Previously, we said that if you want to enjoy the favor of God, you must be interested in God’s interests. If you want to capture the attention of God, you must be interested in his interest; his interest is the expansion of his kingdom.
Again, we said knowledge provokes grace because knowledge of the truth helps us to believe in God, and faith activates grace. Grace is an unmerited favor. Grace is the plan of God for us to enjoy, but without faith, grace cannot flow. Without faith, you cannot connect with grace, and knowledge is the activator of faith. Faith comes from an understanding of the truth.
Last week, we also looked at how to connect to the favor of God by sowing seeds. Life is governed by law, whether you are conscious of it or not. Life is governed by the laws of seed time and harvest. If you want to enjoy favor, you must sow favor. Don’t take advantage of people who are in trouble. Be an instrument of help. What you do for others is what they will do to you.
Today we will look at how to connect to God’s favor through prayer.
And God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.
Genesis 8:1.
This verse talks about the account of the flood. Even though the Earth wants to help, if it is saturated, it can’t swallow more water. When the rain kept pouring and the earth was saturated, the people were captured in the ark, but the Lord remembered them. There is nothing God cannot do, no matter what situation you are going through. God removed the water through evaporation. God is the one who has the right to decide whether the water goes up or down. They were in the ark, but they could not go anywhere. Whatever you don’t resist, you cannot conquer. Shalom is the plan of God for you. The Bible says the path of the righteous is like a shining light that shines brighter and brighter until a perfect day.
When God asks us to pray, it is because He is about to do something.
Effect of prayer on the altar to provoke the favor of God.
They did not possess the promised land because they were smarter than any other, but by the hands of God. The Bible says He who keeps Israel does not slumber nor sleep. So they did not get the land by their power. The same God who got the land for the children has not changed. But we do need to pray. Someone said if there is an earth to pray to, there is a heaven to answer.
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus was also baptized, and praying, heaven was opened.
And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee, I am well pleased.
Luke 3:21-22.
All the people were baptized, and Jesus also joined the multitude to be baptized. But what made the difference between him and the multitude was that he entered the place with a sense of purpose. What provoked heaven to open upon him was not because he was born by Mary nor because he didn’t eat like others. But he went with a sense of purpose, and that provoked the prayer. He says call on me and I will answer; that means if you don’t call, there can’t be answers.
If I shut up heaven and say that there will be no rain, if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people,
If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:13–14.
Jesus prayed, and Solomon prayed. The Bible says in James, If anyone is sick among you, let the elders pray for him, and weeping to be a weeping will not heal you.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Jeremiah 33:3.
God said to call me. God cannot ignore the cry for mercy if it is genuine.
The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy; yes, they have oppressed strangers wrongfully.
And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.
Ezekiel 22:29-31.
He said that in case the people were involved in a robbery, they would harm the stranger or the poor, but I sought a man. The reason why God destroyed the land was because there was no one to pray for mercy for them on their behalf. There is a need to pray. If there is earth to pray, there is heaven to answer.