PROBLEMS AT THE ALTAR OF PRAYERS
Dr. D. K. Olukoya
The topic you are about to study is titled "Problems at the alter of prayers."
Our first text for this message is Luke 18 verses 1 to 8. In this passage, you will see the need to continuously trouble God with prayers as God would not hesitate to answer those who cry unto Him day and night.
I Thessalonians 5 verse 17 says "Pray without ceasing."
This topic has two important things to it., which are PRAYER and ALTAR. However, there is problem at this altar of prayer.
PRAYER
It has been well said that prayer is the key to open every door. When you want to start the day in morning, prayer is the key to open with, and to sleep at night, prayer is the bolt that you apply to lock your door.
Prayer takes the highest energy which human being is capable of generating. Jesus fought a terrible war at the garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says "His sweat were like drops of blood." If Jesus had to pray, what about you and I? A short prayer will reach the throne of God, provided, you are not too far from that throne. If you are far from the throne, short prayers will not help, and many believers are at different distances to the throne of God.
Prayer is so deep, wonderful and mysterious that it’s power is not yet even clear to many Christians. This is why prayer does not need proof. What it needs is practice. The Bible does not say "preach all the time, but commands us to pray all the time.
When you pray prevailing prayers, what you get in your life is perpetual power. Your prayer life then, is an indication of your spiritual life. Where there is less prayer there is less power.
When you then study the scriptures, you will discover that Moses prayed and his prayers saved a nation from death. God had wanted to destroy Israel but the prayers of Moses stopped him from doing so. It then means that the prayers of Moses held the hands of God from destroying the Israelite.
Joshua prayed, the sun stood still and his enemies fell.
Solomon prayed for wisdom and God made him the wisest king.
Elijah also prayed with great desire, and what happened? God gave rain and also sent fire after his 63 seconds prayer.
The three Hebrew men that were thrown into the flames prayed, and the son of God came into their midst.
Daniel prayed, the lions’ jaws and claws were closed when he was thrown into their den.
The thief prayed by the cross of Jesus saying "remember me when You get to Your kingdom." He got immediate answer as Jesus said "verily I say unto you, this day shall thou be with Me in paradise."
The apostles prayed, and the place where they gathered shook.
Therefore, when Christians pray the way they ought to pray, revival fire will sweep the land. If you want this country to change we have to go back to our knees, "show-business evangelism" will not change this country, because the strongman in charge of this country is yet to be brought down. The only thing that can bring him down is aggressive prayers by Christians.
So, there is power in prayer.
ALTAR
Altar is a structure on which sacrifices are offered. The altar is useless without the priest and the offering.
The word of God made us know that we are priest, a holy nation and peculiar people (I Peter 2:9). God has called us to be priests. Revelation 1:5-6, says "He has called us to be priests and kings unto Him." So, all Christians are priests. It is therefore scripturally wrong for somebody to stand in the office of a priest now. So don’t say the priest of our church. There is no such language in the Bible. Everybody is a priest now unto God.
But a priest must have something to offer, and our offering as new testament Christians is spiritual sacrifice. We cannot start slaughtering animals again, since Jesus died in substitute for us. This is why anybody offering any sacrifice different from that which Jesus has done, is committing a very grate abomination, because it is a corruption of the death and cross of Christ. We are priests and as priests, we must have something to offer.
In those days, the priest was the one that would stand as a mediator between God and man; but that office has been removed. We are now direct priests. Things God wants us to offer as Christians are as follows:
OURSELVES.
The first thing that God wants us to offer is OURSELVES. Roman 12 verses 1 and 2 say "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world."
Don’t copy their fashion, dresses and manner of talking. As a matter of fact, don’t conform to their tradition. "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." God wants you. The first sacrifice is you. Get on the altar, die there and then see what happens. Some people are running away from God’s altar. They are afraid of what would happen to their lives there. They are afraid of the requirements of the Almighty. They have seen people who have died on the altar, and they are saying "Ah, if God did this to you! I don’t think I would want to become this serious, I would want to be doing it gently." No, God will not accept that. You will not serve God on your own terms. You will serve Him on His own terms alone. If you say "When I like, I will come and when I don’t like, I won’t come", then, you are not serving God yet.
