DIMENSIONS OF PRAYER
Subtitle: Heaven to Earth Prayers
Publisher: Kineto
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Cape Town South Africa
Language: eng
Copyright date: 2018
Other titles: Heaven to Earth Prayers
Table of contents: title: DIMENSIONS OF PRAYER; title: HEAVEN TO EARTH PRAYERS; title: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. WRITTEN PERMISSION MUST BE SECURED FROM THE PUBLISHER TO USE OR REPRODUCE ANY PART OF THIS BOOK ELCTRONIC OR MECHANICAL EXCEPT FOR BRIEF QUOTAIONS IN REVIEWS AND ARTICLES.; title: ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS FROM NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION 1978 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED OR THE WRITER FOUND TO BE BEST UNDERSTOOD TO THE BENEFIT OF READER.; title: DIMENSIONS OF PRAYER; title: MERVYN NAIDOO; title: ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.’ Matthew 26.41; title: God is the architect of prayer. He has put its beams and gates in place. When we pray accordingly, it bolts and bars unlock its gates.; title: CONTENTS; title: Introduction; title: 1.	What is Prayer?; title: Prayer and Intimacy with God; title: 2.	 Delighting Yourself in God; title: A Change of Heart; title: 3. Understanding Kingdom Dynamics; title: The Hidden Life in Prayer; title: Making a Decision to Pray; title: God and His Desires; title: Speaking in Tongues; title: 4. The Essentials of Effective Prayer; title: A Quiet Time; title: Sentry Prayers; title: A Quiet Place; title: A Quiet Heart; title: 5. The Manner of Prayer; title: The ‘Our Father’ Prayer; title: Protocol with God; title: The Will of God; title: 6. Building a House for God; title: How to Build God a Spiritual House; title: A Deeper Walk with God; title: Waiting on God; title: Fasting and Prayer; title: Being Mindful of Others in Prayer; title: Corporate Prayer; title: 7. Prayer and Dreams; title: God and Dreams; title: The Subject of our Dreams; title: Dreams and Spiritual Warfare; title: 8. Prayer and Work; title: 9. Intercession; title: The Role of Intercessors; title: The Story of Elijah; title: Standing in the Gap; title: 10. The Watchman; title: A Search for the Watchman; title: A Warning to the Watchman; title: 11. Pray without Ceasing; title: Pray without wavering; title: All Praying at All Times; title: 12. Conclusion; title: God is the Way; title: © Copyright 2018; title: Dedication; title: To my Best Friend the Holy Spirit, Thank you for being here, there and everywhere. And so I am able to write another page.; title: Thank You; title: To my children Eaton, Kinisha, Chloe and Jesse, Take what’s in your hand and run? For we know not the day, month or year before His return. Run till He whispers ’Stop!’; title: To my lovely wife Wendy, I am glad that God had not revealed all to you at first. Instead, step by step, day by day has God walked with you. It is those days that have turned to months and now years. Or else you would have fainted given the road you have already walked with me thus far. Thank you.; title: 1. What is Prayer?; title: Prayer is us listening to God. It enables us to hear Him speak because our spiritual ears are near to His heart and therefore we are changed. We must have a heart to listen to Him; a listening heart is one that prays much as God has much to say. If there is any request then it must be for that which is already in the heart of God. With our eyes we see and with our ears we hear but with our hearts we understand and turn. Matthew 13.15 Prayer is progressive, in other words the call to pray will reveal a deeper revelation of itself if we are obedient. Prayer, true prayers is not asking God to do what we want, although we may think so. This may be a huge disappointment for most as our lives have revolved mostly around ourselves and our desires.  Every believer has something that God wants to say to him and in prayer God tells him the route he must take, what he may cling onto and what he may not. For most part it is just letting go and letting God. This is the victory we have as we take hold of it and stand. As we do, He reveals even more to us knowing there is a willing heart. God is well pleased each time we surrender and allow Him to reign instead. The enemy hates this most and cannot stand to see a people letting go in order to let their God. Letting go in order to let God is after all His strategy for His people. This is surrender and brings together the believer’s thoughts with His. And through prayer God allows this to manifest. Prayer is Gods’ way of telling the Church what is already done and must now be accomplished here on earth. In prayer we hear God and in us listening to Him, we accomplish here on earth the finished work of Christ. This is the duty of the believer. And he does so by prayer. The duty of the believer is to pray out that accomplishment here on earth. It comes from the God in Heaven waiting to be unveiled here on earth through the finished work of Christ His Son. Prayer is not meant to fill God in on anything. He knows all things. He lacks nothing for if that was so, He would then be lacking in being God.; title: Prayer reveals our hearts to Him and in so doing reveals it so to us. God hears, sees and knows all things. Prayer does not surprise God nor does it enlighten Him. The Lord God called out to Adam whilst walking in the garden only so that Adam himself would know where he was. Genesis 3.9; title: Jesus wept after Mary spoke to Him regarding her brother Lazarus for He knew her heart and the knowledge she was lacking. John 11.28-35; title: We ask of the Father to honour His Will. He therefore answers first to His affairs and not ours. By the time He answers to His, we are fulfilled. Putting God first just has a way of doing this. When we seek first His Kingdom, He adds the rest. Matthew 6.33.; title: We may ask anything in His Will and we may receive. We receive not because we can just ask for anything but because He has placed in us that privilege to ask ‘anything’ found in His Will. This means it is that which He already had in mind for us to ask. If we know not the Will of God then many things may be asked and none received. We may ask for something yet unknowingly ask for the wrong thing. Are we really asking for bread or yet all the time foolishly petitioning for stones? Will not the evil one gladly assist us if he knows so? Be thankful to God He does not give to us everything we ask. He loves us and knows better.  So often we do not know what we ought to pray for, yet He comes to our rescue. Romans 8.26 (see chapter on Understanding Kingdom Dynamics - Praying in Tongues); title: We may seek many things and find none. Until we are willing to have His Will revealed in us, our asking is in vain. This requires us to surrender to Him. A life lived in surrender to God is a life walked in holiness.; title: There is a plan already in the heart of God. It is a perfect one made in Heaven by the Maker of Heaven and earth. The Makers’ plan is one already established in Heaven. It is the fulfilment of that plan in the realm of the earth that needs still to be accomplished. The Bible teaches us that it is done in Heaven and our request is that it be fulfilled here on earth. ‘As it is done in Heaven, it must be done on earth.’  Matthew 6.10; title: God’s purpose is that those plans be fulfilled here on earth through us desiring it so. Prayer serves as a means for the plans of God to be established here on earth.           For this to happen we must come into agreement with this plan which is His Will.  We do so knowing Christ and His complete work. This is where the Holy Spirit is our help knowing that it is impossible for natural man to agree with the Will of God. Man must first have a changed heart. Such a heart allows God to reveal His plans to us and interestingly so, God then reveals Himself to us. We may have an architect design and the builder build a house we desire. We may be very pleased with the designer and the builder for their efforts in bringing success to our desires, yet we may never know either of them on a personal level. With God it is different. In revealing His design and plan He reveals to us how He wants something accomplished and in so doing we come into knowing Him. It means we come to know God for who He really is. This builds on the relationship and the purpose for our creation. Each time God unveils something to us in prayer, He inadvertently reveals Himself to us through Christ. Unveiling and revelation seem to walk side by side with each other.; title: This is spiritual dynamics and it is Him who has established prayer to be at the forefront of our very existence. Through the means of prayer God reveals Himself to us. Through prayer He is able to reveal to us our true selves.; title: Prayer expresses our faith, trust and expectations of Him. In other words our prayers must show God that we desire what He has already planned and has waiting ready for us.; title: The meaning of the word ‘amen’ at the end of each prayer is often misunderstood as ‘let it be.’ The truth is we end our prayers with ‘amen’ because we are confirming to Him ‘we have asked of you what you have desired of us to ask.’; title: Many things we have asked of God and He has answered them. This does not mean that God answers all prayers. It simply means God has answered a request that He had in mind for us to ask.; title: God may also answer to a request that may not be entirely to His plan, yet He answers it for us seeing this request has a way of fulfilling His perfect plan – which is His Perfect Will. This is another example of God’s abundant grace towards us.; title: The Apostle Paul teaches us that where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds even more Romans 5.20. Many of us stray along this path and have to be called back through a permissible plan of God. The perfect plan for the sheep is that they go nowhere near the ditch. The permissible plan is that the lost sheep though stubborn are gently pulled out of that ditch, held with a rod and hooked with the shepherd’s staff. The voice of shepherd calls in the distance and the sheep know that voice.; title: God first calls, then speaks. If we cannot hear Him call, then we won’t hear Him speak. One must be called first for Him to speak. When we hear Him calling, we are about to hear Him speak.; title: God first called out to Samuel. The Prophet Eli knew this was God and so instructed Samuel to answer Him. The Prophet taught Samuel to answer when He called. We too must learn to acknowledge God when He calls and we must reveal to Him that we have heard His voice. The Prophet instructed Samuel to reply - ‘Speak Lord your servant is listening.’ When God is calling, know that He is about to do something. 1Samuel 3.1-14.; title: The believer must be waiting for God to call and prayer indicates to Him that we are waiting to be called.; title: In going to God, we are taught to hear Him.; title: Waiting makes us expectant; it makes us have hope and faith and this is what pleases God.; title: ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’……Hebrews 11.6. Prayer helps bring us into this dimension.; title: God is spirit but man is spirit and flesh.  Since He is spirit, we must communicate with Him in spirit. It is through this means of the spirit that we come to know who God is.; title: The Holy Spirit taking up place at our new birth is not the same as a continuous infilling of His Spirit.; title: This is what empowers us, a daily infilling of His Spirit in us. The fresh manna, this fresh daily bread that tastes only as good as the freshness thereof, warrants daily time with God. It is through this that we have an understanding of His finished work for us and for others here on earth (already done in heaven). Prayer is a way for us that reveal more of the ways of the Lord. In so doing, we then help have His ways established here on earth. In us having His ways known to man, many are saved. Again prayer reveals God’s ways to us.; title: Prayer further aids us to do whatever it is that He has called us to. We do so with that which He has given us to do so.; title: 	Prayer and Intimacy with God; title: We cannot talk about prayer if we have not prayed. Prayer is personal and first demands intimacy with God. There are many dynamics to prayer and one cannot talk about it if one has not himself engaged personally in it. We therefore preach and encourage others, even the nation to pray, because we ourselves have prayed and God has heard us. We know what God wants to hear because we have heard what He wants to say.; title: Our hearts skip a beat each time we surrender, each time we say yes Lord, ‘your will be done.’; title: God through prayer will eventually get us to a place where we need no calling, for our bended knees remain bent because our hearts are bent towards Him. Each day no longer becomes a choice of whether to enter the flowing waters, instead our constant prayers allows us to just flow with Him as He takes us deeper into His realm each day.  He is here, He is there and similarly at all places at once and whilst He closes here, He opens there. Here there and everywhere, this is the omnipresent God we serve. Through prayer He reveals to us which door is closing and which one He is about to open. And since we know we overcome.; title: The enemy has however devised a counter strategy to have us not to pray. The Church does not easily see it, for it comes in one of those well-disguised, well wrapped plans of his. It has a name on it called Religion. It has an address on it called works. ‘Go to work instead to pray,’ it says - And so we go to work before we go to pray.; title: To God in hope we must go even when our faith seems to be dwindling. The more we go to Him, the more the chance of our faith rising as a Spiritual House before Him. Faith is a substance but not of this dimension. What we see though are the effects of faith and hope. The wind howls outside and by all that it affects we know it surely exists. Prayer is spiritual and being so, its effects seen and heard, even though there may be many dimensions that God may exist in. We ask from the One we cannot see and hear from the One whose voice to natural man is non-existent. And it will continue to remain so until there is change. God is spirit and we must approach Him in spirit. His approach to us is in spirit and therefore we discern Him in spirit. This is where spiritual dynamics are hidden and this is where they are unlocked as we are aided by His Spirit.; title: ‘But, God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.’ 1Corinthians 2.10; title: We must learn to enjoy the Lord in prayer and there is a way to do so. We must stop asking Him for the world and instead ask that He fill us of Him. And craving that infilling, we are eventually aware that we are unable to live without Him. Before anything else and no matter how important each day ahead may seem, our desire must still and always be – God first. In the design of prayer, it is imperative that we seek Him first and prayer gladly allows for that. Prayer is the key that allows God to empower us for that to come. Even though we may know so, and believe it is possible yet like the Virgin Mary we too ask – ‘How will this be’? Luke 1.34.; title: Prayer is God’s masterpiece to revealing His heart to us. For this to happen, it is our hearts that must first change Prayer was never meant to change the heart of God but instead to change ours. Prayer is His design and not ours and is complete with intimacy of a Father for His creation. We pray without ceasing, for He is an ever knowing God and will forever have things to reveal to us. He still has the final and best conclusion for us. It is good, acceptable and perfect.  And so to Him we must be ever going. Our provisions and overflowing cups must never be a yardstick used to determine who we are, nor must they be used to explain away who He is or He may not be. He gives to the rich and to the poor, the righteous and the unrighteous and what He permits for the one, He may not for the other. He demands from the one and not from the other. To the man with great wealth He says ‘… go, sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come follow me’ Matthew 19.21; title: To the tax collector however, His order to him is simply for him to ‘get down from that tree’ for He is about to visit his home.; title: ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today’ Luke 19.5 God knows our hearts desires even before we get to pray. The rich man walked away sad whilst the tax collector came down at once and welcomed Him gladly into his home.; title: God’s dealing with each one of us is unique and so is each man to Him. He has set us up within the obvious dimensions we know, all worked into the framework of time and space. Anything about true depth and God is needed for sure. He deals with each of us as He pleases and therefore calls us into intimacy with Him. Prayer brings us into intimacy with God. Being alone with Him reveals much of His purpose and His plans for each one of us. They are plans that fit perfectly into the Corporate Body of Christ making the Church a mighty force, a mighty army for Him here on earth.; title: Things of the world are rushing in and out at a rapid rate and how we need praying men and women of God. They were needed all through the ages but never more so than they are now.  It is time we blew the horn to gather the watchmen of the land, its time, for serious prayer.; title: The call is for us to pray and to pray like never before. These are truly the days of Elijah declaring the Word to the nations. Though the false prophets gather and many in number, we must remember the reservations that God has for us instead. There are prophets, men and women alike who have refused to bow down or be intimidated by man. The same God of Elijah is the same of today. The mighty exploits of one man was truly out of a relationship stemming from a life steeped in prayer. And so it is today that we to, are called into this relationship. It is a relationship of a King, His Kingdom and His desire that we be partakers, partaking in what He has already prepared for us. A life rich in prayer is the gateway to this relationship.  In Christ we have received this. In hope mixed with our faith we live it so.; title: 2. Delight Yourself in God; title: Psalm 37.4-5 ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.’; title: 	 A Change of Heart; title: There must be a change of heart. God does not change and there is no need for Him too but we will have too. For many of us we may have been going to Him for years now and yet still not be receiving the answers we expect. Why is this so? We may be going to Him yet not willing to receive what He is saying to us. When God speaks, He is really revealing to us that which is in His heart. God speaks what He desires and for most of us this means we ought to have a change of heart.; title: The fulfilment of that desire by God may mean first a change on our path. Many of us may have received the answers but have simply walked away, for it seemed impossible to change-over or to fulfil the Lord’s request that we be changed. The rich man walked away having fulfilled all the commands. Perhaps one cannot see or imagine oneself in such a changed position. The probability even seems impossible doesn’t it? The answer though is yes! It is impossible. Therefore God wants us to have Him change us.  Many of us think that change is left to us. Change involves spiritual dynamics that only the Holy Spirit of God can help us with.  We have been bound for years and have failed over and over to continually live in the Person of Christ. This is life in the spirit that can only be helped along by His Spirit and lived in His Spirit. As Paul writes, ‘Walk in His Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature’ Galatians 5.16 Interestingly this scripture tells us that we will not succumb when we walk in the Spirit. And here we see how this is done.; title: God responds when we are willing to change. He begins with us when we surrender everything to Him. This is a Principle of God and He will not violate it. The Lord will not fill the heart of man with that which is Heavenly if he (man) has not first had a change of heart.; title: It is not conviction that we are speaking about here but rather an infilling of purpose and plan already set out by God in Christ for each man. Prayer helps towards this change of heart. For it is through prayer that God helps remove our selfish wants and places His desires into our hearts. There must be a change of heart in the believer for God’s Will to be done on earth.; title: Psalm 37.4-5 ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.’  The Greek word for delight is ‘eudokeo’ this is when God’s purpose and plan is in view. The original Hebrew meaning for the word ‘delight’ is to be ‘soft and pliable.’  When we delight in God, we take pleasure in Him and allow ourselves to be ‘moulded and managed,’ by Him. Prayer is responsible for causing this ‘softness’; it is responsible for creating this ‘pliability’ in us for Him. God changes us through us seeking Him in prayer.; title: Prayer helps remove what we want and replaces it with what He desires. This is the most important principle of praying, that we go to God to be changed. Prayer brings change. The word ‘it’ in verse 5 is the desires that He has now placed in our hearts which we then pray back to Him.; title: In Isaiah 42.1 God speaks about the Coming Christ as His servant whom His soul delights in and about His Holy Spirit being put in Him the Coming One.; title: ‘Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgements to the Gentiles.’; title: To ‘Commit’ unto God, according to Psalm 37.5 is to surrender or to roll over the responsibility of deciding on to Him. It is then that He brings to pass those new God given desires that we allowed Him to place in our hearts. Any wonder why we are never the same after going to God. Surrendering to God is an all important aspect of prayer. It is an important Principle of Prayer.; title: ‘….your Father knows what you need before you ask him’ Matthew 6.8. With Christ in us it reasons that He knows all things for us.; title: Someone once asked of me: ‘Why do we pray?’ After all God knows all things? True prayer exists from a relationship with God. To ask of God, to seek Him and to knock on the door of Heaven is only worth our while if we are willing to have a change of heart. This change of heart is not by man’s doing though many may think so. The struggle we have to repent is just that – us trying in our own strength to do so. This is a teaching that the world stands by and many a religion too.  It is through these teaching we have promoted so many ‘judges and juries’ amongst our fellow believers and the shepherds do so unknowingly. The world says you are strong enough to do it by yours self. The Lord says you are not. The world demands wisdom, power and money to rule. The Lord says they hold no weight. A man rules with power because of his office and money. Yet it may surprise many that our success with God is measured by our knowledge of Him, He reveals this so, as we draw closer to Him.; title: God must first see that our hearts are willing to have what Heaven has to offer through Christ. Or rather are we willing to have all that is in Christ for us?; title: For God to force on man that which is in Heaven, would violate a basic principle of His which is our given ability to make choices. Being children of God we are never forced into something by Him, yet we may be gently persuaded to do something that He desires. This gentle nudging comes through the leading of the Holy Spirit. The more we are found praying the more we will experience this nudging. The more we pray, the more we become sensitive to the leading of His Holy Spirit.; title: True prayer can also be understood by knowing what is not true praying. We must not focus though on the negative to understand the truth. Waiting and enough searching of the truth is sufficient for us to know when something false has entered. The more time we spend with the Lord, the more we know what is not of Him. An excellent way of knowing a false dollar note is to simply keep studying the true note.  When one is accustomed to true praying, he soon discerns when anything foreign may have entered in. Remember that God has purposed that Prayer be the avenue for us to hear His heart and Him ours.; title: We must be aware that God is Sovereign. This means that God has the full power over everything. There can be no interference from anything or anyone. This makes Him Supreme in His ways, His plans and His Will. Because God is supreme and has our best at heart it may surprise many that prayer is about change. It is His way of dealing with our inner man that is forever fooled and ever ready to be fool. Through prayer we are changed and helped to do things differently.; title: For many, our understanding of prayer is a fabricated one where one goes to God and requests whatever one may want. It is easy to accept that kind of thinking after all God loves us. And so we have this false understanding of a God who waits for us to ask and then willingly gives to us whatever we may ask. True as we may want this to be, equally true is the disaster it may bring unless we have a change of heart to see how God works through prayer.; title: Many things that we may ask of God may really not be in His will for us. It would do us well to know the will of God or else we spend hours in prayer because we won’t listen. Whatever is not in God’s will for us ultimately leads to death and no matter how long you may choose to hold on to it. The thing that God desires for us leads to life and life abundantly, whereas that which God does not want for us leads to death. The two do not merge together and neither can they. God must first have His way with our hearts. God honours us for having desired hearts for Him and for this to happen there must be change. We must allow God to work first with our hearts. If there is no change in us then very little of what God has may become ours. We must have a changed heart to receive what He has. When we were in the world our hearts were never at peace. There was something always lacking, though we may never have known it. When we come to the Lord however, He gives us His Spirit and so we become quiet. The world never stops calling to us though. Remember it knew us well once. And yet the quieter we become before God, the more we begin to hear Him. We must become quiet to hear the gentle whisper of the Lord. It makes us ready to hear from God. Elijah had to be quiet to hear that gentle whisper and then God spoke. “…..After the fire, came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”1Kings 19.12 - 13; title: Prayer is the means that transfers that which is spiritual to the physical which is earth. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us do so. Here in lies the problem, if we are found haphazard and lazy in our praying then very little of what was prepared in Heaven can make its way to us. Since we pray so little, we therefore have so little of Heaven here on earth. The more we take prayer for granted, the more earth is bound to crumble. Many things have stacked up and never released based on this simple truth of people not praying. Heaven was never selfish in letting go of the Son of God.  