Many strive to force open heaven through effort, yet the door stands open through Christ — a visual reminder that effective prayer begins with what Jesus has already accomplished.

Spread the love

I spent many years in powerless, ineffective prayer before I began living a life of miracles. God gave me a vision that pointed to Biblical truth, revealing why many sincere prayers are fruitless—because they are not grounded in the finished work of Jesus. This vision helped me understand why some prayers feel sincere yet produce little visible result.

Why Some Prayers Are Ineffective

Some Christians pray sincerely but still experience ineffective prayer, rarely seeing clear answers. This often happens when prayer is not based on what Jesus has already accomplished through the gospel.

How The Gospel Becomes Weakened In Practice

An inoculation contains a dead or weakened version of a virus, and it’s designed to make us resistant to the real thing. Satan, the father of lies, works to undermine and weaken our understanding of the gospel until we become resistant to it.

Romans 1:16 (NIV): For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Double-mindedness in Prayer: The Prayer of Faith vs. The Prayer of Unbelief

Prayer that denies the gospel denies God’s power. The Bible does not teach that prayer in itself has power. What kind of prayer are we talking about? The prayer of faith, or the prayer of unbelief?

James 1:6-8 (NIV) But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Double-mindedness concerning the gospel in our prayers keeps us from receiving from God. This kind of double-mindedness happens when we acknowledge the gospel in words but pray as if its promises have not yet been fulfilled.

How Powerless Prayer Reveals Hidden Unbelief

Present Access To Heaven brings light to some of the ways Christians mentally acknowledge Jesus’ death, resurrection, and incarnation, yet speak and act as if Jesus never died for our sins, rose from the dead, or came in the flesh. Even many Christian worship songs promote unbelief and powerlessness rather than the gospel message!

This kind of gospel dilution—where truth is affirmed intellectually but denied in practice—is one of the central reasons meaningful church reform is so necessary today.

When Results Don’t Match The Gospel

The gospel is meant to bring us into a present experience of heaven, so that Jesus’ power and love are incarnated in us. If we lack the power and heavenly experience the gospel is meant to produce (including the peace, joy, and love found in heaven), we should consider how our understanding of the gospel may have been undermined.

Why Prayer Can Feel Frustrating

There was a time when I conducted an in-depth study of prayer and spent many hours praying, yet I felt frustrated with the results. I had never laid my hands on anybody and seen them healed. Yet I believed in miracles, because the Bible taught about them and I myself had been healed.

Then I got sick and experienced divine healing. This was how God showed me that he had always wanted to do these miracles in my life and through me for others, but there were some things I needed to understand. I became convinced it is always God’s will to heal people, as much as it is to forgive their sins. That was when the miracles began. Yet my understanding was still growing.

When Effort In Prayer Still Produces Few Results

I had a vision highlighting beliefs that had hindered me from experiencing God’s power in my life. I realized I had unintentionally denied fundamental gospel truths for many years. No wonder I had been so frustrated!

Similarly, I realized that many other people were continuing to unknowingly deny the gospel. This was why they were not presently experiencing heaven’s reality, made possible by believing the gospel truth. It was why they felt spiritually poor.  I saw the need to hold fast to the truth of the gospel and tear down these “proud arguments” that are raised against the knowledge of the Lord.

I didn’t see this vision with my physical eyes, but it came as a clear picture in my mind. It highlighted important scriptural truths to help believers pray effectively.

The Moment That Led To The Vision About Ineffective Prayer

I had this experience while visiting a church in Kwara State. They had asked me to share with the congregation. I came down with a cold and sore throat a few days before I arrived.

I was going to speak on healing and miracles, but I was sick! Yet I knew it was God’s will that I be healed, and that whatever I felt physically did not change the reality of his word.

I decided to stand firm, knowing the Lord wanted to bless these people in Kwara. I was confident that no matter how I felt, people would be healed if I laid hands on them. By the time I arrived in Kwara, I had just recovered from the cold. I was no longer sick, but my throat still felt dry and scratchy.

On Sunday morning, I still wasn’t sure exactly what to speak, so I sat down for a while with my Bible to pray and to ask God for the message that would benefit the congregation. That was when I saw this picture.

They Were Banging On The Wall In Prayer — But The Door Was Open

Begging God to Do What He Already Did Is Frustrating And Futile

In the vision, I saw a big wall. Many people were praying and fasting, and banging their fists on this wall. They were crying out, “Oh God, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1.)

