Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
it's good to worship amen glory to god let me get some stuff out of the way here real quick just uh while i'm doing that just to let you know don't forget um steve hill the evangelist from the brownsville revival and and really spent time with the argentine revival he's going to be in columbus um september is the 23rd and 24th 23rd and 24th i think the 24th is thursday right we're going to try to go thursday but anybody that wants to come we may go wednesday and thursday we'll just see but definitely don't want to miss that at north highlands is that it north highlands assembly of god in columbus we'll get more details later i want everybody this morning we're going to start with a quick some quick verses of course you see we're going to be talking about prayer this morning the power of prayer and the need of prayer but something i believe that the lord showed me about where we are in the spirit realm right now on some things so i want you to turn in your bibles turn first to ephesians everybody pretty well know this but i want to read this in ephesians in the new testament before we read something in the old testament but ephesians chapter 6 also to be a familiar passage of scripture to many of you but we need to really let it sink in something the lord told me after our prayer meeting last sunday night we had an awesome prayer meeting and i'm going to tell you what it's important to be in prayer meetings with your brothers and sisters that that prayer meeting was powerful there were real tears there were real intercession there was just a real a real spirit of prayer there the holy spirit really helping us pray and i'm going to tell you god does not move until his people are praying together with sincere broken hearts with desperate cries god will not answer you know there's a i can't remember the preacher who said it i can't remember if it was ian bounds or or leonard ravenhill but he said this and this almost takes somebody to storm but that god doesn't answer prayer god answers desperate prayer god doesn't just answer any prayer he answers the prayer of a righteous man or a righteous woman he answers the prayer of someone who is persistent he answers the prayer of someone who believes him and cries out to him he answers the prayers of the brokenhearted and i want to tell you you want to water the ground of god where god's going to bless you water it with the tears of sincere heartfelt prayer and god is going to move i remember years ago the great musician and prophet keith green i remember him writing a song talking about my my prayers are cold my heart is hard my eyes are dry let me tell you if your eyes have been dry in prayer then i'm going to tell you it's time to draw nearer to jesus because if you have
his heart and you're spending enough time with him to get his heart you will have some tears in prayer and you will care about people around you and you will care about where you are and where they are and you'll you'll heaven and and hell and eternity will be on your heart but there is nothing and listen to me there is nothing impossible to him that believes i want to tell you there is nothing impossible with god and there is nothing impossible to him that believes but do you know where faith comes from remember when the disciples couldn't cast the demon out of the boy and they asked jesus later why could not we cast him out because they'd been doing it before and jesus said there's certain things that are just not going to come about but by fasting and prayer and what he was telling them was is you know you guys are have a good heart and you've done some good work he said but you got to understand to take it to the next level to get the extra power you need you're going to have to take it to the next level in prayer and fasting and what the lord told me after the prayer meeting sunday night was this he said three weeks of warfare three weeks of warfare and that sunday night started and i want to tell you what uh i found out this week in my own life that he wasn't joking three weeks of warfare and we are moving into the fall now but tomorrow is the first official day of fall we're moving into the fall and this is the time god is preparing us to launch out and do some things but the lord wanted me to challenge you and i almost sent out a text but of course i was out in the wilderness where i have no signal so i couldn't send out a text but um i was going to send out a text that i want everybody i'm going to ask you to step it up the next three weeks in prayer if you're spending 15 minutes a day in prayer let's step it up to 45 minutes or an hour let's step it up in the area of fasting let's fast some if you haven't been fasting any in these next three weeks i'm just telling you as your pastor here i need you to fast i need you to pray for me i need you to pray for this church i need you to pray for the evangelism and the outreach that we're about to do because the devil has taken notice of us if you haven't noticed in the last few weeks that we have had some interesting battles to fight and the lord just let me know that we're going to have a few more in the next few weeks and i can feel it i can feel sometimes when the enemy is pressing in and coming in like a flood i can tell when satan is stirring up his forces and his troops to to try to move in and try to discourage and get us off track but i know that we're not going to do that so i'm going to say this step it up i mean i don't care if you fast two days this week in two days the next week and two days the next week but what i'm saying is do something different stir yourself up to seek god harder and longer and more diligently than you have in the last few weeks because i want to tell you i as your pastor need that nancy needs that we we as a church you
