The pathway from basic Christianity to advanced Christianity is one that is characterized by so much toil and struggle. Anyone who believes that having accepted Jesus as Lord and Personal Saviour was introduced into a life with the similitude of a bed of roses is undoubtedly fooling him/herself.
Every believer is called into a life of great struggle and extreme contention. Sadly, there is no standing on the fence that is there is no room for neutrality. You either embrace the struggle and forge on to greater heights in God or you choose to be unserious with God and be a handy toy in the hands of the devil.
If you are going to thread the path of mastery of the spirit successfully then you must embrace the military life and failing to do so would bring you within the devil's reach and he would gladly do with you as he pleases even in the face of your faith in God.
Apostle Paul gave us in 2 Timothy a view of what kind of life we have being called into as believers.
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." — 2 Timothy 2:3-4.
The very moment you come into the fold of Christianity you become recruited as a solder. If there was no war or tendency of war there would not be the provision for soldiers. So being called and chosen as soldiers as we see in 2 Timothy 2 verse 4 shows us that we have come into a realm which demands that we engage in combat and contention.
Not accepting this fact is to your detriment because standing in a battlefield and denying the fact doesn't stop the raging war from going on you would only end up taking so many injuries home if you do not engage the battle situation.
The revelation of a believer's stance as a soldier is one revelation which has eluded the Body of Christ, so much so that the issues he is not suppose to be dabbling into are those things he finds pleasure doing.
This world is a battlefield and the ideology that what you do not know cannot affect you is false because in a battle situation there is the tendency to be hit by stray bullets.
To this end, Apostle Paul advises us in Ephesians;
" Put on the WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" — Ephesians 6:11
Everyday of your life be constantly reminded of this fact; we are in a battlefield and a moment of weakness can be extremely deadly and that's why we must watch and pray, putting on the whole armour of God.
Why we may not see the physical realities of the battlefield characteristic of this world, Apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 6:12 what we are actually fighting against;
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places"
In lieu of this, your carelessness and restraint from discipline and consistency can severely wrought damages to your life.
By virtue of your design as a military personnel once you become a believer, you are no longer expected to entangle yourself with civilian affairs. A military personnel should not be found in the marketplace engaging marketwomen in the art of gossiping. A military personnel should not be found among scorners, gamblers and people living without a sense of purpose. A military personnel is expected to be disciplined either at the battlefield or preparing for battle.
Having established the fact that we are soldiers by our placement and position in Christ Jesus and that we are constantly in a battle situation here in this world, how then do we fight?
First, let's understand who the enemy is then we can decipher from the enemy's make and methodology what strategy we should put in place to fight the enemy.
It would be capital folly for you to think that your enemy is your unce or your grandmother. Our war is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Although, humans can readily come under the influence of satanic and demonic powers but then we are not fighting against this humans but against the forces and the influences controlling them.
"For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh:" — 2 Corinthians 10:3
Our fighting isn't with humans but with spiritual forces. Knowing that a member of your family is responsible for ill luck you have been facing is not a liaise to go after him/her with guns and matchete. Our warring isn't with carnal weapons.
"(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)" — 2 Corinthians 10:4
We do not fight humans even though they are used by these forces. We fight these forces and since these forces are unseen what kind of weapons should we use?
The only known weapon for combatting with principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places is the weapon of Prayer.
Prayers is the only means by which we can wrestle victoriously against the spiritual forces that seek to exterminate us. This brings me to what the believer's quagmire is.
The focus of this article is to expose the problem of the average believer. To understand this discourse let me define what quagmire is.
Quagmire is an area of soft, wet ground that you sink into if you try to walk in it. The context with which I would be using quagmire is in regards to an option which when taken would bring upon a believer complicated and unpleasant situations.
The believer's quagmire is that path in which lies various orchestrations of difficulties and complications if the believer decides to sojourn in that path.
In the light of the preliminary discourse about our position as soldiers in a battlefield and how we are expected to put on the whole armour of God and war continually, it is expedient that we note that the believer's major weapon of warfare is prayers.
Although there are a couple of other weapons which Apostle Paul outlines in his epistle to the church in Ephesus in chapter six and verse fourteen to eighteen. They include;
- Truth
- The breastplate of righteousness
- The Gospel of peace
- The shield of Faith
- The helmet of Salvation
- The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God
Prayer is the only legitimate phenomenon that stirs up the performance of spiritual warfare. Our war is spiritual and our only means of interfacing with the spirit realm from the template of our flesh is prayer. A true soldier in this kingdom is one who is given genuinely to a lifestyle of prayer.
The major quagmire of believers today is prayerlessness. I said major because there are a good number of issues which believers today treat shabbily and it amounts for their inability to stand in the faith and to ensue every and any potential connection with heaven.
Yielding yourself to prayerlessness opens you up to the following;
- Disconnection from God
- Lack of foresight, insight, vision and purpose
- No sense of direction and guidance
- Manifestation of exceedingly great degrees of foolishness due to the lack of wisdom
- Powerlessness and Weakness
- Unholiness and Ungodly living which ends one in the lake of fire
How then can you avoid this quagmire so that you do not become a victim of the above named consequences of prayerlessness knowing fully well that prayers in the life of a believer can never be relegated or sidelined for any other thing.
