Prayer & Spiritual Warfare - Tony Evans Sermon

you see many of us the problem of us getting along with other people is our inability to get along with ourselves everything visible and physical is preceded by something invisible and spirit the consequences we are dealing with in our lives in our homes in our culture we are dealing with them because there is a gap between where God is and where we are he wants to know that you want him and not just wanted stuff see a lot of folk go to church to get God stuff but who don't want the God who gives it so if you're in distress don't let that drive you away draw you near when you get close and want to live for him want to please him want to honor him want to exalt him want to draw near to him then heaven opens up and he lets you find [Music] 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 treatise 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 because 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 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 play in church sho'nuff 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 or this sermon so has 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 well being 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 do 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 gonna make it through the evil day for those who raise 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 need 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 Force's that are located in heavenly places or the spiritual realm 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 often 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 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 sand 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 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 war and when you're in a parade a military parade they show the weapons when you 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 got to put on truth put on righteousness put on peace he goes on he says you got to put on faith he says you got to put on the helmet of salvation then he says you 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 be put on truth Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life 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 1:1 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 I studied the Bible in college for four years and studied the Bible before you as living as master's degree another four years we're getting a doctoral degree then I've been preaching all of these years and I'm still learning new things from this awesome inexhaustibility a little game that's why I'm so excited about the 20 Evans Study Bible and its accompanying works the Tony Evans Bible commentary it will take all of this training and this teaching and make it available to you to understand utilize and apply God's most powerful [Music] 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 days 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 sho'nuff when you don't have answers you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ and all the tools that he offered you but he says you got to put him on the question is how do you put him on that's where verse eighteen comes in let me read it again he says in verse eighteen with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit and with this view be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the sings the way you put on Christ that is practically utilize him to equip you to move through the battle you face is with prayer now prayer is relational communication with God a lot of people want to pray with the in spiritual warfare who have not prayed till they got the spiritual warfare in other words they don't know how to stand strong in the Lord because they haven't been standing with the Lord but now that they're in an emergency they need the Lord he's talking about staying in touch with him all day that's why 1st Thessalonians 5:17 says pray without ceasing in other words stay in touch with me now let me explain why this is so important the evil day is principalities powers and world forces this means you are under attack this means that this attack is coming from the devil and demons it is unfortunate that far too many Christians have lost sight of demons demons are angels that went rogue demons are the spiritual mafia that attacks us in the spiritual that brings about our pain in the physical and the Bible has an answer to demons the answer to demons are angels so here's how this works the Bible declares every Christian has been assigned and Angel and the job of the angel is to look after the well-being of the believer so every Christian has an angel that is assigned to you by God one of the jobs of your angel is to throw warts the demonic attack that is coming against you because angels know how to fight angels and so when the demonic angel comes to bring pain and anguish and defeat in your world and in your life you have an angel the Bible says when we pray we engage God the Holy Spirit and I'll talk about him in a moment who is who activates the angel assigned to you to deal with the demonic oppression that is coming against you so he says with all perseverance but he tells you something else and it's the key he says pray in the spirit verse 18 don't just pray meaning don't just have conversation but he says I want you to pray in the spirit of questions what does that mean the Bible talks about the role of the Spirit is to deliver the mind of God 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 and 10 but just as it is written things which I have not seen and ear has not heard and which has not been entered into the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him for to us God revealed them these are my heavenly summer earth to us God revealed them through the spirit for the spirit searches all things even the depths of God see when you are in the evil days that means folk can help you when you're in the evil day they have limitations that they can do for you and you need something that I have not seen here if not heard and the imagination is not conceived of you need the supernatural to enter into the natural now being in the spirit is opposed in Scripture to being in the flesh to be in the spirit let me start with the participle in he wants you to be in the spirit so he does not want you visiting and exiting he wants you operating