need to be praying for everybody at church whether they're here or not you need to be praying for them and we're going to talk about the area of warfare a little bit but i want you to see that god wants to do some things and god has plans to do some things but satan knows that and he sent out he sent out some powerful forces to to stop that i'm gonna show you this principle in the word but first from ephesians chapter six on the armor of god let's read this we're going to start at verse 10. he says finally my brethren be strong in the lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore for that reason take unto you the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day everybody say in the evil day having done all to stand stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god now before i read any further i'm going to just speak a moment about the armor because the armor to to truly put on the armor of god doesn't the bible say here put on the armor of god right that you may be able to stand against the walls of the devil well that means there's something that you have to do with the armor of god but there are some people that get in in the extreme of either sides of this issue and you actually have to do both the armor of god is both real in the sense of if you could see it in the spiritual realm it is real armor i remember years ago when i made a bunch of satanist angry and they were shooting real bullets at me when i was standing in the wide open that it sounded like it was hitting metal but there was nothing metal around me and to tell you the truth where i was standing in the middle of nowhere i mean just out in the open with a white t-shirt on like that right there i was kind of standing out if you know what i mean but i just want you to know the armor is real but to put it on is twofold there's two things that you have to do first of all you have to say it out of your mouth now let me just help you understand something in the kingdom of god everything in the kingdom of god are in the spirit realm and both christians and witches know this okay operates by what you say out of your mouth words are the most powerful things in the spirit realm because words are created they're created literally by your spirit and when you speak them
they never come back they go do something to somebody that's why it's so terrible to talk bad about somebody to curse somebody because words have power that's why in proverbs 18 22 we're not i mean you could just write this down but proverbs 18 22 it says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof now think about that the fruit thereof death and life's in the power of the tongue so to put on the armor of god you literally have to say in the name of jesus i put on the girdle of truth i put on the breastplate of righteousness i put on my feet the shods of the preparation of the gospel of peace i take and put on the shield of faith wherewith i'm able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked i put on the helmet of salvation i take the sword of the spirit you have got to put on the armor as a shield i mean the armor is a defensive weapon and i want to tell you the lord gave sarah a dream that i'm going to let her share at the end of this to confirm this it confirmed to me what i'm supposed to be preaching on god is speaking to i believe he's speaking to everybody in this church about things but i want you to know the armor is real you have to say it out of your mouth but let me let me explain something to you about this armor if you say i put on the breastplate of righteousness and yet i'm not living a righteous life guess what you can say that all you want to you get what i'm saying but you don't have on the armor or the breastplate of righteousness you know what i'm saying you can say i put on the girdle of truth but if you are not studying the word of god meditating on the word of god and establishing yourself in the truth of god's word then you don't have on the girdle of truth it's kind of like people who say jesus is their lord but they don't obey him it's the same principle they don't really have anything they have no power they have no authority they have nothing remember the jews remember in acts chapter 19 the the jews that took it upon themselves to to go to somebody that was demon-possessed and say we command you to leave or we adjure you by jesus whom paul preaches and the demons spoke out of the person who was demon-possessed and said paul i know and jesus i know but who are you see they tried to use the name of jesus without having the nature of jesus in their heart you see what i'm saying they thought oh this name of jesus is pretty powerful but they had no right to use it because they weren't walking close to him so the armor is twofold you have to both be walking in what it's talking about but you also have to say i put it on it's it's showing an act of faith when you say i put on the armor of god but but this is what when people talk about spiritual warfare and they talk about the armor they tend to stop before verse 18. and this is what bothers me if you stop before verse 18 you're going to get in trouble
because guess what you can be walking righteous you can put on the armor of god but if your prayer life is weak lacking or almost non-existent and let me just say this if you watch more tv than you pray you are in trouble if you are on the internet goofing off more than you pray you are in trouble for some of us i know there are some that aren't here but some of them it's video games you know more than you pray none of these things are bad in and of themselves but as a christian if you're not spending that time with god if that's not more important to you then these things can become idols right but look what he said right after he says about taking the helmet of salvation the sword of the spirit which is the word of god verse 17 he says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints now look look right there he's saying you have got to put on the armor of god every day praying always man do we need to pray folks we need the power of prayer in our lives and i remember there was an old saying back in the pentecostal days of the old pentecostals used to say this little prayer little power a lot of prayer a lot of power it's just that simple do we want the power of god in our lives do we want to see our our nature change do we want to see the the spirit of god be able to work through us and speak through us and and and heal people through us if we want that then we're going to have to spend time with god and if jesus here on earth as a man had to go up and pray and sometimes he says he continued all night in prayer we we have got to follow jesus as our example we have got to follow the apostles is our example when jesus was in the garden of gethsemane what did he say to peter james and johnny's closest disciples at one of the most critical hours of his life he wanted them to pray with him he needed their prayers and they fell asleep and when he came to wake them he said could you not tarry with me one hour couldn't you pray at least one hour jesus was there praying for hours there were times he would pray all night long and he's saying to us can't we pray one hour paul said praying always now look at right there he says praying always and some translations translate this when he says praying always with all prayer or all kinds of prayer
