Inviting God into one's situation means involving His thoughts, heart, goodness, wisdom, ability, power and grace to take charge. When one involves God, they listen rather than talk, lean on His unlimited knowledge rather than their own, and see God-results as God takes over. Effective prayer involves rather than just informs God.

1. "when you are involving God, you are simply inviting His thoughts,
His Heart, His goodness, His wisdom, His ability, His Power and His
amazing grace to take charge of your situation"
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E L I S H A S I M U S H I
MOVINGFROM'JUST
INFORMINGGOD'TO
'INVOLVINGGOD'
AN EXCERPT FROM 'PASTOR E SERMONS' OF GRACE
OVERFLOW CHURCH OF LOVE
AN EASY GUIDE TO AN EFFECTIVE PRAYER LIFE 1ST
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2. Shall we pray? " Lord we thank you that the entrance of
your Word gives light and in your Light we see light. As
we turn to your Word today, minister to us in a fresh
way by your Spirit. May your Word be proclaimed with
clarity and simplicity for the profiting of us all. In the
name of Jesus, the very reason we pray, amen.’’.
I decided to start our sermon today with a prayer,
knowing pretty well that our subject revolves around
our communication and communion with God. And just
like the title suggests, prayer is not just informing God
but involving God. The difference between informing
God and involving God is too huge for us to ignore.
Informing God is about you doing the talking while
involving God is about you doing the listening. When
you are involving God you are simply inviting His
thoughts, His Heart, His goodness, His wisdom, His
ability, His Power and His amazing grace to take charge
of your situation. Informing God is leaning towards your
own little knowledge while involving God is leaning
towards His unlimited knowledge. God’s Word
encourages us to do the later when is says in Proverbs
3:5-6 "Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not
on your own understanding’’. When you involve God,
there is no way your life can be the same because
involving God will always produce ‘God-Results’.
In 1st Samuel 30:1-8, there is a story that has many
lessons in it.
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3. Let’s turn to the passage. It reads
"Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the
third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against
the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome
Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the
women and all who were in it, both small and great.
They killed no one, but carried them off and went
their way. And when David and his men came to the
city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives
and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David
and the people who were with him raised their
voices and wept until they had no more strength to
weep. David's two wives also had been taken
captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow
of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly
distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him,
because all the people were bitter in soul, each for
his sons and daughters. But David strengthened
himself in the LORD his God. And David said to
Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me
the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
1Sa 30:8 And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I
pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He
answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake
and shall surely rescue.”’’
What David does in this Historical event is mind
blowing. Try to picture yourself in his shoes. Your
family has been captured by your enemies who
have also burnt your home with fire. What would
you do as a leader?
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4. When you think about it, this is your family we are
talking about. Why waste any time. The first thing
I would do is run after my enemies like crazy and
pursue them by all means. This seems like an
obvious response right? But David did not do that.
He wanted to consult God on an issue that looked
‘straight forward’. "Consult God?’’. "Come on
David, this is your family we are talking about’’.
"Instead of hitting the road you want to consult
God whether you should pursue or not?’’ "Hey
David, have you lost your mind?’’. Looking at what
David was doing from afar might seem crazy but
there is rich wisdom in his actions of which you
and I can also receive as we understand his godly
reasoning. David was simply involving God in his
situation. Most people in David’s situation would
have panicked, quickly hit the road and on their
way be praying prayers like "God give me power to
overcome my enemy today.’’ The first mistake we
usually make is not involving God in our daily
decisions. We only remember Him when things go
wrong. 1st Corinthians 1:30 lets us know that
Christ has been made our wisdom hence we can
never make wise decisions away from Christ.
I have a good friend at my place of work from
whom I learnt something important. Years back
whenever she needed help with her work, she
would ask some few people in the office to help
her and when she could not get the help she
needed, she would eventually come to me saying
‘’Elisha, I need your help. You are my last hope. If
you do not help me, no one will.’’
