This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James. For several years, and that doesn't mean that you were putting up fences, that means that you actually were sword fighting, I guess, sort of, right? Right, right, yeah. And that might seem a little bit funny thing to start off with, but our topic today is how to use what Ephesians 6 calls the sword of the Spirit when we pray. So, if we're talking about using swords, even metaphorically, it's good to talk to someone who actually has done it for a while. Yeah, Rob, fencing has been one of my favorite things since I was a kid. I mean, it's great for your legs and your reflexes. It's a very mental sport as well. And, you know, even before I started fencing, I had read the Three Musketeers, and not just that, but the whole series by Alexandre Dumas, which is hundreds of pages, and I guess you could say I was into it, you know. But here's the thing, even though Scripture talks about taking up the sword of the Spirit, you know, Ephesians 6, 17, which it explains is the Word of God, a lot of us, you're right, really are unfamiliar with how to do this, you know, the concepts that Paul is talking about.
Wow, how so? Well, first of all, you know, as we discussed on a recent episode, what Paul is really talking about when he gets into the armor of God is praying. And as Oswald Chambers pointed out, the armor is for prayer, to help us when we pray. And I think sometimes we forget how important the Word of God is for us when it comes to prayer. I mean, we know it's important, we know it matters, but as we often say, you know, God's Spirit moves through His Word unlike any other place. And when you put that together with prayer, man, it's like turbocharging it, you know, God gives you hope that you didn't know you could have, you find yourself praying with more power, you can feel it.
Just because God is coming alongside of you when you pray. So praying God's Word is so helpful, so let's talk about how to do that in some really specific sword-like ways, I guess. Alright, well, let's say that you're struggling with what feels like, you know, attack after attack, where it just, you know, it seems like the devil is just piling on and you're at the bottom of the heap, and a great verse to take to heart and to pray is just one sentence from 1 John 3.8. The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. You know, pick up that verse and get a feel for it, swing it around your head a few times, and then point it straight at the adversary. You know, he starts to mess with you and just say it aloud, the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Because that gives you a reminder of your footing in Jesus right then and there, and you'll find God really does give you new strength when you do it.
No, that's awesome. Well, how about some more? Well, okay, there are so many we could use, right? And of course, Jesus is our ultimate example in this. When the devil kept after him, tried to tempt him, Jesus kept quoting Scripture in response. So again, you know, that points us to how we can pray well. So here's another sharp sword, Jesus' own words, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. Say it aloud, maybe even just the last part, I have overcome the world and talk a little louder when you say, take heart, you know, or you could think of Revelation 1211 another great verse to say aloud when you're in the thick of things. They triumphed over him, meaning the accuser, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Oh yeah, those are some powerful swords. Yes, they are forged by the Spirit, sharper than anything man-made. It's a privilege and blessing to hold them in our hearts, if you will. Another great prayer for our hearts is from David's words in Psalm 51, create me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Yeah, what a great prayer to pray when we're feeling weak and defeated. As long as we keep the lines of communication open with God, there's hope.
Yeah, that's just it. You know, again, the whole point is his light shines in the darkness, the darkness will not overcome it. And when we pray the word, it's also a way of welcoming the, you know, the word with a capital W, Jesus is the word, into our lives, into our hearts afresh. And, you know, we keep coming back to him and then reading his word and underlining it, and you'll find you have so much to draw from. You know, if you do that on a daily basis, the main thing to do is to search the scriptures and do what our Murray McCheyne encouraged, and that is turn the Bible into prayer. You know, just pick it up, look for verses. God will often give you one that, you know, you didn't know why you underlined it, and then you go back and you realize, oh man, I can use that. You know, I absolutely love it. You know, I teach our youth group often at church, and yesterday I talked to them that, I said, you guys were all brought up in church and a lot of people said you need to do this with the Bible, and that with the Bible, I said, you know, has the Bible ever talked to you?
And they all looked at me like I was crazy. And I said, you know, there you go. That's the relationship we're to have with it. It's a conversational intimacy with the Word of God.
Yeah, yeah. And if you think about all this from the standpoint of a fencer, you have both attacks and parries. Now, parries are defensive moves, and we've talked about some of those already, like when you're tempted, but one of the best attacks or offensive moves with Scripture is praise. It makes sense from the context of Scripture how they'd put praise and people praising God in front of the army, you know, before it went out, but the more we make praise and thanks a part of our lives per Philippians 4, 6, for example, the more we'll sense God's presence with us throughout the day.
And, you know, this is so important. I absolutely love that. I was studying that very word this week, and at the heart of it is this idea of Shem, which is the name and your name in Hebrew, which really has to do with your core identity. And when you take that and you add another letter on the end of it that's called a shin, then you get the word praise. And so it's almost like within our identities, the true Robbie or the true James comes out when we praise.
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. We'd better pray, speaking of that, so we can close. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for this illustration and for these understandings that James has about the sword of the Spirit. So, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to yield that sword, that you'd give us opportunities to apply this very thing in our lives, that we might grow in our relationship with you and understand even better how we can move forward in that. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.
