Message Transcripts 2024

Series: The ministry of the Spirit in the believer 1 | Title: Revealer of God|By: Johnson O. Lawal | Date: November 10, 2024

I want to begin to share with you on ‘The ministry of the Spirit of God in the believer’. This, of course, is a subject that every child of God needs to know and appreciate. Actually, there is quite a lot of things that can be taught or shared on this note. But I will simply be drawing your attention to the major things that are mentioned in the Scriptures about His ministry, so that you can know them and begin to apply them to your life.

Now there are three main aspects of the ministry of the Spirit of God in the believer, as mentioned in the Scriptures. First, we see Him as a revealer. Second, we see Him as an equipper. Third, we see Him as an energiser. And we are going to be spending some time to examine each of these aspects of His ministry in the believer and how we can take advantage of them to become the people God wants us to be in life.

But let me first say that what we are dealing with here is the ministry of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer, not in the life of the unbeliever. Of course, for anybody to become a believer the Spirit of God has to minister to the person. Look at what Paul says about this in 1Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 3:

“Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” (NIV)

Can you see that? No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So, for anyone to become a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus, the person has to be drawn by the Holy Spirit. In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, we are told about a woman called Lydia and about how she became a Christian. We are told that the Lord opened her heart to receive the message of Paul and to believe it. How did the Lord open her heart? It was by His Spirit. That, then, is an example of what Paul means when he says that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Mind you, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that no one could come to Him except he was drawn by the Father. So, God, through His Spirit, has to draw people to Him for them to be saved. He has to open their hearts to believe the message of salvation in Christ Jesus and be saved. (Cf. John 6:44)

But as I already mentioned, we are not dealing with the ministry of the Spirit of God in getting those of this world saved. Rather, we are looking at His ministry in the believer, in the one that is already saved, in the one that has already been included in the body of Christ. And the first aspect of His ministry that we will be looking at has to do with His ministry as a revealer.

Now what does the Spirit of God reveal to the believer? First, He reveals God to Him. In other words, He brings him revelations about God, His nature and His character. Just before our Lord Jesus went to the cross, He began to share some things with His disciples about the ministry of the Spirit of God and the need for them to take it seriously. These disciples had been afraid because He had said that He was going to leave them. So, He had to share things with them to let them know that they would be left in good hands. And we see some of the things He shared with them in John’s gospel, chapter 13 through 16.

Well, from what He shared with them, it is clear that it was better for Him to leave them. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit would not come to them. But if He left them, the Holy Spirit would come to them and begin to make God known to them in ways that He Himself could not make Him known to them because of His physical limitations. And here is part of the things He said to them, from verse 12 of John 16:

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” (John 16:12-15NIV)

Observe here that Jesus says that the Spirit of God will glorify Him. That is something you need to pay attention to. The Spirit of God glorifies Jesus. Whatever He does is to glorify the Lord Jesus. That means He will never function contrary to the will of the Lord Jesus. And this is what those who believe that they are living by the Spirit of God and who yet do things that are contrary to the revealed will of the Lord Jesus that we have in Scriptures need to understand. They don’t know that the Spirit of God will never act contrary to the Lord Jesus. If any spirit, then, is making you to act contrary to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, that spirit is not of God.

As Jesus Himself told His disciples, the Spirit of God will glorify Him. How? It is by taking His things and making them known to us. So, the things the Spirit of God will be revealing to us are the things that He receives from Jesus. He is not going to be revealing to us any ideas or thoughts that are personal or private to Him. And as Jesus goes on to say, these things that the Spirit of God will be receiving from Him to reveal to us are the things of God. So, Jesus receives from the Father what the Spirit of God receives from Him. And we receive from the Spirit of God what He receives from Jesus.

The point of it all is that the Spirit of God will be giving us revelations about God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That, then, means that for us to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God must make them known to us. It is the job of the Spirit of God to make both the Father and the Son known to us. While Jesus was here in the world with His disciples, He made all kinds of things known to them about the Father and about Himself. But there were things He could not make known to them or clear to them because they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. That was why He told them that He had much more things to say to them at the time, things which they could not bear. But as He promised, when the Spirit of God came to them, He would make everything they needed to know known to them.

So, the one to make the realities of the person of Jesus Christ known to us is the Spirit of God. The one to make the realities of God known to us is the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was here, the disciples knew Him in the flesh. In other words, they were mostly able to know Him according to what they could see, hear and feel about Him. They could not know the spiritual man deeply or intimately. But with the coming of the Spirit of God into their lives, they were able to know the spiritual man.

As for those of us who have now come to believe in the Lord Jesus, we too are able to know Him deeply and intimately, even though we have never met with Him physically. How? It is through the Spirit of God. Look at what Paul says to the Corinthians about this, from verse 10 of 1Corinthians 2:

“…but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1Cor 2:10-12NIV)

Did you see that? The Spirit of God knows the deep things of God. And it is rightly so because He is the Spirit of God. Paul’s argument is that no man knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man in him. In the same vein, no one knows the thoughts of God or the mind of God except the Spirit of God in Him. If anyone, then, has the Spirit of God in Him, the person can rely on Him to know God intimately and deeply. So, if we have the Spirit of God and still don’t know much about God, it can only mean that we are not interested in knowing Him or making effort to know Him.

Furthermore, Paul says this to the Colossian brethren:

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:9-12NIV)

This is actually a long prayer passage. But I will pick out some things for you in it. First, Paul prays for the brethren that God will continually fill their hearts with the knowledge of His will. How will God do that? It is through the all the wisdom that the Spirit of God gives. So, the point is that God is able to communicate His mind and will to the believer through the wisdom and understanding that His Spirit gives. In other words, it is through the Spirit of God that He makes His will known and His mind known to us.

