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Any and all ministers may freely use any of my sermons and post them anywhere that they want to.
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Pastor Ed Pruitt
The power of continuous prayer,
Part two
Sunday April 08, 2007
This morning, I want to continue from where I left off last week.
We’ve been talking about prayer, and what it can do for you.
Turn your Bibles if you will, to Matthew the 18th chapter the 19th verse and we are going to read how two people that are in agreement can do more than many that are not in agreement.
Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven.
Paul and Silas demonstrated the power of two as they sang in the jail at Philippi.
In response, God sent angels to shake the foundations of that jail.
Paul and Silas walked out of the jail with the keys in one hand and the converts in the other.
They knew the power of two.
There are two witnesses in Revelation 11 chapter the third verse, Enoch and Elijah.
They have the power to turn the water into blood.
They have the power to call the fire from heaven.
They have the power to call plagues and draught to cover the earth.
The Antichrist and all of the earth will hate them.
But they have that supernatural power because they are two people in agreement.
Jesus sent His disciples out two by two.
He gave them the authority to bind and loose things on this earth, and if they did so, this would be honored in heaven through the power of two.
Luke 11:21-22
21 For when a strong man like Satan is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe—
22 until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings.
This scripture says that there is a strong man, satan, whose object is to attack you.
That strongman will attack your marriage, your health, your finances, your peace of mind, and your children, seeking to rob, to kill, and to destroy.
God has given you an answer to satan’s power.
That answer is to bind him was supernatural prayer, when you and another believer come into agreement.
Matthew 12:29
29 For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man like Satan and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.
How much power can people in agreement have?
The answer: the power of life and death.
During the brutal reign of Joseph Stalin, who murdered 30 million Russians and bought godless communism to Russia, Stalin, let it be known that he planned to murder the Jews of Russia.
When the believers in England heard this report, they committed themselves to fasting and prayer for the Jews of Russia.
Praying in the spirit, they found the Demonic forces that drove Joseph Stalin.
Three weeks later, Joseph Stalin had a brain hemorrhage.
16 gifted brain surgeons worked on him for eight hours, and still Joseph Stalin stepped into eternity,
on March 5, 1953, to meet the son of God, a Jewish rabbi from Bethlehem.
Jesus said to his church, what ever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
The message is very clear.
The initiative rests with you, not God!
Stop asking, when is God going to do something about my situation?
God has placed the responsibility of taking action squarely on your shoulders.
Start praying in Jesus name with a believer with whom you can come into agreement, and watch for powerful results.
What area of your life is under attack?
Your marriage?
Your children?
Your business?
Your finances?
Your health?
Your emotions?
Your relationships?
Find someone with whom you can agree right now.
If you take the initiative, the power of your prayer will move the hand of God to bring the perfect answer.
God’s secret weapon in praying is praying in the spirit.
The apostle Paul writes in Romans the eighth chapter the 26th and 30th verses.
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own Will.
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Note, that our weakness in this verse is in our minds.
We do not know what we should pray for.
We have a language barrier with heaven, therefore, the Holy Spirit makes intercession to God in heaven for us, saying, Father, here’s what your child is trying to say.
Praying in the spirit help you hit the bull’s-eye every time you get on your knees.
The Bible says, God is a Spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth John 4:24.
There are many times that I have awakened in the middle of the night and felt a strong desire to pray.
I didn’t know what I was praying for or who I was praying for.
I just felt the strong desire to be praying.
That is called praying of the spirit.
Prayer gives you the power to shape the destiny of nations.
We can go back in time to 701 B.C.
King Sennacherib of Assyria was the Attila the Hun, the Napoleon, the Hitler of his time.
A skillful army general, he captured most of the fortified cities of Judah, except Jerusalem.
He and his Assyrian army were known as vicious warriors who posted the heads of their victims outside the conquered city gates.
They also tossed infants in the air and caught the babies on their swords to kill them.
As all conquerors, Sennacherib would not be content until he had all known territory, under his control, particularly the sacred city of Jerusalem.
In 701 B.C., he marched his legions toward the city of Jerusalem for the purpose of slaughtering the Jews.
Once he arrived outside the city, Sennacherib sent a message to King Hezekiah, promising to slaughter every citizen of Jerusalem, the next morning.
Terrified, Hezekiah pulled out his secret weapon, prayer.
He laid Sennacherib’s letter before the Lord and said, look at what that heathen and has written to You, O God
Isaiah 37:14-17
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD:
16 “O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.
