- We must realize that things in our everyday lives are directly connected to our times in prayer.
- Prayer has a direct and immediate impact on the battles of life.
Exodus 17:8-14 NIV The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” (10) So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. (11) As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. (12) When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up–one on one side, one on the other–so that his hands remained steady till sunset. (13) So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. (14) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
The staff was a big deal to these people. They understood and remembered what God had done in using Moses’ staff to show his power to the Egyptians.
This was not a one-time event. This is a model for God’s people in the ages to come.
The Israelites won the battle not because of what was happening in the valley but rather what was happening on top of the hill where Moses was.
- What happens on the higher plane of prayer has a direct bearing on what happens in the lower plane of everyday life.
The reason that God’s people fail to pray is because they do not get that connection.
Psalms 76:1-3 NLT God is honored in Judah; His name is great in Israel. (2) Jerusalem is where He lives; Mount Zion is His home. (3) There He has broken the fiery arrows of the enemy, the shields and swords and weapons of war. Interlude
The Psalmist is saying the same thing. In His presence is where battles are won. He is saying we won the battles because of what happened at God’s throne.
- God makes it clear – what happens before His throne has a direct bearing on the situations that we encounter in life.
Exodus 17:11-12 NIV As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. (12) When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up–one on one side, one on the other–so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
Notice that Moses got tired but Joshua and the soldiers did not.
- Most believers do not realize that prayer is spiritual battle. (It is WORK!)
We all believe in the effectiveness of prayer but we do very little of it because of the battle that goes along with it.
We get distracted, we get tired, and we get bored. Your flesh does not like to pray. Peter, James and John could not pray with Jesus for 60 minutes without going to sleep.
Why do we even need to pray? Doesn’t God love us and isn’t He aware of what we go through in life?
- Prayer is connected to the authority that God gave to man in the beginning.
When God created Adam, He gave him amazing authority and prayer is the acknowledgement of that authority.
Genesis 1:26 NIV Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Psalms 8:4-6 NIV what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (5) You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. (6) You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:
When Adam sinned, he surrendered that authority to God’s enemy, Satan.
Luke 4:6-7 AMP And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will. (7) Therefore if You will do homage to and worship me [just once], it shall all be Yours.
This was a temptation for Jesus. If Satan did not have this and could not give it, then this was not a temptation.
- Jesus came to the earth to win back that authority, not for God, but for mankind.
Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man 81 times.
Luke 5:24 NKJV But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”–He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
Luke 4:3 NKJV And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
John 16:33 NKJV These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus never once sinned and won the fight with temptation every single time so the world had nothing on Him. And he was born here.
- Jesus died as the Son of Man but rose again as the Son of God.
Matthew 28:18 NKJV And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
To use your God-given authority in prayer, you must:
- Be born here.
- Your sin problem must be dealt with.
We must pray because God will never force His will into your life.
- Prayer is the invitation by someone with authority given to God to use His power in the earth.