Armor Part 3
6:10-18 Spiritual strength and courage are needed for our spiritual warfare and suffering. Those who would prove themselves to have true grace, must aim at all grace; and put on the whole armor of God, which he prepares and bestows. The Christian armor is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our armor till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devils assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labor to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armor, we give him advantage. The different parts of the armor of heavy-armed soldiers, who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy, are here described. There is none for the back; nothing to defend those who turn back in the Christian warfare. Truth, or sincerity, is the girdle. This girds on all the other pieces of our armor, and is first mentioned. There can be no religion without sincerity. The righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, is a breastplate against the arrows of Divine wrath. The righteousness of Christ implanted in us, fortifies the heart against the attacks of Satan. Resolution must be as greaves, or armor to our legs; and to stand their ground or to march forward in rugged paths, the feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Motives to obedience, amidst trials, must be drawn from a clear knowledge of the gospel. Faith is all in all in an hour of temptation. Faith, as relying on unseen objects, receiving Christ and the benefits of redemption, and so deriving grace from him, is like a shield, a defense every way. The devil is the wicked one. Violent temptations, by which the soul is set on fire of hell, are darts Satan shoots at us. Also, hard thoughts of God, and as to ourselves. Faith applying the word of God and the grace of Christ, quenches the darts of temptation. Salvation must be our helmet. A good hope of salvation, a Scriptural expectation of victory, will purify the soul, and keep it from being defiled by Satan. To the Christian armed for defense in battle, the apostle recommends only one weapon of attack; but it is enough, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. It subdues and mortifies evil desires and blasphemous thoughts as they rise within; and answers unbelief and error as they assault from without. A single text, well understood, and rightly applied, at once destroys a temptation or an objection, and subdues the most formidable adversary. Prayer must fasten all the other parts of our Christian armor. There are other duties of religion, and of our stations in the world, but we must keep up times of prayer. Though set and solemn prayer may not be seasonable when other duties are to be done, yet short pious prayers darted out, always are so. We must use holy thoughts in our ordinary course. A vain heart will be vain in prayer. We must pray with all kinds of prayer, public, private, and secret; social and solitary; solemn and sudden: with all the parts of prayer; confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgiving for favors received. And we must do it by the grace of God the Holy Spirit, in dependence on, and according to, his teaching. We must preserve in particular requests, notwithstanding discouragements. We must pray, not for ourselves only, but for all saints. Our enemies are mighty, and we are without strength, but our Redeemer is almighty, and in the power of his mighty we may overcome. Wherefore we must stir up ourselves. Have not we, when God has called, often neglected to answer? Let us think upon these things, and continue our prayers with patience.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 11. - Put on the entire amour of God. Chained to a soldier, the apostle's mind would go forth naturally to the subject of amour and warfare. Put on amour, for life is a battle-field; not a scene of soft enjoyment and ease, but of hard conflict, with foes within and without; put on the amour of God, provided by him for your protection and for aggression too, for it is good, well-adapted for your use, - God has thought of you, and has sent his amour for you; put on the whole amour of God, for each part of your needs to be protected, and you need suitable weapons for assailing all your foes. That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Our chief enemy does not engage us in open warfare, but deals in wiles and stratagems, which need to be watched against and prepared for with peculiar care.
A Clear Vision of the Armor we
should wear
Class 3- 1 hour- Prayer, the power
of it.
Welcome back to our 3rd
class! What have you learned so
far? What tools have you been able to
use that maybe you didn’t have in your arsenal?
Today, we are going to talk about
prayer and the importance of it. We will
use some of Priscilla Shirer’s teachings.
She has been around for a while now and played in the movie War Room as
a wife who was learning how to pray for herself, her life, her family and
such. She was watching her life fall
apart and she wanted it back.
Our Sword is our most important tool
we have in our armor. It’s the only
offense we have. So we must learn how to
use it wisely and appropriately. We have
this class and the next to learn how to use this tool. This class we will learn how to pray for battle daily. Most of you commute to work right? This is a great time to take on the lead of prayer. So, let’s start with prayer and then we are off on an ultimate adventure to trust Jesus all along this way.
If you search you can find a lot on
prayer. You can also find a lot of areas
in which to dig in a learn about prayer.
You can read a lot on the Power of Prayer, you can get yourself all ready for it, but if you don’t participate in it, it means nothing. We have to participate in it and be an active partner in it.
In an article from Today’s Christian
Women we find this one.
Don’t
Underestimate the Power of Prayer
Rise
up from your rut and reclaim your spiritual passion.
