MANY well-meaning, but gullible Christians, have died while praying and fasting, especially in mountains trying to “move” God or to “convince” God to “do something” for them.
In order to be clear, we are not talking about those misled by cult leaders that a greater and more glorious crown awaits them in heaven.
There is a general assumption that Christians know how to pray, probably because they were brought up in “Christian families.” Some grew up with a notion that prayer is kneeling down and closing eyes and give God a list of desires in a monologic manner. Prayer should be a dialogue between God, the Father and His children. It is communion and fellowship where both ends speak.
There is a general error of a double-sided nature that believers, even preachers — especially in the Charismatic Church, make. If one makes a rhyming or high sounding cliché, they take it hook, line and sinker or quickly dismiss an accurate statement without intelligent analysis. For example, if I do a 10 000-word teaching that water baptism is not for the new creation/creature, many will rush to one sentence and say heresy.
Anyway, we are talking about prayer today. The sages teach us that wisdom has long ears and a short tongue.
This subject is very critical and sensitive and we shall approach it both scholarly and from a preacher’s point of view. It is a series and since this is an introduction, space will not allow me to use enough verses. We need to know this: Divinity will prepare you to enter the ministry or a spiritual leadership role while theology is much more academic, and will prepare you to teach religion, transition to more rigorous academic pursuits, or apply faith to other areas of your life or profession. I am saying this to align with 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Congregants should be freed from the mercy of fraudsters hiding behind the pulpit or false preachers and charlatans. I was startled by a preacher of a big congregation that he gave time for demons to speak to the church members during service because “God” told him. Imagine over half of the time allocated for fellowship with the Father was given to Satan the father of lies. If they had read the Bible, they should have known that Jesus forbade demons to speak.
I am only going to scratch the surface of prayer today. Please be patient with me, you won’t regret the journey. We shall tread carefully and intelligently so that at the end of it both the unlearned and learned believers will enjoy fellowship with their Father.
We can only say a few points today. Under the Old Testament, they did not have the Holy Spirit. In this series, we shall treat praying in the spirit or tongues separately. For us, beneficiaries of the New Covenant, we have the name of Jesus given to the church.
If you ask believers if they believe in prayer, almost over 99% will be affirmative. Going further, if you ask how many have 100% prayers answered, you will be sending chills in their spine. Many are bitter with God because of so called unanswered prayers.
We pray after the Cross where prayers were answered by the finished/accomplished work of Christ. What are we saying? A prayer to move God is lack of knowledge. God is not going to move. I repeat, prayer will not move God. God moved once and for all in the incarnation, sufferings of Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating on majesty on High. In the same vein, God will not do something He has already done. He expects us to do the enforcing of dominion with the power given to us by the Gospel of Christ.
There is so much religiosity in Christendom. Someone may read Matthew 26:40: “And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” This is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. So someone says minimum prayer time is one hour. Everyone fights to pray for one hour and many fail to reach one hour. For that reason they feel unworthy to get answers. They have already fallen from grace and into condemnation because of self-effort and human performance.
Today we close by saying most of Jesus’ prayers were one sentence. For example Mark 4:39 informs us: “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” Are we saying no to long prayer? Definitely not.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.
- All Bible quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise stated.
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