What God had for earth was already planned and ready to be released from Heaven.; title: ‘Your will be done on earth as it is already done in Heaven.’; title: The problem is that man is so absorbed in the things of the world that Christ has to wait and sometimes never able to release what He has for us on earth.; title: No prayer will reach Heaven if it has in it any resistance to the Will of God. Prayers are meant to put God first. We do so by putting His Son First. Jesus reminded the religious of that time that if they could not accept Him then how they could accept the Father. Jesus went onto say that Moses their father would be a judge of their disbelief. Why? Because all he thought pointed to the Christ.; title: Prayer is all encompassing. By this I mean prayer helps us to wait and helps to fight the good fight. It helps us to not faint and it helps give us peace even before we receive what is ours in Christ.; title: The incense that left the earth in the days of the Law and the Prophets were a type for the prayers that New Testament saints ought to burn now. The Psalmist relates incense to prayer Psalm141.2 and the book of Revelation confirms this even further that incense was symbolic of our prayers today. Revelation 5.8, 8.3-4; title: Soon we would enter into the Kingdom of God through Chariots of Prayers designed for us by Him. There are significant essentials that any believer must know when it comes to the life of prayer. They are the essentials to keep one focussed. There may be much prayer by many yet they may lack much the true fragrance intended for God’s presence.; title: Many of us have become frustrated for though we are believers we feel the sense of something missing. A sense that each day passes by yet we are missing out on something bigger, better and not easily explained. The reason for it is that it can’t be explained in natural terms. That which is missing lies in the realm of the spiritual. Prayer is spiritual, it must have hope and it matures by faith. And by faith comes the finished work that is already done even before we get to pray. ‘…..as it is in Heaven’ Matthew 6.10; title: ‘It is so’ as I have prayed. For even as I have prayed even so will it be. This is the supernatural way of seeing how God works. God is spirit and exists so. Therefore he who is prepared to come to God must do so in this realm – in the realm of the spirit, His Spirit. To enable us to do so we are all given a measure of faith. We use this faith to accept first His way – the way of the Lord Jesus. This is not a way one walks in the natural to God; the spiritual dynamics of this way is Him being the Way. We are allowed to walk this way and experience it for ourselves. Praying in the hope and the faith that we are given helps do just that. It allows us to have what God has given to us through His Son Jesus.  God has nothing of the world to offer us. The world is flesh and He is spirit. The world is natural; God is supernatural. The world is doomed; God is Life. And prayer, true prayer helps us see into this realm of His.; title: Though God may not have the world to give to us, it does not mean we won’t receive it. His Spirit will not strive with man forever and when we are not willing to have a change of heart, He allows us to crave the world we want. The result is catastrophic. God sees the heart of man and that every imagination desire and purpose is wicked. Genesis.6.5; title: Prayer allows us to see that God knows best, does best and has His best to give. Prayer brings a renewing of our mind that allows us to do so. ‘…by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s Will is –His good, pleasing and perfect Will. Romans12.2; title: We must learn therefore to stop hindering God whilst He is busy with our lives. It happens so many times, unknowingly as we pray. There is a time to talk to God and there is a time to listen. For most part it is for us to listen. We speak to God after we have heard Him speak and have willing hearts to do as it will please Him. When we answer Him it should be – ‘it is so Lord, as you have said’   Learn to listen to God in prayer, He may already have answered. Irreverent babble may lead us into more ungodliness. Like godless chatter that leads to ungodliness. 2Timothy2.16; title: After our hope has matured into faith having faithfully asked God for something, we must learn to faithfully praise Him for His answer. This is another test of our faith. Can we praise God for what we cannot see and yet have heard Him answer in the spirit? If we do then our prayers must then change from request to praise for God loves this most. We can never praise God too much. He deserves all the praise and more. I do not think we can ever pray too much because prayer includes petitioning and praise. We can never give God too much of our praise for there is always warrant for more. We can however though petition God too much about a matter. Too much petitioning may weaken our faith in God about the matter. We must leave petitioning after we have gained enough faith on the matter. Faith after petitioning means God has taken note. We can then go to Him about other matters at hand. After asking, we must learn to seek out for that which we have asked. Seeking is a form of watching. As we seek we find. We know He has the answer and so each day and each moment we seek the manifested answer.; title: ‘….Seek and you will find.’ We are able to find because we have sought. Keep praising God after you have received the confirmation, that He has heard you. Christians should praise God more and even more having received confirmation. The world says ‘thank you’ for what they have received having first seen and touched. It wants proof before it can be grateful. The spiritual dynamics of God are different. We thank and praise our God because He has heard us. That should settles it for us that He is a faithful God and we are grateful to Him for having heard us.; title: Make a note of what is going on as you pray. I have noted as I could see, of what was going on in the spirit whilst and after praying. Going back in time I was able to see how God had answered and I then praised Him for it. When we are able to see how God came through for us, our hopes and faith for the future mature and more so we become aware of how God works. It certainly helps us press on in spite of our trials.; title: We all have been hurt by something or have been out done by someone in our lives. God has called us to bring those hurts and fears to Him. Having done so, we are then to watch for the Lord and be sensitive to His leading. This does not mean we now watch out for God’s wrath against the perpetrator. That is wrong, as we are to love and pray for those who hurt us. Rather we watch for God’s working in that situation. God may still need to work with us first. It could be that God still needs to deal with our heart’s first. The key is to hear from God as to what He is doing. As we have shared earlier, we are unable on our own to do so. God is the One through His Holy Spirit in our lives that enable us.; title: We are therefore called to watch and pray so that we will not fall into temptation. Mathew 26.41 So often we cancel the work of the Lord by taking revenge in our hearts and we may want the worse to happen to that person or in that situation. We must be watchful that the enemy does not place these thoughts in us. Remember that when all is well and good, a bad thought about another seems so far. But it is not so when we have just been hurt by this other. Therefore we must be very careful and leave no door opened for evil to do so, especially in the area of bitterness. For God to work in a situation of emotional hurt we have to release those persons to the Lord and yet still love them. Again we cannot do so by ourselves though we may think so. This is the decision we have to make, to allow God to deal with it. It is here where God steps in and through His Holy Spirit here on earth He helps us by working on our behalf. God changes our hearts through the leading of His Spirit. God is omnipresent; He is all over and not fixed to a point. He does not have to first answer a believer’s prayer up the road then get to you and me. The busy glazier calls back to ask if you would be so kind to have him repair the broken window in the morning instead. He is restricted to time and location as this is the dimension he lives in. Not so with our God for He is at work here; He is at work there, at work all over is He.; title: We must learn to be where God is in our lives.; title: Your testimony is unique to you and so are your requests. If there be something nagging you then give it God – ever remembering that He’s dealt with stuff like this before.; title: Come on board and find the secrets in this life hidden in prayer.; title: Dear lord help us understand that a changed heart is one with whom you can work with. May we never try to attain this by our own efforts but ever knowing that this an inner work attained by your Holy Spirit. We now surrender our hearts to you so that our journey of holiness may begin. Amen; title: 3. Understanding Kingdom Dynamics; title: 	The Hidden Life in Prayer; title: No amount of writing or talking about prayer may ever complete the life of prayer. Books, lectures and discussions we may have but they are there merely to assist us in one of the most powerful duties of the Christ life.  Yet even so there is still hidden a life in prayer, bursting to be revealed. The more passionately and consistently we are willing to approach the throne of God, the deeper we are moved to understanding so.; title: Our basic understanding of God’s Kingdom helps us understand why prayer is so important. Understanding how the Kingdom of God operates will help us know why God has placed such significance to prayer.; title: We must first understand that God is King. One who is a king will always have a kingdom in which to rule. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Heaven. Every kingdom has a set of rules that govern that kingdom. God reigns in His Kingdom and has absolute and sovereign reign over all things. The earth also belongs to God and He has had it in His heart that man reign in it. He was to rule so by the rules set out by God. But His leading angel was thrown down to earth and things changed.; title: Satan’s plan has always been to prove that he can reign far better than God. And in some way God in His fairness has allowed him this opportunity. In coming to earth, the enemy has set up his own set of rules and the results are what we see today. Earth and its earthly rules are doomed. Even though sin passed on authority, the work of Christ on the cross restores all back to man. We reign not so much by Kingdom rules but that He now lives in us. The Kingdom is now in us. If we are obedient to the rules of God’s Kingdom, we then live out His Kingdom here on earth. For man to know how to rule in this Kingdom, he must first be acquainted with God his King and His set of ways. If we were to have a better relationship with our God, then man would have a better grip on his reign here on earth.; title: Prayer is the means that God has proposed for man to know what was accomplished Heaven. When man knows what is in Heaven and is familiar with the Kings’ Ways he is then able to apply them here on earth.  Simply put, prayer helps man to reign here on earth. If man will not pray then he will have very little of Heavenly reign here on earth.; title: “Thus says the Lord ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgement and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, declares the Lord.’”  Jeremiah 9.23-24; title: When we are weak then He is strong. It is no longer I that live but Him in me who gave His life for me. And it is by faith that I now live. Galatians 2.20; title: Prayer has never been about the blessing of one’s own desires unless those desires have come from the Lord in the first place. The key is to receive from Him that which He already desires for us.  When this happens there is a flow and consistency in our prayer lives. The desire to please God springs from the Salvation of the spirit. This is a deliverance of the spirit of man from death. But then our souls are often in opposition to the work of the Holy Spirit. The mind of man craves to rule at all times. When the spirit is ‘born again’ we are a new spirit which is now led by God His Holy Spirit. This is where the journey for the believer begins and it is important that we are pliable and flexible in the hands of God.; title: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus warned His disciples not to be like the pagans who were found babbling in their prayers.’.....your Father knows what you need before you ask Him’ Matt. 6.8.; title: In knowing that God is already aware of us and our business, it should then give us a greater peace in coming to Him. We must be careful though and remember that in knowing our needs He has made provision for such and not our wants. That provision is already found in Christ who is in us.; title: The Lord is the Provision as He is the Healing. He in me allows of me to be a partaker of that.; title: Matthew.6.10 says ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Have you read that carefully? ‘As it is in Heaven’ some Bible interpretations have it as - ‘as it is already done in heaven’; title: Again that which is in Heaven is now manifested here on earth through Christ. Heaven releases nothing without Christ and through Christ.; title: God has seen and as therefore made provision for us. This is what you and I need to know, and prayer makes us aware of this.; title: Prayer reveals God’s heart for us. Prayer reveals ours to Him. Many times we may go to Him with selfish desires that are nowhere near His perfect Will for us. Prayer is the means by which God is able to change our hearts desires so that we are able to accept and receive what He has for us. To give God the opportunity to change our hearts brings glory and honour to Him. He is waiting for us to do so, for in Him giving answers to our prayers His Will is then established here on earth.; title: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ Isaiah 55.8-9; title: Having mentioned so, remember though as we shared earlier that God now desires to reveal His ways to us by His Spirit. ‘But, God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.’ 1Corinthians 2.10; title: Releasing another into the hands of the Lord is challenging, even more so when we are asked by the Lord to pray His Divine favour on that one. This means we are to pray for that person’s good as we would have prayed for ourselves or a loved one. This becomes the ‘test’ for us as to whether we have really released this burden wholly into the hands of the Lord. This could be a real struggle, yet as we offer ourselves to be obedient to the Lord in this matter, we will soon find that a change of heart can and does take place. The change of heart by God removes the burden placed by the enemy. It now helps us focus on the truth. It is replaced by a desire from God and we now pray neither for the burden we once had nor cherished but rather in line with the desire now placed there by Him. All of this is through the help and leading of the Holy Spirit.; title: The Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Comforter and Friend and as we walk in His Spirit we receive forgiveness for our daily trespasses. Our past though is long forgiven.  Though Luke 11.4 speaks about us being forgiven as we forgive, the born again Christian forgives as Christ as already forgiven him. We forgive because the Christ in us forgives.; title: Temptation is most welcomed through an opened door of bitterness and a willingness to not forgive. It is initiated through pain or guilt but does not have to conclude so.; title: I discovered even more so as I was writing this chapter that our unwillingness or reluctance to forgive each other is bound to have a major negative impact on us and the Lord’s desires for us. Most of us may not know this but the spirit we come up against is at war with us. We have on the one hand the spirit that has offended us and now the spirit that wants us to take revenge and justify our pain. It is therefore imperative that we go to God in prayer first. This is really our protection. We must at all times have the boldness to do so and never waiver because of any ignorance or fear on our part. Prayer is the key to developing this intimate relationship as we inquire from God. When we delight in God we come to know His desires for us.; title: What then are the desires of God for us? The greatest desire God has for us is that may we have His peace and His joy in us continually. Peace is to be searched for earnestly Psalm 34.14. The peace and joy of the Lord given to the believer surpasses all understanding. When we are at peace with God, we have His peace in us and only then can we be at peace with others. We are not afraid for we know that in God lies our strength to overcome. In having much or in having little we pursue the calling of that which is far greater than all the world has to offer. For greater in us lies a desire to have more of Him when he has had our hearts changed. God reveals Himself and our hearts are revealed to Him. Prayer was never meant to change the heart of God but instead to change ours. The key is for God to see that our heart truly desires to have that which He has for us and that we are willing for Him to change it - This willingness opens the door for God to give us a changed heart. Prayer allows for God to change our heart. The desires from our past may never be as important as the desires and plans that God has for us now.; title: To pray is to come to God, surrendering our plans and desires to Him. Prayer is the key to appropriating the resources that are available to us in Christ, yet more important prayer, true prayer reveals to God by the virtue of choice given to us, that we are dependable on Him. When we pray we come to understand who God is. When we pray we understand God. We forever know who He is and forever the true nature and character of Him. He knows our needs and our desires for He is God and knows all things. Yet how much of what God desires is really known to us? He yearns much that we may know His plans for us.; title: The knowledge of God’s plans for us comes when we first show to Him that we have put our trust in Him - This is faith! Putting God first helps us come to know the heart of God. He knows and already has what we need. Prayer shows God our dependence on Him. Much is then revealed to us about what we did not know we have in Him. This is revealed so, as we pray. More interesting though is that prayer reveals to God that we not only accept what He has for us but that we are excited about what He has for us.  As our hearts are changed, we then pray that which He wills for us and this pleases Him much. Many things may disappear from our prayer list after spending much time with God. For as we spend time with the Lord we realise that our likes and dislikes are not the same as they were before going to God. Many of our initial wants are no longer there. This is not because they have been fulfilled but simply because our changed hearts’ have come to realise that we were never in need of many in the first place. It is important we have with us a prayer request book. This book should not have only our requests but also God’s answers to our requests.; title: The manner God may have answered us may also be important as we will see that the ways, means and methods used by Him are not the same for each of us, revealing how He works differently with each person. This helps us understand the manner by which God works or the manner in which God will work. It therefore helps us better understand His ways of working. All the more it increases the faith of each individual. It is important that as more evil is released into the world each day that we are able to help other believers as to what is of God and what is not. The more we pray without ceasing the more is revealed by Him. We should never take this for granted as there may be things He may have wished to reveal a long time ago but simply did not because we never prayed.; title: We should be very thankful to God when we have received from Him what He has desired for us. We must be equally thankful that He gave to us His best instead of what we may have initially requested. Thank God that He answers not all our requests but that which He has laid on our hearts. A few years ago my wife was pregnant with our fourth child; I prayed to the Lord that it would be another girl, though we already had two daughters. When I look back I am so glad that He did not answer my request but instead gave us a son. Girls with all due respect are more demanding and acquire greater nurturing and sensitivity. I love my two daughters very much and know the demands and the burdens a parent may have for them. Boys on the other hand are more the wild at heart kind and we are to allow them so.; title: All that God has and desires for us is His best and we must not settle for anything contrary. The enemy has for age’s now, coerced man to settle that he may see for most part only in the natural. Our dependence on God reveals our hearts to Him and gives Him the opportunity to change it. That’s what prayer does; it takes away the desires of our heart and replaces it with His. The Psalmist understood this well when he said; title: ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.’ Psalm 27.4; title: The word ‘enquire’ is to seek after and find out. The word ‘seek’ comes from the Greek word ‘baqash’ it is to diligently look for, to search earnestly until that which is being searched for is found.; title: If we have settled in our minds that prayer is only about asking God for ourselves, then we have settled for very little. This is very little compared to what God has for us. Earth to Heaven praying is a very low level of prayer. It is God's desire that we settle for His Will and that is Heaven to earth praying. Heaven to earth praying always involves God's Will and not ours. It becomes ours as we accept it. ‘......yet not my will, but (always) yours be done.’ Luke 22.42. This was the cry of our Lord Jesus as He prayed on the Mount of Olives. The Bible tells us that as soon as He spoke these words an angel from Heaven appeared and strengthened Him. We are never left alone and we to will be strengthened as we prepare to listen and obey the Lord.; title: Prayer for most times will involve us listening for in so doing we are enabled to do what God desires. When we listen, we find the place and time to be correctly used of God.; title: For the believer the problem is not about doing ‘good’, in fact there is a lot of good being done, by believer and unbeliever alike. That which sets the believer apart however is the time when he is to do something, what he is to do and how he intends doing so. The timing is always relative to the obedience of God’s voice. The aspect of time may also involve the longevity of the thing being done. When we do things in God's time, then that which is in Christ is seen as done on earth.; title: All of this comes down to a relationship that is solid and begs no separation from Him. The things of God are allowed to flow through our lives as we make time with the Lord each day. The knowledge of Heaven is spiritual and precedes a life in the Spirit. You can’t get the slightest glimpse of Heaven at work in the natural. We must be led by His Spirit and as we do so, we then begin to walk in His Spirit. The Lord instructed that they leave not the upper room but wait for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Flow comes as we walk deeper in His Spirit. We have discussed more on this in the chapter the Manner of Prayer and Building a House with God.; title: My prayer today is that you will make a firm decision to hear what God has to say. Then be willing to receive what He has for you. This means willingness for Him to change you.; title: 	Making a Decision to Pray; title: The Bible tells us that the ‘Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force’ this is so because the heart of man is stubborn and self-pleasing. He must make that firm decision that he desires what God has and not what the world has to offer. The only way that the heart of man can be drawn away from the things of the flesh is for the heart to be first settled that it desires what is Heavenly.; title: In other words the heart must be fixed on Heaven. Man must vow he will settle for nothing less and instead only for what God has for him. It must be resolved now that no matter what earth has to offer and how lucrative and attractive it may be – ‘Heaven will be the first and final choice for him.’; title: John 7.63 – 64 ‘It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing.....But there are some of you who do not believe...’ That firm decision that I speak of will mean you will have to stand in faith without wavering. When we go to God in prayer, we are helped not only in us receiving, but also to stand whilst our table is being prepared. Richard Newton said the following “if I can find my heart dissolved in prayer, everything else is comparatively easy”; title: You see, when we go about the work of praying, we are then placing God first. We are having Him have first place in our lives. It will therefore stand to reason that no matter how difficult the situation or circumstance may be, yet because it is first given to God, He is then given the first opportunity to work with it. This is how we learn to grow with the Lord. Having given God first place, we soon realise that there is no other solution and God becomes the only place we are to go. I want you to think about that for a moment.; title: We are asking God for His thoughts first, His methods first, His answer first. That is us fulfilling the very first command - God First.; title: Can prayer be a command to us? For if it is then we ought to be even more careful that we pray. Prayer at first seems like a choice although it really is a command. God will have His Way on earth and we are to pray it so - it is so.; title: The Prophet Samuel also understood the importance of the command to pray for others. ‘As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you…..’ 1 Samuel 12.23; title: So often we seem to go to God last. Why is that? Is it because of our faith? We were sure for the best answer if we had gone to Him in the first place. Bringing it to God first, allows for God to answer us first, yet we must remember there are answers that may come only by our obedience to Him. God is concerned about all things. All of creation belongs to Him, great and small. If there is something on your heart and no matter how small it may be yet if brought to God then it matters to Him. In fact it matters to Him whether we bring it or not. Yet in bringing it to Him we then give Him the opportunity to answer us. We must never doubt God about any matter; we must know that we are able to talk to Him and He is willing to listen to us regarding any matter.; title: Our doubts are what leads us to sin as it did in the very beginning with Eve and the enemy “…did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden .........’” Genesis 3.1; title: The more we question God, the further we move away from the truth.; title: Take note today that God is very much concerned about this for we are His and we belong to Him. Read Matthew 6. 28-34; title: When you do, ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand this in the context of the finished work of Christ here on earth. The duty of the believer is to bring the matter to God in prayer. To question whether God is concerned about a specific matter or not leads us to the next question ‘Is God concerned about me as a person?’ This can only lead to doubt. One of the most tragic thoughts for any man is to question whether God is concerned for him. I want to encourage you today that God is concerned and His Word says so. In John 14.1 the Lord comforts us with these words ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Fathers’ (also implying our Father) house is many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.’; title: When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He made it clear to them that God is Our Father, the emphasis being the word ‘Our’ In fact the Apostle John makes mention of the greatness of the Fathers’ love for us that we may be called children. I always thought that we were requested to love God until Jesse my son age 10 at the time had a word one Sunday morning before church. I still recall him coming to me before we were leaving home that morning, asking me if he could please give a word to the congregation that morning. I did not know that it was a prophetic word and thought that perhaps it was just an excitement in his spirit at the time. I avoided speaking to him about it in church, but the Lord had other plans.  Surprisingly that morning at the conclusion of the service, the senior Pastor invited Jesse to pray for all the men as it was Fathers’ Day. Jesse then used that opportunity to not only pray but to also give the Word he received the night before.  He said ‘we must love God, because God loves us’ He then asked the fathers present to come forward. I saw fathers emotional and crying that morning as they came forward for prayer. I knew then that to love God is a command from Him. And that we do not have to win God’s heart for He has loved us from the beginning.; title: God is more concerned about us than we are about ourselves and all the matters at hand.  He loves us and we are His creation, now more importantly we are sons and daughters of His Kingdom. I pray today that you will be led by the Spirit to know more of God and His plans for your life here on earth. The more time we spend in Gods’ presence the more familiar we are to His voice and therefore His leading. That is the decision the Lord wants us to make with Him today.; title: 	God and His Desire; title: God and His desires for us are wrapped in His will for us. The will of God in our lives fulfils not only His earthly plan for us but even so brings His Heavenly one into sight. In God’s Heavenly plan being fulfilled in each one of us, it brings forth His corporate plan for His Body to be accomplished here on earth. This may happen simultaneously or the one may precede the other – personal then corporately. Only a person with God’s purpose and plan in Him may come together to fulfil His perfect Heavenly corporate plan here on earth.; title: Praying as Heaven would wish is to echo the very words that beat and come together as one and as our Heavenly Father would have. It is important to pray corporately but its effectiveness is only seen first through a personal one. The prayer of a Godly heart reaches the God of heaven.; title: The desire to know God is the first step on the road of one acquainting one’s self to Him. Pauls’ prayer to the church in Ephesus echoed this truth ‘.....and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’ Ephesians 3.17-19; title: We are instructed by the Lord to pray in a Heavenly manner. This manner of praying reveals that which is already in the heart of God. If we were allowed to utter better before God whatever we wished, then there would be no warning from our Lord Jesus about this.; title: ‘And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. Do not be like them (the pagans), for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him’ Matthew. 6. 7-8; title: The Lord Jesus in His teaching on prayer was really enabling us to approach the throne of the Father. Religion has built many ways to approach God and the result is that no religion comes anywhere near Him. Incense offered by the Old Testament priests was a symbol of the prayers we now offer up to Heaven. Our prayers are the spiritual incense offered before a Holy God today. The incense offered then was never for private use and consisted of an equal measure of five spices. Exodus 30.The manner we pray must then open our eyes to how we should approach God. The manner of prayer is the way, for it reveals the desires of God and allows for us to pray those desires back to Him. The incense of old is now the desires of God’s heart in us.; title: ‘The Our Father’ as most know it is the most complete and absolute utterances that children of God may bring to Him. To pray after the manner shown to us by the Lord, reveals much and quietly brings us to a place of desiring more of what God wants for His creation.; title: We must have a yearning for what God has for us. This cannot come through human effort. Religion teaches and prides itself that man himself can acquire from God or that he has the natural strength to take hold of what God has for him. The Word of God reveals however that in our weakness we then come into the divine strength He has for us. Religion imitates this weakness and we receive a strength that comes not from the Lord. In general though, the world relies on their worldly strength for their manna, their wisdom, power and means on the earth.; title: There is a strength in our praying that is spiritually locked in when we pray has the Lord will have us to. This is spiritual dynamics and has in it the ability for the accomplishment of God’s perfect will. The manner shown by our Lord in praying so keeps our minds focussed. It is also keeps us from wandering away from what is Heavenly. There is much to be prayed for when we follow in the manner given to us to pray. To receive from Him is first the willingness to listen, as in true prayer, lies deep revelation from the Lord. We who belong to Him hear what He has to say. He who does not belong to Him cannot hear Him. To hear from Him, to listen and to be obedient is a life lived in the Spirit.; title: ’He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to Him. ’John 8.47; title: Where there is a correct way there is bound to be a wrong one as we are forever in rebellion. The manner shown by the Lord shows to us the protocol of how we are to come into the presence of our Father. This must be given priority as Jesus warned about praying foolishly.; title: Knowledge is great yet we must still be willing to accept His Will for our lives. God has made provision and that provision is made available to those within the Kingdom. Therefore it stands to reason that those partaking of His Kingdom must be a part of that Kingdom. We may partake of many things yet all of it must be part of Gods’ Kingdom.  It must fall under the banner of His Kingdom. The desires of our hearts must be the same as that of the King and His kingdom. We may think it is, yet the more sincere and patient we are, the more He reveals to us. The written Word has given us the gateway to His Spiritual Word and this must be used to bring about the change that is meant. Through prayer God reveals to us His Spiritual Word.; title: I have said this before - To pray, is simply to hear from God.  It would therefore be wise to always go to God first. To pray first allows for the believer to affirm what God is saying. To affirm is to declare that which God has said, to be true. We pray that which we know, back to God, and we declare or affirm that which He says about Himself to be true. This includes our requests, our praise and worship all accordingly. The question is very simple, is our praying affirming what God is saying.; title: The song writer says:; title: “I AM THE GOD THAT HEALETH THEE,; title: I AM THE LORD YOUR HEALER,; title: I SENT MY SON TO HEAL YOUR DISEASE,; title: I AM THE GOD YOUR HEALER.”; title: The next verse of this song then follows with the affirmation from the believer:; title: “YOU ARE THE GOD THAT HEALETH ME,; title: YOU ARE THE GOD MY HEALER,; title: YOU SENT YOUR SON TO HEAL MY DISEASE,; title: YOU ARE THE GOD MY HEALER.”; title: Its’ God first telling us who He is and what He has done, – I am the God your Healer; I am the one that sent my Son to heal your disease. Your task and mine as a believer is to affirm who God is and what He has done. In affirming we are thankful for His complete divine work. You are the Healer, and, you have sent your Son to heal my disease.; title: To affirm who God is and what He has done, is worship well pleasing to God. It is the make-up of ones’ prayer life. If you have difficulty discerning Gods’ voices then at least affirm what you know for now.  Affirm His Word, His promises and thereby build up your faith. This also pleases the Lord. Faith and Prayer must walk along the same road. To affirm that which you know will do you well. The task of the believer is to show with confidence that he truly desires what God has prepared for him.; title: In Luke 24 we see the story of Jesus meeting up with two disciples and after a while acts as if He was going to part and go another way. But the two disciples instead urged Jesus to come and stay with them. In doing so their eyes were opened.; title: “‘As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going further. But they urged Him strongly, ‘stay with us, for it is nearly evening..... So He went in to stay with them”’ Luke 24.28 -29; title: A verse later we read ‘Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him.’ The challenge is on the believer. This gifted ability given to all men to choose, must prove to God that we are on His side, it must affirm that we desire what He has for us and intimacy with the Lord helps us get there.; title: 	Speaking in Tongues; title: As believers we must pray in tongues as this is our Heavenly language. God has designed tongues for prayer and it is given to each believer for a purpose. It is the language of the Holy Spirit given at the time of the new birth of each new believer.; title: If we claim to be believers then we have the Holy Spirit residing in us. The language of the Holy Spirit is what we use when we pray. The Holy Spirit in the believer reveals the things of God to him and also through the believer speaks to God for him.; title: ‘In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.’ Romans 8.26-27.; title: When the believer is baptised in the Spirit, he should then be able to pray in the language of the Spirit. Many believers have the notion that they were not meant to have this language of the Spirit and have therefore settled for it to be so. But that is far from the truth for just as we will one day have a new spiritual body at Christ Second Coming, we too are now given the Heavenly language to go with it. Speaking in tongues is therefore a new language that comes with our new birth.; title: When we speak in tongues the Spirit prays but our mind may not fully grasp what is said. For the believer that means the Holy Spirit is now petitioning God on our behalf. When the Holy Spirit uses the believer to speak to God then is the believer speaking in his Heavenly language designed by God for him. This is God the Holy Spirit and being able to overcome much also petitions for much of what is pleasing to the Father for the believer.; title: The Holy Spirit petitions God for what He knows is already determined in the mind of Him to give us. He asks God for us, knowing full well what is already for us. We do not know what to pray for but He does. God searches our hearts and He knows the mind of the Spirit who is interceding for us. 1Corinthians 2; title: Tongues are very important to the believer yet many of us deprive ourselves of this knowledge. Given the times we find ourselves in, many things seem so absurd, confusing and permits for the feeling of uneasiness. We are called nevertheless to stand and so we are helped along by the greatest Person on earth – The Holy Spirit.; title: In our confusion and pain we so often do not know what or how to pray. Yet the believer is helped along by the indwelling Holy Spirit. And as sons and daughters of the Lord we therefore find a great deal of calmness in the midst of the storm. Remember that all believers should be able to pray in tongues because the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes with a new language. Please read the examples of all who came to be believers in the book of Acts. The rebirth and salvation of the believer is one of a new and regenerated spirit, an ever continual renewal of the mind and one day a new and glorious body.; title: Our praying in tongues is perfect praying for this is the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf. We may however cancel what is prayed for by what we say and do after we have prayed. If this is so, then again we can see the need for us to always walk in the Spirit before and after we have prayed. In so doing, we are helped along and will therefore not gratify the desires of the flesh nor cancel our recent prayer requests. It is essential that we pray in tongues remembering that the power of life and death lies in the tongue. Proverbs 18.21; title: All through the book of acts we see three important occurrences to persons who received the Gospel. They first believed, were baptised (in water) and they were baptised with the Holy Spirit. The latter two did not take place in the same sequence every time. Having accepting Christ as their Saviour they spoke in a new language and were then later baptised in water. Or they were baptised in water and then baptised in the Holy Spirit. In other words we see a baptism of the Holy Spirit after receiving Christ into their lives and then a water baptism or vice versa. The Bible teaches us that the evidence of tongues was also the evidence of one being a believer. In Acts 19.2 Paul came across some disciples (believers) and found out that they had not even heard that there was a Holy Spirit. They had the baptism of John the Baptist but were told that this was just a baptism for them to turn away from their sins and be ready for the Christ to come. The Bible tells us that when they heard this they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul placed his hands on them and Holy Spirit came upon them; and they immediately spoke in strange tongues.; title: In Acts 10.44 -48 Peter was speaking to the Gentile believers when the Holy Spirit fell on all those who listening to his message. In doing so they spoke in strange tongues and was still not baptised with water yet. After which Peter then notes that no one could stop these believers from being baptised in water and then orders them be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.; title: Evidence also exists in scripture that tongues was essential for the early believers as it is to us now. This was essential for the believer but never something that nullified his salvation. The believer simply needed faith to believe with a sincere heart and he was saved. In short the book of Acts talks about households of believers who knew nothing about the baptism of Christ and had to then be baptised. Then again the book talks about believers who only spoke in tongues after the disciples prayed and laid their hands on them.  Remember that the Bible regards all of them as believers whether they spoke in tongues or not or whether they were just water baptised or not. What I am alluding to is that when we come to Christ we are received by Him just as we are, by a simple decision having desired to have a new life with Him. The speaking in tongues is thereafter essential for a spirit filled life as it is the language of the Holy Spirit. Just as we are given a New Life, we are given a New Language and soon our perishable bodies will be caught up in that which is imperishable and we will have New Bodies.; title: AWAKE, AWAKE!; title: AND CLOTHE; title: YOURSELF WITH STRENGHT; title: 4. The Essentials of Effective Prayer; title: 	A Time of Quietness; title: There are essentials towards the order of a continuous life in prayer. To have them would do the believer well, for without them the life of prayer may become non – existent. Whatever is may soon collapse. It is important that we have these essentials or else our excuses not to pray will justify our wanting not pray. A heart that is quiet before God is most difficult to find and may be found only at the feet of Jesus.; title: It is therefore not the first of the essentials found in prayer. To get here the mind must be made up to pray. The time of quietness will begin as one makes the decision to spend with God. The duty of the believer is to make up his mind that he will spend time with His Maker in spite of…..’ We have discussed this in little more detail in the chapter Understanding Kingdom Dynamics.; title: It is here that the believer would do well not to look for time, but to make time for God. For the truth be told that in looking for time, there is rarely any time found. The conclusion is that little or no time is spent with the Lord. For the enemy has already devised a well worked out plan to steal from the believer. It is therefore the duty of the believer to make time to spend with God. We must be fully aware that the enemy is always ready with excuses to trap the believer to not pray.  The believer must therefore know that adjustments must be made and the time of prayer will be more important than that of work and play.; title: The life of Jesus on earth was a busy one but He always schedule time to spend with His Father. Lets’ read Mark 1.35 ‘ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.’; title: We know that even though Jesus demonstrated great power over the evil forces, He never neglected time to pray. Again the need to pray was a need to hear what the Father’s Will was for the moments ahead.  With time well spent with His Heavenly Father, Jesus knew just the right moment for Him to do something. So it was that not ‘just anytime’ was the right time for Him to do something for the Father, but only as He was led by the Spirit of God. The key is to set one’s heart to pray.; title: The believer cannot pray too much or to have ‘over prayed’ for there will always be a need for more prayer. We may however waste time on certain matters even though God has already spoken to us about them.; title: We must learn to discern that God has heard us and that we may now move onto praising and worshiping Him. And at times move onto our next request. We must remember that we can never praise God too much so that He is no longer in need of our praise. We cannot worship Him too much that He no longer deserves anymore of our worship. God is awesome for us to ever reach this end. Remember that prayer involves listening, petitioning, praising and worshipping God. When we have heard His voice then our petitioning becomes simple. This leads to more thanks and praise which God loves very much.; title: My request for you is that you will make the time to pray and follow through with that decision. God even steps in and honours an honest and genuine heart that wants pray.; title: 	Sentry Prayers; title: Sentry prayers are short requests to God to cover the actual time of prayer ahead. In other words they are prayers in advance of the prayers ahead. We must pray that nothing hinders our time set to pray.; title: Sentry prayers help us enter into the prayer closet. In fact all that we are and all that we say and do must be a preparation for what will happen in the closet.; title: The priests of old had to live holy and surrendered lives and had to be well prepared to enter the physical Holy Courts of Old. Like a subordinate before his King so to must we be prepared to come before God with love. This is our Holy time in a Holy Place before a Holy God. We must see this as a responsibility and a special gift to us as believers. Numbers 18.7 Sentry prayers are short and simple as they are prayers that are meant to get us ready for those more intimate times with God ahead. This prayer must be prayed before the actual time of praying. The time to pray this prayer is the night before the prayer ahead. This does not have to be a long hard drawn out prayer. It is a prayer for what we may call the main prayers to follow, where we give God the first portion of our day ahead.; title: In war times there were two types of soldiers, those who went out to battle and those who remained back at camp. The role of them who remained behind was equally important as those who went out to battle. They remained behind to look after the wives, children and the possessions of those who went to war including theirs. Their role was one of covering whilst the rest went to battle. They were equally rewarded soldiers though. The story of such a nature is seen during David’s reign where about four hundred men went up with him to battle while two hundred remained behind with the supplies.1Samuel 25.13. They may have helped with the cleaning shining and sharpening of the swords. They may have also helped with the cleaning and polishing of the soldiers’ gears and the relaying of messages to each individual from the base when needed. In 1Samuel 30.21-25, David returns to camp to the men who stayed behind and treats them equally noting that whoever went with to battle receives the same share as he who stayed behind and this became a rule that was followed. A soldier at war may have fought more courageously and confidently knowing his family and loved ones were being taken care of back home. Just like no soldier wants to return home to tragedy and severe loss, David understood their importance to the nation at large. These were the sentry soldiers and their importance was not taken for granted.; title: We must know the dynamics of sentry praying, as the duty of the enemy is to keep us from knowing anything in God’s Will. Our prayers reveal His will for us and the lack of knowledge thereof causes us to perish. It may seem good and easy at first but after a while we may be hindered by many things instead of praying. We must therefore ask God to help us arise, and be strengthened for the day ahead. ‘Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength…’ Isaiah52.1; title: This is asking and relying on God for help to pray. We must request God that nothing, like sickness, tiredness, drowsiness or even forgetfulness hinders us from praying as the time lost cannot be regained.; title: We must pray that our minds and bodies do not become tired or sick to pray. We must ask the Lord for wisdom and the help to sleep well that we may not be tired and drowsy when we arise to pray. A great help is to not to go to bed too late. We must work out our sleep patterns and what is best for each of our bodies. Over sleeping can be easily overcome with an alarm. Included in our sentry prayers may be our request that our actual time of praying will not be wasted in vain and repetitive words. In other words we will not request from God anything that may not be in His Will for us. We may even pray that we are fully disciplined to hear what God is saying and that He will also hear us. We build our faith as we spend quality time with God. The enemy does not like this and so we must pray that we are protected as our faith is increased. The enemy hates it when God is pleased and our faith pleases Him.; title: The spiritual dynamics are that the Sentry prayers are as important as our Closet prayers. Our prayer times are hindered often by other duties. Even the duties within the Body of Christ like Church works, may become a hindrance to a closer fellowship with the Lord. This however is not easily found out as our Church duties may become an excuse for not praying. In fact this is a huge problem within the Body of Christ. We are too busy with the work of the Lord and have no time for real fellowship with Him. Our work shows more to the flesh and is easily seen and rewarded whilst our quiet, behind the ‘shut door experiences’ may not. We must have our spiritual eyes open to see what comes out of the closet. We opt so often for the former as it is easier. May the Lord, help us we pray!; title: Dear Lord thank you for revealing this truth about sentry prayers to us. Help us not to neglect such praying and prepare us we pray for the actual time of praying. Amen; title: 	 A Place of Quietness - The Closet; title: We must go to God; and at all times to Him we must go. We may have prayed but may still not have gone to Him. We must show to God that we have His attention. And so the Closet is a quiet place; God loves to speak in quiet places. To have our hearts quiet we must be in quiet places. Better praying never hindered the Kingdom of God and never will. Personal praying helps much and sets the tone when all the Church comes together to pray. Those who have prayed well in the secret place will bring with them that same anointing when they meet for prayer with the rest of the Body. When you have been touched inside the closet you are then able to touch those on the outside. Our corporate praying will make a greater difference for government and those in authority, if only we first prayed passionately in the secret place.; title: How we pray corporately reveals much of our personal contact with the Lord. For the life that prays accordingly, to the Will of God, in the quiet place, will then be found praying unselfishly when it meets with the Body of Christ. A heart that pleases God much in the closet will surely please Him more when it meets together with His Church. For let it be said that he who pleases God behind closed doors will also have much to show for it when meeting with others in the prayer room of the Church.; title: Jesus had this to say about a place of quietness.  ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth; they have their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.’ Mathew.6.5-6; title: The closet is often the last place most people find themselves in. For it is somehow the last place they are drawn to. With the help of the evil one, there always seems to be an excuse for us not being in here. Where is your prayer closet, where is the place you meet with God on a one to One basis? We must learn to make this the most important spot under our working or living tents for its purpose is important to all of us for here is where we meet with God.; title: Our Church and corporate prayer meetings are only as strong as the quality of the time we spend in the secret place. If our prayer meetings are empty then our closets are empty. The strength of our corporate prayer gatherings will flow from the overflowing river that starts in the closet.; title: The closet is anything but a place of fear yet its’ here the battle rages on. It is a secret place with no one except where you and God alone meet. The battle often looms in the quiet place raging into a fierce one as we are helped into the Presence of the Lord. Even so it is here we are received and here we are asked to surrender. Personal and emotional though it may become nevertheless it is God who must have His way in here. It is a place where the passions and the desires according to our will must make room for the original plans of God. It is not a place for those who will back away.  It is a battlefield to say the least. It is our place of confrontation, its’ also our place of breakthroughs. It is here we may receive our strength to journey on if we are willing to allow God to have His Way. The secret place lacks any room for pretence and demands pure honesty. You cannot take on any part or act out one – this is real life meeting in the spiritual. It’s a place where we may be stripped, we may try to grip onto something or we may just have to let go depending on what God is saying. When you are in, its’ then you are in the middle of it, and to make it to shore, you will have to overcome greatly. It is here we become filled leading to an overflow. It is a place we receive the peace of God and then are able to move on. And they shall come because of the issues that must be confronted. We must surrender to Him and often here is where we are called to do it. In our surrendering to Him we dismiss any love for sin and more a hunger for God.; title: It is a closed ‘door’ that separates works from relationship. It’s here that the ‘door’ must be closed so that we may hear what God has to say and anything that separates us a while from our busy daily lives becomes the ‘door’ of the secret place. Any wonder why Jesus associates prayer with a ‘door and it being shut.’  