By Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel

1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

As Christians we should stay within the word of God in everything we do, this includes prayer. When we go outside of the word of God, we enter the devil’s territory. The devil will do anything to make sure we are not walking in truth. To make sure we are doing things right, we have to stick with the word of God; the absolute truth. Prayer must be based on faith in Christ and His word.

“In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” Ephesians 1:11.

When we don’t obey God’s will, we are not in agreement with Him and two cannot work together unless they agree. God cannot violate His own will so He does everything according to the counsel of His will. The word of God cannot be changed or manipulated. Scripture doesn’t come from our own understanding or human initiative. Scripture comes from the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit interprets scripture with scripture.

We tend to get into the tradition of praying how others do or tell us to. Christians often make the mistake of not going back to the scripture to be guided by it. We need to be sure what we are doing is right. We should ask God how to pray and search what scripture says about prayer. Then, God will show us prayer topics to pray for and how to pray for them.
God’s love compels and dominates us in everything we do including prayer. We do not know how to pray as we ought to but the Holy Spirit helps us by guiding us. Praying for you and your family is great, but we also have to pray beyond ourselves. Our prayer must be controlled by the word of God, just as our life. It pleases God when we invest in others and bring other people up in prayer besides ourselves.

God anticipates our problems and provides answers before we even call. In Isaiah 65:24 God says, “I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!”.  Our primary concern shouldn’t be on our problems only, but instead the kingdom of God. Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. Before God even created us, he provided everything we need. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We receive it by faith through Christ. The things of the spirit may seem foolish to us when we have no interest in it. Spiritual blessings can seem unattainable to the carnal eye. Ritualism will not produce any blessings. Our spiritual blessings and riches are in Christ. God gave us the same power that raised Christ from the dead. This power is active and now works in us. We have overcome the world because the power of God lives in us.

“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ears to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh” Proverbs 4:20-22.

God is giving us the instruction to seek his word here, when we seek, we will find. To find it, we must invest time in it. Then, the Lord will reveal to us what He has in store for us. We can also seek him through prayer. When we pray to God, He will give us the answer we need. Being able to discern God’s voice is the only way we will hear from him. We have to be receptive to his word to receive his blessings.

Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel is the Senior Pastor of The Fountain of the Living Word Church, New Jersey.