Address Spiritual Decline Early! - 100 Days Of Discipleship - Day 81 by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Cumulative Effect of Prayer — and Its Absence

Prayer has a cumulative effect. And vice versa: if you are not praying daily, it also has a gradual but sure deteriorating effect. The problem is that most people have a firefighting approach to the spiritual life — they wait until things are really bad before recognizing there is a problem. But an alarm that goes off when the house is already burned to ashes is not very useful. What you want is the alarm that goes off when the fire is just beginning to loom, while it can still be extinguished.

A lot of people do not even know when they are in trouble spiritually.

If you can go three days without prayer and it does not alarm you — that is itself the alarm. It doesn't matter how fine life looks right now. The trajectory is already pointing somewhere. There is also a subtler version of the same problem: you pray, but it has been a long time since your heart was actually warmed. Imagine food that you put on fire but never actually let heat through — you took it off too quickly, told yourself the fire was on. That food will still go bad. You must warm your heart, warm your soul, every day.

A lot of Christians are Christians, but their experience is not different from the world's. That's why.

What Jesus Said Prayer Does

Jesus does not only tell us why we must pray — he tells us what will happen if we don't.

• Luke 18:1 — men ought always to pray and not faint. The implication: if you are not praying, you are vulnerable. You will faint. There will be situations you simply will not have the capacity to handle.
• Matthew 26:41 — pray that you do not fall into temptation. He tells you what will happen if you don't: you will fall into temptation. It does not matter how many prayer languages you have. You will fall into temptation. He says it plainly.

Jude 20-21 — "But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God." The charismatic church often focuses on the act of praying in the Spirit but not on why the text says to do it. Praying in the Holy Ghost keeps you in the love of God. That is what prayer does. It renews your spiritual energy and vigor. It gives you the fortitude to forge ahead.

This is why Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail. Prayer is a strategy for preserving faith. If you ever come to a point where you are no longer sure that God heals, you are almost certainly not praying. There is something about prayer that strengthens your conviction about what you know God can do. Faith is not only what you read in a book. Prayer does something to it that reading alone cannot.

1 Peter 5:8-9 — be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom to devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith. Notice: he is resisted not by some elaborate spiritual warfare but by steadfastness in the faith. When you are steadfast in the faith, you are resisting the devil. Some warfare is unnecessary — it only exists because a foothold was given in the first place. The simple daily maintenance of a strong faith removes the devil's leverage before he can use it.

Never Break Your Streak

Create a discipline where prayer is not contingent on whether there is trouble. Don't pray only when there is a crisis. Don't study only when there is a crisis. If you go a day without praying, that should matter to you — not because God will abandon you, but because you cannot afford to give the enemy any advantage.

Never break your prayer streak. Never break your study streak.

A lot of the real problem is this: many people have outgrown devotion. Personal daily devotion, personal study — it starts to feel too elementary. That is a deception. No matter how boring the form, subjecting yourself to the bottom of consistency every day means the fire will not go out. That consistency is where your safety lies.

Jude 17-21 — the same letter that warns about those who crept into the church and caused error gives the counter-instruction: but you, beloved — building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God. The prescription for remaining protected from error, from deception, from spiritual drift, is consistent prayer and the word.

Give the Enemy No Advantage

Paul said: do not give Satan an advantage. He is literally looking for whom to devour, looking for any inroad. You do not want to be the one who provides it. This is why you pray even when you don't feel like praying — not because God demands performance, but because you will not hand the enemy a door.

A vibrant, consistent prayer time — even thirty minutes to an hour — will save you from a disproportionate number of emergencies. It is a simple discipline with outsized returns. The spiritual energy that consistent prayer builds shows in the spirit realm. Vulnerability from prayerlessness is also visible there. The believer who maintains this is not someone who needs to engage in frantic warfare every time something arises — the consistency itself is the resistance.

Address spiritual decline early. The early stages are manageable. Wait until things have escalated and the cost is much higher. Let your alarm go off at the right time.