Then Paul goes on to say that as the Spirit of God reveals the knowledge of the will of God to our hearts, we will be able to live a life worthy of God, please Him in every way, bear fruit in every good work and grow in our knowledge of Him. So, people grow in the knowledge of God through the ministry of the Spirit of God. That means it is the Spirit of God that fills people’s hearts with divine revelations that make them grow in their knowledge of God.

Now we are commanded to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2Peter 3:18). How do we do that? It is by the Spirit of God. He is the one that reveals God to us. He is the one that makes God known to us as He is. So, we are not going to be guessing about God or His character. Instead, we will know exactly who He is, how He thinks, what He thinks and why He acts the way He acts.

People don’t think we can know God in this manner, that is, know Him deeply or intimately. That is because they think that the knowledge of God is just too high and far from us. And indeed, the knowledge of God is too high for man to search out. But through His Spirit we can know Him deeply and intimately. That is because God wants us to know Him enough to function right here in this world. If He does not want us to know Him, then, there is nothing we can do to know Him.

But the truth is that He wants us to know Him. And His way of making Himself known to us is by giving us His Holy Spirit. His Spirit fills us with the knowledge of who He is. So, we are able to tell who He is to us, His character and His will. We can also tell why He acts the way He acts in certain situations because the Spirit of God is making these things known to us.

Now how does the Spirit of God make Him known to us? There are actually a number of ways He does this. But the first and most important of them all is through the Scriptures. The Spirit of God reveals nothing about God or about Jesus Christ that is not already revealed in Scriptures or that is contrary to what is in Scriptures.

Mind you, He is the one behind all of Scriptures. Those who put down the things in the Scriptures put them down as they were moved or carried by the Spirit of God. Look at what Paul says to Timothy about this, from verse 16 of 2Timothy 3:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Tim 3:16-17NIV)

Did you see that? All Scripture has come from the inspiration of Spirit of God. In other words, everything we have in the Scriptures is there because the Spirit of God wanted it to be there. He was the one that inspired and moved all the people who wrote these things down. And look at what Peter says about this, from verse 20 of 2Peter 1:

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2Peter 1:20-21NIV)

So, here, Peter is showing us that all the prophecies and other things that the prophets of old put down for us in the Scriptures were put down by them because the Spirit of God led them to do so. In other words, these people did not put down their personal ideas or feelings. Rather, they put down the mind of God.

I said all of that to show you that the Spirit of God, in revealing God to us, will not reveal anything to us about God or about the Lord Jesus outside what we have in the Scriptures. Thus His major way of making God and the Lord Jesus known to us is through the Scriptures. If we give ourselves to the Scriptures, then, the Spirit of God will be opening our eyes to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ accurately and adequately through them.

Now there are also other ways through which the Spirit of God makes God and Jesus known to the believer. For instance, He can make them known to our hearts directly, that is, without using any medium. Peter once declared that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. How did he know that? It was through a revelation that was given to his heart. And that revelation given to him was accurate. (Cf. Matthew 16:13-20)

Furthermore, He can show us things about God and the Lord Jesus Christ through visions or dreams. But basically, as I said, His main way of revealing God and the Lord Jesus to us is through the word of God. So, if we give ourselves to the word of God, we will be able to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ the way we are supposed to know them. And that will be because we have the Spirit of God in us.

See, when we have the Spirit of God in us, reading the Scriptures will be different for us. It will not be like reading any of our science textbooks. It is unfortunate that many of God’s people don’t know this. So, when they are reading the Scriptures, they don’t expect the Spirit of God to make anything known to them. That is why Scriptures are boring and not alive to them.

Once, after the resurrection of the Lord, He began to share some things about Himself with two of His disciples from the Scriptures. And that is remarkable to note. Jesus, in speaking about Himself, led His disciples to the Scriptures. He started from the things Moses said about Him to all the things all the other prophets, including John the Baptist, said about Him. And while He was doing this, their hearts were burning within them. Why? It was because the Spirit of God was making the truth He was sharing known and clear to them.

So, we must learn to pray that God will fill our hearts with wisdom and revelation about Himself and about the Lord Jesus Christ through His Spirit in us. And we will be doing that, if we truly want to know Him and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we will see God making more and more of Himself and the Lord Jesus known to us day after day. Therefore, we will be able to know ourselves too, as we ought to. Remember that we have been made in the image of God. If we, then, want to know ourselves truly, we must know God truly.

Let us pray.

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Series: Jesus on prayer 3 | Title: Prayer devotion | By: Johnson O. Lawal | Date: June 16, 2024

I want us to continue from where we left off on ‘Jesus on prayer’. We are looking at some of the things that our Lord Jesus teaches us on prayer and what lessons we can garner from the passages of the Scriptures in which He teaches these things. In our last lesson, we looked at ‘Prayer audacity’. Now we want to look at ‘Prayer dimensions’. Of course, we are going to be using the same passage, which we have in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11. We have a parallel passage in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 7. But it is okay to stick with what we have in Luke’s gospel. And from verse nine of the eleventh chapter, it says:

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10NIV)

Here the Lord gives us three dimensions of prayer. The first has to do with asking God for whatever we need. What does it mean to ask? It means to make a request. So, we are told that we can present our requests to God. What is it that you need? Talk to God about it. What will you want God to do for you? Talk to Him about it.

