Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

When the doctors don't have answers, when the bankers don't have answers, and sure enough when you don't have answers, you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ. Dr. Tony Evans says God can cover you like no one else. You need the supernatural to enter into the natural, because God knows more than anybody you know. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. For many people, prayer is just a friendly thank you to God before a meal.

But today Dr. Evans explains how easily it can become your only defense when things get desperate. You'll want to turn to Ephesians 6-10 as we join him. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shied your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Let me read verse 18 again. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Now, Father, as we come into your presence based on your word, let us not hear only from what is written, but from what the Holy Spirit wants to do with what is written for transforming our own hearts and lives.

In Jesus' name, amen. When you've lived long enough, it becomes pretty clear that life is not a playground but a battleground. When you've lived long enough, you've come to realize that life is not always easy. And while we cherish those times of fun and frivolity and play and excitement, we dread those times of pain and anguish and struggle. Someone has said that life can be described as being bittersweet. It has those sweet moments that we cherish and embrace, and those bitter moments that bring us to tears, hurt, and pain.

Paul is writing, and he concludes his treaties to the church at Ephesus to talk to them about the battleground of life. We call it spiritual warfare. But he's not just talking about any kind of battle. He describes this one specifically by calling it the evil day, the evil day. The evil day is when all hell breaks loose on you. The evil day is when you are overwhelmed.

Yes, life has its normal ups and downs, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about when you are under major attack, when your world is being shattered, your dreams are being destroyed, your hopes are being dimmed, and where you look out and all you see is the light of an oncoming train. He calls that the evil day, the day when hell is after you and your name has come up. He says when that day comes, when that period of time when you're under major assault comes, he says, I want you to understand how to approach this. Because he says on that day, you're going to need the strength of the Lord, verse 10.

Normal stuff is not going to work, and playing church, sure enough, won't work. He says on that day, you're going to need the supernatural. And so he goes into these verses leading up to the subject of prayer to tell us how to approach this time in your life, in my life.

Now I want to make sure that I'm not wasting my time on this sermon. So does anybody here know what I'm talking about when I talk about an evil day? An evil day, when you're under massive spiritual assault. Well, let me remind you that everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. Everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. So Paul wants you to know if you want to address in the time of your attack the visible and physical, you need to do it from the perspective of the invisible and spiritual. He gives you the term that he uses throughout the book of Ephesians of heavenly places.

Heavenly places means the spiritual realm. And what he's saying is that when you are under assault, when your life is being shattered, you're trying to be in the will of God, you're trying to walk with God, but you're being attacked. Your wellbeing is being attacked. Your dreams are being attacked. Your health is being attacked. Your stability is being attacked. Your resources are being attacked. Your future is being attacked.

You are just under assault. He says during those times, you have to view things from the location of heavenly places or the spiritual realm, if you're going to be strong, to walk through, work through the times of those attacks. And he wants to set the plan in place for how you're going to make it through the evil day. For those who raised your hand because you've been in or are in the evil day, this will matter to you. For those of you who've not yet been to the evil day, keep living.

It's coming. When you're under assault and your stability, your world is being shaken. He says during those times, three times, he says, I want you to stand firm, stand firm, stand firm.

Don't quit, don't quit, don't quit. Because the temptation is easily to throw in the towel when your world is collapsing right in front of your eyes. He says, the first thing I want you to understand is that you wrestle not against flesh and blood. In other words, people aren't the source of your problem. They may be the conduit for your problem, but they're not the source of your problem.

For we Christians wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and world forces that are located in heavenly places or the spiritual realm. So if you address the resource without addressing the source, all you've done is created a delay for it to come back up again because you've not gotten to the root of the problem. We're just addressing the fruit of the problem. Addressing the physical world when the problem or attack is emanating from the spiritual world is like a policeman arresting the gun instead of arresting the person who pulled the trigger. They're arresting the resource, the vehicle, and not the source. The gun was merely the vehicle. The person pulling the trigger was the source.

So they arrest the source, not the resource. And so what he is saying is the source is spiritual. He first of all wants to set the stage by saying, on the evil day, when you're in this season of attack, I want you to stand firm, which means to hold your ground in the Lord. He says, be strong in the Lord. To hold your spiritual ground. It is easy to be swayed and moved off of center when you're suffering. It is easy to be swayed and moved off of the source of your hope when you're going through it and you see no exit sign.