If we have not a secret place then we really have not a place to find rest. We must overcome in here for us to move about out there. Our overcoming is found at the place where we gain our rest.; title: The closet is never a place hard to discover once the heart is already made up to pray. It starts with our hearts and the decision we make. It’s time each one of us in the Body of Christ discovered a place where we met with God on a personal level. We discover God and His ways when we discover and establish our secret places. We must deliberately go to Him and humbly request as we are led. I pray you will find your secret place and that the size and location will not matter so much as it is a place for you and the Lord to meet. History will tell us that some great intercessors had nothing more than just an apron to throw over their bowing heads in some busy kitchens and this too became their secret places.; title: God is in a secret place and there is where you and I must go. And for us to do so, we are called to come away. We are called into this secret place so that we may hear from Him and He may also hear us. Mark 6.31……’let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while.’ This opens up the way for us so that God may reveal Himself to us. As we move on during this journey, we will find the defence argument more and more ridiculous in favour of the flesh and sadly though very few of us know it so. Our intellectualisms combined with our limited knowledge of scripture have settled it for us young and old that our flesh and ways of life is fine with God.; title: In the Parable of the Hidden Treasure having found the treasure the man then hides it and filled with joy goes and sells everything to buy that field Matthew 13.44; title: Nehemiah the Prophet kept a secret, telling no one of the things God had placed in his heart to do for Jerusalem. Only when he by himself did examine the broken wall and the gates destroyed by fire did he then explain to all involved in the work the reason for Jerusalem and her problems. Nehemiah 2.16-17; title: We all need this quiet place or else we perish and cannot move on without God. For from Him comes the wisdom and strength for everyday life. There are many secret treasures that the Lord may have for us. These are found in the secret places of our hearts.  We get there by entering in and so receive from Him. We must remember that whatever task we may be given is first initiated in the spirit and so may be stolen or destroyed just as we may    receive it. In Matthew 13.19 Jesus speaks about the evil one coming and snatching away what was already sown.; title: Dear Lord, help us find our quiet place. And for us who may battle to find one, may just a covering sheet at night or an apron over our bowed heads at day become that accepted place. We pray that there be urgency in us to hear from you or else we die. Amen.; title: 	 A Quiet Heart; title: ‘In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’ Isaiah 30.15; title: The Hebrew meaning for the word quietness is best understood has ‘repose’ - to be anxious for nothing, to be still or even to lie down with a support underneath. A heart that is still before God, hears well what He has to say to him. God loves to speak to us and even more so when our hearts are quiet before Him. It is often our affairs with the world that keeps us from becoming still. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ He said.; title: Nothing will change if man does not pray; therefore prayer must be described as change. God changes our hearts when we pray. When the heart of man is changed then Heaven releases for him what it always had for him here on earth.; title: The world and its manner of workings come with great demands and if not met, then a fear begins to settle in us. And so we have to meet these demands as no one loves fear. The world has set up a well-managed plan to promote fear so that its demands are met with. Death gets its power to hurt us from sin and sin gets its power from the law. In other words the power of sin is the law and the law helps sin along. 1 Corinthians 15.56; title: The more the laws of life demand, the more obligated we are to follow through and the more we meet its demands the greater it rewards us. This is the wages of life to the unbeliever and unknown to him it robs him of eternal life. We are not all sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and as a result much is the opposition to the things of God as it moves against the tide of the natural and sometimes good. Having received the secrets whilst in the secret place, we must then be cautious of how and who we share them with. The Bible tells us that we must be careful not give to dogs that which is sacred nor throw our pearls to swine. In other words we are not to waste what is holy on people who are unholy if not they will turn around and attack us. Matthew 7.6; title: The bottle thrown at the feet of the unbeliever is not labelled ‘poison’ for he the evil one is not so ignorant. Knowing we will not read so and then willingly partake of it. Instead it comes to us with false labelling of a better life, added comfort and great rewards. We drink of it and true to its logo, it feels good. And gullible are we as we wipe our mouths only to enquire from whence we may we receive more. It is too late for many of us and we have been sucked in.; title: God however has a plan in place to avoid this happening.  ‘But thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!’ 1Corintians 15.57 Many times our perception of God’s love for us is twisted by the evil one and makes us think we have the liberty to sin.; title: God had purposed for His Son to go to the Cross and do just that, that we may acknowledge our sinfulness and repent.  A repentant heart is a quiet heart before God and sees what the Lord allows him to see or else he is blind to his sins and therefore sees no need for repentance. As believers, we have been saved from judgement of our past sins yet our daily walk with Him must now be free from any sin. Coming to Him daily helps us find the direction and the manner in which we must go. For now life at hand is and now Faith is that we be quiet before God. There is a tarrying in the Lord’s return and may that be seen also as His grace for us to repent. We have not focussed enough on the wrath of God because the love of Him seems sufficient for us yet take a careful look around and you will see.; title: Sin gains its strength through the flesh. The more we surrender to the flesh, the deeper we progress into it. Sin is progressive and anything progressive must be heading somewhere. In this case, death!; title: The believer must find a way to separate himself from sin. Many of us come away only to enter into sin again. We assume that approaching God will help us during our time in sin. However we are to go to God to receive spiritual strength to overcome it and not sin again. We are controlled not by this sinful nature, but by the Holy Spirit only if He is allowed so in our lives. A quiet heart gives the Holy Spirit that opportunity to keep us away from sin. Romans 8.9; title: As the believer spends more time in the presence of the Lord, His heart gets to be quiet before God. A quiet heart is essential in the life of the one praying. With so much activity in each one of our lives this may not be easy to come by. It is therefore important that the believer is willing to make a firm decision to spend that quiet time with God.; title: Isaiah 30.15 ‘……Come back and quietly trust in me. Then you will be strong and secure…’ (other translations); title: Believing the Word about the heart of a Heavenly Father, a Son who was willing to die for us and the help we have now by the Holy Spirit means it is possible to have a quiet heart before God. That should be so comforting to us to move on in this journey. We must have hope and the quieter we are before God the stronger that hope becomes. Strong hope leads to faith. We must have this faith that God is willing to hear us and to speak to us. Our hope helps us be confident in Him and our confidence in the Lord must never waiver. To be still before God the heart must be sincere. We go to God in hope and in the midst of a torn and battered world our faith is often shattered. When we are quiet before God, we have hope. God takes our hope and brings up our faith in Him. It is faith that moves God and without it, it is impossible to please Him.; title: Hebrew 10.19-22 ‘ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ...... and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.....’; title: Hope helps us make that firm decision that we will draw near to God sincerely and this warrants spending quality time with Him. For it is Him who knows about the plans He has for us and it is to this our quiet hearts that His plans are revealed.; title: Jeremiah 29.12-13 says the following: ‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’; title: It is difficult to find God when our hearts are not still. For according to His Word, He listens to us, when we pray, and this takes place when all of the heart has sought Him. In other words the heart must be willing to surrender to Him. A quiet heart is one free from anger, it is one that is willing to wait and let God have His way. A quiet heart is characterised by the absence of ones’ own selfish thoughts and desires waiting only on God to have His. We must be first willing to let God show His heart’s desire on the subject matter and may God help us in so doing.; title: When the heart is willing to be quiet before God, surprising we will discover how that which was initially desired is no more. It becomes useless, undesirable and unthought-of.; title: A quiet heart is willing to change. It is a heart that allows God’s plans to prevail and the more we do so, the fewer places we allow for the enemy or for ourselves to take charge. Having a calm heart before God is one of the most important aspects of the prayer life of any believer. The softer and pliable our hearts are before God, the more He is able to speak to us. The more we hear and listen from Him the more effective is that which we apply ourselves to. A quiet heart prepares us for action and yet it is a heart that is sincere. It is one that enables us to do in a shorter period of time - just a few moments, hours and even days, what we may have battled for years to accomplish. The Exodus of God’s people from Egypt proved just that -a few days into a few weeks, weeks into months, months into years, until another generation whilst the previous one is destroyed.; title: The most important decision in having that continuity fulfilled with God is this firm decision to spend time with Him. The decision to set a time and a place to spend with God must be first initiated in all believers. A quiet time and a quiet place set for us the precedence for a still heart before a Holy God.; title: King David was not a man without sin; nevertheless God set a covenant with Him that still holds even now. Many were God’s disappointments of him but David had a heart to which the Lord could speak to. When he sinned, God could talk to Him, reprimand him and set him back on track. This allowed for God to use him as He wanted. He was God’s and he was willing for whatever as long it came from God and not man. David’s prayer life allowed him to hear from God and for him the opportunity to speak back to Him, knowing that God was listening to him. This is the relationship God wants us to have with Him.; title: ‘Come away’ – the coming away for us is not a gentle act, but one of persuasion. The hustle and bustle of everyday life does not make room for God nor intends making one for Him. For where there is no time to pray there is no time for God.; title: We arise then go to work; we play then return to sleep, only to arise and repeat all that we did before. Only this time it is a new day. Again days turn into weeks, weeks into months and soon we count the years. By then we are old and grey and nowhere in our busy schedules have we set aside time to pray. We may spend a moment or so simply catching up with our Maker just that He knows that we do consider Him from time to time. Like a long lost love or a friend away in the distant shores, we have thoughts that come and go while our focus is life and the reward she brings to us. It may sound cruel in description yet it is true.; title: God loves an honest heart. He loves that we are sincere. King David was a man after God’s heart. He sinned like all men do, disappointing the Lord perhaps more than most of us do yet he was an honest man before God. It is honest hearts that move God for He hates pretence.; title: To come away with the Lord would mean more like - ‘run away’ more an escaping to find God.  It is then that we are able to hear the heartbeat of God. Jesus exemplified this mystery for when the disciples searched for Him He was found praying in a quiet place.; title: Luke 5.16 ‘…..but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed’; title: It is on one of those occasions that His disciples asked Jesus, ‘Teach us how to pray’. And so it is that we now have the ‘Our Father Prayer.’; title: Of all our ‘positions’ God must enjoy the quiet heart for it is then that He is most able to have His Way with us. It is the quiet heart that God takes as His own to be used by Him. (From my book Essentials of Prayer); title: It is this heart that is most pliable in Gods hand for it is this one that puts Him first and so fulfils the most important commandment of them all, ‘To love the Lord our God with all our heart and have no other gods before Him…….’ Exodus 20.1-6; title: The Lord does not set His love on us because we are more in number but simply because He loves us and sees our hearts towards Him.; title: When the heart of man has been impregnated with the Will of God then that man is helped along by the Holy Spirit of God and so is His Kingdom established here on earth. Our heart must be one that is adjustable, flexible and adaptable for Him to use us. The duty of prayer brings a man to this place. It is here he begins to become intimate with God and intimacy with God means a far greater knowledge for the believer with regard to the affairs of Heaven. It is from this Heavenly place where God abides that the secret things of Him are revealed. No matter where you want to place Heaven, it still remains a place inside and outside the dimensions we may or may not know. The more we come to know the secrets of Heaven the more we are able to implement the spiritual rules of that Kingdom here on earth. This is the purpose of prayer and for that to be imparted we are given the help of the Holy Spirit. So it is that we fulfil an important part of prayer – ‘your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’; title: The Life of prayer must first be personal. Our corporate prayers can only be successful when we have first graced our own closets.; title: If we first prayed effectively in our closets we would then be able to pray more successfully with the rest of God’s people. When we gather together there are many a personal issue about ourselves and others. The purpose for the prayer closet is just that, so that we bring that which is personal, heavy and secret to Him. Whatever the sin, the feeling or the desire and frustration maybe to Him in secret we can go.; title: In bringing those issues to Him, they are dealt with by a loving Father. And no need be that we carry it to the corporate body in shame and disgust suspicious of how others may belittle us. This helps much and gives us more strength, confidence and time to pray for other matters that suffers the Body of Christ as a whole. However, if a personal issue has no answer and having spent appropriate time in the closet then we may share it with our fellow believers in faith that they may agree with us on the matter. For purposes only known to God, He gives us the strength and courage to bring it into the open. This may just be that which it needed - combined faith of the Body for a breakthrough. Like fasting had to come with prayer for the demon to have come out of the little boy. We have explained this further in other parts of these writings where corporate faith and more strength are needed. Having mentioned so, it must be our greatest concern that we be wise and enquire from God, how to do so. This is a spiritual battle and the mind of man can be cruel.; title: I pray that you will be still before God and know that this is an important and essential aspect of a prayer filled life. It is hidden in the life of prayer and ought to be discovered so that you may hear when He speaks.; title: WE WHO PRAY ACCORDINGLY,; title: ARE HEMMED IN BY GOD; title: 5. The Manner Prayer; title: 	 The Our Father Prayer; title: The manner, in which we come to the King of kings, must never be taken for granted. It holds the key in us being invited into His Presence. It is about our King, His Kingdom, His Provisions and His Plans set aside for the establishment of this Kingdom. Jesus said ‘This then is how you should pray…....’Matthew. 6.9 This is an instruction given to us by the Lord Himself. We would be wise to obey Him and in so doing experience the richness of the hidden life in this prayer for us who are His people. God wants to pour out much life - spiritual life, to us. The enemy in his quest to find flaws with all that God does, attempts the same with this prayer. He has for the following reasons coerced many to believe that this prayer is not for the believer because:; title: 1.	That times we live in no longer makes this prayer appropriate.; title: 2.	The Kingdom is already established on earth through Christ; title: 3.	We should not be praying for our daily bread but for abundance instead.; title: 4.	Our trespasses are forgiven and therefore no need to go to God on a daily basis.; title: 5.	The believer is delivered therefore no enemy stalks the believer.; title: If ever there was a time more appropriate then this would be it for us to pray even so. The Kingdom of God was established for earth before Christ came to earth. In the mind of God is all things established. The death of Christ on the cross opens up that door for us to be part of that Kingdom. As we live each day we have the opportunity to work out salvation with trembling and fear before we one day meet with our Lord.; title: Our trespasses are forgiven to enable salvation. Our past matters no more. Our daily sins thereafter, are not unless we confess them to our God each day. Believers sin and God forgives them having repented.; title: No matter where you find the sin, when traced it will always bring you back to the door of the evil one. Where there is no evil there is no sin. We are born into a fallen world. Salvation never intended to save this ‘dying’ world for it cannot. She is already dead and the purpose of Christ’s is to remove us from her. If not we are destroyed with it and the evil one day to come. And so knowing his fate the enemy has made it is duty that man be destroyed with him. Those who keep to the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus are forever at war with the evil one. And may we come to understand our need for the Lord each day, helping us overcome. The ‘Our Father’ Prayer is that purpose and doing just that.; title: These are just a few of the doctrines that have made its way into the Church. The tragedy regarding these false teachings is that the ‘Our Father’ Prayer is not seen as one which guides the believer to pray and overcome. The enemy does not want this prayer to be seen as one that reveals to the believer the nature of God. Jesus showed His disciples to pray and as we approach the Father, it brings us closer to Him. Often we fail to understand the need to reach out and meet with this awesome God. It is easy to talk about prayer yet difficult to pray.; title: The ‘Our Father’ Prayer has suffered much as it has been taken has a single pattern instead of a gateway for revelation of deeper praying. This understanding will come only by our spiritual eyes being opened and this through His Holy Spirit. In no other way is this possible but that set by God and by the Person whom God has designated this job to.; title: The early believers were asked by the Lord not to leave Jerusalem instead to wait for what the Father had promised. There had to be a baptism of the Holy Spirit for the believers to continue on this journey and it was this that equipped them to continue. Too often we become relaxed in the things of God and therefore become casual about the actual act of praying. We have become careless towards the call to pray and prayer itself. Our half-heartedness centeredness has resulted in our lacking the passion and energy to pray. We know so, for if were praying more, then our prayer rooms would have no more space inside them for us to move.; title: When we pray as the Lord has taught us, we then have our hearts changed in order to reveal His. This will definitely lead to more praying. A changed heart is a heart for prayer. More revelation of God leads to more prayer for when more of Him is revealed; the believer wants nothing else but more of Him. For in so doing the believer is shown his spiritual lack. There must be much prayer, much focus on God for there to be much revelation of Him from Him. The more we pray the more is revealed and this together builds on our relationship with God. Is the Church not meant to grow and is she not meant to be built into an entity that cannot be touched? I’m sure she does for who may stand against her when Christ is her head and all her Body is in harmony with the chords of Heaven.; title: When the disciples asked Jesus to show them a way to pray, His reply was 'after this manner, therefore, pray…'  Matthew 6.9 It is not so much the vocabulary that followed but the attitude and manner in which we come to our Father. Although Jesus used the word ‘say’ in verse 2 He did not intend for this prayer to be used as a mere ritual. The Lords’ Prayer is in total contrast for any of us to use as vain repetition. Having said so, it does not mean that reciting the ‘Our Father’ Prayer will not cause God to move. Our schools for years have uttered no other prayer but this in their assemblies and did so only by recitation. There is much proof around the world that institutions like the schools have seen major differences when the ‘Our Father’ Prayer was used during their gatherings. I pray for those days to return.  A thousand believing children together reciting the ‘Our Father’ Prayer surely makes a greater impact in Heaven than a few religious folk gathering to pray however they wish. The impact it was making in the spiritual realm is the real reason why it has been taken out of our school systems. It is when we recite this prayer in vain that God is not pleased with us. Children surely have faith and their faith is strong enough and unhindered than most of our faith as adults. It is therefore important that we have them pray so, instead. The institutions that are praying so are bound to discover the depth thereof, yet we must learn not to recite in vain repetitions.; title: The prayer given to us is one meant to acknowledge God’s reign and supremacy in every facet of our lives. It is whole and complete. I have discussed this further in my book ‘On My Knees.’; title: This prayer also helps in our relationship with others and has three important aspects to it – God, others and then us. It is a prayer that is focussed - Heavenly focussed.  It calls first for our focus on God, His help on us focusing on others and then His help towards us. The ‘Our Father’ Prayer is about having a heart for what God has for us.’ As it is in heaven so shall it be on earth.’ Matthew 6.10; title: We must be willing to accept that God knows of our desires even before we come to Him. Praying according the manner given to us establishes God’s Will here on earth.  We must have the attitude and faith that is an integral part of praying together with passion and zeal to meet with God.; title: When we carefully study the ‘Our Father’ Prayer we will find that there is no need that is not provided for us. Deeper understanding will reveal to us that God is that provision.; title: Praying in the manner given to us by our Lord takes care of that. The praying is ours to do the administrating His and even here we see that we are not alone and are helped along by His Holy Spirit.; title: 	 Protocol with God; title: We follow protocol when it comes to so many of our earthly activities? In fact the diligence we have in following these earthly matters far too often exceeds the diligence we have concerning the things of God. Prayer calls for diligence and the protocol and so often we lack. Diligence calls for us to be mindful that God be given first place in our lives. This is the first commandment and our priority is to be concerned with God above all else. Giving God precedence allows Him to have His way with us, as we will share later. Exodus 20.5; title: Imagine for a moment you were to receive a call to meet with the President of your land. Apart from it being an honour, you will certainly not go to him unprepared. One of the first things you would enquire, would be the dress code perhaps needed to meet with him, you may enquire about the matter at hand, and also attempt to find out more about him as a person. The people who manage the President’s Office and its affairs will surely advise you on the protocol and how you must approach him when you arrive as this is all part of their job in keeping with the rules and regulation of such an Office. All of this is important and useful as it is not the same as visiting some acquaintance or family member we see regularly. And though he may be mere man like you and I, he deserves that protocol because of the Office he has now acquired. Here the Office of the Presidency is what gives rise to this manner of protocol.; title: Strange though, we do have it in us, that which begs for direction about our approach with others. Should we not then be more careful of how we approach the Creator?  After all is praying not meeting with God? With Him it is His Office and who He is - this Heavenly God, Creator and King of the heavens and the earth.; title: He continues to invite us each day into His Presence. Our response and having enquired should help us approach our Heavenly Father?; title: The life of prayer demands protocol for all New Testament Priests – Sons and Daughters of God. It is far more important than the protocol of the world and its own demands. We must be sensitive to the way we approach God for He expects it so. Protocol is His design for us in prayer. In understanding protocol with God we are able to reach Him instead of being lost on some journey of our own. Matthew 6.9 Religions are a perfect example of this. Important to Him and even more should it be to us. We must know that there is no other way to the Father except through His Son Christ Jesus. That is the Way and we enter into this Way in a manner set out by Him.; title: May we be very clear, John 14.6 ‘…. no one comes to the Father except through me.’   