Friday, 8th March
THE BALM OF PRAYER
(James 5:13-16 KJV)
“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.
Prayer is one of the most powerful kind of healing balm. Prayer is the technology by which power is transmitted from God to earth for results. Without prayer we will be victims on earth, without prayer we will be unable to fulfill destiny and we may never be all that God designed us to be. Paul and Silas prayed in the prison and every door opened and everyone’s bands and chains were loosed, (Acts 16:25).
Hezekiah turned to the wall and prayed fervently, and God healed him of his terminal sickness, (Isaiah 38). The church in Acts 12:5 prayed without ceasing for Peter and he was supernaturally released from prison and saved from death. And the same prayer slew Herod who planned to kill him. Hannah engaged a certain dimension of prayer and her bareness broke completely, (1Samuel 1). These people arrested situations and sicknesses by the balm that prayer releases.
It was for this reason that Jesus said in Matthew 21:12-14 that His house is the house of prayer for all nations. “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them”.
You would have noticed that as soon as the distractions were removed from the house of God, it became a house of prayer again. And the next thing we see was that the sick and the lame, blind, etc all came in and they were healed. As soon prayer retuned to the temple, healing began to take place in the house of God. Remember that Jeremiah asked in our text if there was no physician in Gilead, and we know that the physician is Jesus Himself or the presence of God. God’s presence comes with prayer and worship. Where worship and prayer is lacking the presence of God will be lacking too.
There are three kinds of prayer that you must engage to release the full measure of the balm of Gilead, and these three dimensions will service your life and make you relevant in the spirit and then make you whole.
i. Personal prayer.
It is the most important and most crucial kind of prayer, as is written in Matthew 6:6. It is called closet prayer life, the one you do between you and God with no one else involved.
ii. Prayer of agreement.
Jesus said if two of us shall agree as touching anything we shall ask, it shall be done. It is a prayer that is very crucial for married couples. Two shall put ten thousand to flight. Matthew 18:19
iii. Cooperate prayers.
-It is the prayer of a congregation, a group or a team. It is usually very powerful and results in very heavy manifestations of God. It gets things done especially on large scale. Acts 4:31.
All these prayer types will boost your life, bring you needed interventions of healings, deliverances, supplies, and blessings of all kinds. At one time or the other you will have to engage these types of prayers for all kinds of help. But suffice it to say that the most important and most powerful of them all is your personal prayer time with God. Receive grace to engage the healing balm of God through prayer in Jesus Name.
Action Points/Prayer
i. Lord please strengthen me in the place of prayer in Jesus Name.
ii. Father please help me to strategize around all these areas and types of prayer in Jesus Name.
iii. I engage and contact the healing balm that comes by prayer in Jesus Name.
Nugget
Where worship and prayer is lacking the presence of God will be lacking too – beginning with your personal closet.
_For Further Reading and Meditation_
MORNING
Psalm 112 1Timothy 4
EVENING
2Samuel 21
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