© Ayo Omolayo
“Apostle Paul said something in the book of Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Cris! Silas! Hear this! THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE. I don’t understand. What does the law of the Spirit of life mean? Is it another ten commandments or something.
But Apostle Paul said the law of the spirit of life was what set me free from another law called THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH”.
I was seriously writing down a lot of things. Thank God I came with my jotter.
I don’t want to talk about the law of sin and death. But what does this experience looks like. Before that scripture. Apostle Paul described spiritual rustiness in the previous chapter. He spoke of the situation where he wants to do good and finds himself doing evil. He wants to pray and finds himself sleeping. That’s spiritual rustiness.
I’m just trying to show you spiritual rustiness from the bible. Now he went further to tell us that there’s something in the realm of the spirit called THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE. Interesting. Another word for that is what I call, THE PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.
That’s the remedy to Spiritual rustiness. Life! The spiritual rusty man is not completely dead. He’s still breathing a little bit, but he’s spiritually weak. His spirit man is so weak.
The bible says something in Proverbs 24:10. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
It’s not because you didn’t read your Bible or hear God’s word. Infact let me be more detailed. Even after hearing a message as powerful as this, you will still remain the same. It’s not an evil prophecy. It’s a principle and you know the results of a principle before it arrives.
You failed in the day of adversity because your strength is small. Your spiritual energy is small. Your spirit man was completely weak.
Looks as if I’m getting you confused. Looks like I’m not giving you the answers. But the answer can be found in one simple word PRAYER.
Isaiah 40:31. But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Sir I don’t understand you. I’m telling you I struggle to pray. I’m telling you I cannot pray these days. Instead of telling me the solution, you’re telling me to go and pray? I said I tried to pray and it’s too difficult. Instead of giving me a better solution, you’re telling me to go and pray?
You need to understand one thing I have always said about prayer. I have said it and I’ll keep saying it. A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian. If you live by this Christian proverb, you have solved half of your spiritual problem.
Peter told Jesus that he was ready to enter prison with him and to die with him. But when it was time to pray, what was he doing? He was sleeping. And when it was time to die for Jesus, he could not do it. He was seeing Jesus right there and was telling everyone in the presence of Jesus that he doesn’t know him. The flesh will always overpower the man that cannot pray.
Brethren, God is not a magician. Grace is there. The power of God is there. The spirit of God is there. But the last thing that is missing is the man to pray. Prayer is discipline. Prayer is not magic. You discipline yourself to pray. You fight against your flesh to pray.
The LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE, is consistency in prayers. Prayers weakens the flesh and energizes the spirit. That is why the flesh will fight tooth and nail to ensure it succeeds in keeping you from praying.
So the question is HOW CAN A CHRISTIAN BUILD HIS PRAYER LIFE?
I want to pray but it’s too difficult for me, here are the steps.
Number one. Pick the most convenient time for you to pray. A time when there would be no distractions or whatever. A time you would be able to be consistent with. Anytime at all is okay. As long as it’s convenient for you, it’s fine. It can be in the night or daytime. Once that is accomplished, we move to the next step.
Number two. Set an alarm. That’s the next thing to do. And please, for those of you who set alarms and never wake up to the sound of it, here’s what to do. Before going to bed, pray this simple prayer. Lord, wake me up when it’s time to begin my quiet time. Let the angel watching over me, tap me out of my sleep once it is time. Believe God, that prayer works like magic. You won’t know how you would wake up suddenly.
Number three. Beware of extra time. A lot of Christians fall victim to this. Immediately your quiet time alarm rings. They look at the time and frown. Oh no! I’m too tired. Let me give myself extra minutes to sleep. 5 minutes more. Some put it off and don’t move an inch from the bed. The first thing I do when my quiet time alarm rings, is to wave my bed bye bye. I tell myself I don’t have anything to do with the bed anymore. So immediately I hear my alarm, I discipline myself by not wasting time on the bed. Immediately, I jump out of the bed. I don’t even dare sit on it. I avoid it like a plague. Don’t waste time on the bed. Don’t tell yourself 30 minutes more. That’s deception. How is 30 minutes sleep supposed to make you feel better?
At least when you lie down, you know that sleep comes and it’s intention is to stay longer than expected. There’s this popular proverb that says, ‘What you don’t want to eat, don’t bring it close to your nose to inhale the smell. Because in the process of inhaling it, you might put it in your mouth’. Stop the extra time sleep. You’ve had enough sleep for hours. How is 5 minutes sleep going to make you stronger?
It’s only a deception from the pit of hell to lure you back into sleep and cause you to miss your appointment with God. Or don’t you notice that after telling yourself you want to sleep for 5 minutes, you end up sleeping for one hour. For you to know that it was Satan that was decieving you.
So whenever you hear the sound of your alarm. Please, jump out of that bed immediately. Don’t wait to sleep small sleep. Don’t entertain the thought of a little sleep, a little slumber a little folding of hands to sleep. So shall thy spiritual poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man. Proverbs 24: 32 and 33.
