TO SEE GOD AS A SHRINE.
PRAYER IS THE ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL THINGS GOD GAVE US BUT UNFORTUNATELY, WE ARE NOT GETTING RESULTS IN PRAYER BECAUSE WE’RE NOT PRAYING CORRECTLY.
SOME PEOPLE HAVE NEVER PRAYED FOR SOMEBODY ELSE IN THEIR WHOLE LIFE IT MUST BE THEIR FATHER, THEIR MOTHER OR THEIR CHILDREN.
THERE ARE SOME THINGS PRAYERS WILL NEVER DO:
TO WIN AN ELECTION YOU HAVE TO RUN YOU CAN’T PRAY. NO! YOU WILL JOIN A PARTY, YOU WILL RUN, YOU WILL LEARN THE GAME, YOU WILL PAY YOUR DUES.
IT’S NOT EVERY JOB OFFER YOU GET YOU SHOULD TAKE
GOD IS ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR PEOPLE THAT WILL FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM
NO ONE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT THE OTHER IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS WITH GOD, IT’S JUST THAT SOME PEOPLE TAKE THEIR WALK WITH GOD MORE SERIOUSLY.
THE THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE ARE NOT THE THINGS YOU TELL GOD THEY ARE THE THINGS GOD TELLS YOU.
YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE BECAUSE OF HOW YOU THINK.
DON’T MAKE DECISIONS WHEN YOU’RE TIRED AND FRUSTRATED, YOU’LL MAKE A VERY BAD DECISION.
-Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo on “What’s Wrong With Your Prayer” at David’s Christian Center|| Supersonic Sunday|| 12th June, 2022.
Hallelujah!
This God is too good and if we can understand that it will change your prayer life, because many people pray to God as if He is a wicked God then some pray to him as if He’s a neutral God that they are trying to convince about how important it is for them to be blessed, but when you understand that this God is too good, that he actually loves you more than you can ever even love yourself. The Bible says He has what he calls “Steadfast love”, that means God’s love doesn’t fluctuate, He is always passionate, He is always interested, He is always committed, always, when you understand that, it changes your whole prayer life and I’m trusting God that your flow with God will go to a whole new level.
Glory to God!
Hallelujah!
Ask your neighbour what is wrong with your prayers?
Nigerians are being currently discipled away from the original design and intent of prayer; it is so sad to actually see that people have been trained to see God as a shrine. ChurchGist. You know a shrine? Nobody has a relationship with a shrine, you only go there to tell the shrine your problem. I wanted to ask how many of you have been to the shrine? That would just be weird, so don’t raise your hand. But some of you here have been to the shrine, either your parent took you or your friend took you, in fact when I was in secondary school, we actually went to a native doctor, see I was a bad boy, in secondary school, I did every bad thing you can think about, so I don’t want to go into things and list them but everything you can think about I did then. So, we went to steal something, it’s amazing how thieves like integrity and then we brought it to school, we were in boarding school, we went out of school to one of our friends’ house, we brought it to school and hid it somewhere in school, the plan was to sell it.
This was in secondary school and I was not born again then. ChurchGist. Some days later some people stole it in school and we were suspecting ourselves that one of the three of us took it because nobody else knows about it. So, since it was missing, we decided to go to the herbalist, let the herbalist tell us who took it, that was when I knew most of the herbalist are fake, when we got there the guy said don’t tell me what you came for, take some money and speak something to it and drop it, the gods will tell me what you came for. You want to hear the remaining story, go and serve your Jesus.
The point is that, in a shrine you don’t have a relationship because we never went back there after we had that interaction, the guy didn’t tell us who took it because he doesn’t know who took it, he just said it’s one of you. ChurchGist. Of course, we knew it was one of us that is why we came here, I will finish that gist later, I have many pending gist that I will give you people, just keep coming to church. The point is that nobody has a relationship with a shrine, what you have is when you have a problem you approach the shrine. Nobody has a relationship with a shrine and that is what Nigerian Christian are now being discipled to do and to think that God is somebody we approach with our problems, when the average Christians hears prayers he think it’s a line where you make customers complaint, this is what people think prayer is, it is such a shame and like I said last week, the Body of Christ has gone through bad discipling that took us years to unlearn, different ones, the thing about truth is that, truth moves slowly, lies and fakeness moves very fast, it catches on quickly, truth moves slowly but gradually you can fight truth.
