KEY SCRIPTURE: Psalms 37:8 (Amplified) “Commit your way to the Lord-roll and repose (each care of) your load on Him; trust (lean on, rely on and be confident) also in Him, and He would bring it to pass”.

Why should we cast our cares unto the Lord? The Lord does not want His children to worry or to be full of anxiety and burdened down with the cares of life. (Matt 6:25-27). All that the Lord is saying from the above scripture is that, which of you by worrying and being overly anxious is going to change anything?

The same thought is revealed in Luke 12:22 “And he said unto his disciples, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on”.

You must cast all your cares unto the Lord. You do this once. Any other time another issue of concern show up, just give it over to the Lord. What do you do when your thoughts seem not to stop worrying? Say to yourself,’ I have given this matter to the Lord and He is well able to handle it’. I would no longer worry. Please say this to yourself as often as, your mind seems to go for the burden.

 Worry is a sin. The bible says anything which is not of faith is  sin (Romans 14:23). Worry is not of faith. It is a sin according to the bible.

Worrying would rob you of your answers and your prayer life would be certainly fruitless. The prayer of commitment is one that we have to do always, so long as matters rise up in our lives bringing concerns to our minds. This is our only way to lead a life of peace.

CONFESSION

I always commit every care, concern or worry unto the Lord, and leave it with HIM. My life is filled with peace and power. God keeps answering my requests because I always trust in Him.

FURTHER STUDIES

Luke 12:25-26 “And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?”

Proverbs 3:5-6 ” Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.

KEY SCRIPTURE:  Acts 12:5 “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him”.

In our key scripture Peter was apprehended by King Herod and was placed in the guard of sixteen soldiers, who watched from various levels in the prison. His escape meant they were to lose their lives. Peter’s deliverance was therefore an impossibility.  The only thing that could save Peter from this situation was a miracle. This is where, a travailing prayer comes into play. When an impossible situation must be changed. Remember James had been slaughtered by the same man.

Our key scripture said, Peter was held in prison but, prayer was made WITHOUT CEASING BY THE CHURCH UNTO GOD for him.

Please listen to what the Lord says in Psalms 50:15 ” And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me”. In the day of trouble call upon the Lord. Please note what Psalm 50:14, says offer unto the Lord thanksgiving and pay thine vows. What is the Lord saying? Maintain your fellowship with the Lord always. Take away everything that mares your relationship and fellowship with Him. In this way you can always stand confidently in faith before Him .Many Christians do not keep a close relationship with the Lord. It is when crises come that they want to hurriedly raise their confidence in the Lord. These things does not work out that way. Always maintain good fellowship with the Lord. Do not cut yourself from fellowshipping with the brethren. These are all your vows. Pay your vows. Keep every commitment to the Lord.

The brethren in Acts 12 prayed without ceasing, till, the answer came. Is there any impossible situation you want to see changed? Stop crying or worrying, and get into prayer. You may add fasting and according to God’s word you would see a change.

 CONFESSION

I am ever ready to stand in the presence of God, because I come in His righteousness and I maintain my fellowship with the Spirit. Nothing takes me unawares as I take it to the Lord in prayer.

FURTHER STUDIES

James 5:16-17 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months”.

Hebrews 5:7  “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”;

KEY SCRIPTURE:  Isaiah 66:8  “Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children”.

The key scripture is a question referring to something which has been said earlier. That is in verse 7.Isaiah 66:7 “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child”.

These two verses are only establishing the fact that, to give birth to something new, there is the need for travailing. Without a travail no mother gives birth. This is the kind of prayer that changes situations. Be reminded it is not tea party business. No travailing is easy and pleasant, yet the ultimate is joy galore.

This is when you do not take no for an answer, knowing very well what God has revealed. Out of this form of prayer is the word PUSH, which is abbreviated form of the statement, Pray until Something Happens.

Many children of God are living far below divine provisions which they could have taken advantage of, only, if they had been a little persistent in their praying. Certain churches would have known greater victories if they had employed this form of praying. Remember what the Lord said in Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Our Lord Jesus has determined the church as the ultimate winner. This can only happen on the grounds that we do not stop praying aggressively to see a breakthrough in every area of our lives. That word meant the gates of hell is seeking to prevail, and so we must hold our grounds and advance through travailing, prevailing prayer.

A mother shared the following testimony at church. The son who is just about a year and a few months stood with her by the roadside. Another lady passed by who said, I see your son is walking but my child who is older than your son can’t walk. Just after she said this and passed on, this sister’s son started going down and could not walk any longer. She said, ‘no way, Satan can’t destroy my boy’. She got into persistent prayer, and after two days the son got well and started walking again.