Priscilla
Shirer
Have
you ever found yourself in a spiritual rut? I know I have. Life gets busy,
church feels like one more thing on your to-do list, and prayer feels both
cumbersome and ineffective.
Beyond the fact that life
itself can become overwhelming, even sapping your spiritual vitality, there is
a more pressing culprit that threatens to marginalize your prayer life: You
have an Enemy waging war on your soul.
Make no mistake, this is a war. You are in the
fight of your life. A very real Enemy has been strategizing and scheming
against you, assaulting you, coming after your emotions, your mind, your
future.
But I say Satan’s reign of
terror stops here, now. He might keep coming, but he won’t have victory because
his power starts failing when we start praying.
The
Mystery of Prayer
I’m willing to admit, right up
front, that I don’t fully understand this. There’s an undeniable, unknowable,
invisible mystery to the power of prayer. That’s why our first reaction to
prayer may be to dismiss it, downplay it, or even devalue its critical
importance. Prayer, we think, is a good idea in theory—if only it would
actually make a difference.
That thinking is what gets us
in trouble. When we underestimate the power of prayer, when we think it doesn’t
work, when we choose to believe that God won’t answer our prayers or that he
isn’t listening, we wave a white flag and invite Satan into our situation.
Believe me when I say that
praying is the last thing Satan wants you to do. He will discourage you from
doing it. He will dissuade you from it, and he will disarm you by putting a
distaste for prayer in your mouth. He wants to see you passionless, prayerless,
and powerless. Perfectly quiet. And because prayer is the divinely ordained
mechanism that leads you into the power and victory of Christ, Satan knows
you’ll remain defeated and undone without it.
The
Power of Prayer
Despite what we may or may not
understand about prayer, God has deliberately chosen this particular vehicle as
the one that drives his activity in his people’s lives. It is the means by
which he allows us to partner with him in the fulfilling of his will. He has
created prayer as a primary way of putting us into personal contact with him
and with his eternal realities, any hour of the day or night.
Prayer is the portal that
brings the power of heaven down to earth. It is kryptonite to the Enemy and to
all his ploys against you.
When Paul
describes our spiritual
armor, he includes the belt of truth, the body armor of
God’s righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit—the very Word of God. But he doesn’t
stop there. “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert
and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere,” Paul says in
Ephesians 6:18.
There it is. The fuel that
drives everything: prayer.
Rekindling
Your Passion
Now you can understand why
Satan would want to masterfully engineer the spiritual rut you may experience
from time to time—for a week, months, maybe even years. Your get-up-and-go has
simply gotten-up-and-gone.
Maybe you’ve prayed and prayed
for the same thing, over and over. Maybe you’ve wanted God’s will so badly and
wanted life to look different for so long that you’re ready to give up. Maybe
you’re feeling utterly discouraged or disappointed right now and not sure why
you keep being surprised every time the same difficulties pop up again and
again. Maybe other demands and distractions have leaked into your heart over
time, crowding out space where older, nobler priorities once ruled. I
understand all of that, and I have felt a lot of it too.
But nothing—nothing—in your life is too
far gone that God’s power cannot resurrect it—not even your passion for prayer.
So go to him to get it back. Don’t try to regain your passion for prayer
yourself. Don’t set your hopes on other people or circumstances to fuse it back
into the fiber of your being. Trust this desire into God’s care. Only his
miraculous work can make your belief in the power of prayer bubble back up to
the surface where it belongs. And he is more than willing to do it!
Praying
for Passion
Since filming War Room last year, I’ve
devoted space in my closet to this specific request. It’s a tiny space, but
I’ve made whatever room I can to plaster my prayers to God on the wall. And
along with the requests for my husband, children, friends, and our ministry’s
impact, I also pray fervently and regularly for God to stir a passion in my own
soul that cannot easily be snuffed out. The unique, pressing demands of the
last couple years have taken their toll, sometimes showing up in hints of
spiritual apathy that I know the Enemy relishes. So I’ve had no shame in
praying for myself, that God will stir passion in me.
God’s plan for me and you is
to move us into a position of impact by infusing us with his truth and employing
us in powerful and effective prayer. You don’t need to be a genius to do this.
You don’t need to learn ten-dollar words or be able to spout theological terms
with ease. You just need to bring your honest, transparent, available—and let’s
just say it—fed-up, over-it, stepped-on-your-last-nerve self to the throne of
God. Get ready to become fervent and relentless, all in his name.
