THE PRAYER OF FAITH - PART 1

 THE PRAYER OF FAITH - PART 1

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Matthew 6:5 "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward"

6 "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly".

Prayer is a form of communication between man and a superior being, in our case GOD ALMIGHTY. It is an avenue whereby we relate with our Father, talk to Him and He responds unto us. Prayer is one very important weapon of our warfare, and which is a must have for every believing child of God. A life not given to prayer is a life meat for life oppositions, torments and peril. Just as a warrior will not face a battle without his armour, we cannot face the battles of this life without Prayer. But according to scriptures, we see that not every prayer is acceptable before God. Over time, we have come to realize in our Christian journey and looking at the lives of our biblical patriarchs, we are not measured based on a scale formed by ourselves, but there is a requirement we must meet as believing children of God - a yardstick upon which our life actions are weighed (1Samuel 2:3). There are certain necessities that must be in place before our prayers can be accepted. Just as Christ taught us in Matthew 6:5; until your Prayers are acceptable, you cannot enjoy the rewards. 

It was the words of Matthew Henry that said: 'When God wants to begin a thing He sets the Men a-praying. Prayer is earthly permission for Heavenly interference. Man is the sole custodian of activities and happenings in the earth realm. Spirits are not permitted to execute any action on the earth without the endorsement of Men–Psalm115:16. 

Prayer is the legal means by which man involves Divinity into the situation. Men who wrought power in God were men given to prayers. Prayer is the route to accessing possibilities in God. If Prayer then procures our access to possibilities in God, we must therefore understand what makes it acceptable.

Who are the hypocrites?

The Bible made mention of the hypocrites- the Pharisees and Sadducees who show case their spirituality in order to be recognized as being spiritual; they show off in order to be seen and these category of people can never be answered. When the Bible says, close the door and shut, it is literally not what it means. This is just an emphasis that Prayer is a thing between you and God to whom it is rendered. Only two parties are involved and any other attempt at interfering with this channel disregards this order. The First is; Prayer is between you and your GOD.

One other fundamental that makes our Prayer acceptable is FAITH. The connectability of our Prayer life with Faith facilitates the flow of our prayers. Until we have believed in Him to whom we make our supplications, we can never get our response. This was why the Bible in James 5 talks about the Prayer of Faith. Until your prayers have mixed with Faith, you are not permitted to receive the answers. It is one thing to have a Father who sees in secret and rewards openly; and another to be able to believe His capacity to reward you. Hebrews 11:6 "he that will come to the Father must first believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him". You just must believe.

As our biblical patriarchs did- the likes of Abraham, Moses, Noah, Gideon, David. These men did not just get on with God, they had Faith working in and for them(Hebrews 11). 

Faith is THAT ASSURANCE (Hebrews 11:1) that when we have asked a thing, the answer is already with us. It is a proof of our answered prayers. Matthew 7:7 talks about our request to the Father; "Ask and it shall be given; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you".Verse 8 is the confirmation (FAITH). Vs 8 "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened". Here it is no longer a prayer as in verse 7 but an assurance that verse 7 is possible. When we add Faith to our Prayer, we literarily hand over the charge to GOD Himself. We must understand that when we pray, there is a part we play in speaking the words; i.e if the right words are not spoken, the right answers won't come. But in Faith, we hand everything over to GOD. This was what Jehoshaphat and the host of the children of Israel did in 2Chronicles 20. From verse 3 "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah..." Verse 20 "Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established, believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper".

In the preceding verses, we see the King and his people first prayed, then FAITH was brought into action and they won the battle. We can only win the battles in prayer when we have already won with our FAITH.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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