Winning Without Prayers

Today many Christians have found themselves in a place where everything about their success and happiness is dependent on fire and tearful prayers. They have to pray and pray and pray before they can gain school admission, and they have to do the same to stay healthy, to get married, to get a job, to get a visa, to get children, and every other thing they want. Everything about their experience of goodness depends on hours and sometimes days of begging God, crying to Him, dealing with enemies, and binding multiple devils. I made up my mind a long time ago not to live that kind of life.

During my undergraduate days, some of my Christian brothers in the fellowship usually say 'For every new level, there is a Devil ''. And they have to spend hours of prayers dealing with the Devil at their new level until everyone is really really sweating. And I always wonder why they have such great interest in Devils, to the extent that all their prayers revolve around it. What a terrible place to be in Christ Jesus, a place of acute enemy consciousness. You will neither enjoy your life in Christ nor moments of prayers in that state of consciousness. And God neither wants His children to be in such a terrible state nor to practice the religion of begging God for everything.

'Bro Chris, do you mean I should not pray for everything I want?' Yes, exactly what I'm saying. Think of it, some people are enjoying the same thing without knowing anything about prayer. Some of the things we cry to God for every day, others are giving it out freely. And that makes me rethink the purpose of prayer, the biblical approach to it, and the practice of it. You know when I listen to some Christians pray and beg God for things, it usually feels like God is wicked because many have prayed like that over and over again, and even recruited others to join them and still died in the same situation. And for whatever reason, we keep doing the same thing without questioning whether it is really working or not. Most of the time, people's problem is not a lack of prayers, but a lack of proper knowledge of biblical principles and the place of divine guidance in the life of a Christian.

Besides, that you get what you pray for does not also mean you're approaching prayer the way God wants us to approach it. God doesn't want his children to struggle for things. I believe He wants us to enjoy our life on earth naturally. He wants us to be healthy, to be successful, and to be fulfilled. He wants us to be happy, and to be in control of our domain. He wants us to manifest the supernatural naturally, i.e. without struggling. When one reads the bible and sees how Jesus and the disciples approach things, one will be greatly challenged. Jesus comes to the grave of a man who has died several days before and simply says, 'Lazarus come forth', and the dead man rises up. Peter comes to the bed of a man who has been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years, and says to him, 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you!' Immediately the man got up (Acts 9:33-35)

There is a great struggle in religion but not in Christ Jesus. We saw how the prophets of Baal struggled to get Baal to answer their prayers. It is really surprising that the prayers we make today resemble the prayers of the prophets of Baal more than it resembles the prayers of Jesus and the Apostles. Until we demand from ourselves the Bible experience, we won't have it. David said because the Lord is his shepherd, goodness and mercies will follow him. We should be magnets for good things. When we walk with the Lord as we should, he said 'all these things shall be added unto you'. You have to determine not to build a life that is consistently in the ICU and needs plenty of prayers to survive the next minute. Learn to enjoy your life naturally in Christ Jesus. Learn how to walk with him and experience his blessings in your life without the everyday fighting for survival that many Christians engage in. Determine not to allow devils to control your life or your prayers. And most importantly, determined to be consistently led by the Spirit.

Yes, the bible does tell us to pray without ceasing. That is to pray constantly without stopping. This tells us how important prayer is in the life of Christians, and why I personally take prayers very seriously. But the word of God never said we should pray for everything. Yes, we are to commit our ways unto the Lord and to talk to God without struggling. Learn to fellowship with God in prayer, to make confessions that recreate your world, and to spend a good amount of time praying in the Spirit. Let not your prayers be periods of begging God to do something. Most of the time that we are busy begging God to do something, he is actually waiting for us to do something. Brothers and sisters, discover what he wants you to do and do it. And if you see that the Devil wants to mess things around you, do what the Bible tells us to do, 'Cast him out' and move on.