are you a Christian Living Without The Power of prayer if you're not praying you're walking into a battlefield unarmed exposed to Temptation and in direct Disobedience to God's word prayer isn't just a religious routine it's the mark of a true Christian when Saul of Tarsus met Jesus the first sign of his transformation was this he prayed and prayer isn't just a sign of Faith it's your Lifeline When you pray you gain the strength to resist evil stay hidden from the enemy's attacks and draw closer to God and so here are 10 life-changing reasons why prayer
should be the foundation of your life as a Believer number one prayer is the mark of a Christian if in acts 9:1 when Saul of Tarsus was converted the Lord said to ananas go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul for he is praying this is a striking detail the confirmation and evidence that Saul had been transformed from a persecutor of Christians to a follower of Christ was prayer why because you cannot be a quote unquote Christian without a life of prayer Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ prayed while on this Earth so how much more should we make an effort to pray prayer is the defining characteristic of someone who has been born again if prayer is absent from your life it might indicate a disconnect from your faith prayer is how we acknowledge our dependency on God and affirm our identity in him without prayer you lose the evidence of your faith a Christian who doesn't pray risks becoming spiritually dry like a branch disconnected from the vine number two prayer gives us strength to resist evil Temptation in Matthew 26:41 Jesus told
his disciples Watch and Pray so that you will not fall into temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak temptation is everywhere we live in a fallen world where sin constantly tries to lure us away from God Jesus himself in the Garden of Gethsemane exemplified the importance of prayer in overcoming Temptation prayer Keeps Us spiritually alert it's like putting on arm armor before going into battle without it we are vulnerable to the schemes of the enemy prayer equips us with the strength to say no to sin and yes to righteousness without prayer we
rely on our own strength which is weak and easily overpowered by Temptation a prayerless life is an easy target for the Enemy Number Three prayer Keeps Us hidden from Evil attacks in Psalm 91: 1-2 we read whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my Fortress my God in whom I trust prayer draws us into the secret place of God's protection When you pray you are placing your yourself under God's Wings where no evil can penetrate
think of prayer as your spiritual hiding place it's like seeking refuge in a fortress during a storm evil May surround you but it cannot harm you when you are hidden in God's presence without prayer you leave yourself exposed to spiritual attacks a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian one with no prayer has no shield no refuge and no protection from the fiery darts of the Enemy Number Four prayer strengthens and uplifts our spirit in Isaiah 40:31 the Bible says but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall Mount up with wings
like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint when life feels heavy prayer strengthens and renews us it lifts our Spirits when we're down and fills us with hope when we feel discouraged in a sense prayer is like a spiritual workout just as physical exercise strengthens your body prayer strengthens Your Inner Man without it your Spirit becomes weak and weary the danger of not praying however will lead to discouragement taking root you will lack the strength to endure challenges and may easily fall into despair number five prayer allows us
to intercede for loved ones and friends in James 5:16 we are told the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective prayer is not just about us it's also about others through intercession we stand in the gap for our loved ones and Friends intercessory prayer has helped broken marriages to be restored intercessory prayer has gripped the hearts of rebellious teenagers intercessory prayer can open the door for the Holy Spirit for someone with a hardened and sinful heart to accept Christ if we don't pray for others we leave them vulnerable to battles they may not
be equipped to fight God may want to use you to be the channel of blessing in someone's life number six prayer draws us closer to God in James 4:8 we read come near to God and he will come near to you prayer is intimacy it's where we build a deeper relationship with our creator every moment spent in prayer draws us closer to his heart think of prayer as a phone call to a loved one the more you call the stronger the bond becomes but if you never call the relationship grows distant without prayer you drift
farther from God over time your relationship with him becomes strained and unfamiliar number seven prayer expresses our gratitude and dependence on God in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 Paul writes give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus prayer is the language of gratitude it's how we thank God for his blessings and acknowledge our dependence on him so often we go to the Lord and cast our burdens to him and there's nothing wrong with that we go to God and ask for peace in our homes we ask for healing in our
bodies and we ask God for so many different things but how many times do we go to God just to say thank you how often do we take the time to pray and just say Lord I'm Grateful without prayer we become ungrateful and self-reliant forgetting that every good thing comes from God number eight prayer is obedience to God's word in Luke 18:1 Jesus told his disciples they should always pray and not give up prayer is not optional it's a command Jesus himself modeled a life of constant prayer imagine a soldier who ignores orders from their
Commander failing to pray is disobeying the orders of our Heavenly Commander Disobedience takes us from God and leaves us outside of his will number nine prayer leads to personal change and transformation in 2 Chronicles 7:14 God says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land prayer is the starting point for change not just in the world around us us but within ourselves think of prayer as a mirror when we pray God reveals areas
