3 Tools for Spiritual Warfare
Today, our world is blessed to have the Internet, which connects us with God’s people from around the globe. There is one church in many locations. Seated together in heavenly places in Christ, the church prays in agreement with the intercession of Jesus! As the people of God unite in prayer, each member takes his place on the frontline. Fearlessly commit to raise the anthems of prayer as a war cry to be heard throughout the earth! United we will stand until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers every nation as the waters cover the seas. Together we are making way for God’s will to be done on earth even as it is in heaven!
Jesus made it simple to be one with Him. He simply says, “Follow Me.” Believers have a personal invitation to go with Him on a journey. He is with us when we encounter mountains of unsurmountable heights, dark valleys with swollen streams, deserts parched with heat, rocky pathways filled with sinkholes, those rough and smooth places of doubt, fear, and unbelief. Along this prayer journey, we will lose ego and find the real person we were created to be in Christ Jesus. We become His colaborers in prayer. When we pray for one another, prejudices drop off and the Light grows brighter and brighter. Our voices make a symphony as we pray for all nations in agreement with the intercession of Jesus! The sounds of prayer will cause confusion in the enemy camp and they will fall into their own trap!
Prayer is fundamental in the Kingdom of God. It is not an optional extra, nor is it a last resort when all methods have failed. Prayerlessness is a sin. Prayer lifts Christian activities from the realm of human effort to the divine. Someone made the statement, “When man works, MAN works; when man prays, GOD works.” Through prayer we become coworkers with the Lord God Almighty. We move from time to eternity.
Our Commander sends us forth with a Helper—an Intercessor who cannot fail—who gives us strategies for combating the spirits of darkness. When you commit to pray, you become a vital instrument of a prayer movement. There is a company of singers worshiping and releasing harmonious praises, a company of intercessors who are releasing prayers and supplications with thanksgiving from around the globe. God has called every member of His Body to pray for one another, to offer thanksgiving for all men everywhere, and to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers. Many times the Spirit leads me to offer thanksgiving for people by name. Choose to be an effective instrument of prayer releasing sounds of victory.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Let us continue to do those greater works as we follow Him. “Repeatedly the church He gave His life for has been ‘broken’ by persecution or corrupted, yet He stoops and builds it again with worn but worthy tools—discipline and instruction.”
In Romans 5:5 Paul gives us great encouragement—God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with His love.
The ministry of prayer has been the peculiar distinction of all of God’s saints. This has been the secret of their power. The energy and the soul of their work has been the closet. The need of help outside of man being so great, given man’s natural inability to always judge kindly, justly, and truly and to act the Golden Rule, so prayer is enjoined by Christ to enable man to act in all these things according to the divine will. By prayer, the ability is secured to feel the law of love, to speak according to the law of love, and to do everything in harmony with the law of love.
Jesus prayed that His followers would be one even as He and the Father are one. The time has come for the triumphant Church to be revealed! Make every effort to keep yourself united in the Spirit, binding everyone together with peace (see Eph. 4:3). “If Christians, despite their divisions, can grow ever more united in common prayer around Christ, they will grow in the awareness of how little divides them in comparison to what unites them.”
The End-Time Harvest
The fields are white unto harvest! “From 1960 to 2010, the number of Muslims who have converted away from Islam and become true followers of Jesus Christ has skyrocketed, from fewer than 200,000 to some 10 million people. Amidst persecution and even genocide, the Church in the Middle East is growing in ways never seen in fourteen centuries of Islam. And there is now scholarly documentation backing up these numbers.”
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Our responsibility is to pray as we “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NASB). Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for the world (see Heb. 7:25). The Holy Spirit will impart the intercession of Jesus to you, and He is faithful to confirm the prayer strategy on any given day. There is no greater agreement than praying in agreement with Jesus and the Holy Spirit—they know the will of God. When you learn to listen, the Holy Spirit will reveal what you are to pray for and how you are to pray. He may call you to pray by speaking to you in a song:
Souls are crying, men are dying, won’t you lead them to the cross? Go and find them, help to win them, win the lost at any cost. Go out and win, rescue from sin, day’s almost done, low sinks the sun. Souls are crying, men are dying, win the lost at any cost.
God indeed gave me music that had a message and meaning. It truly was a gift from God.
Over the years I have learned that the Holy Spirit works with believers in the ministry of prayer, and often songs of the spirit are prayers set to music.
It was God’s kind intent that the Church govern from the platform of victory where we are seated together with the Head of the Church at the right hand of the Father. We were born for such a time as this to take our assigned places in the symphony of prayer that is heard throughout the universe—a melody that ascends into the very throne room of God. These are perilous times. Let us declare our faith, not our fears. God has not given us a spirit of fear; may we choose to “let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:27). Purpose to wait upon the Lord, take time to pray, listen for Him to speak. Read the Word of God and meditate on His goodness, mercy, justice, and faithfulness. He is our heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is present to help and guide us. We have the power, the grace, and God’s ability to live free from fear—in victory!
