Establishing a Prayer Life- Apostle Peterson O. Abu

This is a lesson on the importance of prayer and how to establish a prayer life. The speaker emphasizes that prayer is a spiritual activity and should be between an individual and God. They also mention the different types of prayer, such as adoration and thanksgiving, petition and intercession, supplication, and spiritual warfare prayers. The speaker highlights the need for a genuine born-again experience in order to establish a prayer life. Without being born again, one cannot fully understand or engage in spiritual activities like prayer. The speaker encourages listeners to prioritize prayer and not see it as something to be celebrated or advertised, but rather as a way to connect with God and carry out His will. Praise the Lord. You are welcome back to our lesson two, which is the second topic of our journey on the prayer series, the school of prayer. I believe you have listened to the lesson one, the first topic which we talk about the concept of prayers. If you have not listened to it or probably you have not listened to it again and again and again and again and again, then go and listen to it because you will be able to know where we are coming from. So if you are joining us for the first time, then go and listen to the lesson one, which is the first topic we considered in this school of prayer, the concept of prayers. So today we will be proceeding to number two, which is the lesson two of this program, which is the establishing a prayer life. We have talked about the concept of prayer. Now we are talking about the establishing of a prayer life. The concept of prayer, I made known to you that prayer essentially is between you and God. And praying to God is more of your concentration and your focus directly to God and not to man. And I think I explained better to you that it was never in scripture that a man prayed to another man. So I made note to you that prayer is between humanity and divinity, between man and spirit or man and God. It's like diffusion. Diffusion or osmosis in chemistry. It moves from what higher concentration to what lower concentration. It moves from lower concentration to what higher concentration. So it's like God is higher, we are lower. So every time we pray to God, we climb higher. We try to become like God, not in authority, but we try to be like God by sharing from his love and nature. But what we'll be talking about today is establishing a prayer life. Father, we thank you for this class. Thank you for the previous class. We pray, Holy Spirit, that as you speak to us, even at this time, let your word bless us mightily in Jesus' name. Now you are welcome. Let us turn our Bible to the book of Luke chapter 18 verse 1. I think it's a very popular verse of the scripture. Every one of you can quote it without necessarily opening your Bible. So Luke chapter 18 verse 1. The Bible says in verse 1, And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. You see the word always. For those that joined the previous class, the Bible passages we read, you see the word always. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 23. Praying always. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17. Praying without ceasing. So you see the word praying always, praying without ceasing. Now we come here, men ought always to pray, which is a consistency. Men should pray every time and not to faint. There should be a continuous engagement in prayer and not to stop praying. And I made note to you in our previous class about the concept of prayer. And I also told you about the types of prayer and what prayer is and the types of prayers. So how many of you can still remember the five types of prayer or the four types of prayer that I told you? Number one, I said the prayer of what? Adoration and thanksgiving. Number two, this prayer of what? Petition and intercession. And then number three is the prayer of supplication. Then number four is the spiritual warfare prayers. And I think I talked more about the spiritual warfare prayers in our previous class. I make emphasis on that more than the others. Yes. So today we'll be talking about establishing a prayer life, establishing a prayer life. Now the Bible says men ought always to pray and not to faint. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. I observed my observation. I discovered that if you organize prayer concerts, people will not come. I mean, the church, many churches, like the Church of Christ, loves worship, loves singing, loves drama more than prayer. And it's all about the understanding we have. It's the understanding we have, you know, we have been developed with that makes it look as if prayer is a hard thing. In fact, prayer is not something we should be advertising. Like somebody's praying and then, you know, some, there's a camera, you know, just came out. There's a camera just watching on that person, viewing that person. And then everybody's saying this man is a praying man. It's good. I'm not against that. I do that sometimes, but it shouldn't be something like a big deal. Because when we mention prayer now, it's as if it's one of the hardest thing in the kingdom. One of the hardest thing that if you can pray, if you can really pray, it means that you are a giant. So you see that people are beginning to take pride in prayers. I'm a prayer