Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/85

Contributor - Bert Zemke

Title - Spiritual Warfare

Topic - Spiritual Warfare

With All Prayer and Petition (verse 18)

Charles Wesley calls this: The Weapon of all Prayer. Prayer is the greatest aggressive spiritual weapon that God has committed to us, and we must learn to understand how to use the weapon of "All Prayer".

The most powerful modern military weapon that we have available is the ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), which can be launched in one continent and directed with fearful accuracy to pinpoint the explosion in a city, halfway around the world. I want you to think of "aggressive prayer" as an ICBM, and that you can launch and direct against the strongholds of Satan, and it will go with accuracy and destroy Satan's strongholds in the spiritual realms I want to use this picture of the ICBM and want to illustrate aggressive prayer in spiritual warfare.

There is one basic thing, that we have to understand in spiritual warfare and that is: That on the cross Jesus Christ finally and totally defeated Satan once and for all time. Satan is not going to be defeated. He has BEEN defeated. We have to administer his defeat, which Jesus has already accomplished and given to us.

(Col. 2:13 - 15) This passage states three things which follow one another in a logical succession ... building up to the third which is the climax:

(verse 13) You obtained total forgiveness for all your past transgressions. Satan's greatest weapon against us is guilt, and the whole battle is fought on the basis of righteousness or guilt. In procuring righteousness for us, God's first step is to forgive us totally and completely for all our past transgressions (sinful acts).

(verse 14) The law has been blotted out as a means of righteousness. God has terminated the law as means of righteousness (when Jesus died) (see Eph. 2:15, Rom. 10:4). If you believe in Christ then you don't let anyone judge you in respect to what you eat or drink, in respect to any festival, new moon, Sabbath. These are eliminated by the death of Christ on the cross.

(verse 15) As a result of verses 13 and 14 (forgiveness of all past transgressions and the law) we come to Verse 1 5. Satan has been stripped of his weapons. We have been given the weapons. We are dealing with an enemy who has only one weapon left: bluff. How has God stripped Satan of his weapons? By taking from him the right to make us feel guilty. As long as he makes us feel guilty, he has power over us. Remember The whole battle centres around righteousness or guilt.

Now let's go back to the ICBM:

There are three main weapons made available to us in this warfare as Christians:

The Word of God

The Name of Jesus

The Blood of Jesus.

How are these weapons launched?

There is only ONE channel for launching all spiritual weapons, and that channel is the Mouth.

(Psalm 8:1 - 2) The weapon in verse 1 is: the Name of the Lord. How is it to be used? Verse 2 tells us God has provided us with something to still the enemy, to shut him up, to silence him. God has given us "ordained strength". Now look at Matt. 21:16: Jesus quotes Psalm 8:2, "perfected, prepared praise".

David said "Thou hast established, ordained strength". Jesus said "perfected, prepared praise". What does that tell us? That the ordained strength of God's people is perfected praise.

When we come to the place where we praise God perfectly out of our mouth, we silence the devil.

The next thing we need to know about the weapons and their launching is:

How Are They Empowered?

What is the power that propels them to the place where they are to be used?

There is only one form of power: the Holy Spirit.

(Eph. 3:20)... "ask" or "think" is primarily prayer. Paul runs out of words here to describe the power of prayer. The effectiveness of our prayers is determined by the measure of the power that works through us.

(I Cor. 4:20) ... it is not the words we speak, but it is the power in the words that matter. Now, we need a "computer setting" (ICBM in our prayers to direct them to the right objective. The computer setting is provided by the Holy Spirit

(Rom. 8:26 - 27) Paul says we have a certain infirmity. Not physical, but an infirmity of the mind and understanding and it takes these two forms:

1) we don't know what to pray; and

2) we don't know how to pray

... but God has given us a power and a wisdom to help us the Holy Spirit.

In the measure that you yield to and allow yourself to be directed by the Holy Spirit... your prayers become effective.

The Secret of Praying is Cooperating with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6:1 8) . . . "in the Spirit" we are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit for effective prayer. There are four main ways to use our mouths to send forth the spiritual weapons:

a) Prayer c) Praise

b) Testimony c) Preaching

a) Prayer

(Acts 4:17; 23 - 25; 29 - 3 1) The leaders of the early church were confronted with their first serious opposition. The civil leaders had forbidden them to preach anymore ... in the Name of Jesus. Whether forgiveness of sins ... healing of the body ... deliverance from evil spirits ... all of these are only effective " in the Name of Jesus". This was a major crisis (Acts 4:17). The apostles went back to their own believers and began to pray. They set into operation the weapon of prayer (vs 23 - 3 1). One person was the mouthpiece for this prayer that was given by the Holy Spirit. The rest supported that person in the Spirit and said " Amen". Notice two things: (1) the prayer was filled with quotations from the Word of God (vs 24 - 25), and (2) the weapon was the Name of Jesus.

(vs 29 - 30). They used the Word of God and the Name of Jesus. Their prayers were the vehicles of those weapons.

What happened after they prayed that way.? (verse 3 1)

(1) the place was shaken;

(2) they were filled with the Holy Spirit and

(3) they began to speak the Word of God with boldness.

b) Praise

(Acts 16:25 - 26) Paul and Silas have been supernaturally directed through the Holy Spirit to come to Philippi and they started to preach the Gospel. They were beaten and cast into prison and put into the inner chambers with their feet in the stocks.

