THE PLACE OF PRAYER IS NOT THE PLACE FOR BEGGING. IT IS A PLATFORM FOR RELATIONSHIP-BASED REQUESTS
-Pastor Paul Enenche at Dunamis International Gospel Centre on “COMPONENTS OF PRODUCTIVE PRAYER” at 1st Service, Glory Dome.
Father, thank You for this moment. Breath upon Your word. Touch someone today. Let not one person leave here the same way they have come.
Thank You for this second Sunday of the Harvest Glory. We look up to You to see the harvest of soul and also the harvest of glory. Blessed be Your name in Jesus precious name.
Give the Lord a big clap offering as you take your seat in the presence of the Lord.
Hallelujah!
I welcome everyone here this morning in Jesus precious name. I bring you greetings from Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State.
James 5:16-17
Speaking on the subject:
‘Components of Productive Prayer’. Our objective is to understand the components of productive and effective prayer.
Every system that works is made up of components.
You have a governmental system that works, it is made up of functional components; the Executive, the Legislative, the Judiciary. We have the private sector, the military, the paramilitary, civil service – functional components.
In the same manner, prayer that works, prayer that produces results is made up of functional components.
This morning, we shall look at three of those components and take one per service. The first one is, ‘Relationship With God’. Matthew 6:9, we read last week Sunday, it says, when you pray, say ye: Our Father Which art in heaven. That our Father is a statement of relationship.
There are few things I will like you to know about relationship, where it relates to prayer.
a). Relationship is the bedrock of communication. That is, communication stands on relationship, communication happens because there is relationship.
b). Relationship is the basis and the strength of requests.
Before a person makes request of another, that is meaningful, there should have been some level of relationship.
What is the meaning? When request is made outside of relationship, that process is called begging. A beggar makes request from strangers they have never known. But prayer is not the place for begging, prayer is not a place where a man comes to beg.
c). Prayer is the place of relationship-based requests. It is not the platform for begging. You don’t come and beg until God hears. It is the platform for relationship-based requests.
Examples abound in Scriptures of people who had relationship with God and on the basis of such relationship with God, they make requests.
- Abraham (Genesis 18:17-19). God said, shall I hide from Abraham what I do? That is, we are so close. This guy is my friend. In Genesis 19:27, we see Abraham rising up early in the day to the place where he stood before God, not necessarily to go and make any request but to have fellowship with God. No wonder throughout scriptures, Abraham was referred to as the friend of God (2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23).
Abraham approached God not for things, he approached God for Him, so he could stand and intercede on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah and God waited patiently to hear him because there was a relationship. - Elijah was a man who had a standing relationship with God and that standing relationship with God had nothing to do with requests (1 Kings 17:1). Elijah had a standing relationship with God that gave power to his utterances.
We read already, James 5:16-18, how he prayed and prayed and prayed again and closed the heaven, prayed again, open the heaven on the basis of a standing relationship with God. That was the example of Elijah. - David – the Bible calls David the man after God’s heart. That is, Me and this man are very close (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). How did this man after God’s heart pray? Psalm 40:1-3, Psalm 55:17.
How many of you know that, if there are a hundred children in a place and one of them is crying, the mother can recognise which one is the child, it is very, very clear. Where the relationship is strong, the voice is clear, the voice is audible, it is discernable. David said, I cried and He heard me, because we have a relationship. He is used to my voice. He doesn’t turned down my voice, He is used to my voice. I am not a stranger to Him, He is used to my voice. He knows my voice – that was David. - Daniel – Daniel was one man that Scripture calls greatly beloved of the Lord. Not by virtue of request but by virtue of relationship. (Daniel 9:23, Daniel 10:10-11, 19). Because of that love-relationship that existed between Daniel and God, his prayer life was both vibrant and fruitful (Daniel 6:10). Daniel prayed and the King of kings answered him.
We have seen the example of Abraham, Elijah, David and Daniel, what is the counsel this morning? - Determine to develop strong, vibrant relationship with God. Let this be your personal determination; to develop very strong and vibrant relationship with your Maker. What is the meaning of that? Let your relationship precedes your request from Him. Don’t allow God only to hear your voice because there was a problem.
Don’t allow God only to hear your voice because there is a need. How terrible will it be, for a man to hear from his wife and children only when there is something to buy or for a man to visit his wife only because he needs something from her – terrible, horrible situation that will be.
Don’t ever let God hear your voice only because you are in trouble. Listen to this, you may note it down: let Him recognise your voice at ordinary time, so He can respond to your voice at unusual time. Let Him recognise your voice at ordinary time, normal time, peaceful time, so He can respond to that voice at unusual time, challenging time, confrontation time.
Do you understand?
You only come to Him with problems once in awhile because if you have a vibrant relationship with Him, He will handle problems that you have not ask Him to handle (Isaiah 65:24). Let Him recognise your voice at ordinary time so He can respond to that voice at unusual time.
- Take time to seek His face, not just His hands and He will show you His hand, He will release for you His hand. He made His ways known to Moses (Psalm 103:7) before He could make His acts known to the children of Israel through Moses.
Because Moses was not praying for miracles, he said, if I have found favour in your sight, show me Your face (Exodus 33:18) and when Moses asked for that, God revealed to him, His hand.
Take days for fasting and prayer; not for a job, a husband, a wife, a car, not even against a witch but let it be, “Lord, show me Yourself. Let me know the side of You I haven’t know”.
Like Paul the Apostle said, in Philippians 3:19, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. If you see His face, if you know His face, He will reveal to you His hand.
Lift up your right hand everywhere you are.
We are dealing with curses, witchcrafts curses, ancestral curses, generational curses. Witchcrafts spells become a work over.
Lift up your right hand and just give God the praise.
🎶🎼Singing I love You Lord (3x)
I love You 🎼🎶
PRAYER:
Tell the Lord, I love You Lord. Just draw me close to Yourself. I need to know You more. I am not asking for anything this morning, I am just asking to know You. Draw me closer to Yourself.
Father we love You. Father let this be a defining moment for somebody. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Jeremiah 31:29-29
- Lift your hands and say Father, I come before You today and I surrender completely, my life to You. You are my saviour, You are my Lord, You are my deliverer.
Thank You for today. I seek Your face, not just Your hand and today, I am asking for total freedom from every ancestral curse, every generational curse, every family curse, every witchcraft curse, every occultic curse, every manipulation, every work of diabolism, every thing standing on my way and my life and my destiny. I receive freedom, I receive deliverance, I receive liberty today in the name of Jesus.
PROPHETIC DECLARATION:
By the Apostolic and Prophetic mantle upon my life this morning, I take authority over every ancestral curse, every generational curse, every family curse, every spirit husband curse, every unclean spirit curse, every serpentine spirit curse, every manipulation, every curse of stagnation, every anti-marital curse, every curse of barrenness, every curse of terminal disease, every curse of premature death, every curse of rise and crash, every curse of failure at the edge of breakthrough; this morning, I declare you dissolved, I declare you broken, I I declare you scattered in the name of Jesus.
Your liberty is confirmed, your freedom is confirmed from ancestral curses, family curses, from masquerades, demons and from every agenda of hell that is not from my Father in Heaven.