and we don't have time this morning for me to get into all kinds of prayer but intercession spiritual warfare prayers of faith there's all kinds of prayer but he's saying praying always with all kinds of prayer what and supplication for who for all saints let me tell you are you praying for your brothers and sisters in this church there are people still in this church that still have wounds from the past they still have hurts they still have brokenness they still have um you know there's bodies that need to be healed are you praying for your brothers and sisters just in this church i mean if you're not praying for them i mean we need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in this church and people outside this church but do you really pray paul said making mention of you always in my prayers do you guys know that i pray for you all the time kevin can testify sometimes when he gets to hear it when we pray in the mornings together i name all of you when i pray every one of you but he didn't even stop there he said praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit right then he say in the spirit letting the spirit of god help you remember how i preached on a few weeks back about you need to pray in tongues a lot man if you get in prayer and you can't really pray pray in the spirit for 30 minutes or 40 minutes guess what the holy spirit will come on you help you pray what you ought to pray after you pray in tongues for about 30 minutes guess what stuff will start bubbling up in your heart and your spirit about what to pray in english man if all you can do you may feel heavy you may feel depressed you may feel weak the enemy may be coming against your mind and everything pray in the spirit for a while and you will break that off for you and you'll be praying what the holy spirit wants you to pray i mean people say well i don't know what to pray i can't pray for an hour you can pray in tongues for an hour and listen if you're not baptized in the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues you better get to seeking god for that until you have that because you need that if you don't have that amen that's another sermon actually it's already been a couple of those praying always and look what he said verse 19. i'm just going to go ahead and add this one in he said and for me that utterance may be given unto me that i may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in bonds that therein i may speak boldly as i ought to speak and paul so paul was saying please pray for me don't think see this is the mistake a lot of churches make and a lot a lot of christians make they think because their leader knows more than them or is stronger than them or maybe he's been saved longer than them that they don't really need to pray for him listen let
me tell you i need you to pray for me if paul the apostles asking for prayer he obviously knew that he couldn't do it without the prayers of people praying for him and let me tell you something if you think the demons of hell come against your life let me give you an a clue he will come against your leader like nothing else you can ever imagine he knows the principle of smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered believe me he goes after god's leaders with with relentless determination so please start praying for me i'm actually going to put out a list of how to pray for for leaders okay but let me say this too here's another thing you can do all these things and be right and this is this is something that's very important you have to also be what in correct spiritual authority truly submitted and truly under authority and understand that if you're going to start praying and attacking especially being aggressive and attacking the devil in spiritual warfare if you're not under authority truly submitted the devil's going to tear some things up and we'll look at that in just a second but i wanted you to see this look back at verse 12 real quick what does he say there for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places now again the purpose of this morning is not to go through what all these mean but there are ranks of demons that we are that we as christians have to confront and deal with there are strong principalities that are over regions that are even over nations we're gonna we're gonna see that there are powers over nations there are spirits under them that rule cities and regions there are demons specifically that rule and and try to take and lead uh political leaders then there's your every little day demons that run around trying to tempt you with lust or trying to tempt you with with greed or jealousy or get you to lie they just run around all the time trying to do stuff but a church a church trying to reach the community sooner or later is going to deal with the power the principality over that region and he is stronger and more powerful than the little demons you deal with in your daily life okay but whenever a church starts moving in the right direction it gets the attention of these powers of the air and they will organize and launch attacks and that's why we have to fight together that's why there has to be more than just the pastor praying or more than
