All glory, all honour, adoration to You. Heavenly father, we are worship You forever and ever and evermore.
From January to December, we thank You, for making us to sleep and waking us up all through the 365 days in 2014, we say E she, Dalu, Emela, Saun, Thank You.
For all the Blessings, Deliverances, Healings, Breakthroughs, Kindness, Mercies, Sufficient Grace, Protections, Victories, Provisions, Divine guidance, Supernatural support, Forgiveness, Answer Prayer, Godly Confidence, Promotions, Comfort to the brokenhearted, Maturity through adversity, Peace instead of Worry, Spiritual Revivals, Consolations, and Invincible love, we say Thank You.
For Your Word You sent to us and confirming same in the lives of Your children that set us free from the oppressions of the wicked and evil ones, we say thank You.
We cannot thank You enough Lord, but we pray You accept our thanksgiving offerings unto You. Amen!
At the beginning of the year the Lord announced to us that this is our year of “Divine Favour” and I believe you have testimonies to show truly that it is the favour of God that brought you thus far. Praise the Name of the Lord!
Beloved, behold the last day in the month of December and year 2014, are you excited? I can perceived many answers ring in the air, some are saying yesssssssssooooooooo, while some are saying well, you know, had it been, if not that, in all things Apostle Paul said we are more than conquering through Christ that strengthen us. He also admonished us to give thank in all the circumstance.
So also I enjoin you to give thanks. Thanksgiving is an act of worship that is receive by God alone. Angles can attend to your prayer requests but when we praise God despite “All”, first we draw His attention to us and we put satan to flight. Secondly, We astonish God and draw His hand towards us. (2 Chr 20:21- 30; Isa 61:3; Ac 16:25) and so many others too numerous to mention, where the acts of Thanksgiving brought deliverance and victories.
Beloved, in our praying dossier today, we will be thanking God for all His benevolence in year 2014, that will position us before our Mighty God for the year ahead. Praise the Lord!
We will also be considering conditions for Answered prayer and four different ways God can answers prayers:
Conditions For Answered Prayer
As a teen, I assumed God was deaf and disinterested in our concerns. That was because many believers seemed to shout when they prayed. Their prayers frequently appeared to be agonizingly long, often fraught with a whimpering, begging quality.
I later learned that both impressions of God were woefully inaccurate. The sample prayer Jesus gave the disciples to utter, for instance, is profound, yet simple, taking about 20 seconds to repeat. (See Matthew 6:9-13). Its contents testify of God’s intense interest in our requests, if we will but come to Him as a little child. (See Matthew 18:2-4)
George Muller of Bristol, England (1805-1898) has offered five conditions for answered prayer:
- Entire dependence upon the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only basis for His blessing: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it… You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (John 14:13, 14; 15:16) (See Matthew 7:7; 11:24; John 15:7; Ephesians 3:20; 1 John 3:22)
- Separation from all known sin:
“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Psalm 66:18) (See Proverbs 15:8, 29)
- Faith in God’s Word of promise as confirmed by His oath. Not to believe Him is to make Him both a liar and a perjurer:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) (See Hebrews 3:18; 4:2; 6:13-20)
- Ask in accordance with His will: Our motives must be godly: we must not seek any gift of God to consume upon our own lusts:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (1 John 5:14, 15; James 4:3) (See Job 35:12; Proverbs 1:20-28; Malachi 3:4)
- Ask aggressively: There must be waiting on God and waiting for God, as the farmer develops patience in waiting for the harvest:
“Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord‘s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.” (James 5:7) (See Luke 18:1-10)
Beloved, having read the above, did you meet all the condition, where you did miss it, this is so important as we round up the year, to know our flaws and avoid same in the following year. However, God respond to our prayers in one of the four ways we will be considering:
God Responses To Our Prayers In One Of Four Ways
- “No – Your request is not in God’s will.”
“After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah‘s wife had borne to David, and he became ill… David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground… He answered, ‘While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live… But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.‘” (1 Samuel 2:15, 16, 22, 23)
- “Slow – Your request is not in God’s will at this time.”
“So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick.‘… Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days… So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.‘… On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days… When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!‘ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.‘” (John 11:3, 6, 14, 15, 17, 43, 44)
- “Grow – Your motives are wrong.”
“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)
- “Go – Your request, timing, and spiritual condition are okay… Yes!”
“Elijah… prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” (James 5:17b-19)
And from Romans 8:26-29 we know four truths about prayer:
The Holy Spirit helps us to know what and how to pray (verse 26)
- The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf (verse 26)
- God hears our hearts more than the words in prayer (verse 27)
- Prayer is always answered (verses 28-29), though not always according to our agenda.
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God‘s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.“
Are you blessed? Did you get some insight as to why answer to prayers are sometime delay as in the case of Simeon and Anna (Lk 2:25-38) not answered at all or get divine attention (1 Sam 1:15 -18;24-28).
As we commit our needs to the Lord once again believe Him that He is able to do it, thank Him for answers to prayer then pay attention to the directions of the Holy Spirit in accomplishing it. Praise the Name of the Lord.
Dearly beloved, it has been a long way all through year 2014. I cannot be here without, therefore I appreciate you for there for us and I also thank God for the impact and progress we have made through our journey this year. I learnt some new and amazing things in the Word of God and I believe you have many testimonies of the Lord’s doing in your life
To God who supplies all the Word, I bow before His presence, to the Son, I worship you for confirm the Word upon our lives and to my best and highest companion the “Holy Spirit”, I say a profound “thank You” for revealing the secret things of our heavenly Father to a lowly maid like me.
And to you, my dear and beloved friend, I say a very “well done” and “thank you” for your suggestion, encouragement, giving, and above all your prayers that have kept the devil at bar. We have made it through this year, we have brace the tape, and we will enter the year 2015 majestically as children of the most high God. Praise the Lord.
From allofus @ OVERCOMERS-FAITH INT’L via our devotional arm “Mattersoftheheart”, wishes you a GOD’s FILLED YEAR ahead. See you at the other side.
Remain blessed in the Lord
