“Praying will do more to make the Church what it ought to be than anything else we can do. Prayer will do more to root out heresy than all the heresy trials ever held. Prayer will do more to straighten out tangles and misunderstandings and unhappy complications in the life of a church than all the counsels and conferences held. Prayer will do more to bring a deep and lasting and sweeping revival, a revival that is real and lasting and altogether of the right sort, than all the organizations ever devised by man.” – R. A. Torrey
We are in a battle. The enemy hates the gospel, the church, revival, and families. He hates your children. He hates a God-fearing nation. He loves disorder, chaos, confusion, guilt, fear, and anger.
In prayer, we don’t talk to the devil. Some folks think that praying is telling the devil off. NO! The only time you see Jesus talking to the devil was on the Mout of Temptation – and He quoted Scripture to the devil, He didn’t pray to him. You can remind the devil of the Word of God, but don’t pray to the devil.
Prayer is to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. The Model Prayer is clear: “Our Father who is in heaven, holy is Your name…lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil…Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” The devil is never mentioned. Jesus didn’t teach us to pray against the devil; He taught us to pray to our loving Father. We don’t boldly approach the devil in prayer; we boldly approach the throne of grace in prayer. Talk to God.
Nothing would turn this community and this nation back to God more quickly than a praying, prevailing church. Summer is a time when we think about vacations. But at this crucial point in our nation’s history, this is no time for us to take a holiday from intercessory prayer.
E. M. Bounds said, “The church never will be wholly for God until the pews are filled with praying men. The church cannot be what God wants it to be until those of its members who are leaders in business, politics, law, and society are leaders in prayer.”
The bottom line is this: our problem is not the devil; our problem is prayerlessness. Often our issues have more to do with our own carnality than they do with evil. Have faith in God. Ask in Jesus’ name. Pray with a surrendered heart.