just a one or two praying for a church to successfully stand against the powers that rule over regions okay we're going to see that in a second but turn with me i want you to turn me back to the book of daniel well you see paul was talking about this explaining this daniel chapter 10. now i'm not going to read daniel chapter 9 just yet there are some things in there that that day daniel i'm just going to tell you can read daniel chapter 9 later but daniel uh was a contemporary of jeremiah but he was he was much younger than jeremiah jeremiah prophesied in the years leading up to the babylonian captivity daniel was a very young man when he was taken into captivity by nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon um so by this time jeremiah is a much older man and daniel is a much younger man but it's amazing if you read daniel chapter 9 daniel says i when i understood by books what jeremiah the prophet said about the years that would be determined or accomplished upon jerusalem now god said through jeremiah that that the jews would be in babylonian captivity for 70 years and then he would bring them back to their land well when daniel saw that that time when he saw that in the word see he was a student of the word of god okay of the prophet jeremiah and he was a student and he read that what the lord said because jeremiah had a scribe named brock or i can't i don't know if i'm pronouncing it right but anyway he had a scribe that wrote down everything that he said and daniel read this about maybe 50 or 60 years after jeremiah wrote it and he said when i understood he said i started praying when i understood that the time was near for god to move and do something i know i had to pray this is a man who understood even though god's going to move you don't just say well god's going to do it i'm going to be lazy and sit back and watch right daniel said set himself to pray and he set himself to pray until this came about well a couple of years goes by or a few years between the time of daniel chapter 9 and daniel chapter 10. so let's take it to daniel chapter 10. this is after the anyway we'll just go on daniel chapter 10 verse 1 just start reading here he says in the third year of cyrus king of persia a thing was revealed unto daniel whose name was called beltachazar and the thing was true but the time appointed was long and he understood the
thing and had understanding of the vision in those days i daniel was mourning three full weeks i ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth neither did i anoint myself at all till the whole three whole weeks were fulfilled so daniel saying here that basically he had set himself to a time of prayer and fasting some people think that it was a partial fast where he ate only certain things some people believe it was a hole fast to me it doesn't matter he was fasting and praying and seeking god and i really think he didn't eat because he was at a point of no strength the longest fast that i've ever done personally and i would not advise this unless you know what you're doing and you know from god but the lord led me on a fast when i was a young man to fast 21 days 21 days no food i drank plenty of liquids and uh and and it was awesome let me tell you after after that fast i saw all kinds of miracles i saw jesus that's when i saw jesus heal the deaf woman that's when i saw teenagers that thought they were okay manifesting demons casting demons out of them prayed for a boy that just broke his ankle it was instantly healed all kinds of stuff happened after that but fasting is powerful but so regardless of whether this was a partial fast or a full fast he was fasting and praying and look at verse four and it says and in the fourth and 20th day of the first month as i was by the side of the great river which is the hitticow then i first then i lifted up my eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with the fine gold of you fast now let me just go ahead and say that this is jesus appeared to him because this is the same description that the apostle john gives in revelation when he sees jesus all right so he sees this vision in verse six his body was also like burial in his face as the appearance of lightning and his eyes as lamps of fire in his arms and his feet like the color to polished brass and the voice of his words were like the voice of a multitude that is jesus appearing to him and i daniel alone saw the vision for the men that were with me saw not the vision but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves now i just want to say this right here when god starts moving and getting ready to move you'll be amazed the people who will run for cover amen because listen i love what john kilpatrick said a few weeks ago he said there are a lot of people that say they want the presence of god and they want the glory of god until he comes but the true presence of god and glory of god will terrify you and especially if you're in sin or compromise or anything wrong is going on the glory of god will expose it and you will run to try to hide and you will either embrace the the fear and trembling of the lord or you'll run well daniel didn't run the other men that was with with him ran and i want to tell you the glory of god he he
like jesus said in matthew 10 he comes to bring a sword sometimes not peace sword we're going to cut this thing right down the middle we'll see who's who's really real and who's not let's go on and he says therefore verse 8 he says therefore i was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and i retained no strength yet heard i the voice of his words that when i heard the voice of his words then was i in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground and he says behold a hand touched me which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands and he said unto me o daniel a man greatly beloved understand the words that i speak unto thee and stand upright for unto thee am i now sent and when he had spoken this word unto me i stood trembling and he said unto me fear not daniel for from the first day that you did set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself to discipline yourself before your god your words were heard and i am come for your word so for the first day he started this fast god said your words were heard you're a man greatly beloved let me tell you you want to know what daniel was a man greatly beloved what if you go back and read about him from a young man up he would not compromise he wouldn't defile himself and eat the king's meat that was sacrificed to idols he went and prayed three times a day he was a man of prayer he prayed three times a day and when they threatened his life to throw him in the lion's den what did he do all he had to do was not pray for 30 days he went right straight and prayed like he always did this was a man who would not compromise who was holy who was after god and who was a man of prayer and he's sitting here interceding for his people his you know god's people sometimes are ignorant