in our lives that need refining and transformation without prayer we remain stagnant unable to grow or become the person God created us to be number 10 prayer is a commandment in Philippians 4:6 Paul writes do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God prayer is not just encourage it's commanded it is the lifeline God has given us to navigate life's challenges imagine having a map for a treacherous Journey but choosing not to use it prayer is the map God has given us to guide
us through life failing to pray is living in Disobedience which Cuts us off from God's blessings guidance and protection many people wonder why they are not growing in their relationship with the Lord the reason may be that they are not putting in the work required to grow in a greater understanding of the Lord God made us in such a way that we need to seek Him daily by seeking God daily we grow in a relationship with him the Lord reminds us often in scripture of our daily need for him while Jesus was praying The Lord's
Prayer in Matthew 6:1 he said give us this day our daily bread many of us live in a time and Country where we do not need to worry about getting our daily food we can go to the store and buy enough food for weeks we can then go home and store that food in a refrigerator however the crowd that Jesus was talking to did not have that privilege they did not have access to stores or ways to store Mass amounts of food for long periods of time they often had to wait for God to provide
food for them the day they ate they needed to seek God daily for Provisions the children of Israel were in the exact spot when traveling through the Wilderness they needed food however God did not open up a grocery store for them in the middle of the Desert god did not miraculously tie their stomachs so that they wouldn't need any food instead he gave them just enough bread for to survive each day man fell from heaven daily they had to look to God daily Exodus 16:4 says then the Lord said to Moses I will reign down
bread from heaven for you the people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day in this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instruction instructions if they ended up taking more than what they needed for the day the bread would become uneatable he gave them just enough bread each day so that the people of Israel would take time to seek the Lord each day seeking God every day should be the way of life for a Christian God commands us to seek Him daily and not even to
worry about tomorrow as Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount he says in Matthew 6:34 therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own since tomorrow is not promised God wants us to focus on trusting him today in the moment we do this by running to God daily we may worry about a Health crisis or a financial situation but God wants us to trust him in those daily moments instead of worrying about what could or will happen Lamentations 3: 22-23 says the steadfast love of
the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning morning great is your faithfulness God has given us enough Mercy in the day to make it to the end why worry about life when God gives us new Mercy each morning when we seek Him Now let us pray Precious Jesus we give you our hearts and we give you our praise and adoration we are in your care Lord Jesus we are in your mercy dear Lord we're looking to you at every moment and for everything you are the one who
provides for us the one who defends and fights for us we thank you King Jesus for being our Rock and our pillar thank you for being our rescue in this world we will rejoice always and I will give you my thanks in all circumstances because you have a plan for our lives a plan that is divine and for a greater purpose so we trust that all of our steps are ordered by you fill us with your love and joy as we earnestly seek you today I declare your word in Psalm 103 verse 1- 2 bless
the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits we praise you because you are a God who forgives all we praise you because you are a God who heals restores and makes us whole again in we praise you because you are a God who has saved us from destruction and shown us loving kindness and Tender Mercies we will bless your holy name as long as we live we will lift up our hands and praise Only You Lord Jesus
Holy Spirit help us to have a heart filled with praise so that when things are good I will bless the Lord with all my soul and all that is within me I will praise His holy name and when life is challenging or difficult I will still bless the Lord with all my soul and all that is within me I will praise His holy name We Praise You Lord Jesus because you are the one who can quench my thirsty soul you are the one who Faithfully loves me you are the lifegiver and you alone are the
one who can make me feel new and refreshed again it is in your presence that we are made whole we praise you because of your abundant and unfailing mercies for as long as we are alive we will lift up our hearts our voices and hands to worship you father as the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you my God my soul thirsts for God for the Living God only your presence Lord Jesus can bring transformation in our lives only your presence can revive and refresh us father re Kindle our flame
for you so that we can have a strong desire to chase Holiness and live righteously we invite your presence Lord into our lives Lord may your love and mercy Reign Be My Sanctuary Lord my place of safety and refuge we bless your precious Name Lord thank you for hearing this prayer amen as individuals we are often blinded to the dangers of prayerlessness praying is not easy praying should not be casual it's spiritual warfare however a prayerless Christian is completely powerless because there is no relationship with God have you ever noticed that when you need the
Lord to intervene in your life when you need a miracle or a breakthrough no one has to tell you that you need to pray no one has to tell you that you need to have a prayer life often times when we are in need there is an intensity about our prayers however the difficulty we all face is that once our personal needs are met once the battle has been won once the Breakthrough has come the fire that was once in our prayers it seems to fizzle out and we need to be aware of this we
