PRAYING ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL

This is a very deep message. The reason why I said it’s very deep is anything that concerns prayer is something that is very essential for everyone.

It is one thing to pray and another thing to pray according to the will of God. There are lots of prayers that travel every minute each day. But it is not every prayer that is prayed that receives an answer because the prayer men pray most of the time may oppose God’s standard, will and plan for their lives.

When you see a small place, like a shop with people gathered together – holding hands together, you will ask yourself this question, “What are they doing?” They are praying.
If you see a church that organizes a program, what is the purpose of that program? It’s because they want to pray.

In every religion of life, each pray to his God – even though we know the only true God is Jesus Christ. But what I’m trying to say is that every religion believes in prayer. Any religion outside Christ is a waste of time and leads to destruction because it is only through Jesus that we get answers to prayer.

Of course, the religions that we have in the world make some prayers to the devil that they call god and will receive answers to their requests. Do you know the devil hears the prayers of his children? That’s why you see those magicians make some incantations and things will happen.

But what I’m trying to drive out is this: The only true way to heaven is Jesus Christ and the only person through which we can receive answers to prayer is through Jesus Christ – not even through Mary or a prophet or any personality or even Angel but ONLY through Jesus Christ.

We have a lot of people that are praying – they are going through some things that they want God to deliver them from. I believe some of you have been praying to God on some issues. Some have been praying to God for six years, three years, four years and shockingly twenty years on one issue and yet do not receive an answer to their prayer. Some are even confused and they ask themselves this question; “Does God still answer prayer?”

Now let me ask you that question: “Does God still answer prayer?”
Yes, the Lord still answers prayer because the Bible says, “Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever.” But the problem is this: many prayers are not prayed according to the will of God. I repeat it again: Many prayers are not prayed according to God’s will.

It is not just about shouting; it’s not just about talking and expressing yourself, if what you are praying about oppose the will and standard of God, you may not receive an answer to your prayer. In some cases some will even say, “God you have to do it”, just like the Israelites that requested for a king so they can be like other nations. Even after the Lord had told them the repercussions they still said, ” Give us a king” and God gave them a king.

This means that in some cases some answers are not the ultimate will of God but the permissive will of God. That is, what you prayed about was not God’s will but because you are troubling Him, believing that your plan is the best plan, He answered you.

It may be a job that you’ve been applying for and always getting rejected – you tried over and over and did not think, “This job that I’m applying for, is it the will of God?” But you just keep troubling God, “God you have to do it o. You must do it for me o.” And at the end of the day, God said, “Well, take it like that.” Permissive will! That job may lead to your downfall because it is not His perfect will but permissive will.

Luke 18:1 KJV
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end , that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”

Prayer is an important part of a Christian life. And because prayer is so essential Jesus said, “Men ought always to pray.” But for a prayer to be effective, it must be of a certain kind; it must possess some certain characteristics in order to render it acceptable unto God.

You know, some people pray a lot. Some can pray for three hours, but it’s just so strange that for that three good hours, they do not ask anything that goes in line with the will of God.
In the Bible there are some places that say, “Their prayers are an abomination unto God” in the Old Testament. 

Even in our days, there are some gatherings of people – a group; two people praying together; an individual praying that the prayer is an abomination unto God. That is because their prayer is not in line with God’s will. Not only that. Those who are praying possess some elements in their lives that are displeasing to God and would not allow Him to answer their prayer.

Many of you have been crying – you pray a lot but it seems as if the more you pray, the more the problem gets worse.

You must understand one fact: The sincere prayer that the Lord demands for is a sweet fragrance to God. Our prayer is meant to be a sweet fragrance; a sweet savor that when the Lord perceives it – that prayer according to His will, it will give Him joy because He is the One that invited us to pray. The God that takes pleasure in our prayers, is the same God that delights to answer the prayer.

Jeremiah 33:3 KJV
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

God is not saying, “I will do small things” but “I will do great and mighty things.” He is saying, “Even though what you asked for is not a great thing – just minor but because that prayer is prayed: according to My will; is coming from a right source; goes in line with My standard; is a sweet fragrance to Me; possesses and carries attractive odor, I will show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”

There are many of you that have been asking God for a certain thing for the past five years, “Oh Lord my God, give me husband.”

