Pray Network Forum

Most of us have grown cynical about New Year's resolutions. But if we are pressed we would admit that they could be good things. Have you ever kept one? If you have, you surely think that was a good thing. But why are they so difficult to keep? I believe the fundamental problem is our approach to resolutions. We make them, and try to keep them in the flesh.

Goals are great things for Christian Believers. But they need to spring from our relationship with Christ. I am intrigued by the title, Habits of The Heart, although I have not read the book. I recently looked it up on Amazon.com. I actually found two items, Habits of The Heart, individualism and commitment in American life, and Habits of The Heart, 365 daily exercises for living like Jesus. The latter has to be better.

But as most of us can attest, even godly goals can be approached in the flesh. It is better to begin with promises. Ask God to direct you to promises He wants you to focus on as you begin the year. You will have to spend serious time reading your Bible to do this right. Then, memorise the Scripture or Scriptures God is directing you to.

Finally, the most important factor in keeping a New Year's commitment is prayer. Don't just say, “I will do this,” or “I will do this if it kills me.” Pray, “Lord, I need You to produce this in my life.” The reminder on your mirror might read, “Father, glorify Your name as You do this in me.”

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This is the final blog I will enter on Pray Network. I will miss it, but I will continue to thank God for all that God has done through it.

I have written a great deal in the past about praying great prayers. And I still believe they are terribly important. I have said, “I have cancer. I don’t want to spend my time praying for a better parking place at the Old Country Buffet.”

However, it is important to pray for small things as well. Jesus told us to pray for “our daily bread.”

One of the crucial things about praying for small things is that they are daily. I need to pray for my daily attitudes, my daily habits, my daily devotions. If I do not pray for these I will find I have little power to pray for great things that we face in life. The prophet warned us not to despise the day of small things. They are often the foundations of the mighty works of God.

Praying for small things lays the foundation for my relationship with God. I once heard a man say, “Some of the best praying I have ever done was when I was lying on my back wrestling with a stubborn nut underneath a car I was working on.” As we take our small struggles to God we become instant in prayer. We learn to begin praying as an instant response to life.

In a nightmarish world, it's good now and then to dream of heaven.

“The toe of the star-gazer is often stubbed.”

- Russian proverb

Sadly, our experiences on earth can be nightmarish.

Idealists “in a dream world” sometimes stub their toe on “reality.”

Dreaming of a better world, at the top of the staircase is God—

Author of perfect dreams, Means to the end, Final Step to reach the goal,

Stairway to the stars, Reality behind dreams, Energy to climb steps and attain visions.

The sky is not the limit—aim for the company of the immortals!

Dare to dream grand dreams—heaven open, angels on the stairway of hope.

Trust your Father’s protection as you traverse the twists and turns of the dreamy spiral.

Daydreaming is sweet, but it is time to wake up and start climbing.

Way-dreaming is better—not just staring up the steps, stepping up the stairs.

We will celebrate heaven’s dream come true with the Star-maker at the top of the stairs.

He dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven.

Genesis 28:12 NLT

Johnny R. Almond

                Pastor, Colonial Beach Baptist Church, Virginia

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity—Scripture Personalized

Book available through local bookseller or preferred on-line retailer.

Author’s blog www.GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com

[This devotion was based on/adapted from Day 19 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]

Yesterday I got the following letter from a friend:

Yesterday, the president of Egypt made a decree appointing me a Senator in the congress. I was hesitating at the beginning to confirm the appointment, but now with prayers and thinking , I am more inclined to go

Into the post. The situation is terribly difficult and critical, working in a congress of 80% radical Muslims majority. Too many tasks and laws are put in front of this conference, which may last for few months only!  I need your prayers for extra shoot of wisdom and energy.

Peace and love,

Freddy

Please join me in praying for this dear brother at this important and strategic time that he would be a Joseph or a Daniel.

Melvin

Luke 21:15:

“For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist”.

Daniel 1:8-9:

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs”.

There was a supernatural ability that allowed Daniel to have knowledge, skill and wisdom. Knowledge, skill and wisdom are the things that you need, to help you get to the top. The kind that your friends and enemies cannot contend or compare with. I pray that, that will be your lot in the Name of Jesus.

