Survival gear 2

Survival Gear

Part 2

“Prayer”

Ephesians 6:13-20 “So use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up.14 But to do this, you will need the strong belt of truth and the breastplate of God’s approval (His righteousness). 15 Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the Good News of peace with God. 16 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. 17 And you will need the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the Word of God.

18 Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. Plead with him, reminding him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere. 19 Pray for me, too, and ask God to give me the right words as I boldly tell others about the Lord and as I explain to them that his salvation is for the Gentiles too. 20 I am in chains now for preaching this message from God. But pray that I will keep on speaking out boldly for him even here in prison, as I should” (LB)

I read recently of a Christian man that was on a business trip. He checked in at the airline counter, began the boarding process, walked down the aisle of the plane and took his aisle seat.

After settling down and preparing to take off he glanced over at the lady that was sitting next to him at the window.

He noticed she was reading a large old leather bound book. Intrigued, and thinking it must be some old Bible, he asked the lady what she was reading.

She responded that she was indeed reading a bible, but said it was a Satanic Bible.

In the course of the ensuing conversation, the lady stated,

"We Satanists do prayer walks around every church in America. During these prayer walks we pray against the church and the pastors, and we ask Satan to use 4 specific types of attacks against them—Deception, Distraction, Divisions, and Discouragement.”

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Needless to say, the church of Jesus Christ is locked in arm to arm combat with the forces of hell!

But listen: If so-called Satanists are praying to the “dark side” against churches and pastors, the children of light should pray all the more to our mighty prayer-answering God, who is infinitely mightier than the devil and all his demons combined!

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Now, last time we talked about the first tool in your spiritual survival gear—daily time spent in God’s Word.

Today I want to talk about a second tool in your survival gear—daily time in prayer.

Notice with me that Prayer is the last thing Paul mentions in his illustration of the armor of God.

It’s not a piece of armor, per se, but it’s sort of like the frosting on the cake, or the wrapping around a gift—it makes the armor complete!

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Now, I want to talk about 3 kinds of prayer in the life of every believer—the prayer for peace, grace, and breakthrough.

First we have the prayer for:

Peace

There’s an old hymn that goes, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

And that is so true!

Every believer in Jesus Christ has a daily choice—to carry your own worries and cares like a heavy backpack throughout the day, or cast your cares upon the Lord and receive His peace!

We can CARRY or we can CAST!

The Bible says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. 7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7 LB).

According to these verses:

We can worry about it or pray about it

Fret over it or release it

Hold onto it or give it to Him

ILLUS: The word "casting" is a sailor’s term. It speaks of throwing an anchor overboard.

The anchor goes to the bottom and finds a place to settle, to dig in, which holds the ship steady during turbulent times.

Likewise, when we cast our cares onto the Lord, they are anchored “in Him,” and we’re held steady in stormy times!

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If you’re going to survive in a world of troubles and woes,

unpaid bills and marital pressures,

perilous times and a godless culture,

We MUST learn the art of care-casting in order to experience God’s peace.

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Then the 2nd kind of prayer is for:

II. Grace

This prayer is found in Heb. 4:16:

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (NKJV).

Notice that this kind of prayer is about needing help “in time of need.”

You pray this way when you feel overwhelmed,

your weaknesses are pulling you down,

you don’t feel you can go on,

you’re perplexed, confused, and don’t know which way to turn...

In these times you need two things more than anything else—God’s mercy, and His grace to help you in your time of need.

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Now, MERCY is generally needed for something behind you, in your past...

You’ve made a mistake,

have taken a wrong turn,

have stumbled in the way,

And you need the mercies of God—His compassion and forgiveness to cover you.

The good news is, our God is a God of mercy!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,” (2 Cor. 1:3 ESV)

And Solomon wrote, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23 ESV).

Every morning when you wake up, God has new, fresh mercies set aside for you!

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Now, while MERCY is for past mistakes, GRACE is for today’s challenges...

Grace is from a word meaning “God’s Favor...”

When God gives grace, His favor goes before you to prepare a way where there is no way...

His favor unlocks that important door for you to walk through...

His favor causes the most unlikely people to help you...

His favor changes your circumstances to go your way...

His favor shows up at 11:59 with miraculous provision!

Yes! In our “time of need” we pray for MERCY for yesterday’s mistakes, and GRACE for today’s challenges!

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And finally, there is the third kind of prayer:

III. Breakthrough prayer

Now remember, Paul tagged his powerful illustration of the Armor of God with the call to prayer.

After putting on salvation’s helmet,

the righteous breastplate,

the truth belt,

the gospel sandals,

And grabbing hold of the Sword of God’s word and faith’s shield, Paul said:

“PRAY all the time.”

The first two kinds of prayer are “ME” focused, but this prayer is WARFARE focused.

It is CONFRONTATIONAL...It confronts the forces of darkness.

This kind of prayer is about tearing down strongholds,

Destroying Satanic assignments,

And bringing spiritual breakthrough!

This is the prayer Jesus had in mind when He said “the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.”

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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when you must exercise this kind of prayer:

Your heart is attacked, your mind is attacked,

The bottom falls out,

You feel like your gonna lose your faith,

Your heart is broken in a thousand different pieces,

People you care about and trust let you down,

You’re discouraged by what another believer does,

Multiple things hit you all at once from many different directions.

It’s totally confrontational!

There’s nothing subtle about it,

It’s in your face warfare and you realize, according to Ephesians 6, you’ve got to stand in “the day of evil.”

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Now, for me, this kind of prayer is characterized by PASSION and PERSEVERANCE, as described by James:

“The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [it is dynamic and can have tremendous power]” (James 5:16 AMP).

Every atom of your being is involved in this kind of prayer.

You are passionate about achieving a breakthrough in your situation.

And like a bulldog, you refuse to quit until the answer comes.

It is this kind of prayer that Elijah practiced in his battle against wicked Baalism and evil queen Jezebel.

It was warfare prayer, and it prevailed against the forces of darkness, and brought the rain of God’s blessing!

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So to survive and thrive, we must learn casting prayer, grace prayer, and warfare prayer.

LET’S PRAY!