Now, of course, as I pointed out in our last lesson, it is important that we understand the will of God in order to be effective in praying. That is because God responds only to those things that we ask in accordance with His will. Yes, there may be times that we may not be sure of the exact will of God about a matter. Yet, even at such times, we are to be bold in praying to Him, as we are admonished in Scriptures.

However, understanding the will of God helps a lot in offering prayers that are effective. It also helps our boldness in praying to Him. Remember that John says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching Him: if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1John 5:14NIV) So, the point is that we can ask God for whatever we need or want, as long as we are asking in line with His will. Otherwise, we may miss it.

James tells us that it is possible to ask amiss – it is possible to make requests that are inconsistent with the will of God. And if our requests are inconsistent with His will, God is not under any obligation to attend to them. Look at how James puts this from verse one of chapter four of his epistle:

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:1-2NIV)

That is powerful. James is saying that instead of talking to God about our situations, instead of presenting requests to Him about the things we want done or settled in our lives, we may find ourselves fighting others or quarrelling with them. But fighting or quarrelling with anyone may not solve our problems. Fighting our husbands or wives or neighbours or colleagues at work may not solve our problems. Then killing people will not going to solve our problems but only add to them.

Mind you, why will a believer think of killing another person in order to have something? Well, James shows us through what he says in this text that there were murderous believers back in bible days. So, don’t let it surprise you, if you too hear of murderous believers today. It is not a new thing. People like that are just like Judas Iscariot. They are like Cain who killed his own brother.

In any case, the fact that you are murderous does not mean that you will have whatever you want. And the fact that you choose to quarrel with others does not mean that what you want will be delivered to you. But if you will talk to God about what you want or desire, it will be delivered to you, especially if you have presented your request in accordance with His will.

As James points out here, the reason many of us do not have what we need is that we do not ask God. And remember that Jesus says ask and you will receive, for those who are asking are receiving. So, one main reason many of us do not have most of the things we need in life is that we do not talk to God about them. We may think we are talking to God. But how often are we talking to Him? Then what are we talking to Him about?

A lot of times, we just take things for granted – we just assume that things will resolve themselves or that God will naturally attend to some matters for us. Yes, there are a lot of things that God does for us without our asking. But He also wants us to ask Him for whatever we need. How, then, do we know those things that He is going to give to us or do for us without our asking? We may not know them, unless we are given divine revelations about them. That is why we are told to pray to Him about everything we need. Otherwise, there are things we may never have or have resolved in life.

Well then, James goes to say this to us: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3NIV) We can see again that praying contrary to the will of God will not get us the desired results. How do we pray contrary to His will? James gives us an example here, namely, praying with wrong motives. So, if your motives for wanting God to do something for you are wrong, you are not going to receive any answer from Him. Yes, Jesus tells us that those who are asking are receiving. But we need to balance that by telling ourselves that those who are receiving through asking are asking according to the will of God.

At any rate, our focus here is not on praying amiss or praying according to the will of God but on praying. I mean that our objective here is to stress to us the need to be asking God for whatever we need. There are, of course, several other Scriptures that point to the fact that we should just keep on asking God for whatever we need or want in life. For instance, in Philippians, chapter 4, from verse 5, Paul says:

“Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (NIV)

Did you see that? Do not be anxious about any situation of your life. Why? Being worried about a situation of your life will not change anything about it. On the contrary, being worried about it may take away initiatives from you – it may rob you of the ability to think clearly about the situation and do the needful.

But then, are you to leave your problems to resolve themselves, since you are commanded by God not to worry about them? No! Problems don’t resolve themselves. That is because problems don’t create themselves. There are forces that create problems for us. That being the case, they are not going to resolve themselves unless they are resolved by some other forces greater than them.

Therefore, we are not just told not to worry about our problems, we are also told what to do about them. We are told to pray to God about them. We are told to pray to Him in every situation, whatever the situation may be. We are to tell Him what we want about that situation. And He will answer us.

Yes, as I pointed out before, understanding His will about your situation will help you in making requests that are consistent with His will. It will also help you to present your requests to Him boldly. Then it will let you know that you have received whatever you have asked of Him. In John’s gospel, chapter 15, verse 7, we are told this:

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (NIV)

Did you see that? We are being encouraged again here to ask God for whatever we wish. And we are told that as long as we remain in the Lord and His words remain in us, we will be effective in doing this. Why? If His words abide in us, then, we will be praying according to His will. Therefore, whatever we ask for will be done for us.

Ask, then, for whatever you wish. Is it promotion you want? Talk to God about it. Do you want your business to be expanded? Talk to God about it. Is it a child that you want? Talk to Him about it. Or is it some illness you want taken away from your body? Talk to Him about it. Don’t be ashamed to do this. That is because He Himself has invited us to boldly approach His throne of grace for grace and mercy to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). So, approach that throne of grace and ask for whatever you need. Then you will receive, for those who are asking are receiving.

