TOPIC: PRESSING ON THROUGH FERVENT PRAYERS
TEXT: JAMES 1:22-25
SPEAKER: PST. OTONYE DAVIES

DATE: 13TH AUGUST 2023 | 2ND SERVICE

JAMES 1:22-25 (KJV)

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

INTRODUCTION

It’s not what we hear that determines our reality but what we do with what we hear. Our text establishes a point that without a doubt, He that just listens and does not do is not pressing forward. If you are going to press forward you will hear instructions and take instructions. It is good to hear and better to do.

Things to do to press on

1. Pray without season
2. Reflect and refine
3. Endure Challenges, obstacles and irritations
4. Sense your environment  for opportunities
5. Stand firm in your conviction about who God is
6. Only in the name of the Lord shall you trust
7. Never look back, yesterday is gone

It is only those who do what they hear that will be able to benefit from what they hear. 1 Samuel 15:22, God has a purpose, He has already seen the end from the beginning and He knows what we need to do to take us to our place of realisation and if we refuse to do what He has said to us then we cannot hold Him accountable for what we do not receive.

Why should we pray

1. We have been commanded to pray, when we pray, we honour the word of God.
2. We pray to receive light, and illumination concerning our situations.
3. To secure divine support and guidance. No one is an expert when it comes to prayer but we get an enablement from the Holy Spirit who guides us on what to pray.
4. We pray so that our challenges will not overwhelm us. If you don’t pray, Challenges will continue to magnify itself and glorify itself over you.
5. To summon the host of heaven to our cause.

Fervent prayer, to be FERVENT in prayer means that our feelings must be involved. If you want to pray fervently, your feelings must be involved, prayer is communication with God. Your prayer must come from inside, if your heart is not troubled over a matter, you cannot gather the energy that you need to pray a prayer that is supposed to be prayed.

You must have a deep and strong feeling over what you are praying about. What you don’t desire to leave you, you cannot pray against. A fervent prayer must be purposeful, it must be intense (it may carry emotions, anxiety, pain, and joy). If you pray fervently God will honor you. James 5:16b-17(AMP).

CONCLUSION

Your private place of prayer is stronger than your public place of prayer.