Prayer Under Attack!
The single most important time in the life of the believer is the time we spend alone with God.
1. Do you seem to be more physically, spiritually and emotionally drained?
2. Does your worship seem to be more ritualistic than genuine and authentic?
3. Do you get a sense that you are often times at a loss of being able to handle situations that arise in your life with a balance of practical Godly wisdom?
4. Do you find it hard to focus during a sermon, Bible study or prayer group session.
5. Do you find it increasingly more difficult to hear God’s voice; that is to distinguish His voice apart from and above all others around you?
6. How often would you say you actually hear that voice?
7. When that voice asks something of you, how good are you at following through?
If you have answered yes to most or all of these questions, then chances are, these next few questions will also be true.
1. Do we find it hard to pray?
2. Does it seems as though every time we sit down to pray something always interrupts or something we deem more pressing seems to pop up.
3. Do you have a sense that you are becoming dull to your passion and desire to pray consistently or even at all?
In Colossians 4:2
Paul says these words as he speaks to the Colossians:
“Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
Continue--Greek, "Continue perseveringly," "Keep up your constant times of prayer, without being diverted from it by other business; keep your hearts close to the duty, without wandering or deadness, and even to the end of it: that is to mean, pray and follow up on your prayers to see the end or outcome of them.
You and I wouldn’t have to “continue perseveringly in prayer” if your prayer time wasn’t being “perseveringly attacked”. The reason why most of us feel that we don’t have time to pray is because we don’t. We have consistently allowed our adversary to steal that special and precious time and place from us. He is determined not to release it back to us whatever the cost.
Be it known to you today my friends that if the enemy has stolen this from you he will not release it without a fight. In war, it would be the equivalent of having lost that which is the source of your strength and power to fight your enemy. To think that upon your request that your enemy will just give it back to you so that you might use it against him to destroy him would be ridiculous. If anything, your enemy has secured that precious commodity, has tightened security around it and has begun to strategically attack you in areas which are fast becoming vulnerable.
1. Home – Families can’t get along, marriages are failing, children are being neglected and abused, many because of this are resorting to violence the only way they know to protect themselves because mom and dad are to preoccupied with work or a divorce.
2. Finances – The job has just cut your hours or you may have been laid off, money is tight and the bills are piling up. Food sources are dwindling. Now you have begun to borrow from everyone and anyone. As a result now;
3. Friendships – either people you thought were your friends have begun to bail and abandon you or those that are good friends are beginning to distance themselves from you because every time you see them the conversation always ends with them having to spare a couple of dollars and they don’t mind helping you but your breaking their pockets and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
4. Happiness – Now you not only have problems in your home and on the job but now even you friends are becoming few. Now your happiness is dwindeling, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep your head up when things are constantly pushing you down. Everytime you want to hope another vital part of your life has become vulnerable and the enemy has successfully weekend it to the point of uselessness. Now you feel like giving up, now you feel like the world is on your shoulders and no one cares about you.
You begin to think that everyone and everything is trying to destroy you. You don’t know who the enemy is. You have been deprived of your power source far too long and you have become dangerously weak. The mind starts to go into shock. All it wants is relief, even if it is only temporary. So the mind starts to go back into the recesses of it’s memory bank to flood the consciousness with all of the things that it remembers brought some kind of relief, you start to think about using drugs again, picking up the bottle again, selling your body, promiscuity, getting even, revenge, all kinds of fleshly and carnal desires and now the only thing you have left which is the desire to live a righteous and holy life before God and man is gone. Your purity is now in jeopardy.
5. Purity
Oh I know I’m talking to somebody today, God gave me a peek into this thing and told me the problem is we have been too far removed from our power source which is Him. Every day we let pass without speaking to Him/hearing from Him, increases how vulnerable we are and sooner than later we will become a casualty in this warfare.
“Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
Paul says we have to persevere in prayer and
Watching the same.’’ Christians should lay hold of all opportunities for prayer, and choose the fittest seasons, which are least liable to disturbance and guard it heavily. Give it extreme attention and diligence. Nurture it and keep it safe. Just as you would an infant. Just as one who cares about his body and being fit would do all he/she could to keep the body in optimal condition giving it what it needed daily, religiously never missing a day at the gym or eating right, being careful not to pollute their body with dangerous toxins that could jeopardize their health. So to we must be in watching our prayer life.
