TODAY’S DEVOTION (Friday 6th March 2020)
“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 REJOICING
It’s another glorious day from the LORD! The glorious God is our refuge. He does glorious things. The Bible says glorious things are spoken concerning us as God’s Kingdom Citizens.
Everything about God is glorious and everything about His own ought to be glorious – though not in the world’s definition. Once again, I welcome you to another glorious day from the LORD!
In our devotional this morning we will be highlighting the power of prayer.
I am yet to see something as powerful as righteous prayers! Truly no one can accurately tell what prayers can do. If you say you have been praying and yet what you may have been praying is not working, you lie. Prayer works wonders.
Whatever we do that does not bring GOD down was not done according to divine order.
Now I have realized again why Jesus said men always ought to pray and not loose heart. It is really assigned to men to pray always. When we pray always, we put God to walk always.
When we do not pray always, we cripple His work always.
Again, when I say prayer, am referring to righteous prayers!
Heaven and earth answer to prayers. Angels answer to prayers. The Holy Spirit moves when we pray. Eternity invades time when we pray. Healing takes place when we pray. Power is unleashed when we pray. Prophecies are made manifest when we pray. Wisdom is released when we pray.
Mountains are leveled when we pray. Valleys are filled when we pray. Crooked ways are made straight when we pray. 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 HEART WHEN WE PRAY! PRAYER WORKS WONDERS.
David was one of the many Bible Character that 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!
We are not saved from our enemies by doing any other thing other than prayer. We are not saved by fighting them physically. We are not saved by asking that God kill them. That will be making God a hired assassin. We are not saved by confronting them physically. That will be walking in the flesh, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
We are saved by calling on the LORD to save us from their hands. Hallelujah! He alone knows what right thing to do to save us from their hands. When David did that, the Bible says God invaded the earth; eternity invaded time to rescue him.
What if he had not called on the LORD? What if he had just assumed that God will act? If you have not experienced the wonders of prayer you will never understand me this morning.
Sadly, not all prayers do when I have just outlined. There are prayers that do not move even an ant. There are people who have been on prayer until they die without seeing the result. Many have resigned from praying because of the frustration they face in prayer.
Our devotional text said, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”. That means not all prayers are the same. Some are as dead spiritually as those praying it.
A SPIRITUALLY DEAD PERSON CANNOT PRAY LIVING PRAYERS.
It is the state of your spiritual life that determines 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. 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].”
It 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 simple 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 your spiritual state that determines the result you get in prayer.
If you are not in right standing with God, do not attempt prayer, 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 loud but with little or no results. They assume they are born again while 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 prayers will remain dead and powerless irrespective of how heartfelt and continued, they may be.
IT IS NOT IN HOW HEARTFELT, PERSISTENT AND CONTINUES A PRAYER IS.
Though that is important; it is your right standing with God that makes things different.
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 prayer through us. Sometimes with groaning that cannot be uttered.
Prayer unleashes powerful result only when it is Holy Spirit led, not when it is religious spirit led, as it is in our Churches today!
The religious spirit has been the governor of our prayer lives.
That is why we pray and pray with little or no results to show. One major thing it did is that it removed the prayer Spirit and gave us prayer books in replacement. We have become like 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.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION TODAY AND IT WILL IMPROVE YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE.
“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