Power of Prayer part 2- Apostle Peterson O. Abu

The speaker begins with a prayer, asking for help from God. They thank God for the evening and express their belief that God will bless them with His word. They emphasize the importance of prayer and its benefits, stating that prayer is communication between man and God. They explain that prayer is necessary for making important decisions and securing one's destiny. They also mention that prayer can bring healing, clarity, and deliverance from sin. The speaker warns against the dangers of a prayerless life and urges listeners to maintain a consistent prayer life to become more like Jesus. They emphasize that prayer should not be procrastinated and can be done at any time and in any state. The speaker concludes by quoting Luke 18:1, which encourages constant prayer and warns against fainting or losing the power of prayer. Lord, I pray that you help me in the name of Jesus. Father, help me in the name of Jesus. Father, help me, Lord. Help us, King of glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Have your way, Lord. Have your way. Have your way, Lord. Have your way. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Have your way. Hallelujah. Shall we bow our head and pray? Precious Father, we thank you for this evening. Thank you for your children, always coming to hear from you. We thank you, Lord, because we know that this evening you are going to bless us with your word. And that your word will become life in our lives in Jesus' name. And that your word will give us strength. And that your word will heal everyone that is sick here in Jesus' name. We send forth your word and your word healeth them. We pray, Holy Spirit, that your word heal the broken in hearts. That your word set us free in Jesus' name. Our brethren, wherever they may be at this time, we pray you secure every one of them. For in Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Before you have your seat, look at one person and say good evening and God bless you. God bless you. Amen. We are not going to take much time this evening. But before we go, we'll be continuing from our message last week. When is it? Last week we began the teaching on the power of prayer, part one. Today we'll be coming to the completion of that same message, which is the power of prayer, part two. And last week I made known to you the importance of prayer. I made known to you the benefits of prayer. I made known to you what prayer is all about. And I told you last week that prayer is essentially communication between man and God. That God is His spirit. And the only way we can communicate to God is through prayer. And I made known to you that prayer is one of the greatest privileges that God has given to man so that we can undo situations in our lives. That without prayer there won't be solution in our lives. And that without prayer many things will go wrong in our lives. A prayerless Christian should make dangerous decisions. Because most decisions we make in life that eventually affect us in life. There were decisions that we made out of prayerlessness. A prayerful man are men that take decisions by the spirit of God. Most especially when it comes to the decision of marriage, praise the Lord. Marriage decisions or marital decisions should not be taken by emotion. It should be taken from the spirit. Prayer is very essential when it comes to the place of destiny. We need prayer to be able to secure what God is saying of who we are going to become in life. You don't just choose career. You don't just become aspirant. Because you are aspiring to become great in life. You take decisions anyhow. You can destroy your life. Prayer makes you to be able to find the will of God concerning that decision you are about to make. Prayer can bring healing to your body. Prayer can bring healing to the sick. Prayer can make confused people to be able to receive clarity on what to do with their life. The moment there is absence of prayer, the devil will have dominion and authority over the life of a believer. Somebody said, he that is sinning cannot be praying and the man that is praying cannot be sinning. It means that prayer is one of the ways out of sin. You cannot become a sinless believer without maintaining the order of prayer. Praise the Lord. And prayer without prayer you cannot win battles of life. Jesus often prayed before the breaking of the day. And that was what gave him victory over the situations of the day. You cannot conquer the temptations of the day without first praying. Look at what happened to Peter. Praise the Lord. Peter was with Jesus. Jesus took Peter that let us go and pray together. That would be the first time that probably Peter would have prayed with Jesus. Because before that time Jesus always prayed alone. But this time Jesus decided to go with Peter. And while they were praying in the night, Jesus after praying for one hour, he went back and saw Peter sleeping. Praise the Lord. When he saw Peter sleeping, he said, Peter, can't you go and wash with me for one hour? And he told Peter, he said, wash and pray. Lest thou fall into what? Lest thou fall into what? Now if Jesus said that prayer and washing is the secret of overcoming temptation. Because he said, Peter, if you don't pray, if you don't wash, you will fall into temptation. Did Peter fall? Didn't Peter fall? Yes, it denied Jesus. Early that morning Jesus was telling him, wash and pray. So that you will not fall into temptation. Later that day Peter said, I don't know Jesus. To tell you how powerful, without prayer life you can even deny the man of God. You can even deny the church. Without prayer life you can even deny Jesus. Without prayer life you can throw away your Bible and just live an earlier life. Without prayer life. That is why when a man is backsliding from God, when a man does not love coming to church again, when a man does not love reading his Bible, when a man does not love going out to evangelism, among many things we should check about that man, is that we should check his prayer life. The moment there is absence of prayer, that man will not love the presence of God again. Without prayer you cannot maintain consistency with