17 Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
That night, the death Angel swept through the camp of the Assyrians.
The death Angel smote the sentry standing in his post.
The death Angel smote the infantry soldiers slumbering in their tents.
The death Angel smote the generals as they made their battle plans to destroy the sacred city of Jerusalem.
The next morning, when Hezekiah looked over the fortified walls of the city of Jerusalem by the dawn’s early light, 185,000 men were dead.
Hezekiah prayed, and the destiny of his nation was determined, as it has been throughout Israel’s history.
Prayer has influenced our own nation’s history.
During the dark days of the Civil War, when brother fought against brother and father fought against son, the United States of America was saved by the power of fasting and prayer.
President Abraham Lincoln called for a day of fasting and prayer.
His declaration for a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer begins with this thought.
And in so much as we know that, by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subject to the punishments and chastisements in this world,
may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be, but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People?
He went on to say.
We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us,
and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for the clemency and forgiveness.
He then set aside April 30, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer,
and asked people in our nation to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits,
and to unite at there several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord,
and devoted to the humble discharge of their religious duties, proper to that solemn occasion.
You can see the prayer can give you the power to change things than ordinarily can’t be changed.
I’m sure, Abraham Lincoln would turn over in his grave today if he could see how far our United States has gotten from God.
As we go on, we can see that the New Testament church was under extreme persecution.
King Herod had executed James, the brother of John.
The King then arrested Peter and placed him in a maximum-security prison, where he was guarded by four squads of four soldiers around the clock.
What was the church’s response?
They prayed to God without ceasing for Peter’s deliverance.
They didn’t have political influence or financial wealth, but they knew the power of prayer.
What was God’s response?
Angels were released to help Peter escaped from prison.
It tells us this in Acts 12:11-15
Your prayer also has the power to release the angels of God to defend you, guard you, and guide you.
King David wrote he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
Psalms 91:11
the phrase to keep is a military expression meaning, to guard by force.
You have that power, through prayer.
Uniquely enough, the church that was praying for the deliverance of their pastor, Peter, was shocked when it happened,
so shocked that when Peter knocked on the door,
they thought it was his Angel and not the man of God himself.
The early church had waged war in the heavenlies but they hadn’t prayed with a sense of expectation that they would win.
Do you?
And God finished this heavenly battle by judging Herod. Acts 12:23 says
Then immediately the Angel Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.
Prayer is a weapon of attack, and praise is also a weapon of attack.
The enemy is Satan and his kingdom.
Praise gives strength to the body of Christ to conquer the Prince of darkness.
We find the power of praise in Matthew the 21st chapter, the 15th verse.
The religious leaders, ask Jesus to silence the children who were praising him in the temple,
Jesus replied by quoting Psalm eight and two,
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength.
Because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
The babes of Matthew 21 are the Disciples of Christ.
Praise is the source of our strength, and praise has the power to conquer the Prince of darkness.
The power of the tongue is awesome.
The Bible says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs chapter 18, verse 21.
Simply said, in spiritual warfare the side that uses its mouth, the most is the side who wins the war.
Let’s consider the power of praise in,
Psalm 149
1 Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song.
Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful.
2 O Israel, rejoice in your Maker.
O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King.
3 Praise his name with dancing,
accompanied by tambourine and harp.
4 For the LORD delights in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them.
Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds.
6 Let the praises of God be in their mouths,
and a sharp sword in their hands—
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with shackles
and their leaders with iron chains,
9 to execute the judgment written against them.
This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones.
Praise the LORD!
Praise combined with the Word of God is a weapon in the hand of every believer.
It is also the instrument of judgment.
The King’s and nobles spoken of in these verses are Satan’s angelic princes and authorities in the heavenly peace.
Paul wrote in, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3
2 Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves?
3 Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life.
We have the power through praise to bring judgment against powers and principalities in the heavenlies.
These are the seven principles of prayer, you must fully understand to be effective in spiritual warfare.
Far too often we as Children of God go through life doing without in our prayer life.
There are things that we could have if we would just do as the scripture tells us to do in,
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
Pray, Pray, Pray, and watch the blessings flow into your lives.
I want to go on next week and hopefully we will conclude this series on Prayer.
There are also seven reasons God might not answer your prayer.
If your prayers are not being answered.
We will talk about why they are not being answered in this third and final part titled,
Seven Reasons Why God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayers.
Let us bow our heads and pray!
