Spiritual Warfare, part 4.1

This past Sunday at Lifepointe Church in Carmel, IN, I continued in our “Armor All” series on spiritual warfare. I intended the message to be the fourth and final message but I only made it part way through the text so I will complete the message next week.

PRAYER - THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

In Eph 6:10-20 the apostle Paul presents seven essentials to victory in spiritual warfare. Last week we studied six of them: truth, righteousness, salvation, faith, the word of God, and the gospel. The final, and I believe ultimate weapon, is that of prayer.

It is important to notice that ‘warfare prayer’ is a weapon that is used AFTER you have ‘put on the full armor of God.’ The armor is a representation of Jesus Himself. The armor is a description of Him: He is the Truth, He is our Righteousness, He is our Salvation, He is the object of our Faith, He is the Word of God incarnate, Jesus person and work is the Gospel. It is after you are securely ‘in Christ’ that you become dangerous as a prayer warrior.

Jesus once took his closest disciples onto a high mountain, referred to in this context as ‘the mount of transfiguration.’ Upon descending the mountain, Jesus and his inner circle discovered the other disciples frustrated at their inability to deal with a demonic spirit that was causing a young child to have epileptic like symptoms as well as tossing him into open flames. Jesus responded later, “this type only comes out by prayer.”

You will probably not be involved in casting out demons in your daily Christian life but the principle applies: prayer is essential to defeating the devil.

So let’s see what the apostle teaches about prayer in our key text, Eph 6:18-20.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

See that there are seven aspects of warfare prayer (in red). I want to explore the first three with you now - and the last four next week.

WARFARE PRAYER requires that you:

PRAY IN THE SPIRIT
PRAY ON ALL OCCASIONS
PRAY ALL KINDS OF PRAYER

PRAY IN THE SPIRIT

Every true follower of Christ is indwelled by the Holy Spirit but not every Christ-follow is living a Spirit-filled life. In fact, in this same book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells you to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). That means that you must daily yield your life to the Lord and allow His Spirit to fill and lead your life.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can become mighty in prayer!

Jesus promises that He will fill you with His Holy Spirit if you will just ask.

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" - Luke 11:9-13

Why not stop now and ask the Lord to fill you afresh with His Holy Spirit?

Being filled with the Holy Spirit allows you to tap into the powerful reality of Spirit-led prayer. And Spirit-assisted prayer. Here is how it is described in the Bible.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. - Rom 8:26-27

You have probably had experiences where you really had no idea how you should pray. The situation was so confusing, or scary, or emotionally charged, or in some way not totally understood that you had no confidence in how to pray. One answer is to just tell the Holy Spirit that you don’t know how to pray for this situation and ask Him to pray for you. You can just rest quietly, thankfully, assured that the Spirit is interceding for you.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will give you leadership in how to pray. He will call to your mind and spirit some direction in prayer. When you follow His lead, He will often take you to some prayer destinations that you may have never visited on your own.

ON ALL OCCASIONS

Did you notice this phrase, “on all occasions?” It answers a very basic question, “is this the right occasion in which to pray?” The answer is always yes!

ALL KINDS OF PRAYERS

The Bible is full of prayers. The most common kinds of prayers are prayers of praise, confession, repentance, thanksgiving, request, and intercession. Someone has used the acrostic A-C-T-S to help you remember a simple prayer pattern.

A - Adoration (praise)
C - Confession
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplication (asking)

Jesus also gave us a prayer pattern. It is usually known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” You may have it memorized and have almost certainly heard it read or repeated in worship.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matt 6:9-13

This prayer pattern is extremely significant. First, Jesus Himself told us to “pray in this way.” Second, it is an all encompassing pattern. Third, it goes to the key issues in spiritual warfare. The key is to use this prayer as a pattern, a subject guide rather than as words to quote (though quoting the prayer has its own meaning). Here is the pattern:

1. Praise
2. Pray for the agenda of God’s Kingdom, God’s will to be made manifest.
3. Ask for daily provisions - the practical needs of life.
4. Deal with forgiveness issues - getting your own - giving it as necessary.
5. Ask for strength to turn away from temptation.
6. Ask for protection from evil.
7. Affirm the greatness and eternal nature of God and His Kingdom.

One thought on this warfare prayer pattern. Dealing with forgiveness issues is often at the crux of spiritual warfare. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and bitterness destroys faith and fellowship.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Heb 12:14-15

Further, immediately following ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in Matthew 6 is these sobering verses: For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matt 6:14-15.

Forgiveness is essential. You must know that God has forgiven you. You must do the hard work of forgiving others. Without forgiveness, you will remain stranded spiritually, emotionally and relationally. Forgiveness is at the core of Christianity.

Here is great news, you can be completely forgiven!

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9