HOW I LEARNED HOW TO PRAY
The disciples of Jesus asked their master; ‘Teach us how to pray like John the Baptist did to his disciples,’ and the good Lord did.
But there came the Pentecostal who believe and also taught that it is the duty of the Holy Ghost alone to teach all things. That became a big challenge to Pastor Adeboye when he became a born again Christian and was told severally that his total victory lies in the instrumentality of an effective prayer life. So one day after the service the then general overseer of RCCG, Pa Josiah Akindayomi, had instructed that immediately after the sermon members should not rush for home but stay behind to pray down the sermon of the day into their spirit.
As a mark of respect, Adeboye, then a lecturer at University of Lagos, decided to wait behind and pray. But to his surprise he could only spend just three minutes to mutter out a few words of prayer: “Lord, you know the problem that brought me into this place, solve my problems for me, and I will serve you.” He kept repeating the same statement, and crowned them all with an, “Amen.” He turned and looked around to see others neck deep in prayers, then he taught, “These people’s problems must be very big that they pray with such passion and length of time. And because he didn’t want to be the first to leave the hall, he turned to the wall again, and repeated the same statements; looked back, and found that others were even a warm up stage.
Then came another Sunday, and he decided, “Today, I will sit close to that brother who prayed so keenly and for hours; I want to hear what he says while praying.” So he drew near find out that for over 10 minutes, the brother was just thanking God: “Father, you are so good…” and he repeated after him, without the other knowing what was going on. “You are higher than the highest,” said the brother, “you are higher than the highest,” Adeboye re-echoed. It went on and on, Sunday after Sunday until the man mastered the secrets of an effective prayer life.
Today, Pastor Adeboye prays more than any minister, with his routine prayer walk round the expanse of the Redemption nightly.