And after praying you will now still say, “Lord, the husband you want to give me must be a pilot. I will be very very happy. He must be a pilot. Lord, give me a pilot.”
But when God brings His will for you that is asking for a pilot, and His will is now a carpenter, you will still say, “This is not what I asked for.”
And that is how she will continue praying.
They continue in prayer asking God to give them their own will.

The only prayer that moves God to operate is the prayer prayed according to His will. Praying in God’s will is something very important – something that God is demanding for. Many prayer warriors are just player warriors – wasting their time because their prayers are not according to God’s will.

For people to carry the handbill of a particular minister of God to a mountain and stand on it, praying to God that the program in the handbill must not hold but must scatter. Is that a prayer according to the will of God? It’s like demanding God to cooperate with you in an act of witchcraft, thinking that God is as wicked as you are.

The only prayer that moves God to move the unmovable mountain is the prayer prayed according to the will of God.
Listen carefully: the only way we’ll receive answers to our prayers is when our requests are according to the will of God.
So, there are negative prayers and positive prayers but the negative are more than the positive.

The fact is this: it is not every one of us that are here to pray. Do you know why I said that?

God knows you in and out. There are some of you that God has been dragging some certain things with and you don’t want to let it go. And the more God wants to pull it away, the more you don’t want to let go because of the profits you are getting through that thing. And the Lord is saying, “Until you remove that thing, I will not manifest myself in your life.”

Here comes the question: What Are The Negative Ways Of Praying? I will mention five in this teaching.

 Many of you pray so much that if you just hear there’s a prayer somewhere, you go and at the end of the day you discovered that, the more you go the more the problem multiplies. Apart from the fact that there are forces of darkness that always operate against prayer, praying according to God’s will is very essential if you want God to hear you.

NEGATIVE WAYS/TYPES OF PRAYER
1. A DICTATORIAL PRAYER.
It is a prayer you dictate to God. In this type of prayer, such a person brings his desire to God and tries to get God to accept them. This kind of prayer used to go like this: “I want…” “I want…” It is not considering what God wants. It doesn’t care to know what God wants.

Even when God is even willing to express His will and say, “This is what I want”, they are not willing to hear. It’s just all about what they want. It is thinking of self. A self will that pushes God and His will aside.
“Lord, this is what I want.”
Such prayer lacks;
– submission to God.
– consideration of God’s right.

All he wants is his own imperious will. He wants his desires to be gratified – to stand above the will of God. This prayer will always dictate for God how He should answer the prayer. It always argues with God in order to convince Him to answer. Such a person will always argue.

“Lord, you know if you give me this one now…” He knows it is not the will of God. He will be talking and talking, trying to tell God that his own plan and desire is the best and there is nothing profitable in what God wants for his life.

But God on His sovereign throne will not take any dictation from us, unless He wants to leave us to permissive will for us to be destroyed.

I’ve made use of the illustration of the Israelites before. They were asking for a king and God said, “No.” And they will go to meet Samuel and stand outside like the way people normally protest in our days – if it were to be now, they will even carry placards and may write, “Samuel, give us a king or you die!”

If I were to read the placard they would have used, it’ll read, “We are tired of the leadership of God. We don’t want God to rule us again. Let a king rule over us like other nations. Another will write, ” There are lots of bondage when God is leading. We don’t have freedom to do what we like.” Another will say, “We are tired of obeying those laws given by Moses.”
Lot of things would have been written on their placards.

But at this time there were no placards. They went to Samuel and he told them the repercussions of having a king but they refused.
1 Samuel 8:19 KJV
“Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;”

They had already planned to be united and cooperative, “If Samuel says anything, don’t say anything than ‘Give us a king’.” They all agreed to oppose God’s will and look at the effect it had on them.

I pray for you – Any area of your life that you are saying no to the will of God, may the Lord have mercy upon your soul and deliver you on time in the mighty name of Jesus.

2. A GRUMBLING PRAYER
In such prayer, God is blamed for not answering prayers.
After singing for like 30mins, he will confess his sins and now begin, “Ah Lord, it’s not good enough. Ah ahn, look at it now. I just returned from the mountain and I’m doing another marathon fasting now. You did not even answer me. If you had answered me, what happened yesterday would not have happened…..”

They grumble and grumble and they can do that for two hours – sweating! Do you know that somebody can be shouting, “Oh God why did you not answer me?” for a good three hours and be sweating. By the time they come out, you will think they have prayed a lot.
Throughout the prayer there is an attitude of dissatisfaction. They are not just satisfied.

