TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 18TH AUGUST 2024)
“Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held — to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:
‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” Isaiah 45:1-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 231ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Our Year of Impact has witnessed great impacts of schooling in the things of God. Indeed, most of us have become wiser than our enemies. Our God has been faithful in unveiling His truths to us. To him belong the glory.
If we should sit down to count God’s mercies and loving-kindness towards us so far, there will be no words to express them in full. But we trust Him for greater days ahead!
I believe the whole of this year is a threshold of great things that have been preplanned by the LORD to happen in our lives. The LORD has been teaching us the secrets of His kingdom to position us properly for those things. Part of what we have learned this year have to do with how prayer brings financial sufficiency.
Many have been told “Until you give to God, God will never give to you.” But we are learning fresh things that the generation of the charlatans preaching such lies do not know, or chose to ignore. When it comes to divine provision, the power of prayer must not be ignored.
We will therefore be looking at some truths about prayer that will either impart into us “the Spirit of Prayer,” or make it burn stronger in our prayer lives.
To start with, let me reiterate that God designed prayer to be a daily affair, since it’s the only way that we can communicate with Him. We survive by constant communication with God. It is when you talk to Him that you develop the senses that will help you pick what He might be saying to you, especially concerning your financial life.
Finances are unlocked when God speak to us. The Bible teaches that if the LORD is our shepherd we will not be in any type of lack or want. But we will never pick what He is saying to us if we do not sharpen our spiritual senses to pick it through persistent prayers.
That is one major reason we should not be people who pray once in a while. Sadly, except they have life problems, many people just pray once a while, and that is not good for anyone living in an evil infested world.
People who pray once a while will only see GOD once a while in their lives. We do not need GOD once a while in our lives, we need Him all the time. That is why Jesus said in Luke 18:1 “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,” (NKJV).
In other words, we are designed to pray always and not lose heart even when answers seem far but sure.
THAT WAS THE CREATOR IN JESUS SPEAKING.
It means we are malfunctioning and living contrary to our original design if we do not pray always. And when a product malfunctions it will become damaged. That explains why the lives of many are ‘damaged,’ especially in their spiritual and financial lives.
Let me show you something about prayer; prayer is a supernatural business transaction. It is not a commercial business transaction, but a supernatural business transaction. That is why you do not pay people to be praying for you. That will be an abnormality.
Prayer is not a religious act, it is a kingdom act that has the capacity to change all aspects of a man’s life. It is one way GOD’s Kingdom citizens transact kingdom business with their Heavenly Father.
It is something we do from the point of submission to the Father’s will, ways, and authority. When you pray from the standpoint of submission, nothing blocks answers from coming. The standpoint of submission makes effective prayer, a consequence of our relationship with the Heavenly Father. That is why Jesus said,
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
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.” Matthew 6:5-7 NKJV
IF YOU LOOK AT THIS SCRIPTURE CAREFULLY YOU WILL REALIZE THAT WHAT WE DO IN CHURCH TODAY IS NOT PRAYER.
There are four types of prayers that I have been teaching on all my life. But in this scripture, you find two; the prayer of the Hypocrite, (who love doing publicly what God wants done privately), and the prayer of the heathen or occult men and women, (a prayer type that involves vain repetitions, simply driven by the paradigm that says “you will be heard for your many words”).
That is why we do not see successful supernatural business transaction take place by our many prayers. Many of us in church today have not been praying the prayers that are acceptable to God. We have just been talking.
A Prayer that is acceptable to God is done as a Kingdom or supernatural business transaction; that must be understood. It is a kind of prayer that influence the earth powerfully.
It is through such prayer we can cause the Spirit of God to rest on places. It is through such prayers we get God making His presence of resources available to us for His purposes to be accomplished. In fact, “more work is done through prayer than through work itself.”
With prayer, you can push your prosperity from heaven to the earth.
With prayer, you can lay hold of invisible realities, and bring them forth into the visible realm. It is important to know that what you have not laid hold on through prayer, you cannot lay hold on through even hard work.
Now, when we say prayer, we are not referring to the “the fall down and die” and “enemy killing ” prayer types. We are talking about righteous prayers. We have shared on this same prayer type sometime this year. But it please the LORD that we have that kind of food again today.
People fail in life because they try to get through work what they have not secured through righteous prayers. You will always fail if you live your life that way.
Righteous Prayers are one way you put God ahead of you, to go break the gates of brass and make the crooked places straight for you, before you get there. That is why people who put God ahead of them, through righteous prayer before moving out to face the day, always return in the evening of their lives with results.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS,
‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.”
This is a wonderful promise from the LORD to us as we prepare to do anything in His kingdom, or come into fresh seasons of life.
I pray that someone catch the revelation and come into the performance in Jesus precious name! But there is a role we must play – the role of putting God ahead through righteous prayers. If we do not let Him go ahead of us, especially through righteous prayers, He won’t go ahead.
If we go ahead without letting Him go ahead of us first, we will come head on collision with things only He can deal with – namely gates of bronze and bars of iron. The treasures we need in our finances, and the hidden riches of secret places, preplanned for us to possess, will never become ours. It will just remain a dream that will never be actualized.
But if we let Him go ahead of us, maybe through the prayer knee, things will be different. It is important that we get the message of the LORD to us this morning.
As we bring this to a close, understand that God wants us to be able to bow the prayer knee and put Him ahead of us.
In the world we live in today, if we do not discipline ourselves spiritually enough to let GOD go ahead of us through righteous prayer, especially into a Fresh day, week, Month, or year, or even a fresh season of life like stepping into marriage and etc., all that they might have positioned to happen to us will happen.
Child of God, it is not the will of God that we move into a given thing without first shaping it through righteous prayers. With prayer we can arrest our future today. With righteous prayer, we can control what happens on earth.
Righteous prayer is a corporate activity between Heaven and earth. It’s my desire that you submit your soul to the message of this devotional and begin a prayer walk immediately, if you do not have one, or if you just feel you should start afresh.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“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.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:26-30 NKJV