When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
"What are you arguing with them about?" he asked.
A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."
‘O unbelieving generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘"How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.’
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?’
‘From childhood,’ he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’
‘If you can?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. ‘You deaf and mute spirit,’ he said, ‘I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.’
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, ‘He's dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why couldn't we drive it out?’
He replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer.’ Mark 9: 14-29
God desires to have an eternal impact on the lives and souls of people today.
God wants all men and women to come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
God wants his people, his church, to be an integral part of this progression.
What do we do? Step one – pray!
Praying for reign means praying for God to have reign in the lives of others!
Pray for your readiness
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” 1 Peter 3:15
Prayer – surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.”
Pray for God to make you Heart-ready:
- Consciousness of what He is doing and preparing you to do.
- Completeness in your life and in your walk with Christ.
- Compassion to the condition and needs of others.
- Courage to chase the dreams and openings he place before you.
When Payne Stewart died in a tragic plane crash on October 25, 1999, the private jet he was in spiraled into the ground at about 600 miles per hour. There was no body to be retrieved from the crash site for burial. Among the few items that were retrieved and sent to his wife were his wedding ring, a gold pendant he had worn around his neck since the day after he and Tracey got engaged in Singapore in 1981, his W.W.J.D. bracelet, and the daily devotional books he read so faithfully.
Tracey later leafed through the books and found the pages Payne would have read the night before the crash. Based on Acts 26:18, the intercession for that day was as follows: "Grant that I may be used to open the eyes of others and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Jesus." Tracey found great comfort in the bracelet, the books, and this thought about them: "It was as though God were saying, ‘Even in the midst of this tragedy, I will have a witness.'"
Pray for receptivity
“…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians. 2:13
“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing” Ezra 1:1
Pray for people to be receptive to God’s leadings…
Pray for people to be receptive to God’s presence…
Pray for people to be receptive to God’s teaching…
Pray for opportunity
Remember Acts 8? The Holy Spirit leads Philip onto the road to Gaza. There he runs into an Ethiopian Eunuch who has already been to Jerusalem to worship but obviously is still searching for God. The Spirit tells Phillip to go up to the side of the man’s chariot and wait. Then Phillip hears the man reading Isaiah.
“Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. ‘How can I,’ he said, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: ‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” Acts 8: 30-35
- In specific people, places and times
Some time ago Dallas Theological Seminary was facing a terrible financial situation. Foreclosure of the university seemed to be imminent. The faculty were gathered together in a prayer session asking God to intervene and rescue the Seminary. One of the faculty members prayed, “Lord we know the cattle on a thousand hills are yours. And right now we need you to sell a few of those cattle so that we can pay our bills…”
A couple of hours later a gentleman walked into the Administration building. He approached one of the ladies working there and explained to her that he would like to make a donation to the university. He was a rancher and a cattle herder. He had driven to town with a full truck of cattle to trade to someone, but the potential deal had fallen through. Then he felt inspired to sell his cattle at market and bring the proceeds here…
Ask God to create opportunities for you to share with people your journey of faith. Ask the Lord to show you times and places where you can talk to people about Jesus. Start keeping a little card in your wallet with names of people you are asking God to let you share your faith with. God will create those opportunities for you.
Another idea – according to a 1994 poll, 72% of Americans don’t know their next-door neighbors. Not as surprising as you might think. Try this. Start walking around your block in your neighborhood each day. Ask God to reveal to you one or two families you can share your witness with. Ask God to bring someone by your locker that you talk to… ask him to show you a time when you can tell others what He has done for you.
Pray for victory
I want to remind you of one of the verses we looked at in the beginning of this study series. Its found in Matthew 16:
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16: 18-19
Jesus reminds us we are promised to be victories – that Hell’s gates can’t stand against God’s power manifest in his praying church.
Look at the story we began with this morning. The boy is possessed by a demon. Dramatic. Antiquated idea, but dramatic. Right? Maybe not as antiquated as you might think. Listen to the words I read in one commentary earlier this month:
“Casting out devils sounds strangely on modern ears; its associations, whilst they are weird and picturesque, are too far away to seriously engage our attention. We are in the habit of dismissing it in an offhand fashion, as a form of religious activity necessarily confined to a transitional period of the development of Christianity, and having no relation to our own or any other age. But that is a only a superficial view of the work of the gospel which will lead to such a judgment. Casting out devils is a task, which belongs as much to the servant of Christ today as in the apostolic age. The particular form assumed by the possession may not be the same, but the fact of possession still continues; and the mission of the Son of God to destroy the works of the devil must be fulfilled, until human souls are freed from the thralldom to which Satan subjects them. In every sinful wish or thought Satan gains a foothold; in every habit formed he may be said to possess the nature in which it exists. Until we regard sinful habits as not mere habits, but as involving the presence and power of the evil one, we need not expect to grasp or deal with the problem of evil in our world.
God wants to defeat evil and bring victory to people through Jesus. God wants to save people souls through your testimony and witness. But he may be waiting. Remember this phrase:
Sometimes sovereign God sovereignly chooses not to fulfill his will until asked to do so. We flood our prayer lives with all these other thoughts and requests. And you know God is listening – patiently and compassionately listening – waiting for us to ask Him to do what he is already poised to do. What he has already positioned us to do. Bring victory over darkness to the lives around us.
So start praying for God to bring victory.
Pray for God to…
- Defeat sin’s charm
People have to relinquish and turn away from the delights of sin. They have to loose their lust for this allurement.
- Defeating Satan’s claims
When Satan starts to work on a person, he stakes out his territory. He’ll try to divide them from Godly, loving people; he’ll try to isolate them from anyone who could be a source of God’s love. And mark my words, he claims them as his. We go before our father and ask him to defy and defeat Satan’s claim on this soul.
- Defeating shame’s chains
One of the most painful and difficult parts of getting out of a sin-filled life is facing the shame you feel. And it amazes me how powerful this is in all our lives. The pre-Christian knows something needs to change, knows you care, but is terrified of dropping their pride and asking for forgiveness or help. Pray for shame to be defeated. That shame was crucified at Calvary. Ask Jesus to give them the courage and openness to respond to you and, more importantly, to Him.
God invites you to join him in changing the eternal destiny of people today!
When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.