So, the first thing to offer is ourselves, meaning that everything we have must be placed on the altar, then, God can use us. When you are still struggling with the thought of fornication, and still cuddling your pillow on the bed at night, imagining that the pillow were a woman or a man, you’re in trouble. People may not see your thoughts, but God does and He knows that you are not serious. You cannot put cockroach inside a drinking glass and ask someone to put clean water in that same glass, the person will say, "please, kindly clean the cup." The same thing happens when you hold up your cup to the Lord praying for Him to fill it to the brim. God will first ask you to clean it up for Him to fill it.
PRAISE
The Bible tells us in Hebrews Chapter 13 verse 15. "By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." So, another sacrifice we can offer is the fruit of our lips, which is a sacrifice of praise. That’s why we sing "We bring the sacrifice of praise, into the house of the Lord, as we offer unto Him, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, sacrifice of praise." So, praising God is an offering. However, sacrifices of praise from dirty hearts are unacceptable to the Lord.
PRAYERS
Revelations 8 verses 3-4, say, "And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand."
Incense in the foregoing stands for worship, praises, and thanksgiving. Both go hand in hand. This is why Paul said "Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayers and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).
Now the altars of so many people are weak that they are unable to sustain long prayer battles, which is needed, to win the battles of life. Some people ought to stay on top of prayer mountains for 3 months before coming down, because of the kind of problems the enemy has gathered for them. Unfortunately, such people are still lost in disco churches either distributing biscuit to the kids or singing worthless praises. There are many people like that, whose enemies have diverted, and tied down with church posts. Their prayer altars are weak.
The Bible recognizes this and emphasizes the need for constant and aggressive praying. In Matthew 26 verse 41 Jesus said "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Romans 12 verse 12 says "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." Also, James 5 verse 16 tells us that "...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Therefore, beloved the greatest spiritual injury that can be inflicted on anyone is to paralyze the prayer life. That is why a white man said "Prayer will keep you away from sinning, and sinning will keep you away from prayer." With a weak prayer life and altar, it is impossible to receive the breakthrough that many are asking for. It is not a sin to ’over-pray’, but it is a sin to ’under-pray’. You won’t lose anything by over-praying; but under-praying is a problem. That is why the Bible says, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Rev.12:11).
Sings of a weak prayer altar are as follows.
Ability to pray only when you are in the church.
People who only pray when there is a serious problem but when everything is going on well, there will be none. They wait till things go wrong before they start praying.
Inability to wait before the Lord for a long time. Some people are so restless. They cannot just sit in a place for 2 hours at a go. They always want to move. Something always tell them to ’get out’, ’stand up’, ’go away’, etc. They are restless. Restless people don’t get anywhere with God. If you have that type of vagabond prayer spirit inside your life, I command that spirit to depart from you now, in the name of Jesus.
Breaking your fast out of forgetfulness. If somebody is on a fasting programme and for 90% of the time, he is busy looking at the clock, he is not fasting. It has become hunger strike or personal starvation because it is the clock you are watching.
Somebody is fasting and in order to while away the time, he is busy reading newspaper, or looking for somebody to talk to just to while away time.
When prayer time gets boring. You don’t enjoy prayer anymore but get bored easily.
Blaming somebody else for your prayer failures. For example somebody who says "It is because daddy refused to pray with the family, that is why the family is not praying, or it is because mummy does not cooperate, that is why the family is not praying", he is only using other people as excuses for prayer failures.
When prayer period has been replaced with sleep.
Believing that only those who have problems should pray. A person who feels this way has the greatest problem. It means that Jesus must be the greatest problem carrier.
If you harbour the spirit of slumber.
If you get tired very quickly and easily during prayers. I never cease to get amazed sometimes when we start praying, I see 60 year old women praying for 2 hours without sitting down, or getting tired, but young girls of 18 and 21, get tired easily. They want to relax on the wall.
