Transcription
A systemic prayer life. The first key that builds Believers to become people of power and stature in the spirit. A systemic prayer life. Notice the expression "systemic." If your prayer life is not systemic, it will be ineffective, and it will be void of the ability to build you.
In Acts 3 and verse 1, the Bible tells us that Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray at "The Hour of Prayer." Please say that after me: "The Hour of Prayer." One more time: "The Hour of Prayer." There was a discipline that was invested to their prayer life. It was called "The Hour of Prayer," dedicated to prayer.
Most believers pray, but aside from praying a miss, we are not consistent in our prayer. We have an emotional approach to prayer. So when matters get bad and it looks like we're in trouble, we quickly develop some kind of crash system, and we shout at the gates of Heaven. And once it looks like there's a little solution, then we leave everything.
Your prayer life, the power in prayer, is in its consistency, especially when we're talking about prayer as a tool for building you. I'll talk a bit on prayer. It's important we understand this: the key to benefiting from prayer is to create a strategy for consistency. The key to benefiting from prayer is to create a strategy for consistency.
Most believers are not consistent in their prayer. Can I give you four assignments of prayer? Maybe you want to write that down. According to scripture, there are four assignments of prayer.
Number one: The first assignment of prayer is for growth and transformation. This is the most important assignment of prayer. Did you know that the average believer's understanding of prayer is just as a means for receiving things from God? The major assignment of prayer is as a tool for your personal growth and transformation.
Luke chapter 9, please, and verse 29. Are we learning that means a major part of your prayer should not just be about asking things, but engaging for your spiritual development? This is why He gave us the prayer language as He prayed. Are we still together? "The fashion of His countenance was altered." Talk to me. "And His raiment became white and glistening." This is what happened to Jesus as He prayed. This is what will happen to any believer as you pray. As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance, transformation. A weak you can become a strong you when you pray. A timid you, a carnal you, can become a spiritual you. You can pray out weakness, pray out limitation. Hallelujah.
Most believers have not used prayer as a tool for their development. Show me a man who has been methodically mentored to understand the ministry and the role of prayer in his development and has obtained grace to engage, and I'll show you a powerful Christian in the making.
Now, I hope you know that when the disciples of John became the disciples of Jesus, they noticed that Jesus's prayer produced power. And they came to Him and said, "Teach us to pray." Their issue was not prayerlessness. Their issue was that there was no power in their prayer. Everything He said came to pass. What was He saying? What was He doing? You must spend a major part of your prayer life praying in the spirit when you want to grow. Listen carefully: you must spend a major part of your prayer time praying in the spirit.
Most believers do not use prayer as a tool for growth and transformation. It says, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." But in Acts chapter 2, they received the prayer language, not power. That means there is a relationship between that prayer language and the promised power. Am I right on that? If I tell you that I'm bringing you a hot meal and I bring you, say, a blue gift, it means you must open to find out. There must be a connection between that gift I gave you and the promise I left you. Probably the meal must be inside. Am I wrapped? Are we together? Yes, sir. If I promise you $1,000 and then I hand over a bag, it is only wise to open that bag because the $1,000 will most likely be in there as cash, as some voucher, as a check. Am I right on that? So if Jesus says you will receive power and what you received was tongues, there has to be a relationship between engaging that prayer language and the release of power. Hallelujah.
Listen, I'm saying this because I'm going to give you an assignment. In righteousness, you are going to walk with the Holy Spirit to create a systemic pattern of consistent prayer from tonight. Believe me, walk this for one month, two months, three months, praying consistently every day for the purpose of edification and growth, and watch the wonder you become. Do you believe this? Yes. So the first assignment of prayer is as a tool for growth and transformation.
Number two: The second assignment of prayer is as a platform for obtaining requests and making petitions. Obtaining requests and making petitions. Obtaining requests and making petitions. God is Father. God is a giver. We can obtain requests. We can make petitions. Mark 11, please, and verse 24. Here's what the Bible says: "And what things soever ye desire." Is that in your Bible? It says, "When ye pray." So there is a relationship between desires and prayer. It says, "Believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." Desire, prayer, believing, receiving, having. Desire, prayer, believing in prayer, receiving in prayer, having in experience. This is a dynamic. So prayer is a tool for making petitions and obtaining requests.
