Watchman Service, November 2026 by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

This is my month

Prayer must be administered properly

Even what is helpful must be administered properly. An injection must go into the right quadrant, otherwise what was meant for good can have an adverse effect and injure the sciatic nerve

What is good must be administered properly. Prayer can be administered in a way that will not be helpful

There is a way you start off prayer on the wrong foundation and no amount of praying will change your life. No amount of praying will improve the quality of your life

The Bible repeatedly teaches this and Jesus emphasized it time and again

Luke 18: two extremes in prayer

Luke 18:1

We don't read it holistically. We stop after the first few verses because verse one is the typical prayer text Pentecostals and charismatics like.

This alone is a powerful charge

Men ought always. As long as you are a human being, without prayer and spiritual devotion you will come to the end of yourself. It is not in man to direct his ways.

On your own strength and wisdom you will fail, you will faint

The parable of importunity: even a wicked person will budge if you keep asking, if not from compassion then for his own peace of mind.

Have you ever answered somebody just so they leave you alone?

He was teaching us to be consistent

News flash: it was an extreme example. If an unjust ruler can grant a request upon importunity, how much more your heavenly Father.

He is not saying that so you begin to see God that way.

It matters how you see God

Many people end the discourse on prayer at verse eight, but it doesn't end there

Luke 18:9 to Luke 18:14

Verse nine is another story, a much needed balance, another extreme he is warning against. Two people came to pray, a Pharisee and a publican

Make no mistake, it is quite a feat to say to God that you fast twice a week and not be lying. You don't fail in your tithing. Look at his resume.

In Pentecostal circles he is somebody whose devotion is worth emulating

There are sermons that sound like this: I'm not on your level. I do this. I do that. I have these results. I have these encounters

The blessedness of the incarnation is feedback

Jesus is God who took on flesh to dwell among mankind. Pre-incarnation, he is in heaven hearing all sorts of prayer. Imagine you could hear what God hears

If he didn't tell us about this, we probably wouldn't know

Everybody comes to the temple, prays different prayers and goes home. Nobody knows what the person by his side said. And we say we prayed.

But Jesus is asking, as important as prayer is, what did you pray?

Illustration: the 12 hours

When I was in JS2 or thereabout, my dad called all of us and said we are praying 12 hours. We thought it was a joke.

We did it. 10 hours the next day, 8 hours the next day. I thought I was going to die. If I had the opportunity to escape I would have

After the prayer it did something to me. Not many people are honest enough to tell you this side effect of devotion if you are not careful. I became a little bit arrogant.

I felt I had done something for God that many people had not done, especially at that age

I went on vacation to a family friend's house. There was an auntie there who always encouraged us in the things of God. She would interrupt our movies and play a sermon for us.

It irritated me

So when I had prayed that long I thought, next time she asks about my walk with God, I'm going to drop that line.

She sat me down and asked how my walk with God was.

I said, fine, in fact just days ago in my family we prayed 12 hours

I had rehearsed it. I expected her to say, what? Pray for me, lay your hands here. She said, that's good, but what did you pray?

It took me aback. No one ever asked me what did you pray. All my life prayer had been about the favor, the intensity, the consistency, keeping your devotional schedule.

It had been about the encounters and the results

I knew where she was going. Of the 12 hours, we were killing. It worked. My life is not soaring like this by accident. But where is the intimacy? Where is the relationship?

Back to the text

Jesus is giving you the behind the scenes of people's prayer and making a comparison between two people

He already told you the importance of consistency, favor and importunity. Now he gives a balance: as terrible as inconsistency is, there is something even worse

If he had used only the Pharisee as an example you would still get the point. That man did not leave justified. But he gave a comparison for a reason

The man he compared him to is inconsistent in his devotion. He doesn't even have the audacity to lift up his eyes to God.

He bent his head, smote his chest and said, God be merciful to me a sinner

Is God encouraging sin? No. Is he encouraging inconsistency? No. He is saying, as terrible as that is, performative devotion is worse

There is a type of prayer you pray that it would have been better you didn't pray

There is a type of prayer that is self-exaltation. You hide the motives, but he can see

Luke 18:14

There is a type of prayer where the result won't leave you neutral. God will see you as somebody he needs to humble. This is not a joke

Jesus preached this more than once

In just three and a half years of ministry, he mentioned it more than once: when you go to pray, don't be like the Pharisees Matthew 6:5.

Pray to be seen and that is your reward

God is saying, when I check the motives of people I see something matters more to them than intimacy with me.

They want to be recognized as a prayerful person more than actually praying to me

It is possible that praying is not as important as being called prayerful. You want the title. Some people even get nicknames for the way they pray

God is saying, when was the last time I was your sincere desire in prayer? Not the power I will give, not the success I will give, not even fire

The way of Samson

You can go the way of Samson in devotion. There is a bypass. It is possible to be getting hotter spiritually and not be growing spiritually

If you have food on the fire and don't balance the pot well, a part of the pot gets hot and the food is not getting done

Samson discovered how to wield his gift. There is a way he would shake himself and excel spiritually, getting hotter without growing in consecration. Judges 16:3, Judges 16:20

He would be with a prostitute and by the time they woke him up, he would carry the gate of the city up a hill

You are not changing, not improving, not growing in your prayer life, but you are growing in encounters. You grow in results but not in intimacy.

It is possible to have spiritual results and not know God

So Jesus says, go into your closet, shut the door Matthew 6:6

Prayer sermons can make you worse

There are prayer sermons that will make you worse, because there is something worse than weakness. It is desiring strength for the wrong reason

Jesus told those two stories to let you know it is worse to desire devotional excellence for the wrong reason than to be struggling. God has never had a problem with weakness.

