Get On Your Knees And Fight Like A Man Series

Get on Your Knees and Fight Like a Man

Beartown Road Alliance Church

August 19th, 2007

When Erin and I were working in the basement a few months ago, we had come to the point where we had done most of what we could handle on our own. We had finished up the entire big family room down there. The drywall was hung, finished, and painted. The drop ceiling was in place, the carpet was down, the trim was up, the room looked great. It had everything it needed to be a functional room for the kids or for entertaining guests, except for one thing. There was no electricity. There are two things that I do not mess with, plumbing, and electric. Plumbing because I would rather not be responsible for flooding the house and electric because I would rather not be responsible for blowing it up either!

I had hooked up all of the can lights, run them off of one another and even run them to the switch but I had not connected them to the main panel. The room looked good and was all wired to go but it had no power. I had to call Dan Nelson to come over and actually attach the wires into the circuit box. When they were finally connected to the power source then not only was the room looking good, but we had all the power that we needed as well.

We’ve spent the last 6 weeks looking at the armor of God. We’ve taken this armor piece by piece and looked at what each piece represents and how it practically applies to our lives. We’ve put on the belt of Truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of the gospel of peace. We’ve taken up the shield of Faith and the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit is in hand and ready to be used. For some of us, this teaching has been applied and the armor has been put on and we are almost ready to go. What we’ll find, however, and what Paul teaches us next, is that the armor is not the complete picture. Like that room in the basement, we may look good and look finished, the armor may fit well and our lives are beginning to reflect the character of Christ, but until we get plugged into the power, we’re not ready for the fight.

Read Ephesians 6:18

Paul seems to take an abrupt turn from the idea of armor here in verse 18 but in fact, he is giving us the final piece of the puzzle, the source of power to use each piece of the armor the way it was intended to be used. He says that in order for us to stand and fight and to have victory in the spiritual realms we have to be on our knees. We have to incorporate prayer not just into our daily routine but it has to become our lifestyle. This is the cord that binds the armor together, this is the key that turns the armor on and makes it effective. This is what gives the sword its edge, that allows it to cut and to pierce and to drive Satan back. When we looked at the way Jesus defeated Satan by using God’s Word, it’s important to note that he had just spent 40 days in prayer and fasting as well. This had prepared him to use the Sword of the Spirit as effectively as he did. Because even with the entire armor in place, if there is no prayer, we are simply all dressed up with no where to go.

Turn through the pages of God’s Word and you will see that there is never a major victory; there is never a major movement of God or an encounter with God that does not involve prayer, the communication between God and man. The Church, herself, was started during a time of prayer. You see it in throughout Jesus’ ministry. When Christ was about to teach, He prayed. When Christ was about to heal, He prayed. When Christ was about to die, He prayed. It was His habit to begin each hectic day in a quiet place, away from everyone else, on His knees before the Father. Christ engaged the enemy on a daily basis. Christ’s entire ministry was a case study in effectively engaging and winning the spiritual battles of life and those victories were born out of prayer. Paul lists it last here but it is certainly not an afterthought. It is a case of saving the best for last.

In prayer we have a direct line of communication with the God of the Universe. Prayer is a privilege that is available to all believers. Before we get into the specifics of warfare prayer that Paul lays out for us, I want to lay some groundwork. I want to look at a few of the aspects that this privilege entails.