Are Other People's Prayers Dangerous?

The Question That Won't Go Away

Since Big God, Little Devil hit shelves, I've been fielding emails from around the world. Pastors wrestling with new perspectives. Parents questioning old assumptions. Therapists seeing clients caught between fear and faith.

But one question keeps surfacing, usually whispered with a mix of vulnerability and caution: "Can broken people praying over me actually cause harm?"

The woman who asked me this had a story. She'd grown weary of receiving prayer because she could sense something was off—the minister's ego, their unhealed wounds, their need to perform. It felt like their baggage was bleeding through into the prayer itself. So she'd made a decision: no more prayer ministry unless the Holy Spirit specifically prompted her to receive it.