Prayer XX

In the first article, I wrote on definitions on prayer, when prayer starts and some of the components of prayer. While in the second article I finished my brief exegesis on components of prayer. The third article is centered on those who should pray. The fourth is on some of the reasons why talk (pray) to our heavenly father. The fifth article is on places of prayer while the sixth and seventh centered on occasions that move men to pray unto God. The eight article is on period (time) that men can pray. The ninth article focuses on how we should be praying. In the tenth article I write on a type of prayer, which is the prayer of thanksgiving.

While in the eleventh article I talked about three types of prayers which are, prayer of praise, prayer of worship and prayer of dedication (consecration). In the twelfth article I have talked about the following types of prayer: prayer of supplication, prayer of agreement, corporate prayer, prayer of commitment and prayer of imprecation. And in the thirteenth article I talked about prayer of vengeance, prayer of restoration, prayer of forgiveness, prayer of repentance and silent prayer. Article fourteen focuses on prayer of binding and loosing. In article fifteen I write on the prayer of contemplation. In the sixteenth article I start writing on the intercessory prayer and capped this up with some of the essentials of this prayer in article seventeen. Articles eighteen and nineteen talk about things to take note of on prayer of faith.

I will continue with the prayer of faith in this article while I explain some of the hindrances to this prayer – prayer of faith.

Another key point to know when praying the prayer of faith is what could hinder the prayer from being answered.

Repeatedly has God spoken to his disciples that they need to forgive those who have wronged them. This, he said is imperative if they really look forward to God forgiving them and answering their prayers. (Mt. 18:21-35; 5:23-24; Jam. 2:13)

When we have unforgiving spirit then we are injuring ourselves, and we are blocking the road which the Lord would take to answer our prayers.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines doubt as a feeling of being uncertain about something or not believing something.

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” (Mat 21:21)

The Greek word for doubt is “διακρίνω”, Romanized form is diakrinō (pronounced as dee-ak-ree'-no) which means to waver, to stagger, to hesitate, to contend with. (Mar. 11:23)

When we doubt in our hearts it means we are contending with God on what we have spoken to him about. We are staggering while we think we are standing. No one who is staggering could consider himself to be upright. The economy of the world is staggering because of the pandemic and all hands have been on deck to know what to do about it, putting the economy back on its feet. While in medical college those days, one of the symptoms of someone whose cerebellum has been affected (impaired) is staggering, the person would not be able to stand neither walk uprightly. A staggering person cannot successfully handle a cup full of water without its contents spilling off.

Having seen some things about staggering, we can see that a person who is staggering in his faith, a person who is doubtful of his discussions with God would indubitably negatively affect his prayers.

In the case of double-mindedness, this is slightly different from doubt, it is not that the person does not believe in the efficacy of what he or she has but the problem of the person is he is indecisive on what to do about a situation. Take this short history as a case study.

In this part of the world from which this writer hails from there was a story of an ancient warrior, enormously powerful warrior, who has beneath him subjects, servants those who he was teaching the act of war and hunting.

However, in the island where they are there was a terrible, ravenous, animal that is terrorizing the island. The people have abandoned some portions of their land for the animal, they were calling the forest the forbidding forest. No one can enter the forest because of the fear of being killed by the ravenous animal.

This warrior and his subjects decided to go into the forest to deliver their people from the animal. When they enter the forest, they saw the dangerous animal, and while the great warrior was hesitating on which of the weapons to use to attack and kill the animal, the animal runs to him and attacked him suddenly killing him.

The least of the man’s servant, did not hesitate to attack the animal as he shot arrow to him and the arrow enter its head into its skull and the animal died on the spot.

The man was killed because of his double-mindedness, because he has not made up his mind on what to use to kill the animal, his double-mindedness costs him his life. Therefore, it has become an adage in the land that, “a hunter who is of double mind would be killed by animals”.

It is same with anyone praying the prayer of faith, when we have double mind on what we are asking from God, assuredly we would not receive answers from God. It shows we are indecisive about that thing and that is not good enough.

Consider a child who asks his father that he wants bicycle for his birthday but when his father asks him what he wants for his birthday again, because he has seen his mates with ice-cream he told his father that it is ice-cream that he wants.

His father now asks him to choose one our of the two, but he was indecisive, does not choose any, because he failed to choose one out of the two things he said, his father did not buy anything for him during his birthday, just to teach him a lesson that in life one should be decisive on what he wants to do even if the thing would pain him or be lower to what others possess, one should always make decision, deciding for what would give him joy.

Apostle James in his epistle clearly describes the position of those who are double-mindedness as he says,

“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.

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (Jam. 1: 6-8)

Greek word for double mind is “δίψυχος”, Romanized from is dipsuchos (pronounced as dip'-soo-khos) which means two-spirited, vacillating in opinion or purpose.

When we become indecisive like the hunter, we shall not receive anything from God but in the stead, we shall expose ourselves to danger to attack from the devil and his cohorts.

This is also true for the matter of salvation, when we are indecisive about giving our lives to Jesus Christ, we have exposed ourselves to danger. Whatever we want to do we should do it; we should make up our minds on salvation and Jesus.

When we are praying, we should also be decisive, we should make up our mind and stop being a double minded person, for a double minded person the bible says would not receive anything from the Lord.

Having seen some of the hindrances to this prayer – prayer of faith, I will equally want us to see some of the rules guiding this prayer, for where there is no rule, there can’t be penalization in the next article.