Sunday Sermons – Page 2 – Ayatutu Reporters

Two Reasons Why Prayers Are Unanswered

Psalm 65:1-13

“Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.” Psalm 65:1-2

Many prayers of the children of God are products of their ignorance and wrong thinking and as such they are unanswerable. I do not mean God does not hear them; but He cannot answer their prayers because they are not scriptural. For the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing with you some basic steps that will ensure your breakthrough in prayers.

We shall be studying Psalm 65 which to me is one of the chapters in the Bible on prayers-penned by a man that knew what he was talking about. David. He certainly knew how to pray. Not just that, he also got results from his prayers. Many can pray, but with no result!

Please note this secret very well: the lack of breakthrough in the prayer life of many is not because they cannot pray long and hard enough. No, some wonderful saints of God can certainly pray volumes and gallons but receive mere trickles for answers. Prayer failure can be attributed to two major reasons:
(a) Ignorance
(b) Wrong thinking

Hosea 4:6 says, “
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” When you are ignorant about a thing, the devil cheats you in that area. Likewise, wrong thinking has given birth to many unanswerable prayers. Wrong thinking is the child of an unrenewed mind. The greatest enemy that born-again people is not the devil but their unrenewed mind. A lot of wrong information has been stored in their unrenewed minds which gives birth to wrong opinions of the devil, God and themselves.

These twin obstacles must be completely dealt with before you can begin to enjoy breakthrough in your prayers life. The solution to the two lies in the word of God.

LET US PRAY:

Lord, I receive a divine cleansing and renewal of my mind. Teach my hands to war in the place of prayer in JESUS name. Amen.

Men-Pleasers Are Never Powerful In Prayer

Acts 4:18-20

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”~James 4:4

One of the reasons people are not powerful in prayer is because they are men-pleasers at the expense of God. It takes courage to pray because the devil will always attack your prayer time by bringing people to whom you can hardly say “No.” Of course, because you don’t want to look like somebody from heaven, disconnected from human beings, you succumb. I tell believers to be careful that you don’t have people in your life to whom you cannot say “no”; people that are not of God because if you do, the devil will always have them as his entry point into your life.

If you are fond of saying, “I’m praying,” every time people come to see you, you will hardly have any friends, but you can find the time to have that kind closet of environment. It can be found, it can be available, like Jesus did early in the morning. He didn’t offend anybody because they had not woken up. He woke up earlier than everybody, but to do that, He had to conquer His flesh to get a closet where He could pray.

Pray to your Father in secret and He will reward you openly with miracles, signs and wonders. You need to conquer your flesh. Many people cooperate with their flesh and the narrative of their life is one of prayer failure. God want you to be a prayer champion, a powerful person in prayer and you need to look at this principle of discovering the best time to have a closet atmosphere.

LET US PRAY;

Lord, I receive courage, boldness and wisdom to fight for my closet time and prayer hour. I declare a divine separation from anyone who can be devil handle in my life in Jesus name. Amen.

How To Enter Into Your Closet To Pray (3)

Proverbs 23:7; 1Corinthians 15:45-49

“But so much the more wentthere a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes come together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” Luke 5:15-16

Entering into your closet iswithdrawing from distractions, relationships, interactions with people, situations and circumstances; and going to pray. You have to withdraw fromthe problems you want to pray about so that it doesn’t destabilize you. Then yougo to God and unburden your heart and pray to Him and He will hear in the secret. It does not mean that you have to go into a closet like a toilet. However, you must learn the principle that sometimes, ‘the closet’ is a time when you are alone.

Some people have a home atmosphere that it is not possible to have this kind of a fellowship with God in the morning. Some women have a situation at home that it is only in the evening when the children are out praying or the husband has not come back from work that they can be free from distractions. They can have that time as their closet time and maximise it.

The devil will always attack your closet time. He will focus on that time that you need privacy with God, but at other times when people are with you, he leaves you alone. And then there are times the Holy spirit comes to you to stir you up to pray. You need to withdraw from people at such times. Many times, to get a closet kind of environment, you have to excuse yourself from human presence. Just say, “please excuse me, I just want to spend the next ten minutes with God,” then go somewhere. When you begin to practise that courageously, people will respect you for it and then you will discover that you will begin to be more powerful in prayer.

LET US PRAY:

Dear Holy Spirit, I permit You to call me apart in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life to a place or prayer. I receive the sensitivity to know when You are drawing me and when the devil is attacking in Jesus name. Amen.

How To Enter Into Your Closet To Pray (2)

Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed”~Mark 1:35

Your closet can be a place or a time. In the life of Jesus, He rose up very early and prayed in a solitary place in order to practice this truth. He went to a place where He could have a closet kind of environment, where He could have privacy and even there, they sought Him. And when they found Him they said to Him, “All men are looking for you.” That’s why many people don’t pray and don’t succeed in praying.