There are many things that the Body of Christ were discipled on that were wrong and I’m not attacking the people that started those movements, some of them are even sincere in all fairness and it doesn’t mean everything about these people are bad. No! No! Some of them are genuine mistakes, genuine misunderstanding, genuine misrepresentation. ChurchGist. For example, there was a time when it was the reigning thing for Christians not to watch TV, if you’re watching TV then you’re not a good Christian, that was what was being pushed then, while we were doing that the unbelievers took over TV. Now, we are paying them to come on TV, millions and millions, because we left the TV, we thought TV was satanic.
Same thing happened with the internet, pornography had taken over before we started church site, porn sites has gone everywhere for free. We also struggle with how women should not wear trousers many years ago, churches were the last place where benches were being used in Nigeria, everyone had thrown away benches and they have started using plastic chairs but Churches still used benches because a bench is the scriptural sitting position. So, I’m just trying to show you that there is a history of these things that flow from time to time. There was a time when every cockroach flying in the night was a demon, some of you are even still in that realm, every wall gecko, you hear people shouting my enemy, every witch, every bat flying in the night, everywhere in the world, when do bats fly? They can’t see during the day. You hear people say I saw a cat in the night. The cat sees better at night and it is food that they are looking for also moves at night. But then the Body of Christ was discipled to believe that every cat and bat, as long as it has it ends with AT; cat, bat and eat they are satanic. ChurchGist. If a full witch that is a human being transforms into a car, a human being that can fight me as a human being now turns into a cat that I can use a stick to beat.
There was a time when the Body of Christ entered fall and die, kill all your enemies, those are not biblical prayers because we see in the Bible that Jesus himself said pray for your enemies and not pray for them to die. It says blessed those that curse you. The lie first went viral but the truth will come gradually, after you’ve tried to kill your enemy with prayers many times and you find out that he’s not dying, he’s even winning primaries, (I didn’t call any person’s name o, I was just joking) you can’t kill enemies that way, you can effect change like that. ChurchGist. It doesn’t mean that there are no times that God brings judgement on the enemy but you see it’s not up to you to just keep going about killing anybody that offends you, anybody you perceive as your enemy, sometimes God even use your enemy to prosper you, the reason why there are enemies is because there is poverty, if they pray for them, you will have less enemies, if you try to kill them, I won’t kill them because I created them. ChurchGist. You see you have no investment in them. God has investments in them and you were once somebody’s enemy. If God answered that prayer, you won’t be here today born again killing people, you’ll be dead. So, God doesn’t operate like that, so you see that’s not a biblical prayer but it reigns, the prayer reigned.
Then that was everybody’s prayer (all my enemy). All those unscriptural things, it reigned and reigned. ChurchGist. We’re currently dealing with a new one now where people approach God as a shrine. Where we tell God, just do it, just do it and you need to know the danger of those things; it keeps making you feel inferior. You don’t understand that God is the most amazing being ever. There is nobody that will elevate you like that to His level. Who will employ you, which MD will employ you and say from now you are equal with me? God is the only one that brings us from nothing to become family.
You are joint heirs with Christ, who does that? Nobody does that, nobody just meets you on the road, adopts you and says right you are joint heirs with my son. Imagine the richest man in the world, who is the richest man in the world now? ChurchGist. So, imagine Elon Musk just adopts you now and said now you are joint heirs with his son, you are the same with his son. Who does that? That’s what God did for us, but yet we have been discipled to come and approach God like He’s somebody we are convincing. oh when i see the thing many people call prayer, it’s so shameful it’s so sad. You can’t even love yourself more than the way God loves you, He’s passionately in love with you and the reason why we don’t get results in prayer is that we don’t pray right. James 4:3. He said you ask and you don’t receive because you ask amiss.
It’s possible to pray wrongly, it’s not hard, just check your life, if you don’t like the results you are seeing it’s a sign that you’re probably not praying correctly. Prayer is the one of the most powerful things God gave us but unfortunately we’re not getting results in prayer because we’re not praying correctly, that’s why the Bible says what’s wrong with your prayer you’re not getting results in prayer because you’re not praying correctly. ChurchGist. There’s a right way to pray. Ephesians 6:18s 16 he says praying always with all supplication. Saying all prayers means there are different kinds of prayer, the Bible said use all, you don’t use all if there’s only one. The Bible says pray with all prayer.