PRAYER

Dear heavenly father, as I hold my grounds on your word, praying through various issues, nothing would be withheld from me in Jesus name.

FURTHER STUDIES

Galatians 4:19 “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”.

1 Timothy 1:18 ” This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightiest war a good warfare”;

KEY SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:26  “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning’s which cannot be uttered”.

In our previews study we learnt that God desires that men stir up themselves to make intercessions for their fellow men so He would intervene in their situations.

The real challenge is that on many occasions we do not know how to pray effectively for the people or individuals.

The Holy Spirit is there to help us .This is exactly what our key scripture says. He helps our weaknesses in this light. This happens when we pray with our spirit.  1 Corinthians 14:14 ” For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful”.

I would explain this with the following experience. I once went to study in a school, during the holiday period, for my A ‘level examinations. As I was studying I had a strong urge to pray. I stopped studying and started praying, since I was alone in the classroom. I prayed for quite some moments. After this session of prayer, I said, I pray for any of my siblings in trouble, to be set free.

When I got home that evening my junior brother, who was training as a Automobile mechanic, told me that he was supposed to get under a car to do some repairs. Just as he was  about to get there, the car just dropped on the ground.  I asked about the time, which it occurred, and the time he told me, tallied, with the moment just as I had finished my prayer, that afternoon.  I didn’t know what was happening, yet the Holy Spirit knew and helped me to pray rightly.

Don’t stop praying in tongues. Intercede and pray more in tongues and you would always pray rightly. Many calamities would be averted, many lives would be saved, if we would pray more with our spirit.

CONFESSION.

The Holy Spirit is my helper in prayer, as I pray with my spirit through the agency of the Holy Spirit, I always pray on the very issues, I am supposed to pray on. Lives are saved and transformed through my intercessions.

FURTHER STUDIES

1 Corinthians 14:2 ” For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries”.

Romans 8:27” And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 22:30 “And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none”.

The word intercede means to act between two parties with the thought of reconciling the two of them. The prayer of intercession is standing in the gap in prayer on behalf of another. Normally we intercede for the unsaved.

God said something to Israel through the prophet Isaiah which shows that, He desires, His people to intercede on behalf of others. (Isaiah 64:7)

This verse implies that if someone has stirred himself to pray and to call upon God, judgement of the nation of Israel could have been stayed or stopped.

Our key scripture also reveals God looks for people of prayer to stand in the gap to make up the hedge and to intercede so that people’s lives can be spared.

In Genesis 18: 23-32 (please read through) Abraham stood in the gap for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In that story, Abraham asked God to spare the city if there were fifty righteous people. He kept beating the number down to ten yet the Lord was ready to hear him.  If God in the time of Abraham was ready to be so patient and spare such sinful people even if He could find only ten righteous souls, how much more now in the new covenant.

So much in our society would have changed if we had stood in the gap to intercede for people. Let us arise and stand in the gap for our nation, our families, our communities, for the Lord seeks intercessors so evil would be stayed.

Why should a man intercede before God can effect a change? When a people break God’s law, the evil one has the full right to destroy. It is the prayers of the intercessor that gives God the right to intervene.

CONFESSION

I commit myself to stand in the gap for my family, community, nation and various events in the world. I would not hold my peace until righteousness breaks forth and the will of God is established.

FURTHER STUDIES

Isaiah 62:1“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth”.

 Isaiah 64:7 ” And there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities”.

KEY SCRIPTURE:  Acts 2:1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”

In our previous study we learnt that there is a great power manifested when children of God are united in prayer.

This is what should happen yet many of us go to prayer gatherings and leave without any impact on their lives. The main condition for the full benefits of a united prayer is not just being together, but having one mind. In Genesis 11:6 it reads,” And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do”.

The Lord said these people have one mind with one language and nothing can stop them.

In many meetings some brethren may be bearing grudges against others, others don’t even understand what is going on, and some too would be praying on personal problems, whiles the group may be praying on something else.

These things don’t make a united prayer, and robs them of the great blessings of united prayer.

Satan knows the great impact of a united prayer, and introduces all sorts of things into the minds of the children of God from truly uniting with their brethren.

Please take the following  counsel, Philippians 2:2  ” Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind”.

The next thing to do to have the full benefits of a united prayer session is to believe that whatever the group prayed on has been granted.

CONFESSION

I share one mind with all those I pray with. I bear no animosity or selfish motive of any sort. I do nothing through strive or vain glory, for the desire of the group is my focus.

FURTHER STUDIES:

Philippians 2:1-3 “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”