Gospel of St. Luke 11:1: “And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.”
This means Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father, and as the author and finisher of our faith, so also it is necessary for mankind to pray. Also, as God is the provider of all good things man needs in his earthly sojourn, it is essential for man to bring these in prayer before the Almighty Father.
Praying is an Art and as such, man must know the rules that regulate its fruitful and successful practice. A prayer or supplication is a conversation between man and God, or angel to God on man’s behalf.
For a prayer to be ideal, acceptable and result-oriented, it must pass through four parts, namely:
1. Man must have a right concept of God to whom we pray.
2. Man must get right with God, in a peak moral form.
3. The subject matter of our prayer must be acceptable, not frivolous or immoral.
4. Man must link up very well with God, the requests must be presented aright.
WHO IS THE GOD TO WHOM WE PRAY?
Man needs to understand the real nature of God. Some see Him as forever sitting in judgement. Some see Him as ordaining misery and bliss for others according to His mood. Some see Him as a severe God who must be appeased and bribed by flattery to bestow favour on man, no matter the strength and weakness of our frames.
Some see Him as God who might or might not listen to us when we pray and therefore must shout at Him for attention. Some see Him as God who must be moved to pity with our tears or punishment inflicted on ourselves. Some see His abode high up in the sky, in the distant heavens, dwelling so far away looking down on us mortals. Whereas, God is love, full of mercy, outstanding in compassion and kindness, but His judgement is extremely just, consistent, thorough and upright.
For answered prayers, our perception of God must be a loving, generous and all-knowing Father who is very close to us. He is in us, as we are the replica of His image and likeness, and He is ever at hand to answer our prayers if we put ourselves in a position to receive Him.
WHO IS MAN WHO MUST PRAY TO GOD?
Man must be in an acceptable state, to relate with God. When we approach a loving Father with clean hands and pure hearts, our prayer shall be easily acceptable before God. But when we come with filthy hearts of hate, envy, jealousy, slander, revenge, strife, inordinate ambition and hands dirty with murder, theft, immoral relationships and diabolical undertakings, He will tell us gently and firmly “Go back my child, clean your hands and hearts and then come to me.”
To be cleansed, we must repent and seek the Atonement power in the blood of Jesus Christ. This is not just by confession alone, but with a repentant heart to follow the Master, Jesus Christ.
Psalms 24:4-5: “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, and hath not sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
THE SUBJECT OF OUR PRAYER
The subject matter of our prayers must be right.
There are churches everywhere in Nigeria and the world over. These churches are ever praying night and day. Most often there are many vigil nights, fervent and persistent in prayer. Among these churches exist a common phenomenon. Most times they pray in the same manner- praying about killing the imaginary and perceived enemies. Praying to embarrass the Creator by shouting at God; and prayers that are abomination in the sight of God. All the fervency in prayers are to kill, destroy, terminate and command God.
These are wrong subject matters in prayer. Asking God to punish and destroy our enemies is a futile exercise. God shall not join man in revenge, because the evil Doers shall get their rewards whether we ask for it or not. Praying that God should fight against those who fight against us is equally a waste of time. What we need to pray for is protection from evil forces and power to overcome irresistible attacks.
If you want to kill, destroy, terminate and set ablaze, then you must turn to the demons and pay the prize dearly, even to your generations yet to come. The Law of God here is clear, it says; ‘’Thou shall not kill’’.
THE RIGHT APPROACH TO OUR FATHER GOD.
Whereas, when a child seeks a favour from his father, there exists a cordial and compassionate relationship of father- son, but there must be due respect and understanding of the position of the father. A well trained and disciplined child will not shout at his father when requesting for an obligation.
Let us be aware that there is a big difference between a plea and a curse; between a plea and a command.
A plea is a request to be sanctioned or approved by a higher authority or by the ownership of such obligations. This request may be granted, delayed, postponed or substituted outright for a better one.
A curse is a condemnation, or an act of judgement directed on the guilty. This has eliminated God’s input and decision in such prayer, it is a full judgement passed on another person, regardless of God’s opinion, which is the best judgement.
A command is an authority or charge from a superior to a subordinate. Commanding God to influence a request is a misdemeanour and an insult on the authority and supremacy of God, over all His creatures.
Such statements like these are abominations to God: “God, anybody inhibiting my progress must die.” “I must become a Landlord this year, by all means in Jesus name.” “God answer me by fire by fire now.” “All my enemies must be destroyed now in Jesus name.” “Fire! Fire! Fire! Consume them.” Thunder! Thunder! Thunder, strike them.” “Die! Die! Die! You must die.” “All forces of darkness, die.” “God you are owing me, answer me now.”