I want to show you one important principle for a successful prayer hour. The principle is that when you wake up in the morning, change your location and get up from the bed. Many people don’t pray successful because they wake up from the bed and stay on the same bed to pray and they mostly fall back asleep. The devil and your body don’t want you to pray and they will cancel your desire to pray and you will find out that you regularly overslept and are now only ready for work. That’s what Jesus said when He said “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26.41; Mark 14:38).” This means it takes more than a willing spirit to pray. It takes a conquered flesh to pray.

If your home atmosphere does not provide that in the morning, there could be another time. It could be another time in the evening or an all night. In the life of Jesus Christ, you will find out that many times He prayed in the middle of the night, all night long.

LET US PRAY;

Lord, thank you for delivering me from the weakness of my flesh. As I commit to relocating from where I slept in order to pray, I receive the hand of the Lord strong upon me in Jesus name. Amen.

How To Enter Into Your Closet To Pray (1)

Vershima Orkuma Hemen

“But thou, When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which is in secret shall reward thee openly.” ~ Matthew 6:6

In the passages we have been considering for the past months, Jesus is teaching principles that should govern your prayer time, else you may not get answer to prayers.

While Jesus described hypocrites in verse 5, He described a child of God coming to the Father in verse 6. When Jesus said “Enter into thy closet,” He was referring to a place where you can be alone and you can pour your heart without fear of somebody eavesdropping or disturbing and distracting you.

In practice and transposing that on our prayer life, your closet will be a place or a time that you are free from distraction strations of life, that you can have privacy with your God and your Father to interact, discuss and share your heart with Him; and hear what He has to say to you without anything restraining you.

Have you been in a church service before where the priest says God is telling him that everybody should make three requests and whatever they ask God will answer? People usually turn away from other people and say things they don’t want any other person to hear. That is, many times when we are praying and people are there, we may be saying things that we don’t really mean- things that we want to say to impress people. And prayer is never for the sake of another person or for impressing another person.

LET US PRAY:

Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to come into your presence; deliver me from wandering thoughts and distractions in the place of prayer in JESUS name. Amen.

Don’t Pray As Hypocrites Do!

By Vershima Orkuma Hemen

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they be seen of men. Verliy I say unto you, They have their reward”. ~ Matthew 6:5

Jesus said, “…you shall not be like the hypocrites.” In this context of prayer, a hypocrite is a man who does not believe in prayer itself but does it to please people so that people can think that he is close to God. It is a form of religious deception. Jesus gave the example of the Pharisees and the Sadducees of His days as a prototype of the hypocrites.

It was not the posture or place of their prayer that was wrong but their motives to be seen by men and to be hailed and praised as somebody who could pray. Jesus said that praise and human applause was their reward. Prayer is a two-way communication between a man and his God for fellowship and for changing situations and circumstances that requires divine intervention and divine involvement. You can’t afford to pray simply to show off. Some people do so and that is all the reward they will get.

Another problem many believers have with Matthew 6:5 is that in a bid to avoid the rebuke of Pharisees, some believers say, “Well, my prayer is just between me and my God. I’m praying silently in my heart.” That is not what Jesus was saying here. He was neither teaching silent prayer nor praying in your bedroom alone; rather, He was dealing with the motives of the hearts of the people.

LET US PRAY :

Lord, purify my heart, let it be as gold in your presence. Deliver me from wrong motives in the place of prayer in JESUS name. Amen.

Always Pray The Mind Of God

“And when you prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” ~ Matthew 6:5-8

In the four verses of our text, we can learn important thruths about prayer directly from our Lord Jesus Christ:

Prayer is not a question of “if you pray” but “when you pray.” Every believer that will be successful needs to pray. You must believe in the efficacy of prayers. Many people pray with the mind that, “If I pray hard enough, I will change the mind of God. If I pester God enough, I will change the mind of God.” No, you can’t change the mind of God! The Bible says God is not a man that He should repent (Numbers 23:19). To repent means to change your mind. God does not change His mind.

Many believers pray with that wrong mentality because they don’t know the mind of God before they start praying. One of the keys to effective and successful prayer is to first of all find out what is the mind of God on an issue before you start praying. Praying against the will of God is a fruitless exercise; His will is perfect. He doesn’t need improvement and does not need to change His mind on whatsoever matter.

Jesus said, “And when you pray…” You need to know when you should pray and how to pray. That’s important! Most people pray, but their prayers are not answered and my focus is to bring you to a place of prayer power that not only will you become a prayer warrior, but you can do your own praying and get answers for yourself and be a blessing to other people.

LET US PRAY:

Lord, I thank You for your word that reveals Your mind to me. I cooperate with Your mind and counsel in all that concerns me in Jesus name. Amen.