The purpose of prayer Week 19, 2026

 

It was a short clip. I don’t know the producer, but what was said caught my attention: The first purpose of prayer is intimacy, not requests. When intimacy is established, other matters follow. Ps 27:4(ESV)  One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. Do you recall the father’s words when the elder son said, “ You have not given me even a goat to celebrate with my friends”? And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours Lk 15:31(ESV). You are always with me. The presence and intimacy were first, and come before material possessions. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Mat 6:33(ESV)  was taught in the context of prayer, you know. We need to practice that in prayer, really.

But asking is very important, and we must not get disciples to believe that once they worship and give thanks, there is no real need to make requests. Giving the impression that the truly spiritual man makes no request, just worships, and those who request are carnal! You do not have, because you do not ask. Jas 4:2(ESV) 

Yes. That is correct. Jesus specifically commands us to ask; that is the way to receiving.  Jn 16:24(ESV)  Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. And those who are very intimate with God and manifest the fruit of the Spirit in great abundance still need to ask. Jn15:16(ESV)  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. I agree, but when intimacy is established with God, how and what we ask for changes - in their order and in their content. And we become transformed the more into His image.

What exactly do you mean?

You see, those who were commanded to pray for labourers in Mt 9:37, 38(ESV)  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” are sent out as labourers in Mt 10:5(ESV)  These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go...” As they prayed, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth,” by praying for labourers, they were sent out to be the labourers. Transformation is taking place in them.

And are their needs met when they are thus?

Have you considered Solomon’s prayer? His request to God centred on purpose. God’s purpose for bringing him to the throne. 1Kgs3:9(ESV)  Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” Now that pleased God, and God granted him things he didn’t ask for. 1Kgs 3:13(ESV)  I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. God doesn’t have favourites. He will do the same with you.  Stop using prayer as a tool to get what you want from God and turn it into a tool to make you what God wants. Ps 37:4(ESV)  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

Prayer points Week 18, 2026

 

“When I left this country, my prayer life really diminished. The things we used to pray for had been removed! Here you would pray for electricity, pray for the roads, pray that the vehicles come in on time for you, pray for a good vehicle on your journey that will not break down on the way,” a brother said something like this in a meeting last year.  During a lecture last month, a sister commented, “In Nigeria, we pray when we get to the hospital to meet a doctor who knows what he is doing, not to meet quacks or a midwife who will beat you and say, 'Madam. Push!” I am all for praying, but these prayers are not done when we leave the shores of the country, and there our prayers are less.” Something like that.

In essence, our prayer needs are far less in a well-ordered society down to the point that we sometimes see little need for prayer. I believe this is because we are looking at a narrow aspect of necessary prayer. Lk 11:2, 3(ESV )  And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread," is the pattern for prayer. If our prayers are fewer and we hardly find things to pray when we are in well-ordered societies with vibrant, fully functioning social services, then it means we have missed God’s own prayer needs when our body’s needs were sorted out. No, I don’t mean God is not a partner in our needs. No. Whatever good anyone does to us is received by Him as having been done to Him. But God has peculiar issues He commands us to pray for, which are encapsulated in “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” and they come first. And they abound in every nation.

Mt 9:37, 38(ESV)  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus has commanded us to pray for labourers; people who will love others, proclaim the message, and nurture new believers. Among church-goers, among Muslims, among kidnappers and bandits, among the LGBTQ community, and so many other fields He has. How exactly does God want us to pray for ourselves, the labourers? Act 4:29(ESV)  And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, Col 4:3, 4(ERV)  Also pray for us. Pray that God will give us an opportunity to tell people his message. I am in prison for doing this. But pray that we can continue to tell people the secret truth that God has made known about Christ. Pray that I will say what is necessary to make this truth clear to everyone. I am convinced we need to be praying this way per institution, per people group, and even for persons. 

What of God’s commands to pray for revival? Ps 2:8(ISV)  Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession. 1Tm 2:1, 4 (ERV)  First of all, I ask that you pray for all people. God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth. There are aspects of prayers that actually increase when we leave the country. Justin Welby, the immediate past Archbishop of Canterbury, revealed in 2023 that he was twice summoned to parliament and the church of England threatened in a bid to force same-sex marriage on her. If that is not persecution, we are simply hiding our faces in the sand. Pray for our leaders. Perhaps transformation and true revival have tarried because our requests focused almost exclusively on Give us each day our daily bread

Easter reality Week 17, 2026

 

Happy Easter, sir. I want to ask a question. By Jesus being alive bodily, I know he rose from the dead, had a body, and went up to heaven. Does it mean he still wears that physical body he had here? Also, what kind of body is that? Is it this one that can be sick or corrupt, or did he receive a different kind of body when he rose from the dead?

His body was transformed when He rose from the dead. Php 3:20-21(ESV)  the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. That is why He is referred to as the first fruits from the dead.  1Cor 15:20 (ESV) But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Others, like Lazarus, rose from the dead with the same weak mortal body that had died again. 1Cor 15:42-44(ESV)  So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Jesus rose with a body that entered the heavens and is immortal. Jesus needed to have a resurrection body to return to heaven as a man. He remains the perfect God and perfect man today. 1Cor 15:50(ESV)  I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  This resurrection body is a transformed body. It cannot be sick, corrupt, or die. It has put off mortality and is now immortal. That is where we are headed.  1Jn 3:2-3 ESV)   Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Wow, thank you so much sir. Does it mean that this transformed body can still be terrestrial?  Like, they could touch Jesus after His resurrection?

Yes. Lk 24:38-39, 41-43 (ESV) See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  and he took it and ate before them.

Wow, amazing. Thank you for this insight, sir. I never thought about it like that. What if they make the argument, "Why should we believe when it is your bible that said it. They could have made it up?"

When the disciples preached the resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem for about 7 years the simplest way to refute it was to produce the body. The tomb is still empty. It has been over 2,000 years. So many have fiercely contested the truth but have not been able to see any other conclusion. The tomb is empty still. We are not making it up. They might as well say, since disease treatments are written in medical journals, maybe doctors are making that up.

Sir, I don't understand what you mean in the last paragraph of this write-up

Who else would write on Jesus' resurrection but Christians? Where else would you find it but the Bible? Anyone who believes Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead is a believer

Oh, I see. It is clearer to me now

Delivered from suicide Week 16, 2026

 Ps 89:1(KJV)  I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. 

I am Mr. I. C, I ,am 46 years old, and a health worker who gives thanks to God Almighty for miraculously saving my life! I would have taken my own life and been forever doomed but for his mercies. I want to return all praise to the Lord Almighty for His unfailing love. A love that would not let me go.

October 3^rd, 2023 is a day I will never forget. It was a day I unfortunately had an amputation of one of my legs. A devastating disease left the health team with no option but amputation to save my life. Sadly, after the procedure, I could not get the full complement of the pain medication as I had underlying kidney problems, and so began a journey of perpetual pain and misery. I had had a kidney transplant following chronic kidney disease. But that is a story for another day. Every twitch of the leg, every change in position, was filled with excruciating pain. All 24 hours of the day - no reprieve.  Sleep fled from me, and nothing could comfort me.

By the 3^rd day, I could not take it anymore and resolved to end it all. Being a health worker, the know-how to kill myself was not a problem, and a firm plan of action had already formed in my heart. I am married to an angel of a woman. She is so meek, and when I would speak out or respond harshly, her response was always a meek and quiet spirit. I never let her know I intended to end it all.

The next day was the D- day and I sent my loving, innocent wife on an errand. She got someone, a friend, to tend me while she was away, and I conveniently sent him on an errand as well. Just one injection into my intravenous line would end it all, and quickly too.

Just when I was about to execute my plan, a sister, a fellow health worker whom I had interacted with for basically three times in the last two years, suddenly walked into the ward for a visit! I assumed it was a quick visit, but she got a seat and sat down. smiling sheepishly and trying to start a conversation.

Irritated, I answered in only monosyllables and silence, but she was not deterred. She kept on trying to make conversation, broke out in songs, and just would not leave! Not long afterwards, she began praying. Even when she got a call from her son’s school to come and pick up her child, she still stayed behind until my wife returned! I was so pissed off.

But that night, I managed to fall asleep, and the Lord ministered to me and reminded me of the destination I was heading.  If not for God… 

Ps 103:1-4 (ESV)  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy

CJ is a doctor in the South East

The use of soldiers Week 15, 2026

 

So the soldiers are sinning and should all return to the barracks, no, to the prayer room.

That is not what I said at all. You spoke of government ineptitude or complicity. We never spoke about soldiers. Soldiers are meant to protect lives even if it means killing...

Are you not speaking with two sides of your mouth? First, you say, “Do not kill them but pray for them.” Now you say soldiers should kill them. I thought you were a pacifist.

No! That is not the Christian position at all. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Rom 13:3-14(ESV)  Government is created by God, and soldiers are anointed to carry out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Gen 9:6(ESV)  Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image is valid until this day. I am no pacifist.

I thought you were a New Testament man who follows the examples of Christ and the apostles.

But I am my brother. I am. Have you not noticed the use of soldiers in Paul’s journey?)  As the people were trying to kill Paul, the officer in charge of the Roman soldiers received a report that all Jerusalem was rioting. Immediately, he took some soldiers and officers and charged the crowd. When the crowd saw the officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Act 21:31-32(GW Not only this time, but when over 40 Jews banded themselves together to kill Paul, and he knew of it, he sent information to the commanding officer who took armed men to travel with Paul and give him protection. Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” Act 23:23-24(ESV)  There is enough scriptural precedent for that in the New Testament.

