DAY 8: Thursday 9th January 2014

08 January 2014

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DAY 8: Thursday

9th January 2014

FOCUS: HOLY SPIRIT DELIVER US FROM PRAYERLESSNESS,

MAKE US A PRAYING CHURCH

TEXTS: Romans 8:26; I Thessalonians 5:17; Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18; Colosians 4:2; Hosea 13:9

INSIGHT FOR EFFECTIVE PRAYING

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer, in Zechariah 12:10 He is called the spirit of grace and supplication. The Holy Spirit empowers genuine believers to pray (Rom. 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit leads us to pray according to God’s will and list.

You cannot be a spirit-filled believer if you are not fervent in prayer and we cannot claim be a spirit-filled Church, if we are not prayerful. Prayer is utterly crucial to your life. Jesus said in Luke 21:36, “keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place”

Prayerlessness grieves the Holy Spirit. Prayerlessness is the cause of the low spiritual vitality and utter impotence among us. Prayerlessness is ‘no’ or little praying. It is praying without significant effects on the kingdom of God and that of Satan. It is praying without scriptural focus, force and urgency. It is praying without putting a great deal of time and so much heart into our praying. It is lack of prevailing prayer either in a Church or in life. Prayerlessness is evil. It is a killer disease. It is a refusal to obey God’s call to pray without ceasing. Prayer is a key weapon of the kingdom. When man works, man works. But when man prays God works. Today, what is wrong with the Church of Christ is lack of quality time for prayer. What is wrong with preachers is this same sin. What is wrong with the pew is still that blighting sin of prayerlessness.

Prayerlessness is more than a fault, mistake or negligence. It is a serious sin. Prayerlessness is insulting the Spirit of prayer as well as the Spirit of grace. He calls people to pray. He gives people prayer burdens or assignments. He wakes people up to pray but each time we fail to honour the Holy Spirit’s invitation to pray even during odd times, we are insulting the Spirit of grace like a backslider would do… “An hath done despite unto the spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29c).

Prayerlessness is the secret behind poverty and powerlessness of an average Christian minister and the Church.

What Prayerlessness Does

Ø Prayerlessness makes the local Church to become dry ground where living seed cannot easily germinate.

Ø Prayerlessness makes our altars to become dry; devoid of penitent tears.

Ø It opens the doors of our Churches to satanic agents to operate at will.

Ø It makes Churches to decay.

Ø It cools off revival fires in our Churches.

Ø It makes the ripe harvest appointed to every local Church to decay.

Ø It makes evangelism effort of the Church ineffective.

Ø It promotes shallowness and carnality in the Church of God.

Ø It closes doors against revival.

Ø It hinders regular, free and full manifestations of the power of God and the gifts of the Spirit.

Ø It robs the Church of the strength to perform the difficult and urgent task given to it by Jesus Christ.

Ø It puts the Church of God in the threshold of failure. The supernatural element in the Church without which it cannot succeed, comes only through praying.

Making Our Church A Praying Church

Defeat awaits any Church that is not given to much prayer. Prayer is dying literally a natural death in many Churches. Most Churches today are given to ‘Survival prayer’. But real praying or intercessory prayer is being grossly neglected.

A praying Church is a Church with enough praying men and women, a Church with vibrant intercessors. A praying Church is a prayer-hungry Church in this sin-hungry age. It is a Church that makes prayer a human necessity (II Chronicles 15:12,16).

Beloved, prayerlessness is a great evil. Due to our prayerlessness, we miss many blessings. People are sick when they might be well. Some die when they might live. Businesses fail when they might prosper. And people go hungry and without proper clothing who might be covered and fed to the glory of God. Prayerlessness is both a Church and saint killer. It wrecks the usefulness and fruitfulness of a Christian. We must overcome prayerlessness. It takes strong decision, discipline and the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome prayerlessness. Remember that every call to pray by the Holy Spirit that we ignored, condemns us. Every opportunity to pray we lost condemns us. Every prayer meeting we failed to attend, condemns us. Every prayer points God dropped in our hearts we failed to pray over, seriously condemns us. So, arise pray without ceasing, make your Church a praying Church.

LET US PRAY

1. O Lord, forgive us as individuals and as a whole in GOFAMINT of the sin of prayerlessness. O Lord, deliver us from prayerlessness.

2. O Lord, forgive us as individuals and as a Church of our selfish-ends to prayers.

3. Holy Spirit, forgive us of our biased and unbiblical praying.

4. Holy Spirit, refill us anew with the zeal and strength to pray.

5. Holy Spirit, create in us the burning desire and hunger to intercede for troubled and perishing souls.

6. Lord Jesus, give us the spirit of patience in the place of prayer. Help us to tarry in the place of prayer.

7. Holy Spirit, endear us with the love for the Bible that we may always pray according to the word of God- Bible centred prayers.

8. Holy Spirit, fill us to the overflowing that we do not pray according to the dictates of the flesh, but according to your leading.

9. Holy Spirit, rekindle the fire of prayer in GOFAMINT.

10. Raise up true intercessors in GOFAMINT, make me one of them, O Lord.

11. Holy Spirit, help us to revive our weekly prayer meeting and all necessary vigils.

12. Holy Spirit cause me to be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19)

13. Holy Spirit, let there be an outpouring of Your Spirit on GOFAMINT and let every wilderness turn into fruitful field and the fruitful fields, a forest.