In 1998, we had a programme dedicated to teachers. It was a deliverance programme organised to address the poverty of teachers. We prayed the prayers for knowledge, skill and wisdom on that day. A teacher came with her son who is a pilot. She had seven children who still depended on her. This woman had all the problems in the world. She could not ‘make ends meet’ at the end of the month and had to borrow money from her subordinates, even though she was the Vice Principal of her school. Her children were grown and were university graduates, but depended on her. One of them is a pilot and was working with a local airline but it was as if he was not working at all. During the deliverance programme they both prayed fervently on that day.

After a while, there was an advertisement in the Newspapers, that an American airline was recruiting pilots. The young man applied and he was invited to an interview. His performance impressed the airline and he was recruited immediately. When he heard the good news, he fainted. He was given a ten-year contract worth millions of dollars and was given thousands of Dollars to pay off the company he was working with. This job changed his life and that of the members of his family. His mother came to show me the keys to the jeep he bought for her and narrated how ‘power changed hands’ in their lives. He bought her a house and all she needed, and he went to the U.S.A. to assume his post as pilot.

That is what happens when there is a supernatural knowledge and skill imparted into your life. The God of Daniel is still the same today. If you want Him to bestow upon you, the anointing for skill, wisdom and knowledge, He is ready to do it. The God of Daniel is the One you will find in Daniel 1:17. He reveals the truth to His children, through dreams and revelations.

The God of Daniel is the God of Divine Revelation.

Daniel 1:17:

“As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams”.

He can reveal to you, before an interview, all the questions that you will be asked and you will know all the secrets before you get there. Since the beginning of the history of the world, there has never been a man or woman, who has the ability to have divine dreams, who ever failed, but the problem is this; instead of having divine dreams these days, Christians are seeing themselves, being pursued by masquerades in their dreams. They are being harassed by spirit husbands or wives and all sorts of terrible dreams. The God of Daniel is the One, Who is able to set aside, all these terrible dreams and replace them with night visions and revelations.

Beloved, I want you to understand this very well the God of Daniel is the God of revelation. I came from a very poor family; so poor that, Daddy would complain that the soup Mummy prepared was not good enough, forgetting that it was the amount of money he gave her, that determined the ingredients she bought. It was that bad; so, when I got born again I began to pray and God began to show me certain things and I made up my mind, that I will not be poor. You must know where you are coming from so that you can work hard, to get to where you are going. Many people who are supposed to be discreet in what they do, are loud, thus the enemy finds his way into their life. Maybe nobody knows them on the street before, but the day they throw a party and lavish money on people, those who did not know them, would know that they have money to flaunt. I knew where I was coming from and so, I was able to pray and work hard. Later, I got a scholarship to travel abroad. The ticket, school fees, everything was given to me. I knew that if I made noise about it, I would probably not go. I kept silent and prepared. It was on the day I was travelling, that people saw me in my suit, with my suitcase. Sometimes, we need to be discrete, so as not to expose our secrets to the enemy.

During my stay in England, I worked hard and one day my supervisor advised that I should take a break and go to Nigeria on holiday. He persistently told me to take a break. One night, I had a dream, where I saw myself at the Ikeja Airport. Our flight to London was announced and I looked round, but could not find the exit to the tarmac. Eventually I found it, but by the time I got to the tarmac, the aeroplane had taken off and I was left behind. That dream made me to know, that I should not go home so, I told my supervisor that I would not go. Some Nigerian students went and during their stay in Nigeria, there was a ‘Coup d’ Etat’. All borders and airports were closed and no one could travel out. By the time they got back, some of them had missed examinations, some failed woefully. Some could not go back to England because their sponsors were killed in the ‘Coup d’ Etat’ and that marked the end of their career. I could have fallen into that category too. You need divine visions to sort out your life.

The God of Daniel is the God of sovereign power.

Daniel 2:21:

“And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding”.