“Eh, I prayed for provision yesterday. Well, even though I said it’s A and B I want to eat, you gave me only garri and groundnut. Anyway, I just want to tell you that it’s not good. I’m not happy o.”

That’s how they pray and when you ask them, ‘How’s your prayer life?’ They will say, “I can pray for four hours.” Some can even grumble for a good five hours. And they will be troubling pastors. “Pastor, I have been praying but God did not answer.”

A pastor thought he was praying – he prayed, “Ah Lord, look at my church. This and…” And the Lord said, “When will you start praying? Because all these while you have not been praying, just complaining.”

Throughout this type of prayer, there is a frown on the face – at God. They’re displeased consciously and unconsciously. They throw the blame of existing circumstances on God. That’s what they do in prayer. “God see what happened to my son. You are the one that caused it.”

Let’s see from the Bible what they always say. The Bible says in:
Lamentations 3:8 KJV
“Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.”

That’s what they do in prayer. They always put the blame on God of existing problems that displeases them.
All these are childish behaviors. God expects you to grow – to be spiritually mature. He expects you to communicate with Him as your heavenly Father. He wants you to pray in an intelligent way; in a right minded way and in a way that is not against the will of God.

3. A RESENTFUL PRAYER
It is a prayer in which the mouth is saying something but the heart is saying something else. That is, what the mouth is saying is different from what the heart is saying.

For illustration: As the mouth is saying, “Oh Lord arise …..” And the heart is saying, “I have prayed and you have not answered. I have cried and you have not heard. What is even the essence of shouting?”
There are some of you that do that. You pray with your mouth but inside your heart you are saying something else.

“Oh Lord, ah ah that woman offended me. She disgraced me today. Ah Lord it’s a shame. Lord, do you know what you will do for me? Let her first born die.”

Look at such prayers. He/she expects God to go and kill the firstborn of that woman. And at the end of the day when he/she hears that the first born of the woman is now born again, they will start doing like Jonah.

Jonah 4:2 KJV
“And he prayed unto the Lord , and said, I pray thee, O Lord , was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”

These kinds of people are the Jonahs of our time. They are not satisfied by the manner in which God answers the prayer. They want Him to go that way; to cross that place but God just came in a very simple way. They are not happy with the time the Lord answered the prayer.

“Lord! Lord!! Why didn’t you create me in the time of Paul?” Just imagine! Is that a prayer? That’s not a prayer.
“Lord, I asked you to answer me two years ago. I’ve been asking for a husband and I’m now in the stage of menopause and You now give me one husband. And you expect me to be happy?”

May the Lord deliver man in the name of Jesus.
They are not just happy with the time God answers them. And such prayer stirs up the wrath of God. When you tell God, “You should have answered me last year. Why did you answer me now?”, He can take away that answer and can double your problem.

David said in;
Psalm 119:67 KJV
“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.”
Meaning that he went astray before he was afflicted.

There are some things you say in prayer that can stir up the wrath of God.

4. THE DOUBTING PRAYER
Not that the person praying this prayer is not certain about God’s will. He knows God’s will.

But this is the problem of this brother/sister: They doubt the fidelity of God. They doubt His willingness to hear and answer prayer. So after they finish praying, they will always put a question as their conclusion. “God, I have prayed for three hours now. But will you answer me?”
Some will say, “I’ve been praying the prayer before. Now I’m just praying but I know He will not answer me.”

They always distrust God. They don’t believe that God’s promises are ‘yea and Amen’. They are full of fear and trembling.

They are the opposite of what the Lord expects. They don’t pray with hope. They pray and believe that the situation will still be hopeless. Just imagine, I finished praying for somebody and said, “Thank you Lord. You have done it. In Jesus’ mighty name I’ve prayed. Ma/Sir God have answered.” The person said, “Amen. But Sir, can you give me extra Psalms that I will be using to pray the prayer.”
It’s a doubting prayer. You don’t believe in the prayer of the man of God.

It is an act of doubt when they call a prayer point and you write it down with the aim of praying it when you get home. It means that you believe that God will not hear the prayer you are praying at that time. It’s an act of doubt.
“I know God will not answer me now. When I get home, I will pray for it more.”

