Powerful Prayers 3

Posted by David Whitten on February 14, 2012 under Staff |

Powerful Prayers 3

Opening our eyes to the spiritual battle that surrounds us

2 Kings 6:15-17 and Ephesians 6:11-18

Prayer is the bridge we walk upon in the flesh to reach our God who is spirit. There is so much about prayer we do not know. It is as mysterious as it is powerful.

We have been looking at some of scriptures most powerful prayers and discovering what the people who prayed these prayers knew about God.

The believers who prayed with Peter and John after their release from the Sanhedrin, they knew they were on to something brand new and it required great boldness.

Joshua, when he commanded the sun to stand still knew God would do it. He simply believed in a Big God who would do the impossible.

Today we are going to look briefly at Elisha’s prayer to open his servant’s spiritual eyes to see the angelic force who protected them against the armies of Aram.

We will notice what this servant reveals, is a truth that we need to awaken to. The fact that there is a unseen battle waging war against us and our God has equipped us for this battle. Among our defenses we have the awesome power of prayer.

First let’s take a brief look at the story of Elisha and Gehazi in 2 Kings 6:15-17

As you are finding that let me give you a little background.

The King of Aram plots out an attack against Israel, but God apparently through prophetic knowledge’s tells Elisha and Elisha in turn tells the King of Israel. When Aram goes to attack Israel he finds Israel’s armies there waiting for him. They overcome Aram’s armies. So, the King of Aram suspects that a traitor among his war counsel who is leaking inside secrets to Israel. Then one of his counselors informs him about this man of God named Elisha. The king then sends his army to attack and capture Elisha.

This is where our story picks up.

15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

17 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.                                                                                               2 Kings 6:15-17

I can imagine how this takes place. Here this servant of Elisha. We are told earlier in Kings that his name is Gehazi. He and Elisha are up early in the morning maybe getting a start on the morning chores, getting some water to make the coffee and biscuits or collecting eggs and milking the goat. I don’t know. We just know that they are up and Gehazi looks up and notices that the birds aren't chirping and it is eerily quiet. He has the feeling that he is being watched. He looks up and he sees against the horizon and hill side in the dim morning light the faint image of horses and riders. He rubs his eyes and he is struck with fear. He exclaims “O my lord”. I’m pretty sure this was to address his master and not an expletive. He says “O my lord, what shall we do.?

Elisha is calm as a cucumber. Perhaps God had already whispered this plan of the kings attack to his prophet but he is confidant. Elisha has eyes to see what Gehazi didn’t see. He confidently says "those who are with us are more than those who are with them". We aren’t told the number of forces that Aram has sent, We are told that forces have surrounded the city where Elisha and his servant were staying. We assume it is a significant number more than enough to take in Elisha.

Then Elisha prays for his servant’s eyes to be open to see the angelic army that protect them.

Then Gehazi’s eyes are opened and he sees the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire. What a sight that must have been.

No wonder Elisha was confidant.

The story goes on and Elisha prays that his enemies are struck blind.

This prayer that Elisha prayed and Gehazi benefited from reveal something that Elisha knew. Elisha knew that there are spiritual forces that defend God’s people against evil.

Though ours may not see it, we are in a spiritual battle with unseen forces that both battle against us and for us. God provides us resources to fight in this spiritual war. Among our weapons is prayer.

Prayer is our lifeline to God when spiritual forces close in around us.

The clearest New Testament teaching on this is found in Ephesians 6 in a section called the “Armor of God”. This is a passage that we are most likely familiar with. In this list of spiritual armor Paul instructs us to put on we are taught that we are in the midst of a real battle against us that takes place in spiritual realms.

Lets look at what we are taught in Ephesians 6:11-18

11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

When it comes to this unseen battle we have both a disadvantage and we have an advantage.

The disadvantage comes in the nature of the battle. The battle is unseen and spiritual. We are flesh so we tend to fight as in the flesh. When we are attacked we react in fear, doubt, sometimes in rage and depression and shame.

Our response should be to take hold of the things we can’t see but we know, through faith are true.

in verse 12 Paul says " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Paul identifies that our struggle is not flesh and blood.

