TCA Thu23May24 - Pray Without Ceasing - Ps Julia Rasimphi

The main ideas of this information are: - The importance of secret prayer and directing prayers to God. - Jesus taught the disciples the value of secret prayer. - Secret prayer should be done in a private and secluded place. - Privacy fosters honesty and honesty fosters relationship with God. - Regular practice of secret prayer strengthens our spiritual nature. - Prayer is a form of spiritual exercise and helps us grow in faith. - Prayer should be our first line of defense and not our last resort. - Secret prayer allows us to have close communion with God and form a habit of regular prayer. Summary: Secret prayer is important for believers as it allows us to have a personal and honest relationship with God. It should be done in a private place where we can freely communicate with God. Regular practice of secret prayer strengthens our faith and helps us grow spiritually. 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This is what we are saying to God as we start this morning. We had a great time yesterday with Pastor Shongwe. Thank you so much and we are continuing today, feasting in the Word of God, starting the day with God and also giving Him our praise and our prayers, offering our prayers before Him this morning. We are going to get the Word of God and be led through to prayer by also one of our own this morning, Muruti Rasimki. Over to you, Muruti, as we continue with today's session of prayer. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mama. Good morning, Apostles. Good morning, Mama. And I bring my sincere good morning greetings to all the brothers and the brethren in the platform today. We thank God for giving us another brand new day. And I also like to appreciate my parents, my dad and my mom for giving me this opportunity to minister today. It's highly appreciated. And today we are just going to encourage each other from the Word of God again and that's where we draw our strength as believers. My message this morning is just a reminder and encouragement to all of us that we have to pray and we must pray without ceasing. We have heard that prayer is not a gift of the Spirit and we have also heard that prayer is a battle. As John said in Romans that his brethren must join him in the struggle and the strife by praying to God for him. And we know we as believers, we have received the light that gave us eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior in salvation. But it is also important to note that we must watch out that this light that we have received must never run out of oil. We are to make sure it's kept burning at all times till the end. And also we heard that we must never, ever leave our prayer booth desolate. We must pray always and never despair. For us saints to allow our light to shine brighter and brighter, we need to imitate Jesus always who is our Redeemer and our Savior. My sermon this morning, I'm going to base it on the book of Matthew chapter 6, verse 5 to 6, but my anchor script will be verse 6. But I'll read it from verse 5 to 6. Matthew 6, 5 to 6, New King James. And when you pray, you shall not be like hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. And surely I say to you, they have their reward. Verse 6 says, but you, when you pray, go into your room. And when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sits in secret will reward you openly. The Lord bless the Kingdom of His Holy Spirit. Here we see Jesus teaching His disciples the value of secret prayer. That's Matthew 6, 6. As opposed to prayer done to be seen by men. To ensure that the Father in heaven hears and responds to our prayers, you have to always direct your prayers to God. Today we'll examine fully the value of secret prayer. We have to also consider the advantages of this form of spiritual devotion and encourage each other to adopt it in our daily walk with God. In the verse, we find that Jesus says you must go and pray in secret. The word secret in the Greek is kryptos. Which means a hidden, it also means concealed place, it also means a private place. It's like a private room. When you are being placed in a private room, you have been separated from other people. If we say in the hospital that the patient is in a private room, it means this patient is separated from other patients. And usually private rooms is only one person in that room. There will never be two patients in a private room. A private room is always one person sitting in that room. And that is what Jesus is saying in your secret place. But he says, but you, when you pray, go into your room. We should meet with God in our small room, in our closet. The idea of a private place where we can impress no one but except God. The Greek word for this word room was used for a storeroom where treasures were kept. This reminds us that there are treasures waiting for us in our prayer closet. Again, the word closet that Jesus uses in Matthew 6.6 is the word kamion. It's defined in the Greek dictionary as a secret chamber, a place where a person may retire for privacy or a place for storage, like a closet. All this concept emphasizes that this place should be private and cut off from the comings and goings of the household. It should be a place where the world can be shut out. The