Activate the Power Now!

By Richard C. Gayle

“If you want to know how to activate the power that resides within us as believers, this book is a must-read. As the author, Richard C. Gayle, takes us on a comprehensive journey to discover how to access and activate the power and authority given to us as sons of God, spiritual insights are unveiled to provide the reader with effective strategies to live a fulfilled and victorious life in Christ. In the book, the author’s life experiences are coupled with divine revelations to make biblical practices applicable to our daily lives. If you want to live a bountiful and boundless life, get your copy today” (Niesha Keemer, MAR, Med, EdD).

“This is a profoundly mind-altering book. It energizes the spirit and enables the mind to move beyond its established boundaries and limits. To the normal man, it borderlines fiction; but to the regenerated man, it tells the truth of why Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. It tells the truth of why men who walked with God activated the power of God that defied the very laws of nature. It speaks to the very same possibilities in this century” (Gilda E. Rose, MBA).

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973668329

Richard C. Gayle

With a desire to effectuate change in the lives of people everywhere, author Richard C. Gayle has just completed his second published work. A student and teacher of the word of God, Richard C. Gayle is gifted in being able to communicate biblical truths in a clear and concise manner to support readers in being able to easily apply new knowledge to their everyday lives. Richard C. Gayle, is a progressive writer who is passionate about empowering others through the books God have given him to write.

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Copyright © 2019 Richard C. Gayle.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org ; Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-6831-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6830-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6832-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019909236

WestBow Press rev. date:  07/10/2019

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.     The Techie Age

2.     Missing a Miracle

3.     Faith

4.     Communicate

5.     The Power to Stay on Point During Difficult Times

6.     Knowledge Is the Key

7.     Moving in the God Context of Things

8.     God’s Communication Methods

9.     Activating the Power to Activate Others

10.   Activation Through Your Gift

11.   Activating Through the Strength Not the Size of Your Faith

12.   Activating by Thinking

13.   Activate by the Word

14.   Activate through the Power of Agreement

15.   Activation through Praise

16.   Activating Victory through Praise

17.   Activating through Instruments

18.   Activating through Your First Praise

19.   Access

20.   Activation through Prayer

21.   Activating the Power of Prosperity through Giving

22.   Activate through Your First Fruits (The Giving of Self First)

23.   Activating Prosperity by Association

24.   Activating through Fasting

25.   Activation by the Spoken Word

Acknowledgments

TO THE God of my life and the Bishop of my soul; to my mother Aunty Mammy, to my sons, Richard Jr. and Michael Gayle; to my church family; and especially to those who never believed in me, I say thanks. Each one of you gave me the necessary inspiration needed. To my very close friend who gave me personal inspiration and who continually voiced confidence and belief in my abilities and me, I say thanks to God for you and thanks to you. My only aim in this book is to inspire the body so that we may move into our bountiful and boundless life here on the earth and in the life to come.

Introduction

A REFLECTION on my boyhood days reminds me of how troubled I was. If trouble did not find me, I would find it. This was due in part to my daring and quizzical mind. I also had an unquenchable desire to know and to achieve, and I never allowed anything or anyone to stop me from either. Although most of my friends were much older than I was, they allowed me to challenge them in all the sports and games they played. I guess they saw in me a win-at-any-cost attitude. In retrospect, I honestly think God was using the early challenges I faced with men much older than I was in the field of sports to prepare me to never dodge a challenge or be afraid of taking on the hard tasks. God did not remove my tenacity to meet a challenge; He transferred it to His kingdom. The boy has not left; he is still in me, daring, quizzical and living every day of his life with an unquenchable attitude to know more about the dimensions in God. I am not afraid to go out on a limb to meet the challenge of the kingdom and to speak of what some may say is nonsensical and borders on theological butchery. While I have total respect for the word, I dare to speak of it the way God reveals it to me. I never played it safe in sports, and I certainly do not want to play it safe in the believers’ field now. I may not always be right, but if my wrongness can start a debate somewhere in the theological world until some greater truth is born and stirs at least one mind to think beyond the confines of self and what has already been discovered in the religious arena, or to rethink some of the things we preach and teach, then I dare to say I will have accomplished my tasks.

