OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL by Pastor E.A Adeboye (DATE: 21ST JULY 2016) THEME: VITAL INGREDIENTS OF PRAYER

Memorise:
And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25

Read: Mark 11:22-26, (KJV)
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Bible in one year: Galatians 4-6, Psalms 18:1-19

MESSAGE
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not only
give us an outline for prayer in what
is popularly called “The Lord’s
Prayer” (Luke 11:2-4), He also gave us some vital ingredients of prayer.

The first in our consideration is faith.
The Almighty God demands that we
have faith in Him. A man that prays
without faith cannot get anything
substantial from the spiritual exercise of prayer.

When we pray, we should be assured that God is capable of
doing whatever our desires are.
Doubt is a grievous offence before
the Almighty God. The children of
Israel that doubted the capability of God were consumed by the fiery
anger of the God who had been
erstwhile benevolent to them,
however, as many as believed in His
Almightiness received great
recompense for their faith.

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” James 1:6-7

Another vital ingredient of the prayer that God will answer is forgiveness.
This is a two-edged sword. Blessed is he that is forgiven, sin a hindrance to prayer.

Unless we are forgiven, our
prayer cannot be answered. This is why our Lord Jesus put an aspect of
confession of sin in the prayer
outline (Luke 11:4). No matter how old we may be in the Lord, if we
discover any sin ranging from lying,
outburst if unwarranted anger etc in our lives while we are getting set to pray, we must confess that sin first.

The Bible says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1st John 1:8-9

On the other hand, our Lord Jesus
Christ said: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25

Many of us come to the throne of
mercy without the milk of mercy in
our hearts. We come for mercy while we are not merciful; we come for forgiveness and we are not
forgiving. What an irony? In Matthew 18:32-35, our Lord told the parable of the wicked servant
who jailed his fellow worker that
owed him a little after he himself had received pardon for a greater debt.

His forgiving spirit made him forfeit
the pardon for the debt he earlier received. Beloved, let us cultivate the habit of forgiving one another, at least for the fact that our Father in
Heaven forgives every of our sins.

Prayer Point:
Father, please increase my faith and put in me the spirit that freely forgive.