PRAYER

PRAYER

“Eureka! Itofa finally learnt how to pray”- this has been playing out in my subconscious in the past two weeks. How are you doing? You should know I pray for this blog and everyone that comes across it, if you’re here now reading I just want to say thank you for letting an eighteen year old share his daily experience with Jesus with you. The responses I get are really awesome even if it’s just a handful today, it’s something to be grateful for- Thank you and am humbled by your presence.

I know most of us when we find articles like this captioned “Prayer” we naturally just want to withdraw - “nah it’s not for me” (even before checking what it’s about.) well I use to be that way – things that had too many bible text were no just my style so I’ll read the article and skip the text… it’s all good though, I’m gonna keep this simple I promise. So, Easter just passed; it was a great time with family we had a full house, the real reason was Jesus and it still is – aaah, I did not forget that after having so much to eat (laughs). Jesus has risen, death couldn’t hold him down. He went to hell defeated the devil in his home and territory, got the keys and unlocked the gate of Hades – that’s my Jesus bruv (brother), that’s my Jesus! Everybody in hell at that time was set free – Halleluiah.

In the post “Authority and Power” I stressed how much power you and I have in Jesus. Right now I walk with My head up high (very high) just knowing am not alone because God’s got my back and I’ve got at least two guardian angels who are guiding me, so you can now see. How do I know I have at least two angels? Billy Graham dissecting Psalm 91:11 ‘for He will give his angels to protect you wherever you go’. “The plural form of angel was used in that text that means everyone’s got at least two angels”– Billy Graham

Friend you are a child of the most high, God’s masterpiece, He brags about you - why don’t you show the devil the stuff you’re made of? The devil has had his way long enough.

WHAT IS PRAYER??

More often than not we pray wrongly, Prayer is an act of talking to God – simple. I recently learnt that it’s not about how articulate I sound but how sincere and how much of Gods will is in my prayer.

Everybody wants to get to God (that is getting Him to answer us). So, what’s the trick to it? There is no trick to it my friend. I told a friend recently to “keep grinding in God” - as dope (fresh, cool, nice) as it sounds it really goes beyond ordinary utterance. For me to get more of God I’ve got to go deep in Him (deep to the point you unconsciously pray in your sleep and hear God speak to you like you’re reading a book). Maybe I should adopt this phrase “keep grinding in God”, (what do you guys think??).

 Keep grinding in God friend!

My mom had been complaining about incessant joint pains especially the one at the tarsals (ankle), tibia and fibula. For months she’ll go on complaining how it hurts. Being a tailor that she is, the tarsals (ankle) works a lot in peddling; she peddles for an average of five to six hours from Monday through Friday, so you can imagine. I found out she had arthritis – in a simple term the joints will keep aching whoever has it, I decided I wasn’t going to tell her about it but I just kept praying and asking God to “please heal my mom”.

One weekend we were just having one of those random conversations when she brought that pain up again, I just did not know when I spilled it out that the joint pain was arthritis then she said she knew. After so much prayer for my mom unknowing to her I just kept wondering why there was no change- that’s why it’s said “ignorance is a silent killer”, in my innocence I thought I was praying the right way not knowing I was only just talking all the while I had not started declaring.

Lucky for me I had fasted this day; having spent a better part of my day with God I was charged up I knew it, it felt like a surge of power through my veins – I just knew the devil wouldn’t even dare test me that day. That evening my mom was in the sitting room watching TV, while everybody was talking about their day she interpolated the discussion by asking who was going to massage her leg, stylishly everybody sneaked into their rooms – I was the first (laughs).

Something brought me to the sitting room again and I saw my mom just sitting there rubbing her hands on her leg; there and then I knew I had to lay hands on that leg- albeit the thoughts that were running through my mind; like what was going to make this prayer any different from all of the prayers I’ve had?

I knew for a fact that heaven recognized my name and there was something different about that day – there was a paradigm shift in my prayer pattern; I said: “mummy am going to lay hands on your leg now and irrespective of what happens you have to trust that Jesus healed you two thousand years ago” – that was all that made the difference, I just went on and commanded the arthritis out in Jesus’ name and thanked God for the healing. Of course, the pain was still there that night but there was a change in the pattern of thought because Jesus did it two thousand years ago. This was three weeks ago and my mom hasn’t complained of any joint pain – halleluiah! She keeps saying “Itofa since you prayed for me I’ve not been feeling that pain like before” – am always quick to remind her that it’s God because Jesus did it for her two thousand years ago she only just got it now.

Why did I share this episode with you?  

You have to know that people are dealing with a lot, just because they make-up and look beautiful on the outside does not mean everything is ok on the inside… people are dealing with ailments, addiction, tough subjects in school, in between lines of making critical life choices, this can be daunting, but just praying right can fix all of these.

HOW DO I PRAY RIGHT??

It’s pretty simple like 1, 2, 3… learn to hear God first. There are times when you pray but you know in your heart of heart that it’s going nowhere probably because you’ve done something wrong, learn to confess it and believe God has tossed it into His sea of forgetfulness – don’t give the devil room to taunt you or put you on a guilt trip.

Most times we just make request all the time not minding if God just wants to spend time with us. There are times you should keep what you want to ask from God aside and just bask in His presence, God wants to spend time with His child. Your request is known to Him before you even THINK of asking.

 There is an ASKING prayer and there is a DECLARATION prayer.

You don’t begin to BEG God to heal you, He’s healed you already – Jesus took the stripes two thousand years ago, you exercise authority by speaking to the ailment, telling it that Jesus took it on the cross so, you’re living vicariously.

It’ll be wrong to begin to COMMAND God to give you grace to serve Him, to love your neighbor or to be humble – but you ASK Him with gentleness of spirit. And be sure to get your request met as long as it’s in line with God’s will.

This is PRAYER.

ADD-ON: some people think that FASTING is a way of getting God to hear their heart cry not knowing that it is the lifestyle of a believer; for once it’ll be good you take control of the flesh because the flesh will keep seeking things God has asked us not to desire. Take out time to fast, maybe once in a week or twice depending on how far your strength can take you.

Let me show you what fasting does for you: it sharpens your spiritual acumen (antenna) to hear from God because you’ve taken a deliberate step to shut out all distractions. It gives you supernatural wisdom and strength to face the coming week or days in the week head-on.

God bless you!

-Itofa