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The Techie Age

THE HIGHWAY was rather busy that evening as some of the members of my church and I traveled in a black Crown Victoria to fellowship with another church. I needed to make a call, and there was no pay phone in sight. To my delight, the only deacon in the car had one of the large, old Motorola cell phones. I remember it as if it were yesterday. The phone was so huge I almost needed both hands to hold it to my ear. Not many people had access to a cell phone at the time. I myself did not own one. To tell young people that you lived in the days when pay phones were popular is almost the same as telling them you lived in the days when horses and buggies were the Lamborghinis of the time. How far we have come, and how quickly we moved to where we are now! Like a child with a new toy, I was so excited that I was talking in a moving Crown Victoria and, most of all, did not have to stop to find a pay phone. I felt as if I was stepping up in life. It wasn’t funny at the time, but as the months and years went by, and the phones got smaller and smarter, I had a good laugh at myself. I imagined myself walking with this thing on my hip or in my pocket when everyone else was using smaller and smarter phones.

I remember the transitions from the huge Motorola to the Motorola Razr, the BlackBerry, and so on. The technological revolution is now at a point where I find it difficult to keep up with all of the newest gadgets. There is an app now for almost everything we can think of, including social media services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I was about to buy a printer with scanning abilities for about two to three hundred dollars recently, but a close friend told me about an app that could do the same task as the item I was going to pay so much money to acquire. The app cost me nothing. I don’t want you to get the impression that I am old and out of touch, but who would not be excited about doing for free something that was about to cost so much? Now I can scan any document with my phone and email it to its destination. How jubilant I was to save time and a whole lot of money! It is almost impossible to live without a smartphone now.

Unfortunately, as with most things in the world, there are positive and negative sides to technology. We are so captivated by our phones that we hardly converse face-to-face anymore. I have seen families and friends in restaurants giving their smartphones the attention they should be giving to one another. The phone is now the center of attention and is probably very addictive. It is presenting a challenge for parents, teachers, and pastors. Technology is not only advancing the world at a faster pace but has also forced nations to institute laws to safeguard users from hackers and stealers of personal identities. It has forced parents to develop parenting styles to combat cyber bullying and other harmful things that will affect their children. We are raising a generation with the world in their hands. Everything is open to them. This generation is the most informed, and the unfortunate thing is that not all the information is advancing them in the right direction. Everything that is possible, literally and physically, is possible technologically. The world my mother parented me in did not prepare me to raise my sons. I had to develop a parenting style that my dear mother would not approve of. Her parenting style was one in which the straps did most of the disciplining. How do you raise children and guard them against the ills of this world when they can get to any part of the world and access anything they like in a matter of seconds? I had to become more of a teacher than a disciplinarian. I had to present, as effectively as I could, what wrong looked like, its consequences, and the benefits of doing the right things no matter what. I then had to pray to God that they got it.

Technological Highway

On the other hand, the technological highway has made life so much more comfortable in many ways. When I was a boy, I had to learn my times tables by memory in school. Then the calculator came in and presented the beginning of math made easy. Driving has become easy because we now have cars that can make up their minds. Driverless cars are a thing now. They are not so popular as yet, but in a few more years, we will be having cars with more passengers and fewer drivers. A telegram was the fastest way of delivering a message in my day via the post office or the postman. Now we have WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, texting, and a myriad of other methods to make communication faster and easier. We can communicate with each other in a matter of seconds. (Telegrams, however, would take two to three days to get from one destination to another.) It is amazing how far we have come. In my attempt to tell my children about how things were back then, I was met with total mockery and laughter. I quit trying to explain, because every time I tried to, I sounded more and more like a dinosaur to them. The world we presently live in is nothing like the one my precious mother gave birth to me in. It’s different and faster—too fast for me sometimes. But I like it very much. I am having an exciting time embracing the challenges of involving myself in the world of gadgetry. I am constantly challenged to learn new ways to communicate and survive in this new world.