in the realm of the spirit what is the realm of the spirit the realm of the Spirit is a spiritual mindset in Romans chapter 8 verses 1 to 13 he gives this extended discussion about the spirit and he says when you have the spirit you have the mind of the spirit so this has to do with how you're thinking the mind is your thought he wants you to think spiritually not circularly he wants you to think biblically not worldly he wants you to think the mind of Christ not the mind of man so I want to show you again Galatians 5 Galatians 5 says this about the spirit verse 16 but I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please he says there is a battle and it's a battle between the spirit and the flesh let me define the flesh the flesh is the desire to please self independently of God the flesh is the desire to please yourself as opposed to pleasing God we all battle with the flesh walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desire please don't miss read that he didn't say you won't have the desire because the flesh wants what it wants so you won't have the desire but the spirit will override it don't read the verse in Reverse don't read to get rid of the desire of the flesh walk in the spirit that's backwards walk in the spirit and it will overrule that is the flesh it will overrule it the capacity to do what you need to do or what God wants done will be activated in your experience as you walk in the spirit now many times people say I'm praying but nothing is happening what let me explain but if we as humans went into the water and tried to breathe and start the in here inhale and exhale you're doing the right thing but you're doing it in the wrong environment many Christians pray they doing the right thing but they're doing it in the flesh they're doing it in the wrong environment and if you're doing the right thing in the wrong environment the right thing won't work so just because you say your prayers in the morning say grace at dinner and say your bedtime prayer that's the right thing but the question is have you been walking in the right environment because if you're not walking in the right environment doing the right thing won't work and in fact it can help kill you quicker so he says all oh oh oh I want you to be consumed with being in my presence walking in the flesh he says we'll put you in a spiritual graveyard but walking by the spirit will put you and here's how you know because you're no longer having to force things when you're in the spirit but the Bible calls the spirit a wind a wind it blows the Bible says the Holy Spirit guides us he pulls us then you can walk you should walk but you're walking on some power you're walking on some undergirding you're walking on some strength because you're walking with the mind of the Spirit consistent with the revelation and Word of God so that he can override and so you begin to flow in it even though you still have to walk and even though you may have a ways to go he says pray always in the spirit spirits will lead and so he's my only out and so we cry out to God and trust God but you have your evil day well you will and if we make prayer a lifestyle walking in the spirit a lifestyle and not a visit don't treat the spirit like a treat Church don't just come for a visit no he says you roll with me and you stay in contact with me all day every day short long fast slow when we contact God if the timing is wrong he'll say slow if the request is wrong you'll say no if we are wrong he'll say grow but if the request is right the time is right and we are right sooner or later it'll say go so I want this to be known as a house of prayer praise God for great music praise God for preaching all of that's critical to worship but if we don't make contact with heaven all we did was come to an events or religious events but if we as a church will cry out to God and when God meets you in your evil day however that happens sometimes he takes you through it sometimes he delivers you out of it and sometimes he just gives you the strength to deal with it he does it in all kind of ways but but however he decides to do it you'll know he's right there in the midst he changes your perspective in the midst of your evil day and you know you can go a long way with a change of perspective it reminds me of the story of the two hunters and they found out in Alaska they were paying $5,000 for every wolf that was killed because it had overgrown with wolves and they were creating an imbalance in nature so they had to get rid of some of the wolves so these two buddies decided we're gonna go to Alaska we're hunters let's kill with $5,000 a wolf so they got their gear they puts their tent cuz tomorrow morning we gone out and kills the wolves $5,000 a wolf so they went to sleep to get ready for tomorrow in the middle of the night one of the men heard a noise he turned on his light and he could see through the canvas he was surrounded by wolves he went to one hunt wolves and now the wolves are not in him they're 25 wolves surrounding his death they're growling as he put it up closer he could see the teeth of the wolf so they were ready to attack he woke his friend up Bob get up get up get up look Bob said what is it look we're rich [Applause] perspective can change everything [Music] life wouldn't be life without a crisis would it even one just came out of one or sooner or later you'll run into one things that overwhelm you well I want you to join me in praying through the crisis the thing where you are desperate for God and make sure you connect your prayer with obedience when prayer becomes connected with doing what God told you to do then not only do you get to pray you get to see Jesus pray on your behalf or as the scripture says to make intercession for us when you're in a crisis you need an intercede with somebody to help you out Jesus Christ is so situated to be that supernatural help so in your crisis get a partner in prayer through your prayer and your obedience and let's see what miracle awaits you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 365,272

Keywords: Tony Evans sermon, sermon, sermons, powerful sermons, inspirational sermons, motivational sermons, dr tony evans, tony evans sermons, sermons on prayer, prayer sermons, prayer, spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare sermons

Id: Z5a0WHXOG6c

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 17 2019