James 5:16 (AMPC)
“Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”
Dear people of God, there are many Christians and other people who run to pastors to pray for them.
Unfortunately, it is only few pastors who understand how to deal with challenging issues affecting a person’s life before such prayers could be answered from Heaven, the Throne of God.
Any time a person commits a sin, the person gives satan a LEGAL right to hinder his or her prayers.
Any time someone operates in unbelief, worry, anxiety, doubt, malice, unforgiveness, resentment, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc the person again has given satan a LEGAL right to prevent God from answering any prayer made on behalf of the person.
God would not respond because such individual has violated His Word and God says He watches over His Word to perform it – Jeremiah 1:12.
Common sense should therefore tell someone that if God watches over His Word to perform it, then your lifestyle, words and actions MUST align with God’s Word otherwise, God is constrained to perform.
Just as we are told in today’s reading, a pastor must first deal with spiritual hindrances in the person’s life before making any effort at prayer for the person.
It should not matter who is standing before you, whether it is a rich or poor man, socially influential or not because God is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) but a respecter of His Word.
It therefore follows that a person who has asked a pastor to pray for him or her must first be GENUINELY remorseful and confess all his or her faults to the pastor who would then be able to ask God to help the individual.
There are pastors God has given the grace of Word of knowledge to see into a person’s life and enquire about issues causing hindrances even before the person confesses such faults. It is to the person’s spiritual benefit to answer the pastor truthfully and of no use to tell lies because that again is a spiritual hindrance.
I once heard a case of a man working as a senior personnel of a multinational but who had been ill for a very long time having contracted HIV. He tried medical science all to no avail.
He eventually came in contact with a pastor who with Word of knowledge told him that the reason he was not getting well was because he was cheating on his wife and needed to deal with that issue before any prayer would be successfully made for him.
He admitted his fault, confessed and asked God for forgiveness and when the pastor prayed to God on his behalf, God completely healed him of HIV!!!
Dear friend, it would do you good to stop a life a sin and start to live right before God in line with His Holy Word in the Bible. There is absolutely nothing in this world that is worth a person losing his or her soul at death and entering into eternal damnation.
Are you sick? Have you been praying for a particular matter for long without any result? I urge you to sincerely examine your life today and deal with all matters that are offensive to God as far as His Word in the Holy Bible is concerned.
Always remember that there is absolutely nothing that is hidden from God (Hebrews 4:13) and satan is ever ready to accuse you before God and hinder your prayers – Revelation 12:10b.
When you have dealt with the sins through genuine repentance and confession to God, then you can either pray on your own to God or seek the help of a genuine Christian with spiritual understanding to first minister God’s Word to you concerning your situation. After this, prayers would be made and God would answer.
No one can ever deceive God but we can deceive others and deceive ourselves.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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