God. Without what? You can't maintain consistency with God. Without prayer you will become a rising and falling Christian. Without prayer. And let me say to you, the best kind of Christians we are going to have in this generation, or in every generation, are Christians that pray. Prayer can make you to come out from addiction. Prayer can make you to overcome anger. Prayer can make you to become humble. Prayer can make you to become kind, to become lovely, to become patient, to become long sufferer. Prayer can make you to have temperance. The more you pray, the more you are transformed. And that is why it is in the place of prayer, that we become like Jesus. We become like what? Jesus. It is in the place of prayer, when you see a man who has a very unique nature, a very Christ like life, that man is not far from prayer. Because when you are always praying, you will be transforming, you will be conforming to the image of Christ. Praise the Lord. The Bible gave us a revelation about Jesus Christ, that he prayed, and his diamond became like that of an angel. It became like to me. Jesus prayed, and he got transformed. And that is the situation of prayer. If you start praying, you will become a real Christian. And that is why a Christian is not a Christian, if there is no prayer life. Anything that makes you to be coming to church every day, every time, and then you do not have prayer life, you are a religious person. You are a religious person. Because prayer is what makes you to do the Word of God. Reading the Bible is one way to become like Jesus. But doing of the Word of God, is through the power of what? Prayer. And that is why when you hear a message like this, we have a, there is a website where our messages are uploaded. You go back and listen to it, over and over, and pray the Word. It is the praying of the Word you add, that makes it a reality in your life. You cannot do the Word of God, because you just listen to it. It is when you engage that Word into prayer, and say, Lord, this man talk about prayer. Lord, help me to become prayerful. That is what makes you to do the Word of God. I pray that God will give us that grace in Jesus name. Let us go back to the book of Luke chapter 18 verse 1. Luke chapter 18 verse 1. Are we there? Praise the Lord. Luke chapter 18 verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to what? And not to what? And not to offend. Men ought always to pray, and not to offend. Praise the Lord. Now, there are two sides here. Number one is praying. Number two is what? Fainting. Number two is what? Fainting. Number one is what? What is number one? What is number two? Fainting. When people are fainting, the word fainting here, also means a state of spiritual coldness. A state of spiritual lukewarmness. You wake up in the morning, you just say prayer. I call it talking prayer. For conscience sake. Father I thank you. Amen. Hallelujah. You stand up. You can't really pray. If we say let us pray for 30 minutes, 30 minutes look like a boarding. It's as if somebody is placing boarding on you. Jesus said men ought always to pray. This is the same Jesus that will judge you. This is the same Jesus that will tell you you can't get to heaven. He is the one that says that without prayer, a man can faint. And he said men ought always to what? Pray and not to faint. You see the reason Jesus said you should pray and not to faint, is that there is possibility of you fainting. There is possibility of you losing the power of prayer. There is possibility of you losing the strength of prayer. There is possibility of you, instead of you to pray that time, you begin to procrastinate prayer. If I want to be seen that is affecting a lot of Christians, why they are not prayerful is procrastination. Procrastination. They procrastinate prayer. When they should have prayed, they shifted to the next time. They said okay I am going to pray later. It is not by power. Praise the Lord. Understand that the moment you start procrastinating prayer, and you get used to that, you will never be prayerful again. And that is why you shouldn't start what you shouldn't continue. If your prayer time is 12 o'clock in the night, or 3 o'clock in the morning, or 9 o'clock in the morning, or 12 o'clock in the noon time, pray. In whichever way just works, pray. Pray. Pray anywhere you find yourself. Pray at any time. Pray in any state. You are sick, pray. Jesus never put a preference here. He never said men ought always to pray, except those who are sick, that shouldn't what? Pray. Did Jesus say sick there? It means that even the sick should what? Pray. He didn't say, oh men ought always to pray, except the pregnant ones, because they will be very tired to pray. Did Jesus say that? No. It is in prayer that you begin to discover so many things around your environment, among your siblings, among your children, among people around you. Prayer makes your eyes to be open. Prayer makes you to understand what is happening in your environment. Prayer makes you to understand the devices of the enemies. So Jesus said, men ought always to what? Pray and not to fence. Praise the Lord. And also last week we studied, we read from the book of Psalm 50 verse 15. He called upon me in the days of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify what? My name. So prayer is calling upon God, and also last week I made known to you from Matthew chapter 7 verse 7, Jesus said ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall what? Find. Knock, what will happen? The door shall be opened unto you. These are different practices of prayer. Number one is asking. Asking is when you go to the Lord and say, Lord this is what I need. And it appears as if what you are praying for is not coming forth. You go to knocking. What is knocking? What is seeking? Seeking is sometimes you have to just separate yourself and go into fasting. You are eating, you are breaking in the evening. Lord do this thing for me. Lord do that thing for me. And when you seek you are not finding it, what will happen? Go into knocking. Knocking means that you extend that fasting. It can be 24 hours dry fasting. It can be 2 days dry fasting. You are telling the Lord, Lord you must