"when The Church Prays" Series

When The Church Prays – part one

In Ephesians 6 we read;

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms..” Eph 6:10-12

In these verses, Paul makes it quite clear that we ARE in a fight, that we ARE in a struggle; a struggle NOT against flesh & blood, BUT against the devil; against an unseen enemy, against a wicked an enemy, against an enemy with mighty powers of darkness, against an enemy who has many strategies and tricks up his sleeve – all designed to trip you up and knock you down…and destroy you.

LISTEN we are in a war and we have an enemy…

PETER – talked about this enemy. AND - unfortunately it was an enemy that Peter knew from personal experience, it was an enemy that at times even got the best of Him. That is why Peter warns us in 1 Pe 5:8 to;

“Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.” 1 Pe 5:8 (NLT)

LISTEN – the devil IS your great enemy and he is going to attack you… AND he prowls around like a roaring what? A roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Do you see that picture? A lion in the bushes, watching his prey – looking for those who are weak, alone or straggling behind. AND when he finds what he is looking for he pounces and devours them… UNDERSTAND – the question isn’t, IF the devil is going to attack, it’s WHEN.

AND UNDERSTAND – satan is very good at what he does… AFTER ALL - he has been doing for 1,000 of years to billions of people. And that lion - is watching you right now – in fact, he’s been watching you – waiting for that moment of weakness of vulnerability….

The apostle John talked about our enemy in Revelation 12:17

“Then the dragon became angry at the woman, and declared war against the rest of her children – (against) all who keep God’s commandments and confess they belong to Jesus.” Rev 12:17

Do you see what Jesus is revealing to us in his Revelation? LISTEN – satan (the dragon) is very angry - WHY? because the blood of the lamb – because Jesus Christ defeated him on the cross… And since there is nothing more that he can do to Jesus, satan NOW – has turned his fierce anger against the church (the woman) – against all those who keep God’s commands and against those who confess that they belong to Jesus… He has turned his fierce anger - against you… against me… against your home…against Central.

AND UNDERSTAND – satan, is perhaps the most powerful being there is, after Almighty God (Jude says in his letter that even Michael one of the mightiest of the angels – didn’t dare mess with satan) AND – if you are a Christian, satan has declared war on you.

LISTEN - we have an enemy, we are in a war…Right at this very moment – The lion is prowling, the dragon is angry… NOW - we can choose to ignore it, live as though it’s no big deal, play baseball, go fishing on a pier, sleep in our beds – we can live our life’s like we have nothing to fear… BUT we do so to our own destruction…. BECAUSE - we have an enemy who is not ever going to quit – we have an enemy who is going to keep coming at us again, and again and again…

AND – when he does he will take from us; things that belong to us, things that are rightly ours, because we are children of God. We are losing precious territory to this enemy… LISTEN – many are LOSING THEIR; peace, hope, joy, significance, guiltlessness, victory over sin & temptation, satisfaction & fullness of life and their freedom.

QUESTION – how do we declare war on satan. How do we fight an enemy that is so much more powerful than we are… How can we possibly stand firm, how can we hold our ground, let alone defeat, an enemy that is the most powerful being there is, next to God – How do we overcome - an enemy that knows us so well and has been engaged in this war against the Christian for 2,000 years… Those answers are found in 2 Corinthians 10;

“Though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds…” (3,4)