This is the final message in our series “Teach Us To Pray.” We certainly haven’t exhausted everything the Bible has to say about prayer, but we’ve covered some very important topics. Personally, God has taught me some important lessons as I have studied what Jesus taught on prayer. You may have a read a passage before, but God can open your mind up to it in a new way, in a way that brings change to your life. That’s what God has done for me as we’ve gone through this series. He’s given me a new faith in the power of prayer. He’s also given me some new ideas to keep my prayer life more organized and consistent. And He’s reminded me of the importance of humbling oneself through fasting when praying. My prayer is that for each one of you, God has spoken something that has directly impacted the effectiveness of your prayer life.
Today, my concluding message in this series is entitled “Spiritual Warfare in Prayer.” As people living in the 21st century, we are so accustomed to simply living by what we can interact with with our 5 senses. If we can’t see something, we tend to live as though the unseen is of no importance. So, today, I felt it important to strip away the veil the hides the unseen supernatural world for us, so that we can see what is really going on in prayer.
As always, we’re going to stick to exactly what the Bible says and not go into all kinds of wild speculation, as some have done on this topic. The Bible takes the unseen, spiritual realm very seriously. In fact it is just as important, if not more so, then the seen realm.
Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The Greek word for struggle literally means “wrestling” or even “fighting.” In the paragraph in which this verse is taken from, prayer is mentioned 4 times. So prayer is definitely one arena where our struggle is. In prayer, we wrestle against dark and evil supernatural powers that seek to hinder our prayers and the advance of God’s Kingdom. We tend to see our struggle as against flesh and blood, which is other people. But God’s Word tells us here that our enemy is not other people, but these evil unseen forces.
As we go on in our main passage this morning, we’re going to see how this description of the struggle of prayer applied to the prayers of a believer in the Bible. I believe God’s Word will give us an answer to the question of “Why aren’t my prayers immediately answered?” Or “Why should I keep on praying if the answer doesn’t come quickly.” Quite frankly, the Bible speaks of the strength of the forces of evil becoming stronger in the last days in which we are living. So, how can we resist? The answer is through prayer, through spiritual warfare in prayer, we can overcome those forces and see God’s answers come. Our passage today comes from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.
Listen to or watch my September 9, 2012 message Spiritual Warfare in Prayer.
as jesus said to his disciples in luke when u pray say ; OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN HALLOW ED BE YOUR NAME YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN GIVE US DAY BY DAY OUR DAILEY BREAD AND FORGIVE US ARE SINS FOR WE ALSO FORGIVE EYERYONE WHO IS INDEBTED TO US AND DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM FRON THE EVIL ONE AMEN