It is an act of doubt, except that the motive of writing it down is because of a particular person that needs it. Maybe you are a pastor and you discovered that your church members need that prayer and you write it down, that’s fine.
Nothing is wrong with that.

But if it’s for your own personal use – probably when you get home, you want to start fasting and prayer on the same prayer you prayed during the vigil, it means you do not believe what you have prayed about.

And the fact is this: After you have prayed the prayer when you get home, you will still not believe. I’m telling you the truth.
Another time again you do fasting and prayer but do not still believe God will hear you. And such a person will say, “I’ve been praying for the past ten years and God did not do anything.”

They don’t pray with faith that inspires hope. They pray with hopeless expectation. They don’t believe God will do it. They know God is powerful and nothing is too hard for Him to do but they don’t believe He will answer them.

5. HYPOCRITICAL PRAYER
This kind of prayer is present in any prayer gathering. This is why some people are not interested in coming to prayer meetings in our churches today.

Dead of the presence of God – everything is just like a form or a creed they are reading.
“Prayer point number one. You say this after me ………”
They know that is how they used to do it. They already know the prayer the pastor wants to say. All of them will share a prayer book – always like that each time of the prayer meetings.
May the Lord revive the church of God.

And people are no more interested in going to church again. They know nothing is in the prayer – it’s just a waste of time.

Do you know that there are some prayer vigil that you can’t even call a vigil? Why? Because it’s a sleeping place. As if they left their house and agreed to come and sleep in the church. Just imagine, the person leading prayer is dozing. The people he is trying to read the prayer to are sleeping.

There was this mountain I went so many years ago. The pastor will call a prayer point and ask us to pray. And the pastor will look left and right, front and back, put his hands in his pocket and begin to sleep. And he will be bending backwards as if he wants to fall. The moment you open your eyes, you will be distracted because you will be praying he should not fall on the altar.

The first time I met him, I thought maybe he had over stressed himself. But the second time was worse – he repeated the same thing. A founder of a church sleeping on the altar before everybody. When he finishes reading the prayer, he is gone until maybe when somebody from the congregation shouts in prayer, before he will wake up and say, “In Jesus name we pray.” He’ll call another prayer and everybody is gone – sleeping. He will wake up again and say, “The Lord forgive us! The Lord forgive us.” And then call another prayer again. And that’s how it will continue from 12am to 4 am – just sleeping!

Now imagine that such a person that you have known to always sleep on the pulpit organizing a vigil, will you go?
You will not go because you know that you are going there to sleep. It’s like there is anointing of sleeping flowing from the pulpit to the congregation.

There are a lot of hypothetical prayers in our days and these are prayers that insults God. These are prayers that insults God.

Let me use this illustration; assuming you are my father and I run to you calling, “Daddy! Daddy!!” And you now say, “My son, what do you want?” But I’m just looking. And I repeated the same thing. You as the father will not waste your time  again because you know he has nothing to say.

This kind of prayer is a great insult to God. It’s the prayer that only comes from the lips without any expectation that there will be an answer. Many of you pray and don’t expect answers and this insults God. 

They ask for what they do not really desire.
They ask for what they do not expect God to give them.
They don’t want it but because they said a Christian must pray, that’s why they are saying that thing.
They will just do it for a long time so they can say, “I pray for two hours today.”

What is the essence of reading ten chapters of the Bible a day when you have no determination to obey what is written there?

There are lots of hypocritical prayers in our time. Prayers that are being prayed without any expectation. That is, there is no hunger for that thing you are praying for – it is just coming from the lips.
Just like most Orthodox churches – when it gets to that time they will know and the person will just give them the signal. Then everybody will begin to say it together.

“Oh Lord, save the souls of our neighbors – they are sinners. Lord, save their soul in the name of Jesus.” But you will have tracts in your hand and will not give them when they pass beside you. You pray for their salvation but don’t do your best to witness them.

 And some are even keeping malice with them and you are praying for their salvation. The man will greet you and you will not even answer and you say you are praying – a useless prayer. How can he accept Christ when your own character opposes the life of Christ?

You do not make any effort to do something towards their salvation but just pray. That’s a hypocritical prayer. It’s an insult to God. It provokes God.

Another will pray, “Oh God. Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh! Many villages need to hear the gospel. Ahh, the gospel has not reached many places. Raise up missionaries oh Lord. Raise them up! Raise them up!”
But inside of their heart they will say, “But Lord, don’t take my son John. Don’t choose him o. 

