Ephesians 6:18-20,
Prayer
Ephesians 6:18-20. "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always
keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my
mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery
of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare
it fearlessly, as I should."
Prayer is a weapon, and intercessory prayer
even more so. Jesus outlines a basic prayer outline on how we should pray in
Matthew 6:9-15. Each point mentioned is something we should include in our
daily prayers to God, in our own words, not repeated word for word vain
repetition. When I say prayer is a weapon, quite literally, prayer has the
ability to pull down all the firepower of the Lord that we need to help us, no
matter what our situation. [If you doubt that, you need to read "Of Whom The
World Was Not Worthy", by Marie Chapian. It is a story of powerful intercessory
prayer in action the likes of which I dare say almost none of us have seen or
experienced.] The Psalms of David are full of such prayers to the Lord God.
Psalm 68:17,20. "The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of
thousands [millions]…Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord
comes escape from death."
Psalm 144:4-10. "Man is like a breath; his
days are like the fleeting shadow. Part your heavens, O Lord, and come
down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter
the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on
high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of
foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are
deceitful…I will sing a new song to you, O God…who delivers his
servant David from the deadly sword."
In modern warfare, from
World War II onward, air power has been used and recognized as a very effective
form of aerial artillery. David wrote many Psalms of calling out for the Lord
God to come to his rescue. In Vietnam the U.S. Army would call for air support
from the Air Force. Jet fighters, termed fast movers, would come
screaming in at treetop level and drop a bomb-load on the enemy as called in by
a radio operator who would give the coordinates for the air strike. His cries
into his radio were a form of intercessory prayer for deliverance from a very
real enemy. Without that air support, in most cases, they were as good as dead.
As you saw in Psalm 68, the Lord has thousands of
thousands—millions—of flaming chariots, angelically manned and at his
immediate disposal, ready to deliver us at any time of day or night.
2
Corinthians 10:3-5. "For 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. We demolish arguments
and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we
take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
One final
note. The Presbyterian Church in Soul, South Korea rings it's bells at five am
every morning, calling faithful believers to hours of intercessory prayer every
day. They are praying that there would be at least one Christian nation in this
world by the time Jesus returns. South Korea now has 12 million
born-again Christians in a nation of 38 million people!!! That is intercessory
prayer in action!
[For an interesting description of
intercessory prayer turn back to the link titled: "What Is Evangelism?", go to
the middle article titled: Evangelism in Action! and read that article.
You will come away with a very clear understanding of moving intercessory
prayer that will accomplish things in your spiritual battles against the enemy.
Be sure to order pastor Cymbala's book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, to
continue your study about intercessory prayer. I also highly recommend pastor
Chuck Smith's The Effective Prayerlife, available online from
http://calvarychapel.org ]
Here
are some thoughts on why prayer--intercessory prayer--must accompany the
preaching of the gospel (as Paul brings out in Ephesians 6:18-20):
One good book which shows a prayer warrior in action is "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" by pastor Jim Cymbala. Another is Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy by Marie Chapian (published by BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS, 6820 Auto Club Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438. ISBN# 0-87123-417-3. Both of these books are available at: http://www.amazon.com