PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 4: Going beyond with God

There are times in which God will ask us to make a sacrifice and go beyond our normal routine to do things that will help us hear Him and see the things He wants to do in us or through us better than when we are doing the usual. Sometimes those sacrifices help us gain more territory, recuperate the things stolen from the enemy, or go to higher heights in the spirit with Him. For this, our obedience to His promptings is required. That’s what the principles of posture of prayer in this post are all about. They include:

Going outside the camp – There are times when there may be restrictions in our surroundings, our environment, through the people around us, or from or our own inhibitions that do not allow us to see or hear clearly what the Lord wants to do in us or through us, or even on our behalf. That is why, going outside to a personal retreat is the best answer. We must prepare with a pen, writing pad or a recording devise, our Bible and worship music and go free of things that could become detractors to our focus on seeking and hearing the Lord speak to us.

These are also times in which what is needed for us is to get more rest and relaxation and go away from what causes us stress which will help us have better listening ears. God speaks through His creation and during these times when we need a change of scenery, is when He can open our eyes and ears to His will for us in the next season of our life and even prepares us for some hard seasons approaching.

Another reason that a personal retreat is necessary is when we are at a cross roads and need His perspective in our situation to help us take the right turn. During times like this, it is essential that we do not make decisions through our emotions. Especially permanent decisions about our lives or others under our sphere of influence and authority. Times alone with God are always refreshing, encouraging, and invigorating for the next things ahead. This has been done for years by many of God’s people, including Moses.

Exodus 33:7 says, “Now Moses used to take his own tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting [of God with His own people]. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the [temporary] tent of meeting which was outside the camp.”

Exodus 40:1-2 also shows that this was a requirement from God to Moses to receive every new month on its first day in consecration with Him. ¹“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “On the first day of the first month (Abib) you shall set up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting [of God with you].”

For this, in the next verses of this passage God lists a set of instructions to Moses of the conditions that should’ve been met and how, in order to come and meet with Him. Some of them translate into our modern day with bringing the Bible to read the Word, coming ready to pray and to worship before Him, anointing the place and ourselves with oil for the oil represents the presence of the Holy Spirit to overshadow us and also the Blood of Jesus to purify us and our surroundings.

Praying in the Spirit or other tongues – Another thing that can be said about the Holy Spirit is that He lives in us since the day we asked Jesus to come into our lives and become our Lord and Savior. One of the evidences that He lives in us is that we speak in a heavenly language that God understands, but the devil does not. This language is a mystery and consequently, we speak the mysteries of what has been written in the book that is written of us in heaven that will be fulfilled in the earth in our life. In other words, these things have been predestined and are already written about us. Therefore, our praying in tongues helps us unlock every season and new cycle in our lives that has been predestined or us and also unlocks the revelations and other things needed to help us walk them out in the earth.

Hebrews 10:7 states, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come To do Your will, O God— [To fulfill] what is written of Me in the scroll of the book.’’”

Romans 8:9 says, “⁹ However, you are not [living] in the flesh [controlled by the sinful nature] but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God lives in you [directing and guiding you].”

Romans 8:26-27 also explains, ^26 “In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. ²⁷ And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes [before God] on behalf of God’s people in accordance with God’s will.”

There are other benefits of our praying in tongues such as; it increases our faith, helps builds us up when we have been damaged through trials and traumatic experiences in our lives, heals our wounds, and increases our faith levels. It also helps us ask the right things from God that our minds cannot comprehend but the Spirit does.

Jude 1:20 tells us, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on [the foundation of] your most holy faith [continually progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], pray in the Holy Spirit,” 

3 John 1:2 also indicate to us that our praying in tongues helps the healing of our soul. One of the parts of who we are as believers for we are mind, soul, and spirit. “Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health [physically], just as [I know] your soul prospers [spiritually].”

Colossians 1:9 helps us see that we can pray specific prayers. This happens when we pray them in our spiritual language. “For this reason, since the day we heard about it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking [specifically] that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [with insight into His purposes], and in understanding [of spiritual things],”

In essence, there are many benefits of speaking in tongues. I understand that the lack of understanding of what we are praying may cause some people to refrain from praying this way, but eventually, as we mature in our walk with God, we will also receive many times the interpretation of what we prayed. God will guide us by His Spirit as we ask Him to give us the evidence that He lives in us by speaking in tongues.

