Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom. Luke 12:32

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matthew 11:12


Over the past several weeks we have seen how God has called us to prayer in order that, through consistent and intimate communion with us He can make us more like Him. He can minister to us, can place His Spirit and His Kingdom values in us, can guide us and enjoy our company. We have also seen how our time in prayer can achieve the purposes of expanding the Kingdom of God that He is seeking. Through prayer we become partners with the Living God in the work of the Kingdom. This may be through praying for the welfare of others or on behalf of specific tasks and results.

Intercessory prayer is sometimes also called Spiritual Warfare. For the more peace-loving of us this may seem strange or even distressing. “I thought that Jesus came to bring peace and that we were to be people of peace,” we might well think. In this we would not be wrong – but, if we are to be effective in our prayers we need also to understand that we do not simply seek to build God’s work in a vacuum. The Bible tells us that we have an enemy. Peter describes this enemy whom we sometimes call Satan or the devil: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 8:8,9

Luke records Jesus’ reassurance above, that God intends for us to have His whole world. We saw the same promise earlier in Genesis. But we also hear through the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew that we may need to fight in order to obtain the Kingdom which has been promised us. That fight is part of what our prayer lives are all about. We struggle through prayer to allow God to make us all that He intends for us. We battle on behalf of others who may not be able to enter into such warfare on their own or may need additional help. We add our voices to God’s intentions to bring about His victories on this earth. This was the model that Jesus himself presented to us.

In his book, Born For Battle, R Arthur Matthews explains:
“It has been said that ‘the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.’ The essential principles that brought about the defeat of Napoleon were developed on the football field. Had there been no football-field discipline, there could have been very different results at Waterloo. It might appear to border on impudence to transfer the thought and say that the battle of the Cross was won on the praying field of Gethsemane, but I am serious. If not actually in terms of encounter with the enemy, then from the point of vital principle, it was most certainly so.
“The Soldier of the Cross had taught His disciples the need to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ The obvious inference is that God has limited certain of His activities to responding to the prayers of His people. Unless they pray, He will not act. Heaven may will something to happen, but heaven waits and encourages earth’s initiative to desire that will, and then pray that it happens.
“The Cross of Jesus Christ represents the one focal point in history at which the redemptive work of God for man focused and culminated in one infinite, massive act. Gethsemane represents the vital principle which makes it possible for that redemptive work to be successfully consummated on earth.”

In other words, our prayer not only prepares us for the battle in which we are engaged every day, it also places ammunition in God’s hands for Him to be able to use in His own time and place to further the work of His Kingdom. In this way we are the sheep of His pasture but we are also the soldiers of His army! As you pray today, ask God for the one thing He would want you to pray that would help His cause and would make best use of your time in this battle.

Mike Clarkson