do this. It is when you ask, when you seek, when you knock, you shall find. You shall find in Jesus name. I say you shall find in Jesus name. Prayer is the act of engaging God in the affairs of men. Prayer is the act of engaging God in the affairs of men. 2017, I was in a village in Kogi State. I went to a particular village. I went there alone as a missionary. But I will not do that again. Are you with me? I did that because of the seal that was upon me then. I was into evangelistic work, not pastoral work. So I went to a particular village in Kogi State, an Igala land. The land is dominated by Igalas. And then when I was going out for evangelism, I saw a compound. At the front of the compound they put some materials that showed that the people living in this compound, they are idol worshippers. They put some sacrifices at the front. Before you enter the compound, get inside. You will know that these people, they are what? Idol worshippers. Praise the Lord. So I entered into the compound. So when I entered into the compound, I saw some of the children playing. They were not able to hear English. So I called them. I said, okay, I want to speak to your, is your father around? They said no, their father is not around. I said, okay. What about your mother? Man married many wives. So I went to call their mothers. Praise the Lord. And when they came, they were a beautiful young lady. I said, okay. Some of them, their hair, they tie these ties to their hair. Are you with me? They are just very funny. You will know that these people, they are idol worshippers. Praise the Lord. And when their mothers came around, I told them, a few of them were hearing English. My interpreter was still with them so that I would be able to flow. So my interpreter was initially with me then. So when I asked them, I said, what about your father? They said, the father is not around. I said, okay, I'm going to come back. So when I came back, my interpreter was in a hurry. He didn't follow me. Praise the Lord. Probably, I never knew who they were. I never knew how strong they were. So I was looking for my interpreter. I didn't see my interpreter. And we all agreed that by four o'clock, I would be going there. So I went there alone. And then they saw me. I said, what about Baba? They said, Baba has not yet come. I said, okay, I want to talk to them. I didn't carry a Bible because I know if they see a Bible, they will not want to give me attention. So they were so wanting to hear what I wanted to say. I said, okay, I want to tell you about my friend. They said, who is your friend? I said, Jesus. And I began to preach. I began to preach. And I told them, I said, Baba come. Because when I preached, I led a few of them to Christ. These were the wives of an idol worshiper, Anabalist. So, I told them that if Baba comes, they should tell Baba that I came to look for him. So the next morning, I went there again. And eventually I saw the Baba. Praise the Lord. Then, although he didn't allow me to preach to him, but I met him one-on-one. Praise the Lord. After those experiences, two or three days later, I was at home in that village. It was the place I was staying. So, rain began to fall. But it was not really falling. It was just falling just a little. It was just drizzling. So while the rain was just dropping, I was like, okay, it was four in the evening. I said, okay, let me just wait. Because when I was in that village, though I was there for a mission, but there was a church I was worshipping with. I said, okay, let me wait until 4.30. If this rain does not stop by 4.30, I will enter into this church. While I was waiting, I sat down on the bed. Praise the Lord. I sat down on the bed, waiting. Immediately, I heard the thunder. The moment the thunder quaked, I saw the lightning of the thunder enter through the window into my room. And it kicked me. Praise the Lord. Are you with me? The thunder entered through the window. It was a small window in that village. You can see that window, only a small window. It entered through the window, kicked me, and used me to hit the bed. The last thing I knew I mentioned was, Jesus! Praise the Lord. So the tree, the tree that was at the window, it was later discovered that the thunder passed through the tree. So when I left that village, somebody later went there, and he knew the company I stayed in. He said he saw the tree. After about one to two years later, that time he was telling me that the tree was dead. The reason they couldn't get me was because I had a prayer life. Because in that same village, there was an evangelist that came to preach there. In that same village, he is a member, I will not call the name of the church, but he is one of the biggest churches in Nigeria. He is a member. So they came there. They wanted to start their own church. They wanted to start a branch there. So this evangelist came there. He came there to preach, but he left there as a mad person. Are you following me now? He came there as someone that was okay, but while he was preaching, he became mad. They shot him an arrow. He became mad. The church had to send people down to the village to come and pick him back. Praise the Lord. Now the reason that they couldn't get me was because I had the word prayer life. I was praying night and day because I knew the history of that land. I prayed for money. I prayed money afternoon and evening. Before you see my face, every day is by four. You can't see my face maybe from six in the morning. You can't see me from six in the morning to four. You only see me from four. Anybody that comes by five, by six, by seven in the morning, eight in the morning, nine in the morning, if you knock my door, you will at least see me. I answer you from inside. You can't see me now. Wait. Because I pray till this day before I come out. Because I understood the trinity I founded myself. Praise the Lord. It is only through prayer you can take over a territory. You can't take over a territory by just talking. Your talking cannot prevail. You must understand the place of prayer. You must understand the power of prayer. You must understand the value of prayer. You must understand that without prayer, the enemies will have power over you. But the enemies will not have power over you in Jesus' name. And that is why you should pray. Anytime you pray, you are putting your trust in God. And that is why prayer is the sign of faith. Every time you are praying, you are demonstrating faith. What are the three dimensions of prayer? Number one, we are the praying of the mouth. Praying with the mouth. Number one is what? Praying with the mouth. Number two is praying with the mind. Praying with what? The mind. Number three is praying with your spirit. Praying with your spirit. Number one is praying with the mouth. When we talk about praying with the mouth, sometimes you have to say prayer. Before you even go deep in prayer, sometimes it is expected you say prayer. There are many times I am tired to pray. The only way I conquer my tiredness is by saying it out. There are days I will wake up to pray, I will be so tired. So what I do, I will just start shouting, Father I thank you, Lord I thank you, I worship your name. You say it, you are praying with your mouth. Even though your spirit has not yet captured it, but because you are saying it loud, you are prevailing. The moment you start saying, Father I thank you, and you are tired to pray, you will not pray. Because if your body is not wanting you to pray, and you are not saying it out, you are not speaking it out by heart, you will not pray. You will not pray. Praise the Lord. So you must say it out with your mouth. The prayer of the mouth. Even Jesus prayed with his mouth. The prayer of the mouth. Number two is the prayer of the mind. The prayer of the mind. As you are praying with your mouth, make sure your mind is connected with what you are praying. Have you seen some people praying? Instead of them to say, Lord forgive me. Because while they are praying, their mind is thinking about food. Thinking about the person that is owing them money. Right inside the church, if you hear what they are praying, they will be praying prayers like this, Lord I forgive you. Lord I forgive you. Lord I forgive you. Are you with me? Maybe they have not realized that I am in church. They will be like, Lord forgive me. Lord forgive me. Are you with me? Instead of Lord forgive me, they will say, Lord I forgive you. Because their mind is not connected with the prayer. I remember many years ago, there was a church I was serving then. I was teaching, doing home lessons those days. Teaching some children. That's why I made some of my money. And that day, I came to service late. So I had to stand at the back, while they were praying. And the next thing I saw them praying was, mathematics. I was calling mathematics. Thinking I was calling what? Until I came to consciousness. Guys! If your mind is not there, even the person that is leading prayer, would have changed prayer point, they would still be praying formal what? Prayer point. Because your mind is not there. So when you are praying with your mind, make sure your mind goes along with your what? With your prayer. If your mind goes along, you are going deeper. Don't just pray. When you say, Lord have mercy, let your mind be able to understand what your mouth is saying. Let your mind be meditating on your prayers. And that is why, one of the best way you can meditate, is through prayer. Because while you are praying, and you are thinking, you are getting understanding of what you are saying. The praying of the mind. Don't allow the devil to disorganize your mind. If you are praying, let your mind be there. And that is why, if you have issues with people, you won't be able to pray. If you want to truly pray, you won't be able to pray. You won't be able to pray. Because if you are a true Christian, and you have issues with somebody, because your mind must pray along, your mind will be reminding you that you have issues with somebody. Your mind will be telling you that there is somebody you have not yet forgiven. And that is why you won't be able to pray. Praise the Lord. God is my witness. I am standing on the altar of holiness. As I am talking to you, there is nobody in my life now, I am keeping my lips with. Nobody. I don't get angry with somebody more than two hours. I am not lying to you. God is my witness. If I am angry with you, it is not more than what? Sometimes I forget that I am angry with what people. They say, I am angry with you, I will call you out. It is when I go and say, I am angry with you, but I have already called you. I don't have time to think about problems. Because what I am even thinking that the church will become, is more bigger than what you did. Are you getting me now? If you want to go far, you must be able to empty your heart. That is why, if you shake very well, Jesus drew closer to himself, children. Not because they are just children, but because of the kind of heart that they have. One of the prayer points you should be praying, Lord, give me the heart of a child. It makes you not to store up anything in your heart. And that is what brings you closer. I was teaching some of you, that have been here for some time. I said, that one of the ways you get close to God, is not by Lord's death prayer. I have seen people that pray, that are sweating, they are still full of self. I have seen people like that. And I tell you that one of the ways you get close to God, is to empty your heart. If your heart is not good, you cannot be close to God. And God does not speak to your ear, your physical ear. God speaks to where? Your heart. If that heart is not good, you cannot hear. So people say, I want to hear God, I want to hear God. And I say, what is in your heart? If God unzip your heart, you will discover that the people you kept in your heart, are the same reason you cannot hear God. Praise the Lord. So you must empty your heart. Empty your heart. You must let go, so that you can be able to pray with your mind. You won't be able to concentrate. You won't be able to concentrate, if your heart has not been emptied. A prayerful man, must empty his heart, yet become an hypocrite. Hypocrites are people that pray with their mouth, and not with their mind. Hypocrites, they pray with their mouth. But not with their mind. Their mouth is close