Today we are continuing the journey that we began from the beginning of March and we are looking at what has been titled: Prayer-Driven Discipleship. So our focus today is to see prayer as a force that is able to drive discipleship. I am sure many of us are not ignorant of what discipleship means. But today we want to see how prayer can drive it, how prayer can sustain it, how prayer can get it to a level that is enviable among the nations. You see, if you have God or you have someone that you are worshipping, and your relationship or your communication with such is a mediocre communication and the relationship is a mediocre relationship, then the outcome of that relationship or communication will also be mediocre. It won't be able to make much effect among the nations. But with a robust relationship, with a robust communication comes effectiveness. And people are able to see it around. Everyone around you is able to notice that there is something about you and your God and they want to know about it. And so, as time goes on, you become a witness of your God among the nations. And you know, we are talking about a living God today.

 

Listen To Podcast: PRAYER-DRIVEN DISCIPLESHIP: BUILDING AND SUSTAINING A PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD ON THE EARTH THROUGH YOUR PRAYERS

 

We are not talking about the gods of iron, the gods of wind or all those gods, we are talking about the living God, the one who made all spirits, the Father of spirits. We are examining Prayer-Driven Discipleship and under it, we will be considering what I have titled: Building and Sustaining Productive Relationship with God on the Earth Through Your Prayers. And that aspect of productivity you can replace it with any other words that your heart desires. You can replace it with powerful relationship. You can replace it with influential or any other thing that you desire. But here we are using the word "productive." It says: Building and Sustaining Productive Relationship with God on the Earth. God is in heaven, you are on earth. And this important thing must never be missed. God is in heaven, you are on earth. But it is possible for you as a disciple or a son or servant of God to build and sustain a productive relationship with your God in heaven, even though you are on earth through your prayers. That is our focus today. And I want us to open our Bibles to the book of John 16 and verse 24.

 

"Until now, until this hour, until this day, the 6th of April, Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full." Now it is not just because God wants you to exercise your vocal cords or organs. It is because there is a joy in God which is relevant or available in God for you which you must connect with. Now, the joy is in heaven, don't forget the Bible says in the presence of God there is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures evermore. Now a man, a woman who refuses to approach the presence of God, even though there is an enormous joy at the feet of God, such a person will lack the joy that on God can supply. So that passage says "Ask until your joy is full." Until now, you haven't asked anything. You have only be observing and looking, you haven't asked anything.

 

Now, after now, it is important that you realize that if you must produce anything significant on the earth, if you must have a fruit to show, or a good job to show or a good career to show, a good marriage to show, you must ask until your joy is full. And so, that is a responsibility that God has given unto us. You remember a Scripture that says "ask, seek and knock." The first layer is to ask. Jesus says "ask until your joy is full." So, if your joy is not full, it is because you have simply not ask. Perhaps you have been asking and yet your joy is not full, it is because you have been asking amiss. And so, we want to understand how prayer becomes a drive or a driven force or a capacity that is able to push your relationship with God and your productivity under God to the next level. "Ask until your joy is full."

 

Now, I want us to go to the book of Luke 11. Of course we have seen now that Jesus said "until now they have not ask. Ask until your joy is full." I don't know if you are still not asking God anything. It is important that you understand the importance of you asking God things that you desire, whether big or small. Let us see Luke 11 from verse 1-4. The Bible says:

 

"Now it came to pass that as He was praying in a certain place." And I want you to understand this. There was a time we heard on this platform that Jesus was the disciple of the Holy Spirit on the earth because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit entered into Him filled Him and then led Him to the wilderness. And so, a man who follows someone is a disciple of the one whom he follows. And so, let us see an example of how Jesus was discipled by God which became a pattern for every other person that must be discipled by God through Jesus Christ. "Now it came to pass that as He was praying; (not He was crying or He was doing something else. He was praying, He was not playing football) in a certain place when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him: "Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught His disciples."

