Beloved, I am glad to share with you today, some important remarks on prayer. We just completed the presentation of the seven pillars of prayer as they are found in the Holy Scriptures and that we selected as foundation of our teaching.
You may have noticed, I believe, that the seventh pillar remains the higher step leading us close our heavenly Father.
Moreover, we have summarized in sixteen points, what is important to know on prayer. We could exchange on this theme throughout our teaching.
First of all, let’s take note that:
1- The first prayer in the Bible appears in Genesis 4: 26:
And Seth had a son, and he gave him the name of Enosh: at this time men first made use of the name of the Lord in worship.
2- The universal necessity of prayer is consigned in three verses:
a) Psalms 65:2 To you, O hearer of prayer, let the words of all flesh come.
b) Isaiah 56:7 I will make them come to my holy mountain, and will give them joy in my house of prayer; I will take pleasure in the burned offerings which they make on my altar: for my house will be named a house of prayer for all peoples.
c) Luke 11: 2-4 And he said to them, When you say your prayers, say, Father, may your name be kept holy and your kingdom come. 3 Give us everyday bread for our needs. 4 May we have forgiveness for our sins, as we make free all those who are in debt to us. And let us not be put to the test.
3- The Holy Spirit assists in prayer
Romans 8:26-27 And in the same way the Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts: for we are not able to make prayer to God in the right way; but the Spirit puts our desires into words which are not in our power to say; 27 And he who is the searcher of hearts has knowledge of the mind of the Spirit, because he is making prayers for the saints in agreement with the mind of God.
4- Christians’ payers are worthy:
Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty rulers went down on their faces before the Lamb, having every one an instrument of music, and gold vessels full of perfumes, which are the prayers of the saints.
5- Prayer rises like incense before the Almighty God
Revelation 8:3 And another angel came and took his place at the altar, having a gold vessel for burning perfume; and there was given to him much perfume, so that he might put it with the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar which was before the high seat.
6-Praying is a commandment:
1 Chronicles 16:11 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him.
Hosea 14:3 Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father.
Matthew 7:7 Make a request, and it will be answered; what you are searching for you will get; give the sign, and the door will be open to you.
Matthew 26:41 Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test: the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble.
Luke 18:1 And he made a story for them, the point of which was that men were to go on making prayer and not get tired;
Luke 21: 36 But keep watch at all times with prayer, that you may be strong enough to come through all these things and take your place before the Son of man.
John 16:24 Up to now you have made no request in my name: do so, and it will be answered, so that your hearts may be full of joy.
Ephesians 6:18 With prayers and deep desires, making requests at all times in the Spirit, and keeping watch, with strong purpose, in prayer for all the saints,
Philippians 4:6 Have no cares; but in everything with prayer and praise put your requests before God.
Colossians 4:2 Give yourselves to prayer at all times, keeping watch with praise;
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Keep on with your prayers.
1 Timothy 2:8 It is my desire, then, that in every place men may give themselves to prayer, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or argument.
James 5:13 Is anyone among you in trouble? let him say prayers. Is anyone glad? let him make a song of praise.
7-You have the duty of searching for God
Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
2 Chronicles 14:3-4 3 For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood pillars cut down; 4 And he made Judah go after the Lord, the God of their fathers, and keep his laws and his orders.
Psalms 105:4 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him.
Isaiah 55:6 Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near:
Jeremiah 29:13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart.
Hosea 10:12 Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain.
Amos 5:4 For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life:
Zephaniah 2:3 Make search for the Lord, all you quiet ones of the earth, who have done what is right in his eyes; make search for righteousness and a quiet heart: it may be that you will be safely covered in the day of the Lord’s wrath.
Matthew 6:33 But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition.
Luke 11: 10 For to everyone who makes a request, it will be given; and he who is searching will get his desire; and to him who gives the sign, the door will be open.
Ac 17: 27 So that they might make search for God, in order, if possible, to get knowledge of him and make discovery of him, though he is not far from every one of us:
8-We should be waiting on God: It is commanded to wait on God
Psalms 25:5 Be my guide and teacher in the true way; for you are the God of my salvation; I am waiting for your word all the day.
Psalms 27:14 Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.
Psalms 62:1 My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes my salvation.
Psalms 123:2 See! as the eyes of servants are turned to the hands of their masters, and the eyes of a servant-girl to her owner, so our eyes are waiting for the Lord our God, till he has mercy on us.
Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour.
Isaiah 8:17 And I will be waiting for the Lord, whose face is veiled from the house of Jacob, and I will be looking for him.
Isaiah 40:31 But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.
Hosea 12: 6 So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right, and be waiting at all times on your God.
9-You have proximity of God in prayer and communion
1 Samuel 14:36 And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, attacking them till the morning, till there is not a man of them living. And they said, Do whatever seems right to you. Then the priest said, Let us come near to God.
Psalms 73:28 But it is good for me to come near to God: I have put my faith in the Lord God, so that I may make clear all his works.
Hebrews 7:19 (Because the law made nothing complete), and in its place there is a better hope, through which we come near to God.
Hebrews 10:22 Let us go in with true hearts, in certain faith, having our hearts made free from the sense of sin and our bodies washed with clean water:
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evildoers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind.
10-You may access into God’s presence
Psalms 24:3-4 3 Who may go up into the hill of the Lord? and who may come into his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a true heart; whose desire has not gone out to foolish things, who has not taken a false oath.
Isaiah 26:2 Let the doors be open, so that the upright nation which keeps faith may come in.
John 10:9 I am the door: if any man goes in through me he will have salvation, and will go in and go out, and will get food.
John 14: 6 Jesus said to him, I am the true and living way: no one comes to the Father but by me.