For you to be an effective Christian you must use all prayer not just one kind of prayer you have to use all prayer, to use all prayer you have to know all prayer. ChurchGist. You can’t use prayer you don’t know. To use all prayer, you have to know all prayer and when you know all prayer you also have to know the rules for all prayer, all prayers doesn’t have the same rules there are rules or guidelines to anything, it’s like saying sports is sports so you can use these rules for basketball to play football, is that possible? They will give you a red card. In football that’s why it’s called FOOTball, if you carry the ball with your hand and run, you picked the ball with your hand because you just finished watching rugby and you saw that one man carry ball with his hand and run and people were chasing him and he was dodging them and he crossed a line and they counted it as points and now you’re in a football field you know did the same, you carried the ball and run and you’re dodging the referee. They would just collect your address, they will mail your red card to you as you’re running like that, just be running to your house, they will give you a red billboard.
So, you can’t you can’t say sports in sports, you can’t say ball is ball, that is all balls, it’s basketball, it’s football so it’s ball, ball is ball. No! ChurchGist. There are rules that govern all prayers. Ephesians 6: 18. (Amplified Classic): Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the spirit with what (all manner of) prayer and entreaty. To the end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance interceding on the behalf of all the saints (God’s consecrated people).
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRAYER
This is why many people don’t get results, this is what is wrong with many people’s prayers, they just mix up prayer, they just mix up any rules of prayer they like. They play football to a point when they are tired, then they carry the ball with their hand and run and then they throw the ball to their friend. ChurchGist. They just use any rules, in basketball when you’re tired you can go and sit down and when you are rested a bit you come back in. But in football if you go out you have gone out you can’t come back, if they’ve substituted you with somebody else, it looks alike but they’re not the same, in basketball one score can be counted as two points and sometimes it can be counted as three points but in football if you like score from outside the stadium, it’s one goal. You can’t say all balls are the same, there are different rules and you must use all, the Bible says use all manners, you must use all. If you want to get better results in prayer you have to use all. let me run through a few kinds of prayer.
- PRAYER OF INTERCESSION
Pastor Gideon talked about this a bit last Sunday. The prayer of intercession is when you pray for somebody else or for something else other than yourself, other than your needs, every Christian has to pray the prayer of intercession. Some people have never prayed for somebody else in their whole life. It must be their father, their mother or their children, never have they ever prayed for somebody else, but see what that scripture said, it said pray for all the saints. ChurchGist. How did you even come to church today, you didn’t pray for church, you didn’t pray for service when you pray for service, He entitles you to be among those that will be blessed today in service. Yes, you should pray for service before you come.
Nigerians are trained to come so that I would pray for them, it’s very annoying, you have to understand, there is nothing wrong with me praying for you that’s okay but you shouldn’t come from that inferiority position, because there is wrong with your prayer, there is nothing wrong with you praying, it is the same line, they didn’t give me a special line when I became a pastor, ok you’re a pastor take these lines it is directly to God, the rest have to call customer care and they’ll keep them waiting, you know those customers care people, dial 1 if you have request, dial 2 if you’re in a hurry, dial 3 if its thanksgiving, dial 4 if you have a testimony, dial 5 if you want to talk to a customer representative and then they will play a music. ChurchGist. When you now press the desired one, okay you want to talk to the customer representative and you’ll hear something like hold down while someone attends to you.
This is what some people think, that pastors have a direct line in which they reach God straight but we the common masses. Now that what I’m saying, the prayer that they are teaching you is making you feel less than who you really are. ChurchGist. I told them on the Island last Sunday when Jesus (next Sunday I’m going to talk about the prayer of decrees) when Jesus cursed the fig tree and the fig tree died; Peter was tripped the next day, he said what Jesus you’re the coolest man Jesus you are the coolest, I think you cursed this tree yesterday and by today it has withered away and you know what Jesus would have said, He said bring all your cursing requests to me, I will help you curse everything, tomorrow morning I will curse all your problems for you. If it were to be a Nigerian pastor is that not what will happen? They’ll open a cursing ministry to help people curse down.
You know what just told the guy, He said have faith in God, He said there’s nothing wrong with your prayer, He said what’s wrong with your prayer, I’m not special, that’s Jesus Christ and I’m telling you that nothing like Jesus’ prayer had more access, He could have oppressed us he could have said you guys are small boys, you want to curse a fig tree, do you know how many years it
took me to reach here? You just want to be waking up and be cursing a fig tree. You think it’s easy, go and curse it and let me see it. You can’t do it because I am the only official, anointed and authorized curser of fig trees. ChurchGist. Is that not what the Nigerian pastor would do? But Jesus told them to have faith in God. He told them to have faith in God, verily verily I say to you, if you say to the mountain be removed, He said it will be removed he said I’m not special.
