Praying For Deliverance From The Hosts Of Wickedness

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. - Matthew 6:13

Christianity is not an individualistic religion but a community of believers. Our Lord Jesus teaches us never to be selfish but to realize we are serving a greater body of believers and are a part of them constantly. The Lord's prayer is one of the great example prayers given to us in the Scriptures. It is interesting to note that the prayer is not individualistic but corporate. It starts off with "Our Father" and the prayer speaks never of "me" but of "us." Is this our focus? Do we pray the Lord's prayer with the entire body of Christ even in mind, or our community of believers, or our family? The reliance on others is the way of humility confessing I cannot do it by myself. In spiritual warfare we must also realize that we cannot overcome it by ourselves, that we need the prayers of others, the help of others and especially of the Lord himself. We see a statement in the Lord's Prayer that asks for freedom from the influence of the demonic, "deliver us from the evil one." Early Christian believers who came from idol worshipping backgrounds were asked to renounce the works of satan and were anointed with oil during baptism when the Overseer would say “Let all evil spirits depart from thee.”

Justin Martyr said, "For we do continually beseech God by Jesus Christ to preserve us from the demons which are hostile to the worship of God, and whom we of old time served, in order that, after our conversion by Him to God, we may be blameless. For we call Him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose name even the demons do fear; and at this day, when they are exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, they are overcome." This constant, humble reliance on God in prayer to be delivered from the works of the enemy produces freedom and deliverance. Prayers I have prayed often are for all believers in a local area to be unified, to be preserved from false teachers and to be freed from all the work of the hosts of wickedness. The enemy was allowed to come and sift the early Apostles but only through the permission of the Heavenly Father. In the same way we are under the shield and protection of our Lord as long as we claim to that help. Father in heaven, deliver us today from the evil one and hosts of evil in Jesus Name. Amen.