The contrast between my 1960s world and this one is like day and night. The evolving of the minds and people, the changes in social order and standards, the advancements in technology, the medical breakthroughs, the multiplicity of human footprints in the universe, and the increasing need to deal with man-made and natural catastrophic events demand a change in how things are conducted. If the needs of the billions of people in the world are going to be met, plus the activity of commerce and trade that make our economy function effectively, then there certainly has to be an implementation of an improved way of doing things to ensure the effective functioning of the systems that make the world turn. There has to be a faster way to communicate and move. Communication is the seat of all things efficient. Because of the improvement in how we communicate, the world is now a whole lot smaller and is reachable in seconds. The world is literally in our hands now. We can travel to any place we’d like, and we can do business anywhere in the world via the internet. Technology has technically removed the borders of nations. Physical boundaries that separate countries are hardly relevant anymore. Technology has made the world one massive piece of real estate where anybody can go via the internet at any time of the day.

As I mentioned before, technological advancement is vital for how we communicate in this present world. Can you now imagine sending a telegram or a letter of vital importance from one part of the world to another to avert a danger? It’s unimaginable the chaos that would take place if a letter were the only means to inform the world of an imminent threat that would affect the global economy. Thank God for the wisdom he has imparted to men and women. It has undoubtedly improved one of the most important things among humanity: communication.

The Twenty-First-Century Jesus

I often wonder what the Jesus of the twenty-first century would be doing. How would he communicate? Would he have a cell phone? If so, what would be his preference? Would he have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? He might not need all of the gadgets, but I am confident that he would have at least a cell phone. And if I know anything about Jesus, he would probably want the latest iPhone. Jesus would have to adjust to the times to be effective in his message. He probably would not send his disciples to get a donkey but would call a high-end car rental company and have them bring a Lamborghini.

The task we have as preachers and teachers postulating the gospel of Christ is making him relevant in our world. We have to present him as the twenty-first-century Jesus. He is God of all the ages, so there is no reason why we cannot fit him in this time. As the world changes, so must our methods in presenting Jesus Christ. Fighting over the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t’s by the religious giants is not doing anything to make Jesus relevant to these times. We can say what we want, but the world wants a relevant Jesus. This world certainly cannot relate to the historical Jesus. We are ministering to a changing world, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the world understands that our Jesus is current and relevant.

Satan is from ancient times but remains constant and fierce in his attack against the believers. He is not afraid of making the necessary adjustments to the times. He is current and relevant. His ability to adjust ensures him maximum impact on people’s lives. Satan has made himself present in the things of the world. He is adaptable to change, while many believers are struggling to adapt to change for Christ.

We certainly will not have any impact on the world if we congregate to worry about the negativity of the changing times. I don’t hear Satan complaining; instead he his maximizing every minute. Jesus Christ was and is always about people, and whenever a chance arises to impact more people at any given time, we must not fail to seize the opportunity. This is our time, and this is the moment we have been waiting for—the chance to reach people for Christ via technology. The human suffering is real. The threat of terrorism is real and is advancing rapidly. Sin is on the increase. Paul said to the Romans, Where sin abounds, grace abounds the more (Romans 5:20). In other words, anywhere sin can be found in large amounts, grace will supersede. The grace of God must not be shut up in our church buildings. This grace must be seen on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and every other means available to us. Why complain about the negative on social media when few believers are making positive use of it? Where sin abounds, grace abounds the more. If we are cognizant of abounding grace, we will make it our business to flood each of these medias available to us with Jesus. Grace is possible all the more in this time than at any other time. Years ago we hardly had the means to reach people in our communities, much less other nations. Now we can do so by pushing a send or upload button. The art of Jesus’s ministry existed not only because he was God and knew all things. He was most effective in his earthly ministry because he was able to perceive what was going on in people’s hearts and the environment around them. In other words, He was in touch with the issues of the times. God did not call us into His kingdom to reach the few and leave the masses untouched. As governments come together amid their personal and political differences to meet the threats of the twenty-first century through better communication, so must the church, amid our doctrinal and denominational differences, come together for the saving of the souls of men and the common good of all humanity.