to God, but their heart is far from God. That is hypocrisy. What they preach, is not what they are doing. What they sing, is not what they are practicing. How they appear, is not who they really are, in the inside. And that is hypocrisy. The prayer of the mind. Your mind must go alongside with your mouth, while you are praying. Mind. Make sure your mind is connected. Let me tell you praise the Lord. One of the reasons we ask you to meditate on the Bible, is not because meditation is magic. No. It's not meditation that is powerful. It is a result of what? Meditation. It is not meditation that is powerful. What is powerful? The result. So when we tell you to meditate, we are saying we are helping your heart to be aligned. One of my pastors, this is how he defined meditation. He said meditation is you emptying your heart, of anything that is not right with God, and allowing the Word of God to fill your heart. That is what he called what? Meditation. Because when you start meditating on the Word of God, yourself will be coming out, and inside will be entering you. And that is what we call the Word of God. Let this Word of Christ dwell in you, richly. Praise the Lord. Then the praying of the Spirit. The praying of the Spirit is a level you pray to. When you become unconscious of the environment you are, at that level what you start doing, you start commanding. In the prayer of the Spirit, you don't just pray, you decree. It is a state of what? Decreeing. Praise the Lord. Prayer often begins with the mouth, and it gradually involves the mind, before it enters into the Spirit. It becomes a revelational prayer. It becomes what? It becomes what? Yes, that is why sometimes if I go to prayer, I don't go with prayer points. Like when I say I don't go with prayer points, sometimes I don't go. Sometimes I don't like going with 10 prayer points. 10 prayer points is too much. If I want to go and pray, I may just say, okay just one prayer point, two prayer points, because if I want to pray 10, I will not be able to live there. I know some of you, you will take 10 prayer points and say, number one, my father, my father, enemy against me must die. Number two, my father, my father, enemy don't take. You will just, the same prayer point. No! You can just take two prayer points, that you know that these two prayer points, if they are solved, every other one will what? Will solve. For example now, the things you are calling witches and wizards, may be as a result of poverty. Wizard Lord, the thing you are calling what? Witches and what? Wizards may just be as a result of lack. It may be because there is no money. There is a way money will come, that God will bless you. You will not even know whether they are existing. Are you getting me now? Praise the Lord. There is another prayer point you need to pray. You are a Christian and you are often feeling depressed. You always experience depression, frustration, confusion, you are down, you are always down. And you are praying the spirit of depression. No, that prayer point is too, is too, don't pray that prayer point. Just pray for revival. One of the reasons you are not happy, like you are a Christian, you are not happy, is you are not revived. The psalmist said, will thou not revive us again, that your people may what? Eh? Shout it loud now. Rejoice. Will thou not revive me again? He said, will thou not revive us again, that your people may rejoice? It means that when there is no reviver, the people cannot be happy. So if you are not prayerful, you have lost prayer, your prayer life, you have lost reading your Bible, you have lost those things, naturally you become sad because you are a true Christian. So when you start praying again the spirit of depression, that is not the solution. You will see, after your prayer, you will still be depressed until you go back to God and settle with God. That is the only way you can experience a true peace of heart. May God help us in Jesus' name. There are three things that make prayer to work. Just three things that make prayer to work. Why is it that we pray and yet our prayers are not answered? Three things that work, that work, make prayer to work. Number one is holiness. Mama, hope you are hearing me. Holiness is number one thing that makes prayer to work. Praise the Lord. You see, you see, while I was growing up in my prayer life many years ago, when I started praying for, I started observing prayer watch, 2008. I started observing what? Sorry, prayer stretch, 2008. But that time it was not called prayer stretch because I don't even know the language. To me, I was just praying. I was just praying. I can just come to the church. I will just look at the time. Since there was no service, 12 o'clock in the afternoon, I will pray from 12 to 6 in the church. I will tie my Bible. Go out to evangelism. Pray 7. I prayed. The highest prayer point where I prayed is prayer from 10 in the evening to the next day, 1 o'clock in the afternoon. It was not called prayer stretch. It was not nothing we were doing because my leader was prayerful. He doesn't know how to preach well, but he knows how to pray. So, because of that, I began to do so many things. I started depending on my prayer strength. I will pray for hours. Because I couldn't have authority over the flesh. Praise the Lord. If I show you my book of those days, you will see many laws I placed for myself. Number one, I will tell myself I will never be smiling with women. It was one of my disciplines. I will never smile with what? Women. So, if you see me walking in the church, I will harden my face. Number two, I gave a rule that I will never speak... If I show you my book, if you look at that book and look at me now, you shall have backslidden. When I discovered that those things were not helping me, I threw the book away. Because I wanted to fight against lust. I said, for me to fight against lust, I will harden my what face. I said that is the solution against what? Lust. Not knowing that it was chasing sisters away from me, I discovered that sisters don't always come to me. Even to even tell me, where should we submit this? They will not come to me. They will go and look for somebody. And I am close to them. I set so many laws. And within my heart, I was battling with lust. Until I came to the place of freedom. And if I came to the place of freedom, I already left that particular place. I relocated to somewhere else. Out of the state. Eventually, I became tired of myself. I was suppressing sin. I was hiding sin. I was keeping sin. Then I started reading the Bible. When I started praying alone, I started... Know there are some prayer points you pray. Because those hours I was praying, know the prayer points I pray? I always pray against demons. And that is why if you see my book of 2008, 9, 10. My prayer book. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. If you see those prayer points, they are more of demons. Foundation. Foundation. Demons. I prayed a lot. I prayed against foundation. I prayed. I fasted. I will do it this month. I will do it next month. I will do it... I prayed every year. I was praying every month. I was praying every week. I came to myself. I said, Ah, what is happening? Ah, ah. And when I started switching my prayer points to, Lord, I want to be like you. Lord, help me to love you. Lord, I started praying for people. Lifting up this sister before God, Lord. Until this sister know you, I will never rest. There is no body you commit into my hands. I can still give you phone call to call people that committed sins into my hands. There is none of them that were committed into my hands that ever got lost. Some of them are stranded in there. Because the moment you say, take care of this soul, it becomes a reason I should not sleep until that soul gets born again. So the moment I started releasing my potential, not just praying against demons, I started praying for the kingdom to expand. I started interceding for my pastor. I interceded for his wife. I interceded for the church of God. I interceded for the members. I started thinking about the kingdom. I began to grow. Praise the Lord. Holiness is the foundation. If you want your prayer to be answered, you must keep a holy life. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. How will you be calling upon a holy God when you are not holy? So if you want your prayer to be answered, you must be what? Holy. Holiness must be your lifestyle. Number two is faith. You must have faith in God. You must not doubt that God can do it. You must not doubt that God can do it. There was a brother I prayed on social media. He has never seen me. He got my contact and called me. He said, Is he a brother or younger brother? He is mentally disordered. In fact, he called me at the time I was depressed. Do you know why I was depressed? There was no money in my hand to feed, to eat. So I never knew he was going to call me. It was very difficult. So the moment I said, This guy doesn't know the condition I am in. Praise the Lord. And he was saying, Pastor, my brother, this and that. I said, Kai. I said, Okay, where are you now? He said, I am in the hospital. I said, Okay. Do you have faith? Yes. Sincerely, I was just praying so that I can just go because I was depressed. I was going through some challenges. I was looking for money to meet some certain needs. And he said, Yes, I believe. And that was how I prayed. And the mental guy became okay. I was dapting the guy that I was dapting. The miracle that happened, I began to dap towards the miracle because I knew I was not ready to pray. I just made a decree. I said, In the name of Jesus, I command you, spirit of madness, insanity, I cast you out in Jesus' name. This, your brother, I decree upon you now you are who. That was the prayer I just put. And I said, before I hung up, I said, I am waiting for your testimony. And that was how his testimony came. You see that I have discharged him already. He is now okay. Even I that prayed for him, I became scared of God. I said, God, you know, I was only praying because I don't want to hang up the call immediately. You must have faith in God. It was the faith of the guy connected to the prayer and praying that brought the results. With that faith, you cannot get answer prayers. Anytime you kneel down to pray, you must have this consciousness in you that God can do it. That's what? That God can do it. Anytime you pray, you must have this consciousness that God can do it. The first crippled man we prayed for, this was 2011, 10-11. That was the first crippled man I prayed for. It was not only me. It was the prayer warrior. It was faith. Today the man is driving a car. Nothing happened. The hand, both hand, both hands, everything twisted. So I said crippled, paralyzed man. He became paralyzed. Both hand, everything. He can't even stand. But the prayer of faith brought him back to normal. If you don't have faith and you are praying, you are deceiving yourself. It is only by faith through Christ that can bring results. God can do all things. God can do what? All things. And that should be your confidence. That should be your faith. I have faith he can do all things. Tell him about your challenges. And the last of it all is joy. Say joy. Say joy. Joy. You must pray from a state of joy. You must pray from what? A state of joy. Most of you, you pray from a state of sadness. Joy. Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3. Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3. We are going to close very soon. Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3. This is what study. So let us open our Bibles. Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3. If you are there, say Amen. Isaiah chapter what? Verse 3. The Bible says in verse 3, Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of what? The well of salvation. That means even if there is no joy, you cannot draw out water. When you are praying, make sure you are in a good state of mind. Sometimes people think that when you say I am sorry, they think that you are the weakest person. No, you are not the weakest. The person that only says I am sorry is much stronger than the person that is waiting to be apologized to. Because you that say I am sorry, many of your prayer points will be answered after that. Why the other person that is waiting for you to come to say I am sorry, that period is waiting, many of his prayer points or her prayer points have not been answered. If with joy can you draw water out of the well of salvation, you must be a man and a woman of joy. You must be what? A man and a woman of joy. Don't allow sadness to destroy you. Keep yourself joyous. Holiness alone does not bring answer for us. That is why we put it together with faith. You can live a pure life, a good life, a holy life. No, you are not sinning against God. You are not slandering your cupboard. You are pure. But when it comes to faith, faith is not there. You can't even believe that you can pray for a dead man to come back to life. You say, no, the man has died, forget about the case. You don't even believe that you can decree on your child that your stubborn child will become okay. So holiness alone without faith cannot produce answered prayers. Joy is a vital condition to obtain answered prayers. Believers must jealously guide their joy. Let nothing take away the joy of the Lord. I pray it will happen to you in Jesus' name. I say, I pray it will happen to you in Jesus' name. There is a man called Edwin Harvey. He said, a day without prayer is a day without blessing and a life without power. It's a day without blessing and a life without power. How many of you prayed today? If you prayed alone today, wave your hand. You prayed alone today, wave your hand up. You have to pray. Build your life through prayer. Prayer can bring speed. Let me tell you a little about myself. Of course, I have told some of you a little about myself. I wasted so many years in sin because I was born in the ghetto. I was born in the ghetto. I was close to the black acts. The people, not those people, the other people. I didn't join them eventually because the day they were supposed to put me in, I don't know what happened. I wasn't able to meet the appointment because the number one man happened to be my friend's brother, elder brother, and his name at that time was Taiye. His name was Taiye. So, he said I should give him some little money because I needed to go to the market to buy some things at that time. Praise the Lord. I'm talking about 2006 or 2005. 2006-2007. Praise the Lord. So when I needed to give him the money for him to do it for me, I gave him the money. He said okay, I should come so and so time the next day because he was the number one man. He just wanted to pick me and put me inside without me going through the rigorous beating. I was so calm the next day because I was very powerful. People respected me because I was so diabolical. Praise the Lord. I made juju for people before. This person you are seeing is pushing. I won't. I will take you into the bush. I will do mercy for you. I was specialized in that. Are you with me? So that was what made the community to be scared of me. So even the authorities were scared of me because of the supernatural power I had then. But I was not part of any society. So they wanted to put me. Praise the Lord. So when I got born again eventually, there was just one thing I needed to do to be able to meet up because I knew I wasted so many times. And that was prayer. Prayer can take you from where you are to the front because you have wasted so many years. Prayer will catapult you to go and meet people that have gone ahead of you. And that was what happened to me. Even the people that went ahead of me, they began to utter something. They saw me at the same level with them. It was just through what? Prayer. If you don't pray, I think you will be behind. If you don't pray, many things will not go right. You will pray in Jesus name. I say you will pray in Jesus name. Lastly, before we close now, courses of what? Of unanswered prayers. Courses of unanswered prayers. Number one is sin. Proverbs 15 verse 8. If you are there, read for me. Proverbs 15 verse 8. Why is it that you pray and your prayer will not be answered? There are just three things I listed as the reasons your prayers are not answered. Number one is sin. Proverbs 15 verse 8. If you are there. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to what? To the Lord. But the prayer of the upright, it is delight. Praise the Lord. The sacrifice of a wicked man is a what? Do you know a wicked man can pray? Oh, you don't know that 90% of, let me use the word, 80% of people that know how to pray, they have wicked heart. Eh? You know today we celebrate prayer but the people are not transformed. We are not careful to check whether they are transformed. None of the disciples prayed like Jesus, like prayed all through the night. But the moment they encountered the Holy Ghost and there was transformation, it became part of their what? Their life. A wicked man can see utter prayer. That doesn't mean that it's not prayerful. A wicked man can pray but the Bible says that the prayer of a wicked man is what? It's abomination. Every time that wicked person wants to pray, God will be closing his ears and say, Ah! Who is talking? In Jamaica we say Ah! It's one of the people of the church. Tell the person to stop. Stop that person. Stop. And maybe in Jamaica we ask him, My Lord, My God, why should we stop him? He's calling upon you and God will say, He's a wicked man. He's a wicked man. He's a wicked woman. So he shouldn't talk to me. His prayers is abomination to me. Every time a wicked man is praying, it looks as if the devil is the one operating. And if God says your prayer is abomination, it means that that prayer can never be answered. That prayer can never be what? Proverbs 28 verse 13. He that coveteth sin shall not what? Shall not what? But whosoever confesseth shall what? Praise the Lord. A man came. He wanted God's blessing. He wanted what? And he has been cheating on his wife. And you know this church will believe in what? Holiness. And when you come like that and you say you need the blessings of God. You need the blessings. Oh, pastor pray for me. The Lord must bless me. After you finish talking, God will not start talking. And if we give you the prescription that can make doors open. Some of them, they don't like the prescription. Because you have to go and confess to who? Your wife. And that is why many of them, they will run away. You will never