Sermon Central
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Part 10 - Pray Without Ceasing Series
Contributed by Pastor Bruce A. Shields on Nov 16, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Part 10 of the Spiritual warfare - whole armor of God series. Focusing on the power and importance of praying in the Spirit and how it is vital to the armor of God.
Spiritual Warfare – The Whole Armor of God
Praying in the Spirit on all occasions (Part 10)
† Scripture Reading
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
PRAYER
† This verse ties the whole armor of God all together for us. Remember verse 12?
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
How do you fight spiritual forces? You fight them in the spirit.
This is why we have the whole armor of God, because it is spiritual. So how should we pray? We should pray in the spirit.
The phrase, “with all kinds of prayers” brings our attention to the fact that there are many kinds of prayer.
We know that prayer itself is us speaking to God.
Once we open up and begin to speak to God though, when we submit to the Holy Spirit, many different types of prayer may occur.
We may just be asking God for something we know is His will, and therefore we ask with confidence.
† I John 5:14, 15
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 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 what we asked of Him.”
Another type of prayer may be to command demons, or circumstances, praying in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives utterance; groanings that the Holy Spirit may initiate in us, that is according to Romans.
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with Gods will.”
Have you ever been so broken you couldn’t put your pain in words but knew you had to pray?
Have you ever been so sad about something that all you could do when you prayed is say Gods name over and over because you couldn’t put your heart into words?
Have you ever known that you needed to speak with God, but just didn’t know what to say?
The Holy Spirit, the center of us, He intercedes for us. He puts our hurt into words, He puts our pain into words, He speaks volumes of our emotions, feelings and what ever our needs are, reach our Father in heaven regardless of our inability to put what’s going on in our lives into sentences.
And there are other types of prayers as well.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.”
And what will happen?
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
† WITH THANKSGIVING!
Are we thankful when we pray?
It is very important to maintain an attitude of thanksgiving as a part of our prayer stance.
Have you ever known a child that was not thankful?
If you were the parent, how did that make you feel?
As a child I was very thankful. This came from growing up extremely poor. When I was growing up, my family was on welfare. We had very little. As a result, us kids became very thankful for anything we did get.
I had a friend though; he was my best friend growing up. His family was rich. His father owned a few lucrative businesses, and was very well off.
In fact, I remember being at his house once and we were playing and he opened his dresser and there was a coffee can full of cash. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
I had never seen that much money before. I asked him what it was for, and he said, “Oh, that? That’s just my allowance. I always throw it in this can because when we are out at the store my dad always just pays for whatever I want.”
What he had meant nothing to him because he wasn’t thankful. There were many times in the years I knew him that he would demand more than he had from his parents, and they would comply to appease him.
In turn, he grew up a selfish, unthankful and greedy man.
Our Father in heaven expects better behavior than that from His children. We need to be thankful not just in abundance, but in times of need as well. We need to be thankful not just when in health, but when we are sick.
