(Section 5) Prayer That Resists Satan Series

LET US PRAY

(Section 5)

V. PRAYER THAT RESISTS SATAN

A. Our Prayer has Three Aspects

1. We ourselves. 2. The God to whom we pray. 3. Our enemy, Satan.

The petitioners are we; the petitioned is God. In a successful prayer, both the petitioner and the petitioned gain. The petitioner gains his heart desire, and the petitioned gets His will done. pg 44

If we gain anything under God's hand, it naturally will mean that His enemy suffers loss. The amount of gain we make is the amount of God's will done. And the amount of God's will done is in turn the amount of loss Satan suffers. pg 45

Whatever we gain in prayer is the enemy's loss. So that our gain and the Lord's glory are

in inverse proportion to Satan's loss. One gains, the other loses; one loses the other gains.

Since we belong to God, Satan intends to frustrate, afflict, or suppress us and allow us not foothold.

Many consider two aspects of prayer. They fail to consider the enemy aspect.

B. The Parable of Luke 18:1-8

1. The Judge

In a sense, this is a picture of the power and authority of God.

The judge is immoral neither having regard for God or man. Jesus employs the judge in negative terms to underscore the goodness of God: for God is not like the virtueless judge in the parable: on the contrary, He is our gracious Father and He protects us: how He always loves to give us the best of things: and He is not unrelated to us as is the judge with this widow. pg 51

2. The Widow

She is driven to seek out the judge because she is oppressed by the adversary.

The term widow illustrates the lack of power and isolation of this woman. She truly serves as a good type for us Christians in the world. We are to be the meekest of all, who offer no resistance of any kind; and hence, we suffer persecution and humiliation everywhere. pg 52

3. The Adversary

In one sense, the adversary is the central figure of the parable. Without him there would be no disturbance created under the judicial rule of the judge; nor of course, would the widow be troubled--she could quite easily live in peace. pg 49

As the widow has her adversary, so we have ours--Satan.

Since the enemy is so strong and we are so poor and desolate as is the widow, he uses all his powers to oppress us--causing us great loss. pg 53

C. Satan and the Saints --- As the adversary evilly treated the widow, so the devil today evilly

treats us believers.

1. Sometimes Satan weakens believer's bodies, causing sickness and pain.

The devil is at work behind the scenes afflicting our bodies.

2. Sometimes the enemy incites people of this world to persecute believers who are therefore attacked by their communities, friends, and family members. The devil actually instigates the assaults. pg 55

3. Sometimes Satan works in the environment, involving believers in hardships and dangers. Frequently he will create misunderstanding among Christians so as to separate the dearest of friends and cause much heartbreak and tears.

4. Sometimes Satan cuts off believer's material supplies, reducing them to wants and even to starvation.

5. Other Satanic Attacks include:

a. Oppressing the spirit of believers and making them feel depressed, restless and aimless.

b. He may afflict the will of believers, causing them to lose the power of free choice and thus not be able to know what to do.

c. He injects irrational fears into believers' hearts.

d. He heaps things upon them to overtire them, or else takes away sleep from them to wear them out.

e. He injects unclean or confused thoughts into their mind to weaken their resistance.

f. He fashions himself into an angel of light to deceive and to lead believers astray.

*In short, Satan will do anything which can cause believers to suffer either spiritually or physically, to fall into sins, or to incur loss or damage. Unfortunately, many of God's children are unaware of the works of Satan when they suffer at his hands.

D. Identify the Enemy --- The most important thing before us now is to identify the enemy. We should know for sure who is our adversary, who it is that causes us much suffering. pg 56

1. Behind flesh and blood, Satan and his powers of darkness can very well be there directing everything.

2. Now part of the most urgent work of ours today is to generate a heart of hatred towards Satan for his cruelty. We must have a hostile attitude towards him. pg 57

E. Prayer That Resists Satan

1. Gen 3 --- God curse Satan. When we suffer under the devil's hands we may remind Satan of the curse of God and pray that God would curse Satan afresh. pg 59