If you’ve ever felt like daily living was a constant battle, you’re right. We’re engaged in spiritual war, and as Christians, we often feel the effects of the enemy’s attacks. Each time we take a step forward, we’re met with resistance in the form of doubt, fear, persecution, or any number of other strategies Satan uses against us. However, we’re not fighting the battles alone; God has armed us with a number of spiritual weapons, the most powerful one being our prayers.
Prayer connects us with God, strengthens us for the fight, and keeps us grounded. It opens a dialogue and reveals things that we can only learn from Him. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). When we’re wrestling with something and feel like we’ve reached a dead end, prayer brings us into the presence of the one who makes a way when there is no way.
The finished works of Jesus evolved prayer from Old-Testament to New-Testament. We no longer have to beg and plead for God to do something for us because He’s already done everything that needed to be done to defeat the enemy. This gives us power because we’re praying from victory, not for victory. “…Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:17-19). This reminds us that God has already won the war on our behalf; it also puts all our issues in a whole new light and gives added significance to our prayer lives.
Even as victorious believers, there are times when our spirits are heavy and we feel the need to pray but don’t have the right words. Thankfully, this doesn’t have to stop us. Words aren’t necessary in the spirit realm, because the Holy Spirit frees us from the restrictions of human intellect and understanding. “So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance” (Romans 8:26, AMPC). Praying in tongues allows us to pray the perfect prayer because we’re talking directly to God.
An attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving is another important component of prayer. The devil wants us to be miserable, angry, scared, and doubtful so he can mess with our minds; it’s therefore no accident that thankfulness and prayer are both mentioned together in multiple places throughout the Bible. The fight is always centered in our minds; deliberately choosing to be grateful and thankful enables us to beat Satan at his own game. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psalm 100:4). Praising God and counting our blessings empowers us.
As God’s children, we don’t have to put up with spiritual attacks of any kind. We have the tools to take the fight to the enemy and get aggressive in our prayer lives. In spiritual warfare, prayer is the weapon that anchors us in the place of victory.