reason such privacy is necessary for prayer is very clear. Privacy always fosters honesty. And honesty fosters relationship. Jesus certainly was not prohibiting public prayer. But he wanted our prayers to be directed to God and not to us men. We have seen him engaging in public prayer several times. For example, when he was praying for Lazarus at the grave, feeding the 5,000 people he prayed. But we also see Jesus demonstrating this issue of going into a secret place. In several places we see Jesus rising early in the morning, going away from them, going to a lonely place, a secluded place where he prayed. Meaning that Jesus demonstrated this issue of secret prayer, going into a secret place for prayer. And then he, before he started. Secret place of prayer means going to a private place where your prayer will not be heard. And opening your heart to God about everything going on in and around you. A private place where you can freely communicate without worry of being overheard. And have a free time with God. This place you can find it in a separate room in your house. Or a special place in a room. It might even be that you can make yourself an artificially quite private place. But the important thing here is to find time to pray in secret every day. What is the value of praying in a secret? Our first value is that when we pray in secret, giving time to be with God and you and God alone. You cultivate, we always will be cultivating our spiritual nature. We strengthen our spiritual nature. We know that regular physical exercise develop our bodies. Bodybuilders, they build their own bodies through regular lifting of weights. So is our spirit. The spirit of man always benefits through regular spiritual and godly exercise. 1 Timothy 4, 7-8 NLT says, Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and god-wise tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good. But training for godliness is much better. Promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. This act of spiritual exercise will build us up for eternity. The practice of prayer is a form of spiritual exercise. Prayer is a spiritual gymnasium in which we exercise and practice godliness. When we pray, we grow. And our spiritual muscles of faith grows. And our faith will swell up. Also, the opposite is true. If you spend days without prayer, you will be weak and you will be vulnerable to the enemy. As Christians, we know prayer is essential to our Christian life as breathing is to our physical life. We must use prayer always as our steering wheel, not as our spare wheel. We must always pray for directions. In life, many people, many of us, we tend to use prayer as our last resort. But God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do. But God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. And when we do secret prayer, when you go into your closet and you shut the world out, we are moving from, we need that freedom from distraction. Where else can we get this unless we go to our private room and close the door and concentrate our effort in communion with our God and we engage within secret prayer? It's very easy to be distracted, especially in church, in the assembly of the church when we pray. We are distracted easily by noise or movement or by the concern how people listen to us, people who listen to us when we pray. And in essence, public prayer by its nature, it rarely addresses the specific needs of an individual. But a private prayer will provide the opportunity to pour out one's soul to God and bring everything to Him so that God who hears us in secret will be able to answer us. Amen. The second value of this prayer is that you will automatically form a habit of close communion with God. Without faith, man is a creature of a habit. We cannot help but form habits in life. Habits can be bad or good. The Bible, one who allows himself to engage in sinful practice over time will find himself enslaved by force of habits to sin. John 8, 34, clearly Jesus said to us that whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Habits form through repetition of something. But as for the one who engages in a regular godly practice, the formation of habits can be a good thing. The habit of secret prayer is no exception. Regular practice of secret prayer soon forms a habit that lends itself to the development of close communion and a fellowship with God. Once the habit of that close fellowship with God has been formed, one cannot help but be influenced by the constant presence of God in their life. The Bible in Proverbs 18, 20 clearly gives us this. If you want to grow in wisdom, that is in TPT, you must spend time with the wise. Who is the wise that you must spend time with? Where do we get this wisdom? Job answers that question for us in Job 12, 13. He says, but true wisdom and power are found in God. Counsel and understanding are his. Meaning that we must spend time in the presence of God to gain true wisdom. The true wisdom is the wisdom from above. Which, according to James 3, 17, tells us clearly that this wisdom from above is pure, is peaceable, is gentle, is willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. As a child of God, have a habitual close communion with God in the secret place of prayer daily to draw this wisdom from above. The