Power Point - June 2, 2005
June 2, 2005
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to the end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
--Ephesians 6:18-20
The past few days, we began a discussion on the warfare of the Christian and the armor we need to fight and defeat the devil. But God has also called us into the arena of prayer to prepare for battle. The battle can either be won or lost in prayer. Our greatest needs are not more money, training, education, or intelligence. Our greatest need is more of God—and more of Him is received by believing prayer.
Perhaps a great illustration is given to us in Exodus 17. The children of
He told them to take their army into the valley and engage in hand-to-hand conflict against the enemy. Meanwhile, Moses would go to the mountain to pray for them. As the Israelites went into battle, the Bible records that Moses prayed and prevailed with uplifted hands unto the Lord. As a result, the children of
What a picture that is of the battle that we face and fight today. Satan laughs at our plans. He mocks our schemes. We don’t need better publicity. We don’t need better ideas. We need the power of God’s people praying together with uplifted hands. Yet so many Christians have not advanced past spiritual kindergarten when it comes to prayer.
Let’s be honest. Most of us really don’t think prayer makes that much of a difference, so we don’t spend time doing it. If we really believed that God moved in response to our believing prayer, nothing would keep us from the place of getting on our knees before God! Yet over and over again in Scripture we’re told that God answers prayer.
Scripture says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Stay up 30 minutes later at night, get up earlier in the morning, or take your lunch hour to pray! I don’t care when you do it, but just do it. Begin now by going to the Lord in prayer and determine to dedicate your life to prayer from here on.
YOU’LL NOT PRAY EVERYWHERE UNTIL
YOU PRAY SOMEWHERE!