Last lesson we looked at the power that we find when the Word of God is coupled with Spirit filled prayer. "The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much." WHY?
1. Prayer is our lifeline with God, it is our golden thread that keeps our lives together. Without prayer our lives are powerless, with prayer our live are empowered. (Do you remember the Lord on the Mighty Steed, He threw out the line and captured our minds. The line kept them under submission and drew them to Himself. That lasso that He used to subdue our minds and take every thought captive was prayer. Our lifeline is our communication with Him.)
2. The purpose of prayer is to keep us in constant communion with God. Indeed we are to "pray without ceasing." That should be the goal of a believer's life, to live in constant communion with God.
3. And yet God's ultimate goal for us, is not power, but intimacy with Him. Intimacy only comes through constant communication.
4. God wants us to receive healing through His constant presence in us. But more importantly, He wants us to know the Healer, Jesus Christ.
5. He wants to give us resurrection life, but more importantly, He wants us to know the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ.
6. Let this basic truth sink into our spirits that God does not want our attentions to be on the battle, but on the Victor, who has caused us to overcome, Jesus Christ.
7. It is never God's will for warfare to become our focus, it is the fastest way to lose balance in our walk with the Lord. Our job is not to rebuke the evil one as much as it is to relate to God as our Deliverer! (In these last days many will be lead astray by the doctrines of demons and devils.) We see this around us everywhere, where more emphasis is put on rebuking Satan's power than focusing on the awesomeness of our God!
8. The PRIMARY strength of warfare is that it produces GODLINESS. But Godliness is only achieved through intmacy with God.
9. Therefore God uses prayer as a weapon of warfare, because His chief objective is to keep us connected in an intimate relationship with Him which produces Godliness in us.
10. NO spiritual battle is ever won apart from prayer!
11. The end result of every spiritual battle covered in prayer is spiritual growth, it cannot be avoided where intimacy is achieved.
12. And still prayer is not the means to and end, it is what God wanted for us all along, it is the end. It is the goal of every spiritual battle. We walk through life to know Him and we grow through that communion in prayer with Him.
In our next lesson we will take a look at the Word of God as a weapon of warfare.
Father, we thank You that You created us to have fellowship with You. You have the very hairs on our head numbered. You know our comings in and our goings out. You even have the steps of a righteous man ordered and because of our belief in Your Son as the Saviour we are in right standing before You. You know us, because You created us. Move through us, You have given us our measure of fatih. Without You we could not even believe. Cause us to come to Your fountain of life. That we might drink deeply of Your living water. We exalt You and the battle fades beyond our sight. The endless drones of battle fade in our understanding. Shades of our past are dispelled by the Glory of Your presence in us. Keep us Lord in a constant place of intimacy. We hunger for Your righteousness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen |
