SECOND ONLY TO PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT, IS PRAYING THE PROMISES OF GOD.

IT IS WRITTEN IS WHAT GIVES STRENGTH TO YOUR PRAYER; IT IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING THAT GIVES STRENGTH TO YOUR PRAYER.

BEHIND EVERY STRANGE DIMENSION OF MASTERY AND GRACE IS BLOOD DRIPPING ON THAT ALTAR.

THE PRICE FOR LIFE IS DEATH.
THE SIZE OF GOD IS SO HEAVY, IF YOU CARRY HIM ALIVE, IT WILL KILL YOU.

• Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia on ‘STRIVING FOR MASTERY’ (PART ONE)
  (PART B).

I believe in the power of prayer; I am a product of the ministry of prayer. We must submit ourselves to the ministry of prayer. You must obtain grace from God to pray; I submit to you that in the Body of Christ, there’s a lot of zeal, people pray and pray and even if you are God, the way you see people praying, you are wondering, why is this person’s life like this? I can tell you that most of our prayers are not guided by understanding. Church Gist. For many believers, we think it’s the stretch and energy invested that is equal to result; it is not so. Most believers do not pray according to scripture, most believers do not pray according to knowledge. There’s such a thing as praying amiss. God wants the average believer to get to a point where you don’t just pray, but you understand the jurisdiction and the assignment of prayer.

PRAYER:
Father, I obtain grace to fan my prayer altar back in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Bible recommends an approach to prayer. The most effective dimension of prayer, second only to praying in the spirit, is praying the promises of God (Isaiah 41:21). God cannot be committed to the believer outside of the provision and the allowance of scriptures. The Word of God defines the boundary of God’s commitment to the believer. Approach prayer like a legal system in the realm of the spirit. Don’t just say, God bless me or change my life. Based on what? It is written is what gives strength to your prayer; it is not what you are saying that gives strength to your prayer. It is saying what is written.

The Word of God contains three things essentially; every time you open scripture, the Word of God is a capture of the promises of God, the principles of the Kingdom and prophecies. If you know how to bring forth your strong reason, you can go to bed. You will commit God and dislodge anything that is not of God in prayer. It is not just what is written that blesses you, it is what you have found and you engage with understanding even in the place of prayer.

So, your first assignment when you want to engage in prayer, especially in understanding is to make sure you have the patience to bring the scriptures that become the basis of your defence and of making your petition. Church Gist. Don’t just go and pray and ramble around. Internet has made it easy to pray efficiently. If you want to pray concerning your health, you can go and Google prayers concerning health. Different scriptures will come, it is your responsibility to filter it by the Spirit.

The prayer that works is the prayer connected to scriptures and derived by of the Spirit; outside of the ministry of the Word and the Spirit, prayer does not work. It just becomes a motion of dissipating energy. Prayer is based on what God has said, what you want that is connected to what God has said. Your first assignment is to find out what He has said that relates to what you want.

2). Understanding and engaging the laws and principles of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19). You gain mastery by holding the keys of the Kingdom (Luke 11:52).

Every time any dimension of the Kingdom does not seem to open up to you, it means that there is something wanting as far as your spiritual knowledge in that area is concerned (Leviticus 9:6). There is what you must know that activates what you do and the Bible says, the glory of the Lord will appear unto you. Your prayer this night should be Psalm 25:4-5. Church Gist. Most of us know that Moses saw the glory of God but I will tell you, the first thing Moses asked for was not the glory of God.
Exodus 33 – there were two requests that Moses made; the first was in verse 13 and the second was in verse 18. There is a relationship between His ways and His glory. When I found this truth, I made up my mind that I was going to learn the laws of the Kingdom, no matter how many, I will search for them one by one, until I gain mastery and my life becomes a capture of these principles.

Every facet of life has the ways of God that controls it; finances, health, longevity, ministry and influence. There are laws of the Kingdom; your immunity and defense in the days of adversity is the fortification that the knowledge of these laws provides for you. These laws can surround and secures like chariots because these laws are backed up by God’s own integrity. In this Kingdom, our defense is based on the power of the laws of the Kingdom that we understand and we engage.

For tonight, I will take two of these spiritual laws. These laws are so powerful and irrefutable that if you hang on to these laws and you learn these principles, your life will be a surprise even to you;
1). The sacrifice of total surrender (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Matthew 16:25).
You are not ready to do business with God until you to die to yourself. There are two things you have to conquer; sin and self, both must die for you to rise.

If you are striving for mastery, you have to obtain grace from God; to deal with your desires, feelings and anything that is not in Christ. Behind every strange dimension of mastery and grace is blood dripping on that altar. The price for life is death, the size of God is so heavy, if you carry Him alive, it will kill you. Church Gist. Do you know what it means to die to yourself? It means there is nothing and no one that will have the ability to replace God in your life. To die does not mean to throw away your plans; it means to demote them to a point that God stands at the epic-center of your life. Total surrender is the price. To be surrendered means you lose the ability to tell God, “No”.

You want to strive for mastery, you have to get to a point where your mind is spiritually minded; “Lord, if it is for you, there is nothing I will not do.” There is nobody sitting here or standing here, including the man speaking to you who has the power to give your all. You only have the power to give God access to be enthroned above it. There are things that are too precious in your life, they cannot go; you just have to give Him access and say, “Lord, I don’t even know what I’m doing but You must be my God.” Church Gist. When you get to this realm, where nothing else matters to you, anything that comes close to God has already failed because God is in a position jealously guided. Fearful is the man who pushes past that realm of pain and gets to that point where in reality and in experience, you have enthroned Jesus above any and everything; there’s nothing God will not give you.