One last thing to highlight about praying in tongues in this post, is that as we mature, our prayer language changes and we can become more aware of what type of prayer we are praying in the spirit. This means that our warfare prayer language will sound different than our regular prayer language. This is also important to understand when we are praying and will not be released by the Holy Spirit until we have prayed the matter through.

Faith and works– Another important aspect of our prayer life is when God gives us a promise or has told us how He will move in our circumstances. Along with this information and revelation we need to take steps to demonstrate that we believed what He spoke to us. God will also give us, depending on the type of promise, one or a series of instructions to follow with obedience one by one. This is especially true because His promises are always bigger than anything we could do on our own strength.

That is why James 2:20-22 says, ²⁰ “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless? ²¹ Was our father Abraham not [shown to be] justified by works [of obedience which expressed his faith] when he offered Isaac his son on the altar [as a sacrifice to God]? ²² You see that [his] faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed [reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience].”

Many of this works of obedience will require that we give up or do something sacrificially. Something that is a stretch of our faith and that, as He asked Abraham, requires that we give up what is dear to us. This is also a test of our devotion to God that shows if we worship our promises more than the promise giver. The other part of that is that God will ask us to give sacrificially to see whether or not we may have raised any idols in our lives.

In the example given here, there are two passages about the same person: a young rich ruler that encountered Jesus and asked Him what was required to obtain eternal life, according to the Kingdom. Jesus answers in these two passages demonstrate some very interesting characteristics of our works which express our faith in God and His promises to us that require that we give sacrificially, and follow His instructions for us closely. First, Matthew 19:21 says,

“Jesus answered him, ‘If you wish to be perfect [that is, have the spiritual maturity that accompanies godly character with no moral or ethical deficiencies], go and sell what you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me [becoming My disciple, believing and trusting in Me and walking the same path of life that I walk].’”

Mark 10:21 also states, “Looking at him, Jesus felt a love (high regard, compassion) for him, and He said to him, “You lack one thing: go and sell all your property and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have [abundant] treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me [becoming My disciple, believing and trusting in Me and walking the same path of life that I walk].’”

From these two passages we can see that the young man was already living a life of obedience to the Word of God and he was also hungry for more of God and of the blessings of His Kingdom, even the spiritual blessings promised in the Bible. But at this particular time, Jesus, seeing him with eyes of compassion and wanting to give him more, instructed him to give the riches he possessed to the poor by selling his assets. When we read the full account we see that this command made the young ruler sad for he had acquired a lot of riches. But he was being tested for idolatry with this instruction for we cannot have any other gods in our hearts.

What this young ruler did not know at the time was that his steps of obedience and works that demonstrated his trust in God’s faithfulness to supply for him out of the riches of His glory, would have eventually granted him the true riches of heaven, free from any idolatry and along with that, more influence and authority on the earth to do greater exploits than Jesus did because the other part of the instruction was to follow Him and become His disciple so he could learn the higher ways of the Kingdom.

Obedience not sacrifice – This brings me to the next segment of this post which is also very important to understand. When we are instructed by the Lord to do something, especially something that is very sacrificial to us, it is crucial that we do not try to half-do it or do it in some other way that keeps us in the driver’s seat of our life. To do this is extremely dangerous because the results can be detrimental to our walk with God and whether or not we get to fulfill our destiny. Not obeying to the full extent of the instruction also reveals our idolatry which is worship of the work of our hands and things created more than the Creator. The end-result of this disobedience is death to our dreams, to our callings, and replacement.

This happened to King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15, he was instructed to destroy the Amalekite race. All of it completely because they were an enemy tribe to His people, the Israelites. The king was promoted to his position for that very reason, but he had a big problem. He was a very presumptuous person that liked to take matters into his hands that were not part of his calling. He had been corrected for doing this by the prophet before, but insisted in doing it one more time, but this time was the catalyst that led to God’s rejection of him as a king and leader of His people.

King Saul only got rid of the things that did not seem valuable and killed the ugly cattle and some people that were probably the poor of the tribe. However, he spared the king of the tribe which should have been the first one killed because this king represented the authority of the enemy that would want to continue ruling against the people of God in his lifetime if spared. King Saul and his army kept everything presumably for an offering of sacrifice that God had not commanded. For this reason, God told the prophet Samuel to render to him in person the verdict given from the throne room in heaven for this last disobedience. 1 Samuel 15:17-23 says,

¹⁷ “Samuel said, “Is it not true that even though you were small (insignificant) in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, ¹⁸ and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, totally destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated.’ ¹⁹ Why did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but [instead] swooped down on the plunder [with shouts of victory] and did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰ Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites. ²¹ But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things [that were] to be totally destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” ²² Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
As in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed [is better] than the fat of rams.
²³ “For rebellion is as [serious as] the sin of divination (fortune-telling),
And disobedience is as [serious as] false religion and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you as king.’”