and he sits there and he's praying he's praying for them these three weeks and god shows up you know jesus appears to him and i believe we see that after jesus appears to him he can't take it now you know if anybody's got trouble with people falling out in the spirit you've got a problem with daniel because uh he said after jesus appeared i was out man i was on the ground i was gone right and then he stood trembling so you know what when the holy ghost shows up sometimes there's manifestations but uh you know like we said we'll just see but he says from the first day you set yourself to understand and chasing yourself you begin fasting and praying he said your words were heard verse 12 and i am come for your words but look at verse 13 but the prince of the kingdom of persia withstood me one and twenty days but lo michael one of the chief princes came to help me and i remained there with the kings of persia now i am come to make you understand what shall befall
your people in the latter days for yet the vision is yet for many days and he said and when he had spoken these words to me i set my face toward the ground and became dumb daniel's just really just just tripping out here but then of course the lord strengthens him and i'm not going to keep reading here because i want you to see this god heard the prayers of daniel now now let's try to put all this together the 70 years is almost up god's about to move now he's about to do something powerful he's about to release the children of israel from 70 years of babylonian captivity and let them return to their land do you know what kind of power this is going to take he's going to have to change the heart of a king and the peoples around them of the nations and the people that took over the land of israel i mean god's going to have to move and boy did he ever he moved upon upon the king to to let it all happen but it wasn't by accident just because you know that god's gonna do something doesn't mean you sit back and you don't pray and fast because the enemy's gonna come and try to delay it as long as he can he's gonna try to delay things hinder things and listen what satan knows satan knows that he can't stop god but he knows he can stop god's people from doing what they're supposed to do and that sometimes when god god's people don't do what they're supposed to do he can't do what he's supposed to do he works through his people god always works through somebody you know there's a scripture in amos 3 verse 7 it says this it says the lord will do nothing but he reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets why does god reveal what he's going to do to to prophets before he does them so you will know it's him and so he moves those prophets to hear what he wants to do what he's going to do so that they will pray and try to move god's people to pray listen to this prayer does not change god he is the same yesterday today and forever he said i am the lord and i change not right prayer changes you and gets you into the place close to god where god can say now i can do with them what i want to do with them because they have laid their life down as a sacrifice to me prayer is a sacrifice just like it says talks about the sacrifice of praise how many of you know there are times most of the time your flesh and your mind or emotions you don't want to go pray listen i will confess i'm a pastor and i've been a minister for 22 years and there are many many days that i don't want to pray i don't feel like praying i would rather slap somebody than pray okay i am not joking
but you know one thing i have learned no you discipline you chase in your flesh you make your flesh do what is right and i remember what larry lee said his pastor b.j wilheit used to say about prayer he said some days in prayer he said you're digging holes he said other days you're setting poles he said other days you're stringing wire and he said and then there's days you make the connection with the power that is the prayer life some days you're digging a hole you don't feel like being there but you're being faithful you're digging a hole and listen i've done some hard work in my life ain't nothing harder than digging that old earth is it some days it's hard you're digging a hole you're setting a pole listen there's going to be many days in prayer and even in church that you're not going to feel the goosebumps you're not going to feel the presence of god the glory the joy the peace because god doesn't want us to always have to walk by feelings every day he says we walk not by by sight or the the five senses but by faith but then there's days that because you've been faithful to dig the hole and set the pole and string the wire that the power can run through it to you amen faithfulness that's why that scripture we read in ephesians 6 when he says with all perseverance praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit with perseverance persevere until you make the connection right or we give up too easily don't we it gets a little hard the devil puts a little heat problems rise up and we end up not praying at the time we need to pray the most we let the devil work on our emotions in our heart and we like i don't feel like it and boy people let let let that kind of stuff keep them from prayer keep them from church keep them from all kinds of stuff i mean do you know if you let the devil put you in a bad attitude and there's somebody you're supposed to witness to at work if you're in a bad attitude you're not going to talk to them about jesus all the things that the devil hinders and notice he said i now listen this is an angel this is gabriel said the first day you started praying and fasting i was sent by the father to answer your prayer and show you what's going to happen literally to change things in the heavenlies to move out the prince of persia oh to change the heavens over your head so that so that change can happen in the earth let me say this nothing happens on the earth in the kingdom of god with any significance until it is first changed in the heavens nothing