machine. No, I remember many years ago, I gave my life to Christ many years ago. When I was praying for hours, I never knew, in fact, I never knew that it was something to be celebrated about or something to talk about. I remember when I, many years ago, I would pray five hours and these things were consistent. Like, it was a way of life. The prayer warrior I belonged to at that time, we're praying for hours. I remember how his child died and the brother's child to the church, the prayer warriors, we prayed for morning. I'm not talking about from afternoon, for morning. We prayed for morning from around eight, nine till evening, which was around 10 that night. And the child didn't wake up for the later bed with the child. So it was something that I was, we were trained with. So we want to talk about establishing a prayer life. The reason we are teaching you this in the School of Discipleship and Ministry is because we want you students to have a very good prayer life. I want you to have a prayer life that can, you know, that can make everyone to find expression in your whole world. Are you with me? Because when we start praying like this in our territories, you will discover that God will be able to easily carry out his business, his transaction with that territory. So we want to talk about establishing a prayer life. At what point can a Christian establish a prayer life? Number one, God is a spirit. Number two, prayer is a spiritual activity. It has nothing to do with the flesh. If it is done in the flesh, then it is not prayer. If Jesus said that when, he said, do not pray like the hypocrites for the love praying standing at the street corner. So that is prayer in the flesh. It is a prayer that is done with the intention of flesh, fleshly intention. So that is not, you know, that is not called prayers. But how can you establish a prayer life? The first thing you must understand is that prayer is spiritual. And there is no way a carnal man, a natural man can engage in the things of the spirit. Number one, the Bible says that the things of the spirit would appear to that man like foolishness. Now when the Bible says foolishness, you must understand that you can be addicted to a system and yet not be part of that system. So there are people that are not yet born again and that they were born in the church. They are not born again, but you know, they grew up in the church. So they grew up meeting prayers, although they are not born again, but they are not used to those things. They know they are the Christian languages. If they start praying here, you would think they originated prayers. So they are used to that system and they do those things in the spirit of religion, but that does not produce life in them. So a natural man cannot understand the depth of prayers until something first happens to that natural man. So a prayer is a spiritual activity. It means that there is no way you can engage it when you are a natural person. So how do we establish it? I want to be prayerful, so what must I do to become prayerful? Number one is the born again experience. The reason I put it as the first demand for a man to establish a prayer life is that what the miracle of the born again experience is that it makes a natural man to become supernatural. Yes, so a natural man in the flesh, when you are born again by the spirit, you become a spirit man. So the Bible says in the book of John chapter 3 verse 5 and 6, it says he that is born of the flesh is of the flesh and they that are born of the spirit are spirit. That means for you to enter the spirit, for you to become a spirit man, in order for you to carry out the spiritual activity, you must be born of the spirit. Born again is the entrance to a prayer life. If you must establish a prayer life, you must be genuinely be born again. No matter who you are, no matter your title, I know there are people in the churches that are not yet born again. They are headers, they are pastors, they are ministers of God, they are workers, they are people in church who cannot experience the strength and the power of a prayer life because they are not yet born again. So genuine born again experience is a greater advantage. Genuine born again experience in fact is an advantage for you to go deeper in Christ. Most of us have not yet been born again. That is why some spiritual realities that people preach about, that we preach about, it appears as if those things are lies because you can never experience those things. You can deceive a man that you are born again but in spiritual groups you will never experience that. There are people that were born in the church and they are not born again. They just learned those Christian languages and today they are speaking in tongues. But how would you know they are not born again when you shake their life, they are strangers to encounters because this encounter can only come to validate the fact that you are a son or daughters of the kingdom. So you cannot have a prayer life until you have been genuinely be born again. Genuine born again salvation. You are being regenerated. You are not a man of the spirit. You have been born by the spirit. You have been born by the word. You have been born of water. So born again experience has a crucial part for the establishment of a prayer life. You will not be able to maintain it. You won't be