Well, we are forming a militia with an oath to protect people’s lives. We have been advised to pray but also defend ourselves. We have the mandate to kill.

Given by whom? Which government has conscripted you? Can’t you see it is a desire to fight for yourself that has come upon you?  Make use of your rights as a citizen to protect yourself from abuse. God expects that too. Act 22:25, 29(ESV)  But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.  If however despite our use of legal rights and appeal to authority the very persons anointed by God to protect us fail us we must, we must avoid taking the laws into our own hands. Rom 8:36-37(ESV)  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Victory is not that we survived at all costs. Victory is that we represented Jesus Christ at all costs. Php 1:21(ESV)  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

The security threat Week 14, 2026

 

How does the Christian respond to security threats? The wanton killings and the ineptitude or complicity of the government are open sores. Ps 44:22(ESV) Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

See, we must understand the devil’s purpose in coming with sustained violence. The purpose is far deeper than maiming or killing the body. Job 2:4-5(ESV)  Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.  But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” It is Satan’s intention that we will curse God and abandon Christlikeness in the midst of these sufferings. In essence, removing Christ from Christian expression.

I don’t need theology. I want practical steps in the face of this massacre. How do we react?

First, be proactive. Be security conscious.  So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him Act 19:29-30(ESV). Do not deliberately go into danger. This was exactly the attitude of Jesus Christ, whom we must imitate. After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Jn7:1(ESV) 

You need information in advance for that. What do I do when they come with machetes and guns? I have every right to defend myself. It is very legal to own a gun, you know.

I would encourage you to get away and hide. No, don’t look at me like that. I know you are a brave and strong man. It is not about courage to face the enemy physically, but courage to do what Jesus Christ did and taught. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? Mt 26:51-53(ESV)  If in this life and death situation, Jesus rebuked the use of physical force, it means He never wants us to do it. When He said all who take up the sword, He meant all, including Christians.

We must all die somehow. You mean the anointing of Samson is not there? That fire can no longer come down from heaven to defend the Elijahs of today?

Please don’t. I sincerely beg you. And seeing, His disciples James and John said, Lord, do You desire that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know of what spirit you are. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And they went to another village. Lk 9:54-56(MKJV) Just as Steven did, pray also for these evil men to repent. I beg you to remember the real stakes in this whole conflict. It is not about saving my life on earth but representing Jesus Christ accurately, whether by life or by death. My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in my duty, but that at all times, and especially right now, I shall be full of courage, so that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die Php 1:20(GNB) . 

Making new wine Week 13, 2026

 

One of the tragedies of troubled marriages is the insistence by each party, “I have done my bit, taken more than my fair share of the beating. Yes, I may not be perfect, but I certainly don’t deserve this…”  “We” has become “I”. There is hope if even one will heed the counsel in Jn 2:5(ESV)  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Climb down from your assumed position and take the place of a servant. Take off your rights toga and lordship mantra. Do whatever Jesus says.  Incidentally, this is the last recorded statement of Mary, the mother of our Lord, in the scriptures. If you would honour her, then obey her last instruction in scripture.

In this case His instruction seems foolish. Jn 2:7(ESV)  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  What instructions Jesus would give are foolish to the world, but thankfully, by obeying and obeying to the full, we have victory. 2Cor 10:6(ESV)  being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Complete obedience is the prerequisite. Has He said, “Go and kneel to your spouse and beg forgiveness”?  Do not stand and ask forgiveness. Don’t say “If there is any way I have offended you...”  Obey, and do it to the brim. 1Cor 1:25(ESV)  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. To make new wine of marriage, to get God’s miracle in any situation, present yourself as a servant, listen to what Jesus says, and do it. Stop listening to so-called experts who neither believe in the permanence of marriage nor in the power of His word. Guaranteed is His promise in 1Pt 3:1-2(ESV)  Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  If it works for women by the power of God, it works for men also. He has said: Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense Prov 19:11(ESV). Do not take note, remark, and harp on the offences of the other. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive Col 3:12-13(ESV). 

“I have been doing this and am frustrated. I quit!” I hear you say. Wait patiently, having fully obeyed, beware self-imposed timelines. Heb 10:35-36(ESV)  Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. The very day the King in Israel declared in 2Kgs6:33(ESV) “This trouble is from the LORD! Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”  God said in 2Kgs7:1(ESV)  But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.”  Wait, I say in perfect obedience. It is after full obedience that the next set of instructions comes, and as that is also done, the water is now found to be wine. Sweet new wine. Jn 2:11(ESV)  This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. He will again manifest His glory in you