SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation

Give To SermonIndex
Text Sermons : Chuck Smith : Daniel 10:12

Open as PDF

Prayer

I. There is a spiritual conflict raging in the universe around us.
A. It is a war against good and evil.
1. The prize is the control of the minds of men.
2. Thus you are thrust into the battle, like it or not.
3. Your life will be controlled either by good or evil.
4. We sometimes refer to this as the battle between the
flesh and the spirit, but in reality it is a battle
against spirit and spirit. The spirit of darkness and
the spirit of light.
B. Satan was at one time an angel of God. Angels are spirits, thus
Satan is a spirit.
1. When Satan rebelled against God, one third of the
angels followed him, and they comprise a powerful
spiritual force the world.
2. Their goal is to conscript you in the rebellion against
God.
3. They will stoop at nothing in order to destroy you.
4. They have a very strong beach head in your life, and
that is your flesh.
5. The thrust is to get you to live after the flesh, a
lustful, selfish, hedonistic, life.
6. Those persons who they have conscripted in the battle,
will stop at nothing to sway men into their camp.
C. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, in high
places.
1. For the most part, nations are controlled by these
diabolical forces.
2. Look at the evil decisions that have come from the
Supreme Court of this land, since 1963.
a. The banning of prayer, or anything that has to
do with the Bible or Jesus Christ from the
public school.
b. The inability to define obscenity, thus opening
the door to all of the pornography that has
flooded the land.
c. The granting of abortion upon request thus
allowing 25,000,000 babies, thus far, to be
destroyed before they ever had a chance to
make a choice.
d. I wonder what those Supreme Court justices will
do when they have to stand before the judge of
the universe, and answer for the millions of
lives that have been destroyed because of their
decisions.
3. I cringe at the fact that Hillery Clinton now has the
opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court justice,
just at time when it seemed that an equitable balance
was being developed.
4. This is what Paul was referring to as spiritual
wickedness in high places.

II. Our weapons against these awesome powers.
A. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy.
IICor. 10:4
1. One of the most powerful weapons that God has place in
our arsenal is prayer.
a. This is a spiritual weapon that allows us to
become engaged in this spiritual warfare.
2. It is sad and strange that we are so anxious to meet
the foe on his turf where he has a decided advantage.
3. I think of the ministry of Operation Rescue and I
wonder how many more babies they might have saved had
they mobilized the people to pray rather than block
the doors of the abortion clinics.
a. That much fervor and energy in prayer would
have shut many more abortion clinics, I am
sure.
b. But people are far more apt to show up for a
demonstration than a prayer meeting.
B. Why do people find prayer so difficult?
1. Do you find it difficult to talk to someone that you
are madly in love with?
a. No, you call them at every opportunity.
b. You love to be with them, you love to hear
their voices.
c. Quite often I will call my wife or my
grandchildren, and when they answer the phone,
I will say, "I just wanted to hear your
beautiful voice."
d. No urgent reason for calling, just connecting
with someone I love.
e. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with
all our soul, mind and strength, how often do
you just connect with Him?
2. The reason you find prayer so difficult is that Satan
will do everything to keep you from prayer.
a. When you get down to pray, you will suddenly
remember a thousand urgent things that you were
supposed to do.
b. Or the phone or doorbell will ring.
c. The baby who is supposed to be napping begins
to cry.
d. Satan realizes that prayer is a deciding factor
in the spiritual battle, it is the weapon by
which he is defeated, thus he will fight hard
to disarm you.
e. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
f. I think of how many things have been developed
to take us from prayer. If we would spend as
much time in prayer as we take watching T.V.
for instance, how much more we could see for
good in this world.

III. Daniel's experience in prayer.
A. It was in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, thus Daniel
must have been close to ninety at this time. He was probably
close to the time when the Lord would call his warrior to rest.
B. His prompting for prayer.
1. It was probably reports from those who had returned
from the captivity to the land.
2. There was very few who took the opportunity to return
which in itself must have been discouraging.
3. Those who did go back were discouraged and demoralized,
the high ideal of rebuilding the temple, was replaced
soon by desires for their own comfort, and they were
concentrating more on their own houses than the house
of God.
4. The reports must have broken the heart of this man
whose heart was so completely after God, and he went
into mourning.
5. Mourning over the state of the nation.
C. His preparation for prayer.
1. He fasted from pastries, meat, and wine.
2. He did not anoint himself at all for this period of
time.
3. He continued steadfast in this commitment for three
full weeks.
D. His prayer was finally answered by a heavenly visitation.
1. He was informed by his heavenly visitor, that from the
first
day that he set his heart to chasten himself and seek
understanding from the Lord, God had heard his request
and had dispatched this messenger to bring to him the
answers.
2. However the angel became engaged in a battle with the
powers that controlled the nation of Persia, who had
detained him for 21 days until Michael one of the chief
princes came to his aid, that he might continue with
his mission.
3. This prince of Persia is one of those spirit forces in
high places that Paul tells us that our true warfare is
about.
4. It is a well known fact that Hitler was the tool of men
who were deeply involved in the occult.
5. President Reagan's wife continually sought the counsel
of an astrologer.
6. Jean Dixon boasts of the many calls she received from
the different presidents.
7. The heavenly messenger sent to Daniel declared that
when he left Daniel he was going to return to the
battle against the prince of Persia, and after him he
would be doing battle with the prince of Greece.
E. The forces that are against you are strong and sinister. They
are in control of this present evil world.
1. The only way you can possibly hope to stand against
them is in the Spirit, and the power of His might.
2. Carnal weapons are useless in this battle.
3. All of your count ten, or ten steps methods will ever
avail to bring you lasting victory in this battle.
4. You must arm yourself with all the spiritual armor
available.
a. Your strength is in the Lord, and the power of
His might.
b. Your spiritual armor is righteousness, the
gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the word of
God.
5. Then what? "Praying with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, continuing with perseverance.
F. The real fighting comes on your knees, and that is where the
true victory will be found.





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy