How To Pray (part II)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only)

Prayer has different stages.

First we lift up God’s name and speak of His Holiness, say that He is a powerful God, pray for what He has done for you, say to God, “You are so great because you’ve done this and that”. He is a God who loves praises and will reach out to us when He hears this. Remember when Paul was in jail, remember Peter when he was arrested, only praises helped them be delivered. Our God is a God of praising prayers.

Secondly thank Him for everything He has done for you. He provides for you, good health, food etc. Also don’t forget that when a Christian prays he pray’s for the good and bad things for God says to praise Him in all circumstances. If you are sick say thank you to God, if you have good health say thank you God because it’s His will for our lives. So praise God for everything He did for you and all He is.

Jesus always had His disciples with Him but they did not know who He was. The disciples didn’t know how to pray but Jesus said in Matthew 6:9 pray then in this way. We all know this prayer.

"Our Father who art in heaven." The first thing Jesus gave us was to lift up God’s name and sanctify His name because our God loves glory, so we have to praise Him before anything else. If you are a sinner or are in a sinful state and feel something inside of you is not right but you make the step to praise Him do so, for He is merciful and He will listen to you. The second step will be for you to ask Him to forgive you.

“His kingdom come” means that when two or three are gathered together God is with you. How do we know if God is here? If you want to know that God is here you have to sanctify yourself and forgive each other.

Mark 11:25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive your transgressions.”

If you’ve done something against someone don’t ask God to forgive you. God will say, “you haven’t done anything wrong to Me but to Michelle, so go and see her then come back to Me”. This is how God works.

If Michael did something against me, I won’t wait for him to ask for forgiveness, but according to the Bible I have to forgive him before he comes to me. If I wait for him to come to me you can be sure your sins won’t be forgiven and all your prayers will be wasted. Prayer from a sinner is like prayer from a rubbish bin. Jesus says that if someone strikes you on one cheek give him the other also, you have to be flexible to forgive and accept the situation the way it is.

In the same prayer Jesus said, “Your will be done on heaven as it is on earth”. It’s not my will or your will be done but God’s will. So what is God’s will? God’s will is the word of God. If you want God’s will to be done in your life you have to see it in God’s word. Think that God is in front of you when you read the Bible. For example Nathaniel goes to his mum and says, “Mum, I have to go to camp now it is 6pm, you promised me mum so you have to do it”. Can the mother go back on her promises? I think not, if so she has to explain herself. It’s the same with our God, when we pray we have to tell God, “God it is written, Your word says this and that now look at us because we are in a situation and we need your help”. That’s exactly what God wants us to do and this is how God can answer our prayers. If you do not use the word of God the devil can twist our prayers.

Daniel spent 21 days in prayer and fasting. Because his prayers where not framed on God’s word his prayers were not answered, but when he remembered that God had answered his prayers before, his prayers were answered.

This is how we pray, according to John 17:17, sanctify them by the truth, Your word is truth. God’s way is the truth, He never lies. Remind God of His word.

You always have to ask for the Holy Spirit to give you strength, this is the same Spirit who can open our spiritual eyes so that some can be prophets and see what tomorrow will bring and the same Spirit that helps us to perform miracles. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to work in us.

In the same prayer God keeps talking to us, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What does this mean? In the spiritual world we have strength, we can change things in the physical world because we have this authority.

Matthew 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bound on earth you shall bound in heaven, and whatever you shall lose on earth shall be lose in heaven.”

What power have we got? The devil does not have this power for we have more strength than the devil, however we don’t want to acknowledge the authority God has given to us. Do you know why? It is because we don’t know God’s word, it’s a lack of knowledge and this is how we perish. When we lack knowledge we lack faith and the devil plays with us. When he looks into us he can see a spiritual emptiness and attacks us. So you have to read God’s word, meditate on it and put it into practice.

Before to pray or read the Word of God we need to cast out evil spirits. It’s very important to take authority over the spirit of distraction, if the spirit comes say in the name of Jesus get out! And every spirit will flee. It's also important to remove the spirit of tiredness, sickness, doubt and any other spirits that might attack you during your time with God.

Jesus says, “ Give us our daily bread”. What does daily bread mean? Do you pray for your daily bread or not? Of course we eat and drink but our spirit needs to be fed. Jesus said that, “He is the bread of life.”

We have to ask God for our daily bread so that we can keep breathing spiritually. When we prepare bread we mix it with yeast, what is yeast? Yeast is mixed with flour to help it rise. Sometimes the word of God is mixed with hypocrisy. Some Christians are puffed up, they say that they know God’s word and eat daily bread, but if you look in depth you will see there is yeast in it.

SUMMARY

First praise God
Secondly, ask for forgiveness (to the person you have offended as well as God
Thirdly, ask for the Holy Spirit
Fourthly, cast out demons
Fifthly, pray using the Word of God

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