They were working very hard, endlessly begging and pleading for God to open the heavens and send revival. They were asking God to come to them with a mighty visitation and grant them authority over the enemy’s works.

Some of them had a large tree trunk that they were using as a battering ram, attempting to break through the wall. The harder they prayed, the more frustrated they became because their approach was flawed.

Yet right beside these people was an open door in the wall. They were trying to break through the wall, but seemed blind to the door, which they could simply walk through.

Those Who Saw The Door Entered Easily And Saw Prayer Answered Quickly

Only a few people saw the door, and they walked in easily. They were full of joy, and their faces were radiant. Miracles were happening all around them.

They were also praying unceasingly. However, their prayers were answered quickly, before they could even close their mouths from forming the words. The reason they were constantly praying was that they knew they had what they asked of the Father.

They were continually asking and receiving from the Father, and exercising dominion over sickness and the works of the enemy. They had a fullness of joy that was evident as they asked and received.

1 John 5:14-15 (NRSV) And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.

Isaiah 65:24 (NRSV) Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

These verses describe my experience in the years after that conference. I was frustrated with ineffective prayer in my earlier years in ministry, but now I was seeing answers before I even finished praying. I was overwhelmed again and again by God’s goodness and generosity.

John 16:24 (NKJV) Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

What The Vision Revealed About Ineffective Prayer

I understood that the place the people were trying to enter was the true Most Holy Place, as described in Hebrews 9 and 10. This is an example of how Scripture shapes the way I interpret visions. As we saw in chapter one, this Holiest Place is heaven itself. (Hebrews 9:24)

The door is Jesus’ body, which was torn for us so that we could come to the Father. It corresponds to the veil that covered the Holiest Place, which the book of Hebrews teaches was Jesus’ body. (Hebrews 10:20)

Why Our Efforts Cannot Open the Way to God

The first group was frustrated because they were trying to enter God’s presence through prayer rather than through Christ. This explained why their prayers remained ineffective despite great effort.

They were working harder in prayer, but their approach ignored what Jesus had already accomplished. They were never going to get through the wall that way, because the only way to enter the Holiest Place is through the curtain that was torn—Jesus’ body.

He is the only way to the Father. Jesus’ work, not the intensity of our prayers, gives us access to God.

John 14:6 (NRSV) Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I saw that in their approach to prayer, they were denying that Jesus came in the flesh, denying that a sacrifice for sin had been made, and denying the resurrection from the dead. They didn’t realize what they were saying, nor did they comprehend the reason everything was difficult and ineffective.

Prayer From Inside The Door, Not Outside

The few who entered through the door were living in heaven while on earth. They didn’t pray in order to get into the Holiest Place. They prayed because they were already in God’s presence, in heaven, and had entered through Christ.

Prayer itself is not the way into God’s presence. Jesus’ sacrifice is. Powerful prayer is not an attempt to reach God, but it is from the position of having already entered the Holiest Place through Jesus’ work on the cross.

We do not gain access to God through prayer. We pray because we have been given access to God in Christ.

Going From Ineffective Prayer to Powerful Prayer

I had often been in the first category of intercessors. I knew what it was like to pound on a wall day and night, asking God to open the heavens and send revival.

I remember the frustration of exhausting myself with ineffective prayer. I was praying constantly, yet I saw little power. Why? Did I just need to try harder?

I read many stories of miracles and revival in other times and places, but wondered why I didn’t experience the same in my life. I remember thinking I needed to use the battering ram of prayer until I could get a breakthrough and experience revival, yet the breakthrough never came.

In the vision, the second group of believers demonstrated what I had come to experience in the last few years. It became natural to pray all the time because prayers were constantly being answered. Prayers were answered before I prayed them. I would just think a thought, and miracles would happen.

It was glorious! I was already in heaven, and it was so much easier than before.

Why This Vision Matters For Effective Prayer

This vision revealed that ineffective prayer is not caused by a lack of effort, but by a misunderstanding of the gospel. Many sincere believers pray as if access to God must still be forced open, rather than received through Christ.

When prayer is based on effort rather than on the finished work of Jesus, frustration naturally follows. But when prayer begins from the reality that the door is already open, confidence replaces struggle, and faith replaces uncertainty.

Understanding this difference can transform ineffective prayer into a confident partnership with God. Instead of pounding on a wall, we can walk through the door that Jesus has already opened.