The blindest spot is religion for it shouts to the masses black and white, yellow and grey, to keep moving. There is a lie that the tracks are just fine and all is well. Religion is the culprit for teaching us whatever we want to hear, for she teaches wherever she pleases as long as there are open doors for her message. She has manners and nations of her own, set up by herself deceiving the world in many ways. May God, forgive us for this.; title: As New Testament priests you and I must learn to adopt the protocol set out by God. Protocol means we honour our coming to the Father and there must exist in us a reverential fear for Him. This fear for God must not escape us though it may beg too. The reverential fear of God must always be present; for if it is then forever shall we be shaken when sin knocks. Exodus 20.19-20; title: There are men and women who are on fire for God because they fear Him. Fear for God is often misunderstood; true fear of God is love for Him. God will use them that love Him to bring in the last day Harvest. When the disciples came to Jesus enquiring how they should pray, His reply was not that they just follow their hearts and pray whatever.’ But instead, He replied ‘after this manner pray...’ The manner He taught His disciples to pray is the manner all believers are called to pray. Jesus did not teach His disciples some ritual but instead it was a revelation for us, to see a way to the Father and to direct our hearts to His.; title: The  ‘Our Father Prayer’ as we know it has the most complete and firm utterances that children of God may bring into Heaven. It is given to us to return it to Him. The personal petitions contained in this prayer are very modest - daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from sins’ power. Yet they are what comprise all things that pertain to Life and Holiness. I pray that your eyes will be opened today to the guidelines of approach to this prayer.; title: We have been speaking about the manner set out in Gods’ word for us to approach Him. In other words there is a procedure for us to follow. The ‘Our Father’ unlocks for us the doors that will lead us to better praying. The truth is God is our Father and we must accept that we are His children and take hold of the special favour and privilege He has afforded us. This favour comes with a heavy price though and that price has been paid for us in Christ Jesus His Son.; title: We must know that the desires of God for us are important and we are unique in the eyes of the Lord. Gods’ purpose for us is special. He holds the key thereof. Psalm 139.16 - 17 ‘..........all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them.’; title: The ‘Our Father’ Prayer begins by giving the believer his identity - ‘OUR FATHER’. I recall the excitement in me when I first went to God in this manner. God allowing me to approach Him as my Father was an unforgettable first time experience. It helped me understand that I belonged to Him – ‘Our.’ I knew then that I was in the ‘right’ place and being there meant I was given a special privilege that all do not have. Remember we mentioned that no one may come to the Father except those that come to Him through His Son. John 14.6. The word ‘our’ truly overcomes the concept of God not being approachable. In other words it speaks to us about a God who is approachable and willing that we draw closer to Him.; title: The Old Testament prophets, men and women of God were never given this privilege. We read that in them approaching Him it was never by that exclusivity of Him as a Father. We are blessed to approach Him in such a manner and even more so, the One to whom we are coming to. Without having this position everything else changes. The word ‘Our’ gives us a new identity; it changes us from just a creation of earthly beings to sons and daughters. It gives us a sense that we are unique to Him and known by Him. Exclusive to us believers is this prayer for it is reserved only for the children of God. And by doing so gives us an identity and advantage that many don’t have. We are all Gods’ creation but we are not all sons and daughters of Him.  I pray that we will see this powerful truth of God and in Him being our Heavenly Father.; title: To have a Father in God describes our position with Him. It helps us understand and share with Him His eternal plans for us all. Jesus said in Matthew 7.11 ‘ if you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to them who ask Him?’ We must be unashamed as we approach His throne.  It begins with our desire and surrender followed by our manner of approach to Him. If we have this established in our hearts, it then sets the precedence for us to keep pressing on no matter what our circumstances may be. This which God offers us is a finished work, it is done! It is a finished work in Christ now in God in Heaven. Matthew 6.10 says ‘your Kingdom come, your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’; title: We must allow for God to examine our hearts and then for Him to mould and fashion it the Kingdom way. As our hearts are fashioned the peace of God begins to take precedence. It rises above all other understandings and also restricts them. Such a heart exists in peace with God. A heart fashioned by our Holy God is anxious for nothing. For to such a heart is made known the mansions He prepares before He returns to take them. The hidden life of prayer reveals and builds up the believer where he is and wants for nothing except what this Holy God has for him. Many are we who are far from this Godly ideal already in the mind of God.; title: 	 The Will of God; title: The Will of God for us was crushed even before birth through Adam’s sin. We are born sinful into a sinful world. We are doomed to perish and so death must continue its’ course. A New Life and only a new life may save us or else no one returns to His Maker. It is in this New Life that Will of God is revealed to us. And through His Son and only through His only begotten Son is this Life revealed.; title: No matter how much denial you may have with that – there is nothing you can do. This is the Will of God for you and me to enter into this everlasting life. It is here that the evil one has battled for ages to convince man otherwise. The books and lectures, the beliefs and thoughts are all in vain if you will not embrace God’s plan for you to return to Him. There is no side door, some short cut or even some road that man has establish of his own that will see you there. The trials, the pain and suffering, the hate and the animosity and the most wicked acts in the world of politics to gain power revolves around this very simple principle of accepting the Way of Christ to the Father. This is why the need for prayer.; title: Though there are things of God that will be established whether we pray or not (they are bound to happen) our duty is to pray even though. This says to God that we desire what He has in His mind for us. We pray for the return of the Lord Jesus which is bound to happen and we pray it so. We agree with God’s finished perfect work.; title: The Will of God on earth must be in our hearts and one greatly desired. God must see that we desire that which He has already desired, completed and worked out perfectly for us.; title: Our praying and the strength of our praying will determine how much of what God so desires, is really being accomplished here on earth. Matthew 6.10 says ‘your Kingdom come, your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’ Other Bible translations have it as ‘it is already done in Heaven.’ The fact that God has already prepared it means there is no more preparation. What we may call ‘new’ may really not be so, instead just a revelation of what God has already done. New is this Life though that He imparts to us who believe. We are born sons and daughters. We have a heritage, we have an inheritance and we are kings, gods of our God and children of our Father. God need alter none of what He has already prepared for us. His desires and plans for us are perfect to and they need no alteration. All we need to do is come into it.; title: A grieving none the less must be so as much of what has been done is stalled in His Heaven. We are affected by an enemy in his spiritual realm wanting us to have nothing to do with that which ours in God’s Heaven. And so there continues daily a spiritual war in the heavenlies, which the believer is very much a part of.  Yet if we pray without ceasing and together pray according to the Will of Him in Heaven much would be established here on earth. Heaven, the Heaven of God the Father has much more to offer than what earth may think she can receive.; title: Jesus made mention of this when His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. He made known to them that their Father in Heaven knew in advance what their needs were. It is Heavenly and they were to still pray. This means that the manner of prayer does not advise God nor makes Him aware of something He is not aware off. The manner of prayer must be seen as a request of what God is already waiting to give to us – something already in the mind of God. We must ‘Hallow’ His Name for in doing so we affirm who God really is. Read Matthew 6.; title: Let us briefly explain the meaning of the word ‘Will’ which is found in Matthew 6.10; title: ‘……… your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’; title: ‘Will ‘in the original Greek has two meanings: The first comes from the word; title: ‘Boulema’ - this means the eternal ‘Will’ of God. In other words it will be done whether we like it or not.; title: The return of Christ as mentioned, the gathering of the elect according to Matthew 24.30-31 and the judgement of each person according to what he has done here on earth in Revelation 20.13 is another.; title: ‘Thelema’ – is the other Greek word for the word ‘Will’ this is God’s desire for us and is dependent on us the believers and how we respond to Him. A father always means well and has a good gift for his child. The child has a choice, whether to accept it or not. Do you want what God has for you? Prayer makes known your heart to God. He knows everything about us for He is omniscient – All Knowing yet when we pray His Will; we show to Him how much we desire what He has for us. This is made clear in Jeremiah 29.12-13 ‘Then you will call upon me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’; title: The law of science teaches us that when an object meant to move in a straight line, is of by even a millimetre at its point of take - off, it will end up millions of miles away from its intended final destination. One can take a rocket as an example for if it is a millimetre of course then the trajectory of that rocket will result in it ending millions of miles away from its target. There is one Way to the Father and Jesus is that Way - the straight and narrow way. Man’s starting point is therefore with the Lord. The more we ignore our initial sins the further away we move from Jesus and as a result we never come near our Heavenly Father.; title: PRAYER REBUILDS THE WALLS THAT HOUSE THE TEMPLE OF GOD.; title: 6. BUILDING GOD A HOUSE; title: 	 How To Build God A Spiritual House; title: Isaiah 56.7 ‘Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.’; title: The burnt offerings and physical sacrifices have been taken away by our Lord Jesus and are now replaced by our spiritual sacrifices. Prayer and Worship is the spiritual sacrifice that now replaces the physical sacrifices once made with a deep reverence and fear for the Presence of God. Today our prayers and worship should be the fear and awe we have when we meet with God. This is the sacrifice we give to Him. It is priceless. Heaven awaits this precious gift. The prayers of Gods’ people are the incense that rises before the throne room of God. The strength of that fragrance is determined by the strength of our prayers.  They are the building blocks of the New Testament Church. This is the House of God, not one of brick and mortar, nor position and strength nor glory and numbers. Building the House of God is to enthrone Him. “’This is what the Lord says: ‘ Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me,……..”’ Jeremiah 9.23-24; title: The Anointing Oils; title: We read from scripture, the importance of bringing the right sacrifice and offerings before the Lord in Old Testament times. This included the rules and the regulations governing them. Also the preparation of the Anointing oils, the Incense and the making and preparation of the Old Testament Tabernacle and the Tent and all its furnishing materials. The ark itself and all its attachments and the specific details of the specific materials that had to be used also the dressmaking of the priestly garments itself. And through all of this we are taken into a dimension of God that only introduces us to something deeper namely God’s ways and requirements in the natural and yet just a symbol of the spiritual dimension of the real truth. This is how God would have it and by doing so we honour Him. This is Holiness as it was initiated by their earthly surrender. I would suggest you read ‘Holiness is Surrender’ a book I wrote including in it the vision the Lord gave to me many years ago.; title: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.’ Psalm 127.1; title: There is a Spiritual House that God looks out for today. It is one He is helping us build for Himself where He will one day reside. Important to note is that the spiritual sacrifices we make now are the building blocks of this great Spiritual House of God. The point is simply this, have we pierced together the pieces to grasp the understanding of how precise and flawless our spiritual sacrifices to Him ought to be. He knows our weakness in doing so, and yet we may still be found guilty. For in knowing we are mere man, He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us so. Our guilt starts not that we have built wrongly but that we have ignored the fellowship of the most important Person here on earth – His Holy Spirit.; title: The prayer life of the believer, true praise and sincere worship before Him is what makes up this spiritual sacrifice and so the House of God is built.; title: It begs the question of modern times. What House are we the present day Church busy with? And further begs to ask if our Spiritual House is in order? The Prophet was sent to King Hezekiah and he was told to put his house in order for his time to leave this earth had come. “….Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’”2 Kings 20.1; title: The time we have and the patience that God has with us are evidence that He waits for us to build Him the Spiritual House. He desires that we use the spiritual materials designed by Him and Him alone? The prayer of each believer is the building blocks of this house. The strength of our praying will determine the blocks being used. The intimacy we have with the Lord, the quality of time in His presence and our obedience to Him as He speaks is what gives strength to these the spiritual blocks of God’s Spiritual House This is the life of prayer.; title: Although our Lord dwells on High, He desires to dwell amongst His people. There is a House He has planned for Himself and His desires matter how this House is built. Our approach in building this House shall speak much about our hearts as believers and our relationship with Him our Maker.; title: If our prayer lives are in ruin then I am sad to say so is the House of God. We are to arise; we are to awaken to the call and to build. For herein lies our strength. God desires to dwell in a Spiritual House together with us forever and that task of building is given to us His sons and daughters. This should be of the utmost importance to us. Far and wide we should be sending out the call that only together and in Him can we build this House.; title: 	 A Deeper Walk With God; title: Our yearning for more of God starts with our decision to want more of Him. We move into the things of God not by ourselves. For it is impossible for us to do so. It is only when He sees this decision to be genuine that our journey of yearning begins. A yearning only He may place into our hearts and from there begins the deeper walk with Him. Our yearning must lead to obedience if not, all is in vain. The sooner the decision and the honesty with it, the sooner will be the yearning for Him. And not long then will our spiritual eyes be opened to see. Genesis 21.19; title: Prayer reveals the Heart of God. The Apostle Paul understood this well for in his letter to the Church in Ephesus wrote the following ‘.....and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’ Ephesians 3.17-19 Paul knew that the key to this understanding was prayer.; title: God has already established prayer for this revelation that many other duties of the church life will not reveal. There has since never been a substitute for prayer. And the aspects and characteristics of prayer are the most intimate and fundamental of who God is. The more time one spends in His presence the more one hungers for what He has. Like a body that craves food and nourishment so it is with the spirit in man when he is emptied of the things of the world.; title: The life of prayer reveals a Fathers’ Heart to be with His children and to give them life to the full. John 10.10 confirms this ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life; and have it the full.’; title: To pray and to know how to pray is the key to knowing the nature of God. Much is revealed through the life of prayer that most duties of the Church life will not reveal. This then is the hidden life in prayer. My prayer for you today is that you be found where your Maker reveals Himself to you. That place where God reveals Himself to us is in the life of prayer. It is where He hides Himself only to be more intimate with us.; title: Prayer reveals who God is and by knowing who He is we are then able to know the provisions already set aside for us.  A desire to know God helps us know who Jehovah Jireh really is. God’s work is a finished one and therefore the provision for any earthly manifestation of the spiritual has already been provided for.; title: The Prophet Abraham knew so, for in knowing his God he was able to say to his servants ‘…Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you’ Genesis 22.5.; title: How is it that a man is asked to sacrifice his only son, his only heir the only seed as to prophecy ‘……and I will multiply you greatly.’ Genesis 17.2 Abraham knew in Isaac that his seed shall multiply. So how does one respond when it seems that the blessing promised seems suddenly about to be taken away? We respond as this man Abraham did - ‘God Himself will provide.’ I can only imagine for a while as my son Jesse and I are walking up this mountain….. ‘Dad what’s happening, I see we have the coal and the wood but I think we have forgotten the sacrifice below, don’t you’? How’s that for me if I were walking up one those mountains in the land of Moriah?; title: Genesis 22.8 ‘“Abraham answered his son ‘God Himself will provide one’ and the two of them walked on together.’”; title: The revelation of God is the revelation of who He His, His Nature, Character and what He has already done. The more we welcome in our Him our presence, the more we are in His and more intimate we grow with Him. Abraham’s years in the desert created an intimate relationship that He had with God. The intimacy we have with God can be seen in the natural scene of things. This is dependable on the growth we are having in Him.; title: Walking in the Spirit can be seen and reflected in our behaviour towards others. Intimacy deepens as long as our need for Him never stalls. And our responses to the world and its affairs are a sure gauge He may use for that. Religion has copied much of the truth and made it her own and therefore more is our need to be intimate with the Lord.; title: We must be familiar with His ways so that we automatically drawn to Him like a magnet. The more time we spend with Him personally, the more we come to know who He is. In us coming to know who God is we come to know ourselves. This means we come to know who we really are, we His spiritual beings here on earth.; title: Our opinionated lives may become a constant struggle to be intimate with God. It requires us being patient and long suffering. This struggle exists only because we struggle in belonging. We belong to Christ Jesus and in belonging our sinful natures must be crucified with its passions and desires. Galatians 5.22-25. This deep walk with God comes with a price and we must be willing to lay down our lives for it. And when we do so, we then initiate a life with Him in the Spirit. But wait, because of His grace and Him knowing our hearts desires, just the sincere thought of wanting too, we are then taken hold by Him helped along.  Is this not then work of His Holy Spirit where we are willing to lay down this life for His? We grieve as He would, weep as He does and we offer comfort to those in need in divine manners and divine utterance. We comfort not as the world nor would religion do. We soon walk the first mile and then an extra without being told. We see what God has seen and do so with Him for Him. We give away our cloak to create warmth and comfort before being asked to, for our spiritual eyes are now opened to the need that our Saviour has seen. And we are forgiven even though we never knew we had offended.  The smitten come to be smitten on their cheeks, though we never knew they have repeatedly been smiting ours. God has spoken and they must now obey. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.; title: Soon they want to go where we are going; live where we live and serve Him whom we serving. “And in those days seven women shall take hold of one man saying, ‘We will, eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach ’”Isaiah 4.1; title: 	 Waiting on God; title: What does it mean to wait upon God? We read in Isaiah.40.31 ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’; title: Waiting upon God is not that we remain passive. To wait upon God in His Kingdom can never accommodate any passivity as there is already too much resistance to what God has for His Kingdom people. Resistance that we are faced with and continual battles in the spirit surely leave no room for passivity of any kind. To wait upon God is to pray, for it tests the passion for that which we are asking God for. It will involve a level of praying we never knew before.; title: It will involve the approval of God and His purpose with much seeking. It is to enquire from Him the Will of Him who knows better and has our best interest at heart all times. It demands a weakness and not some power as the world waits on, for its greatest manifestation is in our weakness. ‘…. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness………For when I am weak, then I am strong’ 2 Corinthians 12.9 10.; title: Whilst we wait on God let us be careful not to be presumptuous or rash nor act when we are not called to. We may act quickly and die soon.; title: Opinions of the world are simply that of natural man and will forever attempt to make sense of God through natural means. Bound by the limited dimensions by which we on earth exists, we soon forget and try to explain God away. Man recognises not his inability to see around the nearest corner which this in itself limits him. God though is able to see around every corner. The man without the Spirit (The Holy Spirit) cannot make sense of what God is doing and he will forever see it as foolish. He laughs and scorns at it and at him who receives it unknown to him that, which he mocks at is spiritually discerned.; title: 1 Corinthians 2.14; title: The tragedy of all of this is when the heart of man refuses and its door just closes to be shown that which is wrong. Even greater is the tragedy when God knows such a man and then leaves him to believe he is correct. His is a permanent death, beyond recovery only helped along by others who agree with his view. And all are helped along by this evil force as they have been willing to participate. Genesis 3.1; title: We must be careful not be drawn away from God whilst waiting for Him. One may become most vulnerable during this time. Most opportunities make their way to the spiritual door of our heart then. We become impatient and reckless whilst waiting for God to speak and soon taking on tasks we were never meant to. King Saul lost all that God would have given him. He to, became anxious refusing to wait and instead to do. The prophet Samuel grieved and cried out to God all night but God’s Word was established on the matter. 1Samuel15. 11-12. We to will feel the grieving of the Lord as we discussed earlier, and we too will cry out as the prophet, for we too feel the heartbeat of God for His people. Ideas, plans, great and small shall come our way yet God’s timing is the key as we wait. In prayer God helps us to know His timing on the matter.  Adam could have waited for God, for in the cool of the day He walked in the garden with him. Genesis.3.8 Adam’s Sabbath rest came to an end when he waited not and so begun his work of toil and suffering, for him and dying generations to come.; title: It is times like this that the false prophet makes his appearance, with a ‘familiar’ voice and an appropriate plan in place for the struggles facing us. He shall rise with much excitement and much convincing. The discernment of the Lord’s voice and the measure thereof will determine whether we are swept away or we are saved. This is of great importance as many voices echo through the corridor of life all insisting ‘ours is the door the please come in!’; title: Over the years many answers have come to me through a life in prayer yet having said so, this involved much waiting on Him. We must be able to give God enough time to answer us for it will show our confidence in Him and our love for Him.  In so doing we reveal to Him our willingness have His Way in our lives. Are we willing to wait for Him?  Waiting involves much patience. In patience there must be much praise for in praise we also seek. We seek out for that which we have been guided to ask for. It shall involve much watching like a father who looks out for the return of a son. He peers in the distance daily with much hope that his son who went away may come back alive and safe. The hope that is instilled him is what causes him to trust. For he knows the heart of his son, he knows his road will one day come to an end, but prays he will then turn back. For that to happen, the son must know his father and what still awaits him on his return. (Read the story of the prodigal son.); title: We may get up each morning to say: ‘surely this is it; I am done and cannot take this any longer.’ Yet have you not seen how today arrived and another passes and hope still continues in us. Where can it come from, but God? We may have a time yet God has another on His Spiritual calendar. We though still continue for we know what most do not - ‘they that know the name of the Lord will put their trust in Him’ and like the Psalmist we to have come to know that the Lord will not forsake them that seek Him. And if our spiritual eyes are opened we will see the road that is taking us there. And so these trials become the markers on this journey to where God is taking us to.; title: Like Paul the Apostle for the church we to then pray ‘Lord please open the eyes of our heart’ Ephesians 1.18; title: Wait for the Lord and keep to His way. The promise is that you will be exalted to inherit the land…… Psalm37.34; title: Abandon not what you are doing; continue with the last thing as you were as you wait upon the Lord. When God comes, you will know for ‘this it’. To have arrived at such a place would have taken much prayer and much seeking after God.; title: Many times, there is an inner voice that repeatedly asks the question ‘what are you doing here?’ Full of excuses and often blaming God, like prophets and kings before, we to sometimes become so disappointed at what we see. Tired and fearful we have hitched up our garments and are ready to run. We are ready to escape from all of this. We have grown tired, many fearing of that which is to come. Has God not seen our zealousness in a torn society we may ask, and am I the only one left behind to see all of this?; title: I am reminded that there is a vision that God gives to each one of us, however unique it may be. Yet many have wandered around and quietly slipped away from that original vision. And though we may not have our eyes fixed on it yet, God never loses sight of it though. We may many times because of trial and suffering attempt to steer God’s focus away from it or onto some other vision but He would have none of it.; title: 	 Fasting and Praying; title: The continuous infilling of the Holy Spirit must be the same for the believer as food is to the natural body.; title: A mirror reflects the inverted image of natural man’s face which he believes without doubt. Greater though is the reflection that the Spirit of God gives to us who are in Christ. The mirror and the dimension that man exists in, limits him to what he may see. It shows only an outside inverted image of oneself, whilst the Lord shows to us the outside and reveals that which is within.; title: There must be a dynamic link when man deprives his body of food. For in time such depravation brings him into another dimension which must first pass through some corridors of death. When a believer abstains so that he may have more of God, there is something unique about it. It helps him draw closer to the Lord and through that measure of intimacy overcomes some aspect of death whilst here on earth. There is fresh manna from the Lord each day and it is served by His Holy Spirit each new day. The more he is starved of the natural, the more is man able to empty himself of it. The spiritual infilling from God fills that emptiness and an emptiness must exist for that infilling to take place. Like the laws of the natural – a filled cup cannot be refilled unless emptied, so it is with the things of God. Religion empties man of himself only to fill him again full of Himself and the world. The believer however is emptied to be filled with His Holy Spirit – In Christ. Man must therefore prepare himself like an empty cup so that he may have an infilling of His Spirit – all the time. This must be just as daily natural food is to man or else he succumbs to death. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is not meant for selfish gain but instead for others. Therefore it is daily. We must empty what has been given and receive again for today. The office of the prophet, pastor, evangelist and teacher are so because it is God’s intent that His Body be filled.; title: The shepherds are meant to receive this infilling so that the sheep may be nourished. As they the sheep have received so are they able to pour the same onto a dying world. It is a simple process that then brings the dying to life. The more we are filled, the more others will be blessed. That is the purpose of the infilling. Acts2 The more we bless others the emptier the vessel becomes and ready to be filled again. Oil into a full vessel cannot be contained any longer unless there is another empty vessel. The anointing of the one must be poured into the next ready vessel only for it to be spiritually filled again. The request by the widow of the late prophet for more jars to be filled with oil was met with the reply, ‘that was the last one’….. And the olive oil stopped flowing. 2Kings4.6; title: Interesting to note is that widow was asked by the prophet to close the door behind her as she went about the task of filling the empty jars. 2Kings 4.4 ‘Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.’; title: We must learn to close the door of our hearts to the enticing outside world for the anointing to flow through us. When there are no more vessels, there is no more oil. When there is no more surrendered and emptied hearts then there is no more oil – no more anointing.; title: Jesus reminded them that His food was to do the Will of His Father in Heaven. As long as He emptied Himself, the more He was given. As long as there were willing vessels, He continually emptied Himself of what the Father had given to Him onto them. This led to the ultimate culmination of Him giving His Life for them and the rest of the world.; title: The woman with the issue of the blood, suffered for many years. The crowd on that day, made it impossible for her to receive from Him. She knew something though – she must be a willing vessel and as long as she could touch Jesus, she would be able to draw from Him. Her touching the Master emptied Him of that which was ready to be emptied. She reached out in an extra ordinary way for she knew that this man had the anointing. She also knew that every part of Him did.  Wise and filled with faith she went for that part which she assumed would remain a secret and where none would see. To the floor and on her knees she bent whilst all the drama unfolded a metre above. And filled she became just by a touch to the hem of His garment. Any wonder why Jesus responded in the way He did. He knew someone had just drawn from Him - this power now for their own. ‘…someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.’ Luke 8.46; title: All through the Lord’s life here on earth, we see how important it was that He be filled. He went away so many times to be filled so that He may continue in the Will of His Father. Praying without ceasing was His way for Him to being constantly filled and in so doing being able to pour away.; title: Dear Lord, help us this day to be filled, that we too may pour away into the lives of others. Give us the strength to come without ceasing, to watch without ceasing and to pray without ceasing.; title: 	Be Mindful of Others in Prayer; title: Are we mindful of others in our prayers and are others mindful of us in their prayers? To be mindful of another in prayer may be reaped with great reward. We may not pray because it is so, yet just a passion in us nevertheless brings with it reward. For God is no debtor to any man.  We must be used of the Lord to bring in the lost because like Him we love them. The love for souls will place a burden on the believer. Burdens are meant to be brought before God and this completes the prayer life of the believer. God places a burden on us willing vessels and our job is to give it back to Him.; title: The burdens given by the Lord are light and He is the yoke that carries them.; title: The burden for others should lead us to intercede for them. This is what a prayer filled life ought to be like. We pray without ceasing, for there is much to be revealed from the heart of God. And all of this amidst a fierce spiritual war against us by the enemy. For as we begin this intimate journey with our Lord we begin to see His burden and pain for others. In the natural we are unable to do so, yet through His Holy Spirit in us we are given this insight. His intimacy with us reveals the burdens He carries for others.; title: The Apostle Paul had many great events taking place during his ministry; first among many was his amazing conversion on the road to Damascus led by his remarkable revelation of the spiritual including Christ's life, His death and resurrection. He was caught into a different dimension and much was revealed to him than any other human being after Christ, yet Paul knew that he must continue to pray without ceasing none the less. Prayers by others for Paul were equally important to him and he relied much on them.; title: In 1 Thessalonians 5.25 we see that Paul was never ashamed to solicit prayers for himself nor was he reluctant to pray for others.; title: ‘I beseech you……….that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me’ Rom.15:30; title: To know that there is purpose for all our lives is just the beginning of knowing that there exists for us and in us the means for this anointed purpose filled life. A life in prayer, walking in the Spirit and being as close to Him as He would have us, is what reveals His purpose for our lives and for others. To bring glory to God is to pray God’s plans and His desires into existence for others and ourselves. We must love what God loves, we must love what He desires, and we must hope and pray for what He so desires for others. This is Body ministry. We must pray for them because we love God and want Him to have what He so desires for them. Only by love can we do so and without God this is impossible. He is God and we are His Body in ministry as we obey. Much shall be revealed that we may bring before Him in our prayers. His heart is forever burdened for people and we are the vessels that carry that burden for Him here on earth.  God does not reveal to us anything just so that we may build a library of information.; title: To have a heart after God is to have a heart after His people. Having a heart after His people will cost us our time, rest and the means we have for our own existence. This is what intercession is all about. You will soon realize that a prayerful life is a life spent on behalf of others because of God’s love for them and His mercy that they repent.; title: A life of prayer begins to see the heart of God for others. Even when there is nothing specific, just bringing them to Him in prayer opens a door of trust that God will have with you. If we pray for loved ones in general, God will see our hearts and make known to us the burden that He carries for them. The burdens of God are not just dropped from Heaven for any to receive, but are carefully placed in the believer who is found praying and whose heart is willing to carry such burdens.; title: The first sign of a burden for another must be immediately taken back to God and not man. Any burden if taken to man first, will lead to disaster. Though man may like to portray himself as god, yet he has no answer and soon one will see. With God and Him alone lies the perfect answer. When we take our burdens first to man we become accustomed to it eventually setting him up as our god. It may also be said that man sets himself as a god because he has the confidence that man gives to him to knowing it all. He does so by his wisdom, his power and his means which is his wealth. We then deliberately or unknowingly never go to God and instead know not what it is to seek after Him.; title: There must be no excuse to do nothing about what God has burdened us with. We are called to pray and may God help us at that task ahead. We must show to those who come that we rely on God for His answers and that He knows best. Every situation, circumstance and person is unique to God and therefore best managed by God.; title: 	 Corporate Prayer; title: The Church gathering together to pray will move the mountains before them. The Church is the mightiest force for God on earth as she is led by His Holy Spirit. Sadly though, had she known this, there would be more praying here on earth. Nothing is stronger than the Anointing of God waiting to be poured onto the Body of Christ. There are many things to be prayed for and the Church coming together corporately helps tremendously. Man may cover much in praying alone, yet he covers only so much for himself. The Church that faithfully prays for her ruling government, kingdoms and social affairs will break many yokes and see the brokenness of them. These are of the evil one that has prevented people to move on, trapping and confining them to only so much and no more.; title: We continue to pray, drawing closer to God each day. As His Spirit is revived in us, we are anointed to preach the Good News to the poor, we are sent to bind up the broken hearted and set the captives free and remind the people that He is on His way very soon. With this message the despaired and lonely can rejoice having hope, giving praise to Him for not too long now and there will be no more suffering, no more pain. For now though it is the anointing of God that breaks that yoke.; title: Corporate praying is meant to be just that – Corporate. The less individualism that shall exists in our corporate praying, the more we shall see the answers that God has for us.; title: His desires for us are already completed in Him for us to be found in our Spirit led prayers. This brings us in tune with Him to pray for government, cities and their leaders.; title: Let’s read what Paul lead by the Spirit wrote to Timothy about this.; title: 1 Timothy 2 .1-3 ‘I exhort you therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For such praying is good and right and pleasing and acceptable to God our saviour.’; title: I have been pressing on this whole need for our personal prayer lives to be in order with God. We have mentioned that the strength of our praying in the closet will give strength to our praying corporately. The reason to this is that when we are sincere in the closet we are then led by the Lord to understand and fulfil our duty in the Body.; title: There is an intimacy with God first whereby we then are able overcome, become strengthened and built as individuals. God waits for this and then out we come. The more strengthened we are in the closet the more efficient we become to work within the Body of Christ.; title: Now here in lies an important principle at hand - The church has a whole overcomes the world. The whole is always greater than any individual part. In simple terms this means that two are stronger than just one and even stronger is three. A hundred strong men may easily pull a ship back to shore yet give that a try with ten weak men and see!  Spiritual warfare is the task of the Church as a whole. When we are found standing together, the results are seen far more easily, which is the victory we already have in Christ. Paul uses the analogy of a soldier’s armour about to go into battle and corporately as we put on this armour we are a force none can penetrate.. The armour of God has to do with many so is the ‘Our Father’ Prayer – Our Father. It is the onus of the individual believer to get himself ready to be part of that war that rages in the heavenlies. We may abstain with many frivolous reasons but we may also die very quickly. We may be very zealous and also die quickly if we refuse to move corporately. The battle to stand and face up with God on our side is not a choice but essential in the life of every believer.  Though we may be few in the restricted earthly dimension, we really though are many in the dimension of His Spirit. The prophet Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes be opened to see. For full upon the hills were horses and chariots of fire. And so he did and surely feared no more. 2 Kings 6.17; title: Today there’s an army of God that also stands with us that cannot be numbered. Our personal praying has a large part to play in this. We are more effective for the Kingdom when we have put on the armour of God as a whole. Ephesians 6.11 is a call to the Church to put on the full armour of God corporately.; title: There is much strength in unity of the Body and the Lord has by no means forsaken them, as He remains the Head. To discard this Body is to have discarded the Head which is Christ. This he cannot do and so a strategy to simply disarm and suffer its parts is the enemy’s goal. The more branches of the Divine Vine he is able to make suffer the more pain and doubt he is able to create each day. God though has not called us to be alone in this walk. It is important that we understand how important the prayer ministry of the Church really is. The testament must be a corporate one, not only stressing personal victory. The personal victory of each saint should really be as a result of all members praying. The purpose of God here is a corporate Christ. Again The Lords’ Prayer begins with ‘Our Father.’  The Church of God must at all-times display to the world the spiritual Heaven that the world knows none of. God has given no one else on earth but the Church that privilege to show forth who He really is that includes His works and His Majesty.; title: Prayer helps the church to manifest God’s Heaven here on earth. The individual is to understand this basic truth about prayer. The strength of one’s personal prayer life helps the Church to bring forth the Christ Church here on earth. The strength and unity of those praying on earth is proportionate to that which awaits us from Heaven. The more powerful and unified our corporate praying, the more of Heaven shall we see displayed here on earth.  ‘As it is done in Heaven so shall it be done on earth’ Matthew 6.1….; title: 7.	Prayer and Dreams; title: 	 God and Dreams; title: ‘..Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams’ Genesis 40.8; title: Ever ask yourself why we dream. God is the creator of this ideal and being so dreams must have a reason. Its purpose must be significant to His relationship with us. It is believed that we all dream and very clearly in the bible we can see that people dreamed. In fact research has discovered that a person may dream an average of two hours a night.  In Hebrew the meaning to dream is to bind firmly. God intends to bind firmly with us what He may have started in the natural and at the same time the evil one wants to do the same. We therefore have good, bad, fearful and frightening dreams.; title: Dreams from the Lord are spiritual experiences allowing us to be deeply rooted in the things of God. We must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and ask the Lord to help us. In Genesis 15 we see how God initiates His covenant with Abraham. It starts with the natural and then He puts him in a deep sleep and then concludes covenant with him. God may be pleased with our commitment and settles the matter with us in our dreams. Abraham cut a covenant with God in the natural and God confirmed it in the supernatural. Dreams may encourage, comfort us and warn us to continue in spite of. They allow a way for God to speak to us and importantly though allow for Him to confirm and establish things with us. They are God’s way of getting our attention and completing what He may have begun in the natural. Job33.14-18 ‘For God does speak - now one way, now another – though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn from wrong doings and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.’ Dreams are for most part a true reflection of our thoughts. God may use a dream to tell us what is deeply hidden in our hearts. Our dream may be showing us something that God wants to establish with us in the supernatural. With our eyes we see and with our ears we hear but with our hearts we understand and turn. Matthew 13.15. In our dreams we cannot lie to ourselves because it reveals a true reflection of our hearts. In the natural we may assume a thought to be of no significance, yet in a dream it would reveal a covetous or lustful spirit that is hiding within us. Dreams reveal the spirit man in us. This is the Lord revealing something to us and prayer allows for us to confess it before Him in prayer. Prayer is God revealing to us, what He already knows which He then initiates and shows to us in our dream. We receive the substance of the dream and to Him we go.; title: It is important that we write down the facts or substance of the dreams so that we may go to Him with it as he gives us discernment. Remembering the substance of a dream helps us understand what God may be saying to us. In Daniel 7.13 we see that Daniel wrote down the substance of the dream.  Some dreams may take years to be fulfilled. We may have dreams that we may not have much detail, just a promise or plan. Yet when the actual event arises we remember that God was making us aware or warning us of something about to take place. In times like this we must bring those dreams to the Lord and leave it there. In Genesis 37 we read that Joseph dreamed much in his father Jacob’s house. Many years after him being sold by his brothers, falsely accused, imprisoned and then made to rule over the land does he remember those dreams and the fulfillment of them .Genesis 42.9; title: Dreams initiated from the Lord are not meant to deceive us unless the enemy has stepped in, but indicate the true feeling in our hearts at the time. It relates truly our decision and the choices we would have made in the reality of things. We may pretend in the natural but a true reflection is given in the spirit when God is busy with us. Even though we may try to impress others, it holds no weight when our true conscience is revealed through our dreams. Our dreams are a true reflection of how our hearts would respond in a given situation.; title: 	The Subject of our Dreams; title: I have a friend who dreams as soon as lays his head to rest. Yet if he takes his medication at night he never dreams. We can see how our health can be related to our dreams. I have another friend who is awoken in the middle of his sleep because of the battles that he has to go through in his dreams. When we are unusually awakened at night after a normal sleep we must immediately try to remember as much as we can of our dreams for two reasons. That we are able to cancel the plans of the evil one or to receive and confirm the ones sent from God. Remember the enemy wants us to forget so that there is no binding with God what He wants to with us.; title: Ever notice how you battle to remember the rest of the dream as you gain consciousness. You may even want to go back to sleep just to continue the feeling in the dream yet it seems impossible. It seems as if someone is snatching it away. We may dream much at night but just do not remember any of it by the time we get up. The enemy tries his utmost to make sure we forget our dreams. He gets us to forget our God initiated dreams because it may be a warning, a blessing or a spiritual covenant that God wants to establish with us. On the other hand we are forgetful because he does not want us to know of the covenants he may have made with us during the course of the night. If we knew what they were, we may cancel them before they materialized in the natural. Many times in our dreams we may find ourselves in evil and frightening circumstances. By not bringing it to the Lord and cancel them, we actually give the enemy legal ground to bring to pass what he began in the spirit world through the dream. If we knew the truth and how we should handle our dreams then the enemy would have less legal ground to enter and steal from us. Discernment is of utmost importance.; title: 	Dreams and Spiritual Warfare; title: Ever noticed how tired we are when we arise sometimes. Many put it down to over sleeping. Well ever wondered why you overslept in the first place? This is because we have actually gone through deep spiritual battles during the night. And the first thing the enemy does is to get you to forget your dreams. Many of us will have some unction though of a battle of some sort. Sometimes we miss out on appointments and relevant issues for the day ahead because we over slept and never put it down to the battles we may have had at night in the spirit.; title: For many though our dreams have opened a door for the evil one to have his way instead. Our wrong motives and decisions in dreams allows him to confirm is evil covenant with us. By our actions in our dreams we open the door and give him legal rights to whatever he may want.  . The enemy however does the same and many of us are ignorant of this. Dreams and prayer are very closely related. In fact without prayer the enemy would be able to establish and confirm with us whatever he wished. This happens all the time though but we are ignorant of this. Prayer helps us to cancel any covenant that we made or accepted in our dreams. The evil one appears to us through our dreams and unknown to us disguises and woes us away. We arise only to discover that we have had a bad dream and so we leave it at that. Little do we realize that through the dream we may have just given him the authority he may have been looking for. The Holy Spirit has been given to each believer to help us in this regard. Our dreams are unique in the sense that the covenant that God establishes with each individual may come with a related event that took place in the natural.; title: 	Dreams and Warnings; title: In Genesis 20 God appears to Abimelech in a dream saying to him ‘……. You are indeed a dead man because of the woman you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.’ Verse 3.  Abimelech then pleaded with God for he had not known what he had done and God accepted his plea. God knew he was ignorant of and therefore did not allow him to touch Sarah. Abimelech then arose early in the morning with much fear and told all of this in the hearing of his men and then restored Sarah to Abraham.; title: God may also warn us in our dreams of impending dangers. In Matthew 2.13 we see how an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream warning him of danger as King Herod was to seek Jesus the Child in order to destroy Him. Joseph heeded the warning and took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt.  In Matthew 2.19 we see an angel again appearing to Joseph instructing him to go back to the land of Israel as those who sought the young Child‘s life was now dead. We can see from this passage of scriptures that Joseph clearly heeded to the angel’s message in a dream. The Lord also reveals to us impending danger coming towards others only because we may pray for them and warn them. If we are obedient to stand in the gap for others then the Lord will reveal to us so.; title: God also spoke in Old Testament times to the prophets and their duty was to interpret correctly what God was saying. They could not just rely on their gifting but on their relationship with the Lord. In 1 Samuel 28.15 King Saul reminds us that God had forsaken him and no longer spoke to him by dreams. True prophets were surely men and women who spoke to God all the time. Numbers 12.6 ‘……When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.’; title: People interpretation; title: The Church today is lacking for correct interpretations of dreams. Evidence of this is because we are not walking in the Spirit of God. It was never meant for man to interpret all our dreams even though God allows us to move and operate as the Body of Christ. We however have made this into a ministry and a special gifting reserved to certain people only. This is wrong! All believers have the Holy Spirit to help them interpret their dreams. It is important that we allow the Holy Spirit to help us interpret our dreams as they are relative to what we ourselves have experienced. Others may be used by the Lord to confirm what God has already spoken to us. Ever noticed how God may use an experience in our dreams that we may had during the course of the day to speak to us. And many of us immediately discard such dreams because the message is given through a situation or circumstance related to our experience during the day. We must be very careful here because God will speak to us using situations and experiences that are personal and familiar only to us. The purpose of this chapter is that we ask the Lord to reveal to us the meaning of our dreams and not by mistake run to man. For this we need to be prayerful. Because our purpose with God is unique, He uses unique experiences to relate to us in our dream. Therefore any given person, object or situation in a dream cannot be categorized as common to all. For a person to interpret a dream he must have the leading of the Holy Spirit. Many of us rely on man to interpret our dreams based just on the substance of the dream and this is wrong. Two people may have the same warning from the Lord yet the one experience the substance of the dream let say through his occupation as a farmer, his work on his farm, his animals and a measure of his land. The other being a banker may experience the substance of the dream whilst him transacting with people in a banking environment and absolutely nothing to do with a farm. These may be totally different substances yet the same message. If we had to use just the substance of each dream we would then arrive at a wrong conclusion. Joseph interpreted dreams because God gave him the interpretation.; title: The bible tells us that God hates those who prophesy false dreams. In Jeremiah 23 we see how God has heard of the prophets and their false interpretation of the dreams.  