If only we had the clarity to face every situation. But every story has at least two sides. Not everyone demonstrates godly wisdom. And we only have this human perspective, finite and imperfect. We don’t always make the right decisions.
Throughout history, we have seen Christians make mistakes. The biggest one I can think of is the Crusades. If Christians understood what Paul teaches about spiritual warfare and prayer, they wouldn’t have taken up arms.
I’m not criticizing a century and fight that I wasn’t a part of. There are so many perspectives to the time of the Crusades that I don’t understand. But I know what Scripture says about fighting. And it should become part of everyone’s prayer life.
We’re talking about how to pray through the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-20. But before we even get to the armor, we’ve got to know who we are fighting and how to fight. Our first reaction is to fight people instead of the spiritual forces behind the battle.
Many of us have no problem with fighting the battle. We have a problem with realizing who to fight. Paul also helps us to know the tools to use in these battles. If you are a Christian, there are battles to fight that are worth fighting.
Even the clarity to know which battles are worth fighting can be taken up as a matter of prayer. There are times I wanted to fight a battle that wasn’t worth it. Sure, my pride was hurt and I wanted to lash out but God’s kingdom was not threatened.
The Holy Spirit helps us to know when it is a battle for the kingdom or a battle for our own kingdoms. And there is a big difference. Prayer in spiritual warfare is different then other types of prayer. There is an intensity to facing down spiritual forces of darkness in our world.
So we must begin our prayer for clarity on the issues we face. The Bible talks about the gift of spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 12:10). This is the ability to recognize a spiritual attack by evil spiritual forces.
Philippians 1:9 discusses the discernment that every believer has. Knowledge and discernment do not have to be spiritual gifts. But this is why we need to pray and ask the Spirit whether we are facing a spiritual force or if it is something else.
Because we face spiritual battles every day, living in the midst of a battlefield between God and the devil, we must have our armor on and be prepared for every battle that may come against us. Because we are on God’s side, evil spiritual forces may come after us.
The first step to prepare for the spiritual battles you will face today is to realize that the spiritual battles exist. We don’t want to be caught unaware of what is happening in the spiritual realm. We must get connected with God and no what’s happening.
And we must realize that what looks like a physical battle has a spiritual battle behind it. This is why Paul teaches us that our battle is in against other human beings. It is against the spiritual forces behind the battles we face.
We need to pray for the people that we thought our battle was with. They may be used by these evil spiritual forces. They need our prayer and our intercession. Take this moment to ask the Lord to set them free from the influence of these forces.
In Jesus’ name, address these evil spiritual forces. Paul mentions four types of spiritual forces. These are the real enemy and they are in league with the devil. He has demons and these friends to fight against us. It is not always an attack from Satan himself. Many times he will send one of his friends or his demons.
If we do not put on the armor of God every morning when we wake up, we may miss the attacks of the enemy and think is something that’s our fault or we may think it is a person rather than these forces.
It’s imperative that we do not address these forces on our own. We must address them with the power of the name of Jesus. He is the only one that they are afraid of. He is the only one who has them under his feet and under his rule.
Next, put on the armor of God by praying over each piece. The rest of these blog posts will guide you in how to do that for each one. Only when we put on every piece of the armor and it stands as one system against the evil powers can we be prepared.
This armor of God gives us the power to stand against the evil one and all of his schemes. Everything he brings against us won’t even affect us because we have the armor of God firmly fixed in place.
Paul says, “Having done all” (Ephesians 6:13). Putting on the armor of God is what Paul refers to with this phrase. The only thing we have to do is put on the armor of God and know who the enemy is. Everything else falls into place.
The armor of God and our relationship with Jesus are where the power and the strength to stand against the enemy comes from. When we rely on Jesus and we have the armor on, nothing can stand against us. This is how we prepare for spiritual battle. It begins with prayer, putting on the armor through prayer.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think about preparing for spiritual battle through praying the armor of God.
