🤺 GOD's Battle 2 Chron 20:15 Bind ⛓️🐲🤺Rev 20:1-2 More w/Us than him 2 Kings 6:16🤺 He that's in Us IS GREATER than he that's in The World 1 Jn 4:4

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been heard and we join with you in giving thanks to God for His promises. It is true that the battle belongs to the Lord as it is written in 2 Chronicles 20:15, and that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world according to 1 John 4:4, and that Christ in us is the hope of glory. We also rejoice that Christ Himself ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God through Him, and therefore we are able to be saved to the uttermost, not by our own strength but because He does not die and has no successor, but continues as our High Priest.

We pray with you for grace to stand firm in the Lord and to wrestle lawfully. Scripture teaches that our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of wickedness, and that this present life is a contest and warfare that calls for vigilance, sobriety and endurance rather than ease or luxury. God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape so that you may be able to endure it, and He gives patience and brings release in His time.

We also pray that your fasting and prayer would be sincere and humble. Fasting rightly done makes the soul light and winged and fervent in prayer, quenches wicked desires and humbles the heart before God, and nothing is more powerful than a person who prays sincerely. Yet this must be done not as a boast or as sounding a trumpet before others, but in secret before the Father who sees in secret. If the body is weak for continual fasting, the avoidance of luxury and the discipline of a simple life still helps greatly to weaken the schemes of the evil one, for luxury and excess are a fountain of many evils.

As you weep between the porch and the altar and sigh over abominations, keep your intercession according to the mind of Christ. We are warned not to make intercession against our enemies or to call down curses upon them and their households, for that turns prayer into vengeance. Instead we are to war a good warfare with truth, righteousness, faith and the pure gospel of peace, preaching the death of the Messiah for sin and His righteousness given as a gift, so that even enemies blinded by the adversary might be saved. The weapons God has given, prayer, fasting, preaching, teaching, love and suffering in fellowship with His Spirit, are mighty to extinguish the attacks of the ancient serpent, but the binding of that serpent belongs to the Lord Himself in His time as shown in Revelation 20, and our part is to resist by faith and to proclaim His word as a sword.

May the Lord keep you from temptation and deliver you from evil and from the evil one, and may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We pray that utterance may be given to you to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, and that you may stand firm clothed in truth and righteousness by faith, trusting not in your own power but in Him who has already won the victory. In Jesus are all the promises Yes and Amen, and in His name we ask these things.

 

[Silas]

Your burden to intercede and to stand in the gap is a work of God in your own heart. True prayer does not start with us. It starts with Him. He puts the desire to pray in us, He shows us His purposes, and we then return that desire to Him as prayer. What you are feeling, the longing to sigh and cry over what grieves Him, to weep between the porch and the altar, to watch as those appointed to watch, is evidence that He is moving you to pray.

Thank you for anchoring your request in Scripture. The battle truly is the Lord's, as it is written in 2 Chronicles 20:15. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, 1 John 4:4, and Christ in you is the hope of glory. There are indeed more with us than with those against us, 2 Kings 6:16, and the victory belongs to the Lord, Proverbs 21:31. As you bring your requests to God with thanksgiving, He promises His peace which passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4:6 and 7.

It helps to remember that prayer has more than one form. There is worship, where we stand in awe of who God is and what He has done. There is petition, where we bring our own needs before our Father in heaven who created all things and who desires to be to us whatever our need requires. And there is intercession, where we move beyond ourselves to bring the needs of others, of the community, of the nation and the world before Him, asking Him to work in a guilty world. That cycle always begins with God. His will is made known to our hearts, we pray it back to Him, and He accomplishes it. Prayer is not meant to bend God to our will, but to align us with His will, and it will reflect a life of self denial and following Jesus.