able to establish it if the born again experience have not yet taken place in your life. Are you following now? So there is no need for me to read John chapter 3. We all know this. John chapter 3 verse verse what? Chapter 3 verse 3. Except a man be born again he cannot what? See the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again he cannot benefit the kingdom privileges. Except a man be born again he cannot be able to communicate with the kingdom and with the king of the kingdom. Except a man is born again he is not yet a citizen of the kingdom. Except a man is born again he cannot enjoy the resources that comes from the kingdom. So born again open the doors not only to the prayer life. It open the doors to spiritual gifts and other benefits and privileges attached to the kingdom. So born again. Then number two. When a man is born again does it mean that immediately he will start praying? Yes. Yes. You are not being taught to pray sometimes. The bible says in the book of Romans chapter 12. That is why I'm teaching you this in the school of prayers so that you can understand this. The moment you get born again every every Christian that genuinely got born again they can attest to this fact that the moment they got born again they had an inward passion something pushing them to talk to God. They always want to be in a prayer meeting. In Romans chapter 8 verse 16. Okay verse 15. Romans chapter 8 verse 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That is at born again. Because when you get born again you didn't you are not receiving a strange spirit. A fearful spirit. When you when you got born again the Lord will lead into you. But ye have received the spirit of what? Adoption. That was the spirit of adoption is the spirit that regenerated. It is spirit that causes born again. So when you get born again there was a spirit that came to establish salvation in you. That spirit that comes to establish salvation that comes to look at the transformation. That spirit that came into you and and and work at the regeneration is called the spirit of adoption. Now look at the effect of that spirit. Because this spirit come to work at regeneration and after he has perfected regeneration it does not leave you. He resides in you. The Bible says and what? Verse 15. The spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. Now you see the word crying Abba Father. When you get born again when this spirit has come to work at regeneration in you there will be something you that pounds after God. That is when you will immediately recognize God as Father. It is a revelation of itself. There's a revelation that happened at salvation that makes you immediately you recognize God as Father. So you begin to cry to him our Abba what? Abba Father. That crying to the Lord Abba Father is what we call prayer. So you want to have relationship fellowship with your father now. Immediately you recognize that God is not just a creator. You recognize him as a father. Because the spirit of adoption has comes within you to carry out a an operation that position you to establish a prayer life. So the spirit of the same God that came to adopt you is still in you crying what? Abba Father. So there will be an inner longing that makes you to press to pray. This is why if you are not praying there is something that is crying within you. If you have not prayed if you are truly born again and you are not praying there's something in you that is crying. If you are not studying your Bible there's something in you that cries. You don't feel ordinary again. When you were not born again you may not read your Bible you may not pray you feel okay. But every time you you don't pray there is something within you that is crying. It is crying Abba Father. There is something within you that is longing for God. So that is what established the prayer life. The prayer life comes at the point of salvation. The point of regeneration. When the spirit of adoption comes into you it comes to carry out a function that produces the prayer life. The prayer life starts actually from the crying of the spirit. The drawing of the spirit. From the panting of the spirit. As the deer panted after the water brooks so panted my soul after thee. It is that crying that is in you. When I got born again after I repented of my sins there was something in me that was not tasting for God and there was there was no other way I could express that except by prayer and reading of the word. So this was this was the thing that strengthened my Christian life when I got born again. So the moment I got born again there was something in me that was panting for God and the only two ways I could express that was praying and reading of the word. I didn't know how to pray so I started attending prayer meetings. Every meeting held in that church I was attending. Every meeting whether it is even shuldering program as far as prayer and the word. So I began to pant. I began to read books. I began to find prayer meeting. I was looking for any prayer meeting to join. There was something in me that I want to pray because the spirit of adoption that has produced salvation in your life which is in you and is crying words Abba Father. It makes you to recognize God as Abba. So God becomes an Abba your father and of course you will want to have fellowship with your father. You want to