PRAYERS AND PRAYER-MEETINGS, PART 3

PRAYERS AND PRAYER-MEETINGS.

Part 3

I promised last time that I should write about spiritual warfare this time. I have been writing about the intimate relationship with our Father in heaven and with Jesus, our Savior. I have written that we could go to God with our personal needs. When we get together at prayer meetings, we might praise the Lord, but also pray for the needs of our country, our families and for our church. We should agree on the prayer request and be in one accord. James 5:16 says that effective, fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.

In the previous chapters about prayers, I mostly write about praying to God. Now I want to write about using our God-given authority to go against the devil. We are never praying to the devil, but we stand against him or attack him. We declare war against him. The Lord has called us to be a bride, but He has also called us to be soldiers. Many Christians prefer to be a bride. They might think that wars are unpleasant and lots of work.

Let us go back to The Old Testament. The Israelites should enter the land that was promised to them. Did they lay down and turned the enemies in the country over to the Lord? No, they had to fight. The Lord promised to be with them and He has the same promise for us today. We have been given the name of Jesus and we can use that as it was Jesus Himself. We can protect ourselves with the blood of Jesus and we can use the total armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18) We read in Colossians 2:15 that Jesus triumphed over the devil on the Cross and disarmed principalities and powers. In The Old Testament they fought a physical fight, but today we are battling in the spirit. We read in Ephesians 6 that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It might look as a paradox that Jesus triumphed over the devil and at the same time we are supposed to fight him. He has not been thrown into the pit of fire and it looks like he is more active than ever. He probably knows that his time is short.

I have been to prayer-meetings where people go around shouting in tongues, but nobody knows what we pray for. I think that when we enter a war, everybody should know whom and what we are fighting. I do not believe that we win if we shoot in all directions. The same principle goes for physical and spiritual warfare.

Before one enters a war, one makes thorough preparations. One doesn’t send sick soldiers into war, but strong and healthy ones. They have been trained to use the right weapons. They know how to hit the most vulnerable spots of the enemy. In a war you must have the right protection and the weapons have to be clean and well prepared.

Some Christians enter war without being prepared and they become very surprised when they receive counter-attacks. If you live in sin, that has to be dealt with before you enter warfare. You should ask for forgiveness, receive cleansing and healing for the consequences of sin. We must not be perfect, but should not have too big openings for the devil.

When I fight, I always cover myself with the blood of Jesus. I cover myself, my family, the people we deliver and all our belongings.

Some people are afraid of the devil. You really need to be delivered from a spirit of fear then. Paul is saying to Timothy that we haven’t received a spirit of fear. We cannot go against the devil when we are afraid. We must do it in faith. The devil knows if you attack him in fear or in faith. A fearful person is an easy pray for the devil.

When you go into war, you must know what the Lord has asked you to fight against. You must know your mandate. We should all of us go against the devil’s activities in our own life and that of our family. When it comes to bigger areas as a country or a city, one should be more than one person. What kind of strategy should you have? One should agree on that before one prays.

It is smart to ask the Lord to reveal the root of the problem in a person or in a certain area. When the root is crushed, the whole tree might fall. It really doesn’t help to remove the top branches of a tree. I do believe that you understand the symbolism.

There are certain things we need to learn from the Africans and that is their perseverance. We in the West have a tendency to give up before we have won victory. In the old days they prayed themselves through. We need to learn that. I have friends that say to me: “We must not stop to pray now. It isn’t finished.” Once this happened, a person received total healing. I am so thankful to people that do not give up, but continue to push. Just think of all the babies that would have died if the women wouldn’t have pushed till the baby was out. We would see many more answers to our prayers if we continued to press on. When a woman is giving birth, amniotic fluid comes out to make the birth easier. The Holy Spirit is our amniotic fluid.

USE THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PRAY TILL YOU HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH.

Mother Else