Think about Jabez, for example. He asked God to take away pains and trouble from him and to also enlarge his coast. And did God answer him or not? He did. God answered him because what he was asking was consistent with His will. God wanted him to prosper. And so when he asked for prosperity, He granted his request. His brothers too could have asked for the same thing. But we are not told that they did. We are only told that Jabez asked God for his own prosperity. And God answered him. So, he became more honourable than his brothers. That was all because he dared to pray. You too should dare to pray. (Cf. 1Chronicles 4:9-10)

Also, look at Hannah. She had been crying for years because of her barrenness. But one day she decided to ask God for a child of her own. And did God answer her or not? Yes, He did. Why? It was because He does not want any of His children to be barren. And the Scriptures are clear about this. So, when Hannah prayed to Him about her barrenness, He answered her. Observe, however, that she did not go to any prophet to pray about her matter. Then she did not fast about her barrenness, though it would not have been wrong for her to fast about the matter. She just knelt down one day and prayed about her matter. And it was settled. (Cf. 1Samuel 1)

What about Isaac? Isaac was married for about twenty years before he had his twins, Esau and Jacob. Why was that? It was because Rebekah, his wife, was barren. But at some point, Isaac dared to talk to God about the matter. The bible says, “Isaac prayed to God for his wife, for she was barren.” And did God answer him or not? He did! (Cf. Genesis 25:19-26)

What if Isaac had not prayed to God? What if he had said to himself, “Maybe my case is like my father’s. Maybe I too have to wait until I am a hundred years old before I will have my own child?” What do you think would have been the situation, if he had thought or reasoned like that? He may have actually ended up being childless for more years.

See, there are things that some of us would have already received, if we had prayed to God about them? So, talk to God. Don’t allow any bad situation to get worse. Don’t miss any or delay your enjoyment of any of God’s provisions for you. Ask right away for whatever you need, and you will receive. Remember that those who are asking are receiving.

Now the second prayer dimension that Jesus speaks of has to do with seeking. This is actually taking prayer to another level. It is going beyond asking God for something to going out to look for it wherever God may have put it for us. Remember that the word of God tells us that whatever we ask for when we pray, we should believe that we have received it and we will have it (Mark 11:24). So, when you pray to God about anything, He answers and gives it to you.

But then, it is possible to pray and receive in that manner and yet not see the physical manifestation of what you have asked for and received by faith. And at such times, it may be that you need to go out to look for the answers God has already provided. This does not happen in every prayer situation. But there are situations in which we actually need to move out in search of what God has already provided for us.

To say the fact, there are times that we need divine revelations to know when we need to go out in this manner. This is why I often pray that God will open my eyes to know when I need to seek His provisions for me and also lead me to them, so that I can possess and enjoy them. You too will do well to regularly offer prayers along these lines for yourself.

Well, the point I am making is that there are times that God’s provisions for us, which we have prayed for, will not come to us where we are – we will be the ones to go out in search of them. And we may require some divine revelations to know when to act like this. But there are times that common sense tells us that we need to go out in search of what God has provided for us in response to our prayer. And we should go out in such situations. Otherwise, what He provided for us may never come to meet us where we are. All of this is why Jesus says, “Seek, and you will find.” What are you to seek? What God has provided! And what will you find when you seek like this? What God has provided!

Now let me give you again the illustration that our Lord Jesus uses in teaching us prayer audacity to communicate this point more clearly. Incidentally, this illustration actually speaks to us about all the three dimensions of prayers that we are considering. It speaks to us about asking, seeking and knocking. And here is it:

“Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. (Luke 11:5-8NIV)

As you can see, there are three things that the man in question does in this account. First, he goes in search of the loaves of bread that he needs that midnight. A friend of his has come to me at midnight. He needs to entertain him. But he does not have what he needs to entertain him at home at that moment and has nowhere to go and buy food for him at the time. However, he has a friend that he can approach for help, even that night. So, he goes to him in search of help – he goes to him seeking.

What if this man’s friend does not have what he needs? He won’t know that until he gets to his house. So, he has to seek for what he wants in his place first. Then, if he does not have what he needs or wants, he will know that he needs to turn elsewhere. But he comes to his friend first to ask for what he needs. Two things, then, are involved here, which are ‘seeking’ and ‘asking’.

Well, the point I am making is that there are times that we need to go out in search of what we need and that we have prayed to God about. That means praying to Him for what we need in that situation will not be enough; we will also need to seek out His answers to our prayers in order to have and enjoy them.

For instance, in Genesis 24, we are told of how a wife was secured for Isaac. How? Well, Abraham had to send his head servant to go and look for a wife for him outside the place they were staying at the time. Why? The reason was that the kind of woman he wanted for his son was not there. Look at some part of the account from verse 1 of the chapter:

“Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” “Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said. “The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ – he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.” (Genesis 24:1-9NIV)

What do we see here? Abraham, as I already mentioned earlier, was sending his servant to go and get a wife for his son Isaac from his native land. And he was doing that because, as far as he was concerned, there was no suitable woman for the young man among the Canaanites with whom they were living. He must have looked around carefully to see if any of them was worthy of a marriage relationship with Isaac but could not find. So, he concluded that they would need to look for a wife for him outside the place.

Now Isaac too must have agreed with his father on this matter. That is why we have no record of him quarrelling or arguing with him about it. And here is a lesson for those who want to marry: The fact that you are seeking your own wife or husband to marry all by yourself does not mean that you are going to get it right, just as the fact that someone else is doing the job for you does not mean that person will miss it.

Well, this man was to go and look for a wife for Isaac. That means God’s provision of a good wife for Isaac was not where they were. So, they had to go and seek the wife somewhere else. What, then, was the guarantee that they would find a suitable woman for Isaac by seeking for one in that manner? It was in the fact that Abraham had prayed to God about the matter. He had told his servant that God was going to send His angel along with him to guide him in getting the right woman for Isaac. All the man just needed to do was to go and look for the woman. And as he went, he also prayed to God to make his journey successful. And God answered him. So, he went and sought for a suitable wife for Isaac and found one.

The point we are making is that there are times we need to seek God’s provisions for us. And that will be because what He has provided is not coming to us where we are but we will have to find it. There are people, for instance, who are praying to God for better jobs. They may need to step out of where they are to find the jobs God has provided for them. That will be because those jobs are not where they are.