have conversation conversation with your father. Every child wants to speak with their father no matter how far you are. You you always want to speak without your father. So the spirit of prayer is being established at the point of regeneration and this is why you must be sincere about your salvation experience. Your salvation experience should be genuine and it must be genuine if you must enjoy it. Salvation must be genuine and it should be genuine. So the born again experience or the regeneration experience is a background for establishing a prayer life. If you are not born again you have not genuinely been regenerated. Not church doctrine. I'm not talking about conformity to a church pattern because nowadays we have religious churches whereby you become part of that system but you are not yet born again. So I'm not talking about you becoming conformable to a church pattern. I'm talking about the spirit of adoption coming within you to to walk at redemption in your life. That is where it starts from. Now we talk about the establishing a prayer life. If the prayer life has been established at salvation because I can't tell you I can't tell you to go and pray. Sometimes people teach that if you want to establish a prayer life you have to you have to be praying every day. No that is good that is good but that is not the foundation. That is not the fundamental. You can't tell someone that is not born again that he has to be praying every day. Unfortunately these are people that are going to prayer houses because they are looking for something from God. So you see that they join every prayer meeting. Not that they are born again. Not that they are born again. When we have program you see that they are in the program because they needed wife, because they needed husband, because they needed job and when you see them praying you will think they are sincerely praying. But they can't have a prayer life. That is not a prayer life. A prayer life is not a sinner looking for an answer therefore join a prayer group to pray. That is not a prayer life. A prayer life begins at the born-again experience. It begins at salvation. It begins at regeneration. You can testify to that some of you here that when you got born again if you don't pray there's it's as if somebody is like flogging you. There is something flogging your conscience. You almost start crying that you're not praying. That you are not praying for the first day. The second day you have not prayed. Some of you become unhappy. You become restless. There's something in you although you may not be able to express it. Some of you that are experiencing spiritual dryness you wake up in the morning you don't have the the interest to pray but inside of you something's crying for prayer. You cannot you cannot manifest or when I say you cannot express the inside crying of the spirit. There is no way for you to express it. You become unfrustrated. Something inside of you wants you to pray but you cannot pray. So it leads to frustration. That is what salvation does. It makes you to be able to have that yearning, that passion, that hunger to pray. Because the spirit of God through your mind will be crying have a father. Are you getting it now? So if the prayer life has been established at born again how should we keep the prayer life? Number one is it is by the compelling of the spirit of God. The compelling of the spirit of God. It is the spirit of God that will compel us to pray. It is the spirit of God that compels a man to pray. In the book of Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 it says I will pour upon you the spirit of supplication. I will pour I will pour upon the earth of Israel the spirit of intercession and supplication. Now understand that that prayer is a spirit. It is a compelling power of the Holy Ghost that makes a man to pray. You don't pray by the energy of the flesh alone. Prayer itself begins by the spirit of God. So there is a spirit of prayer. Let us open our Bibles every one of us. Open your Bible to the book of Zechariah Zechariah chapter Zechariah chapter 12. 12 I read verse 10 and I will pour upon the earth of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication the spirit of grace and of supplication the spirit of grace and of supplication. In the book of Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter 8 I read from verse 26 Romans chapter 8 verse 26. Likewise the spirit also hath heard our infirmities for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make it intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So the spirit of God is behind the prayer life. I cannot teach you any mechanical way you can establish it. You establish it by the spirit of God. I've talked about the area of salvation. The spirit of adoption which is the same spirit of God comes into you to to to Lord at salvation regeneration and it is the same spirit that helps you to pray. Zechariah says that it is called the spirit of intercession sorry the spirit of supplication that when it comes upon you it makes you to to pray. So prayer of itself is a spirit. You cannot pray except the spirit of prayer has come upon you. Just like a body without a soul or without a spirit is lifeless. You cannot pray until the spirit of God resides in you. So if you say you are the Holy Ghost in you your life must be connected to prayer