A tree and a Mountain, which one is more difficult to move? So, Peter was tripping for a fig tree, Jesus said you can even move mountains and you’re talking about a tree. ChurchGist. You can move mountains, go and do it. If you have a look at Jesus, He always said go but in Nigeria we always say, come, I’m the only one, come, everybody gather for me. Jesus Christ said go into
the world, go and heal the sick, He said greater works than this you can do. Jesus is always saying go, you have what I have. Nigeria will say come only me have this thing, all of you gather unto me, this is why we can’t take over politics, because the real guys know how they are playing the game whereas we are praying. There are some things prayers will never do. To win an election you have to run, you can’t pray and they’ll come and look for you, you can’t pray and they’ll say hey Emeka, the Lord said you are the next governor. No! You will join a party, you will run, you will learn the game, you will pay your dues.
That’s how we’ll take over, not prayer. You pray just to make sure the process is going well but you see the mentoring we are even giving Christians in Church that they even pray, they have to come to me, so how can he go and survive, how can he go and deal with the real guys that are ready to kill, he can’t survive. ChurchGist. He has a chicken mentality that until I go to somebody to pray.
Nothing annoys me after I pray for people in church normally and after serving somebody will still come and meet me, put your hands on me, speak some words on me. So, the one I just said now from the altar is not enough, what’s wrong with your prayer. Jesus told the guy; have faith in God, you too can speak to Him, He said verily (Jesus only use verily when he knows Nigeria Christians would not believe it), verily means I swear, He doesn’t use it all the time, He only use it when He is about to say things that people would find hard to believe. Mark 11:23. Verily I say unto you that whosoever shall believe, did it say whosoever pastor, prophet or anointed man of God. ChurchGist. It says whosoever that is you. But you’ll say pastor I’m not a strong Christian, did it say whosoever strong Christian or prayer warrior, did it say whosoever that is born again for a long time. Is that what He said? Whosoever means whatsoever but no, Nigerian Christians don’t want that, laziness is our pattern, somebody has to do it for me, I’m not qualified, I’m not good enough, my own prayer is aba made, my own prayer is China made, you want German prayer. What a big shame Africa, what a big shame Nigeria. ChurchGist. Our Christianity is still shrine based.
The woman that Jesus met by the well, she said they told us that there’s a particular mountain where we must worship, Jesus Christ said no, He said you worship what you know not you don’t have to go to a particular mountain anymore. He said now everybody can relate, everybody can walk with God.
Prayer of intercession number means you’re praying for somebody else; it means you’re praying for somebody else and the Bible says we must pray all prayers. ChurchGist. Yes, it can include your immediate family but it’s not limited to that; that’s still selfishness, we are talking about you praying for the Church, praying for the Body of Christ, praying for the coming elections, praying for Nigeria, praying for those in authority, praying for your pastors instead of gossiping about them.
- PRAYER OF PETITION
This is the one Africans love, this is the only one we know, where you beg God for something, I have a problem. Some people associate prayer with problems. So, when you ask them; have you prayed? They tell you: I don’t have a problem yet. ChurchGist. They associate prayer with a problem, it’s a shrine you are worshipping, you have not started walking with God.
- PRAYER OF AGREEMENT
Matthew 18: 18-19. The prayer of agreement, two people must agree on the topic, you can’t agree without knowing, you can’t just come and meet somebody and say agree with me for something I’m praying for and he asks what is this? I can’t tell you but just agree with me, that’s not yet agreement, we must first know what we are praying for. ChurchGist. This one works well with couples, it can work with anybody, you don’t have to be married but when you’re married it’s an extra force because you guys are already one. But you can agree with your brothers, agree with your friends, this one has benefited me so much, because I agree a lot with my wife on certain things.
- PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Remember the Bible says you must pray all manner, in the prayer of consecration it is you
yielding yourself. So, in the prayer of consecration you are saying Lord not my will but your will be done. So, in the prayer of consecration you are making yourself available and vulnerable for God to lead you, for God to guide you, for God to have His way. ChurchGist. So, if there’s a guy interested in you or two guys interested in you, the prayer of consecration tells you to say oh Lord, I’m open to whatever you want to say about this issue, but you see many other people they will just claim one of the brothers they like, the one that has a car.