ILL.- Early African converts to Christianity were very faithful in their praying. Each one had a separate spot in a wooden thicket where they would pour out their hearts in prayer to God. And over a long time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of the believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent brother, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."
How about your path? If the grass is growing on your path? If so, then began to tread your path until it can be clearly seen again.
It is your inheritance. It was a privilege granted to you at Calvary by the blood of Jesus. The right you have to boldly come before the throne to obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
The enemy might be whispering in your ear, it’s too late, you have gone too far and too long. Look at you, your malnourished and ready to faint. God has forsaken you and He has left you to die.
I know it’s probably been a little while since you have had a little talk with Jesus and it’s probably been even longer since you have spent time in His word. So let me remind you of who you are. I’m going to call on my friend mephibosheth to illustrate this clearly for you.
Mephibosheth was born into a royal family. He was a prince. While he was still a baby, his kingdom and family came under attack and his nurse who was given charge over him, in her haste to take him up and flee for their lives, dropped him and he became crippled.
The years had passed by his family murdered, nurse has gone and he’s an adult now and has made it to the only place where somebody like him would be accepted. He makes it to the city of Lodebar. The city of the forgotten, the lame, the sick and the dying.
Then one day, David who was the best friend of Jonathan who was Mephibosheth’s father became the king. As David sat on his throne he remembered a promise he made to Jonathan his best friend who had helped to save his life, that he would not forget him. So he asks does anyone know if Jonathan has any relatives alive that he might be able to repay his debt and keep to his promise. One of his staff said, there is one, his son who lives down in the city of Lodebar. David says go and fetch him.
Let me pause here and just remind all of you that no matter where you have ended up because of your injuries and circumstances, God knows exactly where you are and how to fetch you from where you are. He has never taken his eyes off of you.
They bring him to King David and David puts some royal clothing on him and sits him at his table and gives him some land and a full staff to till the land for him and to sell his goods. You shall eat at my table as one of the king’s sons.
Listen, I’ve come to let you know that you are royalty just like mephibosheth. Just like him, you don’t belong in Lodebar. You might be week and you might have death all around you but I dare you to remember that you are a child of the most High God. I challenge you to remember that you are a royal people and part of a holy nation. Remember that you are more than a conqueror, I dare you to rise up amidst the feebleness of your condition and believe God that as you make the effort to turn towards Him that he will supply the strength and bring to life that which is dead and dying. For He says:
I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
I implore you to get angry with the devil today and become militant.
Be sober be vigilant for your adversary goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
For once build an offensive strategy and plan an attack. Don’t always remain on the defense.
ILL.- Marshal Foch of France spoke these words at one of the most critical moments of WWI. He said, “My right has been beaten back. My left is in peril. My center is wavering. THE SITUATION IS IDEAL. I ATTACK.”
Look at your neighbor and tell them it’s time to attack! And attack we must. We don’t have a choice. The situation is critical. Our homes are under attack, our families are under attack, We’re being attacked on the right and we’re being attacked on the left. But I hear the words of the psalmist David who said:
“He that dwells in the secret place of the most high God. Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, a thousand shall fall at thy left and ten thousand at thy right hand but nothing shall come night unto you. The right hand is always symbolic of the strongest hand of the two. I dare you to look at the devil who has arrested your prayer life and demand that he release it or suffer the consequences of your right hand. For your right hand is God’s right hand. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.
Satan doesn’t want to mess with God’s right hand. That was the hand that through him out of heaven, him and a third of the angels with him.
It was God’s right hand that delivered the Israelites from Egypt. And God says this to you And to me go into the devils camp and take back your prayer life and take it by force
Isa. 41:10
Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
It’s time, look to your neighbor and tell them it’s time. It’s time to attack!
When we do victory is imminent! It is ours! And we’ll be able to say like David said
Psalms 20:6
Now I Know that the LORD saveth his anointed ( his called out ones, his children, his people); he will hear them from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
“Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
Paul says continue in prayer, Guard and watch it and do it with thanksgiving. Appreciate this wonderful gift we have to pray, to have direct access to Him. When you pray don’t forget to thank Him for His goodness, blessings, power, strong right hand, provision, protection, healing, presence. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Watch and see how your Spiritual life and physical life in Him (as the song writer says) is life worth living Because He lives.