need to guard against this now I understand that in life there will be days where you find that you can easily capture the spirit of prayer you can pray effortlessly you can pray and feel as though an hour is just 10 minutes however you will also encounter days where prayer will be nothing other than a fight and it's when you encounter those moments that you should push through praying is fighting you have to fight to pray and on the days where you struggle I want to encourage you to be resilient and remember that the size
of your prayer must match the size of your opposition and your opposition is the devil your opposition can be found in Ephesians 6:12 where the Bible reads for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic Powers over this present Darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly places all of us should know that we're fighting the kingdom of of Darkness the enemy will try to infiltrate our homes he will try to cause division in the family and in the church if we become prayerless
Christians I encourage you to pray because some of you need strength to defeat strongholds some of you need Grace to overcome insecurities some of you need the hand of God to move within your family and restore damaged relationships Jesus says in the Book of Matthew 7:7 ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives he who seeks will find and to him who knocks the door will be open this is Jesus effectively telling us to pray until something
happens keep seeking the Lord until you find your answer carry on knocking until the door is opened now a child of God recognizes that you cannot fight a battle and get get away with a weak prayer life but I would like to inform you perhaps encourage you to look at prayer as a means to Victory you see we are built and equipped for spiritual warfare so we shouldn't be afraid of a fight we shouldn't be afraid of fighting through prayer a lot of people shy away from being intercessors they shy away from being prayer warriors
they would rather pray nice there are Christians out there who do want to pray but they are in intimidated at the prospect or thought of warfare but I would like to remind you that the Bible says for the weapons of our Warfare are not carnal But Mighty in God for pulling down strongholds the weapons of an intercessor the strength of an intercessor is derived from God alone that's why the verse says the weapons of our Warfare are not carnal But Mighty in God meaning they are divinely powerful they are Supernatural in their effectiveness you cannot
fight the devil with your natural fists but you can fight him through prayer you can fight him by calling out to the Lord you can fight him by going to Jesus in prayer so I encourage you today to keep pushing in prayer don't be intimidated by the thought of spiritual warfare don't be afraid but rather be prayerful be resilient and Relentless knowing that prayer is a fight Exodus 17 presents us with a powerful lesson on prayer in verse 9 we are told Moses said to Joshua choose some of our men and go out to fight
the amalekites tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands so Joshua Fought the amalekites as Moses had ordered and Moses Aaron and her went to the top of the hill as long as Moses held up his hands the Israelites were winning but whenever he lowered his hands the amalekites were winning when Moses's hands grew tired they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it Aaron and her held his hands up one on one side one on the other so that his hands
remained steady till sunset so Joshua overcame the amalekite army with the sword there are several lessons to be learned from this passage of scripture Moses went to pray away from the battle to a quiet place he didn't start praying from the front line but he backed off some distance and goes up a hill to pray and this is the perspective that a child of God needs to have we have to fight our battles in private no need for an audience or Spectators no distractions it's simply them in their prayer closet and that's enough a prayer
closet allows intimacy with God it becomes your War Room God acts in response to prayer each time Moses lowered his hands in tiredness the malachit began to win and I believe this was God's way of teaching us that the battles we face as children of God are won and lost by prayer or a lack of it we need to rely on prayer and not on anything else the spiritual war against the devil is an ongoing one for us as children of the Lord so we need to remain under the blood of Jesus and in prayer
if we are to overcome now once again whenever Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed and whenever he lowered his hand amch prevailed when we pray things happen people are healed situations are altered the broken are made whole again and spiritual battles are won but if we get distracted and let our guard down the enemy has an opportunity to attack us when we cease praying we inhibit the power of God at work in our lives more prayer more power but the opposite it is true no prayer no power the beauty of the story of Moses
is that it shows him to be human not this giant of Faith who seems Untouchable Moses demonstrated that he is like us in prayer he gets tired he's frail vulnerable and weak the same feelings that we experience Moses got tired but he persevered and this is what we must do we must persevere in prayer we we must keep pushing in prayer it doesn't matter how unworthy how unqualified they say you are it doesn't matter how undeserving they say you are if God is for you then no one can be against you if God is for
you then goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life with Jesus on your side you better believe he's going to March you to Victory he's going to raise up a standard in your life and that's because everything about God is greater it's greater than any opposition it's greater than any amount of money it's greater than anybody's opinion even his promises are greater than the predictions of man so when the world tells you that you've got no chance or when the devil tells you to just give up stand firm in your faith
keep on pushing forward your ability to overcome hardship is not predetermined by a statistical analysis or a rooll of the dice your future rests in the hands of God and he will equip you with whatever you need for the battle ahead because of the favor and Providence of God you can look at any situation and say with man this is impossible but With God all things are possible as humans we like to be able to measure we like predictable outcomes but life doesn't always work that way our Earthly logic doesn't apply to every situation in
