Winning the Battle in the Air
About this sermon
In “Winning the Battle in the Air,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about prayer, the condition of the church, and Satanic opposition. Drawing especially from Proverbs 18, Matthew 10, Amos 3, and Ephesians 6, the teaching emphasizes that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise.
Chronological teaching outline
Select a section heading to play the sermon from that moment.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that fasting is presented as a discipline of humility, focused prayer, and renewed dependence on God. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on faith while working through Proverbs 18. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on fasting and spiritual discipline. The message argues that fasting is presented as a discipline of humility, focused prayer, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through Matthew 10, Amos 3. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that fasting is presented as a discipline of humility, focused prayer, and renewed dependence on God. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through Ephesians 6. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that the biblical narrative is used to show God’s power to recover what has been lost and restore usefulness. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through James 4. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that Satan’s work is described through deception, accusation, temptation, and opposition to God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through Joel 2, Luke 21. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:01
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
- 0:03:02
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
- 0:06:03
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
- 0:09:04
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
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