see them again. Because when we tell them that yes, so I can pray for you to walk but he that covereth his sins shall not what? Prosper. Pastor, forget about that. That prosperity is not talking about financial prosperity. Go and look at your boss. You don't know that men that keep secrets from their wife. They broke their marital vow. They are the reason they are suffering that marriage. They will not open up. Praise the Lord. That you went to sleep with another woman somewhere and suddenly doors start not locking. The family becomes so difficult. Things become so difficult. Till today you have never told your wife that I know it has been long ago. Please forgive me. I am not doing it again. I am born again. Four years ago I slept with a lady at your back. Go and confess and see what will happen. Prosperity, that long term prosperity will come suddenly. But you see some men that will put arch face and say all things are passing away. We are still waiting for you. He that covereth his sins shall not what? Prosper. Do you know that there are some women that have shit on their husband? One of the member. Let me now mention member. Some of you are very technical. Praise the Lord. Someone came to meet me for prayer. That one is not a member again. She came to meet me for what? Prayer. I said okay. Because I don't like doing deliverance for me because of what the Lord was telling me is that I should teach people first. So that place I was doing more teaching and she came for deliverance. I saw that she was narrating a problem that her business was not going as usual. It was not going well. I said I love her because she is close to me. She was close to me. Are you with me? So I was like I love putting attention whenever she is talking. When she started talking I was listening until suddenly I had a loud voice from the Spirit. I said wait. Immediately I lost my peace. She was speaking what should have made me to be compassionate yet what I was hearing from God was what? Different. I said okay sister can I talk? She said yes you can talk. I said I am very sorry. Can I say it? She said you can say it. I said my wife is not here. Can I talk? It's just me and you that is here talking. Can I talk? She said you can talk. I said don't lie to me. The Lord said I should tell you that you just went into adultery. She said no. No sir. I didn't do it to her. I said are you sure? She said no sir. I didn't do it. I said continue what you were saying before. I paused and said stop. It's okay. I am still yelling. Are you with me? That you have gone into what? Adultery. Because when I said this for the third time she agreed. She said she just committed adultery. That yesterday before she met me in the nursery. She is coming to meet me to pray so that her business will prosper. To put me on that serious prayer. You will see men of God. God prosper this person. Not knowing that the person is the enemy of what? Of herself. So there are some people you will not see in church. Some that don't ask why they are not coming. It is only me and them that know why they are not what? Coming. Praise the Lord. And eventually she cried. She begged me. She said she didn't go tell my wife. She said you know what? Tell my wife. She said I should promise her. I said not about promise. Just give me more detail. How did it happen? Because I am shocked. So how did it happen? Maybe the person used sham. Just tell me how it happened. And I told that. I said the problem is not even me not telling anybody. The problem is that are you ready to go and tell? I will follow you. I will call your husband. Call the elders in the church or the fellowship then and call people. Are you with me? And we will sit down and first of all cry to beg your husband. No one will cry to beg your husband. He doesn't know why we are begging. We will not tell the husband the problem first. We will first of all cry to beg him. What we want to say is a very big problem. That without your husband knowing you will not get to heaven. She said okay. The next I stopped seeing her coming to service. And I called her. She said she went to a social and social camp. You know some of you. You know this camp program. The largest churches in Africa. This is our neighbor here. You know their camp now. And she went there. And then she spent she spent all the two or three or four days there to do the program there. So when she came back she said God has forgiven me. God was telling me that. He has shown me what. Either go by distinction or not. Go and open up your husband. And that's what she did there. See today she cannot even practice Christianity well because ever since she started doing that her life, her spiritual life never remained the same again. Praise the Lord. You can't deceive God with prayer. Sin will hinder your prayer from what? Answer. And why are you deceiving yourself? Number two is lack of faith. And then number three is demonic attack. Demonic attack and lack of faith can stop your prayer from being answered. Shall we stand up on our feet and go to the Lord in prayers? Before we ask God to give us the spirit of prayer. If there is any sin in your life that you need to repent of. If there is any unrighteousness in your life that you need to settle with God. Say Lord I am very sorry. Open your mouth and begin to talk to the Lord. Lord I am very sorry. Lord I am very sorry. If there are things in your life sins in your life that are stopping you from receiving answered prayers. Ask the Lord for mercy. Lord I am very sorry. Lord I am very sorry. Repent of those sins. If it involves your wife, involves your husband, involves your neighbor, involves people around you, after you repent it to God go back and settle with them. Open your mouth and pray. Say Lord I am sorry. Forgive me oh God. Wash me with your blood. Forgive me oh God. Bless me. The sin in my life that is stopping my prayer from being answered. The sin, the unrighteousness in my life stopping my prayers from being answered. Lord I ask for forgiveness. Lord I ask for forgiveness. Lord I ask for forgiveness. Lord forgive me in the name of Jesus. Ask the Lord to forgive you. Ask the Lord. I say Lord forgive me. Have mercy upon me.