He has had a problem with how you direct it

Every preacher who has preached at least 10 years knows some sermons have more tendency to go viral.

Some sermons you preach because the Bible says to preach in season and out of season 2 Timothy 4:2. They may not like it, but it's good for them

When you are teaching a series on the inspiration of the Bible, how we got the Bible, some people just want to know when the next miracle service is.

You do it because you have been commanded to teach the word in season and out of season

You don't give people what they think they need. You give people what the Bible says they need

But prayer is one of those sermons that when you preach it, everybody is interested. You get more likes, more views on social media

Why do people like prayer sermons?

1. It is stirring, engaging and result oriented
2. A subtle reason: any sermon that can trigger self-pity will widely be accepted

If you preach to attack the failures of people, somehow they like it. Some people like a sermon on prayer when they are not praying so it will make them pray.

Others like it just so they can feel bad for not praying, even if they still don't pray

Self-pity is an interesting concept. The reason for devotional inconsistency, the reason some people sin, is self-pity. Oh, I'm going through this, no one understands, my contradiction has an explanation

There is a way you can develop a form of godliness where the sermons don't actually change your life or they elicit a wrong type of favor 2 Timothy 3:5

You have done something with the concept of prayer. It is now performative. You want to impress God

You read that text and you judge the guy. You are lucky God is not projecting your prayer request. What if it was you and God is talking about your prayer priorities?

What are we going to discover?

Don't we have that secret competition? I thank you, Father, I'm not like these people

Illustration: the hand in the pocket

I was praying one day in school with a few leaders. Sometimes when I'm listening to God I find myself leaning with my hand in my pocket. It is subconscious

God was telling me something important.

I was already raptured, and all of a sudden I felt someone pull my hand out of my pocket and say, don't put your hand in your pocket when you are talking to my God

That place where I was disconnected me. I spent the next few minutes wondering how did you see me? It means you were not where I was

But religion has made it okay for you to seek an opportunity to demonstrate superiority over others. What I'm saying is subtle. It is a thing of the heart

Why do you want to be consistent?

Before we teach on consistency in prayer, why do you want to be consistent? Is it because you will see more power in your life?

That when you are walking on the street people will just be falling? That's what you want

It is okay to desire to flow in deeper dimensions of the power of God, but is that your number one?

Do you know what it means to have the privilege to talk to God every day and not do it?

God wants to reorder our priorities and make sure we start off on the right foot.

Let us get our foundation back

Like the psalmist Psalm 63:1

There is a kind of refreshment I only get from you. How can I start my day without talking to you?

How can I talk to men when I have not talked to you? Acts 17:28

Psalm 42:1

I desire you

God wants you to get your priority back. Your heart must be right first, so that when you apply intensity and consistency it will count

God wants to be your ultimate desire. Not the bread that he gives but the bread that he is

Align your heart to him right now

There is a simple reason you don't pray consistently: you wake up with a lot of important things. Prayer is important but it is not ultimate.

Until God is number one, there will be other things you would rather do

David's one thing Psalm 27:4

It doesn't matter how much priority premium you put on God until he is that one thing. There are competing desires

Matthew 6:33

Like the patriarch said Job 23:12. That is prioritization. I won't put food in my mouth if I have not said hello to you. He is important, but how important?

• Lord, I put you first in my heart. I put you first this month
• Let this be the month where I reorder my priorities
• Not one day will pass this month without me seeking your face
• Exchange my weakness for strength. Help me

Pray like a child of God

Don't pray the next prayer like a man of God. Pray it like a child of God

Jesus is saying, I prefer somebody who will just say, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. Both are extreme but this one is even better.

Acknowledging your weakness is better than performative strength where you give yourself a target

Some people say, I have not been praying, so here is what I'm going to do: 6 hours every day, 7 hours every day. Should you pray long? Yes.

If you don't have prayer stretches you are still growing in your devotion

But when you come to a point where you just want to be able to stand and say, I'm prayerful, it is worse. Come vulnerable, come weak, and let him exchange that for strength

• Lord, consistency. For once in my life, let me go one month without missing a day
• Help me be consistent
• Your word says it is you who works in me to will and to do of your good pleasure. Help me to be consistent

Philippians 2:13

Come back to the secret place

If the Lord is drawing you back to the secret place, and you have abandoned your altar for such a long time and you feel the Lord calling you back, come right here

Something is breaking in the atmosphere

The Lord spoke to you and said, dance to me. He is asking me to tell you: what happened? What happened to our fellowship?

I see a blanket dropping on people because the heaviness is taken out of the way Isaiah 61:3

There is one of you about to receive a warm embrace. That is the Holy Ghost saying, welcome back, son. Welcome back, daughter. Welcome

• Lord Jesus, I'm back
• Thank you for your presence
• Thank you for forgiving my sins
• Thank you for a new garment of praise
• Thank you for taking away the spirit of heaviness. I'm light again, free to praise you, free to worship

• Therefore, right now, in the name of Jesus, and more than ever before, I call down fire on my prayer altar
• I'm on fire again. I'm alive again. I'm awake again
• In the name of Jesus, I receive fire
• Thank you for a new beginning

There is one of you who used to have prophetic dreams and it stopped. It is now restored. The dormant gifts are alive again

There is a bubbling on your inside. A reactivation. This is your welcome back

I see the same thing resting on different people's heads. Every dormant gift is reactivated

I see someone set ablaze from the crown of your head to the sole of your feet. It is a new day for you

The Lord is asking me to single you out.

He gave you many gifts, and I see the enemy trying to get you to use the gifts he gave you for things that are not aligned to your destiny

You have a strong spiritual heritage. There is grace on your life

Not one day in November will go without us praying and talking to the Lord. Not one day