TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 22ND February 2022)
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:16-20 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 53RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
God has been faithful to us and has kept us all through the 53 days of this year. To Him belong all the glory!
I believe whatever we have seen remains a template of what we will see, because if you have a God who is ever mindful of you, there is no way your year will not be bright and beautiful, no matter what may come your way or what the enemy may through at you!
The LORD has been speaking to us about Prayer. When the LORD speaks to you about prayer, especially from His word, the Holy Bible, you will see how wrong you may have been on matters of prayer.
In the kingdom of GOD, accuracy is key. If there is no divine accuracy in anything, there will be no outstanding results. When it comes to prayer, the best way to come into accuracy is to hear from the one who answers prayers on how to approach Him.
I have come to discover that Men and even devils have spoken to us about prayer; books have spoken, seminars have spoken, motivational speakers have done their bid. It has not helped people significantly. It has rather brought people to either the prayer of the hypocrite, the prayer of the ignorant or the prayer of the heathen.
Accuracy in prayer is one of the major keys to answered prayers.
Most people are in darkness today in the area of prayer, simply because they followed what men wrote or said about it. No one has ever followed what God truly said about prayer and not walked in accuracy and enjoyed outstanding results in prayer.
Personally, I have come to discover that whenever God want to change our season He will move in fresh revelation into our lives, especially revelation on the things that really matter in His kingdom.
Prayer is a major thing that really matter in God’s kingdom. So, as we engage on this journey, a new season is on the horizon for someone in Jesus precious name!
I also discovered that, whenever God brings a man or woman into the realm of righteous prayers, his or her life has a way of lighting up. Satan may come in swiftly using the language they understand, or even dreams, to generating forms of confusion, but the light they got has a way of preserving them.
GOD HAS NEVER USED WHAT MEN THINK TO CHANGE THE SEASON OF HIS CHILDREN.
He has always used things that matters most in His kingdom to change the season of His Children.
For the three Hebrew boys, He used their submission to His will. For Israel in Egypt, He used the prophetic power of Moses. For many others He used the power of Righteous prayers. That is why prayer remains one or the most significant instruments to use in moving from one season to another.
To move from continent to continent in record time, you will need an aircraft. To move from one city to another you may need a good car. To move from your home to your place of work, you may need your feet, a bike, a bicycle, a car or even an aircraft; it all depends on the distance. But to move from one season of life to another, you will need the prayer knee, among other things.
Righteous prayers can change a man’s season. For instance, Elijah moved an entire nation from a season of Idol worship to a season of the worship of the one and only true God through strong prophetic messages and righteous prayers.
Actually, righteous prayers did the most of the work. The Bible says;
And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!” 1 Kings 18:36-39 NKJV
As we can see in this scripture, the people were moved from a season of “Baal is lord” to the season of “The LORD, He is GOD! The LORD, He is GOD” by the prayer power of Elijah. If you are in ministry, you can never move the men and women God sent you to, from one season to another without the prayer knee.
RIGHTEOUS PRAYERS ARE NECESSARY FOR THE CHANGE OF SEASONS.
Now when we say Change of seasons, we are not referring to maters of food and drink, or money and fame. We are referring to change of moral seasons. So many in Church today are in the moral season of darkness and sinful living. God wants them out of that season to a season of holiness and righteous living.
Sadly, in the life and ministry of many preachers today, there are prayers that brings miracles but no prayer that change the moral lives of people.
It is important to note that Prayers could bring miracles, because even the devil performs them, and many loves going for miracle producing prayers. But when it comes to change of season, from a season of worshiping Baal, to a season of worshiping the one and only true God, you will need prayers that make tremendous moral life changing power available. That was what the Elijah Of the Bible had!
Sadly, the Elijahs of today are different from the Elijahs of the Bible.
The Elijahs of today are full of moral failure. You find most of them with miracle-working prayer power but no moral-life-transforming prayer power. Any prayer power that is miracle working but not moral life transforming is from the pit of hell. It is the prayer power of Baal.
The essence of anything in Christ is to bring people to the place of having dominion over sin, Satan and the corrupt system of this world. But most prayer powers being unlocked are not granting people dominion over these three. Yes, Jesus has conquered all on the cross, but they are yet to be conquered in the lives of people for lack of prayer power to conquer them – the prayer power of the Elijah of the Bible.
IF YOUR PRAYER FOCUS IS WRONG, THE RESULTS YOU GET IN PRAYER WILL NEVER BE MORAL LIFE TRANSFORMING
The prayer focus of most people in Church today is earthly need oriented, hence polluting prayer power and making it impossible to unlocked moral-life-transforming power from the Throne of God. Our generation seems to be ignorant of the fact that Jesus did not commit Himself to people who were seeking Him only to have their earthly needs met.
If your prayer is just to have your earthly needs met, Jesus will never commit Himself to you. The Bible says;
“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25 NKJV
Are they people today who believe in Jesus Christ yet He has not committed Himself to them? Many! From the pulpit to the pew, the are everywhere. They sing, give, pray, fast, evangelized, preach, teach and do all that we do in Church because they believe in Him, but He is yet to commit Himself to them. And you see it in the results they get in prayers.
Until Christ commit Himself to you as you commit yourself to Him in prayer, you will never break forth into His moral-life-transforming power. They early church had no scandal among them because their prayer power was moral life transforming.
The ultimate purpose of prayer, is not just to get answers that meets our earthly needs, but to unlock power that transform our moral lives. It is to move from one season to another, especially a season of immoral living and decadence to a season of moral excellence.
Yes, God heals our diseases through prayers. If the spiritual conditions are right, we can move from a season of frequent illness to a season of divine health through righteous prayers. You see that in a portion of our devotional text that says;
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16 NKJV
BUT IT ALL BEGINS FROM CONFESSION OF SINS OR A MOVE FROM MORAL DECADENCE TO MORAL EXCELLENCE.
That is why Confession of sins and renouncing all evil ways make the spiritual conditions right, making it possible for righteous prayers to move someone from a season of diseases to a season of divine health.
Child of God, your prayer power should not just have capacity to heal people of disease, it should have the capacity to turn someone from the error of their sinful ways, to save their souls from death and cover a multitude of sin. That is why the last portion of our devotional text says;
“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins”
Elijah was driven with the desire to execute what was captured in the scripture. He knew Israel had wondered away and needed to bring them back on track. Previously, He had used the prayer knee to bring the nation into a season of drought so they could turn to the true GOD. Then he went further to use the same knee to bring rain down after bringing fire down.
It was not for fame or fortune but for the restoration of moral excellence in Israel. A portion of our devotional text said;
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” James 5:17-18 NKJV
As we bring this to a close, I want you to be challenged by this devotional and scriptures therein. There is need to check what you have been getting through prayer. In other words, the kind of prayer power you have been unlocking on your knees. Is it just miracles or moral life transformation?
There is also the need to check what have been coming out of the prayer life of your pastor, your church, or your man of God to you. Is it just miracles or moral excellence?
Any prayer power that just unleash miracles and wonders, making the man of God great in your sight and nothing else, is a scam from hell. From such turn away! It is one of the horrors of the last days; a product of a beastly thing that rose from the pits of hell.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” Revelation 13:11-14 NKJV