11 Principles For Waiting Upon The Lord

If you want the glory of God to be with you, you need to master the art of waiting upon the Lord in prayer.

Seeking God’s face means seeking His saving presence. If we do not ask, we will not receive and with God nothing is impossible. Here are some principles we need to apply when seeking God’s face.

1. Go into His presence with thanksgiving

The Bible instructs us to go into God’s presence with thanksgiving. We must be anxious for nothing and with joy and thanksgiving, present our petitions to God. This is an eternal principle that must not be ignored or derided.

2. Have Faith

Get rid of guilty conscience and go with confidence.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4:16

Forget your past and self-condemnation because there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. We must come with full assurance of faith in the blood of Jesus that redeemed us.

3. Have expectation

Believe that God will reward your effort. Believe that you will receive what you are seeking. Avoid double mindedness like “He loves me, He loves me not” and “He will do it, He will not do it”. We must be sure of what we hope for and what we do not see. We must believe that God is able to do what He promised.

4. Hear from the Holy Spirit.

We must realise that we cannot have success without the Holy Spirit. Even though we are redeemed, we must not ignore the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, Leader and Director. We must be led by Him and we must allow Him to direct and help us. That is His position. He is the Boss here on earth.

We need to hear from Him regarding how best to pray due to uniqueness in our individual makeups and circumstances. We also need to hear from Him regarding the length of time we, as individuals must put in to pull down His manifest presence.

5. Spend long hours in His presence

Spending time with God is vital. Jack might be instructed by the Holy Spirit to put in three hours a day or at midnight and Jill might be required to put in a total of five hours a day and three hours at midnight. Jesus prayed all night long and Paul and Silas got up and midnight to sing praises, and the glory of God manifested. God has not changed, so we need to hear from the Holy Spirit regarding how much time we need to spend with Him to be successful and effective in prayer. He enjoys our company in the place of prayer.

6. Pray at midnight

Midnight prayer has been overlooked by the Church and unfortunately, the Church lives in Ichabod meaning “the glory has departed.” The Church is experiencing no glory and power with too much talking. Talking is very good because Jesus and Paul were also great preachers and teachers, however, God never designed preaching to work in isolation or exclude power. Both Jesus and Paul also walked in the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we want to go back to the days of power, we must pay the price and pray at midnight. If Jesus, the Prince from heaven could pray all night long then we have no reason for excuses. Power comes with a price and Jesus Himself said that some demons will not leave except by prayer and fasting. He was talking to ministers and not the victims. However if a victim cannot find any minister that has paid the price and is fit and healthy enough to wait upon the Lord at midnight, He must embrace it. When the glory of God descends every other power must flee.

7. Keep away from sin

We must keep way from every form of evil and sin. God is pure and hates sin with a passion. If we want to remove prayer obstacles and hindrances, sin must be seen as an enemy and aggressively rejected.

8. Hidden sins

Hidden sin is a big enemy of faith and prayer. As I was writing this message, the Lord spoke to me and said “there are many sick people in the hospital who have faith – they have faith but they are in the hospital” and I asked “what is it Lord?” and He replied “unconscious sins”. Anyone can be a victim of unconscious sin even if we think we can’t fall. All we need is grace and more grace. Grace to know the laws of God, hear from the Holy Spirit and apply it.

Unconscious or hidden sins are sins committed without the awareness of the victim or slave of sin. This can militate and fight against us leaving us perplexed. If we are in this situation, nothing we do in prayer will seem to work. We get perplexed because we know we have faith, yet our faith is not working and our prayers are not answered. All we need is to always ask the Holy Spirit to reveal hidden sins and hindrances to our minds and consciousness. The major cause of hidden sin is lack of knowledge of God’s law. This can make you believe that something that is a sin, for instance, being unequally yoked and intimate with an idol worshipper is not a sin and it can also make you believe that something that is not a sin is a sin. An example is when you follow human commandments like “do not eat bread every Friday.” You end up upholding human laws and rejecting God’s laws. David said “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

9. Petition

We must lovingly, joyfully and thankfully present our prayers, petitions, requests and supplications to God. Our prayers go up as incense before the throne of grace and God eagerly waits for us to open our mouths.

Ask and you shall receive. – Matthew 7:7

You receive not because you ask not. James 4:2

Petition is a vital part of prayer. We must combine all the elements of prayer and make sure our love, worship and thanksgiving precedes our prayer.

10. Follow God’s plan for your life

Not following God’s plan for our lives can be a big hurdle and an obstacle to answered prayer. If God wants you to be an evangelist and you are a doctor, this will definitely limit and reduce your Christian experience. Complete victory will seem very elusive and the glory of God will be hindered from fully descending upon you.

11. Read the Bible

When waiting upon the Lord, it is essential to read the Bible and meditate on the word of God. This attracts the presence of God more than you can imagine. The word of God is Spirit and Life and it brings the life giving Spirit.