PRAYER RENEWS STRENGTH
Pastor Maselo Mosomane
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Prayer renews strength. A lot of times I would get into my prayer closet (my garage) very weak in my body. I would literally drag myself and force myself to pray. I would be praying for less than ten minutes and all of a sudden I would feel revived and strengthen. The joy of prayer would return to me and with that strength I would continue for an hour or two.
Yes, there are times when you don’t feel like praying. In your spirit you want to pray but you feel like you don’t have strength left in your body to do so. Jesus’ disciples experienced the same feeling on mount Gethsemane the night Jesus was arrested. Two times Jesus found them sleeping instead of praying. Jesus looked at them and said; “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41. Is Jesus talking to you?
We all know experientially that life can be challenging sometimes. There are hills and valley, moments of excitement and moments of sorrow, time to rejoice and time to cry, high moments and low moments. Paul says “we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. These are some of the experiences of life that sups us dry of energy. We try to stand but there is no strength left in our legs. We try to pray but there are no words left in the mouth. Have you ever gone through this tunnel? I can hear someone saying Preacher; I am going through the tunnel as I am reading this message.
The prophet says in the preceding verse; “even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall” I’ve got a feeling that the prophet is saying “you are not the only one who travels this route. There are others with more strength than you but they also faint and weary and fall.
Listen to what Isaiah says in our text of the day; “but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Prayer is waiting upon the Lord for help. When we pray, we enter into His presence and wait on the Lord for answers. We wait while we are praying. I don’t think there is anyone who would approach God hoping for nothing. We always pray hoping for some sort of relieve from what we are going through.
Prayer gives wings to you spirit and you “…mount up with wings like eagles” Before you prayed you could only fly with guinea fowls but know you can fly with eagles. We come into His presence weak, heavy and unable to fly; but we leave with renewed strength. David said in Psalm 23 verse 3; “He restores my soul.” Prayer is a spiritual therapy. You see when you pray; your spirit is restored, your mind is renewed and your body is refreshed with new energy. As I have said in the opening; I would get into prayer with a felling that my spirit is at its lowest level but I would come out so invigorated in my spirit I could “mount up with wings like eagles.” I would get there with a casual approach to the word but come out with so much faith, I would surprise myself. The word of God gives us faith; but prayer ignites that faith into active combustion.
Prayer transforms one’s mind. Sometimes we come dull and short of words but as soon as we begin to pray, our minds are quickened. How many times have you been standing or kneeling there in God’s presence and you don’t have words to express your inner feelings? Have you ever been there? I have been more than once. You try to pray but you just run in circles, repeating the same words like you have never prayed in your life. Yet in a space of ten to fifteen minutes as you continue, you bubble up rivers of living waters from the centre of your being, not knowing where those relevant words come from. You begin to experience what Jesus said that last day – that great day of the feast; “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38. In no time repressed and recapped rivers of the Holy Spirit begin to flow unhindered and when this happens; your mind becomes highly sensitive to the things of the spirit. Your mouth is now full of words you find it hard to stop. Prayer is no longer a struggle; you are now beginning to enjoy it. Prayer is an ignition that tells our spiritual live on.
Many times I would have a message to write but lack words to package the message. I would try and try and never get two sentences together to flow the message. But when I just leave everything and soak it up in prayer, the anointing flows and my mind seems to become sharp and I am able to write. A good illustration of this point is this very message you are reading. I struggled to package this message for more than a week. It was only after some days of prayer that my mind seemed to be falling into the alignment furrow and words began to flow.
Another evident experience prayer brings to our soul area is cooling down fiery emotions. I have never come across anyone who would start praying while angry and finish the same way. You start praying angry but you come out joyful. Prayer is like a strong detergent that dissolves toughest stains of your emotions and gets them stabilized. Do you have a problem with your temper? I invite you to pray. For the first time things may seem the same; but just continue. Keep on praying my friend; be regular. In no time you will begin to realize that nothing can stand in the way of prayer.
Prayer brings healing and strength to the body. Have you ever experienced it where you would be sick in your body and you go in for your hour of prayer and you spend time there with the Lord in prayer; and without realizing it, the pain is gone? Prayer fixes you in your spirit, your soul and your body. How do we explain this?
Please remember that we are spirit, we have souls and we live in bodies. Man is in three dimensions. This dimensions functions in unison. Let us, for instance use sickness as an illustration. Not all sicknesses originate from the body. They are manifested in the body alright, but they don’t all originates in the body. Some are as a result of a sick spirit or soul. For instance; Every time your spirit is upset your emotions also become upset. Your body comes up with a corresponding action. You wear a long face; you drop your shoulders and change the tone of your voice. If you stay too long in that condition, your body will begin to develop some symptoms of sickness. When your spirit, soul and body are properly aligned; what is in the spirit will flow into the soul and if you remain in that condition longer, the flow will continue into your body. Guess what? Before sunset you will be telling people around you that you are sick.
The same is true when you pray. You align yourself i.e. your spirit with your soul, your soul with your body and the effect of your prayer begins to show or felt in your body as the flow continues. The longer you pray, the more you push your spirit into alignment with the Spirit of God. The more you continue the more you move into your soulish area and push your soul into the alignment groove. The last part to be pushed is the body – it must also drop into the alignment groove. Once this is achieved, the current of health will begin to flow. I am not saying all; but some of the sicknesses we suffer do not need external intervention. We only need to improve our prayer lives. The words we say when we pray, the faith we exert when we pray and the time we spend in prayer will most probably get the job done.
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
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