TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 6TH MARCH 2024)
“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 5:16-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 66TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
His faithfulness has kept us for 66 days already; all for free. No greater joy can God have than for Him to lay down Heavenly things for us.
I grew up to discover that God has never placed the cost of living in a cruel world on man. He has always placed it on Himself. That is why those who know, do not hesitate to approach His throne for help.
For 66 days of the year, He has been our immediate present help in time of trouble. We have seen all kinds of helps from the LORD.
All we have seen proves that there is no help He cannot offer to us. He can offer us help in our battle with the flesh, help in our battle with the devil, and help in our battle with the corrupt system of this world.
God is a helper. He has a History of helping the weak, and sustaining the strong. The Bible says;
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds.
The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, ‘Destroy!’ Deuteronomy 33:26-27 NKJV
Since the first day of this year, our God has been riding the Heavens to help us, just as He did in other years. We have been experiencing His everlasting arms daily; arms that has sustained generations before us.
What a privilege to have same arms sustaining us.
All the years, the arms have been thrusting the enemy before us and saying destroy. That is why the enemy has not been able to declare a victory match over us. God’s mercies have been that impactful.
It may interest you to know that the first treasure you find when you go down on your knees to pray, especially in sincerity and truth, is the treasure of God’s mercies. That is why, people who give themselves entirely to prayer and the ministry of the word, are always filled with the mercies of the LORD.
In our devotional this morning, we will be refreshing our hearts on the power of prayer. I hope we are ready.
TO START WITH, LET ME SAY THIS; I AM YET TO SEE SOMETHING AS POWERFUL AS PRAYERS!
Truly, no one can accurately tell what right prayers can do. They make tremendous things available from God.
That is why, if you say you have been praying, and yet what you may have been praying about is not working, you might have been praying but have not been praying the right prayers.
Daily, I come to the realization why Jesus said, men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Due to the abundance of mercies we access through prayer, it is really important that men should pray always. When we pray always, we put God to work always.
When we do not pray right, we cripple His work. Heaven and earth answer to right prayers.
Angels answer to right prayers. The Holy Spirit moves when we pray aright. Eternity invades time,when we pray right. Healing takes place when we pray right. Power is unleashed when we pray Right prayers.
Prophecies are made manifest when we pray right prayers. Wisdom is released when we pray right.
Mountains are levelled when we pray. Valleys are filled when we pray aright. Crooked ways are made straight when we pray the right prayers. Divine direction is given when we pray. Divine warnings come when we pray. Divine revelations are release when we pray.
Veils are torn from our hearts when we pray, especially when we pray right prayers. Prayer works wonders.
David was one of the many Bible Characters, who saw the amazing works of prayer. If you read what he wrote in Psalm 18, you will understand what I am saying.
In one of those blessed verses, he said; “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised. So, shall I be saved from my enemies!”That is a deep revelation, because in calling upon the LORD, mercy is released on the caller to be saved from the enemy.
WE ARE NOT SAVED FROM OUR ENEMIES BY DOING ANYTHING OTHER THAN RIGHT PRAYERS.
We are not saved from our enemies by fighting them. The Bible says the weapon of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.
So, we are not saved by going physical or carnal with our enemies. We are saved by praying right prayers.
Right prayer is not a request to God to kill your enemies. That will be making Him a hired assassin. Right prayer is calling upon the LORD to save us from all who hate us, and He will respond in His own way. Part of which could be getting them saved.
Our devotional text said, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”.
One more message that we can pick from this scripture is this, not all prayers are the same. Some are as dead spiritually as those praying them. While others are as empty as those praying them.
Actually, a spiritually dead person cannot pray living prayers.
It is important to recognize that, it is the state of your spiritual life,that defines the power of your prayer. If you are spiritually foolish and ignorant, you will pray very powerless prayers.
If you are filthy, sinful, and polluted at heart, you will pray dead prayers. Our devotional text made it clear that it is the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much. It takes righteousness to make great impact in prayer.
The amplified version puts it clearer. It says “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”
This rendering did not say, “the earnest heartfelt continued prayer of a wicked man makes tremendous power available.” The Bible made it clear that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD.
RIGHTEOUSNESS SIMPLY MEANS, RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD.
If you are in right standing with God, spirit, soul, and body, it will show in your prayer power. The earnest heartfelt continued prayer of a man in right standing with God, makes tremendous power available.
It is the state of your spiritual life that determines the result you get in prayer.
If you are not in right standing with God do not attempt prayer, except the prayer of repentance, because it will be frustrating. Make things right with GOD first before praying.
Many take things for granted and assume many things in the spirit. That is why their prayer lives are powerful but with little or no results to show. They assume they are born again, while in reality they are not.
They assume they are spirit led because of some voices they hear,while they are not. They assume they are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, while they are not.
If you are truly the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus as you claim, your prayers will be making tremendous power available to you. Time has come to stop all forms of hypocrisy and become real before God so he can help us.
Until our spiritual lives are in right standing with God, our prayer life will remain dead and powerless, irrespective of how heartfelt and continuous it may be.
It is not how heartfelt or persistent, and continuous a prayer is, that makes it work. It is how sound the spiritual life of the one praying is.
This is where Holy Spirit led prayers are necessary. The Bible says, we do not know how to pray, but the Spirit helps our infirmities by praying through us; sometimes with groaning that cannot be uttered.
Finally, as we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that, prayer unleashes powerful results, only when it is Holy Spirit led, not when it is religious spirit led. Yes, prayers can be religious spirit led.
It is so sad that the religious spirit, has been the governor of the prayer lives of many. That is why we pray and pray, but get very little or no results in response.
One major thing that the religious spirit led prayer has done in Church today, is the removal of the prayer Spirit God gave the Church; replacing it with prayer books, turning many local Churches into metaphysical cultist in our prayer patterns.
Until our spiritual lives are improved, our prayer lives will not be improved. Until our prayer lives improve, the results we get in prayer will remain small. That is the word of the LORD!!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION TODAY..
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.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27 NKJV