PART ONE ARMOR UP! SERMON FIVE
THE GREATEST—AND MOST NEGLECTED—WEAPON WE HAVE
Ephesians 6:18–20 (ESV) praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
We must not confide in the armor of God, but in the God of this armor, because all our weapons are only mighty through God.-William Gurnall
Intercessory prayer is our most powerful and strategic believing community weapon in spiritual warfare. It is the necessary means by which we as believers are able to withstand and overcome the attacks of the enemy.
Mark 9:14–29 “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer,” he told them (v. 29).
Luke 22:32a “But I have prayed for you,” Jesus told him.
Prayer assists in the deliverance of people who are undergoing spiritual attack.
Acts 1:14 they “were continually devoting themselves to prayer”.
Acts 2:42: “They were continually devoting themselves … to prayer”.
Power falls where prayer prevails.
The kind of prayer that brings supernatural results and deliverance is characterized by consistency.
“supplication” implies very specific requests.
ACTS
• A for adoration:
• C for confession:
• T for thanksgiving:
• S for supplication:
Informal, spontaneous times of prayer grow out of deep times with God.
Prayer also has to be intense.
“keep on continually being alert with all perseverance” (v. 18) literally means to be without sleep..
You endure and do not give up.
Luke 9:23, TLB “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences”.
Ephesians 6:12, Phillips “our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil”.
In verses 19 and 20, the word boldly is used twice.
The early church was characterized not only by prayer but by bold prayer.
Warren Wiersbe. “Prayer is the energy that enables the Christian soldier to wear the armor and to wield the sword,”
Scripture indicates that consistent, intense, and strategic prayer will deliver us from the evil one.
A commitment to intercessory prayer changes lives.
S. D. Gordon: “The great people of the earth today are people who pray. I do not mean people who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time and pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer.”
Prayer is powerful.
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