This website is designed for the Glory of God Prayer Group and is used to share their personal, individual and collective experiences in our relationship with our God, the God of the Christians. Therefore, you may not achieve any success, and it may even be detrimental to you if you try to imitate these experiences unless you wholeheartedly accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour. One or two examples will suffice to drive home this point.
When the church started and the disciples were bringing their property together and sharing, a gentleman called Ananias, and his wife decided to withhold some of the proceeds from the sale of their property and lie about it. Both of them were buried that day - Acts 5:1-11. They died because they were insincere. They pretended to serve God with all their hearts but did not, and God decided to use them as scapegoats. You may not necessarily be condemned to death, but you could still find yourself in a dire situation, if you do not whole-heartedly accept Jesus and whole-heartedly work for him. An example would be if you are purposely using the name of Jesus to make money.
The sons of Sceva who did not understand who Jesus was and did not understand the purpose of Jesus' name, and only seeing the name of Jesus as a name that could be used to work wonders and make a name for themselves had a day of their lives - Acts 19:11-20. “They said to the evil spirits, 'I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.”’- vs 14. “But the evil spirit said to them, ‘I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you-who are you?”’ – vs 15. “The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off.” – vs 16. Don’t forget there were seven men!
Besides, some of the promises that are made in the talks and articles, and the testimonies that are given are individual experiences that may not apply to everyone. Whether you have some of those experiences or not depend on three things: (1) the faith and anointing of the minister; (2) the faith of the one receiving the ministration and (3) the will of God.
(1) The faith and anointing of the minister.
When his disciples could not cast out a demon and asked him why, Jesus answered, “It was because you haven’t enough faith.” – Matthew 17:20.
(2) The faith of the one receiving the ministration
In the Mark parallel of the healing of the boy with the demon, Mark 9:14-29, the father concluded his request by saying, “Have pity on us and help us, if you possibly can!” Jesus replied, "if you yourself can! Everything is possible for the person who has faith.” vs 22-23. In Acts 14:8-18, where Paul healed the man who had been crippled from birth, we are told that, “Paul saw that he believed and could be healed.” That is how come Paul was able to heal him.
(3) The will of God.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, Paul tells of his experience where an angel of Satan was sent to torment him. He prayed to the Lord three times to take it away, but the reply of the Lord was, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
We also read from the book of Job how Satan was permitted to torment Job as a test of Job’s loyalty to God.
Some of these examples quoted above may make it look like there is uncertainty when dealing with God. However, we are certain of one thing: that whoever loves God and is faithful to him will not be disappointed. Even when God permits suffering in our (faithful Christians’) lives and we can still trust him and depend on him, even in that situation, he eventually makes us understand that even the pain we went through was for our good.