The Bible even says, "Ask." Matthew 7:7. "And ye shall receive." Is that still in your Bible? "Seek and ye will find. Knock." It says, "And it shall be opened unto you." I like verse 8: "For everyone." Prayer is for everyone. For everyone. Not some. Everyone that asketh in prayer receiveth. It says, "Ye have not because ye ask not." Are we still together? So assignment number one of the prayer ministry is for your growth, edification, and transformation. Number two, as a tool, a platform to obtain requests and to make petitions. Ready for number three?
The third assignment of prayer, as revealed from scripture, is as a tool for creating your reality. Prayer, when in combination with the spoken word, helps the believer create their reality. I like this. The Bible says, "Even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not." I hope you know that the believer is a co-creator with God. You are given the responsibility of designing your destiny using the creative power of the spoken word in prayer. This must form a major part of your prayer life, not just to ask. Speak. "Son of man, can these bones live?" Says, "Only Thou knowest." And then he said, "Prophesy." Speak. Someone say, "Prophesy." Prophesy. One more time, say, "Prophesy." Prophesy.
Now, isn't it interesting that the Holy Spirit told Ezekiel what to say? The bones had what the Holy Spirit was saying, and they did not move until Ezekiel spoke. "As I prophesied as I was commanded," he said, "and there was a sound." So every time we prophesy in prayer, there is a sound. A sound. A sound. A sound of healing. A sound of restoration. A sound of revival. A sound of mending bones.
Now, listen. You would look at a valley, a valley that was full of bones. You would see one bone here, the other bone there. The possibility for order was still there, even in the midst of chaos, but not under every condition. The moment the prophet prophesied, the bone came from everywhere to everywhere. The bone can mean the problem. The bone can mean whatever you desire connecting itself until there arose an exceeding great army.
Can I tell you, you do not know the kind of power you have as far as shaping your possibilities and creating your destiny is concerned until you know how to use scripture with the intelligence of an artist? You begin to draw your possibilities. Have you watched an artist paint from nothing? Swiping the brush left to right at various angles, not making sense at the beginning, sometimes inverting the picture. Ah, and then when he's done, he turns it back. This is your destiny.
So when you begin to make declarations like, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I be afraid of?" Are we together now? Yes, sir. "The psalmist said, I lay me down and I slept; I awake, for the Lord sustaineth me. A thousand shall fall by my side, ten thousand by my right side, but none shall harm me. With mine eyes will I see and behold the reward of the wicked." The Bible says, "They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. That in old age they shall be fat and flourishing." That is my destiny. That is your assignment in the place of prayer, to use the spoken word and push it with faith and begin to redefine your possibilities. When men say there is a casting down for me, my declaration is that there is a lifting up. Yes, sir. Believe this. This is how kings reign. "He suffered no man to do them wrong. He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." I am planted in the house of God. I flourish in the court of our God. In old age, I am fat and flourishing. No devil would take my life before my time in the name of Jesus. I have a covenant of life. Did the Bible not say, "If they obey and serve Him, they will spend their years in prosperity, their days in pleasure"? I expect to be favored in any nation, regardless of my background, because the Bible says, watch this, it says, "Let them shout for joy, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servants." It is in my Bible that I am blessed in the city, blessed not just in Nigeria. I am blessed in America. I define my possibilities. Listen, I'm teaching you how believers become matured. I cannot be rejected, not by any nation, not by any people group. The hand of God is upon my life. I have the covenant of Abraham working in me. It says, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This is what I believe. This is my reality. Please sit down. Do you believe this now?
You see, the requirement for prophecy is a thorough understanding of the promises of God. You cannot speak prophetically in ignorance because God is only committed to what He has said, not what you want. It is only when your desire becomes what God has said that it looks like God is answering you. You see, what God is answering is not really your desire. He's honoring His word that you have found and connected to your desire. Because in this kingdom, if God has not spoken, His anointing has no ministry. The assignment of the anointing is to insist that the word does not become a lie in your life. Genesis 21 and verse 1: "And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken." God only visits as He has said. He only does as He has spoken. Did you get that? So if He has not said it, and if you cannot find where He has said it, there is no basis for performance in your life.
The third ministry of prayer is someone learning. Yes, I refuse to be defeated, not when I have disadvantage in my life. No, no, no. I define my possibilities. I don't wait for life to happen to me. That is a dangerous adventure. I can't risk my life. I have just one lifetime. I'm not going to put one lifetime at the mercy of wicked people, wicked systems. No. Job already taught us a lesson by being silent. I wouldn't be silent. I have to participate in every outcome that happens in my life. No devil will make any discussions and then I become a victim of operations of spirits and territorial powers. No, no discussions were concluded about Job, and the Bible says on a certain day.
