16/07/2020
PRAYER
Prayer has been misunderstood by a whole lot of people in the world including most believers. Most people thinks that is in the volume of words they speak, - or the sounds it make when you speak them.
Most people thinks that prayer is a chant like most pagans will do kneeling in front of their idol with their chanting beads.
Several others thinks that prayer is an exclamation while some thinks that prayer is divination like an incantation and enchantment and invocations.
What is prayer? Psalm 65:2
(You need to understand this to be able to aid your mind next time you do that which you call prayer). (_) Prayer is being offered, intentionally, it is an act (-65:2) so you offer intentionally because you know that someone is hearing, you are not doing a ritual for the sake of doing it, you are actually communicating to whom you know is capable of responding
Not as if you are giving a computer a command using a keyboard or a mouse expecting it to behave in a certain way because it is programed to work like that _ that is how most of us pray.
Most of us will say “I’ve prayed and prayed, I’ve even fasted, what else will I do?” what you are just doing is looking for a new key to the code but God is not a written code, He is not a gadget, He is a person, He hears prayer, He doesn’t accept a prayer as system command (-65:2).
The next part of that scripture explains the meaning of prayer, it said “unto you shall all flesh come”. How do you go to God, haven’t you heard that no man sees me and live? John 4:24 says that God is a Spirit, how then do you go to Him? Are you expected to die first before fulfilling’s psalms 65:2? But it said “unto you shall all, all flesh not all spirit come… God is not an author of confusion, He must have made a way.
Of all you can say that prayer means to you and you will still be right, only on one thing are all of them summarized and that should be born in mind while praying or else you may find yourself shadowboxing, chanting, dispensing a lot of energy and even grumbling lamenting and complaining for nothing.
Prayer is a communion and a fellowship John 4:24. What does it mean to worship God in spirit? I thought the psalmist said “…unto you shall all flesh come” how does flesh come and then worship in spirit?
You need to know the composition of man
God made man out of dust of the ground, He made his body and programmed his soul but was lifeless until He breathed into his nostrils His Spirit but before then, the programming of the soul was in a way that man has a will and is capable of choice and after He has breathed in His Spirit into man, He became the source of the man parenting him as his sufficient source, but man used his own will to choose to sin and disobey God thereby corrupting his will and soul by that sin and Jesus told Nicodemus “except a man is born again, he can’t enter into the kingdom of God, except a man is born of the water and of the Spirit because he which is born of flesh is flesh but he that is born of the Spirit is a spirit” what does that mean?
You as a man is neither your will nor your spirit, both of them were given to you by God for your choice making, you as a man is your soul (and man became a living soul).
So God was like “ I, God, a Spirit gave birth to you at the beginning by putting my Spirit in you but because I also gave you a will, because I made you a free moral agent, you decided to disown me by disobeying my commandment and disregarding your conscience which is the voice of my spirit in you and you as a soul made flesh (which was the original thing you wanted to satisfy, your will) your parent, I desire to redeem your soul and give you a rebirth” so Jesus said, you must be a born again, this is what it means, it means returning to the parenting of God through the voice of His Spirit in you which is your conscience but you now do it by believing in His Son that died to pay the price for that very first leaving you left Him so that your righteousness will not stand on self and only on the basis of your conscience, if not, you will fail Him again, you are still vulnerable but instead you become justified by Him and become the righteousness of God in Him Jesus. And after that, how now does your faculties work? That His Spirit that was breathed into you becomes renewed, your soul is purged and you are expected to direct both your soul and your mind which consists your will to the Spirit and though you are still here on earth, people sees you but can't identify the dynamics of the happenings in your life just like you can feel the wind, you can't argue that it exists but you can't see it, touch it, know where it is coming from or where it is going to because it is now the Spirit which is parenting you that manifests its potentials and its operations is like that of the wind.
It's all about allowing the faculty of your soul and mind and every other department in them to be parented by the Spirit of God in you and the Spirit now opens up access for you to the Father for a fellowship and a communion Eph 2:18. You only commune, fellowship or worship the father in Spirit and in truth. In spirit, because His Spirit has given birth to you through your submission to Him to be led to the Father, the Chief Spirit which is the father of spirits that fathers all Heb 12:9. In truth, because prayer as an act of communion, fellowship and worship must be sincere and born out of the heart with the full company and subjection of the mind (Ps 65:2), now you're still flesh because you are still on earth but you can have a full access.
