When we stand before God in prayer and Intercession, His grace that was imputed to us based on the integrity of our heart on His written word causes us to be stable.
His grace is the unmerited favor that we received from Him, out of the abundance of His loving-kindness (Hesed) towards us. His grace is what keeps us strong in faith before Him in the midst of all difficulties, and the contradictions of life that we may be facing as we are praying and interceding.
Stability is therefore the strength that comes to us through grace, to stand and endure all difficulties of life without losing the quality or flavor of our spiritual life, in the times of adversity as we’re praying and interceding before God.
The scripture says:
“You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”
James 2:24 NIV
What we do with our faith with action based on the authority of His word, as we wait for the answer to our prayer causes God to respond to us.
The corresponding action to our professed faith causes His grace to increase in our lives. God weighs our confession of faith through our heart or the spirit-man (Proverbs 20:27).
He says:
“I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings”.
Jeremiah 17:10 NKJV
There is absolutely nothing that God does for us that is not first of all spiritual. Even if you are asking Him to intervene on your behalf for anything that’s going on in your life or in the world around you. He sees every affair of men on the earth as being spiritual, and He will not do anything that is not in His nature of Salvation and Redemption for the world.
Our action of faith must therefore match up with our words of profession based on His promises always and not based on anything else in this world. The affair of the spiritual realm supersedes everything else in this world. The world around you operates on a far lower level than Heaven’s.
That’s why your life can’t be successful in this world of evil if you’re not dependent on Him for success as a child of God. The unsaved world that’s under the control of Satan hates you and they’re routing out for your failure.
The Lord therefore wants you to remember this before you pray:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts”.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV
David once made a declaration before the Lord, as he prepared all that was needed for Solomon (his son) to build the temple. David had done many things personally, to take him to the end of the planning stage in this project. He had observed how the people had given willingly towards the project before the Lord and said:
“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”
1 Chronicles 29:17 NIV
David led his people in giving to the Lord. He showed the stability and integrity of his heart by the way that he gave. That’s why the grace of God was so abundant in his life for prosperity.
A man of integrity before God has a stable heart. He is consistent and steadfast in what he says and does always.
David was fully yielded in obedience to God. His heart was established in this vision of the temple. As he witnessed the ways by which the people gave to God, his heart became established in the grace of God for the completion of the project.
Paul also exhibited stability in the integrity of his heart, as he waited patiently before the Lord to take away the thorn in the flesh that Satan sent against him. He responded in that grace which is called stability as he wrote these words:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV
Christ’s power was made perfect in the physical weaknesses of Paul. Paul immediately recognized the grace of God that he was standing in.
The Grace of Being Stable
The Psalmist wrote concerning a man of faith in God:
“He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is firmly fixed, trusting (leaning on and being confident) in the Lord.”
Psalm 112:7 AMPC
It is God’s grace that causes us to stand strong in faith and be stable while praying. Especially when the world around us makes it look as if there will be no change coming into the circumstances surrounding us in response to our prayer.
It is at that time while we’re standing in His grace, that our faith in the promises of God is made stronger, even as Christ’s righteousness shines through our lives.
We must therefore not allow the enemy (at that moment) to drain out our spiritual strength. We don’t need to become restless and unable to do anything by faith at that moment. It is always a trick of the enemy to push the believer in Christ away from acting by faith. His goal is to make him give up on God’s promises to him.
The scriptures say again:
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” And “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
Hebrews 10:36-38 NIV
The moment when the flesh is pushing you not to live by faith, is actually the best time to intensify your faith walk in the promises of God by continuing to declare them boldly. The breakthrough is right at that interception where our faith meets with our corresponding action.
Refreshing Times
The time of weakness is the greatest moment that our faith needs to be more active. For our faith to remain active, we must learn to be refreshed always in the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Our faith in God’s promises is made stronger as we are being refreshed in His presence (Psalms 19:7). The time of refreshment is the moment to regain stability back in God’s presence.
The Apostle Peter said these words out to the Jews at Jerusalem as they had gathered together while witnessing the healing of the lame man by the beautiful gate.
They had been experiencing so many religious, political and social instability around them with the coming of the Romans into their land. They needed a breathing space from the craziness which the Romans had brought into their society.
Many had gathered to see God heal a man who had been lame on his feet from birth. They saw this miracle as a sign that the Lord God was still with them.
Peter therefore spoke these words to them as in the Amplified Classic Translation of the Bible:
“So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord; And that He may send [to you] the Christ (the Messiah), Who before was designated and appointed for you—even Jesus,”
Acts 3:19-20 AMPC
Refreshment from the presence of the Lord does not come without a change of mind and heart from the wrong direction of doing things and a returning back to God. This action of faith will blot out everything of the past in the life of anyone, which are not right before God. He will remember your past no more.
This is how the reviving fresh air from God comes into a Christian’s life, to bring purpose and a clearer vision that will cause him to become stable in God’s presence. Jesus will then come into such a life to help him and guide him through life in the perfect will of God.