John and Louie are toasting her, Louie doesn’t have a car while John has a car, many Nigerian girls i know will say oh God John, give me John. Prayer of consecration is Lord not my will, Jesus prayed that prayer, He said if it will be possible let this cup pass over me but He said nevertheless not my will but your will be done. ChurchGist. So, in the prayer of consecration you’ll say Lord do you want me to travel or not, do you want me to stay in Nigeria or not, do you want to take that job or not, it’s not every job offer you get you should take but if you don’t pray the prayer, all you know is prayer of breakthrough you can easily be trapped you can still enter a trap because everything that looks like breakthrough to you just take it, you marry anybody because they look rich.
This is why you enter a very terrible relationship. You are moving just by your eyes. You must pray the prayer of consecration. Lord, what should I do? I’m available to you, I consecrate myself
to your direction, because some people don’t know Jesus is not only our saviour, He’s also our Lord, He needs to run your life. ChurchGist. If your life’s not going away, He’s not the one running it you’re the one running it, when He’s the one running it, everybody will know, they will see the results.
- PRAYER OF DECREE
The prayer of decree, you’re not talking to God actually you’re talking to the situations, so we’ll talk about that next week.
- PRAYER OF WORSHIP AND THANKSGIVING.
In that kind of prayer, you’re just giving thanks and worshipping God, you’re not asking for anything, you’re not fighting anybody, all your enemies are not there.
- PRAYER OF FELLOWSHIP.
This is the most important one of all the kinds of prayer, the prayer of fellowship. ChurchGist. This is the prayer of friendship with God, that what it means, the prayer of interacting with God, the prayer of fellowship, fellowship is the word Koinonia, it means hanging out with someone, if you have a real friend, sometimes you don’t even have to have a purpose for you to go and visit them, is somebody getting what I am saying, there must be no purpose, you just say hey man, I have not seen you in a while, or sometimes you go there every day. ChurchGist. You have some friends like that, you just see them every day, it’s your routine, that once you come back from work you will stop, not that there is an agenda, that’s the prayer of fellowship. It’s the most important prayer. Many Nigerians know nothing about that, if they are not begging for something they can’t pray, this is why sometimes when some Nigerian relocate and government has answer all their prayers, there is now light, road and money, you’ll find out they have nothing to pray about because all their prayer life has been programmed to ask God, fight God, challenge God and command God.
Do you know what God enjoys the most about you, it is fellowshipping with you, the Bible says the Father seeketh such to worship Him, that word worship as to do with prayer, interaction and fellowship. John 4:20-23. God is actually looking for people that will fellowship with Him, unfortunately what Nigerian Christian do is these, imagine Ogbonna here is God, they will shout Ogbonna Ogbonna, my rent is due, Ogbonna, Ogbonna, my bills are due, Ogbonna Ogbonna, thank you. This is an average Nigerian prayer and we come every day, we’ll come the next day Ogboona Ogbonna and this is what we call fellowship, I’m ashamed of my country. We have been so battered, you’re a King and a Priest, do you understand what that means? Have you ever seen a King beg? We’re just all-over disgracing God, you can’t be better than God, my son has never begged me to eat, my physical son and I am not better than God, I buy him things, when I go somewhere and I see something he will like, I just buy it, without him knowing, without him asking.
You’re begging your Heavenly Father, remember me, what a shame, how many fathers here will forget his children. What are we doing? How many years is it going to take for us to understand this? That’s why when Jesus came to introduce prayer, He said: Our Father, its relationship, that’s the most important part of prayer, every other thing lies on that premise. Our father. He didn’t say my Father, that would have been a problem, if He said my Father, that means I would still be an orphan, I have to beg Him to beg His Father, He said our Father. So, you’re now one of us, you have as much right as I do to this Father, talk to him, Our Father. ChurchGist. Just imagine one boy entering here and he says my school fees is due, you would just pity him, if your son enters here and says the same sentence, your reaction would not be the same. What is the difference between the two requests, the relationship you have with them, that is your son. So, it’s not a request, it’s the relationship, anybody can make any request, if the person talking has a legal standing, he’s my son, his school fees is due, he doesn’t have to say it more than once, but if it’s a stranger, you will say it many times and that doesn’t mean I would respond, because I have bills, I am sorry, I have project I’m working on, I’m not thinking about you today.
But we are wired to approach God like somebody wicked who is far from us. He said our Father, the prayer of fellowship is this the most important prayer for most Christian but most Christian don’t get it. You have to grow, that prayer of fellowship is so vital because the real blessings of your life as a Christian are revealed in that prayer of fellowship.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS?
- YOU WILL KNOW GOD SECRETS.
