Last time we started to look at a topic called Strategic Praying, that is, prayers with specific purposes, and we went on to look at the meaning of prayers. We also looked at prayers and their strategies. Also, we enumerated some great miracles recorded through prayers. They include:
• DIVIDING OF THE RED SEA.
• OBTAINING BREAD FROM HEAVEN.
• THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMY OF SENACHERIBB.
• THE TURNING OF THE COUNSEL OF AHITOPHEL TO NOTHING.
• THE SUN STANDING STILL ETC.
We also said that prayer is a mystery and we looked at some of the ways to do strategic praying, which included the following:
1. OBSERVING THE LAWS OF PRAYERS.
2. CREATAIVE PRAYING.
In this message, we shall continue and conclude on the remaining principles:
3. CEASELESS PRAYING:
In 1 Thessalonians 5: 17, it is written “Pray without ceasing.” For somebody to pray ceaseless prayers, he will need to train himself to do so by disciplining the flesh, because the flesh does not want to do anything spiritual. Therefore, it should be subdued and be put in a position where it will always be praying. Any free moment that you have, and you are not reading your Bible, it is advisable to be praying, no matter where you are, that way, prayer becomes a habit. If you wait until you feel like praying, before you pray, you will not pray at all. Every good prayer warrior will tell you that prayer is not easy.
THE BATTLE OF THE BED
Sometime ago, during my stay in England, a certain man woke up one day and began to scream, “I have overcome the battle of the bed.” At first, those of us around him did not understand what he meant by that. So, we asked him, and he said that he used to do his quiet time in bed because of the cold weather. And he never succeeded in achieving anything, because he usually slept off. The environment was very cold so no one wanted to get out of the bed. But from the day he jumped out of bed, prayed for about two hours, did it the second and third time, he found that he had overcome the battle of the bed. Unfortunately, many people today have not overcome the battle of the bed.
It is a great waste of time for somebody to go to a night vigil to sleep. If you do not train your body on the act of prayer, you will always have problems. The flesh will always war against you. It will complain of tiredness and when there is a fasting programme, it will remind you of ulcer and all sorts of things. Therefore, learn the principle of ceaseless prayers. It is better for one to pray three prayer points and do them very well, than for such a person to do a night vigil half awake. When you pray without ceasing, you are storing up prayers for yourself. That is why the Bible did not say, preach without ceasing, teach without ceasing or praise without ceasing, but it says, “Pray without ceasing.”
4. LEARN BOLD PRAYING:
John 16: 23 says, “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” Beloved, let us come boldly before the throne of grace, that is, do not settle for minimum divine power, ask for a big thing, because we are serving a big God. He does not complain about somebody praying big, rather He is not happy when we ask for small things. He wants our prayers to be far above our natural thoughts or previous experiences. Pray without minimizing what you want from God; pray with the assurance that God has no limit. For the Bible says, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10). That is, ask for a big thing. God welcomes and encourages very bold prayers, that is why He always says things like ‘whatsoever,’ ‘anything,’ ‘all things’ etc. That is without limit because He is a limitless God. To God, all difficulties are the same thing. I want you at this juncture to close your eyes and begin to ask for a big thing from the big God. Ask Him too to advertise His glory, kingdom and power in your life, in the name of Jesus.
5. UNITED PRAYERS:
As much as possible, participate in united prayers. In Acts 4:24, it is written, “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made the heaven and the earth, and the sea and all that is in them.” Beloved, the disciples did not just pray, they opened their mouth loud and cried unto the Lord. And in verse 31, the Bible says that the place where they were was shaken. That is the result of united prayer. When Christians are united in prayer, the power of God will come into their midst. Remember that the Bible says that one person will chase away one thousand and two will chase ten thousand, therefore, five thousand people will chase away millions. The power of united prayer can be likened to a situation where a man wants to kill a bird on a tree, and he throws a stone at the bird. There is the tendency for him to miss the bird. But when about 1,000 men throw stones at the bird at the same time, surely, there is no way the bird will escape. There is power in united prayers, but the unfortunate thing is that some people come to the church but refuse to repent. Some even come to the church and are still filled with anger, malice, fornication, bitterness etc. The prayer of such people pollutes the others and cannot be effective. But when holy men with the fire of God in their lives get united in prayer, they shake things and move mountains. Therefore, as much as possible, participate in united praying. Families must do united praying. Schools must do united praying. I remember when I was in primary school, every morning, we used to pray on the assembly ground before we went to our classes. I don’t know if that is still the case today. I pray that God will help us, in Jesus’ name. When there is united praying, power will increase. Therefore, if you see anybody avoiding or running away from united praying then something is wrong somewhere.
