal to you if He has a different plan for you with regard to your health, but pray for healing with confidence.

3. Pray for emotional health. We need to be able to handle things that come into our lives, and we need to know that we are not going to lose it. We need to know that we are going to be ok emotionally, therefore, you should pray with confidence for God to calm the waters in your life, to give you the strength and power to take the negative destructive thoughts captive and replace them with the Word of God, and make you a stable person no matter what your circumstances are.

4. Pray for spiritual health. You can pray for this with confidence. You can pray for the salvation of loved ones. We can call out to God and ask Him to bring children back, to turn them back to Jesus. To change our spouse, by turning our spouse to Jesus. We can ask him to save our family and friends. You can call out to God for these things in confidence.

Let your prayers also be repentant. Acknowledge to God when you have sinned against Him. Let your prayer also be expectant. Have an expectation, that God does hear, that God does react, that God does listen, that God does answer.

Think about who you are and who God is, and that you can come before God’s throne because of Jesus Christ. That is truly an awesome thing. That is why the Psalmist says magnify the Lord with me. “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.” (Psalm 34:1-2).

So when life pushes back, you know what to do, pray the Names of God. “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” (Nahum 1:7).

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, You are always there for Your Children no matter what is going on in our lives. You are a mother for the motherless; a father for the fatherless; a bridge over troubled water; You are so high we can’t go above You, so low we can’t go under You, and so big we cannot go around You; You are a doctor in the hospital; a lawyer in the court room; You are my Heavenly Father; You are my friend; You are whatever I need whenever I need it. Your promises always come through 100% of the time. You are in a category all Your own. You are set apart and unique. You are God. You are “I Am who I Am”. (Exodus 3:14). I will continuously put You before me. “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8). I know that You hear, You listen, You react, and You answer my prayers. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen