Scripture Reference: Zachariah 12:10 (NKJV); Zachariah 12:10 (MSG); James 5:14-16 (AMPC); Psalm 23:1-6 (AMPC); Exodus 29:7 (AMPC); 1 Samuel 16:13 (AMPC).
Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. You are good to us, Lord. You are a good, good, good God, and we bless Your name, Lord. Surely, surely Your goodness and Your unfailing love, Lord, will follow us all the days of our lives, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Bless You, Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to Your name. Thank You, Father. Hallelujah.
Father, I pray this afternoon, Lord that You increase in this place; that You speak to us, Lord; not my words but Your words, oh, Lord. That You speak to our hearts, Lord; that You give us the strength and infuse our hearts with the strength to go after Your Word, oh, Lord. We pray this in the Name of Jesus. And everybody says; amen. Please be seated. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord.
Welcome to church, in this nice and hot weather. Dit is baie, baie warm, né. Praise the Lord. I still say that it is a privilege for me to stand in front of you and share the Word of God with you. I believe that God will allow me to release and speak what He has placed in my heart. And I would like you to help me to preach. Amen. Hallelujah.
So, I’ll start the message with reading a word that was given by the Holy Spirit to Pastor Sharon during the activation of prayer in Witbank. It was the 10th of August 2019. If you can just follow with me as I read this word. The Holy Spirit it going to release more grace to pray. He is going to release it to those humble enough to receive it. Hallelujah. I’m speaking to the converted. Amen. We are humble enough to receive it. Amen. That’s James 4:6, Amplified. Then when He releases this grace, more and more grace, you can see that He is quite capable. If we think that we are walking in all the grace that we are ever going to walk in for prayer, no. He is going to give us more and more grace actually. The reason for that is because we obey the Lord when He say, “Organise and establish and then it will increase and intensify.”
What’s that going to look like? We don’t know. All we know is that it’s going to be the release of the Spirit of Grace inside of us. It is going to come out of us. And we are going to have that this is the more-in-prayer. And so then, when He pours out to us, we must walk in it; and fully use it; and not frustrate His more grace’ He is pouring this out and giving us more because these are the days of acceleration. He is fulfilling His own Word, which He just happened to give to Brother Jerry. And we have been taken and we have just happened to believe it. I know it’s on Pastor John and my lips all the time, and in our hearts, and we believe it. He is in a hurry to get things done and to fulfil what He has said. And we are the generation that will see it come to pass. Hallelujah. We are that generation. Hallelujah.
So He is going to give us the more Spirit of prayer; more of His Spirit in prayer; and more of His Spirit for prayer. Because Zachariah 12:10 says, 10I will pour out upon the House of David and upon the inhabitants the Spirit of grace and supplication (Zachariah 12:10 NKJV). The Message Bible says, 10I will pour the Spirit of Grace in prayer over them (Zachariah 12:10 MSG). But we know that it’s in us. Hallelujah. So, the pouring of God does not come out from somewhere outside. The pouring of the Spirit of God pours into us. Out from your belly will flow the rivers of living water. Hallelujah. So, the, the more is going to come; more is going to come. So, the more is going to come to you because you yield. So, the more is going to come to you because you yield. And you believe. And He says here, this time, together, will simply embrace what He is doing in us. He is giving us more and more; and more is what this season will bring; for the God of Glory is doing a new thing. He is going to give us more, we can be more. We can redeem the time with the more. All the years that the locust and the cankerworm – He is helping us tremendously so we can be instrumental in raising up the foundations of generations that had been laid waste. We need more. We need more. All the help we can get. If we are going to have the legacy transfer, we are going to walk in it; we need all the help that we can get. We need more. We need more. And she said, “Church, let’s say – we need more. We need the more.” Hallelujah.
I would like us to go to our Bibles in James 5 verse 14, from verse 14. James chapter 5 from verse 14, Amplified. It reads, 14Is anyone among you sick? He should call in the church elders (the spiritual guides). And they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name. 15And the prayer [that is] of faith will save him who is sick, and the Lord will restore him; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16Confess 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] (James 5:14-16). Now, verse 16 to me is this type of the verses that, when I read it, I just want to read past through it. Because, I ask myself; what types of sins should I confess to my brothers and my sisters? Hallelujah.
It’s those type of verses that I can maybe, for lack of a better word, call them a ‘hit-and-run’, you know. But now, the biggest challenge came when the man that God has given to me, read that scripture, and he preached about it. So I ask myself to say, “Lord, but now where do I begin?” Do I call everybody in the church and tell them my flaws; my slip-ups. I’m sure not you, hey. So, how is it that we are going to apply this? Because, it’s very important for our own restoration. The Bible says; pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. Who knows that we can be in a bad tone of mind?
And now, this is a prerequisite to say, we confess our sins and pray for each other so that we can be healed. So, it’s safe to say that we need restoration daily. Restoration is our daily portion. We need to be restored to one another. We need to be restored to the Lord. We need to be restored and be healed so that we can have a good spiritual tone of mind and heart. Amen. Restore is to bring back; to re-establish a previous right, practice or situation. It’s similar to reinstate, put back, replace, bring back. You don’t need to put back something that has separated, has not separated. You need to put back something; it’s either it is broken down; or it has been separated; or it has walked away. Then you need to do what? You need to put it back. Amen. Hallelujah.
It is to replace, bring back, reinstitute, re-impose, reinstall, rehabilitate, re-establish. It is to return. You cannot return if you have not walked away. So, the one who needs to return is the one that has walked away; to a former condition, to a former place or position. For example, the effort to restore him to something is to repair or renovate a building work of art, so as to return it to its original condition.
Now this restoration is in two-fold. It comes from the elders of the church who will lay hands and anoint with oil and then a person will be healed and restored. And because our original, our original condition, our original condition is a healed condition. Amen. So, if anyone is sick among us, no one is supposed to be sick among us. Amen. I’m going to deal with that thought, to say; what do you mean? I’m going to deal with that thought, to say; but I have been sick before. But it is clear that we have been healed, by His stripes we were healed. So, it is past tense, we have been healed long time ago. So, what is our original condition in Christ? It is walking in divine health. Hallelujah.
Now if we can go to Psalms 23. Psalms 23, Amplified, now it reads, 1The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack (Psalms 23:1 AMPC). What did James say? It says; must call the spiritual guides. Amen. So, this is what Pastor John says in his message, Praying with Faith Produces Results; so if you are sick you can call for the elders of the church. The Bible says they will then anoint you with oil, lay hands on you and you will be healed. Not only will you be healed, but wherever there has been a twisted way in your life, it will come into order. Hallelujah.
You, you, you, you, and then he says; you get that. There is something quite important in that scripture. There is something very important there. Let them, it says; let them call the elders of the church.
I believe Psalms 23 is, when I read Psalms 23 in line with James, I heard a voice of a sheep that has been astray and has been restored or is being restored. Amen. So now Pastor John says; there is something very important there. He says; let them call the elders of the church. Who is to call, who is to, to call them? It’s actually not a call from the elder. So it’s not the elder that needs to say; let me pray for you, because you are sick; lay hands on you and anoint you with oil. And this is what he, Pastor John says here. It’s actually not a call coming from the elder. Or I see, I see you are sick, can I pray for you? It’s the other way round. Right? I’m sick, will you pray for me? Why? Why is it like that in scripture? Okay, so hold on a minute. Let me backtrack. Does this scripture say let believers lay hands on each other and they will be healed. No, it doesn’t say that. This is a scripture that identifies the order in the Body of Christ. So there is a recognition that must be, that must been happening here, in that there are spiritual leaders, spiritual guides in the Church. So this is as God-ordained, is a God-ordained thing. Amen.
So, so there needs to be a proper recognition like; the Lord is my Shepherd to feed, guide, and shield me. So the Lord is my spiritual guide. The Lord will guide me into a place where I need to go. Then now who needs to do it in this House? The Shepherd is the one who does what? Who is a spiritual guide? Let’s read verse two, says, 2 He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures (Psalm 23: 2 AMPC). Does it say He makes me lie down in infested places? Does it say in dirty places? It says, 2 He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters. 3He refreshes and restores my life” (Psalm 23:2-3 AMPC).
Now, now, now, now, now here’s a sheep that went astray. Here’s a sheep now is declaring that the Lord is my Shepherd, He refreshes me and He restores my life. How is it restored? Because it was broken down. Because it was perishing. Now what does the Lord do? The Lord brings the sheep back. How does He do that? 3He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him (Psalm 23:3 AMPC). So now there is what there? There is a level of, of restoration, of a relationship with the Lord, of the, with the Shepherd and the sheep because the sheep was not in the pasture. The sheep walked away. 3Not for my earning it, but] for His name’s sake. 4Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me (Psalm 23:3-4 AMPC).
Now here’s the, the rehabilitation and refurbishment, reconditioning of the relationship with the Shepherd and the sheep. He’s saying that you, for His name’s sake, He does what? He, He is, I will not fear because You are with me. So now the sheep knows, the sheep knows that walking through the valley of the shadow of death brings about fear. Walking away from the Shepherd, it’s, it’s a place of vulnerability. Amen.
Now verse five, okay let me finish reading verse four, 4 Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me. Hallelujah. Verse five says, 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; You anoint my head with oil, my [brimming] cup runs over. 6Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place (Psalms 23:5-6 AMPC).
Now, You anoint my head with oil. Now, the Shepherd does that. The spiritual guide does that. Now, you, you call on the spiritual guide to do what? To pray for you and anoint your head with oil. Now, I meditated on that to say, “Lord, but now this anointing, this anointing of the head with oil, there are many examples in the Bible where it talks about the prophet anointing the king. It talks about the priest being anointed with oil. But now here the Shepherd, what is the significance of the sheep being anointed with oil?” Because remember that this is a process of restoration. Now the, the sheep finds himself that he was exposed, he was vulnerable, he was, he was endangered and then now he finds himself that he’s in the place of safety. And what does that place of safety bring? It brings comfort. The place of safety brings anointing with oil.
So when we read the process of restoration in James chapter five verse sixteen, we do not read it in isolation with verse fourteen and verse fifteen. And this is what Pastor John says; you know, a lot of times we want to quote that part of the scripture that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much, makes much power available but there is a whole bunch that has gone before that. Here’s the bit that’s gone before that, first of all you’ve got to recognise that there’s elders in the church. We need to recognise that there are elders in the church, there needs to be a revelation of recognising the elders in the church. Second thing is you’ve got to recognise that sometimes you could be at fault. Amen. We’ve got to recognise that sometimes we could be in error and if you are open about your life and you are not closed about hiding your sins from everybody else so that you only present to them what you want them to see; you want them to see that it is good for your self-image. I’m really preaching good right now. Hallelujah.
Now I believe that there are certain times that we come in the presence of the gathering of the saints together with certain masks and with certain pretense because there is an image that we are trying to preserve. Amen. There is a part where we don’t want people, there are certain mishaps and faults and mistakes that we don’t want people to see and good and fine. It doesn’t mean that when we have mistakes, you need to go on top of the roof and shout about that. Jesus said we must only shout what He tells us in secret, not our mishaps. Amen. So I don’t want to put it on you to say that everybody’s guilty of that but there’s a tendency as human beings we want people to know us, you know, to know the good image about ourselves and now the biggest problem with that is that type of image is not real and it takes a lot to maintain. Hallelujah.
Now here are the examples that I was talking about in Exodus 29 verse 7, it says, 7Then take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him (Exodus 29:7 AMPC). This was Moses anointing Aaron as a priest and also we see that when the kings are anointed, the Bible says, 13Then Samuel took the horn of the oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah (1 Samuel 16:13 AMPC).
Now this is what I found when I did the research about the anointing of the oil of the head of the sheep. This anointing of the sheep’s head with oil is done as a prevention and restoration process. This is done to relieve a sheep that is tormented due to worms which is a result of flies laying their eggs around its nose and nasal cavity. The worms dig holes in the sheep’s brain. Remember now, we’re talking about the state of a spiritual state of mind and heart. Amen. Now the worms dig holes in the sheep’s brain and make themselves homes there. Have you seen those white worms after the flies lay their eggs? Now where else can the sheep be exposed to the flies? Which means the sheep was just going all over and eating not in the green pastures, not in the pastures where the shepherd leads it to eat. Now maybe it was going to the place where there was garbage, in the dump because it doesn’t have sustenance, it’s not well fed. Now what does the sheep do? The sheep goes astray and wonders around. And when the sheep wonders and goes astray, then it meets the dirty place, the unrefreshed place. It meets a dirty place and then the flies start to lay eggs in the nasal cavity or in the nose of the sheep. And then what happens when those eggs hatch? I hope you’re going to be able to eat your supper tonight. Now the worms go to the brain of the sheep and the sheep reacts this way, the sheep now batters or bangs its head against the rocks trying to relieve itself of the torment that is in the brain.
