Keep on Praying for All the Saints: Intercession and Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare is not won through conflict resolution or strategic planning. It is won by the foundational activity common to every victory in the unseen realm — prayer.

Samuel Chadwick claimed, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

One great mystery of the relationship between Christ and His church is that He involves us in His purposes. He has chosen to work through us rather than around us. This is how we understand prayer. The release of His power comes as we partner with Him, around His will, in prayer and intercession.

Unfortunately, many spiritual leaders are more known for their external activity than their internal prayerfulness. We pray too little and work too much. Paul’s concern at the end of his letter to the Ephesians is the same daunting issue that faces today’s church — our capacity to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10,11). Paul asserts that our real enemy is not people who annoy us, oppose us, or even kill us. We transact our real war in unseen realms against sinister forces, “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (verse 12). Read more

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