Allow me to explain this in a different way. By not removing everything God has commanded to remove by killing, King Saul did the same thing that Adam and Eve did and this was as eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating of this tree contaminated him and he started taking on the behavior of the king he did not kill. We see this with his jealousy of David, the one chosen by God to replace him to the point of wanting to kill him so we would not take the throne that was his previously.

I Samuel 28:7-11 also says, 7“Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.

⁸ And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.

⁹ And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

¹⁰ And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.

¹¹ Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.” KJV

We can see in this passage that Saul had taken the attitudes and behavior of that which he did not kill. He even engaged in necromancy to seek information from the prophet Samuel, who had by this time died. For this, he went to seek a woman soothsayer that operated through a familiar spirit. She obviously had been spared just like the king of the Amalekites. These were people that were idolatrous and witchcraft and divination was their form of religion. Therefore, know that everyone who goes to inquire of a psychic or witch doctor hears from a familiar spirit which is a demon. This demon, as seen in this account, influences the person to reject everyone and everything that comes from God to not only obstruct them, but to remove and replace them with everything antichrist.

That is why God said to King Saul through the prophet Samuel that he had found in him witchcraft and divination. These are never tolerated by God from one of His servants because they lead people away from Him, instead of to Him. Isaiah 48:11 establishes God’s stand on idolatry. It says,

“’For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it [I refrain and do not completely destroy you]; For how can My Name be defiled and profaned [as it would if My chosen people were completely destroyed]? And I will not give My glory to another [by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over you].”

So let’s be people that heed the word of the Lord and His instructions, that even if we do not understand them fully, we can ask the Lord to guide our steps by His Spirit so we do everything asked of us and that way, reach every level of power and authority in the spirit, and every territory, and every blessing promised from God instead of His rejection. To God alone all the glory. ■

All Scriptures from the Amplified Version, unless otherwise noted.

Images courtesy of Google Images

PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 3: Seeking Spiritual Maturity

In this third teaching about the postures of prayer we will highlight the importance of seeking our maturity in the things of the spirit for we are required to exercise our senses and be clean, set apart to walk in holiness. Holiness is who we are called to be, and it is not a thought or suggestion, but a command from our Lord to us. He is holy and does not mix anything of who He is and the ways of His Kingdom with the things of the world or its ruler. Therefore, some other things to consider and become strong at as believers in our walk as a mature bride include:

Discernment – It is the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to distinguish between the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, demonic spirits, or human spirits. When we discern in the atmosphere around us or when a person is speaking, we are to be able to tell the spirit in operation. This comes with practice. Hebrews 5:14 says,

“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” NIV

Isaiah 11:1-4 also says,

¹”And there shall come forth a Shoot out of the stock of Jesse [David’s father], and a Branch out of his roots shall grow and bear fruit.

² And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord—

³ And shall make Him of quick understanding, and His delight shall be in the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, neither decide by the hearing of His ears;

⁴ But with righteousness and justice shall He judge the poor and decide with fairness for the meek, the poor, and the downtrodden of the earth; and He shall smite the earth and the oppressor with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” AMPC

In its basic explanation, by the Spirit of the Lord, we are to discern as He overshadows us with His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and with His counsel about the situations or the people we are dealing with, or what we are seeing in the spirit realm about someone or something when we are interceding. The spirit of the fear of the Lord on us also leads us to make the right judgment about these things.

It is the righteousness of Jesus that leads us to make these judgments to whether we are seeing something that is divine, demonic, or human, so when we open our mouths to render the right assessment or judgment about it in prayer, it is not from self-righteousness which could give us the wrong view about what we are seeing or hearing. This is especially important if we have been wounded or offended and have not sought to be healed. The enemy would use those areas in our soul that are not healed to cause us to see the wrong things, instead of seeing with the eyes of love like Jesus. So, when our filters are healed, we can then see clearly.