The same thing is applicable to those who are praying to God for the right kind of love partners. The right love partner may not come to you where you are. The right love partner may not be in your neighbourhood, in your Christian assembly or in your office. So you may have to look outside those places in order to find them, having observed that none of the people around you is fit for you or is living in line with the will of God. So, you have to seek for your lover away from where you are. And if you seek in that manner, you are going to find. Why? It is because you are seeking on the basis of faith in God. He has said that those who seek will find. So, if you seek, having prayed for His provisions for you, you will surely find.

Then we come to the third dimension of prayer, which has to do with knocking. Jesus says knock and the door will be opened to you, for to the one who knocks the door will be opened. And going back to the illustration He uses in our main text, the man who needs some loaves of bread for his visitor that has come at midnight goes to his friend for help. What is that? Seeking! Then when he gets to his house, what does he do? He knocks!

Now this man’s friend is most likely asleep at the time, seeing that it is midnight. So, on getting to his house, the next thing he does is to knock the man’s door. Then the man will respond and ask, “Who is that?” And that gives him the opportunity he needs to introduce himself and present his request. You can see that this illustration deals with all the dimensions of prayer that the Lord wants us to know and understand. It speaks about seeking, knocking and asking.

Mind you, our focus is not on the order in which these prayer dimensions are listed for us by the Lord in the bible. That order may not be applicable to your situation. What your situation requires may be another order. But what is important is that you know that there are times that you may to do beyond asking God for something to seeking out His answers to your prayers yourself. In like manner, there are times that you may need to go beyond asking for God’s provisions and (or) seeking God’s provisions for you to knocking on certain doors in order to access His provisions for you.

Why will you have to knock on a door? It is because you believe that what you need or want may just be behind it. In the same vein, the reason we have to knock on certain doors, having prayed to God about what we need, is that we believe that the answers to our prayers are behind those doors. And at such times, we must not be afraid of knocking. Instead, we must boldly knock. That, in fact, is where prayer audacity comes in.

But then, what if God’s provisions for you are not behind the door you want to knock? You will find out, having knocked. So, go ahead and knock those doors. Consider Nehemiah’s case, for example. He had prayed to God about the condition of his people, the exiles that had returned to Jerusalem. Why did he pray to God about them? It was because he had heard some very disturbing news about their welfare, about how many of them were suffering in the land. (Cf. Nehemiah 1)

However, while praying to God about the problems of his people, he also came to the consciousness of the fact that nothing serious could be done for his people, if the king that they were under his dominion did not give his approval. That king was Artaxerxes. And he was in a position to talk to him about his people. But before he did that, he first prayed to God for favour before him.

Why did he need God’s favour from the man? It was because the request he was going to present to him could be easily misunderstood as treason or rebellion. The Jews at the time were under the rule of Artaxerxes, as I already pointed out. So, for them to attempt to rebuild their headquarters, Jerusalem, without getting his permission was to be seen as rebellious. And even if someone was going to get permission from the king, there was no guarantee that his intentions would not be misrepresented. If that, then, should happen, the person may just lose his head.

All this explains why Nehemiah had to pray to God for favour first. Look at how he puts this from verse eleven of the first chapter of his book:

“Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presences of this man. I was cupbearer to the king.” (Nehemiah 1:11NIV)

Can you relate to that? Nehemiah was asking for God’s favour in presenting his case to Artaxerxes. And did God answer him or not? He did. But how did he find out? He had to knock on the king’s door to see if it would be opened for him to present his requests. And this took him some months. But one day he went ahead and knocked the door of the king’s heart. And did he open the door for him or not? He did. In fact, the man not only gave him audience but also granted all his requests. He even did beyond his expectations. He provided him with many things to support him. (Cf. Nehemiah 2)

In like manner, there are times that we too must go beyond just praying to God about what we need to going to knock some doors in order to access His answers to our prayers. So, if, for instance, you have asked God for favour, then, you may need to go and knock the doors of some people who are in a position to be used by Him to grant that favour. But if we are afraid of meeting such people, we may never receive the manifestation of God’s answers to our prayers.

Also, if we have prayed to God to open doors of ministry to us among the people of our land, we will have to go and knock the doors of people’s hearts to see which ones have been opened and which ones have not yet been opened. I mean that we have to approach people with His word, having prayed to God to open the doors of their hearts to us. Otherwise, we won’t be seeing all the people that we can see in His kingdom. You can now see why we put the word of God out there through tracts, on the radio, on the television and on the internet. We are using these mediums to knock the doors of people’s hearts to see if they have been opened by God to receive His word of salvation or not.

Well, these are the dimensions of prayer that are presented to us by the Lord Jesus. And we need to know where we need to apply these dimensions of prayer in order for us to access God’s provisions for us. If we are not employing the right dimension of prayer to our situation, we may not be able to receive His provisions for us. Then we may begin to think that He is not answering our prayers. But that will not be the case. The problem will be that we are the ones not applying the right prayer dimension towards receiving what He has provided.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2024 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07025105978)

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the last week of the month of June 2024. My prayer is that God will see to it that every good thing that is meant to be yours in the month is yours before the month ends, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we go this week, I want to admonish you with some of the words of Paul to the Corinthian brethren about the Macedonian brethren, which say:

“And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” (2Cor 8:1-5NIV)

What does the apostle want the Corinthians to know about the Macedonian churches? He wants them to know about a special kind of grace God has given to them. And what kind of grace is that? It is the grace of giving. But could be that it was only the Macedonian churches that were giving to aid the Lord’s work at the time Paul wrote this letter? No! Why, then, was he drawing the attention of other believers to their giving? It was because their kind of giving was unusual and challenging.

