And He
spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (Luke
18vs1)
Throughout
the Bible we are directly or indirectly urged and encouraged to pray. There is
so much emphasis on prayer in the Word of God and if someone emphasises
something too much it simply means that it is of great importance to us. In our
opening scripture, we hear Scripture saying that we ought always to pray and
not to faint. The reason why the Word said that is because
people have a
tendency of fainting in prayer. In other words their prayer patterns are not
consistent. This is especially true with Christians of today. They do not pray
consistently, and as a result their lives are either stagnant or backsliding.
That’s the reason why the Word says we should pray always, so that our lives
can move in a better direction.
In
this article I will dwell much on the subject of prayer as it is the series I
am teaching on. Prayer carries power. In our previous message we saw how prayer
produced power for people like David, Elijah, Jesus and Peter among others. We
see how powerful prayer is. If we read from James 5 vs 16, the Bible there says
” Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much“
I
want you to see the last part that says the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much. I like the Amplified Translation. It says,”The
earnest
(heartfelt,
continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic
in its working]. “
Prayer
makes power available, the kind of power that is not static but is dynamic, the
power that brings results. The definition of power is that power is the ability
to get results. I want you to understand also the real definition of
prosperity. Prosperity is the ability to control your circumstances.
With
these definitions in mind let us move on with our subject. There is a kind of
prayer that brings results, and that is the earnest, effectual, fervent,
heartfelt and continued prayer. There we see the nature of the prayer, that it
is earnest, effectual and fervent. We see that the person who is praying has
poured his or her heart into the prayer, thus it is heartfelt and then we see
also the main characteristic; it is continued.
There
is power that is made available if Christians begin to pray earnestly and not
out of their mind or vocabulary and vernacular. Hannah prayed such a prayer and
God gave her a child. Elijah prayed such a prayer and no rain fell upon the
face of the earth for three years and six months.
We
need to move from a dimension of having prayer as an event. Folks, prayer is
not an event; neither does it have a formula. I have seen many people who get
into certain funny positions when they want to pray. They really show that
aspect that they now want to play on an unfamiliar ground. Prayer must not be
an event; neither must it have a formula. There are no scripturally stipulated
body positions for prayer, because it is not an event. Prayer is a lifestyle
that you and I need to imbibe. We should (as we develop ourselves in prayer)
move from a dimension of seeing prayer as an event, then make it a discipline,
and then allow it to form a habit in you and then it becomes a delight.
Making
prayer a discipline is when you set aside time to pray and fellowship with God;
then discipline your flesh to adhere to that timetable. Every day you see to it
that nothing deters you from praying. You will become so disciplined to
prioritise prayer over other things that you can do. After prayer is a
discipline, you then need to make prayer a habit; such that wherever you are
and whenever you are there, you can open your mouth and pray. I have seen
people who have certain habits that they cannot stop. Some are into singing.
They are so into it that even when everyone is supposed to be silent, they
unconsciously find themselves singing. Some are in sinful habits such as
alcohol, smoking, drugs and sex.
There
are people who cannot spend an hour without putting a cigarette on their lips.
There are some who just cannot spend a month without having sex. I always hear
people talking to each other bringing out those truths. That leaves me
wondering why we as Christians are failing to make prayer a habit. Prayer can
become a habit that you cannot spend an hour without saying “thank you Jesus.“
The
habit of prayer is a constructive habit which has no disadvantages to anyone.
Then from a habit, prayer will become a delight. This is the level where your
flesh does not need to be told that it is time to pray, no, it just knows that
any time is prayer time and in whatever body position. This occurs when we
choose to make prayer a delight. A delight is something you can take pleasure
in doing. There are people who delight in just eating food. Prayer can be a so
greater a delight than just eating chocolate. Your delight in prayer is
determined by the strength of your personal relationship with God. A weak
relationship amounts to a smaller delight in prayer and a strong relationship
guarantees a great delight in prayer. Take pleasure in praying and you will
find yourself speaking to God anywhere and at any time because prayer will be a
delight to you.
I
have seen many Christians who do not like to pray. The main reason sometimes is
the foundation of their prayer life. You cannot expect someone who just comes
to Church just because their relative is the Pastor or just because they want
someone to mourn them when they die to delight in prayer because the
foundations of the prayer life are weak. The Bible says Delight in the Lord and
He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm). The more you delight in God
the more He gives you the desires of your heart. There is a general
misconception of that scripture in many circles around the body of Christ. God
cannot give you what you desire. He gives you what He desires you to have
because your desires often do not conform to His divine destiny He has for you.
What the Psalmist really means is that if you take pleasure in God; He will
give you desires, in other words God will give you something to desire. When
you delight yourself in God, He gives you a desire that conforms to His will.
That is the reason why sometimes before you were born again you used to have a
passion maybe for medicine, but when you began to affiliate with God,
peradventure your desire has turned out to be the desire to become a full time
minister of the Word of God. A delight in prayer, a delight in God will cause
you to have your desires conform to His destiny He set for you before the
foundations of the world.
So
brethren, take time to pray. Jesus urged us to pray and not to faint. Paul was
of the same notion and thus he took the same stance and said, ”pray without
ceasing”(1 Thessalonians 5 vs17). To pray without ceasing does not necessarily
refer to praying 24hours a day and 7 days a week. To pray without ceasing means
to have a consistent prayer life, not the one in which you are on fire one week
and offline another week. We need to be consistent in prayer because the
continued prayer makes great power available. As stated earlier, power is the
ability to get results and prosperity is the ability to control your
circumstances. That explains that you cannot have a situation or outcome go
your way if you do not pray. Prayer has the ability to bring food where there
was no food, health where there was no health. It brings joy, happiness and all
good things.
If
people were to pray more we could see a greater revival than what we are seeing
right now. Jesus said we would do greater works than His, but the works cannot
be greater if people do not pray, because (like we read in the Amplified) the
prayer of a righteous man make power available, power which is dynamic in its
working, the power that brings results. Next time you face a problem, just
understand that the distance between your problem and your solution is the
distance between your knees and the ground. Stay Blessed and always remember,
that
Jesus
Is Lord!
PRAY!!!!
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