We must not at any time allow church politics to hinder the unity we need to fulfill the mandate that God has given to us. Human problems are nondenominational. Sickness is nondenominational. It is also true that when Satan is carrying out his assignment, which is to steal, kill, and destroy, he doesn’t read the signs on our church buildings. He does not care if we are Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal. He hates everything and everyone that is called by the name of Jesus. It is a fact that the times are changing very fast in these last days, and the fulfillment of the Bible regarding these last days is coming to pass before our very eyes. Sometimes it’s hard to establish any particular method for a long time, for the plan that worked yesterday seems to be outdated today. It is not easy to cope with the times and the seasons in which we are now doing God’s work. It is vitally essential for ministry that we know the times and the seasons. It is necessary to understand what seed to plant, when to plant it, and how to farm in recognition of the times and seasons. However, let us not forget the instruction of the apostle James: If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him (James 1:5). Everything we need to function effectively in the body of Christ is done already, but it is our business to seek the Lord for the method that will be most effective in this time and season.

God, in every dispensation, seems to reveal more of Himself and His plans to the human race. It is also noticeable that He has always designed and implemented a method that is unique to the social issues of the time, which speaks to the fact that God is still concerned about the challenges people face. Since the problems of the different dispensations were sometimes unique to their respective times, God saw fit to design a plan unique to the issues of the dispensation. God never abandoned a dispensation because He never had the answers to the problems of the time. He never turned His back because He did not know what to do.

I am tired of hearing words of hopelessness from believers toward this generation. God knew before the world ever existed that this informed generation would come. It is true that not everyone can deal with this generation, but God has anointed men and women with the wisdom of this time; therefore, this generation can find God through us. It was never hard to find God, no matter how sinful and complicated the times were. The intensity of the time we live in does not make it so now. The knowledge of how to function effectively in this time is available. How do I know that? We are still here, and the church is still here. I don’t think this generation is more hopeless than the ones before. As I mentioned earlier, every dispensation has had its unique problems, but God has always raised men and women He endued with knowledge and power to save and transform peoples’ lives. We cannot be preaching hope to the few and hopelessness to the masses or the people we deem lost because of the differences in their mindset or their appearance.

The writer of Hebrews states that in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways (Hebrews 1:1 NIV). God gradually improved communication between Himself and man. This was evident in the Solomonic temple. If famine were in the land, when the people got to the temple and prayed, God would hear from heaven. God also had to make provision for those who for some reason could not get to the temple. If they turned their faces toward the temple and prayed, God would hear from heaven.(11 Chor. 6:38). The latter provision is a faster way to communicate with God, for He who had to journey to the temple took much longer to get to God. A way was made for he who stayed home or was in the land of captivity because he could not get to the temple. He who could not go to the temple was required to look toward the temple and pray, and God would hear him. Jonah, while he was in the fish’s belly, said he would look again toward His holy temple (Jonah 2:4). Jonah’s experience is proof that one did not have to be in the actual temple to access God. He was able to get to God from wherever he was by looking toward the temple in his mind’s eye, which means he got to God faster and did not have to travel the distance to get to the place of the temple. It is obvious, then, that if he got to God more quickly by communicating from where he was, God would respond to him quicker also. God is not hard to find in the midst of these austere times in which we are living. He has not abandoned us. He has the answers for this time. What we need to do is seek Him, as I said before, and He will give us the new and improved method to impact this generation, to turn the hearts of the vilest of sinners unto him, to change nations for His glory, and to get to Him faster, thus initiating a more urgent response from Him.

