This season, many believers and ministries are fasting and praying. Please note the following-
The Lord’s prayer came out as a valid prayer request, “Lord, teach us how to pray.”
In prayer, never ‘cook up’ prayer points’.
The first prayer point is to ask the Lord to teach you how to pray; it was after they made the request(teach us HOW to pray) that he taught them How to pray and what to pray for.
In prayer, the Lord, by His Spirit, teaches us how to pray.
So the first thing is to ask for what to pray for, and the second is to PRAY IT!
Prayer brings God’s kingdom and will, and it is a framework that transfers the WILL of God from heaven to earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN(prayer does not create the will, but in prayer, the WILL is communicated and then PRAYED.’
Our most significant prayer request is to ask the Holy Spirit for a prayer request.
One of the reasons we pray in the Spirit is to be told what we should pray for as we pray; usually, we do not know how/what to pray as we ought.
‘ Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [g]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God’
PRAYER IS SO WE CAN KNOW THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT ON ANY MATTER!
There are three clear instances where the ‘prayer point’ the Lord gave did not look like what we should pray for
1. HARVEST
Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Today someone would pray O God, send us MORE LABOURERS since the labourers are FEW!
Meanwhile, the accurate prayer is not for ‘more labourers’ but TO REDIRECT labourers outside of the harvest…
so, therefore, pray that the labourers operating outside the harvest be sent BY THE LORD OF THE HARVEST into HIS HARVEST. The point is, ‘the labourers are few who operate in HIS HARVEST.’
You can pray for more labourers, which is not quite the issue, but the issue here is to pray to the current status of God in manifestation, THE LORD OF THE HARVEST, as the basis of redirecting the labourers who are not in the harvest.
2. APOSTLE PAUL
‘Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong’
Three times the Apostle came up with ‘a genuine’ prayer point, O God, let this ‘thing’ depart from me.
Meanwhile, in communicating accuracy, The Lord’s emphasis was not on the thorn but HIS GRACE AND HIS STRENGTH…not the THORN!
Then the Apostle changed his prayer and His prayers and confessions to BOASTING!
‘.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’
‘The Lord does not fight Satan’ that will not be fair…like killing a mosquito with an atomic bomb. There will be too much collateral damage!
Instead, He raises the believer into a new level of awareness(BOASTING) of New creation realities so that light can shine in darkness without the darkness comprehending it!
DARKNESS IS THERE SO THAT THE LIGHT CAN SHINE!
3. APOSTLE PETER
“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
The typical prayer point will be, ‘we destroy every sifting technique of satan.’
Alternatively, we declare peter; you are not ‘wheat.’
Alternatively, satan peter is ‘unsiftable.’
Accurate prayer point from the LORD…’ that your FAITH should not FAIL.’
The valid prayer point is to fortify peter on the faith lane and ‘not to fight satan.’
YOU DO NOT FIGHT A DEFEATED FOE!
As we pray, let us be conscious of four things.
1. God’s current dimension or status in manifestation, i.e. HIS LORDSHIP in the example above. THE LORD OF THE HARVEST… NEVER UNDERMINE HIS LORDSHIP IN PRAYER OR WARFARE
2. NEVER UNDERMINE THE SUFFICIENCY OF HIS GRACE AND PERFECTION OF HIS STRENGTH
3. WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THE LORD IS THAT YOUR FAITH SHOULD NOT FAIL, NOT ‘SATANIZATION OF THINGS’
4. YOUR FIRST PRAYER POINT IS TO ASK THE LORD TO TEACH YOU ‘HOW TO PRAY’ AND THEN PRAY WHAT THE LORD TAUGHT YOU TO PRAY.
I CALL YOU BLESSED!
Pastor Dele Osunmakinde
Aphorism CITY 