Part of that intercession is confession. Without confession there is no forgiveness, and when we stand for others we acknowledge sin honestly before a holy God. That keeps our prayers from being empty outward form. The same is true of fasting. Fasting is not an outward show to make God notice us or to obligate Him to answer. It is not sounding a trumpet to be seen. True fasting reverses our usual pattern. We often feed the physical man well while the spiritual man is starved and weak. In fasting we deny the flesh and acknowledge our utter inability in ourselves, so that the Spirit is fed and strengthened. It is a humbling of ourselves before Him, not a means to earn His favor.

You have described the real spiritual warfare very biblically. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, Ephesians 6:12. There is a conflict between the holy angels who serve God and the fallen angels who joined the rebellion. The god of this world blinds the minds of those who do not believe so they cannot see the truth. For that reason our weapons cannot be carnal. They are mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into obedience to Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5.

Those spiritual weapons are the Word of God, faith, and prayer. The battlefield is often in the mind and imagination. By prayer we can drive back the enemy from ground he holds by usurped authority, and we can ask God to open blinded eyes and set captives free in the authority of the name of Jesus. By prayer we become a spiritual force in that spiritual battle, opening the door for God to do what He already desires to do. Even the delay Daniel experienced, when the answer was hindered for twenty one days until Michael came to help, reminds us that warfare is real and that perseverance in prayer matters.

That is why we are told to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and to put on the whole armor of God so we can stand against the schemes of the devil, Ephesians 6:10 and 11. We stand firm with truth and righteousness by faith, having received and digested the pure gospel of peace, which is good news to those still blinded. We lift the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the evil one, and we take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Many try to witness without the Word, but it is the Word that penetrates the heart, because it carries the message of Messiah dying in our place for the wages of sin to satisfy a holy God, and His righteousness given as a free gift so that we are born again and assured of salvation. Having put on the armor, we are then to pray at all times in the Spirit with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and to ask for boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:18 and 19.

God uses those who are people of the Word and people of prayer. Like Daniel, who set his face to seek the Lord with prayer and supplication and confession, the one who hears the Word and keeps it, who does the Word and not only hears it, is the one God shapes and strengthens. Continue to be strong in the Lord, to stand firm, to resist and not give ground.

May the Lord grant you grace to continue in worship, in petition for your own needs, and in faithful intercession for others. May He teach you to pray and to fast not as outward form but as a true feeding of the Spirit, and may He fill your mouth with His Word as a sword. May He keep you from temptation and from the evil one, and keep you walking in truth, righteousness, faith and peace, always abounding in prayer in the Spirit. We join you in asking that utterance would be given to speak the gospel boldly, that blinded eyes would be opened, that strongholds in minds would be pulled down, and that the victory which is already the Lord's would be seen in lives changed by His grace. In the name of Jesus, who is our Yes and Amen, we pray.

 

[hostadmin]

We thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf and we are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer for this battle.

We have counted it a privilege to join you in declaring that the battle belongs to the Lord according to 2 Chron 20:15, that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world according to 1 John 4:4, and that there are more with us than against us according to 2 Kings 6:16. We have stood with you asking for grace to truly intercede according to Isa 62:6, to sigh and cry over abominations according to Ezek 9:4, to war with the armor and weapons of God according to 2 Cor 10:4 and Eph 6:10, to pray and fast according to Isa 58:6, and to stand firm having taken up truth and righteousness and the gospel of peace and the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God according to Eph 6:13. We continue to agree with you that the enemy must be bound according to Rev 20:1 and that the victory belongs to the Lord according to Prov 21:31 while we ask Him to keep us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one according to Matt 6:13 and 2 Thess 3:3.

If your request was answered and you have seen the Lord move in this warfare, please post a praise report and let us all know so we can rejoice with you and give glory to God who guards our hearts with His peace which surpasses all understanding according to Phil 4:7. If your request does not seem to have been answered yet and the battle still rages, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer with all perseverance and petition for all the saints according to Eph 6:18.

May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

We pray together that the Father will grant you grace to be strong in the Lord and to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, that you will be bold to make known the mystery of the gospel, and that you will experience the peace of God as you make your requests known to Him with thanksgiving. We ask this in Jesus Name.