Strategic Praying Pt. 2

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.