Many songs have been written over the years that encourages a believer to pray. I remember fondly one of the songs I learned in my early days when I was converted to the faith. The song was titled "Prayer is the key". I memorized the song out of my love and joy for singing church hymnals.
All believers loves to pray. Hence, to a believer there is nothing more important than having a healthy prayer life. But statistics shows that the average Christian including the leaders spends less than ten minutes in prayer daily.
The act of prayers and praying is difficult to teach in any meeting. Because prayers is spirit taught. And our desire and effort to pray effectively and focused is the unction of the spirit enabling us.
However, prayer is one of the life line of a Christian. The Bible uses many figures of speech and expressions to highlight the vital role of prayer in our life. Even the Book of Psalms is rated as the prayer book of the Old Testament. The Bible recommends prayers and the Lord emphasize the centrality of prayers to the believer, even in His own earthly life.
Why then are we hindered in our prayer life? Because we lack the understanding of what we are up against when we pray. Hence, a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian. And a powerful believer is a prayerful believer. Prayer can be vocalized, or said silent, and with tears. It can be said while kneeling, standing, sitting, and lying face down. The posture is not the important fact.
For this reason, the text of our sermon is rightly chosen from the Pauline Epistle to the church at Ephesus. The Epistle is among the letters Apostle Paul wrote from the Prison to encourage the faith among the persecuted believers in Ephesus.
The core of Epistle follows the forms of all the writings of the Apostle. That is first emphasize doctrines then the application of the teachings. The epistles is divided into six chapters emphasizing the SIX DIFFERENT FACETS of the church. That is the epistle reveals in each chapter the church is the (chapter 1 :) body of Christ, (chapter 2 :) a building, (chapter 3 :) mystery, (chapter 4 :) new man, (chapter 5 :) bride, and (chapter 6 :) a military formation.
One of the most significant revelation this epistle is found in the sixth chapter where the church is known as a militant formation engaged in spiritual warfare. What a revelation! Why then is the church militant? Because of the nature of the enemy she faces. Well, that is what the Holy Spirit wants the church to know and be prepared to face.
Since the early days, the church have been engaged in a tough and deadly spiritual battle. This is a battle that began in the Garden of Eden between the first Adam and the Old Serpent. The battle is ongoing till His kingdom come. That is the kingdom of God is established on earth.
Nevertheless, the Lord does not want us to be ignorant and unaware of the devices of the virulent enemy of our soul. So in this chapter He prepares the church through the writings of the Apostle for the deadly combat along the way. Therefore, it enjoins believers to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might which include our union with Christ and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
What really stands out that may be passed over out of misunderstanding is what the Lord is saying to the church in chapter six and verses 12. There the Bible list a catalogue of the enemy of the church. A careful consideration shows that our enemy is not identified with flesh and blood, which is the constituency of human beings. But OUR INFERNAL ENEMIES is as follows:
• Principalities.
• Powers.
• The rulers of the darkness of this world.
• Spiritual wickedness in high places.
What are these arrays of spiritual forces? Where do they come from? Who are they? The answers to that question is equated to added strength to the believers. They hold the key to our victory and effectiveness in our prayer life.
The ignorance of their presence is one of the reason behind all the ineffectiveness of believers engaged in intercessory prayer. Today, we find the kingdom of darkness encroaching on the territories of the church because we refused to know our enemy and his strategies.
The Bible clearly rules out by stating that OUR FOES ARE NOT FLESH AND BLOOD. It means they are something else other than humans. And they are spiritual. They are organized in four levels. These are the FOUR ORGANIZATIONAL STRATA of the strongholds of darkness.
These are the parallel spiritual forces strategize against the church and the believers. They are well armed and stubborn in their attempt to DECEIVE, INTIMIDATE, INFLUENCE, INTERFERE, INFILTRATE, CONTROL AND WEAKEN the church. They are the fallen angels and demons organized and led by the arch enemy of God called Satan, the devil, the Old serpent, Lucifer and the ruler of this world among several other names.
This structure can be understood when we know the three classes of angels mentioned in the Bible. These are first the angels with archangels without wings, the Cherubim with four wings and the Seraphim with six wings. The Bible only mentioned three of them by names. These are Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer. Note that Satan is a Cherub with four wings. He was the anointed Cherub who fell in his desire to be God deserving of worship.
When the Wicked, Satan rebelled and felled from heaven, he took with him a third of the angels of God to form a parallel kingdom under his authority. Besides by deception he took over the government of the earth at the fall of Adam to further his diabolical plan. This he did to spite the living God. However, he is not omnipresent, omniscience and omnipotent. Nevertheless, he is able to hold wide power over the airy atmosphere and the earth through the structure he had laid down.
The organized armies of Satan are the principalities, powers or authorities, rulers and wicked spirit, in high places. The principalities are the rulers of nations. They operate behind the governments of nations. Just like the prince of Persia, Greece, and other nations. These are mighty angels. The authorities are those that controls territories of evil like strongholds of drugs, prostitution etc. The wicked spirits in high place are those that controls witchcraft, sorceries etc.
Hence, to overcome them we must know about our spiritual IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP as believers in Christ Jesus to know about that truth. Including knowing who the Lord says we are, and where we are located and positioned with him in the heaven. Because knowing these truth hold the key to our victory and overcoming. In a simple word, this is your standing. And they answer the reason we are locked in a battle so intense and fierce with the rulers of darkness.
