1 April 2013 by Natasha Kim CM –
Fasting and praying has real significance. Replacing real food with spiritual food (prayer) allows your spirit to become stronger while your fleshly desires weaken. In this state, your spirit becomes more in tune with what God wants to say. Often times, the flesh overwhelms all of us but when we fast our spirit becomes stronger than our flesh and even our prayer become mightier.
Senior Pastor Clarence of C3 Church, Subang began his sermon by talking about Elijah. He said, “Elijah was a powerful man and when he prayed things happened. His prayers literally changed the weather of a nation.”
James 5:16 – 17 – 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
“Although he was powerful, the scriptures clearly stated that he was human just like us. This shows us that if we are in the right relationship with God and pray at the same time, tremendous power is available to us and this allows powerful things to happen in our lives.
“You and I can have a powerful and impactful prayer life. How God heard Elijah, the same way God is going to hear you pray. Elijah’s prayers touched heaven and changed earth, your prayer too can touch heaven and change your circumstances” Clarence said. Prayers can also heal the sick and Clarence shared that Scientists have even done research on the efficacy of prayer on healing. At the end of the research even the scientists could not deny the power of healing as people started recovering physically. In their research there was a difference between people who were being prayed for and people who were not. The ones who were not were the same as they came in and the one who were prayed for, some were healed immediately while some others were slowly recovering as doctors did tests and saw the difference.
Clarence then shared that he came up with a formula to make prayers work. He said that the formula is, he said, “Righteousness + God’s will + Belief – Hindering factors = Answered prayers.” He came up with this biblical formula for better prayer life and he would like to share this secret with everyone.
Righteousness
There are many scriptures that show us that the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. Below are some of them:-
1 Peter 3:12 – For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Psalm 34:17 – The righteous cry out and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
Proverbs 15: 29 – The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
This word appears in the Bible several times. The condition is set and if you want God to answer your prayers then you need to be righteous. “This is where many of us struggle because we feel that we are not righteous enough to pray. Many Christians don’t pray because they think they aren’t good enough.” he said. Instead of praying for themselves many ask a pastor or a leader to pray for them.
2 Corinthians 5:21 –21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
However, the scripture above tells us that righteousness has been given to us as a free gift through the power of the cross, when Jesus sacrificed his life for us in order to give us eternal life. “This is the great exchange. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we inherit righteousness.” he said.
Searching for God’s will
1 John 5: 14 – 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
“If you ask God for something that is outside of His will for you, He will not answer your prayers. To know what His will is for you, you need to read the Bible so you know His Word. For example, healing is God’s will for you. Everyone who came to Jesus was healed and he never once turned people away. God revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.” he said.
He added that, if you don’t know what to pray for then pray in tongues because the Bible says that your spirit prays the perfect will of God in your life.
Romans 8: 26 – 26 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 through wordless groans.
Pray believing
Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Mark 11: 24 – 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Clarence said, “This is the most important part because without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is described as the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.” Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe and you will receive it. However, there are prayers that aren’t immediately answered such as healing. Why? It is undeniable that God’s will for us is healing but our faith needs to connect with His will. We are short in receiving our miracles, because we give up.
“Sometimes God answers our prayer but most of the time He answers our prayer in the form of a seed. When God answers you in the form of a seed, you need to stand in faith and trust Him for example, your prayer for healing may not come immediately but rest assured your prayer is already answered; you need to confess and constantly have faith in God in order to help nurture the seed within you. Commit to God and trust in His character regardless of what you see or you do not see, knowing that He will not fail you.
Factors hindering answered prayer
The following are the things that God says will hinder your prayers :-
1) Double-mindedness
James 1: 6-8 –6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
2) Unforgiveness
Mark 11:25 – 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
3) Husbands must treat their wives with honour
1 Peter 3:7 – 7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
Pastor Clarence then ended his strong sermon with an encouragement to accept Christ, “I don’t want you to miss out your opportunity to know Christ. If you meet with an accident today about an you are unsure where you will wake up, whether it’s in heaven or otherwise, then you need to know Jesus. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and you will wake up in heaven.”
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