Fight for Victory with the Final Weapon of Prayer
Fight for Victory with the Final Weapon of Prayer
#7 Pray with the power of the Holy Spirit
6:18 "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
6:20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
Now we come to the final weapon--“prayer”. Prayer is the most important weapon. Why? Because our victory in our spiritual battles absolutely depends on our prayer. Why? Because it is not by our own effort to win but by God’s power to conquer the battle. We are like the recharge batteries. The Holy Spirit is the battery charger; He is the “Energizer”—to grant us new energy. And prayer is the recharging process--to draw God’s power on us, like battery recharged with new energy.
1. Pray with perseverance/persistence
Perseverance or persistence means “keep on trying, don’t give up.” There is a battle with the people of Israel recorded in the O.T. While Moses was on his way leading the people of Israel out of Egypt to the Mount of Sinai to meet God, they were confronted by their enemy the Amalekites. Still remember the story of how the Israelites won the battle? Joshua led the army of Israelites to fight on the battlefield while Moses was holding up his staff on top of a hill. Anytime he rose up his hand, the Israelites prevailed. When he let down his hand, the Amalekites prevailed. When Moses’ hands became too tired, Aaron and another Israelite took a stone and kept holding his hands on both sides until Joshua defeated the Amalekites. (Exo 17:8-13)
In I Tim 2:8, Paul calls us to lift up our holy hands and pray everywhere. So, prayer must be persistent if we want to win the spiritual battle. Don’t give up before the battle is over. I won’t give up praying for my mom’s salvation until she believes in Christ.
There is a kind of spiritual battle we have to keep on fighting for lifetime, which is praying for the gospel to be preached throughout the entire world. Jesus said in his Great Commission that we are to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Have you ever thought you can participate in this grand missionary project? You might shake your head immediately and say “No way!” Unless I become a missionary, how can I be a witness in other countries? Of course, very few of us feel like we are selected by God and sent to the other countries to preach the gospel. But, we must not forget we already have a whole bunch of missionary organizations targeted at different countries or different peoples across the globe, such as Chinese Christian Mission (中信), Media
Evangelism (影音使團), Send International (思源協會) or even local ministries like Operation Dawn (晨曦會). We can be their prayer partners for missionary outreach. When we pray for these organizations constantly, we are already involved in their marvelous ministries. I personally have been supporting several gospel institutes financially from time to time. Apart from sponsoring these Christian organizations, if you have the interest to participate in their ministries, all you can do is to take a little time to pray for them. Organizations such as Media Evangelism and Transworld Radio Ministry work very hard to spread the good news by producing video and radio programs and reaching out to the Chinese in Hong Kong and in Greater China. If you have the interest to join their ministries, just pray for them constantly. Though you are not physically involved, you are spiritually involved. Thus you become their co-worker. And you know what? The Lord will remember you when He counts the labor of these organizations. Do you want to be a partner of the Lord’s Great Commission so that you will be counted too when the Lord rewards those missionary organizations? Just consider to be a prayer partner in the ministries you are interested in.
2. Pray for the needs of church people
Not only do we pray for souls to be saved, we ought to pray more for our church brothers and sisters since we fellowship together and we are fighting in the same battle against the same enemy. In other words, we are in the same boat. If we keep praying for each other, we are actually gathering up our strengths and will have sure win. If we fight the spiritual battle alone, we are sure to lose.
In the day of Pentecost, the apostles prayed together with other disciples in a room and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The church expanded and 3,000 members were added. They certainly won a major battle of soul-winning. Before the Holy Spirit befell on the apostles, they were still very frightened, not knowing what sort of danger they would encounter. After they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they became brave soldiers and stood before court judges without any fear.
The devout Christians in some home churches of China have this kind of experience. They are living in a very dangerous environment with oppression from the government officials. They have to depend on each other’s support with prayers of love and concern. When one member is arrested and put in custody, the rest earnestly pray for that member. Courage is what that member needs most in that circumstance and it comes from the collective prayer of the church members.
3. Pray for the needs of church pastors and preachers
Satan kept attacking Jesus to see him die on the cross and he thought he would win after Jesus died. While praying alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked his sleepy disciple Peter in Matt 26:40, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” Yet Peter failed with the other two disciples and fell asleep, leaving their Master to walk along the road of the Cross by himself.
Pastors and preachers are often neglected in our prayers. Why? Because we think they are spiritually strong enough to resist the power of the devil. We need their prayers but they don’t need our prayers. Absolutely wrong! If Satan overcomes the leader of the church, he does not need to attack the rest like you and me and the church will break apart by itself. You sure don’t want to see this happen to your church, do you? Satan hates the church ministers as much as he hates the preaching of God’s word. He just doesn’t want you to be alert. He wants to see you die in the battlefield like Jesus.
Paul asked the church people to pray for him so that he could boldly preach the word of God. We know that he was a prisoner in Rome at that time. He was confined and could not preach as freely as before. So he asked the church of Ephesus to pray that he could be released soon and preach freely. In early days of church planting, disciples like Paul were prosecuted for preaching the gospel of the Resurrected Jesus. That’s what is happening in some parts of China nowadays, where missionaries or preachers cannot preach the Bible in public places. They are only allowed to preach in registered public churches. In small towns and villages where there is no registered churches, preachers are often required to preach at homes privately. They can be taken to prison anytime. One of my Christian brothers, who has been serving in Qinghai for over 10 years, is not even allowed to mention about gospel publicly in that Moslem region. He could only share with his Moslem friends at home privately. Oftentimes, he shared with me that he has a very strong feeling he is precisely in the battlefield every day. He always requests us to be his prayer warriors. When we pray for the missionaries, we are actually participating in their great ministries assigned by God. They are fighting on the battle frontier. They certainly need our prayer support from behind.