What do I mean by the prayer of fellowship? It’s the prayer where you are not asking for anything, you’re just hanging out, you’re hanging out with the Father and if you don’t pray in tongues this will be hard for you. Those of us that pray in tongues we know that you can stay for one hour or two hours praying in the Holy Spirit with no request, the Holy Ghost is just making intercession by himself for you. In the prayer of fellowship, a lot of worship is inside it, you’re just worshipping, you have no request, you’re just telling him how good He is, you’re happy to share fellowship and to be with him, you’re happy, many Christians don’t have the endurance, they can’t pray for 30 minutes without begging for something, they are so used to begging, all they have learnt about prayer is problem and I understand, Africa is in big problem, this is why we have these things. ChurchGist. But the day God begins to bless you; you will find out that you have no prayer request because you have no prayer life, in the prayer of fellowship is the prayer where you just talk to God without request and one of the benefits is that you will know God secrets in those prayer because when you spend time with people that’s when they can talk to you, they can tell you things, let me tell you something, let me try and convince you this morning, there are aspect of your life that you have not heard about or known about, that you will never know about if you don’t do prayer and fellow.
Listen, you can’t grow, you can’t even grow as a Christian without the prayer of fellowship, there is no two ways about it. Anybody can pray all those other kinds of prayers but this prayer of fellowship is only for sons, only for people that love the Lord. An unbeliever can pray about those other ones, because they like to collect things from God. You see a prostitute win an award by sleeping around and still come back to thank God, anybody can pray all those prayers but that prayer of fellowship, it’s only people that have closeness with God that can pray it. There are things about your life that you don’t know, you’re suffering and you think this Country is hard, it’s you that have not heard what God has for you, I know the thought that I think towards you, God has thoughts towards you. I know you feel like an orphan, you feel lost, you feel distant but I’m here to tell you this morning, God has thoughts towards you, I don’t know whether you’re getting what I am saying?
This is my issue with Nigerian Christianity, most people think it is the pastor that God has thoughts for. You will hear stuff like that man of God. No! No! God has thoughts for you too, you’re very important. No one is more important than the other in the scheme of things with God, it’s just that some people take their walk with God more seriously. God also has a very great plan for you, it’s just that you never spent time to know. Do you know why I’m standing here today? In 1996, I took two weeks out to fast, I was not asking for anything I had no prayer request, I had no begging requests, I just wanted to know God more. I took two weeks to fast. ChurchGist. I was doing dry fasting one full day the next day I will eat just a light stuff to give me some energy, the third day I’ll do a dry fast, 24 hours. I was not praying all these kinds of prayers people are doing these days, oh God give me some bread, shoes shoes, No! Nothing, just fellowshipping with God and while I was in that two-week fast that was when God said you will start a youth fellowship, it will be called David’s Christian Center.
Imagine if I never went on that fast, you know what would happen? God will be holding the plan waiting for the day I will ask. Some of you, an instruction that will change your life is still pending but you have never opened the mail. ChurchGist. You are busy, you only sent mail, you know it’s possible for people to send a message and you don’t reply but you have sent more, you know it’s possible? That’s what some people are doing, you’re always sending, you have never opened the one they sent you. The things that will change your life are not the things you tell God they are the things God tells you. He already knows everything you want to tell him; this is what’s wrong with the African prayer we are praying, He already knows everything you want to tell him, the thing you don’t know is what He wants to tell you. The Bible says: call unto me he said I will answer you and I will show you (but we stop at answer you, we don’t wait for him to show us). So, that’s why we all look stranded, we look dejected. Christians are supposed to be the most powerful people on the earth, yet we look very dejected and frustrated.
If unbelievers hear the prayers we pray they will laugh at us, because what you’re shouting about they can sign one check and sort it, but you shout about it and beg; you beg your wicked father to remember you and give you small change, small change when you should be signing billions, we are begging for small change to survive. ChurchGist. It’s the things God has to say that is more important than the things you have to say.
