TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 11TH OCTOBER 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 285TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Glory be to the LORD God for seeing us through to another weekend. We have been beneficiaries of His grace and mercies. To Him belong all the glory! Amen.
Today we will be sharing about prayer. I hope we are ready. It is important that we remind ourselves some truths about this beautiful act of worship.
In the book of Acts, you find our fathers giving themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. What we can find here is the role of prayer in our lives, especially in helping us to walk in truth.
Truly, it cannot be over emphasized.
It is through the prayer knee, we absorb all we learned from the LORD.
That is why you will never find a hearer of deep truths who is not prayerful established in the things he is hearing. You will find them hearing, some getting excited, but not going beyond that because they lack a prayer life.
People who are not prayerful are in real trouble hearing deep truths, because they may grow from children of God to sons of hell. Again, it is on the prayer knee that we absorb truths and make them flesh or real in our lives.
If we do not make them flesh, they will just disappear from our hearts, living an emptiness. If the truth you hear cannot be retained, and the prayer knees engaged to make them work in your life, you will be tired of your Christian life one day.
God designed prayer to be a daily affair since it’s the only way that we can communicate with Him.
If you hear deep truths and do not respond to the principle of praying daily, you will not give the Holy Spirit the submission He needs to work on you using what you have heard, and that is spiritually dangerous! It has a way of making people unproductive despite exposure to life giving truths.
LIFE GIVING TRUTHS ONLY PRODUCE A GLORIOUS LIFE IN THOSE WHO HEAR THEM, IF THEY DEVELOP A STRONG PRAYER KNEE.
It is through prayers that we breath in God into our hearts to make the truths in our spirits real in our lives. We cannot get the most of God in our lives, especially after hearing great truths when we are prayer less. There will not be enough God in our hearts to keep us alive in His word, until our knees are strong in prayers.
Receiving the engrafted word of GOD without breathing in God, and breathing out what His presence exposes and dealt with in our lives through prayers, will not allow His word to produce in us. This is the place where prayer functions as a spiritual breathing place.
That is why Jesus said in Luke 18:1 “…. 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.
If we are not praying always, we are malfunctioning and living contrary to our original design. Not praying always is not breathing properly. It can be very costly to our spiritual lives, especially after hearing the word. It is one way we malfunction. And do not forget, when a product malfunctions, it gets damaged. That explains why the lives of many are damaged.
Now, not all prayers can help us breathe in God into our spiritual lungs. That is why I want us to consider another shade of what true prayer is.
I have shared over and over that effective Prayer is a supernatural business transaction. It is not a religious. In simple terms, it is a kingdom act.
IT IS ONE-WAY GOD’S KINGDOM CITIZENS TRANSACT KINGDOM BUSINESS WITH THEIR 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 most of what many of us do in church today is not prayer. We can see the prayer of the heathen and that of the hypocrite here.
The truth remains, No one can either breathe in God’s presence into his spiritual lungs, or carry out any Kingdom advance transaction through these two prayer types. That is why we do not see successful supernatural business transaction take place by the many prayers people pray.
In the light of what prayer should do in our lives, it is clear that many of us in church today have not been praying, we have just been talking. So many praying people have no GOD in their spiritual lungs, in spite of their prayers.
That shows, what we may have been doing is just empty religious exercises. Paul calls it forms of godliness without power.
If what you have been calling prayer is either not breathing God into your spiritual lungs of transacting supernatural business of GOD in your life or on earth, you have not been praying. God wants us to fill our spiritual lungs with His presence, and stand strong to influence the earth back to Him through word and prayers.
Prayer and the word must go together for the word to be effective and for prayer to command Heaven’s attention. That is one of the secrets of the journey. We must learn to use prayers to keep ourselves alive in God, and keep His truths alive in us.
We must also not forget the power of prayers in helping us put God ahead of us and bring things from the spirit realm to the natural realm.
I grew up to discover that People fail in life because they try to get THROUGH HARD WORK what they have not yet secured through EFFECTIVE FERVENT PRAYERS. You must secure things on your prayer knee before rising up to go get them on your feet. That is one way we put God ahead to help us.
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.”
I pray that someone catch the revelation in this scripture.
The necessity of putting God ahead of us through the prayer knee is beyond words. If we do not let Him go ahead of us through righteous prayers, we will never see Him break out in our endeavours. We will just be coming head on collision with things only He can deal with, consequently destroying ourselves.
The gates of bronze and bars of iron do not answer to any man.
They answer to God only; hence He must go ahead of us. The treasures we need to do His Will, and the hidden riches of secret places kept here on earth for us, will remain a dream if these gates are not neutralized. That is why putting God ahead of everything we want to do is a necessity.
Friend, it’s my desire that you submit your soul to the message of this devotional and begin a prayer walk immediately into the last months of this year. If you do. God’s spiritual respiratory system will be restored to you, so that you can be kept alive spiritually.
It’s a new Day!
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