As I mentioned before, the good Lord blessed me with two beautiful boys that taught me that I had to change my parenting style. I found out that to do that, I could not adopt the same parenting style as my mother. When I was growing up, I did not have any children’s aid number to call if my parents spanked me. Back then the only call you could make when you were getting a spanking was to Jesus, and sometimes you weren’t even allowed to call on Him. That has changed significantly. Kids these days are given access to communicate directly to the authorities should they ever need to. God had to improve the way He talked with man as time progressed. He provided us with a more direct way to get to him. The scriptures bear many pieces of evidence in which God improved how He communicates with man. Hebrews 1:1 supports this claim; He spoke unto the fathers via the prophets, but in these last days He will speak through His son, Jesus Christ. This new and improved way provides us with the opportunity to get to God for ourselves, faster than before. Since the middle man, the prophet, is not in the picture anymore, this also means that God’s response to us has to be faster too. It also provides us with a more direct response from God, because he does not have to send the message through the prophets to get it to us. He speaks to us through Jesus Christ Himself.

God was and is doing everything He could and can do to make Himself accessible to any man who dared or dares to seek Him for himself. The communication line to God does not run through a middle man (a prophet) anymore. A direct line was provided to God. I am very perplexed and confused as to why it often seems to take so long for God to respond to us. It looks like the new and improved way of reaching God is still a challenge. Why are we told, probably 90 percent of the time, to wait on the Lord even in moments of dire emergency? Don’t get me wrong; I believe that patience is something we all have to exercise in our relationship with God. No man serves God without knowing the value and virtue of patience. However, God does not want us to wait for everything. He did not purpose in Himself for us to wait for Him for nearly all things. Why is it that when I need a miracle in my body, I have to go home and wait on the Lord? If He wanted us to wait on Him all the time, then what would be the purpose of miracles? God also works in the now. He is instant in many cases: the blind receive their sight instantly, the dumb speak instantly, the deaf have their ears opened immediately, and the list goes on.

Miracles are not a thing of the past. I still believe that God wants to move in the miraculous. God does not always want us to wait for him. He actually would like to do some things for us right now—yes, at this very moment. As I mentioned before, if the God-improved way of communication got rid of the middle man, thus reducing the time man took to get to Him, then it is right for us also to believe that if He made way for us to get to Him faster, then He wants to get to us with the same speed. Speed is essential to God in many cases. There are times when He wants us to do it now to activate the portals to the spiritual realm in certain seasons. When God says now, He means we should hurry up. Let us not forget that now is a part of time. Time is past, present, and future. He is a God not only of the past and the future but also of the present.

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Missing a Miracle

THE BELIEVER’S mind has to be open to miracles. They are not things we should talk about, but we should put these things to the test in prayer mixed with faith. There should be no speculation when it comes to our relationship with God. We must always seek Him to know what His intentions are regarding our requests. Prediction is dangerous in our relationship with God, for it is easy to speculate that He wants us to wait because we did not get our desired results right away, when that is not what God wants. Speculation puts us on a so-called waiting list that God did not want us on in the first place, thus causing us to miss the miracles of God. That which should have taken a moment to do may take years because we miss His will and purpose for our lives as we instead spend time speculating rather than seeking. Jesus’s ministry on the earth was to alleviate human suffering; he came to make people’s lives better. It is my conviction that there is a new and living way to get to God provided by the shedding of His blood. Some people’s situations need immediate attention because if they wait another day, they will be gone forever. Emergency cases should not be put off for another day. There are things going on in people’s lives that need a miracle now. As I mentioned before, this new and living way provided a new and improved method of communicating with God for others and us.

In these, the last and closing days, when sickness and violence of every kind are ravening our world, there is hope, for God will never let the darkness outshine His light. He will never make unrighteousness supersede His righteousness. I am expecting God to show up and show out for the nations of this world even in this time of hopelessness. The Bible teaches that patience is a virtue, so I am very well aware of the benefits of patience, but does God wants us to wait 90 percent of the time? If the answer is yes, then what’s the purpose of Him giving us direct access to Him versus going through one of the prophets?

