Why We Are Called To Pray by Apostle Arome Osayi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Azusa Prayer Room

On a visit to Azusa Street in California, we were ushered into the small cottage where the initial prayer meetings that birthed the great Azusa revival were held. When we prayed, the presence of angelic beings was still in that place — the Azusa angel was still there. What became clear was that what was lacking to activate the resources still resident in that land was prayer. There was a lack of prayer. The wind was not strong enough to carry those entities.

The purpose in America became clear: we must mobilize massively and bring every Christian in America into the spirit of prayer. God is not done with America yet. There is a manifestation of fire that will still rise from this land — but it will be by the power of prayer.

Fourteen Years to Pentecost

In the permanent summers of Africa, we sought the Lord in fasting and prayer for many years. After seven years, there was no sign that God was attentive to our plea. Satan quickly sowed seeds of discouragement. But God is eternal, and it does not take him eternity to do what is eternal. The key was this: our efforts must synchronize with God's pre-ordained calendar. If they do not, it does not matter if we prayed for 35 years.

Many backed down after seven years. But our soul was vowed to God. We pressed on, and in hindsight we discovered that the measurement of prayer God had allocated was not seven years — it was fourteen. By the time we arrived at our own day of Pentecost, when heaven was unleashed to the earth, most of those who began the journey had backed out.

God Does Not Need to Ask Us to Pray

In Isaiah 45:11, the Lord — the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker — says: "Ask of me things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me."

This is striking. God does not need to request that we turn to him in prayer. Man was deliberately created with insufficiencies and limitations so that when you discover them, they become a motivation to adopt the life of prayer. Luke 18:1 says men ought always to pray and not to faint — meaning you were designed to pray. Prayer is your design. Any shape of existence you find apart from prayer is called fainting.

Fainting is not death — it is existing in a state other than what was prescribed. If Netflix has eaten all the time you have to bend the knee before God, then Netflix is your escape route to fainting.

The one who introduces himself in Isaiah 45:11 as the Lord, as the Holy One of Israel, and as our Maker is making a command: ask of me. Three identities, one command.

• The Lord — meaning his government operates through the Holy Spirit in your heart. Anyone not yet fully aligned with his government may not understand how desperate our condition is, and may not feel the urgency to pray.
• The Holy One of Israel — meaning holiness shapes the scope of your interaction with him. You cannot claim intimacy with him while being liberal with filth. The measure of ministry you carry is determined by the measure of holiness you subscribe to.
• Our Maker — the manufacturer has written the manual. The manual says men ought always to pray. You were condemned to prayer.

Why God Commands Us to Ask

God calls us to ask concerning two specific matters:

1. Concerning His Sons

   In Hebrews 2:10, the eternal purpose is that God brings many sons unto glory. His only begotten son was a seed sown so that he could reap a harvest of sons — sons conformed to the image of the firstborn. Romans 8:29: "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."

   But the reality is that instead of sons, God has babes. Many have decided to remain in the babyhood level of Christian faith. Babes are now pastors — people who have not been weaned from iniquity are behind pulpits. The day of the manifestation of the sons of God is being prolonged because no one wants to grow to maturity.

   God calls us to ask because his sons are not coming. He needs intercessors who will cry for the emergence of sons — sons whose lives become a territory of dominion, whose anointing influences the nations.

2. Concerning the Work of His Hands

   In the new creation, God's works are finished — the finished works of Jesus. In Romans 5:10, "when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" — that is the legal, finished side. "Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" — that is the living, current side. The finished works provide the foundation; the current works of the Holy Spirit build upon it.

   Jesus finished the work 2,000 years ago. But 2,000 years later, the average Christian cannot pray in tongues for one hour. The works are finished — but unfinished in individual lives. People are still chased by demons in their dreams. That is why God commands: ask concerning the work of my hands.

   "Command ye me" — this is authoritative prayer. But you cannot pray this kind of prayer if you do not know the will of God. This is the context from which some of us have started standing on crusade grounds, taking territories, seeing healing and deliverance — because we are beginning to understand what God is commanding us to ask.

Hyper-Grace and Its Dangers

In order to operate in permissiveness, the devil sponsored the hyper-grace doctrine — stretching grace out of context. The New Testament contains 80 warnings against trespassing God's commands. Why would God warn 80 times if there were no consequence? The reason for warnings is to take you beyond the ability to sustain an excuse for your presumption.

In Hebrews 10:26-29, for those who sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth, there remains no more sacrifice — only a fearful looking for of judgment. The three-count charge: treading underfoot the Son, counting his blood unholy, despising the spirit of grace. The way of holiness is prayer. The day you start losing it in prayer, you start becoming permissive.

The Way to Mount Up with Wings

The upload — prayer — opens you to the download of revelation, prophetic intelligence, and divine direction. In corporate prayer there is a symphony when Jesus is the conductor — every tone in its proper place, every sound ordered, limitless possibilities begin to manifest.

America shall be healed. There is a sound that the general assembly produces that makes Jehovah put on the full regalia of Jehovah Sabaoth — the man of war — provoking him to arise on our behalf. We are learning that sound.