Prayer is our spiritual breathing

Precious children of God, greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ! I bless your day today! May this day be successful and filled with the glory of the Lord! Today we will finish talking about effective prayer life.

We established that there are three levels in prayer. Here are the first two:

1. Asking when you know the will of God and receiving.
2. Seeking for the will of God when you don’t know it.

Today we will discuss the third level that comes into action when the first two kinds have been used but the answer has not come yet. So, this next level that Jesus spoke about is:

 „…knock, and it will be opened to you”.

1. Prayer is knocking until it is opened to you.

It happens that God has already revealed His will to you, and you have asked and prayed, but the door stays closed. If we carefully read Mathew (7:7-8), we see that after asking and seeking, we also need to knock and then it will be opened to us:

 «Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened».

Knock! Knock and keep knocking! And the door will be opened! We need faith so that we do not give up. In some situations, you ask clearly knowing the will of God. In other situations, you don’t know the will of God, but you pray, seek, and God reveals His will to you. In other situations, you ask, seek, and pray, but the door stays closed. What should you do then? You need to knock and keep knocking! And God promises to open the door.

Prayer is a very important part of our spiritual life. Prayer is our spiritual breath. And we must organize our lives in such a way that we have time for the things we discussed. Let’s review them:

1) Prayer is spiritual work when a human spirit fellowships with the Spirit of God. When you pray, your spirit feels that it has touched God and communicated with Him. If prayer has remained in the realm of mind, then prayer cannot be effective. Prayer takes the whole man, the spirit of man.

2) Prayer is deliberate drawing near to God when you leave other things and focus on God alone.

3) Prayer is fruitful time spent with God. This means that prayer and haste do not go together. “Telegraph prayers” do not usually work. Basically, prayer requires some quality time set apart just for this reason.

4) Prayer is two-way communication. The next time you pray, please remember to give God the opportunity to say something to you.

5) Prayer is pouring out of your heart before God. If you are concerned about something, go to God and pour out your heart before Him. It is not bad when we go to people; we need to help each other. But the first person you need to go to is God! God has given you this instrument of prayer so that you run to Him at the time of need.

6) Prayer proves that you need God. By praying you prove to God that you need Him. If you believe that you need God but you do not have any prayer life, then you deceive yourself.

7) Prayer is asking God according to His will and receiving from Him.

8) Prayer is seeking the will of God. Seek, and you will find.

9) Prayer is knocking until it is opened. Pray, seek and knock. You can ask from a distance; but in order to knock you need to get close. When we pray and ask but do not get an answer, it means God wants you to come closer and knock. I know for sure that you cannot knock being far away. I cannot knock on the door of the auditorium, if I stand at the pulpit. So sometimes in such a way God motivates us to draw even nearer to Him.

Ask God for grace to arrange your life for effective praying. Be honest with yourself today. Is your prayer life effective, or it has turned into fruitless routine? Maybe you really do not have any prayer relationship with God? You alone can answer these questions. We often talk of prayer; we hear of prayer. It makes us think that we know what prayer is. But do we practise praying? We know that prayer is necessary for our spiritual life, just like air is necessary for our physical life. We must be diligent and disciplined enough to pray. If you need healing for your spiritual life, then ask God: «Lord, please heal my prayer life. Renew my prayer life. Breathe Your life into my prayer life so that it would become alive. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask You to help me connect with You daily through prayerful fellowship. Help me deliberately draw near to You so that nothing – not work, not cares – will stand in the way of fellowshipping with You. Lord, remove all barriers out of my way to effective prayer. I do not want prayer to be a formality. Prayer is not just a formality; prayer is necessary for life. Help me, Lord! I receive Your strength. I receive Your grace. In the name of Jesus Christ! Amen. »

May God bless you and help you to become powerful prayer people who do great exploits in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Pastor Rufus Ajiboye