As Paul points out, the Macedonian brethren were not devoted to giving to the apostles and other people of God because they were very rich or because they were richer than the other churches of God. On the contrary, at the time he wrote this letter, most of those brethren were dealing with extreme poverty. We would not know what occasioned their poverty at the time. Nevertheless, they gave joyfully and generously to aid Paul and his companions in supporting other people of God.

In fact, as Paul goes on to show us in the text above, these brethren gave beyond their financial conditions at the time. Not only that, they begged this apostle to permit them to give. That means, based on their financial conditions at the time, Paul would not have wanted them to give him or others anything at all. But they begged him not to deny them the opportunity of giving to God in this manner. You can, then, see why Paul was drawing the attention of other churches of God to what these people did. It was unusually inspiring and challenging.

But why did these brethren give in that manner? Why would anybody give generously and joyfully in their moment of lack? The only explanation for that is that the love of God has taken over that person. See, one of the things that will let us know that God has completely possessed someone with His love is that the person will want to give Him anything and everything. That person will not be looking at what he has or does not have in giving; rather, he will be looking at the needs that God wants him to meet.

Look at the widow of Zarephath, for example. As we see in the bible, before Elijah came to stay with her, God had already spoken to her about him and the need for her to take care of him for Him. But what did the woman have at the time? It was just a handful of flour and some oil. What she had was not even enough to prepare a single meal for her and her only son. Yet God told her to take care of His servant that He was sending to her. And did she obey God or not? She did! Why? First, she loved God enough to give Him anything He wanted from her. Second, she trusted God enough to take care of her and her son, even if they gave Him all that they had left with them. And did God fail or disappoint her? No! (Cf. 1Kings 17)

In like manner, the Macedonian brethren gave for God’s work the way they did because they loved and trusted Him. And why were they able to love and trust Him like that? It was because they allowed His grace to work in their lives, fill them with His love and destroy selfishness in them.

Now if we too will allow God’s grace, His divine provisions to work in our lives, to change us, to melt our fears and to destroy all forms of selfishness in us, we will have no problem again loving and trusting Him wholeheartedly. And as we love and trust Him wholeheartedly, like the Macedonian churches, we too will find ourselves giving to Him in ways that will challenge the hearts of others and also open all kinds of doors of miraculous supply to us. Will you, then, let His grace work in you and destroy your selfishness and all the excuses you have been making for not being generous?

Do have a splendid week.

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

I want us to continue from where we left off on ‘Jesus on prayer’. We have been looking at the series of teachings that our Lord Jesus gave on prayer and the lessons we can pick from them. We have looked at prayer audacity. We have also looked at prayer dimensions. We are now going to be looking at prayer devotion. We are again taking at text from Saint’ Luke’s gospel, chapter 18, in dealing with this. From verse 1, it says:

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!'” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” (Luke 18:1-8NIV)

Now what is the Lord Jesus driving at here? He is driving at the need for us to be devoted to prayer. We must see prayer as a duty. When you are devoted to doing something, you have seen it as your responsibility. So, we are looking at prayer devotion here; we are looking at prayer duty. We are looking at taking prayer as something that we devote ourselves to and not something that we do as we please or when we please. We are looking at seeing prayer as something beyond what we do when we are faced with difficult situations or something we do when we just feel like doing it to seeing it something that we do all the time, something that we devote ourselves to.

As we see in the first verse of this chapter, Jesus says men ought to always pray and not give up. Now remember that the Lord already tells us to ask and that we will receive, to seek and that we will find and to knock and that the door will be opened to us. But even though we have been told these things, we must understand that there are times that the answers we are expecting may not manifest readily. Yes, there are times that we may not see immediate and obvious manifestations of what we have asked of God. Is that to say that God does not answer prayers? No! Is that to say that the word of God that tells us to ask and that we will receive is invalid and should not be taken seriously? No!

What we need to understand is that it is not every time that we ask God for something that we are going to see an immediate and obvious manifestation of answers to our prayers. There are times that it will look like God is not paying attention to us at all. There are times that it will look like God is ignoring us. And there are times that it will look like God is slow in attending to our prayers. These are some of the feelings we can be confronted with. And the things that make us have these feelings are happening to give us the impression that God cannot always be relied on or that He cannot be relied on at all, as far as prayer matters are concerned.

Now because we can be confronted with such situations, the Lord is telling us that we must see prayer as a duty; we must be devoted to prayer. Yes, there will be circumstances that will want to make us give up on God, give up on life and give up on ourselves. But the Lord says don’t ever give up. Regardless of the circumstances you are faced with, don’t ever stop praying or give up on God. The one we are praying to is God. And if you stop praying about any matter, not because you believe God has answered your prayers but because you think God is ignoring you or because you think He is too slow, that means you have given up on God.

But the Lord says don’t you ever give up on God. He says men ought to always pray and not give up. That must be our attitude towards prayer. We must see it as a duty. We must see it as something to devote ourselves to. We must see it as something that we must continually do, irrespective of the circumstances of our lives or the results are prayers are getting or not getting.

Now the Lord shows us why we should not give up on God and what we need to know about God, as far as matters of prayer are concerned. He shows us this by giving us a parable, the parable of an unjust judge. As He points out, there was this judge who neither feared God nor cared about what men thought. This judge had no fear of God. He had no fear of men as well. He simply did as he pleased. So, he was someone that could easily be bribed. And even if you bribed him, there was no guarantee that he would rule in your favour. He just did whatever pleased him, for he had no fear of God or fear of men.

