TODAY’S DEVOTION (Sunday 20th September 2020)
“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 262ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Glory be to the LORD God for seeing us through in our just concluded 50 DAYS WINGS OF THE SPIRIT. The glory of God was visible in all sessions and the will of God was performed. What amazed me most is the constant flow of GOD in all the sessions. He was ever ready to pour Himself on us and that was what made the sessions worthy.
Clearly, standards to be raised in an evil infested world that we live in were established in our hearts. God did not just teach us in these sessions, He also manifested Himself in our lives as our refuge. He shielded us from storms of 2020, and the ill winds of the evil one prepared for this year.
He did not allow the weapons of those the enemy swayed against us to cut us down.
If we should sit down to count His mercies and loving-kindness towards us, there will be no words to express them in full. This September, among all the we have seen, has indeed been a September to remember for many of us.
To Him belongs all the glory in Jesus precious name. AMEN!
Today we will be sharing about prayer. The best way to seal up a season of word encounters is to bow the prayer kneel. Through the prayer knee, we can absorb all we learned.
I HAVE NEVER SEEN A PRAYER LESS HEARER OF DEEP TRUTHS ESTABLISHED IN GOD.
They just hear and get excited but do not go beyond that, because they do not understand that it is on the prayer knee that we absorb truths and make them alive in us from time to time. 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 in us again. Else, the truths will just disappear from our hearts, living an emptiness. God designed prayer to be a daily affair since it’s the only way that we can communicate with our 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. It is very dangerous! That is why you find people unproductive in spite of the life giving truths they may have heard.
Life giving truths only produce life in those who are always on the prayer knees. Not those who pray once a while and that is not good for us. People who pray once a while will need be able to get the best of what they may have been taught. So I encourage all who followed us in the 50 Days WINGS OF THE SPIRIT to make their prayer knee their ultimate knee.
It is through prayers that we breath in God into our spiritual lungs. We cannot get the most of God in our lives, especially after hearing great truths, by being prayer less. There will not be enough God in our spiritual lungs to keep us alive in the word we may have heard.
Not breathing in GOD’s Spirit into our spiritual lungs (the way we take air in) through constant prayer can be very destructive. It has destroyed so many in the faith.
Receiving the engrafted word of GOD without breathing in God and breathing out what His presence exposes and dealt with in our lives, will not allow His word to produce in us. Righteous, Spirit. or word led prayers must be understood as our spiritual breathing system.
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.
Prayer is a supernatural business transaction. It is not a religious act but 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.
There are four types of prayers but here we can glean just two; (1) The prayer of the Hypocrite, (who love doing publicly what God wants done privately), (2) The prayer of the heathen (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).
No one can either breathe in God 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 Him 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 not 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 endeavors. 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 days of this year. First, to get the God’s spiritual breathing system restored to you so that you can be kept alive spiritually, and second, to be able to carry out kingdom transactions that involves putting God ahead of you.
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