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My mum shared with me today that she got her hand caught at the sliding door of my dad’s maxicab a few days ago when my dad was fetching her to work. She quickly banged frantically at the door and thank God my dad was alerted duly to not move the car. She escaped without any serious injuries. I thank God for the protection over her which was what I pray for my parents everyday!
Last Sunday, I attended the bible study conducted for the tertiary students in the youth group. It was on the topic “Prayer” which I am currently learning and reading up on. I thanked God for Marcus Yew who is very gifted in teaching, he could bring across the lesson in a very humorous and clear way. As I mature as a christian, I understand some spiritual lessons require rolling up the sleeves and going into experimenting to reap the highest benefit; prayer being one of them. To learn about prayer, you MUST COMMIT to pray regularly.
Today I experienced something very unusual. I was praying in my sleep, maybe in my subconscious. I was running a fever this afternoon and so I took a nap, then somehow I felt the presence of God so strong. Throughout my nap, I could remember myself praying and interceding, the feeling of peace and assurance was palpable. When I woke up, the fever was gone. Praise the Lord.
I am going to continue to share on what I have learnt from the “Intercessory Prayer” by Dutch Sheets, chapter 2. But as usual, I am going to extract a few lines from the book “EM Bounds on Prayer” which spoke to me on obedience with relation to prayer.
Extracts from “EM Bounds on Prayer”
The difficulty in prayer then is not with faith but with obedience, which is faith’s foundation. Faith, in its highest form, is the attitude as well as the act of a soul surrendered to God.
The lack of obedience in our lives breaks down our praying. Quite often our lives are in rebellion. This places us where praying is almost impossible, except for pardoning mercy.
What is obedience? It is doing God’s will. The spirit that prompts a man to break one commandment is the spirit that may move him to break them all. The spirit of rebellion is the very essence of sin. It is denial of God’s authority that God cannot tolerate.
Do you think God would make the keeping of His commandments a condition of effectual prayer if He knew we could not keep His statutes? Certainly not!
But the christian has another trade to learn before he proceeds to learn the secrets of the trade of prayer. He must learn well the trade of perfect obedience to the Father’s will. Obedience follows love, and prayer follows obedience.
If you want to have free access to God in prayer, then every obstacle in the nature of sin or disobedience must be removed.
Tears sometimes are the prodigal’s only plea. But tears are for the past, for the sin and wrongdoing. There is another step and stage waiting to be taken. That step is unquestioning obedience.
The absence of an obedient life makes prayer an empty performance.
Has it ever occured to you that your prayers are just heard as voices by God but not answered when you cherished sin in your heart; you do not operate in love and remain in Him? That’s why the Lord’s prayer always remind us to repent our sins seeking God’s forgiveness and also to forgive anyone who has sinned against us (Psalm 66:18-19 and John 15:7,12).
“Intercessory Prayer” by Dutch Sheets – Chapter 2. The necessity of prayer.
I think the most important thing this chapter addresses is “Why the need to pray?”
Does a sovereign, all-powerful God need our involvement? Is prayer necessary? If so, why?
Sharing a few verses quoted by the author would let us find answers to the questions.
Ezek 22:30,31
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God.
This passage is clearly saying that though God’s justice demanded judgment, His love wanted forgiveness. Had He been able to find a human who would ask Him to spare this people, He could have. That was how necessary christians are in the involvement of God’s plan. Human inaction does not nullify the atonement, but human inaction makes the the atonement ineffective for lost people.
Another verse Dan 10:12
“Your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.”
The angel Gabriel was dispatched immediately after Daniel started praying. However, it took him 21 days to penetrate the warfare in the heavens. Daniel knew that God needed his involvement in His plan for Israel’s captivity to end and so he gave his attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Dan 9:3).
To conclude, God made the decision in heaven and we were called to enforce it on earth through intercession and faith.
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