our minds victory in life is all about our capability our credentials are material things we believe that unless we look impressive to the rest of the world we have no chance of succeeding in life but God has the power to override all of that God doesn't look for the strongest among us to demonstrate his power that would be too simple too predictable the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 ver 27 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong this
means you can't predict how God will move or act what we deem to be foolish God will use to shame the wise what we deem to be weak God will use to shame the strong so if anyone has ever put a label on you if they've put a limit on you so long as you have faith a willing heart God can use you he can use whomever he wants however he wants he can use the recovering drug addict just as much as he can use the school teacher God can take the excon and cause him
or her to lead people who've never committed a single offense to turn to Christ so stop doubting if you're chosen by God because you lack this skill you lack this type of style or you've made a few mistakes it doesn't matter if you have a baby out of wedlock a failed business or if you're homeless so long as you are willing so long as you have faith and an appetite to serve God can use you in his kingdom and so today if you're in a situation that seems hopeless you don't have to despair you don't
have to lose heart because God has the power to Grant you Victory against All Odds dare to believe in Jesus and here's the thing if you believe if you dare to let all of your faith rest completely on God's word you too can experience The Impossible becoming possible we can and should be depending on God for that same miraculous power today Against All Odds you you can defeat your Goliath Against All Odds you can overcome whatever trial whatever difficulty you are facing right now who is God to you how do you see the Lord what's
his role in your life or rather where have you placed him in your heart does he occupy your whole heart or does he have a fraction of your heart I wonder in your mind does the Lord occupy a significant amount of time in your thoughts or does he struggle just to get you to think about him for more than 5 minutes in the day who is God to you I encourage you to see the Lord for who he truly is God is nothing to play with he is all powerful and omnipotent meaning that he is
Unlimited in his power and in his authority God is omnipresent and that means that he's in all places at all times he's a sovereign God the great I am so whatever we desire God is the I am of that if it's protection God says I am your protection should you need to be rescued God says I am your rescue you see God is the owner of cattle on a thousand hills Heaven and Earth are his Matthew 1:23 says behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel he is
Emmanuel meaning that God is with us he is the father to the fatherless and he's a husband to the Widow he is Jehovah El Shai our Bountiful supplier Jehovah Rafa is his name he is our peace and our righteousness so I'll ask you again who is God to you I encourage you to let God's power and his presence let it permeate every cell of your body from the crown of your head to the souls of your feet when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart you're never alone he's with you every step of
the way you're never powerless with God on your side scripture says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 but he said to me me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ May rest upon me the Lord is the architect of our lives and the Chief Cornerstone therefore he is the answer that we are looking for and the hope that you and I are seeking Jesus Christ is the solution for all our troubles he is the
solution to every challenge regardless of what shape or form it comes in he is the ultimate healer A Healer of both the sick and the Brokenhearted and as Believers we should all open ourselves to invite this Sovereign God into our Affairs because we most definitely need his compassion we need his unfailing Mercy and we certainly need his presence in our lives when you see a police officer in society when you see a police car when you see someone in uniform The Authority they have is delegated meaning it's not their own personal Authority that they stand
on but it's the authority that is backed by the law their Authority is is to uphold the law of the land now as children of God we too have authority because the Bible says in Luke 10:19 behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you we as children of God have delegated authority meaning we are not facing the enemy with our own strength we are not standing on our own authority but we are backed by The Authority
given to us by God in Jesus Christ Our Authority is backed by the power of God and the word of God now the devil knows this and he will attack the Christian man or woman with the hope that they will never realize the power and authority that they have in Jesus Christ now one of the weapons that the devil often uses is to get you to believe that either God hasn't forgiven you or that he won't forgive you this is called condemnation condemnation is an attack from the Devil that makes you not want to draw
close to God it makes you want to run as far away as possible because the devil wants you to believe that your sins aren't forgiven remember that he is an accuser of the Brethren and this is exactly what Adam and Eve felt in the garden and it caused them to hide from God the devil knows the power of condemnation but I want you to know that the Bible says there is now no condemnation no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and so we as Believers have to exercise our god-given authority Jesus Christ has
already done everything necessary to secure the authority and power that we are to have over sin and because of this we are not condemned when we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts so begin to walk with authority but remember this isn't your Authority but it's the authority given to you by Jesus Christ The Authority that you have as a child of God [Music]
