ON THE PRAYER AND FAITH DYNAMISM: REJOINDER TO TOBI ODUWOLE (PT.2)

Hello Tobi (and everyone reading), sorry it took me this long to post this 2nd part. Way too much activity that it skipped my mind.

Oh yeah, Happy New Month.

So, without wasting too much time, here we go wth a continuation of the last post which can be read here: ON THE PRAYER AND FAITH DYNAMISM: REJOINDER TO TOBI ODUWOLE (PT.1)

Alright, here we go:

Now, for this:

“You can pray for 1/2hours or fast for 21 days, it doesn’t speed up the time/God promises over you. the reason why I said your prayer isn’t enough is that we as Christians don’t position our mind or listen to God instruction to prepare us for our calling and breakthrough rather we want to do things our war that isn’t aligned with God promises over life. You can pray for hours and still miss without hearing instruction and see what God is teaching us during a season. Before i used thing before its because I’m not praying enough or reading my bible enough that I didn’t get the opportunities I want but as I started to have a deep relationship with God, I realised that prayer only helps build our character and prepares us for the battle ahead that we would know what to do when trials and tribulation arises.”

Your first statement shows a flawed understanding of what Prayer is, and its effect on the situations of people. The Bible is literally filled with instances of people praying to God to step in and SPEED UP their breakthrough. Abraham, as shown above. Elijah, controlling the weather in Israel. Solomon, offering sacrifices to God, and asking for Wisdom to rule Israel as opposed to winging it and learning on the job through many mistakes. King Hezekiah, when the enemies were about to attack Israel, and he took the letters sent to him by the enemy king to the temple before God. The entire Old Testament is one huge prayer of supplication to God to free humankind from the effects of Sin and Death, which God answers by sending His Son. The disciples, when Apostle Peter was taken about to be beheaded; they prayed all night-they left things to happen, and that was how Apostle James lost his head. James, the half-brother of Jesus who took his place, explains in James 5:16 that “…The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available (dynamic in its working).” AMPC. What do we do when we are faced with an uphill task that we can’t do alone or will take us way too much time than we would like? We get help from someone who is willing to exert their own power, whether Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Financial etc, in order to make the situation be resolved faster.

Because some Christians don’t know how to hear from God doesn’t mean Prayer is not enough. Prayer is complete in itself, as its own Faculty. If you make a cooler of food, that someone decides to eat only half a plate doesn’t change the fact that you have cooked one cooler of food; the person may not know the amount of food you’ve made, hence the act of trying to take a small portion.

Also, saying that Prayer is just for building Character and preparing for the battle ahead shows 2 things:

1.     You don’t know the process of Character building by the Spirit, which is actually the process of renewing the mind by the Word, as shown in Romans 12:2, and;

2.     You don’t know that the battle has already been won by Christ; you just have to enforce your Victory in every sphere you choose.

Brother Kenneth Hagin lets us understand that there are 3 categories of a Christian as well: The Defeated Christian, the Warring Christian and the Victorious Christian. The Defeated Christian is the one who goes about life constantly being buffeted on all sides, looking for the mercy of God to lift him/her up always. He/she is like a child who doesn’t know that he/she has legs and can stand if they fall. The Warring Christian is that one who is always at war with the forces of darkness, always contending. While this may sound good; the problem here is that you can’t go forward while fighting. The Victorious Christian is the one who has understood that Christ has triumphed over the devil, taking care of the Sin issue once and for all, and has handed over this Victory to us so that we can enforce His rule here on Earth, having Dominion over EVERYTHING.

Penultimately, you wrote:

“If you are going through struggles or frustrated that your prayer isn’t getting answered, Go back to GOD and ask what he is preparing and teaching you, Pray that God orders your steps towards your destiny that will equip you for the vision he gave you. Don’t allow people make you feel like its your lack of prayer that you aren’t getting what you want, if you read the story of Job and understand Job level of faith when it came to pain and struggle even though he had people like his wife telling him to “Curse God” and his friends telling him “God is punishing you for something you did”. Be careful what circle you attract when you are going through a major transformation like Job, even though Job friends meant no harm for him but their approach about his pain was wrong.”

To get your prayers answered, the template is given in Hebrews 11:6:

“But without Faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (KJV)

Also, Hebrews 6:12 says:

“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through FAITH and PATIENCE inherit the promises.” (KJV)

The verse above doesn’t say through “struggles and frustrations”. Read Hebrews 11 to know what Faith is. Faith is an ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY; there is no room for doubt in it, let alone struggles and frustrations, which are an offshoot of doubt. So if you are feeling frustrated regarding what you are praying for, you must get in the Word, and then change the pictures you see around you concerning that which you hope for.

Praying that God orders your steps is tantamount to you saying that God just lets His children walk through life aimlessly. If your steps are being ordered by someone, be it the Holy Spirit or even your boss at work, it means you have subjected yourself to being led. The degree to which you will be led is the degree to which you yield to the leading. You can’t struggle against the Holy Spirit’s directions always, and expect God  to pull your ear constantly; He loves you too much to bother you, but His work must be done, so He’ll look for someone else to do what He wants.

Job was not going through ANY major transformation; he was being attacked by the devil who capitalized on his fears. Job realized that it was his fears that had come to fruition, which is why he refused to blame God like his friends and wife suggested (Job 3:25).  God was confident in the hedge of protection He put around Job, but by fear, Job opened the door for the devil to wreak havoc in his life. Good thing he recognized the issue early.

Lastly, your closing quote by Yanla Vanzant.

“In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was ‘Help me.’ Sometimes a prayer was ‘Thank you.’ What I’ve discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away- Yanla Vanzant”

This quote totally contradicts your whole post. It lauds the ability of prayer to provide help in time of need. To learn more about Prayer, you must study the works of those wo have gone before. Look for the works of Kenneth Hagin; he gave amazing foundational materials on Prayer. Also look for books by E.W. Kenyon. Start with these 2, and watch your growth.

 God bless you.