One of my aunties was asking me to pray for her daughters (my cousins), but I stopped in my wake. We had always been praying for two things time to time: jobs and marriage, jobs and marriage, jobs and marriage.
This time of sharing, I posed a question to her — and I’m grateful she listened, “What shall we pray for after those have been granted?” All the prophecies received of the girls, loiter about marriage or jobs or cars…
They’ve so far received jobs, but now we began praying for promotion, and increase in salary. Truthfully speaking, it became boring to me. As long as I can remember, that’s all we’ve prayed for them about. When we pray for other relatives as well, it’s always about jobs, and marriage …
She retorted “But we have to ‘pray always without fainting…’ as the Bible says!”
I asked, “Do you know what your children are meant to be or do on earth?”
She went dumb!
I told her what Mark 11:23-24 says. If we desire the children’s salary to increase, we only need to say what we want, believe it and we shall surely have what we say. The key is to hold fast the confession of our faith (Heb 10:23) And that’s it! We don’t need to yell at God as if He doesn’t know about it, or as if He didn’t hear us the day before.
She later brought up an issue of her born again sister who she says needs deliverance from anger and short temperedness. I told her, there’s no demon involved. If the Bible says be slow to anger, and she’s disobeyed, it’s on her.
I told her who the son sets free is free indeed. She is free from anger if she believes. My auntie still blew out of proportion that it still is some bondage that needs A LOOOOOT of praying and fasting and pilgrimage…
If we love Him we ought to obey His commands. I asked my auntie if there’s been any effort for her sis to obey the slowing to anger. I asked her if her sister believes she’s free from the demon of anger.
She went dumb again.
Some things in life do not require prayer. I believe they are — as one of the Ugandan pastors says — in the realm of knowledge. God said my people perish because of lack of knowledge. Not because of lack of prayer or fasting!
Many of us are praying — fine — but are merely making noise and wasting time. In Africa there are a lot of outbursts of women and men fighting demons which are actually scared of them. But because these Christians do not know that the enemy was already defeated when Jesus descended and resurrected, because they do not know that the enemy was disarmed and has no arms to box them or pinch them, they continue to ‘perish.’
The devil isn’t moved that you’re spending hours banging on Heaven’s gates. Bang as much as you want, as long as you do not know that what you want has already been given to you by God. (2 Pet 1:3)
It ceases to be no longer about the quantity of prayer but the quality of your prayer.
The devil will have won if all you pray about is nearsighted. Getting married isn’t a miracle. Even those that do not have faith in God get married. It shall happen whether you like it or not. That is in the realm of ‘say it, believe it and you’ll have what you say.’
Getting a house, land … His word says He’d give you all these things without you necessarily working for them. (Deut 6:11)
The problem with myopic prayer is; the sustenance or motivation to pray will be terminated as soon as the reason for the prayer is given.
“God give me a Grammy.” This prayer resembles one who’d stop writing music once they get that prestigious award. As a musician,your vision as well must transcend such myopicness.
Some fast and pray when they need jobs and marriage. But once these they get, it’s ‘so long’ to God. If they get fired, or divorce waters bash upon the shores of their matrimony, they remember their first love!
All over God’s word, He’s instructed us to do things that are hyperopic! An instruction like ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ is a long term thing. It could take a lifetime to achieve. Note that this is not just making some people IN all nations, but making all nations disciples of Christ. Imagine Iraq being a disciple of Christ! Amazing, right? The degree of prayer required for this — say God is sending you as a missionary there — is far much more than what you require for a scholarship!
If you were Jesus’ mother, and Gabriel told you what kind of son you’re carrying in your womb, your prayers would not be towards his clothing — that God would give him buskins that last like Bata or timberland— No! They would be of wisdom, for Him to grow in it. They would be of endurance, if you heard that he was going to the wilderness for 40 days. They’d be for might, that He’d not give up on the mission He was sent on earth for. Otherwise purpose could be aborted and he’d choose comfort as opposed to dying for all sinners!
This is in contrast with what I asked my auntie regarding the purposes of her daughters. If you do not know what your children were made to be, that’s a good place to start. You’d force your children to study law or medicine, yet God had designated them to be the biggest tailors or mechanics in the world. But because you only prayed for marriage and never about their purpose, there you are — with them frustrated, and you making them live below their full potential!
“We are grateful that God gave us a 50 by 100 plot,” — yet His vision is to make you a lender of nations. Having this knowledge shifts your prayers from settling for less, to pressing towards the mark of the high calling. Bailing nations requires more than millions in dollars.
That means owning a few acres shouldn’t excite you much; buying a range rover neither! Those are nothing! The goal is nations! This will keep you praying at God’s frequency — praying big and not small.
You can as well feel how heavy and huge praying for having finances that rescue nations out of debt transcends praying for a marriage. Yes you are married, but is the world a better place now that you are!
Perhaps, like my auntie, you need to seek the Lord the purpose of your marriage — the weapon that it will be to the principalities of fornication, prostitution, or abortion. Your life was meant to impact more than you! It’s meant to attract kings and their nations — turning them to the one true God of heaven and earth!
Hyperopic prayers shake the foundations of hell. They set the gospel of the kingdom in motion — bringing to pass the conversion of the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of God! The myopic limit God. They avail the life Jesus came that we may have, but do not provoke the life abundantly (John 10:10).
They do not fulfill the second commandment that instructs the loving of our neighbor as we love ourselves. For if we pray for our own goodness alone, we are not praying for all goodness.
Rise to the occasion. You can’t occupy till He comes if you’re only occupying land the size of one grain of sand out of a whole beach or seashore! Pray big! Ask big!
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John 1:50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
There is ‘greater’. Jesus said greater works than He did you would do. If He multiplied food and fed 5,000, you should feed 10,000. This is a good start in regards to hyeropic prayer. And if you feed 10,000 men, that means your abundance firstly catered for you and yours, then overflowed to many others. You therefore can’t lack! You’ll want nothing! You can’t be praying for food for your family at this level. Rather, you’re now positioning yourself to feed 50,000 more.
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