PRAYING FOR A LONG LIFE

PRAYING FOR A LONG LIFE

Text: Job 1:12-22
Memory text:
“Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power Preserve those who are appointed to die;”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭79‬:‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Even though Job submitted to God and acknowledged His sovereignty, one of his statements is most often misinterpreted to portray God as the author of evil, pain, and sorrow. “And he said: “… The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”” ‭‭(Job‬ ‭1‬:‭21).
All deaths are not caused by God. We see in our text how satan went out from the presence of the Lord to cause the subsequent calamities. He stirred up wicked men who killed Job’s servants and triggered natural disasters that killed his sheep and children. David acknowledged in his prayer that the whole earth is full of the habitation of wickedness. “Have respect to the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty.” ‭‭(Psa‬ ‭74‬:‭20‬).
Jesus recognized the works of satan among men when he wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He was moved with compassion when he saw the cruelty of satan in cutting off the life of the young man, Lazarus! (John 11:35).
If the God who gives life was the one who took it, according to Job, then Jesus should be seen as working against His Father’s will. Rather, Jesus was anointed to go about releasing those who are under the captivity of death because He knows that satan is behind untimely death.
No wonder Jesus stopped the undertakers who were carrying the body of the only son of the widow of Nain at the gate of the city. The spirit of death had killed him at his prime age! Jesus brought him back from the dead and wiped away the tears of his mother! Jesus went about to undo what satan did! (Luke 7:11-15; Acts 10:38).
He also commissioned His disciples to raise the dead (Matt 10:8). Finally, He destroyed the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered us from the fear of death (Heb 2:14-15).
Today, the devil is still prowling about, with illegitimate authority, to rob people of their blessing in Christ and to cut short their lives. His mandate is to steal, kill, and destroy. David spoke of how the wicked who came against them to eat up their flesh stumbled and fell (Psa 27:2) and the release from the appointment of death.
Friends, asking for a long life also requires that you stand up in prayer to stop those forces that are out to stop your life. I join with you to decree that the appointment of death over your life be canceled now, in Jesus’ name. Let the wicked assigned against your life go down for you now, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer points
1. I cancel every evil program of untimely death for my life, in Jesus’ name.
2. Let all the powers that have been assigned to stop my life be stopped now, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I enforce my authority over the spirit of death because Jesus has destroyed the power of death and has delivered me from the fear of death.
2. I won’t allow the devil to stop my life, so I stop him before he stops me.

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng