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.
I. The Privilege of Prayer
First, the privilege of prayer involves:
A) Approaching God’s Throne
So many prayers that we offer up are self-serving or flippant. Many are simply habit. I can’t tell you how many times we have begun to pray with the kids before bed and one of them will start with, “dear Jesus, thank you for the food!” The prayer for the meal becomes a thoughtless utterance, a habit and they slip into that habit on other occasions. Would it change the way that we pray if we really understood that prayer brings us literally into the presence of God? What an awesome privilege that is!
The people in the Old Testament that God chose to grant an audience to were few and far between. If you weren’t the high priest or a prophet, you weren’t given the opportunity to commune with God on a regular basis. Sin had created a barrier. God guarded His presence and chose to dwell in the Holy of Holies. It was an area that was separated from the rest of the temple by a thick curtain. No one could enter this area and be in His presence except the high priest and that only occurred once a year. But when Jesus accomplished victory for us on the cross, that curtain was torn in two from top to bottom and what was once off limits now became the right and the privilege of all who believe in Christ. Men can now approach the very presence of God, we can enter into His throne room and deal directly with Him. And we don’t have to approach in fear, we can come in confidence, knowing that we have the right to be there through faith in Jesus Christ.
Heb 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Prayer ushers us into the throne room and into the presence of God. The privilege of prayer also gives us the opportunity to:
B) Acknowledging our Dependence
As a general rule, we are a stubborn and proud people. If you spend the day with a two year old, you will undoubtedly hear t the words, “No, I do it.” Over and over again. From the time we are born we strive to be self-sufficient and we want to handle things on our own. This can spill over into our relationship with God and can keep us from experiencing His blessing in our lives. Prayer acknowledges that we can’t do it all. Prayer acknowledges that we don’t have all of the answers. When we learn to pray first, instead of as a last resort, we will begin to see God accomplish things in our lives. We need God.
JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
We can experience and accomplish so much more when we are connected to God and drawing from Him everything that we need. Prayer acknowledges the reality of our dependence upon God. Once we understand that and we know that we are in God’s presence when we pray, we have the privilege, through prayer, to:
C) Access His Power
Moses knew this and the Red Sea was parted, Elijah knew this and God sent down fire from heaven, David knew this and Goliath was defeated. Joshua knew this and the walls of Jericho fell. Nehemiah knew this and the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. Peter, John, Paul, and the other apostles knew this and demons were cast out, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the blind saw, and even the dead were raised. These were all great and godly men to be sure but they were only men. The reality of prayer is that even the weakest Christian can at any period of their life, at any moment of the day, in any circumstance cry out to God and instantly have all of the resources of the infinite, Sovereign God at his disposal. Prayer gives us access to the very power of God.
Finally, prayer affords us the privilege of:
D) Asking for Direction
We do not have to do this life on our own. We do not have to make the tough choices on our own. The Bible tells us that God has a plan for us and he will give us directions if we stop and ask for His input. This is so hard for us! Just like most men who will never stop at a gas station because that would be an admission that they’re lost, so many Christians don’t ask God for direction in life because we think we can get the whole thing figured out on our own. We can’t! Why cause yourself the grief and the frustration of trying when we have the promises of God to lead and guide those who trust in Him.
PS 31:3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
PS 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
God will lead us when we ask for direction in our lives. That is one of the privileges that we have in prayer.
Prayer is the privilege that we, as believers, have. It is the gift that God has given us to communicate with Him. As we turn our attention back to Ephesians and back to the idea of warfare prayer, that thread that is woven through each of the pieces of armor, we have to understand the importance of communication in the midst of a war, in the midst of a battle. That is the key idea here, we cannot have victory if we are not communicating with God and relying on Him for our power. I have never served in a war (youth ministry was as close as I got), I’ve never been in the military either. But, I have watched enough war movies and episodes of MASH to know that in the military there is a very rigid chain of command. Before any military operation is carried out, there are orders that are relayed down through the chain of command from the top all the way down to the soldiers who are carrying out the mission. This ensures that everyone stays on the same page and that the smaller operations are being carried out with the bigger picture of the war, as a whole, in mind. As a soldier, you rely on the commanding officer for your orders. As we engage in spiritual warfare, there is also a chain of command. God is in control, God has the bigger picture of the war in mind as He relays His orders to us each and every day through His Spirit. When we are in communication with Him and receive those orders, we get a clearer picture of the fight. Richard Burr, who was here last year, teaches extensively on the topic of the believer’s life of prayer. It is his habit to spend a good portion of each morning alone on his knees before God. Richard Burr gets what Paul is telling the Ephesians here. He shared with us that he sees himself as a soldier and that it would make no sense for him to enter into the battlefield without first spending time with his commander-in-chief and receiving his orders for the day. That only happens when we pray.
Paul gives us the necessary components of warfare prayer.
II. Warfare Prayer
First he says that we are to pray:
A) In the Spirit
Now this is a theological Truth that I cannot do justice to in a few short sentences. But I want to give you the gist of what this means. When we come to Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit in our lives. gal 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 1 Jn 3:24 And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
The Spirit is given to every believer but will not forcefully take over our lives and force us to make good decisions. We have to choose what place we give God’s Spirit in our lives. There are many Christians who have God’s Spirit, as promised, but are not filled with the Spirit and living lives that are marked by the Spirit’s influence. The Bible tells is that it is a choice and we are commanded in Ephesians 5:18 to not give up control of our lives to anything but Instead, be filled with the Spirit. When we ask to be filled and submit ourselves to God, the Spirit will come in power; He isn’t going to fill us half way!
Once our lives have come under the authority of God’s Spirit, that Spirit plays many different roles and offers many different benefits.
One role that it plays is to help us when we pray. When we pray in the Spirit we have God’s agenda and will in mind.
Romans 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
Our prayers are given focus and power that we will never have on our own. Praying in the Spirit moves us from our laundry list of wants and needs to Kingdom shaking and life changing times of fellowship and communication with God. The mountain moving prayers that Christ talks about will never happen when we are praying in our own strength. So, in terms of warfare prayer, praying in the Spirit ensures that we are on the same page as our commander-in-chief
But we are promised another thing as well. We are promised that when our words fail, when we simply are at a loss, the Spirit will pick up for us and intercede on our behalf. When I was growing up, there were times when I didn’t know how to approach my father about something. I would ask my mother, who knew him far better than I did, to go and talk to him for me. That’s what the Spirit, who knows the heart and mind of God, promises to do. In that same chapter of Romans, just one verse earlier we have this amazing promise.
RO 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
When we are engaging in Spiritual warfare there will be times when, in our humanity, we simply don’t know what to pray. When our children turn away from God in rebellion there are times when you have no words left but the Spirit intercedes. Watching a loved one make destructive choices and live under the spirit and influence of the world, there are times when our words fail us. But God’s Spirit promises to speak on our behalf. When the desire is so strong in us to get something right with God but we can’t seem to stand, the Spirit intercedes, the Spirit mourns with us, the Spirit will talk to the father on our behalf. When we pray in the Spirit, we are given focus, we are given a glimpse of the battle plan, and we are promised that when our words fail, the Spirit will take up our cause before the throne. There is power when we pray in God’s Spirit that He gives to us for this fight.
The second aspect of warfare prayer is that we are to pray:
B) On All Occasions
It has been shown in study after study that vast majority of people pray occasionally throughout their life. There were three pastors who were discussing what the best and most effective position of prayer was. As they were talking there was a telephone repairman working on the phone system in the background. He couldn’t help but overhear the pastors as they talked. One pastor suggested that the secret to effective prayer was in how you folded your hands. Another disagreed and said that the secret was found in getting on your knees. The third disagreed and said that the most powerful prayers were delivered while flat on your face before God. The telephone repairman could no longer keep silent and he spoke up and shared that the position that he had been in when he had offered up the most powerful prayer ever was hanging upside down from a telephone pole 40 feet above the ground!
We all know how to pray passionately when we need to! When we are in danger our natural response is to cry out to God! This is the occasion that pushes most people to their knees. We love the idea of God the deliverer. It’s not natural to call out to him during the quiet times in our lives. It’s not natural to call out to Him during the prosperous times in our lives. It’s not natural to pray when we have no huge pressing needs, but we are told that we need to pray no matter is going on in our lives. Part of growing spiritually is deepening your prayer life with God and learning to pray for all things at all times in any circumstances. Warfare prayer is more than just praying when a need arises. We are to pray on all occasions
And we are to Pray with:
C) All Kinds of Prayers
There is a time for short prayer, long prayer, silent prayer, out loud prayer, private prayer, and public prayer. There is a time for sit down prayer, stand-up prayer, kneel down prayer, face down prayer, hands folded prayer, and hands raised prayer. If we learn to pray in all circumstances we need prayers that include worship, adoration, supplication, thanksgiving, praise, dependence, weeping, mourning, and rejoicing. For us to deepen our prayer life and for us to stand in a spiritual battle we have to change the way that we pray and get out of the rut of give me this and help me do this and please heal my Aunt Sally. There is a time for those prayers but they can’t be all we are offering when we enter the Presence of God.
