Ephesians 6:18-20
Prayer
Ephesians 6:18-20. “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. 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, for which I am an ambassador
in chains. Pray that I may declare it
fearlessly, as I should.”
Prayer is a weapon, and intercessory prayer even more so. Jesus outlines a basic prayer outline on how
we should pray in Matthew 6:9-15. Each
point mentioned is something we should include in our daily prayers to God, in
our own words, not repeated word for word vain repetition. When I say prayer is a weapon, quite
literally, prayer has the ability to pull down all the firepower of the Lord
that we need to help us, no matter what our situation. [If you doubt that, you need to read “Of
Whom The World Was Not Worthy”, by Marie Chapian. It is a
story of powerful intercessory prayer in action the likes of which I dare say
almost none of us have seen or experienced.] The Psalms of David are full of such prayers
to the Lord God. Psalm 68:17, 20, “The
chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands [millions]…Our
God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.” Psalm 144:4-10, “Man is like a breath; his
days are like the fleeting shadow. Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies;
shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach
down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters,
from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands
are deceitful…I will sing a new song to you, O God…who delivers his servant
David from the deadly sword.”
In modern warfare, from World War II onward, air power has been used and
recognized as a very effective form of aerial artillery. David wrote many Psalms of calling out for the
Lord God to come to his rescue. In many
of our recent wars the U.S. Army would call for air support from the Air Force. Jet fighters, termed fast movers, would come screaming in at treetop level and drop a bomb-load on the enemy as
called in by a radio operator who would give the coordinates for the air
strike. His cries into his radio were a
form of intercessory prayer for deliverance from a very real enemy. Without that air support, in most cases, they
were as good as dead. As you saw in
Psalm 68, the Lord has thousands of thousands--millions--of flaming chariots,
angelically manned and at his immediate disposal, ready to deliver us at any
time of day or night. 2nd Corinthians
10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the
weapons of the world. On the contrary,
they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ.” One
final note. The Presbyterian Church in Soul, South Korea rings it's bells at five am every morning, calling faithful
believers to hours of intercessory prayer every day. They are praying that there would be at least
one Christian nation in this world by the time Jesus returns. South Korea now has 12 million
born-again Christians in a nation of 38 million people!!! That is intercessory prayer in action!
[For an interesting description of intercessory prayer turn back to the link
titled: "What Is Evangelism?" and go to the middle article titled: Evangelism
in Action! and read that article. You will come away
with a very clear understanding of moving intercessory prayer that will
accomplish things in your spiritual battles against the enemy. Be sure to order pastor Cymbala's book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, to continue your study about
intercessory prayer. Here are some
thoughts on why prayer--intercessory prayer--must accompany the preaching of
the gospel (as Paul brings out in Ephesians 6:18-20):
- One
third of all the created angels--now demons--are restricted to the planet
earth, where they can wander at will--where they control mankind and all
his governments and false religions (some even masquerading as Christian). Humans, next to the power of any angel,
fallen or otherwise, are nothing. These
guys probably blew up whole star systems, and even a planet on their way
back to being thrown to earth.
- Satan’s
deception over the world of humans is great. Revelation 12 says he has deceived the whole world! His control over man’s
governments and religions--unseen--is great, not weak.
- Satan
broadcasts his evil attitudes into the world. Galatians 5:19-21 describes these
attitudes.
One
good book which shows a prayer warrior in action is “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by pastor Jim Cymbala.
Another is Of Whom the World Was Not Worthyby Marie Chapian (published by BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS, 6820 Auto
Club Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438. ISBN#
0-87123-417-3. Both of these books are available at: http://www.amazon.com
Also see https://unityinchrist.com/prayer/bibleway.htm