The More You Pray, The More You Want to Pray!
E.M. Bounds once said, “Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish.”
According to God’s divine will, He has called every believer to pray for the end-time harvest and the worldwide Church of the redeemed. The Church is to pray for all people everywhere—for all saints, for those in authority, for those in ministry, for the end-time harvest! God has raised His people up together to sit together in heavenly places for His purpose. Church, let us be about the Father’s business, preparing the way of the Lord!
Today is the day of salvation. God desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. His goal is worldwide salvation, and as many as call upon the name of Jesus, the Lord, will be saved. He set the way of salvation in place, and the Body of Christ is here now for such a time as this to pray and be His witnesses in a world of darkness. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 ESV).
The Church is in a war, and prayer is our powerful weapon. Many years ago while I was in prayerful meditation, I had a vision. I entered a prayer room and was invited to sit down at the end of a conference table in a large room. Communication was different here. Thought moved with thought, familiar words to the mind of the spirit floated from spirit to spirit. The God of the universe and the Word were seated at the head of the table. They appeared as two, but at the same time they were One. Immediately, I became aware of a third person in the room. Turning, I saw the One on whom I could rely to be my constant companion and Helper in prayer. I recognized Him from Scriptures that are imprinted on my heart and mind—John 14:26 and Romans 8:26-27. The Father has plans, the Son intercedes, and the Holy Spirit is my Helper, Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, and Counselor. He knows the plans and reveals the intercession of Jesus to me as I wait for His instructions. Throughout these many years He has been faithful to help me and continues to show me what and who to pray for at any given time. He knows the plans and searches hearts. Years later while in a time of spiritual warfare for the soul of our son, I remembered the vision—the prayer room became the war room of divine planning where I began to learn about the weapons of our spiritual warfare.
The church is the Body of Christ, and we have an assigned place in the army of the Lord! We are God’s voice in this earth realm and are to pray in agreement with God’s will, which He has already set in motion. God made prayer an integral element in implementing His ordained plans according to His grace and will. Too often we pray soulish prayers that are contrary to His will, interfering with His divine purposes. However, His plans will stand! Our prayers are not intended to tell Him what to do or how to accomplish His plan. The ultimate goal of the intercessor is to know God intimately and learn His ways and do His will. He desires “to show the rulers and powers in the heavens the many different varieties of his wisdom through the church. This was consistent with the plan he had from the beginning of time that he accomplished through Christ Jesus our Lord. In Christ we have bold and confident access to God through faith in him” (Eph. 3:9–12 CEB). Too often our decisions are determined by temporal circumstances rather than God’s eternal purposes.
God has already set the necessary plans in place to answer the prayers of the saints. The Holy Spirit directs and leads us in prayer that will never interfere with God’s sovereign purposes. Learn to know the voice of the Holy Spirit whose words are confirmed by the written Word of God.
Three Factors for Waging Effective Spiritual Warfare
There are three important factors you must know to wage an effective spiritual warfare.
1) Know the Commander
First, know the Commander of heavenly armies. He is majesty, and His name is above every name. Worship His majesty, come into agreement with His intercession for mankind. God is Love, and your prayers are offered because you love God with all your heart, love yourself as you are loved, and love others as you do yourself. Any prayer that you pray for another person is based on this unconditional love. He is Jehovah-Nissi and His banner that goes before us is the banner of Love!
Make it a priority to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
2) Know Who You are in Christ
Second, you must know who you are in Christ Jesus. God’s children will become men and women of great valor when they know Him and their true identity in Christ Jesus! You are light; you have been made the righteousness of God. It’s all about relationship, a new identity. You abide in Him and His Word abides in you—you are one with the risen Lord! You are God’s instrument of righteousness! This may require surrendering an old religious paradigm of condemnation, guilt, and shame. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you believe you are who He says you are—more than a conqueror, an overcomer by your testimony and the blood of Jesus Christ! You are a brand new person created in Christ Jesus! You are strong in the Lord and the power of His might! Your prayers avail much!
When you know who you are in the Lord, you can confidently approach the throne of grace and stand in the gap on behalf of others. When the enemy tries to taunt you and says all manner of evil against you, use the sword of the spirit just as Jesus did when satan tempted Him in Luke 4.
3) Know Your Enemy
Third, you must know your enemy. In Ephesians 6 the apostle defines the hierarchy of the satanic kingdom. You possess powerful weapons to use against this enemy—prayer, praise, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Paul gives four classifications of demonic spirits. Principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. They are highly organized and disciplined, but we are not ignorant of their devices. Always remember—greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Jesus identifies satan as a thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The apostle John reveals how you can recognize him—every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. “This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:2-3).
Pray with me: “In the name of Jesus, I thank You, Father, for calling me to be a fellow workman—a joint-promoter and a laborer together with You. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit who helps me pray and shows me how to pray according to Your will and in agreement with my Lord who ever lives to make intercession for the world.”