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Many people ask me how they can get closer to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit can show you ways to get closer but these are a few things I was doing the very first time I got close to Jesus!
This was when I was just from the world and got born again, at the very beginning.
1.The first step was a deep hunger I had to get closer to Jesus. Without the hunger, you will feel lazy to pray. So whenever am praying, I would tell The Lord,"help me to lose consciousness of time and everything else,let me just be lost in Your presence. "
I then noticed that my prayers became really long,not on purpose, but just naturally because I would be so lost in prayer I would think I had only prayed for a short time and yet hours had passed.
This came with me surrendering my time to Jesus.
I would just suspend everything else I had for the day, and not care if I had to do those other things late because of prayer.I managed to do this because I wasn't working at this time,but if you are working you can still spend enough time with Jesus when you are off,and in the night.
2.MIDNIGHT PRAYER
I started waking up to pray everyday at midnight, no matter how tired I was,I would still fulfill my commitment. I was doing this with my sister and brother.
There were times our evening prayer would be prolonged such that we went to bed 30 minutes before midnight. Even then,we would still wakeup at midnight and pray again.
And all of my prayers, wether midnight or during the day,I'd just lose myself and pray till am really really done,just pouring my heart to God and receiving His love.
3.OBEDIENCE
In order to get close to Him,Jesus really really taught my sister and I how important obedience is to Him!
And He greatly tested us in obedience.
As long as Jesus told me to do something, it wasn't optional for me,I had to do it,I couldn't disobey no matter how embarrassing or how difficult.
And the Lord greatly tested Zipporah and I to see how obedient we could be to Him.
Jesus asked my sister and I to do some difficult things,to see if we would obey.
He tested us so many times.
For example, our spiritual eyes had just opened and whenever we prayed, demons would fiercely attack us trying to intimidate us from praying.
But Jesus said, "Turn off the light,keep your eyes closed,and don't open them no matter how much the demons attack you.Pray in the dark.I want you to trust that I can protect you."
Then other times,just when we are getting ready for bed after a long day of prayer and fasting, The Lord would say,"I want you to kneel down and pray with hands lifted up.Don't stop praying till I tell you to.And do not stand up or sit,just kneel,and don't put your hands down till I tell you to."
And many times, The Lord would only tell us to stop at 5 in the morning! And we had to obey Him no matter what.
There were times my arms would feel so heavy I wanted to put them down,but I couldn't because I had to obey.
He told us,"Am doing this to teach you obedience, and to teach you how to pray because there are terrible times coming upon the earth, I want you to learn to pray."
Obedience is really really important to the Lord.
You can't get close to Him if you still want to be disobedient.
No matter how hard,if The Lord said it we had to obey!
But I must add that though He made us do these difficult things, He was always there,helping us obey.
Like onetime I got so tired lifting up my hands in prayer all night,I told the Lord, "am so tired," and He said He would give me strength, and immediately I felt so revived and I was able to endure.
He's faithful, you just have to be willing and He will help you.
The longest the Lord made us pray was 18 hours straight.
I had already shared about this one.
I was outside our house with Zipporah and Jesus said,"I want you to pray right now" and The Lord just gave us one prayer point.
So we thought it would be a short prayer and then we could go and have breakfast.
But when we were done with that prayer point, He told us,pray about this as well,and this.
In the end, we had prayed for a really long time,and Jesus finally told us,"start praying for everyone you know, pray for their salvation. Pray for the whole world and don't stop till I tell you,and do not go back in the house till I tell you."
We ended up praying for hours.At one point I was worn out,I felt Jesus'hand at my back,He touched me softly at my back, then said to me,"pray a little more."
Suddenly I had new strength to pray.
My dad came home and found us just praying from outside, he asked why we wouldn't go in,we just told him that we would go in later.
But Jesus didn't tell us to stop and go inside the house and it was late in the night,my mom and dad were now wondering what was happening to us coz we hadn't explained everything to them, we just kept telling them we would go in.
Jesus wanted us to be obedient to Him no matter what.
We were weary,hungry,thirsty,and just tired and just wanted to go in the house and refresh,but that would be disobeying Jesus coz He said, "don't go in till I tell you."
We tried talking Jesus into letting us go in.
I told Him,"Jesus,pleeeeasee!we are so hungry and thirsty, can we go in?Jesus looked at Me and shook His head,"No"
It was midnight and we were still outside the house! I was getting desperate to get in.
I said to Jesus,"Jesus,am so tired, can we go in now?!" Jesus said, "No"
I was desperate, worn out and I told Him,"Jesus,why?why are you doing this to us?"
He said,"to teach you obedience."
I said,"Lord,but You never did this to this and this person (mentioning names of people whom I knew had been greatly used by The Lord).
But The Lord just answered me,"You are not that person (mentioning the names I had mentioned to Him)!
And I said,"but why are you only doing this to us? I have never heard of any prophet you did this to,ever!"
Jesus said, "have you read the things I made The prophet Ezekiel do?"
The Lord had made us start praying at 9 am,before I had taken a bath,before I had my breakfast, and I wasn't even feeling well this day,and this was now past midnight!
And I said,"Lord, I just can't take this anymore!If you are going to keep us here then am taking a walk alone in the road and I don't care if am attacked or whatever happens to me!"I was saying anything just to get Him to say,"okay,you can go in" but He didn't.
The Lord just told me,"you are just making it worse by doing this because you will make Me extend the time of releasing you.Complaining doesn't help,just sit down and obey."
So I decided to obey Him regardless of how I was feeling.
I just sat down quietly and at 3 am,The Lord told us,"You can go in and rest, but don't eat,continue fasting till morning, just drink water"
That's how important obedience is to Jesus!
But the Lord started manifesting Himself in our lives,and in everything concerning us no matter how small.
Another thing I did was never to allow anything to be above Jesus in my life.
I used to be addicted to the internet, but I deliberately broke my phone and didn't even care.
As long as I had Jesus,that was enough.
I involved Jesus in every part of my life.
When you take a step closer to Jesus, He ll take a step closer to you.
He relates to us,as we do to Him.
One night we were praying and Satan sent some demons to attack us,as soon as they reached our house, Jesus showed up and He rebuked them, "how dare you try to touch My beloved?!My very own!"
And they fled.
One day I was worshipping the Lord and dancing!
I had put worship music on and I was just lost in the presence of God.I was rejoicing and dancing. And I shouted,"Jesus come and dance with me!"
Immediately I said that,I saw the Lord's hand made of glorious white light,and He held my hand as I was dancing for Him!
Am sharing this so that you know that if we set our hearts to seek Jesus,it is possible to find Him!
All of this happened at the very beginning of my walk with Jesus.
I had no prior spiritual experiences,but I just started seeking Him and Jesus did get involved in my everyday life.
And Jesus wants everyone of His children to draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.
Another thing I forgot to mention was that I was also spending much time reading the bible.
When I started seeking the Lord like this,all the secular music I knew just vanished from my memory! I couldn't remember them. And all longing for secular movies vanished!
We should not be satisfied being distant from Jesus when He has called us into great intimacy.
I want to get closer to Him,you should too.
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