Our Weapon of Prayer

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Wake Up and Stand Strong – Part 2 – Ray E Horton

Now is the time for prayer and consecration, standing up in His authority. No more complacency!  The ways of God are so much more glorious than the ways of the world.  He has given us everything we need for life and godliness.  We know the back of the book – We Win!

Praying in the Spirit as well as with our understanding is a key spiritual weapon, since the Spirit knows to pray for things of which we are unaware. There have been times when the Lord has awakened me to pray in the middle of the night, and only given me the name of a nation or a person.  I’d pray in the spirit until sensing release, then hear in the news the next day something related to that for which I prayed.

We must learn to be sensitive to hear and to be obedient to the Lord’s voice

We can all do that, and it’s a mighty tool in the hands of the Lord.  But we must learn to be sensitive to hear and to be obedient to the Lord’s voice.  In faith we must say “yes, that must be you Lord,” when woken or prompted, and then be willing to take the time to pray.  It may be a bit of a sacrifice to lose some sleep, or to stop what we are doing to pray, but it is very rewarding.

As we focus on Jesus, filled with the Spirit, wearing the full armor of God, maintaining that shield of faith, praying always, using our sword, and speaking with authority the Word of God, we can address the evil in the world

I remember a time when the Lord revealed a need to pray for a family, which I and others did in a rather perfunctory way, rather than earnestly.  Unfortunately, they had a great tragedy two weeks later.  Could that tragedy have been averted by more earnest prayer?  I don’t know, but I regretted not taking that prompting more seriously for a long time.  It wasn’t our fault that the enemy had his way.  Lots of factors were involved.  We are still learning.  But we must believe the great power the Lord has delegated to us in prayer and do much more of it.

To the degree that we are at that point in our faith walk, we should be praying continually, being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.  That’s a part of our growth in knowing our Lord and developing our intimate relationship with Him.  That develops over time as we hunger for that deeper relationship with Him, and our prayer language plays an important part. But then, we must be sensitive to calls for specific prayer as well.

We need to stand up in our spirits and let the Holy Spirit live big is us.  We know that Jesus won the battle, and we have the victory.  But the Bible does indeed call Satan “the god of this world” who “has blinded the minds of the unbelieving’” (2 Cor. 4:4).  What are they blinded to?  Verse 4 continues, “to the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.”  We are called to overcome that blindness in the world by shining forth the light of Christ and sharing the Gospel.  We have nothing to fear since we have the spiritual weapons needed to deal with the enemy.

Our Spiritual Weapons

The Bible tells us in Eph. 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So, what do we do?  Verse 13 tells us:  “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”  We stand with the following tools, “truth,” “righteousness,” “the gospel of peace,” “salvation,” with “faith” as our “shield,” and the “Word of God” as our offensive weapon, “the sword of the Spirit” (vs. 14-17).  And what else: “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 Lord’s people” (vs. 18).

Our focus needs to always be on Jesus, and not the works of darkness.  As we focus on Jesus, filled with the Spirit, wearing the full armor of God, maintaining that shield of faith, praying always, using our sword, and speaking with authority the Word of God, we can address the evil in the world.  We must use these tools pre-emptively to stop the lies of the enemy from succeeding in influencing and motivating evil-minded people.

If we only react in prayer, we are too late to do anything but help clear up the mess after disaster and terror strikes.  We can sit back and let the world be ripped apart, or we can love the world, as Jesus does, and do our part.