Priscilla Shirer stars in the family drama War Room and is the author of Fervent: A
Woman’s Guide to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer. She is a New York Times best-selling
author and speaker. You can learn more about Priscilla’s ministry at GoingBeyond.com.
Copyright © 2016 by the author and Today’s Christian Woman
Here is my story about prayer
and how I have seen the answers in what I have prayed for. In 2006, I started
this incredible Bible club for kids on Wednesday evenings, we started with just
twenty-five children. I began to pray in
the leaders and the children. I would let
God know what I expected for the next week for new children, sometimes it was
five or sometimes ten and he always gave more than I asked. Our ministry grew from just twenty-five to
one hundred and forty children, and from fifteen leaders to forty- five
leaders! This was the prayer of petition
but also the prayer of commitment. In
Hebrews 11:1 ( (Bible, 2000) says “Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I could not figure out why my
Sunday morning groups were not growing in their faith, when I was in prayer
about it, the Lord said it wasn’t them, it was me and the way I was teaching
them. I have changed my teaching style
to grow young disciples instead of considering them the “left behinds” because
they were not involved in Wednesday evenings.
Through the Holy Spirit, we have begun a good work and will continue to
listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice.
A few years ago, I attended a
worship seminar called “Teaching Kids Authentic Worship: Keeping Them Close to
God for Life” by Kathleen Chapman. (Chapman,
2003, p. 184) .
She
said it was so very important to teach the children how to worship Jesus and
how today’s music doesn’t always take them to the worship of Jesus or God.
On
page 31, she says “Worship is one-directional. Worship is focusing on God and
giving all the glory to Him only, alone, singularly, totally – just Him.” She goes on to say “There are many other
words in Scripture that do the same. For
example, khavah, meaning “worship, kneel, prostrate,” is mentioned sixty-five
times in the Old Testament. Some Greek
words in the New Testament that literally mean “worship”- God’s worth – may be
translated either “praise” or “glory.” However, in these cases they always pay
singular honor to God alone!
On
page 33, “God created worship for Himself alone. Included maybe elements of praise, tribute,
thankfulness for who He is, adulation, adoration, devotion, love, and anything
that is only about God. Psalm 29:2 says, “Worship the LORD in the splendor of
his holiness.”
Sometimes
we forget that, even when we are in prayer, unless we have learned the ways to
pray and the way in which we can just come and love on the Lord without
expecting something in return.
Psalm
96:4,6 says “For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be
feared above all gods. 6: Honor and
majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary”
When we pray, using the Lord’s
Prayer as a model, the first petition is to glorify and honor God above
all. Entering His presence with praise
and thankfulness, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. It isn’t about us during this first petition,
it is solely about God; humbly, obedient, loving, yielding, honoring and more.
For most, it is usually about
us and not about God. I return frequently
to “Teaching Kids Authentic Worship” to gain strength in teaching worship and
to remind myself what it really means to worship God only, in prayer and in the
music I choose. I have used it to really
look at the music we sing, the way we take the time to explain worship and then
teach the kids what it means to worship and pray. Teaching children to really pray and worship
our Lord when they’re young will be a benefit to them as they grow in their
faith walk. By teaching that Faith is
generated by the Word/ Rhema of God, we teach them to stand in the faith and to
stand strong. Teaching them how to pray
and how to worship God alone is important.
Smith Wigglesworth had a lot
to say on prayer.
With the gifts of the Spirit should come the fruit of the Spirit.
With wisdom we should have love, with knowledge we should have joy, and with
the third gift, faith, we should have the fruit of peace. Faith is always
accompanied by peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at impossibilities.
Salvation is by faith, through grace, and it is the gift of God. We are kept by
the power of God through faith. God gives faith and nothing can take it away.
By faith we have power to enter into the wonderful things of God. There are
three positions of faith; saving faith, which is the gift of God; the faith of
the Lord Jesus; and the gift of faith. You will remember the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ given to Paul, to which he refers in the 26th of Acts, where the
Lord commissioned him to go to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them `’WHICH ARE
SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN ME”
Our Faith allows us to see
God, to hear God, to understand Him, to give all we are to Him. To stand at His
feet and lay down our burdens, our cares and concerns, our praises because of
what we have asked in His name, and to see the results that God gives us. Our faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen.
The Prayer of Agreement, in
Matthew 18:18-20
“Assuredly,
I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of
you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them
by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My
name, I am there in the midst of them.”
