Prayer Is More Than Petitions, Prayer Is A Battleground

Sometimes life can seem like a constant struggle.  A never ending battle, a fight for survival at times.  We go through the motions of everyday living and often we think, 'How much more can I endure?"  And there are many times that we look at the ground we have covered and realize we have barely gained ground.  There may even be times when we realize that even with all the effort we have put into, we have lost ground somehow.  We can be plagued with the idea of giving up, thinking that our fight is not worth the effort.

In any battle it is possible to work hard, yet, get no where.  If we are going to spend time in prayer, we need to pray an effective prayer.  Often we pray and have absolutely no understanding of what we are doing.  Prayer is more than just a place to offer petitions to God, it is a battle ground.  It is the arena in which we do warfare against the principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places.   You have an adversary, the devil, and he wants to kill, steal and destroy.  It is through praying in the full armor of God that we pull down the strongholds of the devil, prayer is a place of warfare against the spiritual wickedness of this world. 

Ephesians 6:12 says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,  against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against Spiritual wickedness in high places.

The powers and principalities, rulers of darkness and Spiritual wickedness are demons, which were the angels that fell from God's presence.   The nature of an angel is to serve and protect you.  The nature of a fallen angel, a demon, is to hinder and harm you.  When we begin to understand what is going on in the spirit realm, we begin to understand prayer. 

The nature of a demon is to torment.  We often think that people are the problem, or lack of finances is the problem, or that lack of health is the problem.    The root of the problem is not found in the earthly realm, but it is found in the Spiritual realm.  When you look at a fly, you can understand how a demon attacks.  Flies will buzz around and annoy you.  We get the fly swat, or we spray or do whatever necessary to get rid of the fly.  However, in some countries where people are poor and do not have the water to bathe properly flies are in greater numbers.  Often the battle with flies are so great these people will let the flies land on their faces or other parts of thier bodies and they don't even swat them away.  They give up the battle of fighting them, they just live with the flies and let them lite upon thier bodies.  This is how it is in the Spirit realm.  Some people just yeild to demonic powers, they are tired of the struggle. 

The book of Ephesians says to put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand.  If we don't have God's armour on, we are not even able to stand against the whiles of the devil.   Often when we are praying to God we come to him with a list of things that we want changed.  We look at the situation as if those things were the issues.  In every situation that you face, the real issue is  the principalities, and powers, the rulers in the Spirit realm, the demonic powers.  These things must be addressed in prayer before your victory will come through.