Praying before an Anaesthetic

My husband Gary had surgery on his neck last Friday – removal of the C6 disc, an artificial disc inserted and the bony spur shaved off down to the bone marrow. In an operation that was meant to take about 50 minutes, it ended up being 2 ½ hours as the 1mm metal tip of a probe broke off during the surgery and they had to find it and remove it by suctioning it out. Apart from that complication, he had an extremely amazing recovery. He has not had any pain or discomfit at all, even over the wound site or the site where the bone was shaved quite dramatically. He was given some Panadol in hospital by the nurses, basically because they had to after surgery. He also had no complications after surgery. The following morning when the nurse took down his wound dressing, I was totally amazed at the lack of swelling, inflammation, bruising and bleeding over the suture line. The suture line looked beautiful and honestly looked further healed than less than 24 hours post surgery. He came home that day as there was no pain and that is the major indicator for discharge in this surgery. The night of the surgery, the surgeon came to visit Gary to tell him about the surgery and the complication with the metal probe. The surgeon was amazed at the total lack of pain and also that the discomfit and tingling in his arm and hand had already gone, something that can take up to a week to resolve.

In preparation for hubby’s surgery, I googled “Arthur Burk prayer surgery”. I found a YouTube clip titled “Your spirit and surgery” (Approx 21 minutes) In this YouTube clip, Arthur Burk describes some tools you can use to prepare your spirit for the operating room so that the procedure and the recovery are positively impacted by the dominion God designed for your spirit.

I believe that these prayers and the way we prayed were a major help in the lack of pain and inflammation after the surgery. I must confess that we were running out of time, so I had scribbled the prayer on a slip of paper and, as I drove to the hospital with hubby in the car, I prayed the prayer then. Not the best environment, but wow – the result was amazing!!

Your spirit is designed to have an extraordinary impact on your physical body at all times, including when you are having surgery. Arthur Burk encourages you to speak over someone the following things into their spirit, preferably daily over the 3 days prior to surgery.

  1. Principle – we have complete spiritual authority wherever we go. Thus, declare that the Kingdom of God is portable with your spirit if your spirit is in alignment with God. No matter wherever you go, whether conscious or unconscious, what is happening, the Kingdom of God laws apply wherever you go. Therefore, call to attention the head demonic spirit over that particular hospital and say, “I want to alert you that I, a child of the most High God, who is in blood covenant relationship with Jesus Christ is coming to that hospital and when I come, you get the afternoon off. Everywhere I go is Kingdom turf, no intrusion. Kingdom laws reign supreme and all the defilement in the people, the building, the land is suspended during the time I am there.”
  2. Principle – The spirit is not subject to anaesthesia. The soul is dependent on the body and is neutralised under anaesthesia but the spirit is completely immune from all impact of anaesthesia. It is completely conscious. It has complete dominion and authority. However most of the time your spirit doesn’t exercise that authority because no-one has given it permission or released it to do that. Therefore, call your spirit to attention and instruct it – “In the name of Jesus Christ, I call the spirit of … (or my spirit) to attention and instruct it that it has the right and the ability to monitor everything that occurs during surgery to my body. Spirit you have the right to talk to any person in the room. Spirit of… you have permission to shout loudly enough to get the attention of everyone in the room. I authorise you and legitimise you and empower you, spirit of… to take charge of the process, to take charge of everyone in the room and to take charge of everything in the room and to shout as loud as you need to shout to get people’s attention.
  3. Principle – Psalm 139:16 says that “Every day ordained for me was written in your book before it came to be”. The 2 biggest problems after surgery are pain and swelling from the blood vessels being cut and therefore they can’t carry away the waste products. Somewhere in your spirit is all the skill set needed to repair the capillaries and nerves after surgery. It is totally appropriate for the human spirit to ask the Holy Spirit for this. Therefore say, “I instruct my spirit that as soon as the surgery is over, the spirit needs to vigorously accelerate the repair of the capillaries at the point of incision and the spirit needs to micromanage the process of scavenging the body for amino acids and other resources needed to accelerate the healing process and see to it that the capillaries are rebuilt extremely quickly so that the waste products can be taken out by the organs that need to process them so that there is minimal swelling. At the same time, I instruct my spirit to work with the nerves to calm the nerves that have all been severed and to begin the process of regrowing the nerves.”

I have also listed some other things that I included in the prayer pre and post surgery. I am sure there are other things to also pray about, and would love you to comment below if you know of any other specific prayer that is effective. Thanks.


  1. Pray the above, calling your spirit to attention and legitimising and authorising your spirit to do the above.
  2. Pray for cleansing of all hospital rooms and beds you will be in, the operating room, recovery room etc and all the equipment and proper functioning and against any malfunctioning.
  3. Ask God to hand select the staff and to cleanse then and give them wisdom and direct their mind, hands, etc
  4. Pray for the Holy Spirit to protect the unconscious and subconscious mind from any negative input or attack by the enemy. Cover the mind with the blood of Jesus and seal off from any spirits of death or stress etc. Pray confusion into the enemy’s plans and that nothing would be hidden and no negligence or harm come upon you.
  5. Pray for perfect blood viscosity and that there will be no pooling in any body part.
  6. Specific prayer against common complications of that particular surgery

Post surgery:

  1. Re-emphasize the spirit repairing and rebuilding the capillaries and nerves.
  2. Anoint with oil and in the authority of Jesus Christ, break off any spirit of death, infirmity, sickness, weakness, disease, shock and trauma, etc and any unwelcome side effects from the anaesthesia and any harmful side effects of all drugs.
  3. Pray for infilling of the Holy Spirit, and spirit of peace, healing, strength, etc

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:



1. Children / Families Activation: Spend a few moments imagining the family at a swimming pool. Draw a picture and include where each family member would be in the picture and why God showed you that.

2. Group Activation: For this activation, you will need enough blindfolds for half the group members. Pair up and make 2 circles out of the pairs, one going in the inner circle, one in the outer circle but partners opposite each other. Blindfold everyone in the inner circle. Then have everyone in the outer circle move 4 people to the right. Those in the inner circle will prophesy over the person opposite them in the outer circle, except they will not know who it is they are prophesying over. Give everyone 2 minutes to hear from God and then prophesy for 1 minute. Let people feedback for 1 minute. Swap the blindfolds to the people in the outer circle. Have those in the inner circle move 5 people to the left. Repeat the process.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show you someone who lives near to you, a neighbour. Spend some time listening to God for an encouraging word for them. Write it out anonymously without using any christianese (christian or church language). Put it in their letterbox anonymously, praying a blessing over them and their house.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a person whom you see most days but don’t really notice or speak to or have a relationship with. Ask God to prepare you with an encouraging word for them before you next see them and then speak it to them when you do.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you someone having a rough time at the moment. Ask God how He would like you to encourage them and prophesy over them at the moment. Then follow-through on that.