Our adversary knows us well. He knows that we will respond in the flesh to the spiritual attacks against us. He uses that weakness for his advantage.

We have seen him at work in various ways. He works with in the family trying to divide it. He uses finances, sexual temptations, infighting, disobedient children, sickness, in-laws, chemical abuses and the list could go on and on. That’s just one battle ground.

His attacks breed with in us; pride, hatred of individuals and people groups, envy, lust, greed and fits of rage. Again we could be here all day listing our reaction to his attacks.

When we realize that our fight is not against flesh and blood then our approach to handle Satan’s offenses against us are handled by putting on spiritual defense. The armor that Paul lists here offers our ability to withstand these attacks.

He says put on the Full Armor of God.

It is important that we keep each of these pieces of armor in place as a whole. If we stand with just part on the armor Satan will notice that weakness and attack where we have a weak defense.

Let’s list this armor.

The belt of Truth

John 8:32 Jesus teaches “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.

The knowledge of the truth is a powerful thing.

When we see the truth against a lie we can easily differentiate between the two. But if you don’t know the truth then we can easily be fooled and led astray.

This requires a firm grasp on biblical teaching and bible doctrine.

If I were to ask you your to raise this morning if you feel that you have a firm grasp on biblical doctrine I think I would see few hands raised.

If we do not know the teachings in our bible then we are easily led astray by a false doctrine that sounds good but is full of deadly poison.

Much of false doctrine contains a lot of truth but it only takes a small amount of untruth to make the whole teaching poisonous to our soul

We must embrace the teachings of truth of scriptures if we are going to keep from falling in to the scheme of Satan to lead Gods people astray with false teachings.

1. Breastplate of Righteousness

The placement of this next piece of armor is key. It is a breastplate. It covers the heart.

The desire of our heart needs to be a desire for doing right things opposed to the desire of evil.

This is an area that is frequently attacked. This goes to the core of our character.

Jesus taught in Mathew 12:33 "a tree is recognized by its fruit."

We may say we desire righteousness but if we produce disobedience and sin then our breastplate is not in place.

We battle to satisfy the desires of our flesh and to obey God and walk in holiness. We are pulled in opposite directions. It’s like that little angel and the little devil that sits on our shoulder. The key here is to answer the question “what are we going to give our attention to, The spirit of righteousness or the temptations of Satan”?

With our breastplate of righteousness in place our heart will desire the will of God over the temptations of the flesh.

2. Readied feet fitted with the Gospel of Peace

Not only are we to have a heart that desires righteousness we are to have feet ready to bring the truth of the Gospel.

Now I have read several commentaries on this piece of armor and many preachers have talked about the shoe or sandals that are represented here, but if we look closely there is no shoes of sandals mentioned here there is only feet.

15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

The focus should not bee on the foot ware but the foot work. We should be about the work of the gospel.

in Romans 10:15 Paul declares and echo from the prophet Isaiah

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Ro  10:15 and Is 52:7

our readiness with the gospel perhaps is the greatest affront we can offer the gates of hell.

This is the work we are to be about.

Jesus’ last words to the men and women who follow him was to go. Matthew 28:19-20

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If we are busied with the work of the Gospel then we are not only being obedient to Christ we are spreading the truth that snuffs out the lies spread in the kingdoms of darkness. We are bringing a devastating blow to our enemy.

Our witness of the power of the Gospel will inspire the nations and perhaps generate a revival in this land that we desperately need.

Can you see why Satan is so busy keeping us occupied with other things? If we busied our self with the spreading of the gospel then we would less prone to fall in to temptations that we are often attacked with.

3. The Shield of Faith

This piece of armor is designed to protect us from Satan’s attempts to cast doubts on the truth we know.

He often tells us that we are insignificant, that we are not loved or stupid; He asks, Can we really trust something we have never seen; or, are we wasting our time?

The Shield of faith allows us to hold true to the professions we learned in the scriptures. Even though we have never seen God we do indeed believe him.

The same belief that the believers in the new testament had when they prayed upon Peter and John’s release. The same God Joshua believed in when he asked the sun and moon to stand still. The same thing that Elisha believed when he prayed to God “open his eyes”.