So what happens is that we find ourselves in situations where we think that we can fix the matter, where we think to say, “You know what, I don’t need to tell anyone this, I don’t need to be accountable to no one about this, this thing will fix itself.” Amen. However, the self-butting does not bring the relief, but it can lead to the death of the sheep. Now, I don’t know about you, I don’t know how many thoughts, how many thinking patterns that have made a hole in your mind. You see, my wife and I came to this church in 2006 but before then we got ourselves involved in something that I can call not recognising authority. I was fairly new in the Lord and I did not know better and we found ourselves coming together with people who were challenging spiritual authority, now because we did not know better. However that challenging of the spiritual authority led to us to do what? To go astray, to wander around and the restoration or the recovery because during that time we were pointing fingers at spiritual authority, however our lives were not right. Amen. Our lives were not living correctly, there we go confessing our sins one to another. So we’re not living correctly. Now, we thought that leaving the place where God had planted us was going to be better and we were going to find a better place. Oh yes, praise God that I’m planted in this House. So but now it cost us dearly, it cost us our healing and our restoration. It took a very long time before we were restored in our spiritual tone of mind and heart. Amen. Because now the spirit of division was operating in our lives. Amen.
Now we thought that the battering of the head against the wall will bring us relief. You know, this reminds me of Paul. Paul knew that Jesus is Lord and at that time Jesus came to Paul and he said to Paul, “Paul, why are you persecuting me?” And Jesus said to Paul, “If you keep on kicking against the goads it will not go well with you.” So in other words, Paul knew that he needs to repent and recognise that Jesus is his Shepherd. He needs to repent and give his life to Jesus. Knowingly so, but what did he do? He put it away. And Jesus, being gracious to Paul, He said, “Paul, it will not go well with you.” Amen. So there are things that in our mind because many of us will ask ourselves, you know, for anybody to leave our church, even if it’s one person, one is too many. But you ask yourself what made this person to leave the church? It is because they are certain thinking patterns, there are certain things in their brains and in their minds that when Pastor John preaches the Word and releases the word, as Pastor Sharon says; they stone wall it because of what is happening in their minds. They say there is no way that this could be correct. When Pastor Sharon teaches about tithe, they say, there is no way that the way tithe is being taught about in this House, there’s no way it could be correct. You ask yourself; how is it that I’ve heard it so many times under the preaching of tithing in the House of the Lord that I’m not tithing still? It’s because there are things that have made its home, their thoughts that are there now, what do they need? They need the oil. Amen. Now you see, this confessing your sins, one to another, in other words it’s a preventive measure that God has given us so that we can be restored, continually restored. Because sometimes we wonder in our thoughts, sometimes we stonewall the Word of God. We reject the Word of God and the truth in our thoughts. And God says, “Now when you are together you need to be able to speak to one another and say, ‘You know what, I think I missed it here. I think I was at fault in this area.’” Amen.
Now this is what Pastor John says; sometimes we don’t even want to confess them to ourselves. There are things that we don’t want to confess to ourselves, never mind to someone else. I mean most of the time we live in self-denial. The only thing that the sheep needs is that it is restored to the Shepherd so that the process of restoration can begin, so that the sheep can be fed, can be well fed, so that the sheep can be given streams of living water, fresh water. So that the sheep can be restored in the right because the Bible says here in Psalms 23, He restores my soul. And now where is the soul? What is the soul? We have a soul, we are spirit, we live in the body. Amen. Now the soul is made up of our will, our mind and our emotions. Now there are comforts that are needed by the emotions, however there is a renewing of the mind, there is a healing of the mind that is needed by the mind. Hallelujah. So what we need, we need that the Lord will restore us into a spiritual, into a right mind and a right heart. Amen.
This is what Pastor John says, we are in self-denial. “I’m not at fault,” that’s what we say. “I am not at fault, I don’t have any faults.” Listen, I’m preaching good at that because I don’t have any faults. See how easy was that. So confess to one another therefore, your faults, your false steps, your slips, your offences, your sins and pray also for one another that, pray for one another that you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. Why would you want to be restored to a spiritual tone of mind? Because that’s the tone and mind that’s going to keep you straight on the truth. That’s the tone and mind that’s going to keep you straight on the truth. It’s going to keep getting you restoration, it’s continuous, that’s what Pastor John says. It’s going to keep getting you restoration all the time. It’s going to keep getting you and keep you in a living life of healing and health and continuing to stay in a good place. Hallelujah.