The book of Daniel gives us a preview of some of the fantastic things that go on in the realm of the spirit (Daniel 10 KJV). One of the highlights of this narrative is that God deemed it necessary to explain to Daniel what took place in the spiritual realm. He did not leave it up to Daniel to assume or speculate. There was no ambiguity, and God was specific in His dialogue with the young prophet. It is not like God to leave people in the dark at any time. He always provides a way of understanding Him. Sometimes His instructions are confusing to our trend of reasoning and, as even I must acknowledge, hard to follow at times. For example, why did He tell Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house, where He would cause him to hear His word? (Jer18) He is God; He could have given him the word right where he was. I believe it is the process and His instructions to us that we struggle with. If what God is doing and saying is impossible to grasp, then He cannot be blamed for not having been clear and specific. It is I who must know the workings of God and wrap my mind around His instructions even when they don’t make natural sense. We miss God too often because we do not understand His way of doing things. This is one of the reasons why we are always on the waiting list, waiting for what has already passed because we don’t understand. It is imperative that we get clear answers to why stuff happened the way it did and also why things didn’t happen. Remember: we are sent to impact people’s lives. Some people are waiting on us, for we declare ourselves to be the ones God is using. Some believe us, some don’t, and others are trying their best. The communication between God and us for the sake of suffering people must be clear and precise; the world should be looking to the believers in Christ, not the psychics. We cannot afford to make God look like a liar any longer. Our responsibility on the earth at all times is to let God be true (Romans 3:4). God is willing to explain things to us if we spend a little more time talking to Him about things we need to understand regarding His ways toward human issues. Again, the people we lead must not be influenced by speculation and ambiguity. The prophets of old, after they heard from the Lord, would tell the people Thus saith the Lord. Isaiah 45:1 for example. Telling folks to wait on the Lord when we don’t know what to say to them is not cutting it anymore. Waiting on the Lord should not be a comforting word. There are times when people do need comfort, but for the most part, people need deliverance, and they have the right to look to us for it, for we proclaimed Jesus to be the crucified one, the one that can do all things. We spend time telling them of this incredible power and anointing, when we should be spending most of our time showing them what it is to be touched by the hand of Jesus.

These are the days when many people are now questioning the word of God. I was watching a young man on Facebook recently who proclaimed that he does not believe in the Bible anymore. While I am not blaming the believers of Christ for this, because people, for various reasons, are going to make up their minds about their faith in Christ one way or the other, we must not forget that while faith is for the believers, those who are struggling and suffering and have not yet met Christ want to see to believe. I like that movie with Denzel Washington, Man on Fire, in which some people kidnap a little girl Denzel Washington’s character is guarding. The kidnappers call to set up a meeting with him. He tells the kidnappers he wants proof of life, or evidence that the little girl is still alive. People are looking for the evidence of what we say God can do, and they are right to do so. When I went to Australia, I met an Indian lady who was a Buddhist. She was living with many Buddhist worshippers when she got sick. She prayed to her god, and nothing changed. She told me she then prayed to the Christian God and made a deal with Him. She told the Christian God, If you heal me, I will serve you. Fortunately, the Christian God, which is Jesus, healed her body entirely, and she kept her word. She began to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Although she came under great persecution from the Buddhists she was living with, she continued to take the train two and a half hours to church to praise the Christian God. How can we be satisfied with just believing as believers? We must believe to see. This lady did not know our God, but she put Him to the test and activated the healing power of our God. Proof of life is necessary to the world, and even to the believers in Christ. Someone once told me that miracles are not required anymore because of the advancement of medicine and technology. I refute that belief system. Yes, doctors are now doing some great things to save lives and restore health, but doctors can go but so far and no further. What about when the doctors do not have the medicine or the skills to help? What about when they tell the patient that his or her sickness is too far along and medicine cannot do anything more for him or her? People are still dying amid all the different medications prescribed, and although we seem to have a pill for everything now, these pills are curing one thing and killing other stuff because of the side effects. We still need Jesus to do what man can’t do. When Jesus heals, there are no side effects. Jesus wants to do the same things he used to do for people, even though we have come so far in great medical research.