And my daughter Mary. Don’t choose them Lord because I have other better plans for them. But you can raise others up.”
It’s an hypocritical prayer!

Another will pray, “Oh Lord, provide for your work. Ahh, if somebody just gave the ministry a huge amount of money, we would finish building this place; things will not be like this.”
But inside the heart he’s saying, “But Lord, let me not touch my own o. But you can raise others. Bless them, bless them. As for my own, I don’t joke with my money.”
Inside of their heart they don’t mean to be a giver. They want God to bring more people but they will not obey.

Another will say, “Oh Lord,  bless our pastors. Help them oh Lord to build the work here and lead us to heaven.”
But at the same time they will not surrender to them. If they are given instruction to go here, they will go that way.
It’s an hypocritical prayer!

Another will pray, “Ah Lord Jesus, bring people to this church. Bring them! Bring them!” And the person praying will go from the house of one member of the church to another and be spoiling the image of the pastor. 

Then almost every member of the church has a negative view of their pastor or leader due to what they’ve heard from the self proclaimed prayer warrior. And he’s still praying that God should bring more people. Will God answer such prayers? When he’s there scattering the fold and always finding faults in the leaders.
It’s an hypocritical prayer!

Another prayer which I hear and laugh; they will be shaking their head, moving their lips and making some sounds. And in the course of the prayer, they will just shout, “Jesus” and continue shaking their head.

They don’t say anything – that is the truth. Those who have been doing it know. They just shake their heads for a good one hour. And the worst part is that if you call them out and ask them, “What is the prayer point?” Big problem!
They will say, “Ehn, I easily forget something. But I heard it.”
“Then what were you praying about?” They will just say, “I prayed.”

And you will be complaining that God did not answer you.
“I prayed. But nothing. Does God still answer prayer?”

I know a brother. Then we’ll just see him with a wound. It may be that one part of his head has swollen or there is a scratch that blood is coming out from. And you ask him, “Brother, what happened to this place?”
“It was during prayer. As I was praying and doing like this, I used my head to hit the wall.” Different marks on his body.
As we were going, the same brother just said, “Arrow just entered this place now.”
A prayer warrior.

Arrow is entering there? And you are a prayer warrior. Then what are you praying about?
If you and this brother prayed together, after the prayer you will go to a secret place and cry because of the way he prayed. You will say, “I’m not even praying.” But there are lots of scars in his life.

WHAT ARE POSITIVE WAYS OF PRAYING?

1. A SINCERE PRAYER
There is nothing hypocritical about this prayer. A yearning of the heart that is moved by the right motive with deep sincerity. A prayer that every word that comes out is honest – a honest statement of the heart and not mere lip service.


2. A HUMBLE PRAYER
It means praying with humility. Not praying and saying, “Lord, I thank God for today. In fact, my holy life today ehn – the only thing I can say about it is wow! Wow!” That’s not a prayer.
You have to humble yourself in prayer.

3. PRAYER OF SIMPLICITY
That is, a simple cry of the son to the Father.

4. SUBMISSIVE PRAYER
It does not press its own desire. All it wants is for the will of God to be done. It does not argue with God. It does not choose the way it shall be answered. It always trusts God. It trusts the divine wisdom of God. It counts God to be faithful. Hope on all things and believe that what God has said, He will do it.

5. PRAYER OF CONFIDENCE
Not a prayer of doubt. When they said the den of the lion had been prepared, Daniel was not afraid because he knew his God was able to deliver him.

Same with the three Hebrew children when they were to be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:16-17 KJV
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
[17] If it be so , our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”

You see that? They were not afraid.
What about Paul and Silas? When they were put into the prison, they were not crying. The Bible says that they praised God, sang psalms and prayed. And what happened? There was an earthquake. They prayed a prayer of confidence.

A man of God was going for a ministry and is already running late. The police stopped him all the way. He told them, “I’m a pastor.” Still they told him to wait. Then he said, “Can’t you see the old man at the back?” And when the police looked at the back seat of the car, they saw an old man at the back. The Ancient of Days.

Prayer of confidence – instantly. Such a faith.  And then they said, “Sir, we are sorry. You can go.”

May the Lord ignite our faith. A faith that will make you see a mountain as if it’s not a mountain.