I just sit down sometime and wonder what if I never went on that fast, I’ll probably not be here, I’ll be in Lagos now just looking for a job and now I’m getting old, I’ll be afraid that they will soon retire me, I’ll be hustling. ChurchGist. I don’t know what God has for. Your own might not be a ministry, it can be a business He wants to show you, it can be an industry He wants you to take over but there’s something, he has a plan for you. Nneka, don’t you have a plan for Bosa, what class is he now? he’s in year four. Have you ever taught or talked about the second school he will go to? You’ve already thought about it. Why do Nigerian think God is wicked, you’re better than the gods of most Nigerians because you’ve already thought about Bosa’s school, he’s in primary four but you have thought about a secondary school. You’re better than the gods of many Nigerians, even when Nigerians worship you, they will shout at you but you’re better than the gods of many Nigerians. So, you already have plans, we have even discussed the possibility of where our children will have their university education and he has not even finished primary school,
I’m bigger than most gods’ Nigerian worships because their own god has no plans for them, they are convincing Him, have plans now, pity us, they are the one trying to tell Him to be a good Father, what a shame Africa, one day we will get it, when you understand this, when you approach Him in prayer, you’ll approach Him from the place of a loving Father, you’re a good God, Father I just love you, I just thank you, Father I’m here, that’s why God said how can I do this thing without telling my friend Abraham, do you see how God thinks because He and Abraham, they fellowship a lot, when they is a new gist who do you look for? You look for your closest friend, oh boy where you dey, I wan see you, gist dey. Is that not what happens? You think God doesn’t have a gist, God knows what will happen in the election, as much as Coro took many people by surprise, there are many people that knew, there are many people that prophesied it, they are not just popular, this thing is not a popularity contest. Nigeria likes the popular pastors, it doesn’t work like that, sometimes, the real guys are not even popular. ChurchGist. This popularity is a weight and a burden, because the demand of your time is increased, some of those guys that nobody knows they have more time to pray. Genesis 18:17. There is a secret God needs to tell you about your next level, your next phase. So, there are secrets He wants to show you, there are things He wants to tell you about your life, every major breakthrough I have had, it has been God telling me something, not me telling Him something. What do you want to tell him? That you have problem, even somebody that is not God knows, your neighbour knows that you have a problem, you neighbour is not even God, he has seen your shoe, he knows that there is problem, then you say it’s God you want to inform, you want to inform God of these few challenges, keep quiet in the place of prayer and fellowship with Him, let him tell you something and the way He talks, it takes a while for real information to come out, it is not the first day it comes out, fellowship, when he knows you’re ready to listen, you don’t meet your friend at the bus stop and have an intimate conversation, both of you are rushing somewhere and you’re saying I want to tell you something important and they are calling his bus (Oshodi, Oshodi) No! That is not where we will talk, we will say let see later and you just make time.
- IT CHANGES YOU
What happens in the place of prayer is that your bad habit, your wrong mindsets are changed, you are where you are because of how you think, when you do the prayer of fellowship, God begins to change how you think, some of you still think there is no money in Nigeria, prayer of fellowship, you need to interact with the richest being in the world, when He talks to you; you’ll find out that there is wealth everywhere. Luke 9:28-29. You want to grow spiritually, you can’t do it without personal prayer, not the prayer of begging for something, No! Just fellowship, stay with God. What are you telling God that He is not aware of, it’s what He tells you that will change you, He has even answered you most times, He needs to tell you how and where the answer is. When God told Abraham to kill Isaac, as he was about to kill Isaac, imagine Abraham was not used to hearing God, he would have first killed Isaac and on his way home He will now see the ram and he now starts regretting. This is what we are all doing, the answer is already there. The ram is already there but it takes you hearing, it takes relationship for Him to tell you where the ram is, that was where they called God Jehovah Jireh, the God that provides even in the most unlikely places and the unlikely ways, He always provides. Your husband is in this country, some of you he might not even be in this country but it is easy for God to connect you, but every time you come to God and you shout at him, oh God, I need husband, I’m getting old, you’re re-enforcing the weakness, you should come there and say oh God you’re the perfect match maker, re-enforce His goodness. One of my daughters is getting married next month, I’m still working on going for that wedding, one of my correct daughters in America, she has been believing God to get married, one worship minister from Nigeria came to her Church to minister in America, she video it in Church, the way people video in church and she posted it on her insta story, the music minister saw it and reposted it, you know how we post things that they tag us on, He posted it on his own page, the husband to be follows that minister and saw the repost and said who is this person that they repost her video and he checked the person’s page and they started talking from there. They are getting married next month.
God is a perfect God, see there is no scarcity of husbands, the guy is a born again Christian, they are both born again. There is no scarcity of husband, you’re the one saying: No good men in Lagos, anytime you have the prayer of fellowship, all negativity around you will leave, you’re feeling hopeless in Nigeria, it is because you’ve not prayed, when you pray, God will say focus on me, leave Nigeria, focus on me, I have never told you Nigeria will give you peace, it is my peace, the leave of the Lord not the peace of the Country, you’re terrified and afraid because you’re focusing on the news, focus on me. ChurchGist. I have decrees over my life that God will put me in a spiritual bubble, all the madness going on will not affect me, I’ll keep my eyes straight, focused on God, if you focus on this madness, you’ll get discouraged, disoriented with no solution. You change in the place of prayer.
