Sunday News (Zimbabwe)

Teach us to pray

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PRAYERLESS­NESS is a sign of pride and it is also a sign that a person does not trust God that He will answer his/her prayers. A person who does not place his/her trust in God is a person who trusts himself/herself.

We see the disciples coming to Jesus after He had prayed in Luke 11:1, one of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (NIV).

Ladies and gentlemen, prayer is taught because Jesus did not rebuke His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. We see in the scripture that John also taught his disciples to pray meaning that John was a prayerful person.

As Christians, there are certain results that would not come unless we know how to pray a rightful prayer. The cry of the disciples was that they may have results in their prayer life, they were praying but getting no results and that was the reason why they had to ask to be taught how to pray.

We see in Matthew 17:16, a man saying that he brought his demon possessed son to Jesus’ disciples but they could not heal him. This is because the disciples were not praying the rightful prayer.

In Psalms 65:2, David gave us the assurance that God answers prayer when he said, “You who answer prayer, to you all people will come” (NIV). It is possible for a person to pray amiss because of failing to understand the three directions of prayer.

Firstly, there is a prayer that is directed to God. This is a prayer of worship, thanksgivi­ng, petition and supplicati­on.

Secondly, there is a prayer that is directed to the situation. This is a prayer of commanding situations to obey you and to give way to you. We see this in the Bible when Jesus rebuked the fig tree that bear no fruits. In Mark 4:39, Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” (NIV) and the winds obeyed Him.

In the book of Exodus 14:9-15, we see the Egyptians coming after the children of Israel. The Israelites were terrified by the Egyptians and they cried unto the Lord. Their cry was their prayer to God, they cried in prayer for God’s help.

Moses directed his prayers to God rather than rebuking the situation and that was the reason why God said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground” (NIV).

We see that the staff stands for authority and the Word of God. God was saying to Moses, stop crying to me and start rebuking the situation because I have given you authority over creation. God was teaching Moses how to pray government­ally, that is, prayers of authority.

Lastly, there is a prayer that is directed to the devil. These are prayers that resist the devil, the Bible says, “Rebuke the devil and he will flee away from you”. Rebuke the devil in your vicinity, in your surroundin­gs, in your home, in your company and in the city.

There is a problem when a person prays and remains barren. Every Christian must have the Grace to bring results in this world. This will show that you have been with God.

Jesus depended so much on

God through prayer. Rightful prayer produces right results in our life, so there is need to ask the Holy

Spirit to teach us to pray.

It is an embarrassm­ent to God and to ourselves when we pray and get no fruits because prayer was designed by God to bring results to us. There are a lot of prayer gatherings, night prayers and fasting that are being done but we still see barrenness as if we have not prayed.

We see that in the life of Jesus, His prayers had results and this made the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. There was no fruit in the prayers of the disciples and they had to be real that their prayers were not bringing results.

In this season that we are living in, people in the church are discourage­d, we see few people attending prayers and some people are now praying religiousl­y and they have become church sympathise­rs in a prayer gathering. People no longer pray in faith that God answers prayer, they are praying religiousl­y and not in the spirit. God is calling back into prayer, He is ready to answer our prayers. The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchab­le things you do not know” (NIV).

May God bring revival in your altars as an individual, as a church, as a city and as a nation. Let us rise from the ashes like the disciples and be taught to pray prayers that bring answers by the Holy Spirit. The reason why some people don’t attend prayers is because the devil has lied to them that God does not answer their prayers. Always pray like Jesus, He had so much power and anointing because He always prayed when He was on earth.

We must be taught how to pray because sometimes it is the way we approach God in prayer that makes God not to answer our prayers, this was the problem that the disciples had when they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Let us stop praying religiousl­y and let us start praying prayers that attracts answers.

For feedback contact Apostle P Chisale of Dominion Life Church on: dominionli­fechurch01@gmail. com

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