Under the old Covenant, priests and prophets were appointed by God to mediate between God and man. You cannot break that order. A priest cannot serve as a prophet and a prophet must not serve the role of a priest. Likewise, a king cannot serve as a prophet or as a priest. Disobedience to that arrangement was sometimes punished by death. That was what finished Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6-6 who touched the Ark of the Covenant when it stumbled on a donkey. That was only the exclusive preserve of the Levites, whom God appointed as the only custodian of the ark. Same as Saul who lost his throne because he violated God’s order by offering a sacrifice that only Prophet Samuel was supposed to handle (1 Samuel 13: 8-10).
But when Jesus came, he abolished that order and enacted a new order of relationship between God and man. And now according to 1 Timothy 2-5, “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. We need to understand this theological foundation prior to understanding why prayer is an extremely critical component of the Christian faith.
There is no where in the scripture where God established prayer as the master key for opening every door or any door
Therefore, it is the cross that established the principles of father-son conversation. The cross of Jesus cancelled the old order of communication through priests and kings, and brought us into direct relationship with God. You and I can therefore go to God through Jesus and pray to him on various issues of life. However, here is the plain truth: There is no where in the scripture where God established prayer as the master key for opening every door or any door. This is purely a product from many false teachings that believers have been fed over time. Prayer is not the master key. Wisdom is the principal thing, and hence, the master key (Proverbs 4-7). You can be very prayerful, and yet be very foolish. But you cannot be very wise and not be very prayerful.
Today, we want to look at the four groups of people or places for which prayers must be regularly made. And if you look at 1 Timothy 2-1, there four types of prayers we must always pray
1. Supplication (“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication), Zechariah 12-12. The Hebrew and Greek words most often translated “supplication” in the Bible mean literally “a request or petition,”
2. Prayers: Which is an actual dialogue or a two way communication between God and man in the name of Jesus. Jesus gave us the model of prayers in Matthew 6-9, Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
3. Intercession (Intercession involves taking hold of God’s will and refusing to let go until His will comes to pass. Intercession is warfare, the key to God’s battle plan for our lives. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”, Romans 8-26. Also in Romans 8-27, the bible says, “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”. Also in Hebrews 7-25, the bible says, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”.
4. Giving of thanks: Thanksgiving is another very potent type of prayer. Thanksgiving is a ferocious weapon of prayers—giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 5-20; “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”—Rev 12-11
Based on this, who then should be the focus of our prayers. First, if you look at 1 Timothy 2-1, the bible says, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and all who are in authority”. So, we must always pray for
1. Political leadership of our nations: This is according to 1 Tim 2-1. You don’t know how serious these types of prayers are. God treats the errors of leaders as national errors. When David sinned by conducting census in Israel against God’s warning, God judged the whole nation. See 1 Chronicles 21-1, “Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.”. Who moved David? Satan. That is what is moving all the evil leaders to cause havocs in the world. If we don’t pray for political leaders, we will end up having political dealers, who will trade our peace for money and power. See how Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorah in Genesis 18. What about Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1 & 2. Satan is the prince of this world (John 14-30). He doesn’t want godly leaders to be in charge of nations. If the church does not pray for political leaders, we will end up with political dealers.
2. Church leadership (local and ecclesia). Paul in Ephesians 1: 15-19, in the Pauline prayers said he never stopped to pray for the Ephesian Church. So we must pray for the church—the local church and the entire body of Christ. Many of us don’t know that we are members of the same body; this statement means nothing to many Christians. Can you mock your feet when your feet Is in pains? Likewise, when a man of God falls into sin and you take up the role to mock him on social media, you are mocking yourself. There is a difference between speaking out in love against evil and mocking people. The bible says, “a mocker will seek knowledge and won’t find it”—Proverbs 14-6. When last did you pray for your pastor or for your leader? How many pastors are on your prayer list?
3. Personal prayers: Thirdly, we must pray for ourselves. 1 Thessalonians 5-17 said we must pray without ceasing. You must develop a prayer schedule that is rooted in a specific prayer altar. Not player altar now but a prayer altar. Your prayers must cover supplication, intercession and thanksgiving using Jesus model in Matthew 6. You must pray the will of God on your life. You must pray about your location, career, marriage, decisions. You must pray, prayers of enquiry. You must pray in tongues. In Ephesians 6:10-13, prayer is one of our weapons of warfare. If you don’t pray, you will likely be a prey. You can never be greater than your prayer life. The prayer altar is where things are altered.
4. Praying for family: This one is critical. The man who is the priest of the home has a role to spearhead his family to pray for one another on a daily basis. The battles taking place in marriages in this last days are beyond words. Husbands, pray for your wives. Wives, pray for your husbands. Not religious prayers. Take up his or her name and pick up a scripture and begin to pour prayers into his life. Then, do the same for your children. Pray for their marriage; pray for their relationships; their schools; their health; pray the fear of God into their hearts. You will be amazed how the hand of God will be aligning their hearts to his will. They can never go wrong. A man of God died and went to hell when he was much younger..
These groups of prayer focus are critical to survival in these last days. You are not living well because you are either not praying at all or not praying well. Prayer is not one of the options. It is the only option for surviving satanic onslaughts in these last days
Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development. He is based in Canada and can be reached at: [email protected]