it will be changed by the prayers of god's people in the heavens before it manifest on the earth didn't he tell us to pray what your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven guess what for that to happen it has to be prayed do you know why that is white has to be prayed by somebody on the earth because god gave the least the control the dominion of the earth to mankind when man sinned adam and eve sinned they turned over the least they sublet it to the devil and so a man had to come that wouldn't be strictly from adam's blood but he had to be a man and he had to come to break that contract and that's what jesus blood did it broke satan's legal right to things on the earth but now we are the body of christ on the earth and that god will do nothing but through the prayers of his people if god does something in the earth i guarantee you you will find out one day in heaven that somebody prayed it through somebody fasted it through somebody got it from heaven down here and you and i are supposed to be those people we got enough hell on earth we're supposed to bring some heaven down to the earth amen only happens through sincere people daniel says i was there with the the prince of the gabriel rather says he was there with the prince of persia and that that that the prince of persia was trying to hold gabriel back and and listen to this he had to have help michael the archangel had to come and help in the fight oh guys do you know that angels are strengthened by your prayers did you know that that god has chosen the things that happen in the spirit realm even though he sent gabriel to daniel with the message daniel's prayers and fasting got the power to gabriel and michael to fight that very strong prince that demon prince over that area and moved him out all right nothing impossible see you've heard me talk about revivals revivals are just god the heavens opening up and moving a power that's been blinding people's minds and hearts for
sometimes you know decades or centuries and and over this group of people and some people came in and prayed until they broke the power of that thing i remember i gave you this testimony dr larry lee of church on the rock in rockwall texas back in the 80s gives this testimony of his church his church was probably at about a thousand people at that time they started with 70 people in a house and uh he had come out of the baptist church he'd been in one of the most uh popular baptist churches in dallas fort worth and he came out of that god he was filled with the holy spirit and and long story god was teaching him how to pray he wrote the best-selling book could you not tarry one hour um but his testimony is that one night he was praying and he had his church he taught his church to pray and his church was a praying church and he said one night he was in the church by himself and he was praying and he was binding the principality over dallas fort worth and rockwall texas and he said i was i banged you with the name of jesus i bind you and i command you to give up the north the south the east and the west you give up those people you've been holding back give them up in jesus name he said when he said that he said this huge demonic being appeared holding the chain right all in the altar area at their church and i've been there i went there back in 1989 and he said he said right there at that altar he said that demons stepped forward with that chain and leaned over toward me and said did you mean that and larry said not an ounce of fear came in me he said jesus rose up on the inside of me and i said in that and then of course he's got that texas draw he said you mighty right i meant it he said he chased him he ran after that demon in the name of jesus he said that demon left he said but as he went to leave he dropped that chain he said at that altar in the next 12 months 4 000 people came to jesus and joined that church in the next 12 months the powers of darkness whole people you want me to prove that to you turn with me to second corinthians oh this is good folks second corinthians chapter three four rather we won't go to three yet let's just read this though in in chapter three just so you know it's the powers of darkness satan and his demonic powers that hold people and blind their minds from these things look what it says verse 3 but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world
little g satan the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of christ who is the image of god should shine unto them for we preach not ourselves but christ jesus the lord do you see that right there if our gospel is hid it's hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel now you say wait a minute in the light of jesus always shining yes it is who gets it to shine where did jesus say it's supposed to shine let your light shine that word light there guess what it means it's the glory of god have the glory of god on your life have the presence of god have the power of god on your life and then let it shine and pray and speak until that light shines in their minds and hopefully breaks off that satanic blindness and darkness that's in their mind man i can tell you i remember when i was in darkness i thought i was okay satan had me so blinded if you'd asked me i mean i was a fornicator i was drinking i was doing drugs i was i was all messed up man but i thought i was okay i really thought i was okay and i remember when somebody i remember my aunts i had two great aunts pentecostal aunts and a great-grandmother that prayed for me every day of my life from the time before even before i was born they prayed for me every day they had my name on every prayer list in the country there was no hope for me man they had everybody praying for me they had the whole assemblies of god the church of god and everybody and they were praying for me but let me tell you what it took the prayer and then the guy that i started working for opened his mouth and he let his light shine and it broke through and man let me tell you when it broke through you talking about somebody that went from darkness to light [Music] somebody that went from following the devil to following jesus let me tell you there's a lot of old demons out there that need somebody praying and then somebody sharing the word when we go forth to this campus when i go out here to preach on this campus i need your prayers more more than then than i even do now i need your prayers turn to uh go to the last one the last