 

So, it shows that prayer is a crucial aspect of discipleship that every discipler must be able to teach his or her disciples. Now, John has taught his disciples how to pray, and the disciples of Jesus Christ had observed the impact of such prayers on the disciples of John. It was not just because they saw them doing things, they saw their lives also shifting from levels to levels. And so, they desired growth in their lives, they desired to also increase. And so they say "Jesus teach us, Lord, Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." From verse 2, the Bible says "So He said to them, when you pray.." And that statement is important for us to understand. Prayer is not something you do or may not do. It is something that you must do, just like eating.

 

Jesus says "when you pray", it is not "If you pray." Some people think they can only pray when they need God to do something for them. Some people think they can only pray when they are lonely. But the Bible says "When you pray." Which shows it is a matter of time and not "if." So it says, "when you pray, say.." which shows that prayer is about speaking. Prayer is about speaking. You have to speak. Now, see what Jesus gave them as a model of what to say. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us all our sins.." We are your sons, we are your children. "Forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one."

 

Jesus took the advantage of the opportunity He had to teach His disciples how to pray, and He gave them a detailed pattern on how they should pray. And you must understand that a bastard cannot say "Our Father." Someone who has never been born into a family cannot look at one and say "Our Father." So the foundation of prayer is relationship. It is because there is relationship that is why you are praying. And you are praying to sustain that relationship. That is why we are looking at Building and Sustaining Productive Relationship with God on the Earth Through Your Prayers. You are on the earth, God is in heaven. But you can build a relationship with Him through your prayers. "Our Father in heaven." We are not vague about where you are, we know that you are in heaven. "Hallowed be your name." There is no other name that is bigger than your name. No one can be compared with you, there is no other God beside you.

 

The reason why you must do this is simple. I am sure you know that as a married person, whether you are a man or a woman that you have a responsibility, unwritten responsibility to make your spouse understand that there is no other person on the earth like him or her. Do you understand that? Of course, you know there are other people on the earth. But the reality is you must always help your spouse to know that in your own life, that person is the most important. The reason is so that the person can continue to trust you and follow you or that the person may continue to lead you; the person must know that he or she is the only one that matters in your life. And that is it to God. Saying "Our father in heaven", it is about letting Him and you understand the relationship that exists between you. It is a relationship of a Father to a son or to a daughter. That is important

 

"Hallowed be your name." This makes God to also realize that in my life, in your life, you are the most important. There is no other name that competes. No other God can stand it. This also makes us to understand that prayer is a love talk between a man and his God. If you don't love God, you can't pray. Many people who pray and don't get results is because they are praying to the one that they do not have relationship with. They don't love God and yet they want God to move in their behalf. Of course, God can. And that is why some people gets some result sometimes, and they assume it is because of their righteousness that they got it. It is in the mercy of God that He has moved in their behalf. Not because of the relationship. Don't forget, God sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous. He is awesome in His ways.

 

If you must get the best from God, it must because you are indeed one who is related to Him by blood, and this you must never forget. It says "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Not the will of any man, nor the will of any demon or idol, your own will, in my nation,  in my life, in my world, in my generation, in my community, in my family; your will be done. It is not as I will, but as you will oh God. Your will be done. And if you do this, you are simply assuring God of your state and your commitment to Him. You see, you can never over assure a lover. Every word that you say to a lover towards assuring him or her that you can be trusted is an investment into the relationship. And so, when you say "Your will be done", not the will of others, but your own will be done on this earth where I live, just as it is in heaven where you live.

 

"Give us this day our daily bread." Don't forget the Bible says God is the one that gives bread to the eater and seed to the sower. So God supplies. But acknowledging Him at the beginning of your life or your day that God is the one who will supply what I will eat today, makes a lot of sense. And it goes a long way in fertilizing the relationship or in nourishing the relationship between you and God. You must never at any point in time assume the posture of the provider in the relationship. Don't forget it is a relationship between the Father and a child, a son and his father. And so, every child who wants to continue to remain the favorite of the father must never assume that he or she can provide for himself outside the father. True provision for a child comes ultimately from the father. And so, it is important you show that vulnerability to God in your prayer that if He does not give us our daily bread, no one else can, no one else will. Only you can supply my needs, and it is important you say that every day.

