DO YOU MAKE FIRE OR DO YOU MAKE NOISE WHEN YOU PRAY?

A few years ago I preached a message on radio titled as above. Today I will be sharing that message with you here. Prayer is not supposed to be a religious , powerless, routine and unproductive activity that is designed to show that you are a religious, pious and god loving fellow.

A few years ago, while listening to a dear man of God, I heard him refer to a common phrase that is used by most Nigerian Christians each time they pray, or while they are in the church  and most especially when they encounter what they consider to be satanic opposition or demonic activity. The term am talking about is ‘HOLY GHOST FIRE’ .He was essentially emphasizing the fact, that most Africans do not give and that when they do give, they give very little. Then he said, no wonder, most Africans are poor, and suffer a lot of demonic attacks, and defeat from the devil, because the secret of being rich and receiving and having power with God, is giving, as revealed in the word of God .Then he said, all that   the y know how to do is to shout –HOLY GHOST FIRE- which has no chapter or verse in the Bible, and that was when he got my attention.

            This now brings me to the subject of our discussion today-Do you make fire when you pray? The scriptures have a lot to teach us about the fact that real prayer generates fire. King   David in Psalm 141 verse 2 states thus:’Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.’ The man of God recognized the fact that there was a spiritual activity that followed prayer that could release smoke and that could   burn as an incense and ascend before the throne of God.

This was latter to be demonstrated by the man of God by the name –Elijah. The first   time he did it was when he had an encounter with the prophets of Baal as is written in the book of   First Kings, chapters 17 verse1, then the whole of chapter 18.Thus in chapter 18 and verse 37 we read: “Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their back again. 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”This is the first account of how that Elijah brought down physical fire from heaven through prayer. He repeated this a second time in 2 Kings chapter 1, when an angry King, sent a band of fifty soldiers to go and bring him down from the mountain top where he was, thus in 2 Kings chapter 1, verses 10 and 11 we read, “And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty, And there came fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.” If you read verse 11, you see the same feat repeated.

Actually, King Solomon, who came directly after king David, saw such a manifestation, after his prayer, during the dedication of the temple, as stated in 2 chronicles chapters 6 and 7.Thus in chapter7 and verse 1, we read; “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, then fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the hou se”.

Now in the New testament book of Revelation we read in the eight chapter thus, i.e. Revelation chapter 8 verses 2 to 5; ”And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them  were given seven trumpets.3And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ;and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thundering and lightening, and earthquake.”We can see from the this last instance, that the prayers of the saints in heaven, is indeed a tangible raw material for the angels of God to work with, and that after the mixture, incredible power is demonstrated.

Conclusively, I believe in the existence of the HOLY GHOST FIRE, because the fire   that came down and consumed the captain of fifty and his fifty was called, the fire of God, and the HOLY GHOST, is God (refer to 2 Kings chapter1 verse 12).Many times, in our prayer meetings, especially in truly living churches, some individuals fall down, and begin to shake, and cry out in pains, and when this happens, many onlookers, are confused. They   wonder, what the hell in this whole wide world is going on ?, what they don’t understand, is that  when a truly righteous man prays effectually, and fervently, he generates fire –HOLY GHOST FIRE-which in turn, torments and tortures, contrary spirit beings which are true personalities, that though they are invisible, they are real. These evil beings which have forcefully possessed the weak and the ignorant are tormented and driven out by fire, because demons cannot stand the fire of God   .