one more go to james chapter five i think it's a little high there but it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much i'm going to try to close on this one i'll try are y'all with me let me tell you i'm not just going to tell you as as a pastor you know there's some days that i don't feel the anointing and presence of the lord when i'm preaching but i know god's speaking anyway but i feel the anointing of god on this therefore i know it's god's witness to me boy you need to hear this and you need to do this james chapter 5 go to verse 16. he says here confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man let's look at the greek definitions i gave you up here effectual means to be active efficient remember it's interesting it uses the word efficient in the definition efficient is not wasting energy remember what jesus said don't think you'll be heard by your much speaking don't use vain repetitions as the heathen do you know repeating over and over hail mary means nothing no be efficient the effectual active efficient mighty fervent look what it says the word fervent there is zelos or zelos it means heat think about this when you're when you're tense that when you're really intense what happens to your body it starts to heat up but it says heat there and it is from the root word zeo which means to be hot as if like liquids when they boil or solids when they glow does that sound like it's weak so it says the effectual now let's just get it the effectual fervent prayer of a lukewarm christian avails much no wait a minute the effectual fervent prayer of a fornicator who says they're a christian christians want to know why their prayers aren't answered
they go into church and they pray prayers and they go home and and when some emergency happens they start praying but they've been watching pornography or they've been cheating on their wife or they're stealing at work or they're lying all the time and they wonder why their prayers aren't answered it doesn't say anybody's prayers are answered it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man righteous man avails much i could spend time going through proverbs on that not all prayers are heard matter of fact there's a scripture says the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the lord hates them all right it's noise to him but i want you to see one last thing when it says elijah prayed and it rained didn't rain for three years if you go back to first kings and i'm not gonna i'm not gonna read this but if you go back to first kings 17 and 18 and 19 you can just write that down for later because we'll probably get to this next week it's interesting because we see all we see is that elijah came up to ahab who was the king of israel who was married to jezebel and she had instituted and they have instituted bail worship in israel and she had 850 prophets of baal and high places and she was turning the hearts of the children of israel so far away from god there were only seven 000 left in in a nation of millions that had not bowed their knees in worship bail she were she was jezebel was killing the prophets there was great persecution and martyrdom going on she was killing the prophets and baal was the god or the deity of that land that they believe controlled the rain and fertility of the earth and the sun and and nature but what's interesting all we have in in first kings is we have the word of the lord spoke or god spoke to elijah and said tell ahab it's not going to rain for three and a half years but by your words but what we don't see and what james reveals to us here is that elijah decided that if we're going to turn the hearts of the people away from this false religion and this deception in this era if we're going to turn the people back to the truth and back to god we're going to have to attack this principality named baal and they believe baal controls the rain and they believe baal controls nature well i'm going to show them so elijah decided to pray to god that it would not rain he directly went after the power the demon over that region that was about to destroy israel
and so he prayed that it would not rain for those three years to show them and he went and gave a word it's not going to reign according to my word and i am a prophet of the lord god of israel of jehovah the one true god and we're going to find out who's god is god we're going to find out if baal is god or or or jehovah is god so for three and a half years it doesn't rain and it gets bad real bad and finally it says after three and a half years the lord speaks to elijah and says go and show yourself to ahab and i'm not going to go through the rest of the story but it says that elijah prayed that it would rain and if you go back and read the story it says that he got down there even though he knew that god was going to bring the ring sooner or later after he showed himself to abe it said he got down and he put his head between his legs and he prayed that it would rain and he told his servant go look and see seven he said there's nothing there's no clouds in the sky he said go back again seven times and so elijah keeps praying and keeps praying and keeps praying until finally the servant goes the seventh time and he says i see a cloud in the sky the size of a man's hand just a little hint he said he said i hear the sound of an abundance of rain see elijah here's the thing god used the prayers of elijah to shake the nation he goes and he confronts the prophets of baal calls down fire on the sacrifice kills all the prophets of baal and the nation turns back to god but he took out the power first by diligent fervent prayer boy i could spend some time on that but we're not gonna do it fervent prayer you're gonna i want to encourage you this week this this week this next week the next few weeks october 2nd when i go to auburn high school is an important day for those young people 7 a.m october 2nd that's a friday morning god's already given me the message but we need prayer you know one lesson we learned in the 1991 gulf war storming norman schwarzkopf his plan his plan was brilliant what was his plan once we turned from desert shield to desert storm his plan was to bombard iraq