 

It says "and forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us." In every manner and every way that we have wronged you, in every manner that we have behaved below the expectation that you have for us; please forgive us. And see the other part: "Just as we forgive those who sin against us." So that makes a man who prays this prayer to have a relationship with God in heaven and then to have a correct relationship with people on the earth. You see, prayer is that thing that is able to connect you to God and connect you to people. Have you realize that you can never pray for somebody and yet wish the person bad. If you are praying a sincere prayer, a prayer to edify, to enrich, to bless a life; to preserve a life, if you are praying such prayers for any human being, even if it is for the president of your country, you will never wish such a person bad. That is what prayer does.

 

When we see so much evil in our nation, then it shows out attitude to prayer. Then it shows we are not a praying people and a people that is connected to God because you cannot continue to have a relationship with God when there is no relationship between you and the people that God has created. And that is important for us to note. "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." You see, on your own, you are weak, against the wiles, against the attack of the evil one. On your own! You require God to preserve you. And that you must never forget. And you cannot have that preservation of God if you are the one who will never pray. Praying this prayer on a daily basis makes God to be committed to your safety and it shows how vulnerable you are before God and that without Him, there is no way you could save or deliver yourself. And this is very important for us to know.

 

So, you can see that what Jesus taught them was not something to isolate them from their God or something that could make them feel that they are mighty on their own, no! It was a prayer that must keep them at the feet of the Lord for the rest of their lives. A prayer that must keep them under God so that their supply on a daily basis can be guaranteed by God, their protection and their leadership on a daily basis can be ensured by God. So it is God who does His will on the earth through them on a daily basis, who feeds them and who leads them in the way that they must go and preserves them from the evil one. That was the all the prayer that Jesus taught them was all about, and it shows us that prayer is really a force that sustains relationship and that sustains relationship between God and men on the earth and that becomes a driving force in discipleship.

 

If you ever say you are a disciple of God, you are a disciple of Christ Jesus on the earth, and you never pray; Jesus said "Until now you have not ask. He says ask until your joy is full." And what do you ask? "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done." you are asking that His kingdom come and His will be done on the earth. You are asking in the place of prayer. You are asking that He does not lead you into temptation but delivers you on a daily basis from the evil one. You are asking that He feeds you day by day with your bread, that which He has preserved and prepare for you even before you were born. You are depending on Him, you are asking for Him for supplies. Prayer really is what God has instituted to sustain the relationship between you and Him.

 

Now I want us to see a contrast in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and I will read from verse 12. The Bible says: "Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer." And this is very important for us to note. It is not only something that exists or comes to be in the New Testament. It was even in the Old Testament. It says: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice." Another word we can say is "as a house of prayer." From verse 13, it says: "When I shut up heaven." Notice again the word "When", showing it is a matter of time. "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if.." Do you see that?

 

God began in verse 13 by saying "when I shut." It is a matter of time. I have the prerogative to shut it. I do it. Currently now, where I am living, there is no rain coming. So it means God has shut it. Now, when there is rain, it means God has open it. So it says "When I shut up heaven." Notice again the word "When", showing it is a matter of time. "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people," Now notice what starts verse 14. It says: "if My people." So that brings probability to the whole equation. Hitherto it was rain, now it is if. Now it means God can do those things He said He will do but it is not compulsory for people to do what He wants to say. What God will do is only a matter of time, but what the people will do is a matter of probability. They can do it and they may choose not to do it. However, if they do it, there is a consequence. If they chose not to do it, there is also a consequence. Let us see verse 14 together:

 

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

 

"Then I will hear from heaven." Now in my note, I actually wrote a few things that I want to read very quickly. I titled what I want to read to us now as things that God could do against a sinful nation. Whether the nation is God's nation or a nation that has nothing to do with God. These are the things that God could do. Number one: God could shut up heaven. You see, when there is no rain, people begin to say it is because of global warming, climate change, people begin to bring some experiment to it. But these are the things that God has the prerogative to do. These are the things that God does which men can interpret or misinterpret at their own will. It says I shut up heaven, disallowing rain. Number two: I command the locust to devour the land. So, when locust devours the harvest of farmers, it is not a climate change, it is God commanding it. Another one, it says "When I send pestilence among my people." And if God could send pestilence among His people, it also means that God could also send it concerning any people or any nation.

