LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

 

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

"Church, let's all rise up and pray" the pastor exhorted his congregants somewhere in a million church addresses around the planet earth. Armed with a live microphone in his hands with the volume almost turned to max decibels and drowning every other voices participating in this prayer marathon: it went on like this...

<<<<<<(((((((Father we come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you for the Blood and the authority you've given us to trample the Devil and his demons under our feet! And yes Lord, as we stand in your presence, we bind the Devil and his cohorts and render them useless as we take over this, our city and bring every knee to bow at the name of Jesus your Son. We destroy every foul spirit and take dominion over every principality and spiritual wickedness in the heavenly sphere. We claim every soul in our city for Jesus. Healings, signs and wonders and thank you for pouring your Holy Spirit upon our city.))))))>>>>>>>

Please notice that characters are used instead of regular quotes in order to identify the loudness and the ridiculous empty contents of this crazy prayer which does not conform to the standard of prayer introduced by Christ and John the Baptist which was later adhered to and demonstrated by His Chosen Apostles for the modern Church to adapt.

I grew up as a shoot from the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements which pride themselves in specializing in screaming on top of their voices whenever they claim to be talking to God in prayer: I know what I'm talking about. I also screamed, shouted at the Devil and his demons in a holy rage which somehow made me feel a lot closer to God since I've been programmed to believe this was the only way to have God's ear every time I prayed. Screaming <<<(((FATHER!)))>>> became the standard and always gave me this false fulfillment that God can only hear and answer my prayers when I scream loud enough as a sign to Him for renouncing the Devil and all the temptations thrown at me. I'd bind the Devil and 'laugh in the Spirit' as I danced around like Mike Tyson celebrating over his opponent he'd just knocked out with his powerful left upper cut. And the greatest part of this mantra was when it comes to saying "AMEN". Wow, this felt like God had just recreated the Garden of Eden anew for me!

The sad part of this intoxication always happened after all my sweaty prayers were said and done: only to find myself struggling with the same temptations of lust and all kinds of challenges: waiting for me patiently to exit the Throne Room of God. Ahem, I'd just bound the Devil and his demons and yet the sin inside this filthy body of flesh and blood is still struggling as if I never said a word in prayer. I'm confused and devastated to find myself trembling and confessing my sins which dragged me into the mud of all my failures I experience in the course of the passing week. What's happening now? Hey?

Is it not the same pastor, my pastor, who was leading us in that mighty prayer just last week, declaring and decreeing the Devil and his demons useless and powerless to lead me into temptation: the same situation I've been a thousand times before? Now the same man of God with the same microphone in his hand, is now challenging the congregants to come forward before the altar of repentance because our sinning last week has grieved the Holy Spirit and the Presence of God is in its lowest because I kissed a girl in the dark last week! God is very angry with me and has burdened his servant to challenge me to crawl to the front with everybody looking and identifying me as the one responsible for throwing the spanner in the wheels of the Spirit causing everyone to suffer. Oh God, this is heavy!

Sometimes I'd sit around and wonder why God is so angry with us when we are doing our best as young people to serve Him and follow Jesus while the vile youth of this world is enjoying sin without anybody condemning them. Why us, why me, Lord? These wicked pastors even condemned us as young men for having wet dreams: something we had no control over. Wet dreams in a life of a young man are locked up in his puberty: it's in the blood and God has programmed this as a sign of coming of age. Why condemn us? Some of us ravaged by guilt stemming from the preacher's fiery sermon, would go forward and have the demons of lust cast out through the laying on of hands. I never ever went forward: I was always a rebel and failed to understand what these pastors where on about. Most of them came to know Jesus in their forties and above, and yet they felt qualified to scream at me: a young man who never tasted alcohol, smoked cigarettes nor had a girlfriend: to bow under their filthy hands and allow them to cast demons I never had? Come on.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that all the screaming and noise I was making last week in that prayer marathon had accomplished nothing in terms of victory over sin and the Devil: otherwise I would not be shivering at the back of this groaning congregation, moaning for having aggrieved the Holy Spirit, that is, according to the preacher. God knows just how much I hated these kinds of services where one man felt it was his God given business to condemn and blame everyone for making him feel like the Holy Spirit has left the Church. Damn where did these preachers come from, do they even read the Bible?