Christians have turned the Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter into an Agent of destruction, to persecute their enemies, kill their fellow humans and make way for their selfish desires, even those that were not the wish of God Almighty.
Followers of Christ have turned the name above all names, that all knees shall bow, and tongues confess on mentioning the name of Jesus Christ, into an oracle that destroys and ruins destinies, dreams and God’s covenants in the life of mankind.
Modern day Christians have turned God the Omnipotent into an errand Agent, to be called and commanded at will, to grant their desires without following the rules and laws of God.
METHOD OF COMMUNICATION IN PRAYERS
The communication link must be right to actually commune with God. Communication with God is not by the words we uttered, not by the splendid terms we employed and not by the pleasantly full loud voice we used. The best link with God is human thought, this is by allowing good thoughts to rise from within us to high heavens. The easiest to get the best result is to go into silence and speak to God “face to face” for He is in spirit. They that worship and talk to Him must do so in spirit and in truth.
It is a common phenomenon these days when the officiating priest calls on the congregation to pray, then follows the cacophony, the babel of sounds with everyone trying to out-do the other in an outpouring of requests to the Universal Source of all life.
Jesus thought us in Matthew 6:6: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.”
God is a God of law and order, he who must approach Him must come with reverence to submit their requests in an orderly and respective manner.
AIDS TO EFFECTIVE PRAYER.
1. Gratitude and thanksgiving for mercies and graces received. The greatest way to seek the face of God in prayer is to delight in giving thanks and praises to Him.
Psalms 100:4: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise: Give thanks unto Him, and bless His name.”
2. Confession of and repentance of past sins, as God abhors sins, filth and uncleanliness. Man must approach Him in clean body, soul and spirit. To do these calls for confession of sins and heart of repentance.
Luke 13:5: “I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
3. Constancy in prayer, not only when we are in need. Constantly and with persistence, every desire and request shall be obtained.
Philippians 4:6: “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
4. Faith is very important in prayer. When you pray believe that you have received, and you shall have it.
Matthew 21:21: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done.”
5. Reverence and concentration in prayer is essential. Wandering of minds is serious distraction to Divine undertakings. Likewise, due reverence to our ageless God and source of all wisdom is very essential in prayer.
Hebrews 12:9: “Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”
6. In prayer man’s thinking must be positive, well defined and free from doubts and fears.
Isaiah 41:10: “fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.”
7. Repetition of requests during prayer are symptoms of lack of faith. God knows man’s thoughts, even before we come before Him, so fruitless repetitions are unnecessary.
Matthew 6:7: “And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
CONCLUSION
Fear brings failure. False suspicion leads to deformation of spirituality of man, while rash judgement blindfolds divine reasoning. Still, all these shortcomings are consistent in the thought forms of most Christians. All these have intensified negative prayers that were not attended to and have made the situation in Christendom even worst.
The Mediums; – prophets, seers, dreamers and those with gifts of revelation are aggravating the situation of negative prayers, by giving messages of witches and wizards as being responsible for the lack of progress of their congregation. This further has negative impact on the subconscious mind of the children of God. Thus, increasing the fear and intensifying the witchcraft prayer of Holy Ghost Fire! Holy Ghost Thunder! Die in the name of Jesus Christ! God of Elijah slaughter them!
The followers of Christ are the army of Light, the divine warriors of God on earth. If our prayers are found wanting, cannot ascend to the Throne of God, and are not compliant with the rules and laws of God for answered prayers, then we are not effective.
Let us remember that there exists the army of darkness, the legions of fallen angels. When we are not effective and fervent in our prayers, we concede many things to the realm of chaos to direct and control. This is what is happening to our environment, our homes and the church of God.
‘Nigeria’ has unwittingly become a global case study of, how a Nation can be so deeply religious and yet not prosperous. The idea is that religiosity leads to prosperity, but in the context of Nigeria nation, reverse is the case. This is because, in prayer, many have wrong concept of God, many do not get right with God, often the subject matter of prayer is not acceptable, and the method of presentation of requests to God is faulty. Coupled with these is the inadequacy of consistent efforts by believers to push through the Christ ideals that we preach and believe.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven ‘suffereth’ violence, and men of violence take it by force.”
Matthew 11:12.
“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. 2 Thessalonians 3: 13.
Let us pray: May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord keep and sustain you. May your prayers conform with the righteous. May you communicate within in spirit with God Almighty, and may you have dominion over negative thoughts and prayers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