The result was that they were prophesying lies to the people in the Name of the Lord. False interpretations are deceits that come from the heart of the false prophets. And when a dream is falsely interpreted it is to draw one away from the Lord and to forget His Name as we see in verse 27. We see that the people want their dreams interpreted the way their hearts desire.  God sees their deceiving hearts though they inquire using the Name of the Lord. ‘‘So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying ‘what is the oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them ‘What oracle?’..... And as for the prophet, and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ I will even punish that man and his house.”’ Jeremiah 23.33-34 ‘; title: The Lord wants our words to be the oracle that is sent from Him. In other words we must be accountable for what we ourselves hear from God. This is why prayer is so important. For in prayer God reveals to us what He may be saying. ‘And the oracle of the Lord you shall mention no more. For every man’s word will be his own oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.’ Jeremiah 23.36; title: When we pray we ask God to show us what our dreams mean. We may go to man only if we know that he will first seek the Lord like Joseph, Daniel and other prophets of old did. Daniel the Prophet understood dreams of all kinds. Daniel 1.17 The wise men of the land relied on the king giving them the substance of the dream so that they could give him a common interpretation. Daniel however relied on the Lord for the substance and the meaning.  The king had established that these wise men were speaking falsely until now and he had them all killed. Daniel blessed the God of Heaven, having had the substance of the dream and its revelation. Having heard Daniel make known the dream and correctly interpret it, the king then worshipped God. He answered ‘Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.’ Daniel 3.47 Daniel went to God first and enquired from Him. The Prophet Daniel was then promoted while all the false prophets were killed.; title: The enemy has used our dreams to make us wander like sheep oppressed because we do not know any better. When we go to man first instead to God we then open up doors for man to interpret them wrongly. We will also be punished knowing full well that we have with us the Holy Spirit to guide, teach and comfort us.; title: Many people interpret wrongly only to give a word that comforts the itching ears of the people. And so they are given comfort in vain. ‘……..they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.’ Zechariah 10.2; title: Dreams and attacks at midnight.; title: It is believed that during the enemy is most prevalent during the hours of 11 and 3am and is when he and his demons are most spiritual active. The enemy is very prevalent and is most prone to release his attacks on God’s people during the night. Many intercessors are known to arise at midnight and pray. Many of the attacks on our lives are started by the demonic forces while we are asleep. Remember again that the arrows of the evil one are first launched at us when we are most vulnerable. If you are being called to pray at midnight then I suggest you respond and work out your sleep schedule as such.; title: God allows us to see these attacks in the midnight hour and it is ours to cancel. Prayer is important during this time of the night but what we are discussing here those battles and revelations known to us in dreams. ‘You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks by darkness…….’ Psalm 91.5-6; title: Jesus said that it is during the night while men slept that the enemy comes to sows tares among the good seed sown. The tares are the bad seed the enemy plants whilst we are asleep. Tares were very common in Palestine and looked very much like wheat. It was best distinguished after it had sprouted with the rest of the good harvest. Therefore the owner of the field did want his crop destroyed by mistake. God has given us His Holy Spirit today and we are able to distinguish the tares from the good wheat. We are therefore able to gather the tares and burn them in the spiritual realm before they take route. Matthew 13. 24- 30 and Matthew 13. 37 -43; title: 8. Prayer and Work; title: 	 Prayer before Works; title: The great controversy of work and prayer continues. They are not meant to be separated but understood. If you work much, it justifies not the prayer life. Yet if you pray much, you are led to work as the Lord leads. Many would rather be found in the act of working than praying. This surely cannot be according to Gods’ Will. Work and then prayer can be disastrous for any Christian. The duty of more works gives no room for prayer. A man who prays much is a man who works much and one who works well. Prayer and work cannot be separated and having first heard from God a man now understands how to perform the work. He understands better when to do something and even why something it must be done. Prayer is to first hear from God. Even when one knows not why something is done, he is given hope that builds on his faith to continue nevertheless. He does become more acquainted with the Lord’s voice as he moves on and this settles it for him. A lazy man cannot pray well for prayer itself involves much work. Just as a lazy man cannot be called to battle or else he will soon die.; title: Works of the flesh may become our greatest hindrance to us hearing from God. It may hinder us with evidence in our pride and giving no time for God.; title: Work and laziness are worlds apart. A man who prays cannot be lazy. So it is that a lazy man cannot pray. The lazy are never willing to be used of God, especially not when they are asleep. Prayer not only works well for he that prays well but is part of the work that completes Gods’ purpose for Him here on earth. Because prayer and work cannot be separated, it must run concurrently at all times. Work must never precede prayer. Rather no work than having no prayer. A man who prays well will work well for prayer helps him know his work well. Prayer will reveal the work and in prayer he is guided through his work. Prayer is all encompassing and leaves no area in our lives from which it cannot enter nor leave. There is no mountain that prayer may not climb nor depth where it may not be found.; title: Prayer motivates a man to work and to labour well at it. All men are motivated by something but a man, who prays first, is inspired to labour in the manner and way God would have him too. Prayer before work invites God to lead man in all of his efforts or else his prayer is incomplete. The results and the fruit of such works may not be measured on the same scale as set up by the world system. For the man who prays well, works according to the Divine system already set up in God’s Kingdom. He chooses to please God first and not man and the results and fruit thereof are of a Divine nature seen in a Divine way. The works of the flesh have limited results, limited fruit and limited ways therefore is so easily explained away. The works led by the Spirit have no limitation as they yield fruit for good and generations to come.; title: Of all work, the one of prayer must be the greatest. It requires time, passion and much perseverance and comes with the greatest of rewards. The fruit of one’s praying may perhaps take a life time and beyond to be evident as it takes up more time and more faith than any other work. The very fact that the results are not always immediate is in itself proof of the enormous levels of passion, consistency and persistence one ought to have when praying. The world system never demands a level as high this as it simply calls for man to work alongside man who is also limited. Prayer on the other hand requires man to come alongside his God. As we do so He brings us alongside other men and together in harmony we work and rejoice. All that man has set up is within the dimensions of the limited world he lives in. It is within a system that sees to itself first and rewards self-first. And so he eats, he sleeps and works within that restricted system as we have mentioned before. Yet as soon as we begin to pray we escape into another dimension. It is not restricted, there is flow and the deeper we go the smoother is our sailing. And it is then that we see that God has not created us to be an island on our own.; title: 2 Cor.1.11 ‘On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.’ Helping will involve participation and flowing with what has already begun as in the case of Paul and his ministry. His request for help in praying could not be to one who was found sluggish in his affairs and in his praying. And so it is that he who prays much is most likely the one working well. Prayer is work and it is work that must be done with much fervour, feeling and great passion. The life of prayer is much work for those who are diligent and obedient to the call to pray. There is much to be revealed through a life hidden in prayer. Pray first!; title: Let us remind ourselves though that this good work can never save any man. Our salvation and grace is found in what Christ has already done for us at the Cross and by our faith we are saved.; title: As mentioned, prayer and work may not be separated though on any ordinary day, it may seem that the Kingdom of God requires the least amount of work. This is definitely not so, for if we are faithful to the works of God, there is much work for us to do. For even in our waiting is there much work. We pray, we watch, we continually seek out for that which we have asked God and again continue to pray without ceasing. Waiting comes with much perseverance and trials. The truth is that our waiting is the most difficult work for it has no time limit of perseverance until God answers us. It is therefore impossible to wait without God helping us to wait. We wait in Christ; we wait with His help. When we have found our purpose according to His Will then we have found much to work for. We may have the titles yet still not found its purpose.; title: Shepherds of sheep are busy men when their true purpose is found. Even praying for the sheep is work, much work. David was the busiest of all his brothers on the day the Prophet showed up. His tasks at hand caused a great Prophet like Samuel to wait until he came in from the fields. A King was about to enter from that field and yet so for few would know. All that passed by the prophet Samuel were far from their work. David arrived last having been found working with his sheep and soon a king was found.; title: More work in vain is done without prayer.  The world is full of it and the results are what we see today. Therefore it is imperative that we know for sure that God is in this which keeps us busy now. To exclude prayer from work is to have no vision – God’s vision. Prayer reveals the vision for in prayer comes forth the vision. And when the people go to work without the vision they soon perish. It is also with any victory that comes without God in it. If we be troubled by what others may call ‘victory’ then we must learn to bring it to the Lord first. Satan loves feigning victory therefore any suspicion must be given to the Lord for greater clarity. If we all did so, we would be far less disappointed and greater would be the glory that is due to Him.; title: Again the question must be whether God is in my work? For Him to be so I must know that He was there at the start in the first place. It could be anything from a new job, establishing a new business or setting up another Church, moving house or even writing another book. The work must begin with God and end with Him. God directs the work through prayer. Prayer is meant to bring to earth that which was finished Heaven. God’s advice comes from Heaven and He is concerned about all matters from there. He is concerned about how we arrive at all things. Remember He is God who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient - All powerful, ever present and all knowing.; title: The sooner one puts prayer to work, the sooner one avoids disaster from emerging. For greater shall the damage be to the spiritual wheel that has not been oiled. Prayer is the Oil meant for the work. Without Prayer the wheel will not turn for the Oil is the anointing of God that comes through a prayer filled life. To use this Oil only when in trouble will very soon damage the spiritual wheel and then the vessel itself. The spiritual vessel, in order to produce faithfully must also be oiled faithfully. Prayer for the work and all things pertaining to the work will see great results of the work. Prayer not consistent to the work is a ship in shallow waters. This must entail the motive for prayer.; title: Prayer is the means by which God speaks to a serious and genuine heart that is able to then partake of the advice given from Heaven. Prayer from what we gather is not only God’s masterful plan but is also designed for Him. Salvation is a complete work in Christ. God uses prayer however to fulfil that work here in each one of us. Prayer helps discern what comes from Heaven and what does not. For the prayer filled heart discerns what comes from the God of Heaven and what does not. A heart that goes to God continually has a familiar voice known in Heaven’s corridors. When all is said and done and the final hour has come, the believer shall finally approach the gateways of Heaven and echoes will ring ‘Let him in, for I know this heart as we have spoken much through the years. ‘As we discern the heart of God, He discerns ours and so a relationship exists that nothing on earth is able to separate. We are more than conquerors, says the Word and if so then very active are we who pray.  Romans 8.37-38; title: God is mindful of us and even more so when He has received our attention. When we are mindful of God, we get God’s attention. Prayer helps us hear what God is saying. The Holy Spirit discerns God’s thoughts for us. He is God the Holy Spirit here on earth for us and through prayer we are enlightened.; title: 9. INTERCESSION; title: 	 The Role of Intercessors; title: Where are they, for surely there must be intercessors, men and women who stand before God for the sake of man? For even when the great prophet Elijah thought he was the only one remaining, God had still reserved 7000 prophets in the land of Israel. These are the men and women who are needed in our time; they are those who come between God and man. They are the men and women who will stand in the gap and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit bring agreement between God and His people. We need them for they are the ones upon whom God has placed His burden for the land. They will pray and even for the sake of ten the Lord will not destroy the land. Where are the intercessors, where are these men and women even if there is just ten? Genesis 18.32; title: We are in urgent need of them as they are the ones who know true humility before a Holy God. These are the men and women of prayer. They have not graced many a pulpit and may quietly occupy the back pews of our regular gatherings and then leave our buildings unnoticed. Like the woman who threw all she had into the offering box or again she who secretly touched the hem of His garment. For the world sees them not, if not for Christ. They grieve as the Spirit grieves. And some may assume it is life that burdens them so, because of some unfair deal or injustice handed down to them. But it is not for they are burdened not with life but more the things of God. They know the things of God and so they have come to know His Will. As they spend much time in His presence, God begins to entrust them with His burdens. They carry for God whilst here on earth and labour in duty for Him whilst no one knows or needs to see. Though in pain, they will continue to pursue their calling for they know that these are just the beginning of birth pains. They demand not for themselves, for they have long passed that point. But pleading earnestly, for what they now see they read the situation with God and have seen it for what it is. He has made them see the pattern and how the points of each curve come together to make a chord either for evil or for Him. For they see the dangers ahead, and witness the speed at which it sweeps a nation, a land and her stubborn people They know about the heat, the rains and the storms to come. God lets them in on this and if there is any demand from their part it is that He warrants them to call for His mercy from Heave above. These are the true intercessors that we must search for.; title: God does nothing without revealing it first to His prophets whilst others guess of its coming and laugh for they are not convinced and may never will. For only he who is humbled of heart shall be given the need for concern.; title: We need men and women who are constantly mindful of the things of God or else like many we perish. God’s heart for a dying world means more than all that life can offer and He reveals it so. Through these men and women who pray is His heart revealed. The world cannot pull them though it tries, as theirs is an intimate walk with God. They pull no longer for the desires of this world. Instead they pull from Heaven downwards so that His will be done here on earth. They have become flexible in the hands of God, ever ready to be used by Him. When God sees them, He sees the righteous and still has hoped to save a dying city. They have surrendered and their lives are pliable and one with Him – this is the life of Holiness.; title: Jeremiah had this to say about them, if one claims to be hearing from God. ‘But if they are true prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make intercession......’ Jeremiah.27.18; title: If there is a true prophet in the land then he is the one most likely with a Word from God suitable for the time and place he now finds himself in. He intercedes and God reveals. He is not a man struggling to memorize scripture or some text that some preacher has given. He has in Him the Word from God. It comes with a memory and understanding and together the help to articulate it from Him alone. He reflects the burden of God for those on earth and continuously walks in the Spirit.  Galatians 5.18 Wherever he goes, whatever he does, whatever he says is a reflection of the heart of God. Even his sustenance and the way he goes and comes may be mapped out by Him who is the Way. He walks with men but only by the grace given to him by God.; title: ‘The Lord has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.’ 1Kings 13.9; title: I pray that the eyes of the Church be opened and may a greater hunger and search go out for these men and women, for great is our need for them at this hour.; title: 	 The Story of Elijah; title: Whilst a king went to eat and celebrate a prophet went to pray. On the ground and with his head between his knees, the Prophet Elijah prayed and the sky became covered with dark clouds, the wind began to blow, and heavy rains began to fall. This upon a land filled with drought and dryness for many years.  I Kings 18.41-45 ‘Then Elijah said to Ahab.’’ Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain’’ So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.’; title: This great man of God, being a man of prayer, and his quest for a Holy God, is what resulted in jars of oil not running dry and bins of flour not being used up. 1Kings 17.12-16; title: When the cry of a mother over the death of her only child is heard in Zarephath, it is Elijah who stretches himself on the boy and prays him back to life. 1Kings 17.17 – 23.; title: The widow then acknowledges that he is a prophet through whom God really speaks ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Lord really speaks to you!’ vs. 24; title: In 1Kings 19 the Prophet Elijah is confronted by a merciful God and by His grace helped along the road to turn back the way he had come. Was it to do what He had in mind all the time to do? In all, God takes into consideration Elijah’s weakness and his fear, perhaps just tiredness of just a mere man. Like unto the prophet He the Lord allows us to return the way we came and also gives us the strength to do so, Turning to God is repentance.  Returning to Him on the same old road that got us here in the first place is often times God telling us that we had stepped out in haste. It is then we turn around and start our journey home again. Often it is work unfinished, sheep not fed, or simply to hand over our rod and staff to the next shepherd in waiting. Permission to return and the strength to come back is only there so that we may return to the plans of God. He rescues us and keeps us from dying so that His Will here on earth is established. We should be most grateful to Him as we are given permission to return to His original Perfect Will and Plan that He always had in mind for us.; title: The widow may have still doubted though she and her son never went hungry but that did not stop God from moving when her son was dead. It is only when her child is returned to life does she acknowledge him as a man of God. It therefore begs the question as to the reason for the suffering.  The principle is far more important though and weighs heavily upon us all the time – receive the prophet and honour him so; title: Elijah’s was no ordinary mantle for his was anything but an ordinary life. His life and intimacy with God is seen in evidence of chariots and horses of fire, together with a whirlwind of power that ended a surrendered and holy life here on earth. 2Kings 2.11-12; title: And so it would have continued that false prophets would never have been minded for so few would have known them anyway. Thousands would have been led astray as each false prophet would have continued in their quest to deceive as many as they could. Jezebel would have pursued them at her will, without ceasing to having her way. The fears that grip all men would have had a great part to play in this time of History. We would not have heard of brooks and angels, ravens and meals of cakes baked over coals of burning fires, all of this at the Lord’s command.; title: 	 Standing in the Gap; title: There must be a fear in man as he runs with God and His word. Run he must but with reverential fear and never must he take God’s word for granted. He must forever be the man obedient to the Master of that word, to deliver only what the Master says. When he arrives on the other side, he must open his mouth only to repeat – ‘And My Master says……..’ Our Lord looks out for the intercessors, searching for men to stand in the gap for Him. They too must be the men, who arrive only to request and to speak to the tune of their Master, ‘And My Master says……’; title: Ezekiel 22.30 ‘ So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it but I found none.’; title: The Prophet Jonah was an intercessor. He first cried against the city on behalf of God and with them for God. The Lord asked him to ‘Arise and go to Nineveh …….and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.’ Jonah 1.2; title: There exists a gap only because of a missing link. That gap is only as huge as the link that is missing. We have many spiritual gaps. They exist between Governments and Church, husbands and wives, parents and their children and very much so between the people of the land and their God. These gaps are in need of repair for they symbolize our physical and spiritual ruin. The intercessor is the man who comes and stands between God and man. He cries that God may have mercy, that He at least may do something. He stands begging the people of the city that they too may do something that will change the heart of God.; title: ‘We have sinned against you, Lord; we confess our sins……..Remember your promises and do not despise us…… do not break the covenant you made with us.’ Jeremiah14. 20 - 21; title: Where there is much sin and no intercessor the place is being invaded and being won each day by her invader. It is still God’s plan though that she be saved for He knows more about the disaster coming than they do. He has more compassion than they have and far more pity than they know as His heart knows no measure. However invaded the place, however doomed to death she may be, yet because of His great love, He waits for it to become a place of prayer. For it is God who knows that where there is a place of prayer, there is hope and where there is hope, it is there where faith can be built and help build. His prayers are building blocks that helps build the Spiritual House that lies in ruin. The intercessor helps to repair that space between God and man.; title: While the incense once built the Presence of God, the prayers of the faithful intercessor today builds for God the Spiritual House for Him to come and dwell in. The request for the vacancy for intercessor should be part of the all believers request. It is no secret how the nation and the land perish where there is no righteous man. God reveals His heart to His people; He reveals it to the intercessors. They know His heart for by Him they are made to be such people. They are the people God uses to close the many gaps for which His Spirit now grieves. Their task is enormous and never without ceasing until the day they are called away and their rewards are seen.; title: ‘But as for you be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.’ 2 Chronicles 15.7; title: The call has gone out to pray, year after year and may God help us, for without the man in the gap we remain separated. When the intercessor goes to work, even so does the hands of a Holy God. By his praying the edges are made up, the walls are built and the protection that crumbled through sin is restored. The Spirit of God shall not strive with man forever. God help us that we are never to hear the words one day, ‘I searched, but I found none’ Intercessors are praying men and women who stand in places designated by God and so may the call to stand in the gap not be taken for granted.  The Church must be of those who are able to stand between God and man. In them a totally surrendered life must be found. And as they steadfastly continue, they are then faithfully led into the hidden life in prayer. May we be encouraged today to watch and pray without ceasing!; title: 10. THE WATCHMAN; title: 	 A Search for the Watchman; title: “’The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of Man, speak to your countrymen say to them: When I bring the sword against a land and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning.’  