It's Time to Patch the Holes in Our Bags

Many times we hear people asking why don't our prayers work.  Lately, the Lord has been teaching me more and more about getting stronger in my prayer time each night I pray.  The biggest thing we are wanting is the answers to or results of our prayers. The Lord has shown me so much, but this one I believe will give you a little insight.  Many may know it, but there are still some who just don't see it or think they are applying it when they actually aren’t.  I pray that your prayer time will change and you will begin to see those results that you're asking for will come to pass.
 
The Lord moved on me one evening during my prayer time and said "you need to patch the holes in your bags" and as always I replied "what do you mean by patching up holes in my bags?" Then God lead me to Haggai 1:6 "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that  earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."  Now, I know this scripture refers to money, but this principle can apply to other areas of life, too, but God had referenced this with my prayer life at that moment.  Now how can this apply into our prayer life?  I would like to break this scripture down and show you as the Lord had shown me.
 
"Ye have sown much" - The Lord said "I have sown plenty of petitions for the things that I needed from him just from simply following 1 Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." He showed me that when I take that bag of cares or my petitions and pour it out to him it leaves the bag empty. The bag became empty because I know that I needed God’s help.  The problem is sometimes I don't step back and wait for an answer that will answer my request.  Right then and there the bag begins to weaken and develops holes in it. I am not talking about the main hole but other holes that develop over a period of time.  It's like wearing a piece of clothing that you really like and only want to wear it on special occasions.  When we do this it can potentially draw moths and get holes eaten into it.  The same thing happens with our prayers.  We go and give a petition but we don't stick around to fill up our bag with the word of God.
 
Let’s look at another passage where Jesus speaks in a similar fashion in Luke 12:31-34 31) But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32)  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33) Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34)  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  This starts out by telling us just right where we need to go which is to the Father “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God” concerning our petition from verse 31. 
 
Now, verse 32 tells us in what kind of position we are to stand in which is to “Fear not”.  This is a place where we absolutely can’t let doubt in not now or ever.  It also tells us that our Father in heaven is ready to resolve any issue that you or I have in our life “for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom”. 
 
We need to understand that God’s kingdom is where the blessings are at.  It’s his word. Now, verse 33 says we have sown much in many areas, but do we need to sow elsewhere? We need to shift our time in prayer to stop and listen so we can reap the real harvest, or simply put, getting our prayers answered.  Some of us have done what God asked of us.  Some gave alms, have paid our tithes and did plenty of offerings, but we still haven't taken time to fill that bag back up.  What should we be filling that bag with?  The answer is "a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth" Notice the underline words.  It has to be filled with the treasures from the heavenly realm.  This also describes the type of bag we need as well "bags which wax not old" which means it should not have holes in it.
 
Now let’s take this a step deeper.  The word wax means sealed.  Remember centuries ago when the Kings or any other person with authority would send a letter and it would have melted wax on it and they would stamp it with their seal?  Well, our bag needs that same kind of seal and it needs God’s stamp on it. We can see why from the ending of this scripture which has an excellent ending to it and why we don't need those holes in the bags "where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." 
 
What I am really trying to say is each time we go to our Father, we can’t walk away from him before we get  answer.  Each time we walk away from him we have developed a hole in our bag.  It doesn't matter whether it’s one petition or many petitions. Each time we walk away before we obtain our answer an open door is given to the thief to make an approach against or simply has an avenue to stop our prayers.  This is done because we have not taken the time out to receive our victory scripture or passages that concerns our petitions. 
 
Now, verse 34 is all about that attitude again “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.  This scripture ministered to me about where my heart is during my prayer time.  This is just a great reminder of just how serious we need to be in our prayer life.  Why do I say this?  I have two options to choose from.  One, I can choose to leave early and not get an answer or a strategy to my petition, again this allows me to open the door to the enemy which places holes in my bag.  Secondly, I can choose to stay which  indicates that my heart is in a serious place and will stay until an answer is given to me to resolve my issue.
 