Is the world around you going crazy to the extent that you had been ensnared by the evil one to walk along with them in their craziness? You surely now need a breathing space from the noise around you.
Your pathway back to God is through a true and sincere repentance before God, so that Jesus can come in to pivot your life out of the hole that the world around you is sinking into. As you are being pulled out from this crazy world, the air of refreshment from His presence will come upon you.
There are times when the enemy will come all out against us as Christians, so as to create confusion in our lives. That is the moment we must be ready to acknowledge that our faith is not based on any vision or words of men to us. It is the time to realize that our faith is based only on the written word of God to us in that particular situation.
That is the moment to get back into the elementary basics of the promises of God, so as to reenergize your faith and get your spiritual boosting back.
Being refreshed gets you prepared for the next move of God. You may be feeling sapped out of your spiritual energy with the insanity of the world around you; but on the inside your inner man is getting ready for more action into spiritual warfare.
That is when your dependency on God to carry you is very important. His grace will always sustain you.
The example of Abram
In Genesis chapter 15, we saw this happened to Abram as he stood in the presence of God while entering into a blood covenant with Him.
After Abram had prepared the animals and the birds for entering into a blood covenant with God; something unusual but powerful happened to him that I strongly believe marked the beginning of a turnaround in his life.
The Bible says:
“And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.”
Genesis 15:11-12 NKJV
Abram fought back the vultures (from the world in which he lived) continually. The vultures wanted to prevent the initiation of the blood covenant with the Lord God.
By driving them away he was actually doing spiritual warfare against the enemy (or the agents of Satan), who wanted to take away his blessing from this covenant with God Almighty. He fought them back physically, but yet it was all a spiritual exercise, because it all happened right in the presence of God.
The Scriptures teaches us to:
“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen”.
1 Peter 5:6-11 NKJV
Abram’s stance in spiritual warfare to fight back the (spiritual vultures of his world successfully) in God’s presence, got him the blessing of the Lord God as he entered into that Covenant relationship with God.
He resisted the vultures (an unclean animal) that symbolizes the uncleanliness in the world around him. He did exactly what the Bible tells us to be doing against Satan, by resisting every attempt of the vultures to devour his sacrifice before God.
A deep sleep came upon Abram with “horror and great darkness”; but by the end it was all over Abram was “perfected, established, strengthened, and settled” in the blessing of God, after he had suffered awhile.
Yet as this was going on neither God nor the angels present did anything to help Abram in fighting back the vultures. He had to fight back the enemies (the vultures) by himself.
This was the greatest spiritual warfare that Abram fought and won, which qualifies him to enter fully into a blood Covenant with God, the Mighty Warrior.
In winning this spiritual warfare Abram set himself up for promotion before God. His name was later changed from Abram to Abraham.
We must recognize from this example of Abram life, that we do have spiritual authority over the evil one. God will not do anything for us in fighting the enemy back.
He had given us all authority in Christ Jesus, both here on the earth and in heaven. We do have all that it takes to chase the enemy off our inheritances in Christ Jesus. And if you are not ready to fight him back, you will never be able to stand at all (Ephesians 6:13).
We need to observe here that in the case of Abram, it was after Abram finally finished fighting off the vultures, that he fell into a deep sleep right in the presence of God. He was tired. He needed some time of refreshing in the presence of God.
It was at that moment (in the deep rest or sleep); that God showed him all that would happen to his descendants after him.
God gave him the guarantee that He would do what He had promised him based on their Covenant of blood together.
Praying in the spirit
When we are feeling weary or tired spiritually, we must never forget that the Holy Spirit had been given to us as the Comforter, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Standby, Strengthener and Counselor (John 16:7 AMPC). He is always there to pray with us into deep intercession.
When we are praying in other tongues, we are releasing our spirit man into a spiritual exercise at that time of weakness with the help of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us (Romans 8:26-27).
That is why it is important to yield our tongues to the Holy Spirit, as He helps us in our time of weakness. To yield in this sense simply means, to move the tongue in speaking whatever comes out of it audibly. It has to be spoken for the release of angels to go into action concerning what’s spoken.
Our ability to pray in other tongues is a spring of water flowing from the heart or the inner man. It is eternal. It should never dry up, and we need to keep that river flowing by praying in the spirit always (John 7:37-39).
When we fail in doing this on a regular basis, the river of God in us dries up and we will be spiritually dead.
Paul said:
“Do not quench the Spirit.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19 NIV
Quenching the Spirit renders us insensitive to the moves of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The process of spiritual death begins with your insensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
Remember that the spiritual strength of a believer in Christ Jesus is always within that believer. The grace to be spiritually stable in the midst of spiritual warfare comes when we decide within ourselves to stand up and stand strong by faith.
Don’t ever cease to pray in the spirit. Your victory is nearer than ever before.