The following points teaches basically what is needed to become prayerful so that we can navigate away from the quagmire of prayerlessness and wield great power like David.
#1 DISCIPLINE
Discipline is training that makes people more willing to obey or more able to control themselves often in the light of the performance of an obligated action. Without discipline you would never have time for prayers.
The flesh does not like anything that would make it feel inconvenience. The sole need of the flesh is pleasure, convenience and comfort and anything short of these would see the flesh display rebellion.
Walking in the Spirit and prayers are two issues which do not find steady approval in the flesh. So if you must engage the spirit realm and wax valiant in prayers then you must apply a measure of discipline to your life.
"And every man that striveth for mastery is TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS...." — 1 Corinthians 9:25 {Emphasis Mine}
To be temperate in all things is a matter of discipline. One of the traits of a good soldier is discipline. He knows when to eat and she not to eat. He restrains himself from talking too much else he talks too much and discloses his commanders tactics for the war to the enemy. He does not give himself sleep even when his body cries for it. That degree of discipline is to be found amongst believers.
You cannot afford to give your body everything it desires. If you opt to giving your body everything it desires; food, pleasure, sleep, comfort e.t.c you would be unable to thread the path of the spirit.
To avoid the believer's major quagmire you must be disciplined.
Cut your body's excess desire for food, sleep, and pleasure. You would also need to cut off your flesh's desire for friendship and relationship because they have a way of drawing you far from the place of prayer.
A soldier's friends are usually soldiers like him. Discipline is key to advancing in this kingdom of ours.
You would need to pray not only when it is convenient. If you keep waiting for a convenient time to pray you would never pray. Discipline yourself to pray when it is convenient or not.
2. HAVE A SPECIFIED AND DESIGNATED TIME & PLACE FOR PRAYERS
In as much as you are expected to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) there should be a designated period of time and a place where and when you MUST pray.
Do not get this concept wrong. You must pray always both when it is convenient or not. This point is about having a designated timeframe and a location which is solely for prayers.
Let me show you from scriptures what I mean;
"And when He had sent the multitude away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, He was there alone" — Matthew 14:23
"And when He had sent them away, He departed into a mountain to pray" — Mark 6:46
"And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayers to God" — Luke 6:12
"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour" — Acts 3:1
"On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour" — Acts 10:9
The first three scriptures (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12) talks about Jesus Christ. Even as God He had a defined time and a designated spot for prayers.
Apostle Peter and John went to pray at the ninth hour which was the specified hour of prayer. Apostle Peter in Acts 10:9 didn't pray in front of the house or at the dining place or in the kitchen but went up the rooftop to pray.
Prayer, in as much as it must not be restricted only to a timeframe or location, is expedient to be performed within this context.
While you may not have a mountain close to you or the design of your house does not give you access to a rooftop you can have a location which you would consecrate to become your secretplace and a timeframe for the performance of prayers.
It can be your bedroom, or your garage or your garden or the church auditorium or a football field, a basketball or a lawn tennis court whichever place you know is free from disturbance and noise is suitable and then the timeframe usually should be the night time but it doesn't actually matter.
Mind you this does not mean you would not pray if it is not the set time or in the set location. The essence of this point is so you have a compulsory prayer time.
God is not restricted to a geographical location because He is everywhere. He is omnipresent but He cannot be found everywhere. Men have being able to find God by virtue of consistently making a place their secret place.
Your designated location for prayers becomes your "God-zone", a place where you find succor from life's turbulence, where you can easily access God.
This point of having a designated time and location for prayers does not rubbish the idea of praying always.
3. BE WORDED
Prayers and the Word of God are like two inseparable sides of a coin. You can never be effective in prayers if you are not a diligent student of the word neither can you understand the Word of God if you are not yielded to prayers.
To function effectively in one, you must do the other.
"But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word" — Acts 6:4
This scripture depicts the core value which was upheld by the disciples of Jesus after He had ascended.
They decided to give themselves to prayers and the ministry of the word rather than deferring to entangling themselves with other not so important ventures.
They would have dropped the ministry of the word and pursue only prayers but they knew that the equation will suffer imbalance if one of the two was kept aside.
Prayers and the word of God are like gun and bullets. Standing alone, they are great weapons which are ineffective.
A gun without a bullet may look powerful but it would be devoid of any grave impact. Bullets although very destructive without a gun are nothing but pieces of metals.
But when the bullets are loaded on to a gun, handling becomes with caution as it is a weapon that can perpetrate mass destructions.
This is how prayers and the word of God are. Prayers on its own can create little impact but when combine in fine proportions with the Word of God becomes a tool for pulling down strongholds and every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
Your ability to enjoying your time in the place of prayer depends on your fervency in the study of the word of God. Let me share my story with you.
I discovered how easily tired I got when I pray. It became a source of concern to me and I sought for advise from my mentor.
He told me how he often quoted scriptures while he prayed and it helped him spend hours praying.
I got back home and I did some Bible study. Armed with scriptures, I raced down to the place of prayer and to God's glory till date I have not had a dull moment praying. That's the power you can derive when you mix prayers with the word.
By being worded, disciplined, and having a specified time and a designated location for prayers you would avoid the quagmire of prayerlessness and mount up on wings like eagles.
MARANATHA!!!
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