Father we give you the praise and the honour. Breath upon this service this morning and let not one person leave here the same way they have come in Jesus precious name.
Give the Lord the praise as you take your seat in the presence of the Lord.
I welcome everyone here this morning in Jesus precious name. Church Gist. We are still in the fasting and prayer and we are going to be doing extensive intercession this morning as you open your Bible to the book of Genesis 32:23-28, we read it yesterday and we will read it together.
The subject is:
“THE BLESSING OF PRAYER”
Our objective is; understanding the connection between prayer and the blessing. It has been confirmed that the place of prayer is the place of the blessing and prayerful people are blessed people. Examples abound throughout scriptures of the connection between prayer and the blessing and our first example here is the example of Jacob, who wrestle with God at the place of prayer, what I called the place of intercession until the blessing rest on him.
What is the blessing of prayer?
- The place of prayer is the place for the breaking of enemy’s yokes and limitations. When Jacob said, I will not let you go, until You bless me. What he meant to say is, I can’t allow You go, until You lift limitation off my life.
The blessing is the opposite of the curse and the curse is the reason for limitations. I can’t remain limited like that. The place of prayer is the place for the lifting of limitation.
- The place of prayer is the place for the release of power unto success and progress (Genesis 32:28). Church Gist. Without any doubt, people who pray connect power and the power they connect ushers them into the realm of success and progress and this morning, somebody shall be connected to that power this morning in the precious name of Jesus Christ.
- The place of prayer is the place to connect with power for a complete change of story, a complete change of life’s story. When we pray, power is connected and stories are changed. From that day forward, Jacob was no longer Jacob, he became Israel, the same verse 28 and you remember how the story of Jabez changed at the place of prayer (1 Chronicles 4:9-10). He connected with power that changes his story. What does it mean? At the place of prayer, you can connect with power to alter the curse of your life, that is, the direction of your life changes. The whole course of your life changes, the whole course of your destiny changes by power connection at the place of prayer.
- The place of prayer is the place for the enlargement of life and destiny, where lives get enlarged, where destinies get enlarged. You pray desperately until you life becomes bigger than what it used to be, your destiny becomes bigger than what it used to be. Church Gist. What you lay your hands to do becomes bigger than what it used to be and like we have always said, the change from Jacob to Israel is the change from a person to a nation. Life becomes larger.
- I speak prophetically to somebody this morning, your life is enlarging and shifting in dimensions. If you believe that, shout the loudest amen.
So when your yokes are broken and you have power to progress and to succeed and you have a complete change of story and your destiny is enlarged, then you are called a blessed man
- Somebody here this morning is blessed in Jesus precious name.
In addition to the life of prayer, there are other requirements, because somebody may tell me, but I have prayed and prayed and I haven’t see the kind of blessing that I should see. There are other things that qualifies people for the blessing aside prayer. You know the agenda of God works like a system. For a car to work, the engine, not just the engine must be in place but the brake must be in place and other things must be in place. If you say I have a brand new engine, will you carry the engine on your head and run? No, you can’t. So everything else must be in place.
What are the other things that must be in place for the blessing to happen?
- Upright and godly living (Psalm 5:12). So the Lord blesses the righteous, He does not bless the unrighteous, He does not bless the ungodly, He does not bless the unholy, He does not bless the liars, the criminals, the frauds, He does not bless the unclean. Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous, so you can pray all the prayers you are praying but you are living and displeasing God continuously with a conscience that is defiled, then you deny the blessing
- The practice of the covenant or covenant practicing. Upright and godly living is something that must be in place if the blessing must flow and then convenant practice. In Genesis 8:20, we saw Noah, how Noah builded an altar and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar and then the Lord smell a sweet savour and the Lord said He will not curse the earth any more for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. He said while the earth remaineth, because He saw the sacrifice, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. He is saying for as long as you wake up in the morning and your leg hit the ground and the ground did not sink you, and the earth did not open and you can stand on solid ground, then the covenant is solid.
If there is seedtime, there must be harvest time. If there is a giving, there must be a receiving. If there is a tithing, there must be the opening of the Heaven. Am I communicating at all? For as long as the earth remains… and then He went on because of Noah’s altar that he builded, in chapter 9:1, that is the next verse; and God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. What that means is, you can pray all you want and then you can be as holy as an angel, if you are not a giver, you will continue to be a beggar. There is no short cut at all. If you are not a giver, you will continue to be a beggar. If you are not a tither, life will continue to remain tight for you.
A man was testifying the other day, Early Will I seek You service, that for 30 years of his Christian life, he didn’t know what it means to tithe and then when he came to our Kingdom Financial Stewardship the other day, he heard about the tithe and he decided to tithe for the first time and then he has not recovered yet. I told him and say, look at how you tied your life for 30 years. Where will you be now if you follow the practice of the economy? So it is very, very important that as you pray and also as you live upright and godly, that you put the covenant into perspective.
- Kingdom Service. You shall serve the Lord your God and He shall bless your bread and you water (Exodus 23:25-26). If you will not be tired of serving, God will not be tired of blessing. If God does not beg you to serve Him, you will not beg Him to bless you. It is a covenant.
How do you serve the Lord your God? You serve the Lord your God in soul winning, you serve Him in doing the things that touch Him. You serve Him by rescueing people from hell to heaven. Church Gist. You serve Him by giving Him satisfaction, what is the thing that satisfies God the most? He doesn’t want anybody to go to hell, He is not willing for anybody to perish according to 2 Peter 3:8-9, that God is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
You see, God is eager and God is passionate for souls to be saved and if you are going to go after soul, you will not beg God to bless you. If you will serve God in the sanctuary and not sit down as an executive Christian, you will not beg God to bless you. If you will serve God in worship and so on, but the priority service number one is the soul winning service. Whether you are a Choir member, an usher, a counselor, whatever you do, even a pastor, you are still duty-bound to go out and serve God in the winning of the lost and while these things are put together, your blessing is not negotiable. Somebody say a loud amen.
You can be a tither, you can be a giver and than you can be very, very holy and then very, very prayerful but if you are not serving God as you should, there is a dimension of blessing that you cannot access yet. There is something you are denying yourself of. You see, one of the greatest Christian billionaires that I know of in this country today is still today an usher, faithful usher in his Church, touching lives, touching souls. His wife is in the Choir, billionaire’s wife. Now, that is how to live and when you continue to live like that, then the blessing of God is not negotiable.
- Somebody is blessed here this morning. Who is that person? Stand up on your feet with the loudest shout of praise.
Lift up your two hands and begin to honour the Lord. Let’s begin to worship God. We are going to take some session of intercession and I will like you to pray as aggressive and violent as you can.
Lift your hands and lift your voice and let’s appreciate Him, let’s honour Him, let’s adore Him, let’s worship Him, let’s glorify Him, let’s magnify Him. This morning as we proceed in intercession, go ahead and bless Him.
#SupersonicSunday
#DrPastorPaulEnenche
#DunamisInternationalGospelCentre
#ChurchGist