It is easy to be moved. But he says, during those times, when you are under assault and your world is being stripped from right underneath you, he calls it the evil day. He says, during that time, I want you to grab more tightly your faith. Don't loosen it up.

Stand firm. It reminds me of the story back in Western days of the father and son who were trying to escape the prairie fire. But the fire was moving so fast that they could not outrun it. The father took his son to a parched parcel of land and he stood there as the fire swept around them. The son looked at his father and said, run, daddy, run, daddy, run, daddy, run. He said, no, son, we're going to stand right here. He said, but daddy, the fire is all around us. You've got to run, daddy, run. He says, we can't outrun this fire, son.

We're going to stand right here. The son said, but why are we going to stand right here, daddy, when the fire is all around us? He said, son, when you look around, you see where we're standing has already been burned.

It has already been parched. So the fire can't hurt where we're standing because the fire has already been here. So even though we're surrounded by fire, we're safe in the midst of fire because where we are standing has already been under fire. When you are under the fire of oppression, when you're under the fire of the evil one, when you're under fire of demonic attack, when you're under the fire of suffering, he says, you take your stand on the ground where Jesus Christ has already been burned for you, where Jesus Christ has already suffered for you. You grab a hold of the strength that the Lord has to offer. You do not run away from God when you are in the evil day. You have to run to God when you're in the midst of the evil day because you're now engaged in spiritual warfare. And we've got to stand strong in the midst of a battle that humans can't tell us how to win. When your world is being attacked in whatever way it's being attacked, that's not the time to run from him, it's the time to run to him. It's not the time to invade him, it's the time to embrace him.

He says, stand firm. Hold on to your faith in the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the suffering, the pain, and in the midst of the struggle. Dr. Evans will tell us one of the first things we need to do to prepare for spiritual success when he comes back in a moment with more of this lesson from his powerful series, Igniting Kingdom Prayer. This two-volume, twelve-message collection will take your prayer life to the next level so you can experience more of the intimate connection and two-way communication it's intended to provide. We'd like to send you a copy of this powerful series as our gift so you can review it on your own or share it with your family or Bible study group. All we ask is that you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Just request the Igniting Kingdom Prayer series today at TonyEvans.org. It's right there on our homepage. Or reach out to our resource center for some in-person help at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans will come back right after this. Join Tony Evans and the Urban Alternative, August 6 to 13, on an unforgettable journey through Alaska's unspoiled paradise. From its majestic mountain peaks to the mighty forests and green meadows teeming with wildlife to the spectacular ice floes, this unique cruise opportunity will also give you the chance to hear life-changing teaching from Dr. Evans and other gifted teachers, as well as worship with some of today's most talented artists. Join us, August 6 to 13.

Spots are filling up quick, so book your room of choice today at TonyEvans.org. He then tells you how to dress for spiritual success. He gives you the armor of God. He tells you, I want you to get dressed for the battle. Now, when you're in a military parade, they show the weapons.

When you're in a war, you use the weapons. Because in the evil day, this is not showtime at the Apollo. This is time when you've got to get dressed. He says, you've got to put on truth, put on righteousness, put on peace. He goes on, he says, you've got to put on faith. He says, you've got to put on the helmet of salvation. Then he says, you've got to use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. He gives these six pieces of spiritual arsenal or spiritual armor that the believer is to utilize when it comes to taking a stand in the evil day or when you're under spiritual attack and spiritual oppression that's affecting your physical, financial, circumstantial, emotional, family well-being. Take your stand harder than you've ever taken it before, but put on this armor. But now, you may not remember all the pieces of the armor. So let's make it easy. Because Romans chapter 13 verse 14 says, put on Christ. If you can't remember all the pieces, remember this one. Put on Christ.

Why? Because he says, I want you to put on truth. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the light. He says, I want you to put on righteousness. Scripture says, Christ is our righteousness. He says, put on peace.

Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation, but I give you my peace. He says, put on the helmet of salvation. Scripture is clear, Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation. And then he says, put on the word of God, use the sword of the Spirit. John 1 says, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, the word was God. Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus says, he is the word. So if you don't remember truth, remember Jesus. If you don't remember righteousness, remember Jesus. If you don't remember peace, remember Jesus. If you don't remember faith, remember Jesus. If you don't remember the helmet of salvation, remember Jesus. If you don't remember the Bible, remember Jesus, because Jesus is the full armor of God. You put on Christ, you become centered in him.