We are also to pray:
D) Alertly
This word literally means being watchful, it has a sense of anticipation with it. When I was a kid, I sent a letter to Bernie Kosar, the quarterback of the Browns. I watched for the mail truck every day. I ran out and opened up the mailbox eagerly expecting the answer to my letter. This is the sense that Paul is calling us to be alert. When we pray, when we ask God to move and when we ask Him for direction and guidance, it needs to be with the expectation that He will answer our prayers and the alertness, the watchfulness to see when that answer comes. We also need to be alert to what Satan is doing around us and in the lives of fellow believers. We have a responsibility in this battle to stand with our fellow Christians. Remember when we talked about the shield of faith, one of the things that gave the shield its strength was that you could stand side by side with other believers, each shield touching the one on either side of it, and form an impenetrable wall. We are made to fight the spiritual battle together.
That means that we are not just to pray for each other but Warfare Prayer is praying:
E) With Persistence for Each Other
Erin was gone yesterday afternoon and I was watching three kids plus the various combinations of neighborhood kids that end up at our house. I am fairly certain that we had every kid under the age of 10 within a 10 mile radius at our house. Woody had mentioned to the kids that they could go swimming at some point. He had made a promise to them. They first asked me if they could go at about noon. They asked again at about 12:10, they asked 10 minutes later and then 10 minutes after that. They had a promise that they were clinging to and they kept asking persistently until they got their answer.
Spiritual Warfare involves the battle for the hearts and minds of men. We have the calling in this fight to bring people, Paul says specifically our brothers and sisters in Christ, before the throne of God and to intercede on their behalf. We have the promise that God will hear and God will answer and we need to be persistent until that promise is fulfilled.
When we mention prayer requests, when someone shares with you that they are struggling, when you can see that circumstances are weighing heavily on someone, only some of us will be in a position to help with those burdens but all of us are in the position to pray for them. We need to be praying for the people of this ministry and for other believers that you know. Your being able to stand depends, to a degree, on the health of this congregation collectively. If we all get involved in warfare prayer for each other, as each one is changed and strengthened, the Body as a whole grows stronger.
It has become to easy and casual a response to say, I’ll pray for you. We need to follow through and then we need to persist. How would things change here? How much would it mean to get a card that simply said, I prayed for you today? How would we feel if we asked for prayer and knew that we were getting it from multiple sources with the same passion that they pray for their own needs? Spiritual battles are won and lost on the battlefield of prayer. Persistent prayer for our spiritual family will lead to victories, indifference will leave us defeated.
Prayer is the power behind the armor that we’re given. Prayer is what enables us to stand and to experience spiritual victory. If your prayer life is empty and lifeless, don’t be discouraged. This is a process! It takes time and work to become a prayer warrior. When Erin and I started “dating” we spent the majority of our time together in silence. We would walk the half mile between our houses in almost complete silence. Maybe we would mention something about the weather or what we had coming up in school but for the most part, things weren’t very exciting. As we kept walking and as we kept working at it, the conversation began to increase. By the time we had been dating a few years, we would sit for hours on her front porch and talk about anything and everything. It just took some time!
It was the same way when I first got serious about my prayer life, I spent about three minutes in prayer and then was at a loss for where to go from there. As I have grown, as I have matured spiritually, there are times when I spend a good portion of my day in prayer in my office. I am always aware of the presence of God and am communicating with Him constantly throughout the day, with all kinds of prayer and requests. I still feel like I have a lot to learn and a long way to go when it comes to prayer but I know that I will continue to grow as I continue to pray.
If you want to be a prayer warrior, Paul packs a lot of advice into one short verse. We need to pray in the Spirit, we need to pray on all occasions and with all kinds of prayers and requests, we need to be alert, and we need to persist in our prayers for each other. This is what completes the armor. This is what is woven throughout each piece of the armor and this is what will enable us to stand. We are not complete until we are plugged into the power and the power comes when we learn to fight from our knees.