My husband and I pray together
every day in agreement and in intercession; for our ministry, our co-workers,
family, our hopes and dreams, healings and more. We have found that praying together is the
foundation of our relationship. We watch
our prayers being answered in God’s timing and in due time. Trying to implement this into ministry has
been more difficult because of where we are and what “they have always done” or
not done. As co-workers have asked, I have prayed with them and others when
they ask if I would pray for so and so, instead of just taking the prayer
request, I will ask if we can pray in agreement together for them. At first this took many by surprise, but it
has built relationship with them and we are in agreement as God’s Word
says.
In the Power of Praying
Series, Stormie Omartian breaks down prayer into bite size pieces for
everyone. In the “Power of a Praying
Kids (Omartian, 2005) ” she breaks down the
reasons and how to pray, for the children.
She gives parents insight in how God hears their children, sometimes
greater than the adults, because they have pure faith. They are ready to believe God, trusting Him
to answer their prayers. They don’t
carry the same doubts as the adults.
They also have a passion for others that sometimes adults don’t
have. She explains the different types
of prayer and the definitions of prayer in language the children
understand. As adults, sometimes we are
so busy trying to pray the right way and say the right things, sometimes we
don’t give the children enough credit and teachings to change the nation. Teaching children to pray gives them another
stone in their foundational walls and if we did teach them, the change in the
churches would be incredible.
In the Bible Prayer Study
Course by Kenneth E. Hagin, our study book, he lists the seven most important
things in prayer. Number one- pray to
the Father in Jesus’ name. Number two –
believe when you receive when you pray. Number three – forgive if you ought
against any. Number four – depend on the Holy Spirit’s help in prayer. Number five – depend on the Holy Spirit in
the prayer of intercession. Number six –
Edify yourself by praying in tongues.
Number seven is to interpret your tongues as the Holy Spirit wills, in
your private prayer life. He says “We
will begin to understand what it is to enter into this supernatural realm of
prayer, where we pray with our spirits and our understanding under the
inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit.”
We have so many benefits that sometimes we just don’t know about all of
them. We have a rich inheritance as the
children of God but only a few of us are taking advantage of what really
belongs to us. To effectively use these
steps, we must let go of our self and let the Spirit who dwells in us take it
on.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to do
the intercession between you and God gives the power behind the prayer and the
faith that we have in our spirit to allow the Lord to take care of
business. Having a heart attitude
towards worship, whether in a worship service or prayer time, allows the spirit
to lead in our lives. The fruit of the
spirit will then bring the peace in your life and others will see that peace
that passes all understanding. Our
prayer lives should be an ongoing, ever evolving process in which we are
sensitive to and know what we ought to pray.
We ought to take the examples
of Jesus’ life and use them in our own lives to pray. Don’t just pray to be seen by man. We must ask in faith because God responds to
our faith not to vain repetitions. We must put the Kingdom of God first and
foremost. Know that when we ask in the
Name of Jesus, we will receive, but above all those, pray to the Father in
Jesus’ name.
Pray in All Occasions –
Pray:
entreat, implore —often used as a function word in introducing a question,
request, or plea; to address God with adoration, confession, supplication, or
thanksgiving
Do
we pray in all occasions, good AND bad? Do we address God daily?
Are we praying for our loved ones? Are we praying protection over our
marriage and family? Do we thank God with a humble heart?
“Is
any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs
of praise.” – James 5:13
“Therefore
confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be
healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” – James 5:16
“Be
joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Devote
yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2
So after reading
this or listening to it, let’s make a plan together right now, one that is easy
enough for you to stick with and one that you will use. I know sometimes we get so excited about
using something new that the newness wears off and we are lost again.
It takes at
least 6 weeks of daily doing to become a habit.
Prayer is our
ultimate fighting tool. It’s one that is
something you can run to, you can do, you can do it anywhere, you can use the
Word of God as your sword as well and how to use it.
One of the
greatest tools and one of the ways you can stick it to the devil.
We have looked
at different ways to pray and what to pray for.
So, let’s take it to a new level.
Get your paper
out and quickly write down those things that come to mind you need to pray for.
(5 min). Okay, now we are going to pray over them, as
we begin to pray I want you to insert their names or whatever the prayer is.
Then we are
going to list those that are prodigals in your family or your life. Those that walked away from the Lord or have
lives that are not lined up with the Lord’s call. It’s not with judgement, it’s with love that
we call this out.
There are a lot
of prayer books out there, and I have used them. I also find awesome prayers on
Pinterest. In fact, that is where all of
the pictures and prayers came from here.
I find it the best tool for finding help in my walk.