The next part of this verse says, "And bring in little" - The Lord said that "I bring in little because I haven't filled up that space in my bag with the word of God or I just simply assumed that some basic knowledge on a few scriptures I know is enough and that isn’t always enough to patch up the hole all the way."  Then God proceeded to tell me "this is like you putting your ways above my ways."  The truth is God didn't fill the bible up with so much for us to only fall back on a few basic scriptures.  God gave us this anointed book because there are many more scriptures we need and can depend on to resolve our situations. 
 
Now, the Lord also told me to go back and refer to this short passage out of Matthew 12:43-45 43) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44) Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
 
This passage may be about a person who was to be delivered and it was incomplete.  I’ll explain the incomplete part here in a minute.

What we see in this passage happens in our prayer time. How?  Take a look at what its saying.  When I go into prayer and say I want to be set free of something and then turn around and immediately walk away from the presence of God, I begin to walk into a place of entrapment or another way of putting it “I have set a trap before myself and I won’t get what I asked for”.
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Now, here is where I’ll explain the incomplete part.  That scripture said that the unclean spirit went out, but it came back because that place or hole was still there, and it had not been filled back up.  So, how did this person end up?  That person ended up in a worse state than before and by not filling up our bag with God’s word in prayer, our situations end up like this person.  
 
This is the same thing as us fooling ourselves by saying "I don't know where God was at because I don't see an answer to my prayers."  The reason we have this attitude is we have taken the liberty upon ourselves to walk away when we shouldn't have and it caused us to revert back to our original state of an unanswered prayer with starting all over with the same petition, but now adding even more petitions to clear up a bigger mess than what we already start out with. 
 
Now, this doesn't mean we are possessed with any demons as this scripture says; remember we are dealing with prayer and unanswered prayers.  What I am trying to point out is when we walk away our prayers may not get answered but our situation may even possibly get worse by stepping out on God too quickly.  I want to make it clear, if the basic scriptures works for you that’s a wonderful thing, but sometimes God needs us to go above and beyond the basics.  We just may come across a situation where the basics just might not work anymore and have to address it more specifically. 
 
Let’s put a scenario into play.  If I go and ask the Lord to heal me and don't stick around for an answer from him concerning about my healing my heart may not be serious about my healing and miss out on getting my healing, but now I could add more problems.  Such as not receiving my healing to begin with I may eventually have to pay more money out by seeing a doctor and possibly getting medication added to the expense. 
 
It could even be very contagious and spread to others just by simply not giving God time to answer me on how I need to get healed.  I will put it like this, we know what 1 Peter 2:24 says “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” God may want to tell us we’re allergic to something. 
 
See, if we take the basic approach or mind set of just using the phrase “we’re healed by his stripes” we may not get the revelation there is an allergic reaction from something that may be stopping our healing.  Doesn't this parallel with "and bring in little?" Can we see how there are some similarities within Haggai 1:6? Basically it tells us that it can happen in any area of our life.
 
"Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes"- Now what does all this say?  We can possibly entertain ourselves with just a little and not see real or full results.  Just as the Lord told me we’re asking him for things, but we’re not sticking around long enough to give him a chance to answer us. Our spirit will not be satisfied when we walk away too early. Again, the basics are powerful, but sometimes it takes more than just the basics.
 
If you go back and really look at it, the beginning of each phrase in this verse talks about having needs met in every area of life and the ending tells us our results that we are not receiving our answered prayers because we haven’t given God time to answer us in full, and basically, we haven't patched up our holes properly.  I am not implying that we didn't go to God for our answers in the first place, or even God hasn’t started given us an answer either.  We just need to make certain we stick around long enough to get the complete answer and not a partial answer.
 
I know there has been a few times when God has started to give me an answer and I said "Okay God, I got it now." and walked off and didn’t allow him to finish.  I am telling on myself at the moment, but it’s the truth.  The reason for it is because I ended up making my ways higher than God's ways.  This totally means I got an answer but I didn’t stick around long enough to see it work by simply by stepping out too quickly of God’s presence.  When this happens I have to now repent and ask for God’s forgiveness for stepping out so quickly.  Then I need to stick around a lot longer to hear all that he has to say.  When I do this I begin to see the real and full results that answers that I am looking for.  I think it’s time to properly patch some holes and get our real results in our prayers.

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