 

So, God can shut up heaven making rain not to happen. And when there is no rain, there will be no harvest. If God sends any of these three or these three at once among a people, it will destroy them. It will destroy the economy, it will destroy their capacity to feed themselves, it will even ultimately destroy their health. It says "When I send pestilence among my people" not among the animals, not among their crops, among the people. They can call it Covid-19 or GENVID-03 or you call it any name. Any disease that comes upon a people could be sent by God. You see, one of the things that I was meditating on is how in the world we are so full of ourselves. We take glory for anything that we do. Anything that happens, we make it our own, not knowing that it is God that works in us both to will and to do.

 

There is no man, no being, no creature on this earth today that works outside the authority of God. When Job was to be attacked by Satan, Job was fine until God brought the matter to Satan. If God didn't raise the matter, Job will be fine forever. So, Satan cannot take credit for it. God said "Have you considered my servant Job that there is no one like him on the earth." Satan told God to allow him try Job if he won't curse Him and God permitted him to go ahead. And so, at the command of God, even though he told Satan not to touch his life. So, some people will think Satan did not kill. When they say Covid-19 has three percent fatality rate, they think it is the devil and they thanked God. Some people, when they even say thank God, they are not really referring to the Most High. They are just saying it as a matter of thanksgiving. They are just excited, that this Covid-19 does not have an hundred percent fatality rate.

 

God said "you can touch the things he has, but don't touch his life." So, the fatality rate as long as Job was concerned was zero percent. And yet it was an affliction on his body commanded by God but executed through Satan. God has a will on earth. Anyone can execute the will of God, even demon can as well. But if God does not command it so, it will never be allowed. And so you must understand. Don't give credit to science. What people called science is still what God has commanded. Remember when a kingdom attacked Israel, and at a time, God's judgment came upon the people. They besieged Israel and Bible says they began to kill themselves. The Israelites didn't do anything; the enemies who came to kill them began to kill themselves. And so eventually, they found that they have gone.

 

So, will they say it was just an argument that started the fight. No! When God is at work, usually we still believe men are working or Satan is working or Mother Nature is working. No! God is at work. The reason why people will never come to understand that God is at work in our lives, so that they can repent of their evil ways is because the devil does not want them to see the hand of God, lest they repent. Devil wants them to see that it is a chance or a random occurrence, how random is it? What happens to Job, was it a random occurrence? And this is important for us to note. Whether we say it is the scientist that stole it from one Canadian Lab and took it to China, all these things can be commanded by God. If God does not want it, they will never think about it. No demon will come up with a desire to even share it with them. You see, demons cannot execute any judgment on this earth outside the permission of God.

 

You see, when God wants to destroy any people, it is not God who goes there by Himself. He sends His angels, and He can allow an evil angel to destroy simply because they are just ready for destruction. There are vessels for wrath, there are vessels of mercy. Those that have been raised up in their iniquity that God may show His wrath through. Pharaoh was a vessel of God's wrath. God demonstrated His wrath through Pharaoh. Even though he thought that he was the one hardening his own heart, but it was God that was hardening his heart and I want you to understand this. If people don't see the hand of God in the things that is happening around them, they will never see a need to worship God or go back to God. Why will you turn back from your wicked ways when you do not think that it is your wickedness that has brought you to this point?

 

So, the things that God can do: God can shut up heaven, and  that will collapse any economy. God can command locust to devour the land and God can send pestilence among his own people, whether they call themselves Christians or any other name. God can send pestilence. But what must the people do when they find themselves in this situation? And it is still in the places that we read. The first thing is that the people must humble their hearts. They must humble themselves before God. Isaiah 66:1, God was asking: "Which house will you build me? All these things my hand has made. But this is one that I cannot look away from, a one who has a pure and a contrite spirit." Anyone who is humble. Bible says God resist the proud and gives grace to the humble.