This is not belief in God, this is centered in God's Son, who is the revelation of God, the manifestation of God, who is the power of God to manifest himself particularly in the evil day. Now you want to do it all the time, but you better do it in the evil day. When the doctors don't have answers, when the bankers don't have answers, when your friends don't have answers, and sure enough, when you don't have answers, you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ and all the tools that he offers you.

But he says you got to put him on. When you're in the fight of your life, you better pray like you've never prayed before. The way you put on Christ, that is, practically utilize him to equip you to move through the battle you face is with prayer. A lot of people want to pray when they're in spiritual warfare who have not prayed till they got the spiritual warfare.

But now that they're in an emergency, they need the Lord. Far too many of us use prayer like our spare tire in our trunk. We want it there in case something goes flat. But as long as nothing is going flat, we just keep rolling along.

But when something goes flat, we want to go to the trunk, we want to pull out the spare, we want to take off the flat, we want to put on the spare, we take the flat to the tire place, they fix the flat, we take off the spare, we put on the flat that's now been repaired, the spare is now back in the trunk until we go flat again. So we use Jesus as a spare tire when life goes flat, when he wants to be all four tires rolling along our lives as the centerpiece of our existence. When he talks about the evil day, will you notice all the time he uses the word all? He deals with the scope of prayer. The seriousness of prayer is that we're in a battle, it's the evil day. But notice he says all prayer, all times. He says all perseverance, all petition, all the saints.

Last time I checked, all means all, and that's all that all means. He says you are to maintain contact with me in the battle that you are facing. You are not merely to visit me, you are to stay in touch with me. Now most of us know what staying in touch means because I see you pulling out your iPhones during the service. So I know you know what staying in touch means. Folk look down, try to hide the iPhone, try to make it look like they're reading a verse from the Bible when I know they're not reading because they're doing all this with their thumb. But what they're doing is staying in touch. You walk around with your iPhone in your pocket, you walk around with it in your purse. Some of you walk around with it in your ear, some folk walk around with it hanging in their necks.

They want to stay in touch and so they carry the phone with them. What we do is we're satisfied with saying grace. We're satisfied with a prayer before bed while we fall off to sleep. But when all hell is broken loose on you, you better stay in touch with the living and true God. He says you stay in touch with me and you do it all, all, all, all, all. So obviously he's not talking about getting on your knees all day. He's not talking about being in your closet all day. He's talking about staying in touch with him all day.

That's why 1 Thessalonians 5 17 says pray without ceasing. In other words, stay in touch with me. Sometimes it's going to be while you're driving, you and God are going to be having a conversation. Sometimes while you walk into the car to get in the car to start the car to begin driving, you're going to be in touch with me. When you get out the car and on your way to your office, you and I are going to have a brief conversation. When you walk to the bathroom during the day, you're going to have a little quick conversation with me about what you're facing and what you're going through. Then you're going to have those formal times of devotion and formal times of prayer.

Then sometimes you're going to be in the middle of a conversation with somebody so you can't verbally talk, but you're going to think my thoughts in your mind and communicate with me with your mind during those times because you're being attacked. It's the evil day. Hell is out to get you. And if it's hell out to get you, you don't need more people, you need more heaven.

And if it's hell out to get you, you better get heaven on your side. Dr. Tony Evans reminding us God is the only one who can solve the toughest problems we face. To learn more about the power of prayer and spiritual warfare, request a full-length copy of today's lesson on CD or digital download. It's part of the two-volume 12-message collection called Igniting Kingdom Prayer, and it can be yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching here on this station. Just visit tonyevans.org today to make the arrangements, or if it's more convenient, call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222, and let one of our team members assist with your request.

Once again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or on the web at tonyevans.org. And that's the same place to go to discover how to stream the popular film Journey with Jesus. Shown last year in theaters around the nation, Journey with Jesus brings the New Testament gospels to life as Dr. Evans and his adult children visit the locations of Jesus' earthly ministry, connecting them with their significance for each of us today. Plan on making this film part of your special reflection for Easter this year. For information on how to take advantage of the Journey with Jesus limited-time streaming opportunity, visit tonyevans.org today. Some of the situations we face in life seem insurmountable, and for good reason, they are without God. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explore how petitioning the Lord is the only way we can overcome the evil one once he has his sights set on us. I hope you'll join us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.