TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 20TH February 2022)
“Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:8-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 51ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
Moses say to GOD “LORD teach us to number our days, so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Yes, today we begin another Circle of 50 days in the year 2022. We just concluded one yesterday with a powerful session on TV that brought us into the covenant of sustenance.
One way to apply our hearts unto wisdom as we count or number our days, is to look at what the LORD did during circles of days in the days of our fathers. In Leviticus 25, the Bible revealed something supernatural about the 50th year of people in covenant relationship with the LORD.
It spoke about the proclamation of liberty consequent on men extending mercies to men and God extending mercies to the men who have extended mercies to men. This can also be applied to 50th days, weeks, months, or as the case may be; it all depends on God’s program for a man’s life.
One of the wisdoms to apply our hearts unto as we number our days is the wisdom of what God says about the Cycle of those days.
So, for us under the covenant of sustenance another cycle of 50 began today. We do not know what the LORD may say at the end of this Cycle but we know greater days are ahead of us!
Our LORD and King have been so mindful of us. He has been speaking to us on prayer matters; Righteous Prayers to be specific.
Yesterday we had a major highlight that says,
“Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
Today we maintain the same highlight because of the need to continue from where we had stopped yesterday.
We asked some questions yesterday as we looked for hidden truths in those words of Christ. The first question was, “who was Jesus saying we should not be like when we come into the prayer realm? And what Kind of prayer do they pray?” That was answered in part yesterday, and we are picking up from there today.
The first people Jesus warned that we should not be like, both in lifestyle and in our prayer lives, are the hypocrites. He said they love to pray basically to be seen by men.
THE DESIRE TO BE SEEN AND APPROVED BY MEN, MEN WHOSE ATTENTION THEY SEEK, IS THEIR GOAL.
I am told that most preachers and prayer people who go about praying in the parliament or on street corners do that after collecting money from people in government or those who ask them to do that to ‘cleanse’ their lands. The people who give them such monies, in their ignorance of the things of God, do not know that you do not cleanse a land by organizing prayer movements.
There is nothing wrong with any land. It is people that need to be cleansed with the word of truth and righteousness. Ignorance of the ways and things of GOD can be very costly. We find a lot of public display of prayers that have little or no impact on the moral fabric of our societies and nations at large because of that.
Most of what is promoted today by so many prayer movements is the prayer life of the hypocrite. They mobilize people with false relationship with God to prayer. People who draw near to GOD with their lips instead of their hearts. The bible says;
“Therefore, the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,” Isaiah 29:13 NKJV
Carrying people whose lips are close to GOD but hearts very far from Him to prayer will always produce the prayer of the Hypocrite.
The prayer of the righteous can only be prayed by those whose hearts are very close to God. That is why God hears them when they cry out to Him in prayers. The eyes of the LORD is upon them and His ears open unto their cry because of the closeness of their hearts to Him.
The Bible says;
“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 34:15-17 NKJV
If you want to be pray prayers that Heaven will attend to, please do not be hypocritical in your walk with God. Let your heart not be far from the LORD and your lips close to Him. Anyone who thinks that God can hear their prayers with a heart that is far From Him should re think. The reason is, it is what goes on in our hearts that sound louder in Heaven not what goes on in our lips.
GOD LISTENS TO THE HEART EVEN WHEN THE MOUTH IS PRAYING, NOT REALLY THE LIPS.
He searches the heart as we seek Him in prayers. That is why the state of the heart is what determines the quality and result of our prayers at all times.
Jesus warned that if we want our prayers to be heard, we should not be like the Hypocrite. He also said we should not be like the heathen, who repeat their prayers or incantate them. They repeat or incantate their prayers because they think they will be heard if their words are repeated over and over again.
These keys from the LORD are important because we see this kind of prayers in Church today. People are taught by their so-called deliverance preachers to repeat prayers at certain time lines, like the heathen do.
They are given written prayer points that some downloads from the internet to repeat. They are told which one to pray on this problem, and which to pray on that problem. That is the way the heathen prays, and Jesus said if we enter the prayer room, we should not be like them. He said,
“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV
THE HEATHEN ARE PEOPLE WITHOUT GOD; IDOL WORSHIPERS OR SATANIST.
You find the prayer of the Heathen in so many Church circles today. That also tells you who the people summon in their prayers. God is not summoned through the prayer of the heathen. In fact, you can invoke a demon but you can summon GOD because He is every where like the air we breathe.
You must understand that the prayer realm is a very sensitive realm that has a lot of spirits from realms that are not GOD coming into play, to the ignorance of so many. If one is not guided strictly by what Jesus said in this scripture about prayer, and how we should not pray, we will end up interacting with demons in prayer; unclean spirits with capacity to masquerade as angels of light in prayer.
Can you imagine how complicated the Spirit realm is? After a 40-day prayer session that Jesus heard; guess who showed up first. The devil! Yes, the devil not even an angel.
As man, if He had not entered the prayer realm with truth, He would have interacted, partnered, and come down from that place in company of a Satan He would have been calling GOD to those who would have responded to His ministry. That is how complicated the Spirit realm is.
So, if you enter the prayer realm ignorant of GOD, and the restrictions He place on prayer patterns and spirits, you may end up interacting ignorantly, with demons.
God said we should not pray like the Heathen do. But many are not even aware of that. Many are not aware that most prayer cultures, places, spirits and pattern came from idol worship that is why you find believers easily going back to ancient occult practices today.
They are going back easily because that had been in it calling it deliverance prayers. They had been practicing a Christianity mixed with occult systems and patterns. They had been summoning evil spirits that present themselves as GOD, at night and other appointed times given to them by their warlocks they call spiritual warriors.
Have you ever asked why we cannot find in our Christianity today the simplicity of the prayer life of Jesus Christ when He was physically on earth? Maybe we live that for another day!
Meanwhile, it is important that we ask the LORD to align our prayer patterns; that we no longer follow the patterns of the hypocrite or idol worshipers.
May a fresh Spirit of righteous prayer rest upon you, in Jesus precious name. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29 NKJV