 

If you read the Bible, you will see in countless places how God detest the proud. Pride is one thing that took Satan out of heaven. If you want to get out of God's favor, allow pride into your life. There is not short pride or high pride. Once you are proud, you are proud, there is no holy pride or unholy pride. There is no righteous pride or unrighteous pride; there is no white pride or a black pride. Pride is pride and it destroys. My people must humble themselves, they must not give glory to scientists, and they must not assume that once the ventilators are brought to their country, they are safe. Their salvation is neither in the ventilators nor in the capacity of their medical practice. Chinese doctors coming into their nation cannot rescue them. It is only their humility, submitting to their God. What happens to them is not a random occurrence. It is not because of one 5G or not. It is God! You must understand that. Humble yourself before that God.

 

The second thing: it says "if my people will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face." That is important. With humility must follow prayer, seeking the face of God. And don't forget the pattern that we read in Luke chapter 11. It says "forgive us our sins even as we forgive." Forgive us our sins! You know, the prayer was taught the disciples who were not supposed to be sinners. But yet, they are expected to pray it to show us that if your sin is not forgiven, you have no chance to stand before God. You can't pray to God or look at Him in your sins. You can't stand the presence of God in your sins. And so, those who are not sinners by nature are even asking God to forgive them their sins. So, when the people sinned against God, haven humbled themselves, they must pray to God, seeking the face of God. Your prayer should be the prayer of mercy and help.

 

I am sure you have realized that when a husband has wronged his wife, if the husband is full of arrogance and pride, the man will never say I am sorry. Now even if the woman has wronged her husband, if she is full of arrogance and pride, she will never say she is sorry. But you must understand that with humility comes the ability to seek for mercy. Pray to God for His mercy, ask Him to have His way and His will done in your life and in that situation. The will of God is that you be in health, that you prosper, ask that the will of God be done. Seek the face of God. And then what happens? It says "if they will seek my face and turns from their wicked ways, turn from their wicked practices, traditions and culture, the things that they have been doing that has made them to be so driven away from God, they should turn back from it." That is it!

 

You see, if you humble your heart and you refused to pray, it will be very difficult for you to turn from your wicked ways. Another word for that is your unrighteous ways. Anything against what God has told you to do is your wicked way, and you must turn back from it. And let us see the response of God. God said "then I will hear." God didn't say "then I may hear!" Because you can't pray to God and return from your wicked ways and God will not turn too. God will always turn. So, when we have a situation that is unpleasant and we perpetuate for a long time, it is not because of God, it is because of us. Bible says "Then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and Heal their land." Until there is forgiveness of sin, there will be no healing for the people.

 

The land will not be healed, and the people will not be healed. Don't forget. God could have caused it and prevented the rain from falling. And so, if the people are not forgiven, the land is not healed, there will be no rain, the locust will still be in the land and there will be pestilence. So, with forgiveness comes healing. The forgiveness must precede any healing for any people. But there is something I want to quickly say before I conclude which we must see. And let us even read from verse 15 downwards.

 

"Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and ^[e]My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’ ¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples."

 

Do you see that? See verse 22. It says:

 

"Then they will answer, (That is when people begins to pass around and see the destruction that has taken place on the land and among the people that God loved) it says: "then they will say" (The people are asking questions, the people are answering it) "then they will say ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ "

 

You see, worshipping God is for your good. In your best interest, you must worship God. I don't know how many fathers will love their children so much, you are the one that brought them into this world and you have invested so much time, so much love, so much access and privileges to them, and haven grown up, they decide never to embrace you to the point that they decide never to visit you haven grow up. They decide never reaching out to you, never talking to you and never doing anything that will make you happy. As a father, what would you do? All of them, in their old age? I am sure you don't want to even think about it. What you are doing to God is more than that.

 

A father is not even the one who create the children, but God is the one who creates. You know men, when they say men procreate, we are only trying to continue what God began really. But what God did is deeper than procreation. God cannot raised you up for Himself and water your life as a well-watered garden, prospered you, exempted you from every shame and evil and only for you to grow up and suddenly decided that you never want to talk to God, you will never want to please Him and glorify Him; and all you want to do is to make sure that every enemy of God is excited with your life and only God is saddened over your life. What glory do you want to give to God?

