LET US PRAY
(Section 6)
VI. SOME POINTERS ON PRAYER
A. God has given us sufficient provision for prayer.
In His Son and by the Holy Spirit we may trust and find help.
1. Trust --> Having the full assurance to depend upon.
A spirit of trust is most essential to prayer. If our relationship with the Lord continually fluctuates--with our having neither assurance of confidence--our entire life will be fatally wounded.
Heb 10:19-20 Romans 5:2 Ephesians 2:18 Ephesians 3:12
2. Help Romans 8:26-27
B. Why does Satan try to resist prayer? pg 70
If he succeeds in an attack on prayer, he knows he can rest in peace.
In dealing with Satanic attack, we should pay particular attention to the following areas:
1. Satan will attack our trust in the Lord. He knows if he can make us feel unworthy, unable, and that we are losing trust in the Lord, he will take away our heart to pray.
2. Sometimes he attacks our body, even our thoughts, nerves, or other facets related to our body. When we feel tired and without strength, we do not like to pray.
3. Sometimes the devil will attack our appointed time of prayer, both private and in the church. If he cannot succeed in having our time of prayer fully occupied with other things, he will see to it that we do not have real prayer at that time. Frequently we are able to maintain the time of prayer, but we lack the life of prayer.
4. Sometimes Satan attacks our constant fellowship with the Lord by creating a heavy obstructive layer between us and our Lord so that we cannot make contact. It appears though a mysterious mist separates us from the Lord.
5. He purposes to push us into darkness so that we cannot see the necessity of prayer. He will constantly distract our attention towards other things, thus hurting our prayer life.
C. Various aspects in the work of prayer which need attention.
1. Fellowship with the Lord in all things--> To fellowship with the Lord in all things should be our daily natural habit.
2. Ask and keep on asking, for the Lord delights in people asking Him. James 1:5-6
3. Meditate and intercede. Hebrews 7:25 Col 4:12
4. Pray always. To pray with persistency simply means that, having clearly recognized God's need, you keep on praying.
D. The Central Objective of Prayer
1. To prepare for Christ a glorious church that is conformed to Him.
2. It is the determinate will of God that we should have more intelligent and intimate communion with Him. He wants us--His many sons and daughters--to come to Him in His beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ. pg 77
LET US PRAY
(Section 7)
VII. THE WEARING-OUT TACTICS OF SATAN pg 79
Dan 7:25
Satan has a work, which is attacking the children of God. His attack may not come suddenly; oftentimes, it comes gradually and slowly. Hence Satan's work in the lives of God's children is frequently not very noticeable, since his work is slowly to wear them down.
A. To "wear out" has in it the idea of reducing a little this minute, then reducing a little further the next minute. Reduce a little today and reduce a little tomorrow. The wearing down is scarcely an activity of which one is conscious, yet the end result is that there is nothing left.
B. Wearing Out the Physical Body
1. Smiting Job's body. Job 2:7-8
2. Paul's thorn in the flesh. II Cor 12:7
*Quite a few Christians experience sickness and the weakening of their body after they are saved, whereas formerly they were rather healthy. This is the enemy wearing out the saints. He makes the child of God eat a little less today and sleep a little less tomorrow. By thus adding a little at a time, a believer's health can finally become entirely shaken. pg 81
C. Wearing Out Man's Heart
Upon first believing in the Lord you may feel very happy, joyful, and peaceful. But if you are not watchful--being ignorant of what the enemy can do--you will find yourself one day mysteriously uncomfortable. You feel somewhat restless today, somewhat unhappy tomorrow, and somewhat depressed the day after. Little by little, your peace is completely lost, your joy totally gone. This is the way the devil wears you down to a state of fatigue and despair.
D. Wearing Out the Spiritual Life
Satan will take away your prayer life little by little, and cause you to trust God less and less and yourself more and more, a little at a time. He uses the method of gradualism to wear down the people of God. pg 82
E. Wearing Out Our Time
Engaging in what seems to be "resultless" work for long periods of time will wear out
a man's energy.
F. Wearing Out Samson
Judges 16:17-17 Delilah "pressed daily".
G. Detest the Wearing Out Work of Satan
Many know how to lose their temper on men but strangely enough do not know how to hurl their temper on Satan. If God's children would grow angry and open their mouths to oppose Satan, all would be well.
The power to resist the evil one comes from discerning his pressure. A number of believers, when they are manipulated and assaulted, do withstand and resist him; yet they find no strength in themselves. This is because they fail to see Satan's pressure. Though they resist, they do not seem to have the strength to raise their voice against the enemy. Whether or not you can resist him depends on how much you detest him. If you are not quite annoyed at him, your words to him will vanish into the air. But if you are really exasperated, you become angry at him. This anger becomes your power. As you open your mouth you cause him to flee. pg 86