By nature faith is invisible. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

the King James puts it like this, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

We cannot see God or the things we believe about him. We simply know these things are true. We cannot explain it to those who do not believe because to them it’s foolishness. But we simply believe.

We believe God we allow him to make the impossible possible and we extinguish the flaming arrows that the Devil throws our way to make us stumble.

4. The Helmet of Salvation

The helmet is placed securely on the head because it protects the most vital organ. With a single blow Satan can offer a fatal blow. I believe Satan wants to convince us that we are not truly saved. That there is some work we have not done to earn our salvation that the things we have done have disqualified us. Many of us believe that.

Many believe that they are just not good enough. So here is the evidence that we have believed a lie about salvation.

If Satan can convince the church that is not saved then he dealt a death blow to the work of Christ.

We must know that it is not by the works you have done that has saved you. Neither is it the things you have done that you are condemned. If you have trusted in Christ, confessed him before men, repented of your sins and had the washing away of your sins in baptism, you have been then sealed by his Holy Spirit You are saved. For you there is no condemnation.

I love Romans 8:1-2 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. "

Satan uses guilt and shame to bring upon a self loathing and produce a weak warrior of the Kingdom of Christ.

Know that you are a Child of the Living God and you are saved. Let us be reminded of the words of that great song of the Church "Blessed Assurance"

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

• Refrain:
  This is my story, this is my song,
  Praising my Savior all the day long;
  This is my story, this is my song,
  Praising my Savior all the day long.

Christian set that helmet on your head securely that you may know that you are saved. Noone or nothing will take that from you.

Listen again to Romans 8,  Romans 8:37-39 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

5. The Sword of the Spirit

The sword of the spirit is the word of God. These are passages that we have committed to memory and the are an arsenal we use when we are attacked.

Satan attacks us with a lie and we produce scripture.

I am telling you that scripture memorization is uber important.

Joshua was told to not let the word of the law depart from his mouth, he was told to meditate on it day and night.

The study of God’s word protected Joshua as he faced the armies who waged war against God’s people as they entered in to the promised land.

Likewise Gods word tucked into our mind ready to spoken at a moment’s notice will be our sure weapon when Satan attacks us.

This is different than simply knowing what the bible teaches it is using particular verses and passages to defend and offend our enemy.

Carol has compiled an arsenal of scriptures that she has set aside for memorization. She has these scripture boxes. Those very scriptures have gotten her through some of the hardest times in her life.

As you are reading the bible as we all should do daily. Write down key verses that speak to you and file it then plan to repeat it over and over until you have committed it to memory.

You do this you will find that the temptations you face will not be as strong.

David said in Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

The word of God is a sure way to defeat Satan when he presses us to sin.

6. Prayers

“When life gives you more then you can stand, kneel”

I believe that there is nothing more threatening to the kingdom of hell then a Christian who prays.

As I have said before, there are things about prayer that we simply don’t know. It‘s mysterious. In both Revelations 5 and 8 it mentions the “Prayers of the Saints”. It seems that our prayers have been collected through the ages and are going to be poured out for the destruction of Satan and all who would follow him.

Paul instructs us to pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers.

Don’t be fooled. Your prayers are heard. When you pray in the darkness of your room for the teenager who is going down a path that isn’t right, or the mother battling cancer ot the brother dabbling in things that are destructive.

When we pray for boldness to talk to that friend at work who is looking for the answers to life in all the wrong places, or the sister who tries to affirm herself through her relationships with men. God hears those prayers and responds.

The Father is collecting those petitions you pray and using them for the defense of the kingdom of Christ.

When we pray, we summon the power in heaven to reach from unseen places and move in ways that simply cannot explain.

ILL:

Prayer for a car...

Prayer for Lillian martin’s nurse to find a vein…

Yes there are things unseen that is happening all around us. Elisha prayed that Gehazi eyes be opened to see that God is defending his own.

May our eyes be open to know God offers his protection for all who are his.

He has given us the resources for our defense and he has offered ways for us to fight back.

The enemy is fierce but be assured we do not fight alone.

“Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”