because it is the spirit of prayer. Establishing a prayer life is by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the one that compels you to pray. It is the one that strengthens you. It is the one that encourages you to pray. So you every one of you cannot pray until the spirit of God comes upon you. Until the Holy Ghost is there in you to energize you to pray. We are naturally strangers to prayer by nature after the fall of Adam and Eve by nature we are strangers to prayer. So nobody that was born a prayer warrior forget about the ones that said I had a spirit. No man was born as a prayer warrior. We all started prayer when the Holy Spirit came upon us. It was at salvation that we all started praying. Every other prayer we prayed before salvation was not genuine prayers. We're only making noise because even God does not answer the prayer of a sinner. But the real prayer started at the point we gave our life to Christ and the spirit of adoption comes into us which is also the spirit of prayer and supplication. So it is the spirit that helps our infirmities because we don't even know what we ought to pray as. But the spirit make it intercession for us. It is a spirit that strengthens us to pray with glory that cannot be uttered. We may not be able to articulate the pronouncement or the pronunciation of the spirit but the effect of the prayer because when the wind blows you don't know what the wind is coming for but you see the effect of it. So we cannot pray except by the help of the spirit. You cannot maintain a prayer life. You cannot establish a prayer life without the involvement of the spirit of God. So you must have this understanding in you that the compelling power of the Holy Spirit is behind the prayer life. So for some of you that are not praying, today you are going to ask God give me the spirit of what? Of prayer. The spirit of what? Of prayer. When you discover that you are becoming weak, Lord refresh me with your spirit of prayer. Let it come upon me. Let it come and shake my wilderness. My wilderness is dry. Lord I can't pray again. My wilderness is dry. My wilderness has become a desert, dried. There is no water. Lord pour the rain of your spirit to refresh my wilderness. Let me begin to pray. Let my wilderness become a fruitful vine, a fruitful, a fruitful trees. Pour the spirit of prayer upon me. Let me begin to pray. The spirit that assesses the mind of God. The spirit that knows, that searches the heart of God. Because it is by the spirit of God you can pray according to the mind of God. The Bible says that the spirit of God searches the heart of God. So if the spirit is not with you, you will be making prayers that cannot produce results. And that is why one of the ways you can enjoy your prayer life is daily fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It is the one that has access to the mind of God. So establishing a prayer life cannot be done without the pioneering of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit has to be the one that comes to plant the spirit of prayer. It is the spirit of adoption. When it has adopted you, you are now a member, a child of God, a member of God's family. Then the same spirit instigates a passion in you to pray. Because you are not just a member of God's family. God is not your father. So you have to communicate with your father. So Jesus said, when thou want to pray, say it, our Father which art in heaven. So Jesus brought the revelation. The teaching was to them as a revelation. Are you with me? But the implication and the manifestation of that revelation will not come until the Holy Ghost has resided in you. Jesus taught them how to pray, our Father which art in heaven. But the reality of that cannot be except the spirit of God comes upon them or comes into them to bear witness with the teachings. That means I can teach a sinner that God is a father. But the sinner will never come into practical understanding of that teaching until the spirit of God comes into that sinner to adopt that sinner to become a child of God. That is when that sinner will have proper understanding of the word father. So there are many sinners in our churches who call God's father but not by practical revelation. They call God's father because they were taught that God is a father. But when the spirit of regeneration comes into them, they will cry and call him Abba. Do you see where it works now? So the spirit of adoption, which is the spirit of God, comes to bear witness with our own spirit in order for us to pray to God with conviction. Establishing a prayer life, number one, by the compelling of the spirit of God. Then how can we also enjoy the prayer life? Number two, the commitment of the prayer desired believers. You are not born again. You have to commit yourself to prayer. Prayer demands commitment. It demands what? Commitment. Intentionally be praying. Like sometimes I love praying. If I wake up in the day today, I mean just wake up this morning, I will say, well, I will pray three times today. I will pray two times today. Well, I will just pray once, but I will pray for long. Maybe once, two hours. That is if I wake up in the morning. I may say, okay, I will pray for three times a day. One hour, one hour, one hour. That is three hours. So, you have to keep the fire burning. You have to create personal commitment, most