If a woman who did not know our God could get to Him in an honest conversation from her heart, then we who serve Him and know Him need to know how to talk to Him to move and activate His power. Our God is immutable; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If that means what I think it means, then we ought to be seeking a way to communicate with him more effectively to get instant results. He wants to be moved by us; yes, he does. I understand that the battles that go on in the spiritual realm that we have to often contend with are often responsible for delays of our breakthroughs. Daniel gave us a perfect example of this when he set himself to seek the Lord earnestly in prayer. It took twenty-one days for the answer to his prayer to come. Twenty-one days after the very day he set his face to seek Him, he found out that God had heard him and had answered him, but the answer to his prayers had been held up somewhere in the spiritual realm by the prince of Persia. We learn that God had to send Michael the archangel to defeat the prince of Persia and release His response to Daniel’s prayer. I get that, but I know people who waited on God for more than twenty-one years and died not seeing the fruit of their patience. Am I to believe that it is God who told them to wait, even through sickness or other things that threatened their very existence and their ability to live according to God’s divine plan on the earth? What am I supposed to believe? It is easy to say one’s lack of faith is the culprit, but what do you say to the man who has faith in the healing stripes of God and is suffering most, if not all, of his life? What should he wait on—healing? Deliverance? Or is he to wait for death, or wait until it gets worse? There might be a better and quicker way to get to God.

Recently I got the bad news that the sister-in-law of two members of my church was on a life-support machine. They were waiting to pull the plug. When I got the news on a Sunday morning, I was very disturbed. I have never met the woman, but I took it personally. I called the church together in prayer for this lady. Four nights after that, I was told she had come out of unconsciousness and was talking. They had no choice other than to take her off the life-support machines. Somebody got to God in a hurry. I give praise to God for showing up in a hurry one more time. This was indeed a miracle.

Isaiah 65:24 states that before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear, and Psalm 139:2 says, He perceives our thoughts from afar off. This makes the argument of faster and easier communication with God more credible. He is able to answer before we call because He knows we are going to call from the moment it is conceived in our thoughts. Again, if He answers before we call, then it is inconceivable why we are told to wait most of the time. The New Living Translation puts it this way: I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers. This is even better and faster than technology. As I said before, from the moment the thoughts to call Him are conceived, He answers, and while we are yet verbalizing our thoughts, He answers our prayers. With this in mind, we ought not to assume anything about why our prayers are not answered. We ought to make sure we know exactly why. We may be considering one thing when there is another reason. This text also suggests that it is impossible for Satan to stop the prayers of the saints from reaching God. If God hears us before we call and answers our prayers while we are yet speaking, then Satan simply cannot stop this communication between God and us; it is too fast for even the likes of him. What he often does is fight us and distract us in such a way that we don’t want to pray, for he knows that when one of the weakest believers prays, he and his kingdom are in trouble. He will do everything to stop the believers from approaching God in prayer. Two things can happen when the saints pray. Number one, God, for various reasons, can refuse to answer our prayers. Number two, He can send the answer, and the devil can obstruct it and cause a delay, as described in the book of Daniel the prophet. The good thing is that Satan cannot stop God from hearing before the call is made. We must also take note that when the scriptures say God will not hear us, this does not mean God does not know what was said, because He is God and nothing is hidden from Him. Not hearing us means He will not give heed to our requests or answer our prayers.

