OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - SATURDAY - 05/04/2014 - INGREDIENTS FOR ANSWERED PRAYER BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

INGREDIENTS FOR ANSWERED PRAYER

MEMORISE

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Psalm 66:18

READ

Matthew 6:9-13

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

MESSAGE

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us an outline of the pattern our prayers should follow in what is called the Lord’s Prayer. We must draw some eternal lessons on how to get answers to our prayers by studying the few words of this outline. The first lesson is that, we must acknowledge the Fatherhood of God if we want to receive answers to our prayers. This is why those who argue that God has no children are short-changing themselves. Jesus Christ in Matthew 15:26b said:

“It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”

Who are the dogs? The Bible defines them in Revelation 22:15:

“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

Another lesson from the Lord’s Prayer is that only those who hallow or honour, or have regard for the Name of the Lord can have their prayers answered. The Bible in Exodus 20:7 says:

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

How do you take the name of the Lord in vain? By not living out the life of a Christian you claim to be. Apostle Paul wrote this concerning such people in Romans 2:21&24:

“Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”

Also, is it not an exercise in futility if you pray earnestly for the kingdom of God to come and when it comes, you are nowhere to be found in it? Because it is written:

“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

Ephesians 5:5

Finally, every child of God must seek the will of God to be done here on earth in this perverted generation as if we were in Heaven. Contrary to the dictates of this world, its fashions and manner of living, children of God who want to be effective in their prayer life must ensure that they are not influenced by the present day so-called civilization, modern ideas and unfounded fundamental human rights that are not given by our Father Who Art in Heaven.

PRAYER POINT

Holy Spirit Divine, teach me how to pray effectively.