Number four. Beware of your prayer position. The first attack from the flesh is about your prayer position. Some of you want to pray and you lie on the bed and cover yourself with the blanket. You put your head on the pillow and close your eyes. Good morning Jesus! Good morning Lord! You won’t finish that song before sleep will finish you.
That one is not sleep was disturbing me. It I’m disturbing sleep. In other words, I’m looking for trouble. There are five praying position. The laying down position, the kneeling position, the sitting position, the standing position and the walking around position.
For those of you who are just starting quiet time. Please only two positions are the best for you. The standing and walking around position. Don’t go and sit down to observe your quiet time. Sitting down is enough to activate sleep on its own. Kneeling down and leaning on a chair to pray is a risk. You won’t remember when you’ll rest your head on the chair and continue the prayers in the dream world. If at all you’ll kneel, don’t lean on anything.
And laying down, that one na abomination. Be it on the floor to worship God or on the bed in adoration, don’t try it. You’re just a beginner. And one thing you must understand is that your body is not used to it. Your body is used to sleeping. So once you assume a comfortable position, sleep is activated. It doesn’t take time.
So beginners, stand up and discipline yourself to pray. The truth is that, anything about spirituality is first of all discipline. It’s your consistency that attracts the spirit of prayer to you.
Number five. Don’t entertain the pride of I’m doing fine. That’s another form of attack from the pit of hell. You’re so widely awake as a starter. You been using the standing position for a while and it has been helpful. But today, you decided to sit and pray. A few minutes later, you almost fell off the chair out of sleep. Immediately, the Holy Spirit will tell you to stop sitting down and stand up.
Many of us are in habit of telling him we’re doing fine. Don’t worry! I won’t fall asleep. It won’t take long, you’ll almost fall off the chair. Stand up and do this prayer! But you would keep decieving yourself that you’re doing fine. These are some of the habit of people who struggle with sleep and tiredness. Instead of them to discipline themselves and stand up to pray, they remain seated and decieve themselves they won’t fall asleep again.
Number six. Pray fervently. The trending prayer pattern in the body of Christ today is so overwhelming. I call it the gentleman prayer. Very gentle, not a single sweat. I’m not saying you should scream and disturb the neighborhood. But it’s possible to pray fervently without shouting. You can lower your voice and also pray aggressively. The bible says in the book of James 5:16b that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Fervent prayers has a bigger effect than the gentleman prayer. So don’t pray like Mr Cool. Pray the way Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. You can’t pray like Mr Cool and be sweating. Pray with action, not necessarily screaming.
These are the steps. I know you were expecting me to say something that would not be difficult, but sorry. The road to heaven is a narrow road. And God is not planning to change it anytime soon. It has to be the hard way, nothing but the hard way.
The man that wants to serve Jesus must be ready to do what he must. You will continue to live in depression until you rise up and pray. You will continue to get frustrated and frustrated untill you wake up and tell yourself na prayer go kill me.
I mean, since prayer is the only way out of this struggle. Then I will pray and pray till everyone around me will say that I should not kill myself with prayers.
When Jesus was on earth, he was asked a question in
Luke 13:23. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,
Verse 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
The Amplified version says, ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door [force yourselves through it], for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able’.
Here’s what the goodnews bible has to say, ‘Do your best to go in through the narrow door; because many people will surely try to go in but will not be able’
And here’s what the pidgin English bible says, ‘Make una struggol well-well so dat una go fit pass di small door, bikos many pipol go try to enter God Kingdom, but dem nor go fit.
It’s the hard way. I know you love comfort so much, but you have to let go. It’s going to cost you pain, but that’s the only way.
Let me tell you something. Attending fire programs will not solve this. How many Apostolic meetings have you attended and you’re still like this? How many revival meetings have you attended and your life is still the way it is?
Keep reading fire books. Nothing will happen. Apostle so and so is coming to minister at so and so place. You will roll on the floor at the meeting, get up and go back home the same way you came. Untill you learn to arise and force your flesh to pray, nothing will change.
So what are the secrets to a consistent spiritual life?
To be continued…….
When are you going to arise?
When are you going to pay the price?
You have been sleeping since you were born 20 years ago. You have used 20 years of your life here on earth to sleep. When are you going to give God just one hour everyday?
Don’t be surprised, you will finish reading this story and your life will still remain the same. It’s not an evil prophecy. It’s a principle.
Untill you get angry and tell yourself that enough is enough. Is it not prayer? Shey it’s to be praying everyday? I will pray till God begs me to stop.
Nothing will ever stop me from praying. Even sickness will not stop me. Sleep will not stop me. Tiredness will not stop me. Pain will not stop me.
Those principles in this episode were taught to me by the Holy Spirit. They are the keys that made my prayer life consistent.
Write them down and read them over and over again. Let them stick to your mind. If you can follow each one of them without giving up.
You’ll be the happiest soul on earth. They are the keys to building your prayer life.