If you cannot pray in the spirit or pray in tongues, your prayer altar will be weak.
If you find it difficult to concentrate, when you are praying.
When television or newspapers have taken up your prayer time; then you have a weak altar.
When you lack prayerful friends. If you are a Christian sister or brother, the day you get born again, ends any intimate relationship you have with anybody who is not born again. Whatever marriage promises you have made, ends. It does not matter whether the wedding has been fixed or not. You get born again today, that is all, the wedding is cancelled. Then you start looking for somebody, who is a child of God. Doing otherwise, is subjecting your life to eternal destruction.
Eating very heavy meals at night will make your spirit heavy, so you cannot pray, resulting in a weak prayer altar.
You will have a weak prayer altar if you are only interested in listening to music than in praying.
Hatred for night vigils.
Inability to sustain a prayer point for a long time.
When you pray and your visions are always unclear, or when God speaks to you only in parables or proverbs, beyond your understanding, your altar is weak.
When the problem seems to be waxing stronger and your prayer is getting weaker, is evidence of a weak altar.
Inability to hear at all from God even when He is speaking- is a weak altar.
If you have never prophesied before in your life while you are praying you have a weak altar. Because the Bible says everybody can prophesy, at least out of all the spiritual gifts, it says everybody can have that one.
If you’re living above your experience and trying to prove super spiritual, what God did not show to you, you claim you have seen, then your altar is weak.
If you are testimony swallower, then, you have a weak altar.
You are ashamed to praise God in public, but you are not ashamed to get annoyed in the public, then your altar is weak.
If you spend all the time, begging from God and you never really have the time to thank Him. You have a weak altar.
If you only resort to prayer after other methods have failed.
Only a strong altar can bring down the mighty hands of God. If you are tired of peanut miracles, playing spiritual games, and you really want things to happen in a big way, then steps have to be taken to repair the altar of prayer that has collapsed. You need to strengthen the weak altar of prayer with spiritual pillars. Inject vitamins and tonic into the weak altar.
Moab had a weak prayer altar. Isaiah 16 verse 12 says "And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sanctuary to pray, but he shall not prevail" Why? The reason is in Jeremiah 48 verse 11. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity, therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed." Why? Moab loved ease and comfort. He made no attempt to be aggressive. So, he remained where he was. He only rushed to God after his little idols had failed him.
Look at it now, beloved education has failed, philosophy has failed, and science has failed. What is it that has not failed? The only thing that has not failed is Jesus. Even in many places, the church has failed because the world has entered into the church and the church has entered into the world. The two of them are going hand in hand, which is very sad.
The prayer altar of Saul in the Bible was broken down because of the sin of disobedience. When he could not pray again, he had to look for other sources of power. He went to consult a witch doctor, which was a terrible mistake, because he received his death sentence.
So something serious has to be done, beloved, about the prayer altars of many before the showers of blessings can fall on them.
I was amazed the first time I heard about this Korean Church. The man of God there said if he calls a prayer point and refuses to stop them, that single prayer point and refuses to stop them, that single prayer point can be prayed for two hours. They just go on, the prayers are like many thunders and waves of the sea rolled together. No wonder, they had a breakthrough.
For all those who have weak altars, god has a message for you today. This is found in two scriptures. Hebrews 12:12 "Wherefore lift up the hands, which hang down, and the feeble knees". Revelation 3:2 also says "Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die."
A person with a strong prayer altar will always move in the supernatural. He or she will always be happy to attend prayer meetings. He will enjoy praying alone and singing praises in his heart to the Lord. He will have supernatural insight into things, and God will be telling him secrets. He will not worry about anything. People would look at him and wonder what a strange person. Such a person will never be afraid.
It is about such people that God has promised that while they are yet speaking He will answer them. Beloved, the altar has been bombarded by serious problems and indeed by the enemies of prayer.