I’ve shared with you my experience where God told me; “Son, if you let men see me, there is nothing I will not give you.” There are many of you looking at me right now, you are only in church because of the need that brought you, you are only in church because of something driving you. That is important, you are welcome. But can I tell you; you must get to a point with God where you say, “Lord, I’m no longer playing games. I mean it seriously. Whether you bless me or not, You’re still my God. I’m not playing this church business with You, it is not an exchange where I say, give me breakthrough for my loyalty. You are not a politician. Everything, let it be Yours.” It is a very painful decision, but if you make that decision where everything belongs to Him, your life, reputation, strength and energy; now you have entered the realm of power, favour, uncommon grace and wisdom, where you become a friend of God. It takes death to be a friend of God. The realm of friendship is the realm of revelation, He comes to you.

There’s a realm of death where He’s the One who brings you alive, you no longer live for yourself, otherwise, you can pray and pray and God cannot trust. It will be a risk to give you that kind of power. I truly believe with all my heart that we are entering seasons where Matthew 25 is about to be replayed in the church (the parable of the talents). God is coming like a mighty wind upon the believers and He’s beginning to trust them with things for nation. I tell you this; you will start seeing God give gifts to men in spectacular ways, you will start seeing God trust men with graces for territories and nations. Church Gist. The question is, can your death afford you that gift? There are prophets, apostles, businessmen, politicians that will rise like never before. You will see levels of power that will dumbfound principalities and powers. But let me tell you; the price is not just fasting, prayer or Bible study. The price is death. All of you must be on that altar for that fire to come.

By this teaching tonight, God is already answering someone; why is it that somethings look hard. God has seen that there’s a measure of death that you are unwilling to get into. That is why certain levels of power and knowledge and wisdom may not easily come to you. God has vetted you, you have been weighed in a balance and you have been found wanting. Church Gist. I weighed your motive and desire for wanting a great vision, anointing, business; I’ve found you wanting. There are some things in our lives, it’s not the devil causing it. It is that the level of death we need to submit to, to allow that magnitude of blessing, we have not yet attained it. You are striving for mastery, the Bible says he that strives for mastery is not crowned, except he strives lawfully. We need to pray and ask God to purge our hearts, vet our tendencies and remove anything that will stop that weight of glory from resting upon us. That is the prayer for the believer in this season.
My question is; are you willing to just keep playing Christianity, playing nominal Christianity or you are really ready to dive into this river of seriousness and mastery with God? (Jeremiah 17:9-10). I submit to you, I’ll say this and then we’ll begin to pray; people see the things that God is doing in and through my life and most times, most people think this thing is just luck or about anointing or an impartation that came. It’s not true oooo. It’s all about anointing and impartation. Go behind the scenes and you will find a pool of blood that still drips upon the altar. It is from that covenant of sacrifice, because sacrifice is a covenant (Psalm 50:5). I’ve had the privilege of ministering to many people who were involved in occultism or any of these satanic things and I cannot begin to tell you the sacrifices that they make to move them from level to level. Some of them will tell you; they lie down and sleep on graves, not in a vision, physical graves; imagine being in a graveyard, only you in the night – you are looking for power and invisibility. Now, you are lying down, you want to become an armed robber who can disappear in case they are looking for you and they’ll give you a strict requirement; number one, you are fasting day and night and then, you are lying down on a grave. It doesn’t matter what sound you hear, you remain there and when they are done with those strange things, after seven days, they come out and you just come out carelessly and say I know, you can’t stand against me. Let’s think well ooo.

Let me tell you the truth, whether it is through the demonic or through genuine spirituality, sacrifice is a non-negotiable requirement. Our walk in this Kingdom is based on the covenant; your covenant is a voice. It can stand to amplify what you represent. There are spirits, when you speak to, they know what they see; Jesus I know, Paul I know – ask them what they see that makes them count those names. Church Gist. There are many believers who have not satisfied this law and they will go and carry charms and throw it away and said, “God forbid, Jesus has died, He has won the victory” and you find out that people start dying endlessly because they’ve touched something that did not come by sacrifice. Redemption is real but the administration of mastery in this Kingdom subscribes to the law of sacrifice, not even Jesus evaded it. Jesus, because God is love does not mean you will compromise on the law of sacrifice (Hebrews 12:2). There’s endurance when it has to do with being a master and a giant. Whatever brings you to the place of grace is what will maintain it, you will even need greater weight of it.

For many people, all we know about sacrifice is praying and fasting and studying of the Bible. So the moment I’m praying, fasting and studying the scripture, I just believe that I’m going through the sacrifice for greatness, not so. There’s something beyond prayer, fasting and Bible study; it is you being the living sacrifice upon that altar. This teaching tonight will leave you with two options; one to continue doing Christianity the way you are used to doing it or to say I take God seriously from this teaching tonight.

PRAYER:

• Re-dedicate your life to Christ; Lord, I hand over my life to you again.
• Lord, grant me the grace that I will be able to constraint my life for the sake of the place You are taking me to in the name of Jesus Christ.

(Altar Call)

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