HINDRANCES TO PRAYER
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LESSON #7 SATANIC ACTIVITY
TEXT: EZRA 4:4-6
REVIEW:
What was our lesson on last week?
Carnal motives.
Is it possible to pray for something righteous and according to Gods will and still have our prayers unanswered?
Yes if we ask with the wrong motives.
God wants to bless us but He will not bless us at the cost of our soul.
What is the danger of praying with wrong motives or a wrong attitude?
The devil will try to answer your prayers just to lead you into bondage.
God desires to meet with us and answer our prayers but it must be according to His will.
READ TEXT:
Ezra 4:4-6
4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
5 And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
When looking at the Word of God we find.
The old testament gives us living pictures of new testament truth.
Example:
The exodus from Egypt is a picture of salvation
- The blood on the door post is a picture of the blood Jesus shed for us
- Manna from heaven a picture of spiritual food
- Etc.
With this in mind we look at our text
Before you were saved your life was
- Torn apart
- Family in ruins
- Marriage coming apart
- Finances a mess
Most of us were at the bottom
- The end of our rope
Our lives were in ruins
Our spiritual lives where torn apart
- The walls of our minds
- The walls of our morals
- The walls of our character
- The walls of our spirit
All of these were in ruins
They had been torn down or were non existent
But the moment we got saved
- Repented from our sins
- Asked Jesus into our hearts
- Asked Him to be Lord of our lives
We came under “construction”
A building project was begun
He began to reconstruct some of the walls in our lives
- Lay some foundations
- Prepare some soil
These walls are constructed in many ways but one of the key ways is through prayer
The devil wants to weaken your hands
Weaken you spiritually
Demonic forces at work to hinder your prayer life
- They don’t want you to pray
- They don’t want you to cry out to God
When you pray you are saying I trust a higher power with my life.
You are saying
- I trust God
- I don’t trust my own ability
- I don’t trust my own understanding
The devil wants to
- Weaken your trust
- Weaken your dependence
- Weaken your reliance
On God
So the devil sends his fallen angels to oppose us.
To oppose our prayers in an attempt to weaken us.
Eph 6:12
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Satan will begin to say things like
- God doesn’t hear your prayer
- He isn’t listening to you
He doesn’t care about
- Your family
- Your problems
- Your life
- Your kids
- Your finances
Satan wants to stop the building process at work within you
and will try to frustrate you in an attempt to stop your prayers
He will bring accusations against you
He will bring accusations against God
All in an attempt to frustrate you
Zech 3:1
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
(KJV)
Satan is out to resist us, he doesn’t like what we are doing.
He doesn’t like
- Soul winning
- Faithful
- Praying
Men and women of God
Ezra 4:24
24 Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
(KJV)
If you will listen to the devil and allow him to frustrate and discourage you the work in your heart will cease.
I have seen Christians get frustrated with God
Begin to think God doesn’t hear them
- That he doesn’t care about them
- That he isn’t listening
The moment this happens the work in their heart stops
For years they sit at the same place spiritually
- No spiritual growth
- No advancement spiritually
It is like their entire spiritual life is put on hold
- The walls are left undone
- The defenses are left down
If they do not come to their senses, begin to cry out to God, return again and trust Him with their lives.
There will come a time when the walls that were built, that work that was begun in their lives, will begin too
- Decay
- Crumble
- Fall
They will be right back were they started.
Lost without God.
The devil is going to conspire against you and your first and best defense is prayer.
Neh 4:7-9
7 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
(KJV)
Don’t let the satanic powers of hell frustrate you and keep you from praying
If they can do that, you will be left without defense.
Dan 10:11-13
11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
(KJV)
It is interesting here that God heard Daniels prayer the first day he made it.
Yet his answer was held back because of the powers of Satan.
Many times because God does not answer us right away we think He hasn’t heard us at all.
Because we don’t have an answer we
- Want to throw in the towel
- We want to quit
- We think prayer doesn’t work
And many times it will be the devil that will bring these accusations
- He will tell us God isn’t listening when it is him that is holding back the answer
- It is his force that are opposing us
Paul speaking to the Thessalonians said satan hindered him many times.
1Thes 2:18
18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
(KJV)
Many times we don’t have a clue what is happening in the spiritual realm.
We don’t know what God is doing to answer our prayers.
He may have
- Angels in rout
- Messengers standing by
- Heavenly forces doing battle to answer our prayers
We don’t know
I wonder what would have happened if Daniel had stopped praying on day 3 or 14 or even 20
I wonder if his answer would have still come
Many times we give up way to easy
Well, God didn’t answer my prayer
I prayed for that raise on the job for 10 minutes and still no answer
- I guess God doesn’t care about me
- I guess He can’t hear
- I will just quit
I wonder how close we come some times to having our prayers answered and right before the answer we threw in the towel.
- Right before that raise
- Right before the salvation of that loved one
- Right before that spiritual break through
The bible tells us not to be ignorant of satan’s devices
Stand against the powers of hell
Eph 6:11
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
1 Pet 5:8
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
When you feel like God is not answering your prayers many times He has already sent an answer but there are spiritual forces at work holding back the answer.
During these times we need to hold fast to our faith, not wavering, but believing, and continuing in prayer for
“Greater is he that is in us than he that is of this world”