6. PRAYER THAT ALWAYS PUT GOD, HIS DESIRE AND PURPOSE FIRST

That is, putting God – His plan and purpose first when you pray. Nothing else but the will of God. Not his own will.
Like the Lord’s prayer:
Matthew 6:10 KJV
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

7. UNSELFISH PRAYER
There is nothing selfish about it at all. It’s not the prayer that will say, “Lord, if you give me now, brother A is in trouble; sister B is in trouble. Oh Lord, give me power! Give me power! Give me power!!”
He will not give you.

It’s a prayer you pray not only for your own good but for the good of others.
“Lord bless me to bless others.” That’s a good prayer.
Not, “Lord bless me. When you bless me, Mama Favor is in trouble. Oh my God, all her insults will be over. She will even call me Mummy now because by that time I will be riding this type of car.” That’s a selfish prayer.

Unselfish prayer is prayed not only for his/her own good but for the good of the church of God, the brethren, the family, the people around him/her and even his/her enemies.

But listen carefully, there is one big problem – big virus that destroys prayer even when you pray in a positive way. Do you know what? When you have prayed in a positive way, you must cooperate with God. There are many who prayed but lived against their prayer.

There is an assurance that God had answered but your husband is a troublesome man and by the time you returned from the vigil and greeted him, “Weldone Sir, I have returned from the vigil.” He just shouted, “You this monkey who asked you to greet me?” And he kept talking. You know that’s a temptation?

Now the devil is waiting for your reaction. He’s looking for means to destroy what God has done and injects your husband against you.

Now, you too replied to him, “Ehn? Me! A monkey? It’s your Daddy that is a monkey; your mother is a monkey…” And you keep talking. And as you are saying that the prayer is gone. You’ve just wasted your 3-4 hours in the presence of God.

Parents, the Lord will help us. The devil uses our children at times to do things that can lead us to excessive anger. Before you go and pray, you gave them something to do and explained how it should be done. But after praying, you realize that they did not do it. 

You ask, “You did not do it, why? Why did you not put it there? Why did you do that?” And they are just looking at you. And one said, “Eh, when my junior brother is there, you are now asking me to  go and do it.”

Just imagine that!
And the devil now ministered to him what to say, “I don’t even know if you are my mother/father. I’m even doubting. You as a spiritual person should know that those are not ordinary words but instead you said, “You said that to me?”

And the devil is saying, “Go to the kitchen and take the turning stick. That is what you must use.” And by the time you entered the kitchen, you took the turning stick and started beating the child and he was screaming. The neighbors came trying to stop you, “Stop beating your child.” But you said, “Leave me! Is he your child?”
The prayer is gone!

There are some people that the devil doesn’t even stop them from praying because he already knows how to destroy the answer. 

There are some people that the devil knows that only stepping on their foot can destroy their prayer. That’s all, and he’s gone. The devil will tell those demons, “Don’t distract him. Leave him, let him pray. Have you forgotten that just a little step will provoke him? And all his efforts wasted!”

While some is money. You are returning from the mountain after you have done three days marathon fasting and prayer with assurance that God has answered you. By the time you entered a vehicle, the conductor said, “Your money is #100 o.” As the journey progressed something entered the conductor and he said, “Where’s your money?” You gave him #100 but he said, “Eh, #100? Is it not #150 I told you?” And he’s now shouting at you and before you know it begins to lay curses on you.

It’s a question from the devil; “Do you agree that all your efforts on the mountain should be wasted now?”
If you reply the conductor back and starts dragging with him, you are telling the devil, “I don’t mind because of #50. Let the fasting go.” And the prayer is gone! And all your efforts were wasted.

So, this means that some know how to pray but do not discipline themselves after prayer.

Remember when Nehemiah was building back the wall of Jerusalem, they were not just building but watching as well because of the enemy.

Nehemiah 4:9 KJV
“Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.”

The same thing God is expecting from you. When you have built in prayer and request for God to answer, watch carefully. Make sure you take note of this. When you have built a request, you must take heed unto yourself lest you pull down what you have built.

This happens on a daily basis and is why many people can’t boast of what God has done in their life because of lack of disciplined living after prayer.
You must cooperate with God. And if you can pray and pray aright, He will surprise you.

But my fear is this; What will be your lifestyle after the prayer?
May the Lord help you to live a holy life.