6. LEARN WRESTLING IN PRAYER:
Learn how to wrestle in prayer. Let us look at this very closely because it is an area that is not clear to many people. Romans 15:30 says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Strive together means that prayer could be a strenuous work. Let us also look at how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in Hebrews 5: 7: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” Jesus prayed shedding tears. He was in a wrestling match, not the lazy type of prayer that a lot of people do today. Also Colossians 4: 12 says, “Épaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” This is an example of a man called Epaphras; his prayer was referred to as wrestling, labouring and striving prayer like a soldier fighting in a war. It means that agonizing in prayers could take days or months before God. Agonizing and groaning in prayers is what everyone must learn and practice. It is not everything that will bend at a go; some situations may need constant bombardment.
7. LEARN WARFARE PRAYING:
Warfare praying is when you hold on to the victory of Jesus over the host of darkness, until victory is won. Therefore, if you have our books entitled, “Pray your way to Breakthrough,” “Powers against Local wickedness,” or “70 Days Fasting and Prayer booklet,” or Power Must Change Hands prayer points, you will find that about 50 per cent of the prayers are warfare prayers. We need to do warfare praying because the Bible says that we should fight the good fight of faith.
8. LEARN TO PLEAD YOUR CASE:
We have the explanation of this in the book of Genesis 18: 23, which says, “And Abraham drew near, and said, wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked.” Abraham was pleading his case before God Almighty. God encourages us to plead our case before Him. Also, the book of Isaiah 41: 21 says this: “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.”
God invites us to plead our case before Him. He wants us to reason with Him. He encourages us to defend ourselves before Him. Therefore, prayer is not child’s play, but a serious matter with God Almighty, who is looking for men and women through whom He may declare war against the enemy. The question is, do you want to be that man or woman? If the Holy Spirit wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you to pray for your pastor, do you say, “Ah! pastors are the ones to be praying for us.” Sometime ago, I went to a meeting and told them to pray for me, they were all amazed saying that I should be the one to pray for them. So, I educated them on the importance of their prayers for pastors. I also made them to understand that pastors need to be prayed for mostly.
9. LEARN HOW TO DO DAY AND NIGHT PRAYING:
In Luke 18: 7 the Bible says, “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though he bear long with them.” Jesus compared His elect to a widow harassed by the enemy. The widow had a legitimate reason to quit, but she decided to plead her case relentlessly. Day and night praying means desperate praying. The widow was under pressure from an adversary, so she too began a relentless prayer under that pressure. God is looking for people like that, those who are desperate. Desperation will bring healing and send fear away. Desperation removes worry and breaks chains and fetters. When your desperation exceeds your fear, then progress begins. That was what happened to blind Bartimeaus. He forgot that there were lots of people around, he rushed in desperation and received his healing. Desperate prayers are always very short, direct, specific and aggressive. For example, the prayer of blind Bartimeaus was: “Jesus Son of David, have mercy upon me,” and that was all. Desperate prayers are needed to overcome the plans of the enemy. A lot of people would have had weak prayer altars if not for the assault of the enemy on their lives. There is no other alternative to such cases but desperate prayers. These are the principles of strategic prayers.
Perhaps you have been praying before now and nothing seems to have happened, try warfare prayers, creative prayers or any of the principles discussed and something will begin to happen.
The accompanying prayers in this message are specific and targeted prayers. Do not feel unconcerned, just pray. There is one spirit that has been harassing people, it is called the spirit of wastage. This spirit must be paralysed. It has wasted a lot of people in the world. Brains, resources and many other things are being wasted. Even in individual lives too, the spirit of wastage is wasting many things and a lot of things are happening. A lot of damages have been done through this spirit. Therefore, pray the prayer points with more aggression in your spirit. God bless you as you do so, in Jesus’ name.
PRAYER POINTS
1. I bind every spirit of wastage in my life, in the name of Jesus.
2. I trample upon every enemy of my advancement and promotion, in the name of Jesus.
3. Every dark meeting held against me, receive the thunder of God.
4. Every inherited spiritual handicap, fall down and die, in Jesus' name. (Put your hand close to your belly button and repeat the above prayer point).
I specifically pray for those whose mothers are witches and have planted spiritual deposits into their lives. I also pray specifically that those spiritual deposits should receive the fire of God and begin to find their way out, in the name of Jesus.
I pray for those whose fathers are wizards and are members of the occult, that whatever evil deposit they have put in their lives hindering from them from flowing in the spirit should get out now, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every satanic deposit, be melted by fire, in the name of Jesus.
6. I quench every rage of the enemy directed against my progress, in the name of Jesus.