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5. This happened about three times until one day I
objected asking her ‘’Why is it that I am always
your last hope? Can’t I be at least your third hope;
or second hope if you don’t mind; how about being
your first hope if that is not too much to ask?’’ The
interesting thing is that she got it. The next time
she had a challenge, she came straight to me saying
‘’ Elisha, You are my first hope. Will you help me?’’
And of course I was glad to help. I used this
example to show how many times we make God our
last hope. After we have tried everything we could
try with our own efforts and everyone we could
find in our own reach and when things fail, that is
when we remember ‘’ Oh! How about God?’’. We
make God our last hope instead of our first hope. I
am not saying that He will not help but all am
saying is that there is a lot of mess we would have
avoided by simply making Him first. And guess
what? , when you make God your first hope, you
will discover that He will end up being your only
hope because there will be no need of any other
hope.
Now, at this point someone might ask ‘’ Pastor E,
are we still talking about prayer?’’ Yes we are my
dear. Quality decisions come from our communion
with God in prayer and as we involve Him we
display our dependency on Him. The best decisions
I have made (including marrying Ruth) came from
my communion with God in prayer.
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6. I heard someone say ‘’ When you have a big problem
and you do not know what to do, run to Jesus’’ But I
think this statement does not represent the teaching
of the gospel. The truth is that when you do not
know what to do, run to Jesus and when you know
what to do still run to Jesus( Except that you don’t
have to run because He is in you) . A healthy prayer
life is one that shows total dependency on God
regardless of what we know. In 1st Corinthians 2:2
Paul confidently declared " ...for I determined to
know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified’’." But wait a minute Paul, you are an
expert at making tents and you also know so much
about The Law ". Paul forsook all knowledge in order
to uphold the knowledge of Christ and Him
crucified. Christ was his only hope. This should be
your attitude in prayer. Sometime we come to God
asking whether we should do ‘A’ or ‘B’, and yet what
is in God’s heart is ‘M’, far away from your line of
thought. A long time ago, whenever I had a problem
I would ask God while panicking " what should I
do?’’. One day God corrected me by saying ‘’ Elisha,
the problem is that you think the solution to every
problem lies in what you do. For this problem, I want
you to do nothing but just meditate on what I have
already done in my perfect work.’’ This changed my
theology and for sure the problem was solved
without me doing anything in my own effort.
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7. Effective prayer does not just inform God but also
involves God, and whenever you involve God you
involve His thoughts, His Heart, His goodness, His
wisdom, His ability, His Power and His amazing
grace. Your life can never be the same again. Do
you receive this word? Shall we pray.
"Dad, we refuse to be captains of our own Ship and
masters of our lives. We choose to involve you
today in all our affairs. Like David did, a man after
your own heart, we allow Jesus our wisdom to
happen to us. We forsake our own thoughts and ask
you to teach us, guide us, correct us, warn us, move
us and fill us with the knowledge of Christ. We have
made many mistakes in so many ways but you have
forgiven us of all our sins in Only One True Way
and That Way being Christ Jesus. Today we come to
you because you are our only Hope. Thank you for
being interested in our daily affairs. In the name of
Jesus Christ, the reason for this prayer. Amen’’
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8. WHO IS
PASTOR E ?
Pastor Elisha Simushi simply called 'Pastor E' is the Lead Pastor of Grace Overflow
Church of Love in the beautiful City of Livingstone located in the African nation of
Zambia. Pastor Elisha is Married to Ruth Monica and they both have a son Raphael Melek
Simushi born 24th January 2018. Pastor E grew up in a christian Family is a son to a
Reverend. His turning point was when he encountered grace through the teachings of
Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church in Singapore.
Pastor Elisha does not labour in love alone but has a team of dedicated leaders and
members from Grace Overflow Church of Love who have partnered by God's grace to
proclaim the unconditional Love of God in Christ by unveiling the mystries of the gospel.
You can find out more about Pastor E using the following links
https://www.facebook.com/pastorelishasimushi/
graceoverflowchurch@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/wherejesushappens/
pastorelishasimushi@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/Grace-Overflow-Church-of-Love-1739966009561868/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSnibyna9pxceSkp1O204og
Copyright 2018
Pastor E sermons