Here's another thing that I never ever understood in all the so-called spirit-led services. Why do people always cry and scream with terrified fear whenever the Holy Ghost is declared by the preacher behind the pulpit: <<<(((The Holy Ghost is here now, I can feel Him moving all over this place; open your heart and receive because Jesus wants to touch you. Yield yourself to Him: nobody moves and don't disturb the Holy Spirit now>>>))) Women are leaders when it comes to crying for nothing in the Church. I have found myself almost crying because I was surrounded by moaners who were almost used as triggers to indicate the arrival of the Holy Ghost. Why does the Holy Spirit always fall on people like He did the first time on the Day of Pentecost, is He falling from Heaven every time? There's no record of people crying at Pentecost, at least my Bible confirms this: I don't know about yours.

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

Luke 11:1

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

 It's interesting to realize the fact that the disciples were aware of their inability to pray as Jesus did. It's not hard to understand the background of Jesus' disciples since these guys were raised in the Law of Moses and knew God from a distance: somewhere and out there in the Outer Court far remote from the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. God was not accessible to them and hence they found the way Jesus prayed so fascinating because He always prayed like God was just standing right there in front of Him. They didn't understand this unique way of praying to God since the Temple was the only contact and the place of prayer for them. In order to pray, they had to visit the Temple otherwise it had no meaning to pray from somewhere else. Jesus defied this order and prayed to God wherever and whenever He was.

Luke 11:2

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Our Father! Really now Jesus? Hello, please note that Jesus did not take His disciples to the Temple where He taught them to pray. They were out on the road in a certain place and far away from Jerusalem where the Temple was. Jesus removed God from the Temple and brought Him closer to His people as their heavenly Father. Wow, God is now their Father: the Law of Moses didn't teach them this truth. 

Hallowed be thy name. He taught them to revere God instead of fearing Him as an angry God who was baying for the blood of bulls and goats and demanded contrition at all cost or else He'd cut off their heads. And yes, God did chop off their heads when they sinned against them. This is worship.

Thy kingdom come. Jesus introduced a new doctrine of waiting and praying for the Coming Kingdom of God. In this beautiful overture, Jesus was alluding to the future Kingdom of God where God will establish His Covenant with His people anchored in the Blood of the Lamb and culminating in the actual realization of the New Heaven and the New Earth the New Jerusalem. This had nothing to do with the false doctrine taught by Dr. Myles Munroe: on Kingdom Authority. This is the New Jerusalem which was later confirmed by Apostle John in the Book of Revelation. Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Jesus once said, His food is to do the will of His Father in Heaven when His disciples brought him food after He met the Samaritan woman. Remember what I had said earlier when I decried all the temptation we faced as young people even after we'd prayed for hours, binding the Devil and declaring his kingdom of darkness useless? Hey? What went wrong with our prayers? Why so many people who started with us in our youth had fallen by the side of the road despite all the praying, fasting and tongue talking? What happened to them? They failed to do the will of the Father and fell by the wayside.

Give us day by day our daily bread. The disciples knew from the history records just how God took care of their forefathers in the desert by providing them with manna from Heaven and how God made the birds to fly low enough for the Children of Israel to catch them and prepare their dinner. I guess this wasn't as hard as getting to know God as their Heavenly Father. This line was Jesus preparing His disciples for their future ministry after they became Apostles, to learn to trust God for their daily bread food as they sojourned across the foreign lands preaching the Gospel of Peace.

And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. This is the sanctification I was talking about earlier on in my opening stanzas. It's imperative to know that we cannot approach the Throne of Grace when we harbor sins in our hearts because this creates a chasm between us and God. Again here, Jesus is not telling His disciples to blame the Devil and demons for all their moral failures but to rather learn to point at themselves as the source and cause for their fall. Remember the Publican and the Pharisee praying side by side in the Temple one day and how God justified the prayer of the former than the latter based on his contrition and confession of his sins to God?

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Read these verses at least seven times till your eyes cannot find a single place where Apostle John make mention of the Devil or his demons and blaming them for falling into your own vomit of sins. There is no Devil to blame but you and only you. Leave the Devil out and dive deep into your own sinful nature and ask God to cleanse you from your own filth. It's you on the spot and it's you losing your religion. We sin not because we got tempted by the Devil but because we've been led astray by our sinful nature.

James 1:12-16

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised them that love him.

13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

What more proof can I give in order to make you see that in this whole struggle and saga against sin, 99,99% of the time, the Devil has nothing to do with. We fall into sin because of the sinful nature that is lodged inside our DNA since we're sinners by birth and design. It doesn't take the Devil to bring us down, our own nature does that without him lifting a finger against us. We're doomed without God. We're lost when we stray away from doing the will of the Father through simple obedience.

HOW DID THE APOSTLES PRAY WHEN THEY WERE PERSECUTED?

Acts 4:24-31

29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.

I quoted the 28th verse only and leave it to you to read the whole prayer. In this part of the Scripture we find the Apostles standing at the brink of war with the religious rulers who had just commanded them not to speak about the Name of Jesus in public again. This was immediately after Peter and John had healed the man crippled from birth who had spent all his life begging for alms at the Temple gates. The man was forty years old. Please check the whole chapter and see if you will find the mention of the Devil anywhere. Also check to see if you will hear the Apostles screaming and praying loud, binding and denouncing the Devil and his cohorts as the modern Church has been groomed by the false teachers to pray. Nah. There's not a single place in the whole New Testament Bible where we find Joh the Baptist, our Lord Jesus Chris and the Apostles praying in a fit of rage binding the Devil and telling the demons where to get off. It's jus not there people and if it's not in the Bible: it's not from God. Cross it out and start praying according to the Standard Jesus and the Apostles left for us..

I want to say this without flinching, that every minute you start calling Satan or the Devil in your prayers: Heaven stops listening, because you're no longer speaking to God but to the Devil. Yes, you're praying to the Devil every time you try to bind him in your prayers because God didn't give nobody any powers to bind the Devil. But, but my pastor taught us to pray this way? Your pastor is lost just as you are, he doesn't understand how to pray. Hello.

If you really want to pick up a fight with the Devil and his demons, go out there in public and start preaching the Gospel and winning souls for Christ and see what sort of opposition will be lined up against you. The Early Church was persecuted for the sake of Christ and Preaching the Gospel yet, they never blamed the Devil for all their challenges even unto death. They sought the face of God and knew where their source of power stemmed from. We need to get back in line and realign ourselves with the ways of the Apostles, our Founding Fathers. Learn and copy their shinning examples and stop screaming at the Devil who's sitting somewhere in the clouds and cannot hear what the hell you're accusing him of. Talk to God and stop mixing water with oil: light and darkness. Get real now.

1 Samuel 15:22

And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.

This is the late great Keith Green singing from the corridors of Heaven: his appealing and pleading voice brings me down to my knees and causes me to sink deep into the trance of seeking the face of God in real contrition and humble surrender to the foot of the Cross. Not everyone that sayeth Lord, Lord, shall inherit the Kingdom of God, but he that doeth the will of the Father in Heaven.

Stop screaming at God and start communing with Him through a humble prayer that says: Lord forgive me, a sinner! Be like the Publican and stop praying at the crossroads and declaring in Social Media pages that you are on the fast. Jesus said, enter inside your closet and close the door behind you and talk to God, the Father who will hear your prayers in secret and reward you accordingly. Your prayer is a direct line that connects you with God Above, keep your calm and let your words be few because God has no time for fools.

Ecclesiastes 5:2

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.