The power of spiritual weapons -prayer and praise liberated (released) God's supernatural power in such a way that it produced visible effects in the physical world, "the prison was shaken to its foundation... the doors were opened and their bands were loosed". They did not have to tell the jailer that he was a sinner. He jumped up, spoke to the prisoners and said: "Help me, how can I be saved?"

When we win the battle in the spiritual realm we recapture the initiative. The way to get the initiative is to win it in the spiritual.

c) Testimony

(Acts 1: 8) These are the last words Jesus spoke on earth. Jesus said: " You shall be my witnesses". He did not say " Go and witness with your mouths". . . and there is a difference. Being a witness means living such a life that it compels people to think about Jesus. "Speaking", of course is part of witnessing, but it is not the whole. What we say with our mouth, we must do in (with) our lives. (Acts 4:33) ... the continuing extension of the unfolding of the witness. The difference between preaching and witnessing is:

Preaching is essentially unfolding the truths out of Scripture Witnessing is telling of what God has done for you -what you have seen and heard.

Not every Christian is a preacher, BUT every Christian must be a witness, because if God has done nothing for you, you cannot be a Christian. Notice here in our text the apostle gave with great power testimony of the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 5:28) ... to everyone in Jerusalem.

d) Preaching

(Acts 19:8 - 10) These verses describe the ministry of Paul in Ephesus. He preached the Word of God for two years. Notice verses 11 and 12:... "special or extraordinary miracles. . .". The people here were believers, standing with one foot in Christianity and the other foot in this "world." They were fooling around in the occult.

What was the explanation of what happened in Ephesus so dramatically? The whole city was swept by a demonstration of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. and preaching the Word accomplished that.

The Prayer of Binding and Losing

(Matt. 16:19) Jesus conferred upon Peter a tremendous spiritual authority. Authority exercised on earth BUT effective in heaven.

(Matt. 18:18 - 20) Here the same promise is given, not in the singular (Peter), but rather in the plural (all disciples). This promise is given to believers who meet the conditions.

Verse 19: ... " If two of you agree (the Greek word here is symphonai" - symphonize or harmonize). It is a "harmony" in the Spirit not just in an intellectual decision. The "harmonizer", the "conductor" is the Holy Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit brings two or more people together in "full spiritual harmony" (Rom 8:14) ... the leader is the Holy Spirit ... that is where Jesus is. And that is where the authority is. We cannot detach or separate verse 18 from verses 19 and 20. The exercise of the authority depends on the leading of the Holy Spirit, and being in the right relationship to our fellow believers (read the rest of Chapter 18).

And Jesus says: On that basis. . . "whatsoever you shall bind on earth. . . shall be having been bound. . . " (literal translation). The tense that is being used here (verse 18) for binding and losing is a "perfect principle". In English we have the simple past and the perfect tense. (Simple past "The door was closed yesterday." [it can be open today]. Perfect tense - "The door has been closed yesterday." [it is still closed today]). The perfect tense tells us what happened in the past, with continuing application right on into the present.

Jesus (verse 18) uses the perfect tense "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be (having been bound - perfect tense) bound in heaven." It is very absolute.

There are two ways to understand this, and you have your choice:

1) "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall have been bound in heaven." - the moment you bind it on earth it is bound in heaven. Action on earth - consequences in heaven. This emphasizes man's responsibility.

2) "Whatsoever you bind on earth, will be that which has already been bound in heaven." This places all the emphasis on God's sovereignty. You can only bind on earth, what has already been bound in heaven.

So, you have your choice between these two"theological concepts". But, both contain the same truth, and in either view, it places upon us on earth the responsibility for what goes on in heaven.

... this is absolutely staggering

This is then the authority that is vested in believers:

1) meeting in the name of Jesus ... and

2) harmonizing with one another (living in right relationships).

(Eph. 2:6) God has invited us to share the throne with Him.

Binding and losing cover essentially any situation you can think of- (Matt. 12:28 - 29; Luke 11:21 - 22) There are two applications in these two passages like in many Scripture passages:

1. This passage talks about Jesus and the devil. Jesus came upon the devil, defeated him ... and now listen ... took from him ALL armour wherein he trusted. The devil is an unarmed foe. And having done this Jesus divided His plunder, and said: "Help yourself'.

2. The second application is for us: in any given situation we have to "bind the strong man". We have to know WHO the strong man is and HOW to deal with him. The "strong man" is Satan's delegated representative to watch over Satan's interests in that situation.

Much of our activity in our churches, though goodwill not be fully effective until in any given situation we deal with the strong man. We cannot take away his goods, until we have bound him. What are his goods: disharmony, jealousy, gossip, legalism, sex-perversion guilt, rebellion, prejudice, criticism, complaint, unforgiveness, denominationalism If we have a conflict in the family or church we get some kind of results with prayer and fasting. But we really have to know WHO the strong man is and HOW to deal with him. How do we find out who the strong man is? At this particular point, we are dependent on direct divine revelation (discernment, knowledge, wisdom).

I want to suggest to those who are serious prayer warriors, God is going to reveal to you the particular" strong man" that is dominating the situation that you are confronted with.

Please click the "Back" button of your browser to return to previous page.