Victorious Prayer

Oh, my dear friends, when we begin to take this thing of the Lordship of Jesus Christ seriously, then our prayers are going to be answered. Submitting ourselves to the Lord.

C. Standing Against the Devil

Now, let me give you the third principle. Not only sensitivity to the Spirit. And, not only submission to the father. But, standing against the devil. Look again, if you will please, in verse 7. James chapter 4, verse 7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Have you ever thought about

the devil fleeing from you? Hmm? To most of us the idea is ridiculous. We think the best we might be able to do is to get the devil to leave us alone, and that not for very long. But, Jesus said, “Behold, I give you authority over all the power of the enemy” (Luke

10:19). “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). And, a principle, a powerful prayer, prayer that cannot be denied is this: that when you pray, you must enter into warfare with the devil. Prayer is warfare.

You know the Bible says, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). And, the Bible ends that passage in Ephesians 6 with saying—praying it therefore in the Spirit—and “all pray in supplication” (Ephesians 6:18). You see, the warfare is prayer. When we put on the armor, we’re just getting ready to go to battle. We have an enemy—a real enemy, a coming enemy, a sinister enemy, a malevolent enemy—an enemy who hates us.

Now, don’t get inflated about that. It’s not because you’re so important in your own right that the devil hates you. The devil’s real worries are with God, and wicked persons have always known that if you cannot hurt an individual, then hurt someone that individual loves and you’ve hurt them anyway. And, that’s the reason the devil’s warfare is against you. But, you see, God’s warfare is against the devil. And, how does God intend to win the war? Through the prayers of His people. Isn’t that strange? God intends to win the war through the prayers of His people. Omnipotent deity has limited itself to our prayers. And, God moves when we pray, and prayer is warfare.

And, oh dear friend, the devil, the devil understands that. Let me tell you something about the devil. The devil doesn’t mind if we meet here this morning, not at all. He doesn’t mind if this choir sings. The devil doesn’t mind if you have your preacher, and the devil doesn’t mind if you do everything except pray. Now, pay attention now. The devil mocks our scheme, the devil laughs at our organization, the devil sneers at our buildings, but the devil hears our prayers. The devil will do anything he can do to keep you from praying. The devil will even encourage you to read the Bible if it’ll keep you from praying. The devil will encourage you even to go to church on Sunday morning, if it’ll keep you from praying. If, dear friend, you didn’t have time both to come to church and to pray this morning, it’d have been better for you to stay home and pray than to come here this morning.