The Prayer Mantle

One day a certain man so earnestly wanted to meet with Satan. And sure enough he had that opportunity. He met with Satan in Satan's residence. Satan showed the man his artillery that he uses against Christians. He showed the man one of his weapons- disunity- which served to split Christians apart. He also showed the man another the weapon that destroys marriages. Satan kept on showing the man weapon after weapon until he got to the top secret weapon. The man implored Satan earnestly to show him that weapon. Satan said, "No. I can't show you this weapon. In fact this weapon controls all the other weapons in my artillery."

"Come on, Satan, you showed me all your other weapons. Show me this one too," the man begged further.

But Satan did not budge. He would not show the man. He walked the man to the door. At the door, the man tried one last time to find out from Satan what the weapon was. Satan finally blurted out, "Prayerlessness! If I can get the Christian to be in a prayerless state, I can manipulate him to do my bidding."

Day 1 of the 2017 Deliverance and Intercession Conference was riveting and stirring as Bishop Matthew Addae-Mensah challenged delegates to cultivate the Spirit of prayer. He shared on "The Prayer Mantle."

"It is abnormal for a Christian to not pray the whole day," Bishop hinted. He lamented on how Christians can find the time to prepare food to eat immediately they wake up but refuse to take care of their spirit through prayer.

He noted that we need the Spirit of God to fight our battles and that is done through prayer. He urged congregants to not starve their spirits of prayer.

He said, "You need the prayer mantle. If you don't have the prayer mantle so many things will go wrong in your life because you don't pray. It takes prayer to become spiritual. If you don't pray the devil will programme things for you. Just like the way some of you don't plan your day; if you don't plan your day others will plan it for you with unnecessary calls. People will plan your life for you."

Bishop pointed out, "We can never be effective if we don't have the prayer mantle."

Bishop drew the attendees' attention to the fact that so many Christians believe in prayer but very few actually do the praying. If you don't know how to pray, Satan will eliminate you.

The man of God went on to talk about the prayer mantle of our Master, Jesus. He noted that even though Jesus is the Son of God and was more anointed than any of us, he spent extensive periods in prayer.

In Mark 1:34-35, we see Jesus waking up early in the morning and going to a solitary place to pray. This was after an ecstatic night of miracles of healings and deliverance in the house. Wouldn't it be nice for him to catch some sleep? Or discuss the miracles that took place with his disciples? Or simply celebrate by eating the finest of foods?

Well, Jesus went to pray.

The prayer mantle is a Spirit you need to cultivate; it makes you addicted to prayer. It causes your going out and your coming in to be guided by prayer such that morning, noon and night, you're constantly in prayer. Your delight is to pray!

Bishop pointed out that Jesus still prayed even though he experienced success and victory. He said, "Don't relax in prayer because you see little success."

He also noted that the more you become weak in prayer the more the flesh will manifest.

He also taught that people with the prayer mantle constantly wake up in the morning to pray.

Reading from Matthew 14:22-30, Bishop also shared concerning the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus immediately went to pray after that miracle. After feeding the multitude, Jesus needed virtue so he prayed.

When you have the prayer mantle, you always make an effort to pray. Sometimes, you need to go somewhere alone to pray. This is different from corporate prayers. You need to be alone with the Lord so that you can effect changes in your life. Something will definitely rub on you.

You must do away with Satan's weapon of prayerlessness.

Bishop declared, "After this conference, I wanna see some of you going three days, going a week alone in prayer." 

Jesus went alone 40 days and 40 nights.

Bishop said, "We want to see the power of God and the glory of God. We want Him to do incredible, impossible and marvellous things."

Reading from Matthew 15:29-30, Bishop noted that it was Jesus' habit to pray.

He admonished congregants to shed away the attitude of prayerlessness. Prayerlessness is a spirit of laziness to pray. Develop the attitude of prayer. Be addicted to prayer.

We also see that Jesus walked on the water in Mark 6:45-51. Before Jesus walked on the water he prayed.

Bishop disclosed that every major miracle of Jesus happened either before or after prayer because he had the prayer mantle.

The prayer mantle gives you the urgency to pray!

Reading from Acts 6:1-4, Bishop Addae-Mensah shared on how vital it is for the clergy to pray. He said, "You can't achieve much if you're a pastor and you're not praying. You'll be ineffective. If you are praying, you put God at work but if you're not praying, you will do the work. There are so many things God wants to do through you. He wants to effect changes through you."

He encouraged attendees to give themselves continually to prayer. He urged them to not let anything distract them from praying.

He said, "Never allow people to negotiate with you concerning your prayer timetable."

With prayer nothing shall be impossible. You may not know how, you may not know when but through prayer he will do it. Prayer changes everything.

Turning our attention to look at the Prophet Elijah in James 5:17, we discovered that when you pray it gets to a point where your words do not fall to the ground. Your words must of necessity manifest!

Be part of the exhilarating experience at the conference today too. Come along with your prayer mantle; a towel, or handkerchief. It's at the Phenomenal Faith Cathedral at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange at 6 pm. The morning devotion is at 6:00 am and the morning session will start at 9:00 am.