BOOT CAMP 2 – THE POWER OF PRAYER PM
This month we are holding boot camp. It’s a time for spiritual fitness training. Last week we learned about the value of fasting. This week we are tuning up the prayer muscles. How many prayer push-ups can you do? How long are your prayer runs. What’s your spiritual pulse rate in prayer?
There are two very important messages in the New Testament that Jesus gives His disciples about prayer.
- God answers prayers – just ask
- It’s important that you are persistent
- Joh 15:7 If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
Joh 16:23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
- Luk 11:1 THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples.
Luk 11:2 And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.
Luk 11:3 Give us daily our bread [food for the morrow].
Luk 11:4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.
Luk 11:5 And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread],
Luk 11:6 For a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I have nothing to put before him;
Luk 11:7 And he from within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you [with anything]?
Luk 11:8 I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Luk 11:9 So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.
Luk 11:10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
Violence is part of our world.
There’s a fascination for violence – until you experience it yourself.
People watch UFC on television, it’s called as entertainment to watch men kick, punch stamp on each other and throw each other around. How much pain can a person endure? Our heroes are the strong, muscular, violent men who can endure anything and always overcome their opponents.
There is more violence in our own community than ever before.
In a negative way violence in many nations creates endless pain brutality; of lives lost and torture. We see on our TVs and on social media graphic depictions of horrific violence. I received an email this week that I cannot show you because it is too horrific for a public venue. It is a picture of about 150 human bodies burnt to death. They were Christians who were torched in northern Nigeria. Martyred for their faith.
This violence is physical, it’s in the natural world; but it begins in the spiritual world.
The bible says Eph 2:1 AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins
Eph 2:2 In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].
Eph 2:3 Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behaviour governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.
These verses clearly show that godless people follow the prince of the power of the air; that is satan. They are under the control of an evil spirit that is still constantly at work in the children of disobedience.
The truth is the spirit world is influencing us all the time. As Christians we are to be violent in a spiritual sense and harmless in a physical sense.
Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize–a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
When we pray we are at war spiritually.
Mat 12:29 Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
Mat 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven. [Isa. 22:22.]
Eph 6:12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
At our prayer times this next two weeks we will be training you how to become strong in prayer. We will train you how to know your weapons and how to use them to overcome satan.
As a Christians we are called to overcome, to bind the works of the enemy and take back what was stolen. You are called to be an overcomer, Are you ready to fight in the spirit?
craigmanderson 