Now, recovery is for our victory. When we are sick, when we are vulnerable, for us to be restored into the right place, into an original state, to be conditioned, it’s meant for our victory. Moving from one church to another just because of your faults, your mistakes that can be more costly than the embarrassment and shame that comes from your identity being tainted. There are many things, it’s very important that whenever you have a fault or there is something bad, there is a misstep in your life that you remain planted. Maybe you were known as a person who is well off, maybe there are some things that are not going so well, maybe at work you did not do so well, and maybe at work you aren’t performing and then maybe you lose your job or maybe there was something you did that was wrong and it puts you in a bad light; it’s not for you to leave your church. It’s for you to find a brother, it’s for you to find somebody that you can account to and speak to and confess your mishaps, so that that person can pray for you that you can be restored in the right spiritual tone and mind. When one runs away from their mistakes, the recovery process takes much longer than it could have if you had stayed. Amen.
There are many reasons that people move away from one church to another, and for those people to be able to be restored, it takes longer. Like Pastor Sharon says; you are in a time war. I believe that if Jacob did not run away he would have not suffered all those years that he was in the house of Laban; that’s what I believe. But now when he was to be restored to his brother, he was to be restored to his brother, he had a lot to lose, there was a lot at stake that is why he had to say, “Let me make sure that everything I, my servants, my wealth, it goes before me, so that even if my brother kills me,” you see. What is that? It is the fear that says you are about to lose everything you’ve got. Amen. You are about to lose your reputation, you’re about to lose what you have worked for so hard for so long. You are known as this person in the church, but now it means that you have to confess that actually I’m not what you think I am. I’m something else. I need help. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. When you run because of the wrong state of mind, you declare the forgiveness of God is not working.
When you run, you carry with yourself condemnation and self-justification which becomes a lifestyle for you. You know the Pharisees and I know that when you talk about Pharisees no one wants to be told that he is a Pharisee. And Pharisees were people just like you and me who were part of the covenant. And we need to ask and do introspection in my walk with God; am I a Pharisee or am I a disciple? So there is a level of self-justification that you tend to learn. It becomes a lifestyle. You always give an excuse why you had to do that. Not facing the correct, when God needs to correct you, you nullify His perfect love He loves you with and open a door to fear. You live an unresolved life, the sure thing at stake is you victory. That’s what is at stake, your recovery and your victory. We should be prepared to face the music of our mistakes. We should be prepared to face the consequence. Amen.
Where am I, here, and staying is the only way that’s the only way is to stay. Now to run is the quickest way of solving the problem. But a sure thing is that the taste of defeat is going to stay with you for quite a while. And chances are you can become so used to the taste of defeat that victory and your confidence in your relationship with the Lord will elude you, like it will be something that is failing to be attained by you, to an extent that you will scorn at the possibility of you knowing victory. When you are in that state, you find yourself that when someone tells you that you can win, there is a better way to do things, you can overcome your debt, it’s like, there’s no way because there is this bad taste of defeat. Why? Because their prayers are not availing much. They’re definitely rendering your prayer life powerless. You need to ask Adam and Eve if their fig tree leaves profited anything for them, and if their reward was not just a load of guilt and fear. As I’ve said; it’s like getting into a time warp, it’s a bad taste that lingers for long, until their relationship with the Lord becomes superficial and prayers become ineffective. Amen.
The Lord wants us to be restored to one another so that our prayers can become powerful, so that when it’s time to receive the more grace in prayer it will not frustrate the more grace. Amen, because that scripture to say; the prayers of a righteous man makes much power available and is powerful in its working, it’s preceded by the scripture that says, you need to be restored, you need restoration, you need to be healed, you need to be in the right state of mind, you need to be in unity. But now, that power cannot be released, cannot be realised. That victory and that confidence cannot be realised in absence of that restoration. It says confess to one another your faults, your slips, your fault steps and pray also for one another that you may be healed and restored. This verse is in the Bible and though it makes; oh yes I’ve said that, that you know, it’s that verse that when we read it, it will make us uncomfortable. Amen.