An example of this comes from King Solomon, who rendered a rightful judgment for two harlots that came to him disputing over a baby. The baby of one of them had died and this woman switched the dead baby for the baby of the other woman who was alive. When the mother of the living baby noticed that the dead baby was not hers, she argued with the other woman all the way to the king’s court to try to get her baby back. But the king did something rather unusual to uncover who the real mother of the living child was.1 Kings 3:24-28 says,

²⁴ “Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”

²⁶ Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”

But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”

²⁷ So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.” AMPC

In the New Testament, Jesus also used discernment. A paralytic man had been brought to Him and He healed the man, but also told him that his sins were forgiven. This reveals that the man’s sinful living brought the sickness Jesus healed him from. But many around him started calling His actions and words a blasphemy in their minds. Jesus, discerning their thoughts said in Matthew 9:4-8,

⁴ “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ⁷ And he arose and departed to his house.” AMPC

We can see that as Jesus exposed the root of the sickness and forgave the sin that brought the manifestation of the sickness, He then declared the man healed and the manifestation of His words to the man came immediately after rendering the right judgment about the person and what it would take for the healing to manifest.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 also gives us some indication of our responsibility as believers to learn to discern righteously. It says, ¹⁹ “Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.” AMPC

Cleaning our hearts – Keeping our hearts clean is also important to help us see the answers to our prayers. Luke 6:45 tells us,

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

This can be reflected in the way we pray and for that reason we need to keep a forgiving heart towards those who have hurt or offended us. It is true that many times, it is hard to forgive others, but our right response is to seek God to heal us from the hurt in our hearts because every sin committed by us or by others cuts at our soul until we leak out unrighteousness in its various forms. Some of those forms may be unforgiveness, gossip, slander, anger, or pride, which are all rooted in fear. This fear could have us put up walls that keep others out to prevent them from hurting us further. But it also keeps us in as in a siege that will not allow us to heal from what hurts or easily offends us. For this, seeking the healing of our hearts (soul) is essential.

This is also important because the filters in our hearts keep us from seeing clearly like when the filter in the drier is not clean which causes the clothes to take longer time to dry. It also forces the machine to work harder at doing the job it was designed to do. So, just like the drier needs the up-keep of the filter cleansed after each use, we need to seek God for our healing from hurts and offenses continually so we, in turn, can see clearly the things of the spirit and judge the people and situations we see fairly and with the love of Jesus and not like the devil would, with accusations and rejection when that is not necessary.

Another thing we need to be mindful of is the things we allow to get through our gates which are our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and sexual organs. When we put bad images, dark movies or dark music with the wrong kind of language, or when there is drug abuse or alcoholism or other kinds of substance abuse, or sex outside of marriage, all of those defiling, abominable, or deceiving things get in the way of our righteous judgment on things, and therefore, keep us from seeing the answers to our prayers if they are other than repenting and asking God to help us be set free from the bondage. In other words, living unrighteously does not get us the answer for more money, or for health, or for peace, or for favor or the right relationships in our lives.

Revelations 21:8 explains, “^’But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’” NKJV

Galatians 5:19-21 also lets us know that, ^19-21 “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.” MSG

Revelation 21:27 also admonishes, ^“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” NKJV

Cleaning our homes – One other thing to do is to clean our homes from any object that represents idolatry and the occult. These things keep a person in bondage and keep the blessings of God from manifesting. Many manifestations of the enemy come from those objects and God calls us to abstain from those objects and keep our homes free from this kind of leaven which represents the bad kind of influence in our lives from demonic spirits. Some of those items can be books, skeletons and figures that have skulls or skeletons such as in our clothes or jewelry. I have seen how these things have become fashionable, but they call death to the wearer.

Furthermore, those who practice the occult, and there is no such thing as good sorcery or witchcraft, are opening themselves for the spirit of the Antichrist to cause them to behave like him. This spirit only wants to kill, steal, and destroy others. But the bad thing about it is that as the golden rule states in Luke 6:31, “And as you would like and desire that men would do to you, do exactly so to them.” AMPC. This goes both ways, if we bless and always want the best for others, we are sowing that to come to us, but for those who choose to want and do evil towards others, that is what will come on them who practice such evil for their own selfish gain.

Exodus 12:19 tells us, “For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.”