The prophet Isaiah said, Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save either His ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you that He will not listen.(Isaiah 59:1) It is God who will refuse to give heed to our prayers for various reasons; it will not be Satan, as some may believe, blocking our prayers. He was able to interrupt the answer to Daniel’s prayer but not the ascent of Daniel’s prayer to God’s throne. The prince of Persia prevented the response from getting to Daniel when it should, but he could not interrupt or alter the content of the answer. Satan cannot tamper with or change the content of the response. Whatever God said it is, it is, and the devil cannot do anything about that. It may not come when we want it, but be assured that when it gets here, nothing about it will have changed. It will be the direct answer to your prayers. This is why it is imperative that we stay in faith in these moments of delayed responses, for regardless of what is taking place in the heavens, we must be steadfast in our faith, because God will not change His intent. He said, My word would not come back to me void. It must accomplish that which I set it out to do. (Isaiah 55:11)

What was the purpose of the prince of Persia delaying the answer to Daniel’s prayer when he knew he could not change the content of the answer no matter how long he delayed it? Let me say this first and foremost: Daniel did not sin or do anything to cause God to delay the answer. This is one of Satan’s tactics. He knows he cannot stop the answer; he can only slow it to cause doubt and confusion in our minds. Satan knows God better than anyone else. He knows that God, by His nature, does not work in uncertainty and doubt, so in this time of delay, he will move us, if we let him, to doubt God. When that happens, the answer may never come—not because he is the one that stopped it, but rather because he has enough tricks, as I said before, to make us doubt God. You and I know that God needs to see faith to work, for they that come to Him must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Satan is at his best when we give him access by our words and actions. He will do anything to get a negative reaction out of us that will displease God or sow the seed of doubt in us. He wants to get us to a point where we are emotionally out of control. We need to take a page out of Job’s book. The Bible said of him that despite all Job went through, he sinned not with his mouth; he held on to his integrity, knowing that his change would come. (Job 31:30)

Satan knows he cannot alter God’s plan. He learned that in the beginning, when he caused the man to sin and plunge all of creation into chaos, only to see the idea of regeneration through Jesus Christ implemented for the reconciling of man to God. He is working overtime for man to do something that will disrupt his relationship with God. Even when he thought he had God in a corner because man sinned and thereafter had to pay the penalty of sin, for the wages of sin is death, God blew him away by sending Jesus to die in our stead. And in justifying the sinner through faith, God gave him the opportunity to come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need. If any man sins, he has an advocate with Christ Jesus, the propitiation for our sins.

God’s mercy and grace defended the sinner from the powers of darkness, broke down the walls of partition, and gave him access even in his sinful state. This act of grace and mercy is continuously driving the devil out of his mind. He wanted God to kill, but He gives life instead. Those whom he wants God to condemn, He sets free. Satan’s intent for man is always to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus said, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Satan cannot get to God’s plan directly. He tried by causing a rebellion in heaven and was cast down, he and his angels. However, he knows that the only way to get to God’s plan is to cause man to sin. Since God is not a respecter of persons, He will have to respond to man’s rebellion. The disappointment came when, instead of God destroying what He loved, He sent Jesus to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It is so important that we understand who God is and His will for our lives. Understanding these things will help us keep a positive outlook even in times of delay, and most importantly, it will help us to move in the right direction, because knowing what His will is and what is happening in the heavens will help us make the right decisions. Many, by misunderstanding, start hanging out in the waiting room for some things that God did not command. This, of course, can prove very detrimental to our faith. When we wait and that which we have been waiting for does not appear, we will be disappointed and forced to explain why with more speculation. Again, understanding what, precisely, is taking place in the heavens will help us to make a shift to the war room, for it is here we realize that the answer was given but was held up. So now we shift from waiting to waging war on the devil to release what God has already given to us. I have been praying for a particular thing for over twenty-five years now, and I have not gotten the answer yet. I check my prayers with the word of God and am convinced it is God’s will that I achieve what I have been praying to achieve. I understood after a while that if it is God’s will, then I have to shift into another gear.

I have to wage war on the enemy, because if it is God’s will for my life, it means that it is already done, and if it is done, making my request is not the appropriate approach to achieve it. I need to get rid of the obstacles in my way by waging war against the enemy. That is precisely what God ordered Michael the archangel to do when the prince of Persia held up the answer. Paul said to the Ephesians, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). The believers are not only called to praise and worship; we are also called to warfare. I have recently left the waiting room, and I am now in the war room, fighting for that which He has already willed to come to pass. There is also a shift in strategies, because now I am armed with the truth