But the problem is that so many Christians have this access but don't know how to effectively use it, it is not everyone that has the key knows where the keyhole is, even those that knows, it is not all that knows that you need to turn it twice before you gain full access. So many will complain, grumble and murmur but that's not prayer, some will lament and wail and show emotions but it's not prayer, and along the line they get tired, exhausted and discouraged, remember God is not a Genie or a magic box or a shrine
you don't need to come blindly without having an understanding of whom you have come to meet or what you're coming to do with Him, He's not a computer system that is designed to work in a specific way according to its coding, He's not a shrine that you may need to chant many things to, He's a parent but not even your earthly parent that you can complain and murmur to, Jesus called Him a heavenly Father, mark that word "Father" and He said if your earthly father can give you something when you ask not even to your earthly father do you complain and murmur but you can ask, He said how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to only those who ask.
And in another place, He used the same word for God, He said that our Heavenly Father already knows what things we need even before we ask (Matt 6:5) why then does He wait till we ask? It means that to Him, prayer is not really all about giving and receiving of things from Him. Psalm 65:2 said all flesh shall come to him, He longs for a relationship and a fellowship.
Now, check yourself, if God should reward you with satisfaction for that hunger in you, will you still stay with him or will you be happy and run out to show off with it only for him to see you when you want to transit to another level, I told you that he's not a Genie, that sounds to me like an ATM machine.... That's not the kind of relationship he wants, he wants you (all flesh) to come to him and you coming only to be very quick and rush back.
Prayer is not only a means of receiving things from God, prayer is also a means for sacrificing, sacrificing your time, your love, your intimacy. How many times since you became born again have you taken out time to thank and appreciate him, pour out your love on God at least for the little (you may call it) that he has done for you?
One of my prophet friend said that one day how he bought something and brought it to the church secretly so that no one will notice him but God noticed him and asked him “son, what do you want me to do for you?” and he said “nothing” even God was surprised and the man of God was like “I just want to honour You, just want to pour my love on You” and he left. Think also about Esther and the king too, the king asked Esther several times to make a wish and Esther said “Nothing” yet she was just there penetrating and accessing every bit of the king’s heart. Now that's a relationship and it has a heart to heart effect and that's the height of what prayer can be CS Lewis said “prayer in the sense of petition and asking for things is just a small part of it, confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration is its sanctuary and the presence and vision and enjoyment of God are its bread and wine”.
I told you that he's not a computer system that is programmed to respond whenever he hears in Jesus name, he has feelings, you can make him feel loved and it will move him to be the one to ask you what he had seemed not to be hearing since a year when you were the one doing the asking. Change your perception towards prayer. Among all that prayer seems to represent, relationship, communion, fellowship with God and worship to him is the most valued.
Let's look at some other things about prayer.
* Prayer is not just for receiving things from God because God knows what we need and he can give them out to us without asking but he will still allow us to come which means prayer is not all about asking but fellowshipping Matt 6:8
* Prayer is a part of priestly ministry of the saints Rev 5:10 _ there's a priestly ministry of the church whose function is to offer that sacrifice which is prayer Matt 21:13
* Prayer is communication between earth and heaven
Why pray?
1. Because it's a command Luke 18:1 1Thess 5:17
2. It is one of the strategies and platforms to fellowship with the father 1Cor 14:2 2Cor 14:4
3. It's a platform for growth and transformation Luke 9:28-29 1Cor 14:4 Jude :20 one classic sign of prayerlesness is lack of discernment, discernment is the ability to perceive, and when you don't discern, it means that you are not praying to advance and make your spiritual senses to come alive, you can really be blind in the spirit.
4. Platform for warfare and intercession 2Cor 10:4 Act
12:1-5 what is warfare? Warfare is act of establishing the purposes of God despite the oppositions of the principalities and powers. Engaging the scriptures to establish the will of God.
5. It is a strategy to keep your faith alive Luke 22:30-32. What is faith? Faith are your convictions, this is how he sift men, he does something to their convictions
6. It is a platform for making petitions and requests Mark
11:24 Phil 4:6 James 4:2-3 pray with purity of motive, whatever he has given you is still he's
Acts 2:42 Acts 6:4