This passage speaks of the Jewish preparation for the feasts which included cleaning their houses from anything defiling, abominable, or deceiving as mentioned in this post. This is an important ordinance because in the same way that God asks us to take care of our hearts, He also commands us to be mindful of what goes on in our environments that could derail us away from Him and of His ways. So other things to remove from our midst that are not pleasing to God include amulets, charms, statues, altars to false gods, pictures, CDs, DVDs and everything that God shows you is not pleasing to Him. The same goes for relationships He does not approve of, TV programs He may command to stop watching, and so on.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 says, “⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” NIV

Luke 12:1 also relate to us the warning words of Jesus  to His disciples about the wrong doctrines and teachings that come from the contamination with the things that oppose the truth of His word and the holiness (set apart to live for Him and His ways as representatives of His Kingdom on earth) He wants to live by.

“[Beware of Hypocrisy] In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

To Him alone be all the Glory. ■

Images courtesy of Google Images

PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 2: Positioning Ourselves to Encounter God

Continuing with this series, we will now learn the next postures that will help us position ourselves to encounter God and be led by His Spirit to spend our time of intimacy with Him, according to His will, and laying down our agendas to take up His agenda for us. So, some other postures we will cover in this post include:

Consecration or Purification– God told Joshua to command the people to purify themselves because the next day He was going to do something miraculous in their midst. This means that they were required to lay their old wine skin down (their old ways of behaving and thinking), and also lay down their agendas and spend time with the Lord, and follow Him in order to become the new wine skin that could sustain the new wine of the manifestations of His Spirit which He was about to demonstrate.

In this case, they were preparing to cross the Jordan to get to their Promised Land. The Jordan represented the place where they left all dead things, carnal ways, and attitudes of their hearts, and where God circumcised them in order to sanctify them so they could receive another level of holiness necessary to cross over and fight the giants in their new land.

Joshua 3:5 says, “Joshua (to the people): ⁵ ‘Do all the ritual purifications and prepare yourselves because tomorrow the Eternal will show you wonders.’” The Voice

Pray and Watch – Pray by Revelation – This is a crucial key in our prayer arsenal. Praying prayers amiss does not get us answers. James 4:3 says, ³ “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” NKJV

Instead, we need to seek the Lord about our circumstances for Him to reveal to us what is the root cause of what is manifesting. For this, the Word says to pray and watch. Matthew 13:33, 37 tells us, ³³ “Be on your guard [constantly alert], and watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come.” AMPC

³⁷ “And what I say to you I say to everybody: Watch (give strict attention, be cautious, active, and alert)!” AMPC

Luke 21:36 also says, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’” NKJV

For example, one time I was praying about some financial struggles I was having, and sought the Lord in prayer to reveal the root cause of my circumstance. Praying in the Spirit is very important to dig out these things, and so the enemy does not use in a legalistic way the things that our ancestors or even we have done in the past to obstruct us and to accuse us before the court room in heaven as to why we should not have the manifestation of what we are asking.

So, surprisingly, the Lord revealed to me that one of my ancestors had unknowingly obstructed someone from walking in their calling and this kept the person from walking in his full potential even financially. Learning this, I quickly repented for my ancestor as mentioned in the last post, and asked God that this sin be blotted out and nailed to the cross, according to Colossians 2:14 which says,

¹⁴ “Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.” AMPC

Another time I was praying for a person who was due to go in for surgery because he had cancer. I started asking God to reveal if the surgery was His will. To my surprise the Lord said no, and instead He directed me to break the curse that someone had done through witchcraft against the man. I proceeded to break the curse and reverse it, then told the person to have the doctors check to see if there was any trace of cancer in his body. He happily reported some time later that the doctors had found no trace of cancer and therefore, there was no need for the surgery.

Other times, I had heard the Lord say that the root cause of someone’s illness is unforgiveness or a broken spirit because someone had hurt the person I was praying for deeply. During times like this, we need to pray for the person to forgive, instead of praying for the illness to go away. Forgiveness will release the healing in the person’s heart and also will remove the manifestation of the illness in the body. The same happens when we pray for the person to be healed from the trauma of the incident that broke the person’s heart (spirit at the soul level) so he or she can be made whole, and the illness may disappear. 3 John 1:2 says,

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

Praying without ceasing – This is another key to the answers of our prayers no matter how long it takes for us to see it. When we go to God about our circumstance, we need to get His perspective on it. For this, He will more likely give us a Word, usually from Scripture. This way, He is also giving us the sword that we will use to fight the good fight of faith. The bigger the promise the more we will have to spend time with Him seeking to know first the ways of His Kingdom as it is stated in Matthew 6:33 which says,

