Using the Spiritual Weapon Satan Most Fears

Today, we begin the series, Winning Spiritual Battles Because We Use Our Spiritual Weapons. As we seek to run well the race marked out for us in 2021, i.e. advance the righteous reign of King Jesus in our own lives, the lives of those we love and throughout our world, we must overcome the kingdom of darkness. In his wisdom, God has ordained one, primary offensive weapon that overthrows the kingdom of darkness: PRAYER. Jesus said to Peter, “Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you “(Luke 22:31-32). One veteran missionary writes,

There is nothing on earth that Satan so fears as prayer. He cannot triumph over prevailing prayer. Satan is more afraid of your praying than of your pure life or zealous witness. One’s life may be a beautiful witness that cannot be silenced, but prayer is a militant force that has the potential of defeating Satan, destroying his works, and driving him out of places and lives he claims as his own. (Wesley Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer.)

Could it be that we and are loved ones are losing spiritual battles because we’re not really fighting those battles through prayer, as Jesus wants us to? The next two episodes study what Jesus specifically told us are The Six Basic Parts of Prayer.

There was one characteristic of Jesus’ earthly life that seems to have been most striking to his disciples—those who knew him best, for Scripture records just one thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them about. It wasn’t how to heal, cast out demons, or still the seas. It wasn’t how to counsel more effectively or how to forgive. The one thing they asked Jesus to teach them about was how to pray. Getting alone to pray was something that John the Baptizer was known for too. In Luke 11:1, we read, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

The background for this request is enlightening. Jesus had already taught them how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, two years earlier in his ministry. Since then, they had been sent out by Jesus with instructions, Proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper cast out demons (Matt 10:7-8.) They had returned from one of their missions saying, “Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name.” Yet, afterwards, on a separated occasion, the disciples had been unable to cast out a demon. They must have been intrigued by Jesus explanation: This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. (Mark 10:29). Jesus clearly teaches that the ultimate weapon against Satan is PRAYER.

In response to his disciples’ request, “teach us to pray,” in Luke 11, Jesus gave six principles for effective prayer. They are the same six principles given in Matt 6:9-13 in the Sermon on the Mount, popularly known as The Lord’s Prayer. This teaching is not intended as a rote prayer to be recited in church liturgies; rather it is a prayer pattern that covers the six most foundational truths about prayer, a kind of skeleton that needs to be clothed with specifics of our situation. We know that Jesus did not intend this “how to” model primarily to be merely recited, because in the two verses immediately before the Lord’s Prayer Jesus said, When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. False religions commonly employ the mindless repetition of rote, “sacred” prayer phrases, substituting a kind of self-hypnotism for prayer. The prayer methodology Jesus teaches could not be more different! Let’s dig into these prayer principles from the pattern given in Matt 6:9-13.

1. ADOPTION: vs 9 Our Father in heaven. The ENVIRONEMNT for Prayer. Prayer, as Jesus taught it, begins by remembering that those who belong to Christ don’t need a Rosary, a prayer wheel, prayer beads or pre-written words to be recited to draw near to God; prayer is coming to our heavenly Father, who loves us more than we can know. We are able to draw near because of our justification, i.e. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, turning away the just wrath of God the Judge. Instead, he declares us righteous. But salvation doesn’t end there; it is followed by adoption. As J.I. Packer observes,

Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law and viewing God as judge…But contrast this now with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship, and establishes us as His children and heirs. Closeness, generosity, and affection are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the father is a greater thing.

Because of our adoption, we pray to our heavenly FATHER:

• Who runs to us, like the prodigal’s father with arms wide open whenever we turn towards him,
• Who desires to bless us even more than we desire to be blessed,
• Whose ambition for us transcends our imagination,
• Who delights in his children, finding great pleasure when we spend time with him in prayer.

“The first prayer principle to remember,” says Jesus, “is ADOPTION, the environment of prayer—you come to God as his beloved child, calling him Father.

2.  ADORATION: vs 9 continues, Hallowed be your name. The MOTIVATION for Prayer. Notice that it is also the first request in the pattern Jesus gave us. May your name be honored. May you be glorified. May your name be held in high esteem by the whole world. This desire for God to be glorified was the focus of Jesus’ entire life (John 17:4). No wonder he taught his followers to begin their prayer, “May your name be glorified.” We were created to glorify God. "The chief end of man," says the Westminster Shorter Catechism, "is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." On the surface this may seem selfish of God; but I believe that whatever most glorifies God will ultimately most benefit us.

