(From my forthcoming book on prayer).
The battle for prayer
It
is so easy to talk about prayer, very easy to read about prayer, it is
extremely easy to advice people to pray, but when it comes to praying
personally, it is a difficult task.
For
many, prayer will always be a struggle, for we have to overcome the fleshly
desires within us in order to pray. And we have to overcome the tempter who,
tries to keep us from praying.
“....Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around,
looking for someone to devour, (1Peter 5:8).
The
fleshly desires that we have, are a real hindrance to prayer, we rather sleep
than pray, we rather do something than pray, we rather talk to man than talk to
God, we rather spend time watching television than pray, we rather spend time
on the internet than pray, we rather spend time reading books than pray, we
rather go out visiting, than praying, we rather go for preaching than praying.
The
remedy is in dying daily. That is what Paul said, that “I die daily” we need to
die daily to our fleshly desires. As we sit with God daily, we will be slowly
loosened from our fleshly desires. The
“violent take it by force,” says the word of Lord, you need to be violent with
yourself, literally forcing yourself to pray.
We
need to choose what we need to add to into our life, things that are
everlasting or perishing, things that build your spiritual life or things that
diminishes it.
Then
we have also the “tempter” who does not want us to pray. He is afraid of our
prayer. He trembles when we pray. The tempter knows that if we continue to pray
it will cause damage to his kingdom.
The tempter also knows
that man has a tendency to drift away from a deeper fellowship of God. So he
keeps us away from prayer. Literally he takes advantage of it.
For
many the temptation comes in this way: a
unworthiness to pray, a feeling of lethargy, the things to be done, distracting
thoughts, anonymous phone calls, friends
inviting to go out, and much more.
For people growing up
in prayer, not feeling the freedom to
pray, no exuberant experience while praying and after prayer, feeling of
dryness while praying or after praying, wild sexual thoughts hitting the mind, problems increasing.
All these problems can be overcome,
the secret is to continue praying, as you continue to pray, you will find
changes taking place.
“Discipline yourselves; keep alert...” (1Peter 5:8), you need to
discipline yourself, in order to pray, you need to plan, set goals, in order to
discipline yourself, without discipline, you will fail.
You need to stick to the plan, to come out victorious, and once
you get into the flow of prayer nothing can stop you. You will be unstoppable.
You need to fellowship with people who pray, and that will
strengthen you, you are going to become like the people you walk with. So you
need to scrutinise your close friends. It is worth walking with people who walk
in the supernatural naturally.
When I started growing in the life of prayer, I used to avoid
people who talk about prayer, but never
pray, another kind of people I avoided
was people who disliked praying, there was the third kind “holding to the
outward form of godliness but denying its power,” I avoided them, because they
had nothing to impart to me. Not that I closed the door to them, I just did not
spent my free time with them.
When I started growing up in prayer, and getting stronger and
stronger in the spirit of prayer, I went back to these people, I went back to
this first kind, “who talked about prayer, but never prayed” and inspired them
to pray.
I went back to the second kind “who disliked praying” and taught
them the need to pray.
The third kind “holding to the outward form of godliness but
denying its power”, I never went back to them, because they are un-teachable,
they presume they know everything.
What I am trying to highlight is that you need to be careful of selecting
who should be within the inner ring of friends and relatives.
They should be people, who leads you closer to the Lord.
They should be people, who leads you to purity.
They should be people, who leads you to faith.
They should be people, who leads you to the truth.
They should be people, who leads you to His Presence.
They should be people, who leads you into the spirit of prayer.
You should avoid people who lead you to worldliness.
You should avoid people who lead you to alcohol.
You should avoid people who lead you to drugs.
You should avoid people who lead you to sexual sins.
Now don’t misunderstand, you need to talk to them, you need to
talk good about them, you need to help them and pray for them, but when it
comes for their lifestyle or their worldly words influencing you, you need to
keep away.
After you grow strong in the Lord, you can spend time with them
and influence them to come to the fullness of the Lord.
This is the price you need pay in order to walk daily, with the
living God.
Jesus said “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life,
and there are few who find it,“ (Matthew 7:14).
The road is narrow that leads to life, you are called to walk in
it, you would not find many friends there, you will find few of them, and they
shall be genuine. Many times you have walk alone, but the Holy Spirit will be
in your walk, many times you will have to sit alone, but the Holy Spirit
will there sitting with you, and you
will have the Cloud of Witness around
you. Many times you will have no one to talk to, but you will have the Holy
Spirit to talk to. No matter how hard you find it, battle on and pray.
The battle for prayer will continue till the end of the age,
when “The Son of Man will send his
angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all
evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” (Matthew 13: 41-43)
Antony Thomas, Author, Holy Spirit:The Reality of His Presence,
Holy Spirit, I love You.
When We Pray: Be renewed by the Power of Prayer,
When We Pray: Be renewed by the Power of Prayer,
antonythomas.in
antony3000@gmail.com.
www.facebook.com/antonythomas.750
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