³³ “But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” AMPC

We do this by having intimacy with Him, reading His word, lifting Him up with praise, declaring His word and promise over our lives, and obeying every command He gives to us without delay. But when it comes to praying without ceasing, this means that we do not just pray one time about the promise or expected end that God promised us. This is important to do because every prayer we pray and every time we obey the leading of His Spirit and seek Him to learn more of the ways of His Kingdom we need to apply in order to get closer to our promise, we are building momentum until the time when the bowl that sustains our prayers in heaven is tipped over to pour out the manifestation God declared over us. Remember that the bigger the promise, the more time we will spend doing this, but do not grow weary in well doing as Galatians 6:9 states,

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” NKJV

Praying and fasting – There are issues in our lives for which the root cause of the manifestation is removed only when we pray and fast. But this is not the only reason why it is important to do this. We also see in the passage of Matthew 17 that unbelief is dealt with when we pray and fast because the spirit of unbelief gets in the way of our faith to see the mountains before us moved. In this story, the disciples could not cast out the demon that was causing the attacks, first because they were walking in unbelief, but second, because the level of anointing that broke the yoke could only be obtained by praying and fasting. Isaiah 10:27 says,

“It shall come to pass in that day
That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,
And his yoke from your neck,
And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.” NKJV

In verses 17-21 of Matthew 17, we see that the man then came to Jesus after he had gone to get help from His disciples to heal his son from the epileptic attacks by a demon, but the disciples could not cast it out. However, Jesus could cast the demon out because He lived a fasted life. A good leader and teacher leads by example, so He, having lived a fasted and prayerful life, had the anointing necessary to cast out the demon. That is why He told His disciples to do their homework and spend time getting higher levels of anointing to break the yoke of those that came to them to be set free.

¹⁷ “Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁰ So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.²¹ However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’” NKJV

In addition, in Acts 13:3, before Paul and Barnabas were sent out to other regions, the apostles prayed and fasted for this purpose and laid hands on them. Another way of saying this is that we need to prepare for the new things by feeding ourselves spiritually because we grow higher in our spiritual stature so we can achieve the things that God predestined for us and demonstrate  Christ through us. For this, praying and fasting is important.

Furthermore, a word of admonition is found in 1 Corinthians 7:5 for couples about their sexual intimacy when they give themselves to prayer and fasting. Even if one of them does it more than the other. “ ”Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” NKJV

In other words, first if only one of us is going to fast, we should have the agreement of our spouse to allow us to not have sexual intimacy during this time. But then, whether one or both of us spend some time in prayer and fasting, we should not neglect coming together intimately shortly after so we or our spouse are not tempted by the enemy to defile ourselves for lack of self-control in this area.

More on the next post. To God alone be all the glory. ■

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PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 1: Praying without Violating God's Principles

People pour out their hearts in prayer and cry out to know God more and experience more of Him in their lives because they love Him and want His promised blessings. Yet, I have seen some postures and have heard prayers that violate principles of God’s Kingdom that unfortunately, go unanswered. So here I want to share some of the principles I have learned in this new series.

Praise – the first one is how we approach the throne of mercy and grace. We do it by thanking God with joyful and grateful hearts in praise and this way we are acknowledging who He is in our lives: the only God there is, and what He does for us to keep us, deliver us from the enemy, provide for us, protect us, sustain and take good care of us and lead us in the path that will help us fulfill our destinies in Him. In essence, we give Him thanks for what He has done in us, for us, and through us from the foundations of the world that we get to enforce with our thanksgiving. Psalms 100 says,

¹ Raise your voices;
    make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
² Serve the Eternal gladly;
    enter into His presence singing songs of joy!

³ Know this: the Eternal One Himself is the True God.
    He is the One who made us;
    we have not made ourselves;
    we are His people, like sheep grazing in His fields.

⁴ Go through His gates, giving thanks;
    walk through His courts, giving praise.
    Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.

