Tag: Spiritual Warfare

Miracle, Prayer, Spiritual Growth

Healing Prayer at 8,100 feet

A few years ago, I attended a Christian men’s retreat at a beautiful, rugged lodge nestled in the thin air of the Colorado Rockies. It was a well-organized and spiritually meaty retreat. A few years prior, I attended one at the same location. Both retreats aimed right for the heart: no hype, no fluff. I like that.

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Healing prayer was the topic of the Saturday morning session. I was familiar with it. I had been practicing and teaching healing prayer for twelve years. The leader and his team did an excellent job demonstrating it to all 430 men in attendance. The follow-up assignment was for the group of men in each cabin to duplicate the leaders’ example. I was curious how this would go since most attendees had not done this before, but I also knew that healing prayer was a work of God, not of men. I looked forward to what He would do. Usually, if we cooperate with God a little, He’ll do a lot.

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Prayer, Spiritual Warfare

Prayer, Armor, and Spiritual Warfare

Prayer, Armor, and Spiritual Warfare – Ephesians 6:10-20

What is the nature of spiritual warfare? What is the armor of God? Where does prayer fit in? Bereans carefully studied the Scriptures before believing that something taught was true (Acts 17:11). Let’s be good Bereans and look at Eph 6:10-20 to answer these important questions. There are too many people shadowboxing with Satan these days. Let’s focus our efforts where they belong.

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Prayer, Spiritual Warfare

Prayer is not a Weapon II

A reader responded to my previous post asking: Isn’t prayer a weapon against the evil one, who we are battling?

That’s a good question. We can determine the answer by studying the New Testament verses containing the word “pray.” The word is used 151 times. D.A. Carson’s book “Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation,” for example, in particular discusses the following passages: Rom 15:14-33, Eph 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Phil 1:9-11; Col 1:9-14; 1 Thess 3:9-13; 2 Thess 1:3-12. The focus of prayer in the New Testament was predominately on knowing God better, being more like Christ, God providing for the needs of others, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and for success in ministry.

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Prayer, Spiritual Warfare

Prayer is not a Weapon I

A Facebook post about prayer as a weapon grabbed my attention this week. It led me to listen to the corresponding radio interview. It was a good interview and much of what was discussed effectively encouraged Christians to pray. I liked it. However, identifying prayer as a “weapon,” while well-intentioned, could give people the impression that prayer was about God doing our will, instead of us doing His. The verses mentioned in the interview rightly encouraged prayer, but they did not support the point of prayer as a weapon. Such a point is logical, not biblical. We need to discern the difference.

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