WHY DO WE NEED TO PRAY?
James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
BWE translation says, “…When a good man talks to God, big things can be done.”
NLT translation says,” …The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.
James 4:2, “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
You don’t have because you don’t ask. Deprivation is traceable to prayerlessness. Therefore, pray if you want your life to improve.
If prayer is so powerful why don’t people pray?
The answer is in verse 3. It says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3
Because many people have prayed but have seen no result, they are disillusioned therefore they do not pray again.
But the main reason prayer doesn’t work is because you don’t pray right. (BBE) translation says, “You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made…” Even when you ask you don’t receive because you don’t know how to pray correctly. If we are to be honest, we will admit that our prayers have not been effective. We will deal with this later.
2Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Many people ask why God doesn’t just take care of things without me praying first? God is here saying if you don’t pray, I cannot heal. If you don’t pray, I cannot forgive, I cannot cleanse. As a matter of fact, I cannot do anything.
In this scripture, He also gave some Kingdom keys for effective praying. Again, we shall address these principles in subsequent teachings.
WHY DO WE NEED TO PRAY?
Prayer is the most misunderstood but is also the most important activity of a believer on earth.
John Wesley said, “It seems to me that without God, man cannot and without man, God will not.” It means that on earth, man cannot do anything without God. God will do nothing on earth without man. There has to be a partnership between heaven and earth in order for God to influence things to happen on earth. What happens on earth depends on you.
Understanding The Need For Prayer
The key to understanding the need for prayer is found in Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Responsibility for whatever happens on earth is given to man by law. The only legal authority on earth is man. God gave legal authority over earth to man and excluded Himself. Notice that the verse doesn’t say ‘let us’ have dominion but it says, let them have dominion. That word became law and God does not break His word; He keeps it!
What Is Prayer?
Prayer is earthly license for heavenly interference.
Prayer therefore is giving permission to God to interfere in earthly realm. If we don’t invite God He will not get involved. He keeps His word. Any activity of God on earth without man is illegal and God does not do illegal things.
Any activity of the devil on earth is illegal also. Sickness is illegal, demonic affliction is illegal because they are acts of the devil and God will do NOTHING about these things without us allowing Him to work through us.
Spirits need a body to operate legally on earth. Are you aware that demons also need a body to operate through? That’s why they seek to inhabit human beings who open doors for them. The spirit you allow is the one that enters into you. Thank God we can allow the Holy Spirit instead of demons! You see, even the Holy Spirit cannot function on earth without you giving Him your body. That is the reason God filled you with His Spirit when you became born again so that He can operate legally on earth through you.
For a believer prayer is giving God permission to enforce His will in our lives on earth just the way it is in heaven; whether we are asking for healing, deliverance, guidance, supply, etc. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. [10] Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. [11] Give us this day our daily bread. [12] And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…” Matthew 6:10-13.
Why give us our daily bread?
[11] Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11
Notice it didn’t say pay us this day for our daily work, it says give us this day our daily bread because in the Kingdom, princes and princesses don’t work for pay, they simply represent the King in their domains. All their needs and much more are provided by the King. The deeper truth is that whatever the King has belongs to His children; everything! Remember Jesus said, “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:15. God does not want you to be employed but deployed.
Why Is This So Important?
This is important because God’s desire has been to rule the earth through man. He wanted earth to be a colony of heaven, impacting it with its culture. His desire is for things to be in your life exactly the way they are in heaven. And it is through prayer you give Him permission to do that.
The Power Of Corporate Prayer
Matthew 18:19, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
This is one very powerful key that makes corporate praying so powerful.
There is nothing more powerful on earth than for two or more people who understand their authority on earth coming together to agree on what they want to happen on earth. Let us look what God Himself said in Genesis 11:6-8, “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. [7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. [8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
[Repeat]
(To be continued)
Bishop Dr. Charles Olowojoba is the General Overseer of Dayspring Bible Church Worldwide with HQ in Abuja, Nigeria & President, Dayspring Christian Ministries Int’l. Website: www.dayspringcmi.org e-mail: [email protected] Help line: 08035150515
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