The third assignment of prayer. You see, for many of you, your life has gone inconsistent with your desires because you are just allowing life to just happen. Now, when you leave a farm without planting, something will grow. What is it called? One more time. We define "weed" in agriculture as unwanted plants, at least with respect to your farm. Unwanted. Wanted. Every tree that has not been planted by my Father, it is my responsibility to uproot it. Are we together? So you find out that you're roaming over Boston and it looks like doors are closed, everyone hates you. Come on, don't go around attracting sympathy. Lock yourself. You have an advantage: the prayer ministry. You pray in the spirit and you stretch your hands like the priest that you are and begin to make prophetic, scripture-based declarations.
Here's what the Bible says: "Is any among you afflicted? James 5:13. It says, let him pray." Now watch this. Then it says, "Let him call for the elders of the church." My goodness. I like this. Watch this. It says, "And let them pray, help that person under the anointing, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Read verse 15 and never forget this scripture for the rest of your life: "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick." Hold on. "And by the power of prayer, the Lord shall raise him up." Prayer raises men up. Hallelujah. The Lord shall raise him up. From a nobody and put you in a global scale. Do you believe this?
Listen, do not let contemporary society make it look like prayer is just an activity of fanatical Christians. You would be doing your destiny a disservice. Prayer. He spake a parable to the end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
So number one: praying in the spirit for your edification, growth, and transformation. Number two: using scripture-based prayer as a basis for obtaining requests and making petitions. "Unto thee shall all flesh come." The Bible says. Number three: creating possibilities in your life is like an act of legislating things. You are enacting laws in the spirit and establishing them. The Bible says, "Where the word of a king is, there is power." It says, "Declare ye that thou mightest be justified." Don't be silent. Give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem as a praise.
Number four: The fourth and final assignment of prayer is for warfare and prophetic intercession. I hope you believe in warfare. Let me define for you what I call warfare. Warfare is a prophetic system of establishing the word of God and establishing the will of God over lives, destinies, and territories. Warfare is concerned not just with fighting, but establishing realities that have been finished, making them manifest through the force of intercession. I'm going to be teaching you that because this is how you will take your territory. All the other aspects, excellence, leadership, value, you already have it. That me missing ingredient is what I came to show you. We are learning from you the other aspect because we've gotten weary in intercession. Well, then we've left excellence, we've learned leadership, and so we are coming to borrow that. But in exchange, hallelujah, we're importing to you how to exert dominion upon territories using the power of priesthood. Elijah stood in one place, not in a radio station, not in a TV station, and he shut down rain. Listen, if you learn what I'm about to show you tonight, the spiritual forces that trouble the purposes of God over Boston will be in trouble after tonight.
You see, Daniel was an intelligent leader, and Daniel understood the power of prayer. Now, before the king, he was a valuable person, excellent, intelligent, an administrator. The Bible says he had an excellent spirit, but all that was strengthened because of his prayer. So the spirits of the Medes and the Persians, they needed to investigate what was responsible for this man's excellence and dexterity in life. They traced it to his prayer. Can you imagine that? These spirits moved through men to enact one law against one man for just 30 days. They came through the angle of politics and governance to say, "For the next 30 days, no man would offer prayer to any God." King, sign this. And if anyone were found doing that, he would be thrown to the lions.
Then the Bible says, Daniel opened the window. Do you know why he opened the window? Facing Jerusalem, because when Solomon was dedicating the temple, he entered a covenant with God that everyone who faced Jerusalem offering prayer, that the Lord should hearken to them. And Daniel began to pray. And when they found him, they threw him at the Lion's Den. You know the story, and he refused to die. I didn't say he didn't die, he refused to die. If life is a choice, then death. Are we together?
You want to become a powerful believer. You must pray. Say, "In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, I obtain grace, I obtain grace to pray." One more time: "In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, I obtain grace, I obtain grace to pray." Can you pray in the spirit in one minute before we continue? "In the name of Jesus, I obtain grace to pray. I obtain grace to pray. I obtain grace to pray." Prayerlessness, let me go. "In the name of Jesus, prayerlessness, let me go." "In the name of Jesus, obtain grace." Hallelujah.