from the air until there was almost nothing left before he ever sent in ground troops he bombed him i think it was how many weeks two or three weeks he bombed constantly they said they'd never done so many sorties one after the other after the other after the other off those ships off those ships those aircraft carriers they were bombing everything that's when we got those first pictures of how they flew those bombs into people's doorways and windows of their houses okay gotta think of where we are now but air war softened up the enemy before he sent in ground troops this is a beautiful picture of the battle has to be won in the air prayer against the principality satan is called in ephesians the prince and the power of the air that's why he loves the tv waves and the radio waves he loves the air man he's the prince and power of the air we win the battle in the air and the ground troops are going forth to evangelize going out in the world to preach the gospel to every creature to cast out demons and heal the sick but you deal with it up here in the air first you deal with the principalities i'm going to begin to give you all some some spirits names that you need to start in your prayer time binding over this city but let's just say this let your life be right before you start attacking the devil james 4 7 says this submit yourselves therefore to god then it says resist the devil and he will flee from you submit yourself to god one writer said this we cannot take the name of jesus on our lips in warfare until the nature of jesus is consummated in our hearts so submit to god resist the devil and he will flee a lot of people teach spiritual warfare just talk about resist the devil fight the devil no you're not fully submitted to god he's going to beat you to death and you're going to come running about what's wrong i bound the devil i resisted the devil and i'm getting beat up are you submitted to god that's the question in every area now sarah is going to come share she had a dream what night was it thursday night she had no idea what i was preaching on nobody had any idea really what i was preaching on i i knew i was going to be preaching on prayer but god speaks he said in the last days he's going to pour out his spirit on all flesh this is in in joel 2 and in acts chapter 2. and he says and your sons and your
daughters will prophesy your young men will see visions your old men will dream dreams god's going to god see i believe god can speak to all of you that's what's beautiful and as a as a pastor i i'm open if you tell me you've had a dream or you feel like god's spoken to you or giving you a word and you tell me and i i feel like it's from the lord i'm gonna let you share it but it's very interesting i want you to um i want you to come on up here and share this so that we'll have it but y'all need to listen to this because there's things coming on the earth bad things and you need to be ready for them okay um last thursday night i was feeling like really heavy in my heart and i was feeling really anxious so i just started praying really hard and when i dozed off it was like there was a light and god spoke directly to me and i've never heard audible anything and he said it's about to get really bad the world's about to come against us and we need to take a shield so i felt like the shield was prayer because i was praying so hard when i went to sleep that may seem simple but he said that it's going to get very bad now listen to this and the world is going to come against us the church where i mean the world is going to turn i mean in the days ahead the spirit of antichrist and as the antichrist rises it's not going to be any longer speaking against christians they're going to start taking action i remember a few years back when i said i'm waiting for when satan has started going to churches and shooting people well that's happening now we we're moving into a different realm we used to be shootings in schools remember not shootings in churches evil is progressing to go with what she said and to end with the verse on prayer i'm going to end with this verse luke chapter 21 because it's about the end times we're going to be getting on an end time study here pretty soon too luke 21. we're going to read verse 25 he said there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring you know that makes me think i recently had a dream of a tsunami hitting california men's hearts failing them for fear for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken and they shall see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory when you when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for you
your redemption draws nigh and he spake unto them a parable he said behold the fig tree and all the trees when they now shoot forth you see and know that that of your own selves that summer is now night hands so likewise when you see these things come to pass know that the kingdom of god is nigh at hand verily i say on you this generation shall not pass away they'll all be fulfilled heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not in verse 34 and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your heart should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life so that that day come upon you unawares for as a snare it shall come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth watch therefore and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man what is that saying bad things are coming upon the earth but if you are a man and woman of prayer and you are standing worthy that god is able to protect you and be a shield to you even through the darkest times that are coming in the days ahead all i'm going to say is be men and women of prayer amen let's pray father in heaven thank you that your word is true lord sometimes difficult to take but lord is true lord thank you for speaking prophetically to different ones as you've spoken god through people in this church thank you lord for a warning that we must have a prayer shield around our lives lord with things like the swine flu with other pestilences coming upon the earth with evil men and women rising up that want to persecute and kill christians with the spirit of antichrist rising father there are people that lord i know will be martyred for their faith but there are also people whom you will shield and you will protect so that they can be a witness until you come again lord let us be men and women of prayer god just instill it in my brothers and sisters that there is power in prayer in the name of jesus in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen we need to take up the offering this morning um nick you want to say a prayer over that and i guess this is uh what we use right
need to here as a church