especially those that are married, because when you are married, the children are there to cater for. Your husband is there to take care of. So, you may not have the time, the much time of the day to pray. So, you look for a time where all men sleeps, and then you soak yourself. You may not pray for five hours. Eh? Because of you may not have the energy. You have worked all through the day. To the ninth, you may be very tired, but make sure you pray for like 30 to 40 minutes, and you spend time with the Word of God. That alone can bring a mighty revival in your life. But the consistency, which is the next topic. I don't want to go there. I don't want to. I'm so careful not to touch the next topic, because even this commitment to the prayer life, if there's a way I'm going to explain it, we'll be touching the next topic. But you have to create a commitment. You have to intentionally allow the Spirit of God to keep praying. When the Spirit of God has taken over you, you will discover that you can just be in a place that will tell you to go and pray. You are in the midst of your friends. You will just excuse them and go and pray for 10 minutes. That means the Spirit of God is not helping you to pray. He helps our infirmities. Even when we are weak to pray, because sometimes we do not even know what to say, but we are weak to pray. He helps our infirmities. Are you with me now? It helps. The Holy Spirit helps our what? Infirmities. He conditions us to pray. We may not be able to know what to pray about, but He helps us. He's the helper. A prayer life can never be established except by the Spirit of God. And even when you are born again and you are feeling weak to pray, ask Him to help you. He helps our infirmities. Holy Spirit, I am weak to pray. Lord, help me to pray. You are praying. Lord, help me to pray. You are praying as if there is no desire to pray. Oh, you speak in tongues. You move around. If kneeling down in one spot is making you not to concentrate, stand up and walk. If walking is making you not to concentrate, lie down. If lying down is making you want to feel like you sleep, stand up. Make sure you are changing position until you get connected. As you are changing position, you are asking Him to help you. Of course, you know the positions for prayer. Standing, kneeling, bowing down, different positions. You can even sit down praying. But we must pray. We must give ourselves to prayer. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. You must not get discouraged to pray. When you are feeling weak to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you. By the help of the Spirit of God, He can even lead you to go and join a prayer meeting. Some people are getting revived after our online prayer meetings. You can join our online prayer meetings. At the end of the prayers, you will discover that there is an influence in you that although we have ended up the prayer, something is still telling you to pray. Tell me the Spirit of Prayer has come. And every time the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Prayer comes upon you and it influences you to pray, you just have to obey. That is the best way to keep that Spirit there. That is the best way to maintain intimacy with the Spirit. For as many that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. They are those that are maturing in God. That is the meaning of sons of God. They are maturing in God. As many that are led by the Spirit of God, they are maturing in God. So when the Spirit of God instructs you what to do, He begins to guide you what to do, how to pray. Every time you obey the Spirit, you are maturing. Somebody said, how can we grow in grace? I said, obedience to the Spirit. Growing in Christ through the knowledge. You don't just gain knowledge of Christ. Obedience to the knowledge you have gotten. Applying that knowledge is what brings the growth. So I believe you are blessed now. So concerning prayers, you cannot pray except you are born again. When you are genuinely born again, not the one you assume, genuinely born again, then the Spirit of God will engage you in prayer. If you are born again and you find it difficult to pray this period, ask the Spirit of God to help your infirmities. That is the prayer point. Holy Spirit, help my infirmities. Holy Spirit, help my infirmities. Help me to pray. Help me to pray. You call Him to help you. He is the Helper. He is the Comforter, but He is the Helper. He comes to help you. I pray the Spirit of God rests upon you in Jesus. And don't miss the next class. The next class is about you maintaining consistency in prayer. And that is very important. That is very important because most of you can start praying and praying and praying and you only last for three days. After three days you return back to prayerlessness. So what must you do to keep a frequent prayer life? A frequent life. Every day you are praying. Every day. Every day you are praying. And you can do that for 10 years. Every day you are praying. So what must you do to keep that life? It is a secret. Not a secret to God. When I say secret, it is a revealed secret. So don't miss the next class because it is going to bless you. Shall we go to the Lord in prayers as we talk to the Lord? Ask God and say, Lord, release upon me the spirit of prayer. Every one of you should pray. Open your mouth and pray.