The following things weaken the prayer altar
Iniquity. The Bible says "if I regard iniquity in my heart, (not even performing, but just giving it opportunity to operate) the Lord will not answer my prayer." Sin weakens the prayer altar.
Ignorance or lack of prayer.
Not receiving genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, "We know not how or what we should pray the way we ought to but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us, with groaning that cannot be uttered"
Laziness. A lazy Christian cannot be a prayer warrior. It is not possible.
Bad Christian foundation
The powers known as "the emptiers",
Demonic bondage (when somebody has been bound)
Listening to the devil.
Fear of being alone.
Staying glued to the Television for late movies is a modern day anti-prayer strategy.
Perpetual children’s sicknesses is a modern day strategy of the devil.
Visitors who will not go away on time, until it is very late.
Eating heavy meals before going to bed.
Reading large volumes of useless story books take away prayer time.
Oversleeping and drowsiness take away prayer time.
The type of work that will tire a person out resulting in not being able to pray the way he/she should, is not the kind of job God wants you to do. If the person falls down dead the work will still continue.
Persistent sicknesses.
Noise from night parties is another anti-prayer strategy.
Attending unprofitable parties.
Aimless and purposeless visits.
Playing games like Ludo, Scrabble, Whot etc, instead of praying is an enemy of prayer life.
POWER BASE OF PRAYER
Prayer has something we call power base. The power base of prayer is fourfold. They are:
The word of God.
That is, you must know the word of God to enable you pray effectively. If not, the enemy will give you a knock on the head when you cannot quote the scriptures to support your prayer.
Fasting.
We must not wait for others to do it before we start.
Holiness
Spiritual retreat. That is, being alone with God. The Bible says "and Jacob was alone with God" and because he was alone with God, he met God for the first time in his life. His life was in a serious mess until he met God. Some will never see God until their businesses collapse; or they are dead broke. Many are like the prodigal son, they only start to reason soundly after suffering. But life is not supposed to be like this.
When you don’t realise that something is wrong with your prayer altar and repair it quickly, the enemy will dig deeper into your life. Some strange people do come to Christian meetings while serious prayers are going on, they will be looking for their handkerchiefs. What do they want to do? They want to wipe away sweat. They are not serious yet. Some will be opening one eye and closing the other. Some will even habour bad thoughts during prayers. Such people lack words to use, while other feel uncomfortable during prayers.
These are the thing you should readjust. You have to pray silently under your breath when you are engaged in any activity. You have to be schooled in the school of fasting . You have to be holy so that your prayer may not be a stinking odour before God. You have to acquire the habit of praying over everything. You have to keep your tongue from speaking evil. The more you are a talkative, the less the power that will be on your tongue. You have to pray no matter how you feel.
Today is another great day and therefore, since you love yourself, pray and do what Elijah did. When Elijah got to mount Carmel he threw a challenge to the prophets of Baal, asking them to call on the name of their god and he would call on the name of his God then the God who answers by fire, He is God. Both parties prepared their offerings. When it was Elijah’s turn, the first thing he did was to repair the altar of the Lord that has been broken down. What are you going to do about your altar of prayer that has broken down or are you comparing yourself by yourself.
The Bible says they that are comparing themselves by themselves are not wise. If you are looking for somebody to compare your prayer life with, go to Jesus. Do not compare with any human being, because that human being has a different father, and mother from you, so your problems and backgrounds are not the same. You cannot be using them as examples. We have all been taken out from different wells. Some people’s wells are deeper than others. Therefore, you can not compare yourself with others. Please pray the following prayer points with aggression:
PRAYER POINTS
O Lord, Examine my life today and reveal my weaknesses to me in the Mighty name of Jesus.
O Lord, let the spirit of prayer come upon me.
I challenge every anti-prayer life with your fire, in the name of Jesus.
O Lord, revive my prayer life with your fire.
O Lord, restore back onto me, everything I have lost through prayerlessness in Jesus name.
Every tree of sorrow, be uprooted in the name of Jesus.
Woe unto that vessel, that the enemy is using to do me harm in the name of Jesus.
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