- IT STRENGTHENS YOU.
You know this world deplicts you, it’s like your phone battery, when you use your phone for a long time, you open all the apps, your battery goes down, the only way to make it go up is to plug it or charge it, this life deplicts you every day, you just recharge, don’t make decisions when you’re tired and frustrated, you’ll make a very bad decision. Isaiah 40:31. The word wait upon the Lord is like the way a waiter waits on somebody, when a waiter waits for somebody, are they impatient? They wait calmly, however long it takes you to make your order, they are always having a good attitude. ChurchGist. Sometimes some of you need to go on a fast for no reason other than just to know God better, to fellowship with God better, that’s it, most of Nigerian what we know is to go on fasting because we want to beg God for something, the thing He has already given you, you’re going on a fasting to hear him for where that thing is and what the next step you should take is. ChurchGist. Not for him to give you, He has already given you, there is nothing you want to ask Him that He has not provided.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO THE PRAYER OF FELLOWSHIP.
- I need a quiet place. The Bible says go into your closet when you want to pray, it mustn’t be a physical closet, it just means find a quiet place, the Church will announce when we will have our own prayer of fellowship, when we will just stay and fellowship with God, you’ll learn real prayer, how to know God, because there a lot of things God wants to tell you, I can’t know them for you, should we go to Island or should we go to Germany? I don’t know. ChurchGist. Should I marry John or should I marry James? I can’t know. Should I go to UBA or BAA? I don’t know, I can’t know but there is somebody that knows, unfortunately you don’t know Him. So, go to a quiet place. Matthew 6:6. So find any quiet place or quiet time, one of my associates pastors, his quiet place was the toilet, when He enters there nobody is going to use that bathroom for the next two or three hours because He is not just using the bathroom, he is fellowshipping, you will hear him singing, he sings offkey, incredible offkey. But he will never miss that prayer time, you hear him singing and fellowshipping, that is where God talks to you about your future, that is where God strengthens you for the journey ahead, if you’re an oppress Christian I put it to you, you have no prayer of fellowship going on because even if you’re depressed when you start your fellowship, your strength is renewed. You can’t come out of God’s presence and still be depressed; it is not possible. Depressed Christian is not really interacting with God, you’re interacting with the world, wrong information, that’s what is depressing you. It’s the information you’re getting, the hopelessness, you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, how old you’re getting, you’re looking at your bank account, how low it’s going, you’re looking at the country, how bad it’s going. You’re looking at the wrong things.
- YOU NEED WORSHIP SONGS
If you don’t know songs then use YouTube, tell the music guys to help you out, sing along with it, don’t worry that it’s YouTube, it doesn’t disturb anything, it’s your interaction with God that matters, so don’t say I don’t know any song but you know all Bigi raps, you know 2Pac, you know all those people, you know all the lyrics of their rap songs 🎼Oh lol lol lol, oh lol lol lol, buga won🎼 you know that one but you don’t know any worship song, you have no request, you’re just fellowshipping, God you’re just good and it doesn’t have to be a new song or a long song, you don’t have to sing the whole verses of the song, it might be the chorus that you know, sing that one and fellowship, stay there for hours fellowshipping.
- A NOTE PAD OR YOUR PHONE.
If you know your phone won’t distract you, if your phone will distract you, leave your phone outside and get a note pad because you’re expecting God to speak to you and to inspire you. ChurchGist. Many if you don’t even have an expectation that God will talk to you in prayer.
- TIME
You need time, you can’t go to the prayer closet without time, you can’t say I have 5 minutes to pray, that is not prayer, that is greetings, if you want to pray you have to carve out time. It must be a time when you’re not in a hurry, that prayer you do when you’re going in the morning is just exercise, but it’s good but that’s not prayer of fellowship. In fellowship I’m not in a hurry, I’m here to stay, when you have that attitude of I am here to stay, God is excited, because the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Have you been blessed this morning?
Thank you Jesus!
Lord, stir in us a desire to fellowship with you, share in our heart a desire to fellowship and worship you, thank you Father, revive us oh God, stir in us a desire to know who we really are, thank you Father, thank you Jesus. In Jesus mighty name we pray.
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