Romans 5:2 Through whom, in the same way, we have been able by faith to come to this grace in which we now are;and let us have joy in hope of the glory of God.
Ephesians 2:18 Because through him the two of us are able to come near in one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 3:12 By whom we come near to God without fear through faith in him.
Hebrews 10:19 So then, my brothers, being able to go into the holy place without fear, because of the blood of Jesus,
1Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Revelation 3:8 I have knowledge of your works (see, I have put before you an open door which may be shut by no one), and that you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have been true to my name.
11-Particular exhortations for prayer
1 Kings 3:5 In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you.
Zechariah 10:1 Make your request to the Lord for rain in the time of the spring rains, even to the Lord who makes the thunder-flames; and he will give them showers of rain, to every man grass in the field.
Matthew 7:8 Because to everyone who makes a request, it will be given; and he who is searching will get his desire, and to him who gives the sign, the door will be open
Matthew 21: 22 And all things, whatever you make request for in prayer, having faith, you will get.
Luke 11:9 And I say to you, Make requests, and they will be answered; what you are searching for, you will get; when you give the sign, the door will be open to you.
John 14: 13 And whatever request you make in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may have glory in the Son.
John 15:7 If you are in me at all times, and my words are in you, then anything for which you make a request will be done for you.
John 16:24 Up to now you have made no request in my name: do so, and it will be answered, so that your hearts may be full of joy.
James 1:5 But if any man among you is without wisdom, let him make his request to God, who gives freely to all without an unkind word, and it will be given to him.
1 John 5:14 And we are certain that if we make any request to him which is right in his eyes, he will give ear to us:
12 –Looking for God: examples
2 Chronicles 11: 16 And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 14: 6 He made walled towns in Judah, for the land was quiet and there were no wars in those years, because the Lord had given him rest.
2 Chronicles 17: 4 But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did.
2 Chronicles 26: 5 He gave himself to searching after God in the days of Zechariah, who made men wise in the fear of God; and as long as he was true to the Lord, God made things go well for him.
Ezra 8:21 Then I gave orders for a time of going without food, there by the river Ahava, so that we might make ourselves low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.
Psalms 24: 6 This is the generation of those whose hearts are turned to you, even to your face, O God of Jacob.
Psalms 27: 6 And now my head will be lifted up higher than my haters who are round me: because of this I will make offerings of joy in his tent; I will make a song, truly I will make a song of praise to the Lord
Psalms 119: 10 I have made search for you with all my heart: O let me not go wandering far from your teaching.
John 12: 21 They came to Philip, who was of Beth-saida in Galilee, and made a request, saying, Sir, we have a desire to see Jesus.
13- Genuine prayers are granted
Job 34: 28 So that the cry of the poor might come up to him, and the prayer of those in need come to his ears.
Psalms 4: 3 See how the Lord has made great his mercy for me; the Lord will give ear to my cry.
Psalms 18: 6 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came before him, even into his ears.
Proverbs 15: 29 The Lord is far from sinners, but his ear is open to the prayer of the upright.
Psalms 34:17 The cry of the upright comes before the Lord, and he takes them out of all their troubles.
Micah 7: 7 But as for me, I am looking to the Lord; I am waiting for the God of my salvation: the ears of my God will be open to me.
Zechariah 10: 6 And I will make the children of Judah strong, and I will be the saviour of the children of Joseph, and I will make them come back again, for I have had mercy on them: they will be as if I had not given them up: for I am the Lord their God and I will give them an answer.
14-God is mindful to the prayer of the upright:
2 Samuel 22: 7 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came to his ears.
Psalms 34: 16 The eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their cry.
Psalms 94: 9 Has he by whom your ears were planted no hearing? or is he blind by whom your eyes were formed?
Isaiah 59: 1 Truly, the Lord’s hand has not become short, so that he is unable to give salvation; and his ear is not shut from hearing:
Isaiah 65: 24 And before they make their request I will give an answer, and while they are still making prayer to me, I will give ear.
James 5: 4 See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.
1 Peter 3: 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
15-Prayers at times are not granted because against God’s will:
Exodus 33: 20 But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man may see me and still go on living.
Deuteronomy 3:26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not give ear to my prayer; and the Lord said to me, Let it be enough, say no more about this thing.
2 Samuel 12:16 So David made prayer to God for the child; and he took no food day after day, and went in and, stretching himself out on the earth, was there all night.
Ezekiel 20: 3 Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions from me.
2 Corinthians 12: 8 And about this thing I made request to the Lord three times that it might be taken away from me.
16-Agreed upon prayers(social, family) are granted:
Matthew 18: 19 Again, I say to you, that if two of you are in agreement on earth about anything for which they will make a request, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
Luke 1: 10 And all the people were offering prayers outside, at the time of the burning of perfumes.
Acts 1: 14 And they all with one mind gave themselves up to prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Acts 4: 24 And hearing it, they all, with one mind, made prayer to God and said, O Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them:
Ac 12: 12 And when he became clear about this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John named Mark, where a number of them had come together for prayer.
Acts 21: 5 And when these days came to an end, we went on our journey; and they all, with their wives and children, came with us on our way till we were out of the town: and after going on our knees in prayer by the sea,
These are the sixteen preliminary remarks I wanted to point out today on prayer. We may obtain all things from Christ Jesus through prayers. We just need for that to put in practice the Holy Scriptures.
Our prayers strengthen you in your efforts in understanding the above remarks on prayers.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me as follows :
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my Lord and personal Savior. I acknowledge that you died on the cross of Calvary and that you rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me each day to eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal to me and strengthen my heart and my faith so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me in your divine family so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To you all adoration, power, and glory, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be glad to revert on your queries before coming up next week with some outstanding prayers as well as their characteristics.
May the Almighty God bless you in abundance.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.