But then, this judge, at some point, had to deal with a widow that was annoyingly persistent. She had been coming to him, asking him to grant her justice against her adversary. But he did not pay attention to her. Why? Perhaps it was because the woman did not bring him any bribe or gift. Whatever his reason for not attending to this woman was, she did not give up on coming to him – she did not get tired at all.

Mind you, it was possible that this judge sometimes insulted the woman or abused her for disturbing him. Nevertheless, the woman did not stop coming to him. She just kept on coming to put pressure on him. And at some point, he gave in to her. He told himself, “Even though I do not fear God or care about men, I have to attend to this woman and see that she gets justice. Otherwise, she will come and attack me.” You can see, then, that this judge was not attending to the woman because he felt that it was the right thing to do or because he was concerned about giving her justice. Rather, he was attending to her because she was annoyingly and shamelessly persistent in presenting her request to him.

Now the Lord Jesus goes on to contrast the character of this judge with God’s. But we can miss that point and conclude that the Lord is saying that God is just like this judge. We are dealing with an unjust judge here. But from what we see in Scriptures, God is not an unjust judge – He is not anything like this judge.

Sadly, we have many that think that Jesus is saying that God is like this unjust judge. Therefore, we have to pressure Him in order for Him to answer our prayers. They think we are dealing with a reluctant God or an unwilling God, one that is unwilling to answer our prayers for promotion, protection and so forth. So, they have to put pressure on Him to do what He does not want to do.

But the Lord is simply contrasting God’s character with this judge’s. His point is that if an unjust judge would eventually respond to a woman that put pressure on him, would God, who is a just judge, need someone to put pressure on Him before He does what He is meant to do? No! God does not need anybody to put pressure on Him before He carries out His responsibilities to us or answers our prayers.

Therefore, you don’t have to bombard the throne of God’s grace for any reason. What He says is that we should boldly approach the throne of His grace to obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:6). So, we don’t need to bombard His throne with our prayers. We don’t need to put any pressure on Him in order for Him to do anything for us.

Some people will even say, “If I continue to cry before God, day and night, if I continue to pressure Him, He is going to do something about my case.” God is not going to answer your prayers, just because you are crying or weeping or rolling on the floor. God is going to respond to your prayers, first, because He is a responsible Father. Second, He is going to respond to your prayers because what you are asking is consistent with His will. If what you are asking of Him is not consistent with His will, He is not under any obligation to respond to you, regardless of how loud you cry or what pressure you try to put on Him. God is, in fact, beyond someone you can put pressure on.

Well, the Lord is not saying that God is like this unjust judge that needed to be pressured in order to do what was right. In fact, His question is, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” That judge was putting off the woman. For the most part, he was ignoring her. But having received much pressure from her, he yielded and responded to her matter. And will God be like that? Will He not bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off, when they are acting on His word that says ask and you will receive, seek and you will find and knock and the door will be opened to you? No!

Now there are people who say that there are three ways God responds to prayer. First, He can say ‘Yes’ to our prayers. Second, He can say ‘No’ to our prayers. Third, He can say, “Wait, I am not doing this for you yet.” While there are, of course, some elements of truth in these things, we are not told in Scriptures that those are the ways God responds to prayers.

Yes, there are times we can immediately see manifestations of what we have asked of God. And there are indeed times that God may say ‘No’ to our prayers. But why will God say ‘No’ to our prayers? It is because such prayers are inconsistent with His will. If you are following the will of God, you will not offer prayers that He is not going to answer. God will only say ‘No’ to our prayers because they are inconsistent with His will.

John tells us this in his first epistle, the fifth chapter: “This is the confidence we have in Him: if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears us. And if He hears us, we know that we have whatever we have asked of Him.” So, it is important that we know that God doesn’t just say ‘No’ to people’s prayers. He does not just sit up there in heaven and choose to answer some prayers and not to answers others. It is only when what we are asking of Him is inconsistent with His general revealed will that He says ‘No’. There is actually a lot to say about that. But I do not intend to dwell on it right now. My focus at the moment is to let you know that some of the ideas that people have about God, as far as prayer matters are concerned, are wrong.

As I also pointed out before, there are those who say that God sometimes tells people to wait. And if He tells you to wait for something, it will mean that your asking for that thing at the moment is inconsistent with His will for your life. If what you are asking of Him is consistent with His will for you right now, He will not tell you to wait before you can receive it. That is because any time is not the right time for Him.

Again, our Lord Jesus tells us that God is not going to put off His people. Instead, He will see to it that they get justice, and quickly too. In other words, the moment we pray to God, He answers us and does not delay. He is not slow in answering us. He never delays in answering His people. As long as they are asking according to His will, He is going to immediately answer them.

So, by praying, we are not trying to move a reluctant God to do what He is supposed to do for us. God is always immediate in listening to His people and also in answering them. We are even told in Scriptures that before we ask God for anything He has already heard us and answered. So, He is not someone that we have to pressure to do what He is supposed to do for us. He knows what we need before we ask it of Him. Yes, He wants us to ask whatever we need of Him. But before we ask Him for anything, He already knows what we need. So, we can expect Him to respond immediately. Ours, then, is just keep on praying and not give up, even when we cannot see immediate manifestations of answers to our prayers. That, of course, is the point the Lord is making to us. He wants us to keep on praying, even where we cannot see immediate and obvious manifestations of answers to our prayers.

