The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 7

This is kind of a curious situation. We had never really sat down to talk about spiritual weapons before starting this series. Now here we are at part 7 and the list keeps growing. It seems we had not previously realized how extensive the armory of spiritual weapons really is. It seems there are different weapons for just about anyone who has a heart for the fight. For those of you who like to be loud and boisterous in facing down the enemy, there are shouting and singing and clapping weapons. If, on the other hand, you tend to be the more quiet, reserved personality type, you can hide in your closet and whisper your prayers. Since the battle is being fought by the angelic hosts of God, it really does not much matter which of the weapons we are using, the results are the same.

Prayer is kind of a tricky weapon to describe in very much detail in a limited space. This could end up being Part 7A, 7B, etc. In order for that not to happen, we are going to limit ourselves to the essence of prayer--what it is, how we use it, and what we can expect it to accomplish. That seems simple enough.


Prayer is communication with God. Oh, and of course the "with" there means both ways, to and from God. Most Christians know all about praying to God, but come up a little short on hearing from God. At least they know how to talk to God. At least they know how to talk? We love the old saying that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Seriously, prayer is simply communicating with God. That should take care of number one above--what prayer is.


How we use prayer largely depends on the situation we are facing. As we have mentioned before, God has no boundaries. Therefore, when we pray to Him, our prayers have no boundaries. We are asking him to do something that we could not do. The reasons for our impotence in the situation are irrelevant. It could be that we are facing an enemy stronger than we are. Maybe the battle is at a distance from us and we cannot participate in person. Perhaps we simply do not know what else to do. Prayer is not a default, it is a good option when we are uncertain about what it is we should be doing.


Let us do a brief teaching that many have found extremely beneficial. By looking at just a few verses in the Bible we can be assured that our prayers are answered. The first thing we need to settle is this blog is intended for people who have made Jesus Lord of their lives and have been born again. We are then grafted into and abide in the one true vine. (John 15:1-8) Once we have done that, "...all the promises of God are Yes in Him [Jesus]..." (2 Corinthians 1:20, brackets added) Since all the promises are yes in Jesus, all we need do is find the promises that apply to answered prayer. We know they are good. The answer is yes in Jesus.


The first verses we want to look at promise that God hears and answers our prayers. After we explain that, we will validate it with another verse. Warning, do not succumb to the temptation to say, "I tried it and it does not work so I do not believe it." What we are about to tell you is so good and so powerful, the religious spirit has already convinced most of the church it is too good to be true. We invite anyone who doubts what we are going to teach here to study it out for yourself. If you come to a different conclusion, post a comment or send us a personal email. The email, in case you do not know how this works is, thechurchinsantamariaca@gmail.com


"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." (1 John 5:14-15) Briefly, for the sake of space, this verse says if we ask, He hears us and if He hears us we have what we asked of Him. You have most likely heard these verses taught to say God's hearing and answering only applies if what we ask is what is in God's will. The Greek text does not support that conclusion. His will in these verses is that we pray. It does not refer to what we pray. You may have to meditate on that statement. The verses are telling us that God calls us to pray. He does not tell us what to pray. The validation verse we mentioned above is John 14:14, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." We have no idea how Jesus could have been more clear than that.


The point of this post, in case you missed it, is that prayer is a powerful, spiritual weapon which is effective because Jesus has promised to do what we ask Him to do. The more specific we can be with those requests, the easier it will be for us to see the answers to them. He is literally waiting to hear us ask Him for what we want. He is trying to teach us to partner with Him in building His kingdom. With regard to this spiritual warfare, making our needs known to Him in prayer moves Him to direct the appropriate response. Try prayer. You will like the results.