PRAYER

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” 

Prayer is a gentle invitation from us by God into his secret place and his greatness. Truly through prayer, God finds us, rather than us finding him. It’s like being in a dark room and calling out to the only person you know might be there. And through the echoes of your voice, you are found.  

Prayer starts with the positioning of our hearts. Sometimes you have sinned and feel guilty or have had a rough day and argued with a colleague or spouse, and you can’t quite decide how to even approach prayer. Psalms 51:10 is a gentle way to ease ourselves into the presence of God, with repentance saying, “Create in me a clean/pure heart, O God, and renew your steadfast spirit within me.”

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Sometimes we are not sure what to pray about. Many things happen in the spirit realm that we have no knowledge of. And that is why we should call on the Holy spirit as we pray. That he will guide our utterances, that our prayers will be dynamic to touch even the things we have no knowledge of, and that we will pray right. You might have noticed how sometimes you will be in prayer and when you start praying for a particular prayer point, a strong power takes over you. So strong that it gets you wondering “what was that?” My dear, it’s the annointing, it’s the spirit of the Lord upon you, use it.  

Philippians 4:6“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Colossians 4:2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” 

Psalm 95:2  “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.”

 Surely, the cheat code to efficient prayer is thanksgiving. Psalms 69:30-31 tells us that giving thanks proclaims the Lord’s greatness, and this pleases him more than sacrifices. Thank him for everything he has done in your life, his Grace, his favor, his promises, his love and every thing that comes to you as the spirit leads. Our mere existence is enough to say thank you.  

Romans 8:32 “God did not even spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how could he not also give us everything else?

Make all your requests known to him. Be completely vulnerable and completely childish when it comes to making your requests to God. From the biggest things like a career path, where to invest, or who to marry, to the smallest things like his guidance on what tomatoes to buy, or what to wear. Do this with complete vulnerability, because he is our father. He owns everything and knows everything. He definitely has the best guidance.

The devil has no ability to do certain things to you, and so it comes up with lies. Lies about your identity, your career, your family, your spouse—cheap lies, dirty lies. But that is where you come in with the truth. First with the belt of truth (when you launch the armour of God) but also the truth as it is written all through scripture. And that is how we attack. How we demolish strongholds and how we uproot everything our father in heaven did not plant. With the word, that is how we fight!

Daniel 10:12 “Then he said to me, ‘Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.’”

Acts 12:5–7. “Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, ‘Arise quickly!’ And his chains fell off his hands.”

Prayer dispatches angels from heaven to activate the word of the Lord upon our lives. Angels move in the spirit and in the physical. They are able to move to the past (in real time), in the present, and move to the future to align everything and make it work out for your good according to God’s will for your life.

And finally, how long we stay in prayer really depends on how the spirit leads. I recently learnt, that we should stay in prayer until we hear from God. Sometimes it may be about presenting it to the Lord intentionally as often as possible until God gives you an answer, because prayer is a dialogue between us and our father in heaven. Therefore, in faith, obedience, and with our spiritual ears and eyes, we should be on the lookout for his answer.

One thing is for sure: prayer works. I have learnt to think of prayer like a bank. That every time I pray, my prayer bank grows. Through prayer, we receive revelation, and with revelation, we get to our elevation. The answer may not come as soon as you want it (although sometimes it appears faster than you hoped), but pray that his will aligns with your requests. In Daniel 10:13, the angel mentioned to Daniel that his arrival in response to Daniel’s prayers had been delayed by the angel prince of the kingdom of Persia for 21 days until Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help him. So we have to pray consistently, because it’s God’s desire to fulfill his promises to us.

Let’s pray: God of Abraham, our ancestors called on to you, and you answered. You displayed your greatness, you won battles with complete victory for them by fighting their enemies on their behalf. You healed their diseases, you made small shepherd boys great, you made the barren bare children even at unbelievable ages. By your power, the blind can see, and the dead rise from the dead. It is such a joy to know that we have access to such power and more, every time we pray. So teach us how to pray dear Father, that our words will rise unto you like sweet essence, and be pleasing to you with every word. We call upon your spirit to guide us that we do not pray a miss, and let us forever live to experience the wonders of your works in our lives, through prayer. In the name of Jesus we have prayed, and we believe. Amen.