And God does not get a fit when you read a scripture and you are uncomfortable with the scripture. All that you need to do, you need to pray and ask Him to reveal the scripture to you. Leaders in your life that is, it says here, it cleanses the very sin that you have committed; this call comes from you, you’ve got to have a recognition of spiritual authority and order in your life, not only the spiritual guide and leaders, but also for the spiritual condition of each other. Who you are to Him, you see, you cannot make mistakes in isolation; you cannot say, “This concerns me.” Whatever thing that you do where nobody sees, you are affecting the Body of Christ. You, that is why, now when, because now what you have done, you have went astray. You need to be restored. How are you restored? And it must be you, it must become my own initiative; not somebody to say, “Where have you been, have you been sinning?” No, no, no, it’s not for anybody else, but it must be my own initiative, because I want to be restored. I want my prayers to become powerful. I want my prayers to become effective. Amen. It’s not an easy thing to temper with someone’s reputation. But I believe that there must be somebody that is at, that you know, that is spiritually matured that you can be able to say, “I need to come in now. I was out there now, but I need to come in. I have not been, I’ve missed my step. I have missed it, this is what I have been up to, but now I want you to pray for me as according to James; pray for me so that I can be restored so that I can be healed.”
In this order there is much authority in a human vessel that can pray like Elijah’s prayers. Hallelujah. I want to pray those prayers; I want to pray like Elijah. Amen. And I want to do everything that it takes, so that I can be able to pray those prayers. I want to do everything that it takes to know that we are all praying those prayers. This is what Pastor John says, you see, we always want to present the good self to everybody; but the bad self we don’t want to keep, we don’t want to, we keep your bad self to yourself and so, we even help, we even keep the bad self from ourselves, and we call it a different name. This is what we call it, we say, “Well, it’s just the choice that I want to live my life by; that doesn’t have anything to do with you. It has everything to do with me.” What I do has everything to do with you. Amen.
We can’t find ourselves living a double-standard life. Amen. When we have done that we need to find a way to be restored back to the Body. This is what, this is what we call it, we say, “Well, it’s just a choice that I want to leave; doesn’t have anything to do with you.” No, but the way that you are choosing to seek God has an impact on me, because I’m a believer in your Body, and you are part of my Body, and I’m part of your Body. So hey, do we want to have much power in our prayer life? We do. So then the Bible says, then this is what it says, the earnest prayer of a righteous man makes much power available; of a righteous man, in other words a man whose ways are right. Who did this, who did this person, get to become a right way person that’s got power in prayer? Recognise the Church-order structure, was able to present his ‘not so good self’, was able to present his ‘not so good self’, so that in the ‘not so good self’ we pray for one another and as we pray for each other to be strengthened in the Lord we get restored to a tone of mind and heart and an experience that actually causes us to be healthy. It restores us in our right ways. Now that right way person praise, now that right person prays effectively praise with praises with much power. Amen.
Now I just want to read this Scripture again. It says 1The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not lack. 2He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me besides the still and restful waters. 3He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness. It’s very important to realise that it is the Lord Who has made the provisions for restoration. For any sheep that went astray, the Lord has put things in place so that we can be restored back to our original place. Amen. It says, He refreshes and restores my life and He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him – not for my earning it] (Psalm 23:1-3 AMPC). We don’t have to earn the righteousness; it’s not performance-based. It’s not something that we need to say, “Oh well, this is how many sins I’ve confessed, this is now I’m perfect, I can be able to pray effective prayers.” No, but it is the recognising of the elders, and recognition of what the Word of God is saying and humble ourselves and receive the Word of God and say, “Lord, I’m going to be submissive to what You are saying into the order that You have placed in the Church so that I can be restored.” Not so that I can see myself as a righteous person in terms of self-righteousness, but as a person that now every time when I have a mishap, now there is a way that the Lord has made, so that I can be restored back to Him. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
That’s where my story ends. Amen. I hope you got something out of this. I hope you are being helped. Amen. I hope you are being strengthened so that we can go after an effective prayer life. Amen.
Let’s stand on our feet and let me pray for you. Father, we thank You that You want to restore us; we thank You for the order that You have placed in Your House that we must recognise spiritual authority and that we must recognise one another. And Father, in every mishap, in everything that we have done, we thank You Lord that we can be healed from it, Father. We can be put into a right state of mind and heart, Father. Father, I pray for Your people that this Word will not be stolen, Father, by the enemy. I pray that this Word will be protected by the Blood of Jesus. Father I bless Your people and I say Father, they are blessed going in, they are blessed going out. Protect Your people, Father, as they go about their business during the course of the week, Father. Bless the work of their hands, Father. Make them to become all the time as heads and not tails Father, in the Name of Jesus. Be blessed. Thank you. Bless you. Hallelujah.
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