Tuesday 27 June 2017

On Prayers - The Elijah's Model. By Abalaka Eneojo Paul

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1Ki 17:1

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17 – 18

It was understood from the last post that prayers is fixing our eyes on Jesus and His available power; prayers are like firing the flare gun into heaven sending distress signals to heaven for heaven’s intervention on the earth; prayer is declaring your helplessness before the all sufficient God. Prayer goes beyond ordinary mind’s exercise and a verbal presentation, prayer is a spiritual exercise, a spiritual transaction with our Maker, a practice that gives us power and authority in the earth. A prayerless individual will only experience but meagre amount of heavenly power. E. M. Bounds asserted that “It is prayer-force which makes saints. Holy characters are formed by the power of real praying”. He also stated that “No amount of money, genius, or culture can move things for God. Holiness energizing the soul, the whole man aflame with love, with desire for more faith, more prayer, more zeal, more consecration—this is the secret of power”. Prayer is the doorway to accessing the power and unction of God and it is the most effective and requisite work of the believer.

The prophet Elijah declared against the king Ahab, arresting rains and dew upon the land of Israel, but behind this decree are loads of personal, private prayers and a stand before God. Elijah prayed earnestly that it might not rain before he declared no rain. The secret behind Elijah’s audacity is his stand before God. It is until your stand is recognized before God that you stand before men can be with consequences. Until you have prevailed in the place of secret prayers, you’d never prevail with men.

God’s power is available to anyone who would only persevere in the place of prayers, anyone who would only raise and service the altar of prayers.

The Prophet Elijah on the face of it appeared as a superhuman but was a man subject to the challenges we are subject to. What made Elijah phenomenal is his devotion to servicing his fellowship, his stand with God. It was prayer which gave to his life the awe-inspiring power. He was a man of mighty prayers – men of mighty prayer are men of mighty spiritual might. Elijah was much in prayers and fellowship with God and communed less with men – this is the reason the only content of his biography was “Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead” and nothing else aside his prayer devotions.

It is the type of prayer devotions of Elijah that is required of you and I and every other believer in this age, it must become one of our eminent characteristics – this is the only way we can mould things going wrong in and around us. It is the type of prayers that would empower us to with the boldness to confront systems and governments, the type of prayers that will authorizes us to be in place of God to suspend the rains and to release the rains according to our words. The type of prayers that would allow the move and revival of the most High God to sweep through the land, the type of prayers that creates the climate of Godliness upon the land. To pray like Elijah, and to have effects like Elijah, is the desperate need of this times.

Hear this, the health of your spirituality is a function of the health of your prayer life, the strength of your spirituality is a direct representation of the strength of your prayer life. You are spiritually bankrupt you who is bankrupt of prayers.

Throughout the ages, the price for the unction to function is much prayers. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked this earth and operated with so much unction because He would rise long before it is dawn a go to a place of prayers, Jesus while He was baptized by John went into the river Jordan praying – the Holy Spirit descended on Him (Luke 3:21); He was further driven to the place of a fasted prayers for forty days, he returned with power and His fame spread abroad. You cannot command results before men when you have not travailed in the place of prayers. Earnest prayers impacts the heart of God, the power of God and the workings of God. The baptism of the Holy Ghost came not to a group of people lounging and feasting, the baptism came to people who were in a protracted intense prayer meeting.

Daniel, a man of prayer would ignore been fed to hungry lions because praying was more important to him than life itself, Daniel through his made hungry lions salivate all through the night – his prayers made him an ‘not-eatable’. Joshua would command the sun and the moon and members of the solar system to stand still – he was a man of prayers and of the secret place. Moses had a walk with God that’s unequalled by any man in his times. The apostle Paul was a man who prayed more than everyone in his time – no wonder he outperform his contemporaries. David would seek the Lord early while others are successfully snoring their life away in sleep, Abraham and Isaac both maintained a secret place where they meet with God. Elijah’s praying was robust and resilient, insistent and persevering, and resistless in its elements of power. Ineffectual praying secures no results and brings neither glory to God nor good to the man praying.

In your prayers please pray, with all your combined energies of prayer, please pray. E. M. Bounds asserted that “Prayer carries the promise to its gracious fulfilment. It takes persistent and persevering prayer to give to the promise its largest and most gracious results”. In your prayers be persistent; in your prayers be insistent, in your prayers focus on God; in your prayers, deal with God; in your prayers, honour God. When you become mighty in prayers, you must become mighty in power. If you become a man of God via prayers, you can command earth’s elements at will.

Where are the praying men and women of fiery faith in this time who can incense Elijah’s prayers? We need at this territorial commanders who, can add to the force, fire and heady scent of Elijah’s praying by their own prayers.

Where are you?

Love
Abalaka Paul Eneojo.

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