In asking my
friends how they learned how to pray fervently and passionately this is what
they said…
Our oldest
daughter Jessica- To answer your questions I learned how to pray in a slow
steady progression as I grew up in my faith. I first had sought the knowledge
God offers thru the bible, reading Christian books and listening to sermons
have all help mature me in how I change my life thru prayer, what can be given
to prayer, how to use prayer, learning about how God answer and responds to
prayer. There is so much wealth to be learned and gain that it truly is a life
of seeking and constant growing.
This is from my 2nd
cousin Utahna- Crisis
precipitated my all in with prayer, the end of myself, the beginning of
dependence. After many years of dependence and answered prayer effective prayer
is taking God at his word, for me:)
From Teri- a friend since High school- I
don’t believe I learned to pray or read Gods Word by an exact outline. Yes of
course to me the basics are yes read the Word each day. Pray and worship Him
all go together! And the more you do these the closer you get to our loving
Father Jesus Christ and that is a personal experience that teaches you. I’ve
read the Word of God for years and years. And yes many of those years were
reading the Word daily. But I never understood or comprehended it personally.
You know where it comes alive and isn’t boring until I was baptized. I was
already saved when I got baptized. That is, I had already verbally accepted God
as my savior. Said out loud that I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Baptism was to show others what was going on inside of me and boy let me tell
you after that God opened the eyes of my heart!! I comprehended the Word and
couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t boring
and that totally shocked me!! I’m not
saying this will happen to everyone else, because it is truly an individual relationship
with Our God. But for everyone I can say that a tool I recommend is when life
gets hard for whatever reason if I just stop and read a few verses here and
there even if it’s like every twenty minutes (this is beside my daily reading)
From Kay
Arthur: PRAY
Have you ever thought
about prayer as another vitally important discipline in your life? Yes, you
pray because of your love and devotion to the Lord. But if you don't plan the
time to pray it just may not happen.
Daily the news is
daunting. Do you wonder just what will happen next? You can live in fear or you
can pray more. Be sure you're walking a righteous holy life. Put away sin and
run to God and pray. In James
5:16 it says Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another
that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man/women avails much.
From a ministry buddy from years ago, Darcy- she is an
amazing women of God.
How did you learn to pray fervently and effectively?
Watching my mom pray for things. She prays for parking spaces, I thought it
was frivolous but she told me that if we can’t trust God with the small stuff
how can we trust Him with the big stuff.
I also started prayer journaling this helps to really get everything out
in a stream of consciousness. I still
struggle with this – God gives me opportunities of unsettled times – these draw
me to my knees and it is my only way of comfort. I also appreciate wrote prayer or just
praying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus or mercy, mercy, mercy when I can’t verbalize.
That’s why he works so hard to beat you down with discouragement. Rag you into discontentment. Lie to you about who God is, causing you to doubt the Lord’s all-good intentions toward you. Hammer you with accusations that place a burden of shame and guilt on your shoulders too heavy to carry. Trick you into thinking your situation will never change, and that God doesn’t hear you or care about you when you call out His Name. Soon your fire of passion starts to burn low. You grow lackluster. Disinterested. Low in Spiritual fiber. Your spiritual armor goes unworn and unused.
Now you are exactly where the enemy wants you-where you no longer want to fight for the peace and passion of your marriage, where you no longer believe your child can be restored, where you no longer hope for healing in your body, where you no longer see any path to freedom from your addictions, where you just don’t see the purpose of praying anymore… So you don’t. You don’t ask or seek, or knock. You don’t take advantage of your heavenly places position and the benefits package that comes from having “every spiritual blessing” in the universe handed to you as an inheritance.
Maybe you kind of don’t care anymore. You’re not even sure you want to. But through prayer, you can get your want back.
Ephesians is broken in two parts, the first part is what God did for you on the Cross at Calvary. The 2nd part is what you are to do for the Kingdom and how to keep it. It is a mix between God's blessings and your responsibilities. What blessings are you receiving and what do you need to do to keep them?
5 hrs. ·
If we're not praying for
oneness - seriously, specifically, strategically - we're leaving hopes for
togetherness to the fickle weather patterns of emotion, misunderstanding, and
imposed pressure from outside sources and circumstances. #ferVent
![Prayer - overcoming the Lies of the Enemy ~ Almighty God, thank You for the many blessings You continue to pour out upon my family members and myself. As I continue to worship and praise Your mighty and powerful name, help me to overcome the lies of the enemy and to seek truth. [...]:](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/a3/41/36/a34136fc7edc3181090ffb997b33c03c.jpg)
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