next value of the secret prayer, it preserves us from many evils. Because we know, we are people, evil is surrounding us all the time. And when you go into the secret closet and you pray to God every day for an hour or two, you are preserved. A wall is surrounding, preserves you from evil. What are the source of the worst evils? One is our lusts and passions. James 1, 14-15, in TPT, it says, Instead, it is each person's own desire and thoughts that drag them into evil and lure them away into darkness. Evil desires give birth to evil actions. And when sin is fully mature, it can murder you. We also are aware that the lusts of the flesh also wage war against what the spirit desires. It is clearly said in Galatians 5, verse 16-17, when it says, What I say is this, let the spirit direct your life, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human flesh. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the spirit wants. And what the spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies. And this means that you cannot do what you want to do. And also take note that sometimes it's difficult to control the self. Controlling the self is mostly a difficult challenge. Because Proverbs 16-32 says, Do you want to be a mighty warrior? It is better to be known as one who is patient and slow to anger. Do you want to conquer a city? Rule over your temper before you attempt to rule a city. Message translation says moderation is better than muscle. But self-control is better than political power. This means that it is easy to gain political power and still lack self-control. You can be a leader in society or even a church and still lack self-control. That is why when leadership was selected, it was dictated that, I paraphrase, leaders must be well-respected and have integrity. They must not be heavy, heavy drinkers. Or they must not be dishonest in money or in anything. Then also, this prayer will help us in the evil part of pride. Private fellowship with God in prayer can help us solve the problem of pride, which can be treated with humbling oneself in prayer, confessing one's own sins and inadequacy before the Almighty God. As the Bible tells us clearly that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humility and sincerity are the two great lessons that Jesus Christ teaches us. The position of kneeling down before God for an hour or two will definitely humble us. And it can also solve the problem of anger, wrath, and malice. Never ever will ever these problems harbor in the heart of the one who often prays with the help of the spirit. Because the Bible tells us in Romans 8, 26, that in the same way, the spirit comes to us and help us in our weaknesses. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should. But the spirit himself knows our needs and at the right time intercede on our behalf with sigh and groanings too deep for words. In that place of prayer, it is important to engage into the spirit, to pray in the spirit. Because the Holy Spirit being God himself, the Holy Spirit knows and can interpret God's will to us. Indeed, this is one of the very reasons why he was given to the church. He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We can therefore count on him to enable us to pray in harmony with the will of God. As much as the Son of God intercedes for us before the throne of glory at the right hand side of the Father, the Spirit of God is Christ's advocate in our hearts to meet our deepest needs. So he gave the Holy Spirit to instruct, to inspire and illuminate our hearts and minds. And aided by him, the Holy Spirit, we will be likely to pray to things not only contrary to God's will, but also harmful to ourselves. Yes, private prayer can be instrumental in controlling the flesh, while at the same time it will cultivate the godly virtues in our souls. And we go to the fourth value being, when we engage in secret prayer, we say, O God in Zion, to you even silence is praise, you who answer prayer, all of humanity comes before you with their request. And as we read from Matthew 6.6, the good that this prayer brings is that our God who hears us in secret will answer, will reward us openly. As much as you go there alone, when God rewards you, he will reward you openly. Your answers will come openly to be seen by all. And again, we know that as long as we go to him asking according to his will, God hears us. And whatever we ask, we know that he will give to us. The other thing that we have seen in prayer is that prayer happens to change, is being known also to change God's plans. We have seen it in the prayer of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20. When Hezekiah was told he was going to die, when he prayed, God changed his plans and gave him 15 more years. We have seen the benefit of these years in his life. This extension of his lifetime gave this man Hezekiah the opportunity to have a son who will succeed him and reign after him. Hezekiah nearly died without having a successor if he was not given the extension. And we also see it in the prayer of the Nevite where God spared them and their city. In John 3.10 it says, Then God saw their works, and that they turned from their evil ways, and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. Since we know that the God who hears prayer is our Father in heaven, who delights in those who pray in secret, we must never dare to neglect that which seek who are so much good for ourselves. We must always value our intimacy with the Father. The fifth value, which is the final value, it enables us to promote good and happiness for others. By making petitions, by interceding for other people, by securing God's favor in their behalf. In the private place of prayer, we always have enough time to pray for others. That's the place where you will have time to pray for others. We have seen Moses interceding for the Israelites and God listened to him and didn't do the harm that He wanted to do to them. We can also do to secure much good for others through intercession. The first, we can pray for our nation by praying for our leaders. Because we know the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2, that verse 1, that first of all, then I am. That petitions, the special requests, prayers, intercessions, prayers for others, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all people, for kings and lords, for kings and lords, for kings and lords, for kings and lords. intercessions, prayers for others, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in positions of high authority, so that we may live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This kind of praying is good and acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior. We have to pray. We have time. You'll have time to pray for other people, for the kings, for the nation, for your country. You'll have time to pray for anything that you want to pray for because you are close there and it's just you and your God alone. We also will have time to pray and bless our preachers' efforts by praying for them. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 1 says, Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. We have to pray for the people who are preaching. We have to pray for our preachers. We have to pray for the leadership so that the message can go. Sometimes you are an intercessor. You will not be able to preach. Your job is to pray for all the people who are taking out the Great Commission to the world. Also, the Bible tells us that we can also bless our sick brethren by praying for them. It is important to offer prayer to the brethren, to the saints on their sickbed. In conclusion, I just want to say, in this world, when we are Christians, when we are believers, when we are not allowed, when we face mountains, we are not allowed to build a bypass. When the devil throws a mountain of resistance against us, do not build a bypass. We are to challenge him and push and hail this mountain into the sea. We have to remove that mountain and throw it into the sea and never build a bypass. And we are not being put here to hold the fort until Jesus comes to rescue us. We are to storm the gates of hell and promise us that they will not prevail against us. We must understand that we are fighting from a point of victory. He, the devil, has been defeated a long time ago. But we can only claim that victory by spending time with the one and only Father who is there always, who promised never to leave us alone, our Jehovah Shama. John says of the New Jerusalem, God is with men and he will dwell with them. God himself will be with them in Revelation 21 verse 3. We need to connect and engage with him in prayer and in the intimate relationship of being with him all the time. Have that intimate fellowship with the Father all the time. As we have seen the value of secret prayer, which is cultivating our spiritual nature, also forming a habit of close communion with our God, which will preserve us from many evils and secure us much good. And it also enables us to promote good and happiness for others. But if and only if we desire to be good and to be good, let us make secret prayer a habit in our lives. Then our Father, who sees in secret, will surely reward us openly. Secret prayer prevents spiritual stagnation. It keeps the soul tender, develops faith and confidence in God, helps to overcome, helps to prevail, to triumph over difficulties and obstacles, bringing us into better acquaintance with God, and keeps every grace of the Spirit flourishing in our souls. It keeps us standing. It keeps us in, will be rooted, will stand. In any situation that comes before us, it will find us ready for it and standing in our position. Amen. Amen. Thank you for the word. This word reminds me of the place where we are. We call it the Closet Altar. And the vision of this Closet Altar is based on secret prayer, both digitally and physically. So, I would appreciate that this word, as it is, it must be shared in the Closet Altar. Digitally, it must be. These notes must be, whether it's an audio or it's in a written form, because this is about the vision, and let it be sent to the Closet Altar, so that everyone who enters there sees this sharing, which is visionary in nature. Some of the teachings and the sermons are structural in nature. They talk to the structure of the church. Thank you for this word that reminds us where we are and what we are doing. And today we are sent to the Closet. Respond, because this is the move of God. Be blessed and go to your Closet Altar. Amen. 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