He is the God, who rules nations; He has the power to remove a king, and replace him with another one. He has the power to crush the pride of earthly rulers. He does not mind giving the sack to anyone whose position is hindering the progress of His children. Today, the strongman that constitutes a hindrance to your breakthrough shall be bound and your breakthroughs shall be released in the Name of Jesus.

I met a young Nigerian in England. I preached to him and he always made fun of me. He was a First Class Material. He cleared his Master Degree with a distinction and he got ready to leave. We all bade him bye. After a few days, I received a letter, which had the etiquette of the maximum prison on the enveloped. I read it and found out that it was that young man. He asked me to come to the prison, to pay him a visit. He asked me to buy a few things and bring for him. He said he realised that what I was telling him was the truth. I made up my mind that I would not go, for fear of being arrested as complice. I put the letter somewhere and the Lord talked to me expressly, that I should go to the prison to see the young man.

When I got there, he burst into tears, lamenting that if he had listened to me, he would not have been in prison. He said he got born again there and had been preaching to the inmates about Jesus, that they only made fun of him. I prayed with him, he confessed his sins to the Lord and we asked God to intervene in his situation. When I got back to town, I informed other brethren and we started to pray. On the day he was taken to court, we were in the court room, praying silently in tongues.

The judge was very aggressive he promised to deal treacherously with him. We had to call on the God of Daniel; we asked for a replacement of the judge, with a more lenient person. At the next hearing, it was another judge that presided over the case. The new judge looked at the brother and asked if it was true that he bagged a First Class Honours Degree in Nigeria, and that he got a Distinction in Masters Degree in England. The brother answered in the affirmative. The judge then said, for an intelligent person to steal money, he had to be mad; therefore, he would not jail him in England, but repatriate him to Nigeria. We knew that the brother was not mad; we knew that the God of Daniel was at work.

The God of Daniel is the God of secrets.

Daniel 2:22:

“He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him”.

He is the God that reveals secrets. All the secrets of the universe are known to God. All the past, present and future are known to God. He can tell the destinies of nations. He can tell you, what will happen in the next five or six years. If there is any conspiracy against you, God can show you the secret. God can make you discover a witchcraft meeting and you will hear their discussions so that you can counter their plans.

As you are there right now, there is a secret about your life, that you would need to know. Immediately you know it, your life will explode. Find out what it is.

Many years ago, we preached a message about destiny and prosperity. A woman was there and when she got home, she prayed fervently. She was learned, had a job, but was very poor. The Lord drew her attention to the piece of land behind her house, and told her in a clear voice, to start planting vegetables there. She thought it was the devil that was making a denigrating proposal to her. She bound the voice in anger because she had a Master’s Degree in Education. The Lord made her to know that He was the One speaking and she complied. She started the vegetable farm and it was as if the whole town was waiting for her. They abandoned every other vegetable and bought hers. It got to an embarrassing stage where nobody else could sell vegetables until hers, finished. Within one year, this teacher that used to be poor, had enough money to build a house with proceeds from vegetable- farming. I pray that the Lord will reveal to you, the secrets that will move your life forward.

The God of Daniel is the God of deliverance.

Daniel 6:20-22:

“And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel: “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” Then said Daniel unto the king: “O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him innocence was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt”.

Immediately Daniel got into the Lion’s den, the lions recognised him as the son of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Lions do not eat lions. So they did not touch him.

One day, a friend’s wife was travelling in a Luxurious bus. Suddenly, one of the passengers asked the driver to stop for him to ease himself. The driver stopped and someone came to the woman, to say that a man at the back wanted to see her that he was her husband’s classmate at school. The woman got up to go and see the person. A few seconds later, a trailer ran into the Luxurious bus and all the people sitting at the front where the woman got up from, perished. The amazing part of the story is the fact that the woman could not see the person who came to call her to the back. That must have been God’s angel of deliverance that came to call her out of danger.

The God of Daniel is the God of signs and wonders.

Daniel 6:26-27:

“I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions”.

