DANGER OF PRAYERLESNESS

 THE GOSPEL FAITH MISSION INT'L, REIGNERS CENTRE, AJIBODE.

Theme: FAITH IN DETAILS

Topic: DANGER OF PRAYERLESNESS

Texts: Luke 18:1, 1Thes 5:17. HYMN: 200: Pray Always Pray . Tuesday: 10th Nov., 2020.

INTRODUCTION

Prayer is the best of fencing weapon against our enemy. However, our strength or weakness is most especially manifested in prayer. Nothing in the 

spiritual realm reviews are weakness more than prayer. Prayerlesness, apart from outright neglect of the duty of prayer, also means that prayer has become 

burdensome, boring and a futile exercise that we rushed through or avoid. Even when we do pray the prayers are feeble and powerless. This leads to less 

and less praying. Some of the opinion that they don't need to pray since God knows all their needs.

What's your take on this reference Matthew 18:18 and what responsibility or expectation is placed on Believer or Christian here?

B. CAUSES OF PRAYERLESNESS

Listed here are some of the Likely causes of prayerlessness.

1. Lack of genuine conversion - seasonal spirituality (John 10:14). 2. Lack of appreciation of the efficacy of prayer (James 5:16 Acts 4: 29-31)

3. Hidden sin. (Psalm 66:18) apart from prayer of the sinner being an abomination before God, it is not possible for a Christian who indulges in secret sin 

to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to pray.

4. Unforgiveness. (Matt. 6:14-15, 5:23-24). This is total disregard or rebellion for the word of God. Sense of guilt drives one away from God {Gen. 3:10).

5. Leaving prayer until a more convenient time or the last thing to do. 6. Physical exhaustion (Matt 26:43).

7. Confidence in self, reliance on human organisation and machinery. 8. Hopelessness. (Daniel 9:13, Psalm 42:5, Isa 44:22, 49:14).

9. Discouragement from delayed answers to prayer (Isaiah 62:7) 10. Laziness. (Lk. 6;12)

C. DANGERS OF PRAYERLESNESS

We shall consider few of the dangers of prayerlessness in this section.

1. Spiritual backsliding manifest first, when it is partial. The Christian may still be involved in spiritual activities relying on methods and human strength. 

Then comes total backsliding which is complete disengagement from Christ, a case of the dog returning to its vomit (2Peter 2 :22.)

2. Inability to or weakness and confronting temptation and challenges of life.

3. Before the enemy confront a child of God, he first tried to drain his spiritual energy which makes him vulnerable (2Corinthians 10: 4-5).

4. Tendency to seek help from other questionable source that are diabolical and deceptive. (1Sam. 28:7).

5. Living under constant fear and threat of the unknown (Psm 25:14)

6. Operating in darkness, uncertainty and ignorance. 7. Disconnection from the source of life (John 15:4).

D. HOW TO OVERCOME PRAYERLESSNESS

Things will be better a lot than they are individually and corporately if we engage the dynamite of earnest prayer. The following are some steps to 

overcome prayerlessness:

1 Genuine repentance. Look for where you have doubted God, indulging sinful acts, unresolved anger, bitterness etc (Psalm 51:12 Act 3:19).

2. Experience of fresh baptism and infilling of the Holy Spirit to infuse with, a new passion and commitment, to enable you to reconnect and flow in the 

spiritual realm. (Jude 20).

3. Binding of spiritual agent that are assigned to monitor your prayer line and to water it down.

4. Make a habit of regular feeding on the word of God forced to prime your faith.

5. The ability of a Christian to pray rightly and acceptably is a function of his knowledge of the word of God and how much of it he has internalized 

(Romans 10:17 John 6:63).

6. The scope of your prayer must be widened beyond immediate personal interest. Learn to intercede for others. Personal interest prayer makes you run 

out of prayer points quickly. (Eph. 1: 15-16, 1Thess. 5:25)

7. Prayer should not be left in a more convenient or better time a better time may never come have a specific time for prayer (Act 31 Psalm 55:17).

8. Put away everything that can cause distraction and intrusions like calls , music etc 9. You must pray aloud even when alone to avoid dozing off.

CONCLUSION> Prayer is the outcome of real concern, it's not just a spiritual exercise but a warfare and a strengthening source for those in the 

Kingdom. You must start praying right away. You learn to do not by watching or wishing but by getting involved. Although, there may be need to ask for 

prayer assistance sometimes, such should not be the norm. It makes one dependent on others and once support is removed, the prayer life is grounded.

Build for yourself a fire-brand prayer altar.

WE SHALL CONTINUE THIS SERIES NEXT WEEK, DON’T MISS OUT