Ezekiel 33.1-4; title: The watchman of ancient times looked out for impending danger and even for the coming messenger. When he saw any signs of danger approaching, his main task was to inform the people within the walls of the city. Even today God has blessed us with many watchmen but do we recognise them? A city cannot sleep if the watchman has not arrived nor can she take for granted that she is well without one. God has given to His Church watchmen in every corner; they see in the spirit and are helped along by the Holy Spirit. The Church today cannot settle to have some feint understanding of the watchman. If so then she suffers much and the watchman suffers to be heard and the Church risks herself with little or no knowledge of him and what he has to warn her off.; title: He challenges them to discern but they care less for he comes not with the expectant word their itching ears are ready to hear. ‘This’ he says ‘is what the Spirit of God is saying’ but to no avail. And little do we realise the evidence that piles up against us each time we care less for what God has spoken. For as God’s patience with us increases so does the evidence against us. In other words God has already made up His mind as to how and who must deliver what He has to give. When the believer sets out to do something otherwise or perhaps more status orientated he risks many things including death. It is in the calling that God has for you and me that we will see the most of Him and it is here where you are I am most protected and unharmed.; title: The watchman is the sentry who brings the news and reports what he has seen. Isaiah 21.6- 9 He is God’s spokesman and his words to must be a treasure in our hearts. His word is truth and calls out having seen and having heard. We are therefore to listen carefully and discern what is being said. God in His divine wisdom has administered all that He has for us.; title: To walk closely with the Lord is to walk daily in the Spirit.  There must be daily prayer for fresh new daily manna. Many have found their calling and still many have not. They experience something different from others yet still trying to discover what it may be. They have isolated themselves hoping that God will one day bring them out of their caves.  Some know their calling as watchmen but walk not so; others are confused only because of the sight of the rebellious in the land. They are simply rejected and frowned upon. However those who have accepted their calling and walk in it reap the fruits thereof when they make others aware of impending dangers in the spirit. As we make use of what God has given to us, we begin to see more and therefore become more trustworthy for God to reveal much more.; title: Then there are those who promise not to speak, for their pain is unbearable when misunderstood. Soon though their silence becomes far worse and they have no choice but to shout out and from the roof tops they do - ‘Thus says the Lord…..’ They cannot keep still when it is in them to recognise the voice of a false prophet. They often weep in secret thinking they are all alone and they alone have seen. They experience much public bashing since there ministry is at the forefront of the spiritual battle. There is no urgent call for them as they are the true prophets of our time and for centuries have been made to wait. The false prophet has for years gone by been the first to arrive though and the whole town, village and country are smitten by what he has to say. The true man of God must still be patient ever ready to move when God sees for him the opportunity for a people to change.; title: The city calls out but not for the true man of God but the false. For centuries he has arrived first at the gates of the city, displaying what they want to see and in he is allowed consuming the hearts of the people with his affluent words and powerful voice. And if he is discovered before he leaves the people are still too ashamed to admit.; title: The true watchman experiences great trials and tribulations. The Body should work together and it is important that the Body of Christ respond to the watchman’s call to return to confirm that he had seen correctly. I say this because the enemy has from the beginning caused the hiding and falling away of a watchman for His people. Because he is the first to see, the enemy has hated him much for this. The watchman will forever be set up to be terrified but he must be extra careful that he is not. For if he is afraid to say and do as the Lord would have him to, then it is promised that he will be terrified by the Lord before the people. ’….. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them’ Jeremiah1.17; title: The watchman has more today to warn the people about than before. He is able to travel more and see more. Greater are the works and the sins of man than before. The echoes of a dying world are louder and the watchman’s voice has to rise higher than theirs. He is there to warn so that the necessary action is taken by those who must open and close the spiritual gates to a city. But the times are so that an open gate remains for ever at the city’s entrance and they come as they are to do as they want and leave when they will. And so the unguarded city lies in shambles before a Holy God.; title: The true prophet sees this and most painful of all must witness how a people once learned or even not, are so easily swayed by the words of the times. His cry is against the city and her foreign gods and the intimacy the peoples have with them. There is a crime like all evil men commit and then there is an evil that bares no crime. The rulers of the city have decreed that your speaking out against the evil as a crime. They have bowed down and they have kissed him. 1 Kings 19.18; title: The watchman knows that he is responsible to a Higher Being though and must not fear. He has a mandate with God to make sure the people come to know what the Creator of this universe has seen. The precedence to anything God wants to do is of utmost importance. This is a ministry and calls for the building of the Kingdom of God and has God reveals to the people, He prepares and He warns with the purpose to get us ready for His next plan of action. This is the work of the watchman and he must shout it out to the people. His whispers will get no man’s attention and the land will then lie in ruins. And there is a warning for that. ‘When I say to the wicked man O wicked man, you will surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sins, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.’ Ezekiel 33.8; title: The watchman loves interceding as it comes with his calling and helps build it. All prophets are intercessors yet not all intercessors are prophets. He lives a lonely life and for most part may think he has no one on his side or even there is no one like him for the tasks at hand. 1Kings19; title: We must be careful to add that there are many who have not bowed down to the flesh and God has reserved them to be used. 1Kings 19.18; title: The duty of the Church in turn, is to recognize and acknowledge these anointed men and women within the body of Christ. It is our duty to identify and be acquainted with such men. Our spiritual eyes must be opened and our prayers should be as Paul prayed in Ephesians 1.18. ‘I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened....’; title: To take for granted the watchman and true intercessor, can only lead to disaster for us all. The Lord’s nature is to reveal to the prophets before we see the manifestations thereof.; title: Find a man who prays much and you would have most probably found the watchman. He is the modern day prophet, the intercessor who speaks to God and for God. He is the watchman of the time not only the one who hears from God but also the one who speaks to Him on our behalf. He comes and stands in the gap, pleading with God for in him is placed the grieving of the Spirit for the people. He feels the reluctance of man to surrender and him who refuses to live a Holy Life. His prayers reveals to him the heart of God and this he must reveal to the heart of man.; title: In ancient times the cities and its kings took not the watchman for granted and so it must continue today. He was the people’s messenger for the people and today he is still God’s messenger to the people. The Church is in urgent need of them, men and women alike. To afford them their rightful place will see much ceasing of what is not meant to enter into the House of God. The opportunity we afford him will help him see the evil at the door against us eagerly waiting to enter in. The more opportunity he is given, the more territory he guards, the more he guards, the more he sees out for us all. The more he sees, the more he speaks to God for us and to us for God. That protection we have is the result of the resistance we already know and see as the Church today. And as we resist the further away the enemy flees from us. James 4.7; title: Where there are fewer watchmen more of what is not of God will make its way into the Church. The word from the watchman’s mouth must not be taken for granted. In the tongue of the watchman may lay the power of life and death for the Church. As he sees into the distance so he is able to blow the horn awakening the people of the land. God has placed these men and women in the Body and far better off are we with them than without. They cannot go unnoticed, whilst the mocking of the oppressor goes on. If we cannot recognise our own then great fools are we. More painful and damaging if we have set out to deliberately ignore them.; title: To the church my prayer is that we will seek out these men and women and enquire, ever hearing what God has on His heart to say. May we familiarise ourselves with what has been seen thereby acquainting ourselves with what they are about to see and hear. They are a gift to us the Church and with that they come with God’s anointing to see. The Lord has said He will never leave nor forsake us, and still he has not.; title: For the Church to move on without the watchman is like a city without walls, its people asleep while danger approaches all around. There are no watchmen and the walls have fallen. The people are again vulnerable and ignorant. Though they may laugh and scorn at you from outside, bring the watchman to the broken walls nevertheless, it is the start of your journey with God and your walls being rebuilt again.; title: The more we acknowledge the intercessor, the true watchman, the more we are able to listen and allow for the flow of what God is doing now. Again I reiterate that the true watchman is a man of prayer watching for God’s purposes here on earth to be fulfilled. He is one familiar with the voice of the Lord. The correct spiritual positioning of these men is what will help them hear more clearly for us all.; title: 	A Warning to the     Watchman; title: ‘ .......But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ Ezekiel 33.6; title: The watchman must never compromise his position, he is accountable for all he sees and hears. He is a prophet and intercessor for the Church today, found crying for her and her affairs. If he is to successfully fulfil his duty then he is first a man of prayer.; title: The watchman is not to be selfish with what God has given to him nor can he afford to be reckless. Whatever is given to him still belongs to the Lord. No matter how arrogant the people of the land maybe he must still fulfil his duty to the Lord.; title: What the Church and the people of the land may do with his message is a matter between God and them. He though is sent to speak and warn them, striving with the same passion and love as God would have him to.; title: ‘..... If anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head.’ Ezekiel 33.4; title: How you position yourself will be of great importance. Your prayer life and relationship with the Lord will determine where you are to where you ought to be. The sound of the enemy is in every step he takes towards us. The closer our ears are to the ‘ground’ the more aware we of the imminent dangers ahead. Our spiritual ears and eyes must be grounded now to the Spirit of God. He comforts, leads and teaches us. Just like ancient times the watchman was one stationed on the wall to warn the peoples of the impending danger ahead and their positions were of utmost importance. Your task will be an agonizing one and for agonizing as you are led. For at times you will have to bear the message before you are to pass it on. That message for most times is a burden that you will have to carry first and bear the scars that come with it. The watchman must first walk in empathy before he does in sympathy.; title: ‘I suffer and am even in chains like a criminal. But the word of God is not in chains and so I endure everything for the sake of God’s chosen people….’ 2Timothy 2.9-10; title: The people of the land would do well to listen but that is not his prerogative but God’s, having done so in love. His is to continue on this journey knowing that he has been called and accountable to Him who has sent him.; title: 11. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING; title: ‘………This calls for endurance and faithfulness from the saints. Revelation 13.10; title: 	To Pray without Wavering; title: To pray without ceasing is a directive from the Lord. We would be wise to never forget this. In Luke 18.1 we read ‘Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.’  The purpose of the parable was to show them they should press on no matter what. They must press on till they had gotten relief. This does not mean that we press on till we see the answer.  No we press on till we have heard from God. Hearing from God should settle it in our hearts that He is in control of this matter. Too often we pray but still do not hand the matter over to Him. The difficulty is not the problem reaching God but instead our stubbornness to hand it over to Him. ‘Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you’ 1Peter 5.7; title: As children of God we often resist Him from taking charge of the matter. This begs the quality of our relationship with God and the strength of our faith in Him. Releasing a matter to God must be the most explicit show of our trust in God and surely He loves that. We therefore need to learn to pray till we have released that thing into the hands of God. Had the Judge answered that he was aware of her matter, the widow would not have returned.  For the Bible tells us she kept coming, in other words she received no word from him prior. All she needed to know was that justice will be served, even though it were to be many days later.; title: “‘There was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘grant me justice against my adversary’” Luke 18.3; title: We to need a word from God and we must therefore remain with Him until we receive that word. The answer may not be now but that word we receive helps us continue with life. Continuation is a matter of praise to God that has heard me. The parable in Luke 18 is not to alike God to any earthly judge but instead to show who He is. He is God and will bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry to Him day and night. He will not put them off but they instead must have faith that He hears when they call. ‘However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’ Luke 18.8; title: For what we need now is God’s word on the matter as His word is the answer. We go to God in hope and receive His word in faith. Having faith, we then please God. Having hope does not mean we have the answer but faith does. Be encouraged to pray in spite of whatever you may be going through.; title: To pray without ceasing is no easy task as it is a spiritual task; it needs faith and requires much resistance for much is encountered. Even so, our God is with us and the place of the attack is where He is. The irony is that it is in our weakness that we find the greatest amount of strength. The enemy pulls from one side while God holds firm on the other. We therefore pray without ceasing as we called to do so. It is to pray again and having prayed, pray again. The request is received by Him who knows all things but we pray that our faith is built and God is justified.  We ‘remind’ God in a little childlike way in the midst of our praises that He is there and we are mere man down here. Praying without ceasing must never become tiresome for Gods’ people. For after we have requested we praise God knowing He has heard us. Having praised Him, we praise Him again. This is relationship in its highest order. He is never guilty of having too much of our praise, for it is always due to Him.; title: The more we praise God, the more we justify who He is and the more we praise Him, the Higher we lift Christ. The Higher Christ is lifted; the more the world is able to see and the more she sees the more are drawn to Him. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that all men be drawn to Him. The enemy has accused God for ages; ours is to believe the Lord and the more we do so the more evidence is raised against the evil one.; title: The burden that one must carry at times is always compensated by the measure of that burden.  We serve a just God. Because prayer involves much, it will require much work. The man who prays will be one who is busy with Gods’ work and it doing those things His way. To pray without ceasing involves much work. Jesus was not pleased with the disciples when He found them asleep at the most crucial hour of man’s history here on earth. ‘…. Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come….’ Mark 14. 41 For prayer will require much from God, much of what He desires, and much of what he is doing. Jesus was busy discussing their eternity with the Father whilst the disciples fell off to asleep.; title: Praying without ceasing shows Heaven our desperation, it shows our seriousness towards the matter at hand. The Lord desires to see how true our hearts really are. We must wait till He speaks. When God has spoken we must then thank Him. This is praise. The rest of our days must be spent thanking Him for the answers received.; title: Prayer reveals to God and it reveals our heart to have what God has. Prayer is war on a battlefield raging on and we are not to give up. The call to pray without ceasing is the call to all men and all women in the Body of Christ not to grow faint in their quest for that which the Lord has for them. Praying without ceasing will involve much labour, energy, and time. For such praying must leave no room for any lack of faith. It will require much and much will be given for it. A man who prays well will be found doing well, working well, for he has received well. Prayer reveals what God wants done. Often obedience to what has been given sets the precedence for more to be given. Faith and praying are never separated. Jesus was concerned regarding this matter. ‘Will I find faith when I return’ are the words of the Lord in Matthew.18.8. The end time Church will need much faith. It is this which concerns the Lord. Faith is what will pursue the believer to not back down in spite of whatever. Jesus is very much concerned about this matter. I believe it grieves him for what He is busy seeing even now and the direction He knows many of us are heading.; title: To pray without ceasing helps us to stay God focussed and arrive at His conclusions. We must never run away from this truth. We must never take another gasp for air, shocked and then draw our own conclusions on matters around us. In the modern and semi modern world there is information at our beckon call. The technology and advancements of our times are also constantly safeguarding us against sudden outburst of filth at just a press of a button.; title: To believe that God will come through for us and never to give up is the Christ life we live. Our call to pray without ceasing may just be the difference in our prayers being answered or them not or perhaps we standing compared to us falling. It is known and therefore with passion we pray what is, knowing we have not been forsaken. To pray without ceasing may find us all alone in the chapel when all the others have moved on. The man who prays constantly may just be responsible for the difference between a city destroyed to one being saved. For the sake of forty five, for sake of thirty, for the sake of twenty, for sake of ten even so will God save a city, if men will stand in the gap and pray without ceasing. Genesis18.   For surely He is God who will save a city even if there be but one righteous man as long as he can find a man who prays much. God help us and may this be the cry of our hearts that more be the men and women who pray without ceasing. There is a place much needed for them or else we suffer much.; title: 	 All Praying at All Times; title: Ephesians 6.18 ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kind of prayers and requests…’; title: We can only pray on all occasions if our prayers are in the Spirit. We can only pray without ceasing and remain in the attitude of prayer if we are praying in the Spirit. When we have placed God first having spent quality time with Him then the above is very possible. Our praying in the closet gives rise to us praying at all times and so with all kinds of praying. (As we have shared in earlier chapters); title: To pray so is to first make the time to spend with God regularly. Time regularly with Him can be understood as follows:  First God and you alone – One on one.  Then the call to pray with and for others initiated in the closet will lead you through the day. This then helps in our call to pray without ceasing and helps us maintain the spirit of praying all through the day.; title: It is the time set aside daily to meet with God which is the gateway to having that kind attitude to prayer. When one has done so he will then find himself consistently in the attitude of prayer. It is a pleasure to meet with God each day and so daily our cups are filled and daily our oil vessels are replenished.; title: Daily prayer means that for most part we are taught daily. We are helped along by His Holy Spirit who teaches and guides us to pray for even the simplest of things and then again helps us overcome the fear to ask for the most impossible. We take note of how God is doing something and we take Him not for granted. To know that God is concerned with all things is to never be ashamed. To pray before leaving home, to pray before entering the grocery store and whilst in there and to thank Him after having stepped out is to pray without ceasing – a continual fellowship. To pray for the patient and the impatient, the selfless and the inconsiderate, the powerless and the influential, we are helped along and our prayers remain tight.  To stay in this attitude of prayer is a way to help us from becoming negative towards people and life. It is to help one overcome knowing that nothing is impossible with our God. To remain in this attitude of prayer one is to understand the great reward of prayer. To pray such is to understand prayer and its purpose and knowing that God has created prayer as a way to His heart. To pray for all things and all men gives God the opportunity to work in all things and with all men. That all things and all men must be prayed for means that all men should be prayerful and such is an enormous task only accomplished by God’s help.; title: Its only when we are all praying that our prayers will become tight. We need tight praying. The prayers of all the Body of Christ is what makes our prayers tight. For all men praying covers all parts of the Body. And when all is prayed for, stronger is our Body which is Christ’s. Yet when the Body assembles together, strengthened individuals ready to race with other men and able to race with chariots and horses.; title: Jeremiah 12.5 ‘If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how then can you race with horses?; title: The call to pray without ceasing is a call to keep those prayers tight. Tight praying is simply covering every loophole that may give access to the enemy. When you pray for any man, may the prayers for that man remain fixed, certain and filled with faith. It is to pray for all things for such a man. When all things are prayed so, there shall be no loopholes and therefore no room for the enemy.  The gaps are covered simply by men and women praying for each other.; title: There are many gaps opening and daily it makes its way into our lives. Therefore daily we pray, daily we go before God to be cleansed, daily we go before Him without ceasing.; title: And so I pray that you will be encouraged to pray. The call has gone out for more of them, men and women who will pray without ceasing. Find them and the many gaps that remain will be filled.; title: 12. Conclusion; title: 	God is the Way; title: The teachings here are for the believer. There is no way to God the Father except through His Son Jesus. The Holy Spirit is here on earth given to lead us to Him. This is done only in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has opened that way for us since He is the Way. God is Spirit. The Lord Jesus is His Son. To come to the Father we will have to come through His Son.; title: To do this, we must be willing to accept the Lord Jesus into our lives.  This is done through the Holy Spirit here on earth leading us to the Father through the Way of His Son. This is Salvation; the only way to the Father. When we received the Lord at Salvation, we begin to walk in that Way and no longer the old. You are now a believer by faith and you now walk by faith. Because God is Spirit, your walk with God will always be in the Spirit.; title: If you are not a believer then it is important that you repent. That means that you make that one important decision knowing you have many choices at hand. Choose by faith to accept God the Father as being your Creator. In so doing you have chosen to come to Him. This is where it all starts for there is only one way to the Father and that is through His Son Jesus. In accepting His Son, you have accepted to be cleansed. This is not your doing but the Lord Jesus’ all time preparing you to one day dwell forever with the Father.; title: Revelation 21.3-4 ‘……now the dwelling of God is with mankind and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away ever tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,  for the old older things have passed away.’; title: Jesus once walked this earth in the flesh but He is no more flesh but Christ in the Spirit. That is why He has given us His Holy Spirit that we may come to the Father through Him. When you make this decision to follow Him, His Spirit then gives you a new spirit and His Spirit also comes and resides in you. You have made this most important decision which means you are cleansed from your past sins and there is no more judgement waiting for you. The cleansing that Jesus has done of your past gives the Holy Spirit a place to reside in you. This is all done by faith believing that there is a God who exists, A Son whom He has sent earth to die for you, that you may have a new life and has now revealed His Holy Spirit who now works among men on earth to prepare them for eternity. He is spirit therefore you cannot see Him. He is the One who has created you. You are also spirit but you have been given a body – your flesh. The Holy Spirit now continuously fills you with the spiritual as you will allow Him to. This is how you come to know the secrets of God. He is spirit and you are now communicating with Him through His Holy Spirit here on earth. This has been the purpose of these writings, that you may know God. Prayer is that means - a design by God for you to see that.; title: I leave you with the words that Jesus gave to us in John 14.1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Fathers’ (also implying your Fathers’) house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.’; title: Pray without Ceasing !