⁵ Because the Eternal is good,
    His loyal love and mercy will never end,
    and His truth will last throughout all generations. The Voice

Boldness – Jesus helped us be reconciled to our Father with the shedding of His blood on the Cross for us. So now we can approach Him with boldness, knowing that we will not be rejected or be put to shame. Adam had lost this privilege with his fall that got him expelled from the Garden of Eden, but we can now receive the mercy needed for the new day and the grace to accomplish what we are called to do, become and fulfill in our lives. Hebrews 4:16 explains,

“Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” NKJV

Humbleness – There are things we will not be able to see about ourselves, our promises, and of who God is until we humble ourselves with repentance for us and sometimes for our ancestors who sinned against the Lord and against His Kingdom and opened the way for the consequences of those sins to visit us in our generations. This happened because through our proud actions and attitudes and theirs, we rejected and came against God and His ways for our lives or became stumbling blocks of obstruction to others because of our blindness and pride.

James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].” AMPC

We see an example of this in Daniel 9:4-6 who prayed a prayer of repentance for his generation and the generations of his forefathers who had sinned against the Lord and provoked their exile and captivity by ungodly kings. It says,

⁴ “And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, Who keeps covenant, mercy, and loving-kindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments,

⁵ We have sinned and dealt perversely and done wickedly and have rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.

⁶ Neither have we listened to and heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.” AMPC

The response Daniel received after humbling himself before the Lord with repentance for the sins committed, was an angelic visitation that brought for him wisdom and understanding and instruction of what needed to be done to see the manifestation of the answer to his prayer.

¹⁹ “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

²⁰ While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God—

²¹ Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the former vision, being caused to fly swiftly, came near to me and touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

²² He instructed me and made me understand; he talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and wisdom and understanding.

²³ At the beginning of your prayers, the word [giving an answer] went forth, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision.” AMPC

Brokenness – some answers only come when we literally cry out to God with brokenness and tears, and even with a contrite heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us to this posture. This also happens when we are giving birth to the answers to our prayers.

1 Samuel 1 talks about Hanna’s barrenness that caused her distress because the longing of her heart to get pregnant and have a child was not yet fulfilled. But was answered soon after. Verses 10-11 state,

¹⁰ “And [Hannah] was in distress of soul, praying to the Lord and weeping bitterly.

¹¹ She vowed, saying, O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid and [earnestly] remember, and not forget Your handmaid but will give me a son, I will give him to the Lord all his life; no razor shall touch his head.” AMPC

But King David found himself bowed down before God with a contrite heart because Nathan the prophet had exposed to him his wickedness of getting Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife pregnant and then killing him to hide his sin. He had a heart after God’s own heart, but this one thing that he had done against one of the members of his army was not ignored by God, who demanded that he give an answer and face the consequences of his actions. Thankfully David was more concerned about losing his relationship with God and have a clean heart before Him than about losing his kingdom and Psalm 51 expresses his brokenness before the Lord for what he had done. Verses 10-11 say,

¹⁰ “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.” AMPC

Praying during the right watch– There are eight prayer watches that people use to pray. Genesis 1:5 says, ^“And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” AMPC

Using this principle, in the Jewish calendar, the day starts at 6:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. the following day. Each watch lasts three hours.

So the first watch is from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The second is from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight

The third one is from 12:00 midnight to 3:00 a.m.

The fourth watch from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

The fifth watch from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.,

The sixth watch from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

The seventh watch from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.

And the eighth watch from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Some popular watches in the Bible are the fourth and the eighth watches. But God will instruct us as we mature, which watch He wants us to come and meet with Him to have intimacy with Him with prayer, or the reading of the word, or with praise or other ways He wants to encounter us. Examples of this are found in Judges 7:19 first with Gideon. The blowing of the trumpets represents their praises and shouts with declarations for the victory they knew they already had, and the smashing of the pitchers represents their prayers.

¹⁹ “So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.” AMPC

Elijah also came before the Lord to pray a powerful prayer during the time of the evening sacrifice (the eighth watch) that provoked God to answer with fire which turned the hearts of the prophets of Baal back to God. 1 Kings 18:36-39 says,

³⁶ “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word.

³⁷ Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You, the Lord, are God, and have turned their hearts back [to You].

³⁸ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and also licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹ When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” AMPC

Even Jesus took advantage of the evening hours to pray because during those times there is more clarity to hear the Father’s instructions for the day. We can see in these verses that Jesus knew who to pick as His disciples during the morning because He spent the dark hours seeking the Father for instructions for His ministry and how He was to deal with the new day. Luke 6:12-13 tells us,

¹² “Now in those days it occurred that He went up into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God.

¹³ And when it was day, He summoned His disciples and selected from them twelve, whom He named apostles (special messengers):”AMPC

More on the next post. To God alone be all the glory. ▀

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