 

Now when a people chose this type of life, it comes with a consequence because our God is a consuming fire. It is His love that preserves. When we go outside the mercy of God, when you begin to bring reproach to the name of God, you bring God to hanger and you attract the wrath of God on your life and you are not able to bear it. It says when people see these things, they will say "then they will say ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt," The Lord who brought them through their university, the Lord who brought them up to this point, the Lord who established them, the Lord who prospered them; they forsook Him. It is because they did that and haven forsaken Him, they now embraced other gods.

 

Imagine a prince who had been with his father for years growing up, and at the time when the father should be relaxing now runs away from the kingdom, goes to another kingdom and then becomes a servant of one of the rebels of his father who ran away, haven being punished by the father, and ran to a new village and then the prince now becomes a servant to that rebel. Does it not look like downgrading? it is a downgrade! A man who is in honor and does not know is like a beast and he will perish. See, there are two evils that we must see from this thing and that lead any people into destruction.

 

Number one: turning away from the laws, instructions, principles, warnings and commandments of the Lord. That is the first evil. And the second evil is going to serve other gods and worshipping them. These are the evils that these people committed and I want us to see a place quickly in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13. I am sure we are familiar with that Scripture; I just want to read it. It says "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountains of living waters and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." That is what other gods do and that is what embracing other gods means. That means you have hewned for yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. You have forsaken, deliberately, the fountain of living water. Forsaken God is forsaken the fountain of living water, going after gods and serving them is hewn for yourself broken cistern that cannot hold water.

 

Imagine your life without water. I am not even talking about literal water, I am talking about life. Those broken cisterns, the gods that you are worshipping, they can hold no life. They can't protect or preserve your life beyond their own capacity, they can't. It is important that you abide under the shadows of the Almighty, the one who has the capacity to sustain your life even beyond this realm. I am sure you remember that place in Isaiah chapter 59 from verse 1-2. Let me quickly read it. I want us to write Isaiah 59:1-2 and James 5:16 and then we will conclude. "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear."

 

James 5:16, the Bible says: "Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much." "The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much." A righteous man is a man without iniquity, a woman without iniquity. When you are without iniquity, when you have sought for forgiveness and God has forgiven all your sins, when you pray to God, Bible says it makes much power available. It is not enough for you to have a relationship with God who is in heaven and you are on earth, there must be a proof in your life. And that proof can only be visible if you are indeed a righteous man, a righteous woman. Because in unrighteousness, there can't be any link between you and God. And that is important.

 

I wrote something here and I just want to read it out: If you are not a righteous person, I am not saying religious; I am saying righteous. If you are not a righteous person, do not bother to pray to God. But if you must pray at all, pray the prayer of forgiveness with a humble heart. If you are not a righteous person, do not bother to pray to God. But if you must pray at all, pray the prayer of forgiveness with a humble heart. Because until you become righteous, your prayer becomes weak and makes no power available. It is righteousness, Bible says, that exalts a nation. It is righteousness that exalts you and positions you in a place that you can communicate with God and you can get a corresponding answer from God. Every time you pray to God, God is able to hear you if only you have a right relationship with Him.

 

Remember the story of Daniel, as soon as he began to pray, God sent a response, God answered him. If you pray to God in righteousness, you will get a steady and a guarantee response from God. It is unrighteousness that shortens a people from their God, that separates a people from their God. In Daniel 11:32, it says: "but the people who do know their God, who know their God that He is holy and righteous and therefore, they are also righteous; don't forget the Bible says "Be ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect", anyone who knows God must also because of his knowledge position himself or herself in a manner that can connect with God. Those who know their God shall be strong and shall carry out great exploits. They will command great things in their generation, but it rests on the foundation of knowing their God, and they have a relationship with their God that is able to translate into visible proofs, visible results among their nations, among their brethren, among their neighbors. And I want us to pray to God and say:

 

"Lord, I come back to you, Lord, forgive me for going away from you, forgive me for turning away from you, forgive me for forsaking you, the fountain of living waters and hewn for myself broken cisterns that cannot hold waters; Lord have mercy on me in the name of Jesus, forgive me of my sins of living like a prodigal son, going away on a prodigal living. Lord I come back this day as a righteous son of God, I come back again to the Father of light, to the Father of all flesh."

 

In Jesus' Name!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!