But then, the Lord asks, “Am I going to meet faith here on earth when I return?” In other words, will people continue to view God in the manner He just describes for us and so trust in Him, regardless of what they can see or cannot see about their prayers? Sometimes we pray to God about something bad and then it goes worse. Moses, for instance, was sent by God to Egypt to get the children of Israel out. Nevertheless, the moment he spoke to Pharaoh about their release, things went from bad to worse for them. So, he had to go back to God, crying, “O God, you have not saved your people at all. Instead, you have made matters worse for them.” (Cf. Exodus 5)

Now, in response to Moses, God told him not to worry. Then He went on to tell him what to do about Pharaoh’s case. And he went ahead to do it. But did that improve the condition of the people? No! It only worsened it. So, Moses had to go to God again about what to do. That, of course, was how he kept on going back and forth like that, praying to God and receiving revelations of what to do about the deliverance of His people. And at some point, Pharaoh had no choice but to let the Israelites go.

What happened to Moses, in any case, is illustrating for us the attitude Jesus wants us to have towards prayer. He wants us to keep in mind the fact that God is always answering us and quickly too. But there are times that it may not look like He is answering us at all. But we don’t give up on prayer because of that. Instead, we keep on praying to Him. That was how Moses related to Him. He did not give up on Him. Instead, each time he came to a wall of bricks in dealing with Pharoah, he went back to God in prayer to know what to do until the problem was utterly resolved. But we can see that it took a number of miracles for the children of Israel to experience their total freedom from Egypt.

In like manner, there are times it may take a while for us to experience a perfection of what God is doing concerning our matter. And that is why we must not stop praying. That is why we must be devoted to prayer. That is why we must see prayer as our duty, regardless of what we see or do not see.

Do you also know that it is our duty to keep on talking to God, even when things are going the way they are supposed to go? That is because what is good can become bad instead of becoming better or the best. For example, the children of Israel, having been rescued from Pharaoh and his army, travelled in the wilderness for three days without finding water. And when they eventually found water, they could not drink it because it was bitter. But it was God that provided the water for them. Yet it was bitter. So, they began to complain and to murmur. And instead of joining them in murmuring, Moses prayed to God about the matter. Then God answered him and told him what to do to make the water drinkable. (Cf. Exodus 15:22-26)

You can see that even where we have seen the manifestation of what we have prayed about, it may not be perfect. Why? The reasons may be diverse. Satan may have polluted God’s provisions along the line. Some people may be waiting to devour what God has given to us. So, we don’t stop praying, simply because we can see an obvious manifestation of answers to our prayers. Instead, we keep on praying, so that what is good can become better or the best, instead for it to go bad.

Then there are times that we may not see an obvious manifestation of God’s answers to our prayers because Satan and his demons are interfering with them. For instance, Daniel tells us this about how the answer to certain prayers he had offered to God. Look at this from verse 20 of Daniel 9:

“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill—while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, the word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision…” (Dan 9:20-23NIV)

This man had prayed to God for understanding and God also had sent an angel immediately to give him understanding. So, the moment we pray, God answers. And that is what our Lord Jesus wants us to keep in mind. God is not going to be slow at all in answering our prayers. Instead, He will be quick to attend to them. Now, of course, we may not like the answer He has given. I mean that His answer sometimes may not be consistent with our own expectations. But He always answers us immediately, as long as our prayers are offered in line with His will.

Well, Daniel tells us further of another time in which he prayed to God and did not see an immediate and obvious manifestation of God’s answer to his prayer. Look at what he says about this, first, from verse 1 of Daniel 10:

“In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.” (Dan 10:1-3NIV)
Did you see that? For three weeks Daniel kept on praying to God without receiving an answer to his prayer. But then, something happened at the end of those three weeks. An angel of the Lord appeared to him to give him the answer to his prayer. Look at some of the things he reports about that from verse 10:

“A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”” (Dan 10:10-14NIV)

Did you see that? For three good weeks Daniel kept on praying to God about a matter. Yet it did not seem as though God answered his prayer at all. But he kept on praying until the twenty-first day. And that was when an angel showed up to tell him that God actually answered his prayer the very moment he prayed and also sent him to deliver the answer to him. But he was blocked and detained by an evil spirit. And he was held up by that evil spirit for twenty-one days, that is, until another angel, Michael, came and made way for him to go to Daniel.

Evidently, that evil spirit was a powerful and wicked enough to stop that angel of God from bringing God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer to him. In like manner, there are times that Satan and his demons may be working in the realm of the spirit towards keeping us from receiving the manifestation of God’s answers to our prayers. And is that to say that God has not answered us? No!

On those two occasions, God answered Daniel the very moment he prayed to Him. But on one of the occasions, the angel sent to give him his answer was detained by an evil spirit for three good weeks. And I am saying that there are times that answers to our prayers can be delayed from getting to us like that by evil spirits. But we will not know this, if it is not revealed to us. So, we have to follow what Jesus tells us, which is that we must continually pray and not give up. By praying like that, we will be able to remove all the obstacles placed on our way to receiving what God has provided for us.

Now it may take days, weeks, months or even years for us to eventually access certain provision of God for us. It all depends on the situation we are dealing with. You know that it may even be certain individuals that are being used by the devil to keep us from accessing or receiving God’s answers to our prayers. So, we don’t stop praying. We don’t give up. Instead, we devote ourselves to prayer, knowing that God is faithful. He is not going to abandon us or be slow in attending to our matters. That is how to receive, find and see doors opened to us.

But then, again, Jesus asks, “Will I find faith on the earth when I return? Will people keep on praying to God, knowing that He will not ignore them or be slow about their matter, regardless of what they see or do not see when they pray?” Those are questions for us to answer. And I pray that He will find faith in us when He returns. Amen.

Copyright © 2024 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07025105978)