Not only are we made for God’s glory, but the deepest longings of our heart are satisfied by loving our Lord WITH A HEART THAT WANTS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE TO SEE HIS NAME HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM BY EVERY BEING IN THE UNIVERSE. This petition points to the motivation for our requests in prayer. Lloyd Jones in his classic work, The Sermon on the Mount, observes that this petition is rooted in “a burning desire that the whole world may bow before God in adoration, in reverence, in praise, in worship, in honor, and in thanksgiving” (The Sermon on the Mount) What are some practical ways this desire can express itself in prayer?

1. Take a moment early in your prayer to express words of adoration to the Lord. This petition reminds us that our life purpose is to honor God, so why not honor him at the beginning of your prayer by choosing an attribute of his that his been especially meaningful lately, and praising him for it.
2. Appeal to God’s honor and reputation in your requests, following Abraham’s and Moses’ example. In Genesis 18, Abraham secured the safety of Lot by reaffirming that God would not slay the righteous with the wicked. Moses, in Deut 9:28, urges God not to destroy the wicked Israelites appealing to God’s reputation—lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them.”

The more our prayers are rooted in ADORATION—our desire to see the name and reputation of God honored, the more power they possess.

3. ADVANCING the kingdom: vs 10 May your kingdom come. The PURPOSE of Prayer. “The focus of our praying,” says Jesus, “is the advance of his kingdom of righteousness over earth.” Even in Jesus’ day, there was confusion over the term kingdom of God. Jesus was NOT saying that one of the six pillars of daily prayer is asking Jesus every day to come back to earth soon! Rather, Jesus explains what “May your kingdom come” means in the next phrase. Verse 10 continues, May your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, there is no sin; righteousness reigns. The kingdom coming refers to the advance of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness over earth. The more that happens, THE MORE THE KINGDOM OF EARTH WILL BE LIKE THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. That is what it means to pray for God’s kingdom to come—that God’s righteousness from heaven will spread over the earth. As we saw last week, this is what Jesus is talking about a few verses later, when in verse 33 he commands, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It is to SEEK the rule of King Jesus and his righteousness over our heart loyalties and our heart attitudes. It is recovering Adam’s call to develop the potential of the earth, while seeking the restoration of rightness—fixing everything broken by sin in every sphere of our lives.

The reason so many Christians today mistakenly think that praying for Christ’s kingdom to come means asking daily for him to come back is that they have been erroneously taught that the coming of the kingdom of God in the NT is primarily future. To the contrary, the NT teaches that the kingdom of God comes in two stages. Jesus has already inaugurated that kingdom but will return to consummate it.  He has defeated the usurpers of Adam’s kingdom. The proof that Satan, sin and death are defeated is Jesus’ resurrection—the curse for Adam’s sin—death and the decay of the physical world—has been ultimately broken. Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation. His ascension means he has taken back the throne of this world. Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians will be able to grasp their power right now to advance Christ’s kingdom.

I pray that you may know… what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph 1:18-23).

Although Jesus is king right now, during this church age, he allows his kingly authority to be resisted. He has decisively broken the backs of Satan, sin, and death, and taken back Adam’s throne. But these enemies remain during this church age—in a sense conducting guerilla warfare against efforts to advance Christ’s kingdom in Christ’s ascension power. They can only be driven out and overcome in the power of Christ, fighting with the spiritual weapons he gives us. That is why prayer is our greatest weapon. To pray, May your kingdom come is to ask God to bring our own heart loyalties and attitudes into submission to the King. It is to request Christ’s power to share the gospel and for his power to enable others to surrender to Christ’s kingship. It is to seek Christ’s power to undergird our efforts to bring about rightness, wholeness in every sphere where we have influence, as we try to implement Christ’s agenda of righteousness. In this age, the ADVANCE of Christ’s kingdom is accomplished very largely through prayer. Wesley Duewell, one of our generation’s leaders in worldwide prayer writes,

Prevailing prayer is God’s ordained means for extending His kingdom, for defeating Satan and his empire of darkness and evil, and for fulfilling God’s eternal plan and bringing into effect His good will on earth. It is God’s means of covering the earth with his blessings. Prevailing prayer is God’s priority strategy for our (the current church) age (Mighty Prevailing Prayer).