A sister got married and on the wedding night, she refused the traditional ‘pouring of water’ on her feet. The groom’s mother got angry and promised to show her ‘pepper’. That night, the bride had a dream, where she saw her mother-in-law dip her hand into her stomach and pulled out her womb. She went to the back of their house and nailed the womb to the wall. Although, this sister was born again, she did not know anything about spiritual warfare. She remembered having the dream but did not know that it could have any implication on her. She discovered that she could not get pregnant, even though medical tests and scans could not detect anything wrong with her. She was childless for 16 years. The Lord brought her to MFM and she started to pray fire prayers. One night, she had a dream, where she saw her mother-in-law come into the house, with her womb and she collected it. In real life, the mother-in-law died many years before then. That was how the sister got her breakthrough. She got pregnant and now has children.

I know that the God of Daniel shall visit you today. However, if you are reading this message and you have not yet surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would like you to take that decision, right there where you are. You must be born again, to be a partaker of the blessing of the God of Daniel. Why do not you take that decision today? Right there where you are, the Lord is with you and wants you to come to Him. All you need do is acknowledge the fact that you are a sinner, that you cannot approach God in your sinful state. Repent of your sins right there where you are, confess your sins to Him; name them one by one and ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Claim the redemptive power in the Blood of Jesus. Renounce the world of sin and the devil. Jesus is waiting for you. Let today be the day when power will change hands in your life and the miracle of God will take root in your life. God will bless you as you take that decision.

Invite the Lord Jesus into your life. Ask Him to come into your heart and become your personal Lord and Saviour. Enthrone Him over your life and ask Him to take control of all that concerns you. Surrender your totality to Him and decide that you will never go back to the world of sin and the devil.

I congratulate you for this decision that you have just taken. It is the most important decision in life. I pray that it shall be permanent in your life in the Name of Jesus. I pray that the Lord will uphold you with His right hand of righteousness and will keep you from falling. I pray that the Lord will write your name in the Book of Life and you will not by any means rub it off in the Name of Jesus. Say bye-bye to the world of darkness and enter into the Kingdom of Light.

The prayers that I am suggesting below are prayers of divine intervention, by the God of Daniel. As you pray them, the spirits that have been tormenting you will leave you. The healing power of God will go forth and heal all manner of sicknesses and diseases in your spirit, soul and body. Make sure you do not allow any distraction. Every arrow that has been fired at you will go back to the sender. The power of God will fall upon you and you will be delivered from even terminal diseases. The power of God will pop out like pop-corn and things will begin to happen.

Take these prayer points with holy aggression:

- God of Daniel arise and pursue my pursuers in the Name of Jesus.

- Every occultist power searching for my face, die in the Name of Jesus.

- In the presence of those asking for my God, O God of Daniel, manifest Your power in the Name of Jesus.

- Every plantation of witchcraft in my body be uprooted in the Name of Jesus
- I arrest every profitless hard work in the Name of Jesus.

- I cancel every failure at the edge of breakthroughs in the Name of Jesus.

- Every ladder of darkness that the enemy has been using to get into my life, break and burn to ashes in the Name of Jesus.

- Every harassment from the spirit of death and hell cease in the Name of Jesus.

- Let every mark of hatred upon my forehead; be rubbed off by the Blood of Jesus.

- God of Daniel, pass through my life with signs and wonders in the Name of Jesus.

- God of Daniel anoint me for favour in the Name of Jesus.

- Serpents and Scorpions in my body go back to your sender in the Name of Jesus.

- Stubborn witchcraft of my father’s house, die in the Name of Jesus.

- Stubborn witchcraft of my mother’s house die in the Name of Jesus.

** When your star begins to shine, there are some boasting powers that would want to ask questions. These powers would want to impede your movement. Therefore take these prayers with boiling anger.
- Every child of Belial, every child of Belzebub, I cast you out of my progress in the Name of Jesus.

- Listen to me, household witchcraft, your time is up; therefore die in the Name of Jesus.

- Every power that has to die, for my joy to be full die in the Name of Jesus.

- Doors, Gates of my breakthroughs, open by fire in the Name of Jesus.

- Every personal wall of Jericho in my life, crumble in the Name of Jesus.

- I possess my possession in the Name of Jesus.

- I seal all my prayers with the Blood of Jesus.

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