The Battle
Life is war
II Timothy 4:7- “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
I Timothy 6:12- “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life to which you were called.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5- “Though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Prayer is the communication by which the weapons of warfare are deployed according to the will of God.
Prayer is for war.
The number one reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that they try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.
Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for.
Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called the troops, gave them a crucial mission (“Go and bear fruit”), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give you tactical advice and to send air cover when you and your comrades need it.”
We must create in ourselves and in all Christians a wartime mentality.
Embrace the sovereignty of God. We cannot pray consistently that God would actually save lost sinners. Until we embrace the sovereignty of God, we cannot e confident the cause of Christ will triumph and all our praying will be in vain.
Romans 10:1- “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved.”
If you don’t believe in the sovereignty of God prayer is ineffective. The effects of prayer are devastating if you try to pray consistently with this rejection of the sovereignty of God.
How then do you pray if you really believe that man and not God must make the ultimate decisions about salvation in the universe?
Embracing the sovereignty of God is crucial for maintaining a heart of prayer and mobilizing a movement of prayer.
God has an awesome place for prayer in his purposes for the world.
We have gotten a glimpse of what God’s great purpose is for the world, namely, to fill this world with his glory, by rooting out of his kingdom all sin and unbelief, and filling it with white-hot worshipers from every tongue and tribe and nation.
Numbers14:21; Matthew 13:41; Revelations 3:15, 5:9, 7:9
I believe the proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed is THE work of missions. And prayer is the power that wields the weapon of the Word, and the Word is the weapon by which the nations will be brought to faith and obedience.
The GOSPEL is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
You have been born anew not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding WORD OF GOD (I Peter 1:23).
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by HEARING with faith? (Galations 3:2).
The GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM will be PREACHED throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14)
God’s goal to be glorified in a world full of white-hot worshipers from ever people and tongue and tribe and nation will not succeed without the powerful proclamation of the gospel by people like you and me.
Colossians 4:3- Pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the Word, to declare the mystery of Christ.
Prayer is like a walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls in for the accurate location of the target of the Word. It calls in to ask for the protection of air cover. It calls in to ask for fire power to blast open a way for the tanks of the Word of God. It calls in the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers. It calls in supplies for the forces. And it calls in the needed reinforcements.
Matthew 9:38- “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvester Reinforcements come to the missionary enterprise when the churches know they are in a war, and when they bow down in their trenches with bullets flying overhead and get on their walkie-talkies and cry out for more troops.
This is the place of prayer on the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom to increase the efforts of the saints. It malfunctions in the hands of soldiers who have gone AWOL.
How long till you rend the heavens and come down with power on your church?
How long till you bring forth victory among all the peoples of the world?
II Timothy 4:7- “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
I Timothy 6:12- “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life to which you were called.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5- “Though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Prayer is the communication by which the weapons of warfare are deployed according to the will of God.
Prayer is for war.
The number one reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that they try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.
Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for.
Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called the troops, gave them a crucial mission (“Go and bear fruit”), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give you tactical advice and to send air cover when you and your comrades need it.”
We must create in ourselves and in all Christians a wartime mentality.
Embrace the sovereignty of God. We cannot pray consistently that God would actually save lost sinners. Until we embrace the sovereignty of God, we cannot e confident the cause of Christ will triumph and all our praying will be in vain.
Romans 10:1- “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved.”
If you don’t believe in the sovereignty of God prayer is ineffective. The effects of prayer are devastating if you try to pray consistently with this rejection of the sovereignty of God.
How then do you pray if you really believe that man and not God must make the ultimate decisions about salvation in the universe?
Embracing the sovereignty of God is crucial for maintaining a heart of prayer and mobilizing a movement of prayer.
God has an awesome place for prayer in his purposes for the world.
We have gotten a glimpse of what God’s great purpose is for the world, namely, to fill this world with his glory, by rooting out of his kingdom all sin and unbelief, and filling it with white-hot worshipers from every tongue and tribe and nation.
Numbers14:21; Matthew 13:41; Revelations 3:15, 5:9, 7:9
I believe the proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed is THE work of missions. And prayer is the power that wields the weapon of the Word, and the Word is the weapon by which the nations will be brought to faith and obedience.
The GOSPEL is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
You have been born anew not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding WORD OF GOD (I Peter 1:23).
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by HEARING with faith? (Galations 3:2).
The GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM will be PREACHED throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14)
God’s goal to be glorified in a world full of white-hot worshipers from ever people and tongue and tribe and nation will not succeed without the powerful proclamation of the gospel by people like you and me.
Colossians 4:3- Pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the Word, to declare the mystery of Christ.
Prayer is like a walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls in for the accurate location of the target of the Word. It calls in to ask for the protection of air cover. It calls in to ask for fire power to blast open a way for the tanks of the Word of God. It calls in the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers. It calls in supplies for the forces. And it calls in the needed reinforcements.
Matthew 9:38- “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvester Reinforcements come to the missionary enterprise when the churches know they are in a war, and when they bow down in their trenches with bullets flying overhead and get on their walkie-talkies and cry out for more troops.
This is the place of prayer on the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom to increase the efforts of the saints. It malfunctions in the hands of soldiers who have gone AWOL.
How long till you rend the heavens and come down with power on your church?
How long till you bring forth victory among all the peoples of the world?