Praying “May your kingdom come (i.e. may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven)” is the primary purpose of prayer because it is the primary purpose of Christian’s lives. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness in human hearts and in the culture all over the earth, every square inch of which, King Jesus claims as his own. As we saw last week, to seek requires an intentional focus, a step- by-step plan. What Jesus is teaching us this week is, “Saturate that plan in prayer. Accompany your PLAN and EFFORT to seek Christ’s righteous rule in a particular sphere of your life with PRAYER that Christ’s righteous rule (KINGDOM) will prevail." Although modern warfare has changed dramatically, the Iraq war provides a useful analogy for spiritual warfare. It began with a full day of bombing, before ground troops invaded. Similarly, God has ordained prayer as the foundational means of dislodging Satan’s hold on various spheres of life. Here is a great example of kingdom prayer at work:

Some women from a church in Fort Collins, CO understood this truth about prayer warfare and began to pray for Christ’s kingdom of righteousness to prevail over a strip club, called The Hunt Club, near their church. One night, Aaron Bekkela, one of the owners, received a message from one of his strippers, “My mom and her friends are praying for you.” Several years later he came to faith in Christ. He then felt prompted to prod the two co-owners, his brothers, to sell the business. Instead of enabling the business to continue, he sought to find a group of Christians who would buy the property and re-purpose it into a ministry center to the community. A man named Rob Cowless, visited the strip club, to hear Bekkela’s proposal. Rob describes a part of his visit:

When we passed through a second doorway, we entered the locker room. Again, it was a dirty, nasty place with only a concrete floor. In the middle was an oversized vanity setup—a mirror some six feet long with bulb lights all around—where the dancers did their makeup before going onstage. Surrounding on all sides were rows and rows of metal lockers. I was stunned as I stared at several with pictures of children taped onto the metal doors. Who were the boys and girls in these photographs? In another moment it hit me; these were the kids these women were trying to feed and clothe by working in this place. A knot began to tighten in my throat. Here, behind the scenery of what men viewed as a sensuous house of glamour, was the total opposite. A lot of these women came here night after night trying to hold their lives together.

Rob Cowless and his wife, Joy, decided to join with Aaron; they began to pray for the kingdom of God to be further manifested on a plot of ground in Fort Collins, CO, known at the time as The Hunt Club. They raised the funds to buy out the three owners. Aaron immediately donated his third to the renovation of the building. When they closed the doors of the club they were able to assist over twenty of the former employees with transitions to new careers, helping with everything from rent and utilities, to groceries, counseling, and even tuition for going back to school.

A few months later, The Genesis Project was launched from the completely renovated property, with the goal of reaching out both to those who patronized The Hunt Club and those who worked there. Before long they developed after-school ministries for the children in the trailer park behind the building and Kids Café so that during the summer, low-income kids who qualified for free lunches during the school year had a midday meal. One man came by the new ministry center with tears in his eyes and said, “I lost my marriage here.” Later, through tears, Aaron told Rob, “In the early days, my job was recruitment of good-looking coeds from Colorado State. I told them that they could graduate debt free by working just a few nights a week. Some would, but I knew most would end up dropping out of school, sucked into the vacuum of the business, destroying their futures" (The God of New Beginnings Cowles and Roberts)

Satan claimed a patch of ground in Fort Collins, called The Hunt Club. Christ’s warriors, beginning with a heart-broken mom because her daughter had taken a job as a stripper, fought the kingdom of darkness over that patch of ground through prayer. To pray, “May your kingdom come” is to do a whole lot more than put in a request for Jesus to come back soon. It is to lay hold of tremendous spiritual power promised to the followers of Christ who unrelentingly, PRAY.

For Further Prayerful Thought:

1. Why is it important to you to remember that your prayers are directed to one who has adopted you into his family at great cost?
2. Why is the name of God worthy of supreme honor. How can you increase the passion for your life to bring the Lord honor?
3. What would you say to gently correct someone who thought that praying, “Thy kingdom come” means to ask Jesus to return to earth soon?
4. What was the most exciting part of the story of the Kingdom of Christ prevailing on a piece of ground in Fort Collins, CO?