​​His Inscriptions Blog

Life-Giving Communication with God
  His Inscriptions
  • Home
  • About
  • Current Words
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • All Prophecies
  • Houses of Prayer
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Articles
    • His Inscriptions: How God Speaks to Everyday People
    • Have Smartphones Replaced God?
    • How to Pray to God: 5 Easy Steps
    • How to Start a Christian Blog: A Guide for Writers
    • How You Personally Could Spark the Next Great Awakening
    • Finding Beauty in Your Winter Season
    • Silence: Your Secret Weapon
    • Overcoming Exhaustion
  • Bible Promises
  • Friends We Support
  • How to Know God

Why Pray? Part 3: You Have A Supernatural Enemy

2/28/2018

Comments

 
Why Pray? Part 3: You have a supernatural enemy. By Deborah Perkins of HisInscriptions. #prayer #Christian #supernatural #Jesus #faith #inspiration

If you’ve been a Christian for even a short time, you’ve already realized that despite God’s promises of both eternal and internal peace, you’re constantly confronted with the enemy’s plans for chaos and suffering!

As soon as you begin to get serious about prayer, the enemy gets equally serious about keeping you out of your “secret place” in a bid to rob you of your peace. He knows, as you do, that prayer is the difference between a defeated warrior and a powerful victor. This is one compelling reason why we pray: because we have a supernatural enemy.


God's "War Room"


​Jesus had a special place He used to pray in the Kidron Valley. The garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives was just east of Jerusalem. The Bible says it was His “custom” to go there, and that the disciples knew the place because He often prayed or taught them there. It was a secret garden, private, and the perfect place for a quiet time. You could say it was Jesus’ “war room.” 

Related: Watch the "War Room" movie today- click here.
​
Gethsemane was the place of Jesus’s greatest prayer battle. Just like us, Jesus knew that He had some amazing promises from God: in a few short days, He would be resurrected, save the world, and destroy the work of the devil. He knew what the will of God was, but He also knew He was about to be betrayed. He knew the price of salvation, and His only task was to surrender to the will of God.

Luke tells us (in Luke 22:42) that Christ knelt down to pray: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will but Yours be done.”

This was the same prayer he taught his disciples to pray earlier: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” It is one of the toughest prayers we can ever pray, because it means we have to die to ourselves in order to complete the mission of God.

At Gethsemane, Jesus’s prayer went way beyond the typical Sunday School “bless me” prayers. He agonized, wept and sweat drops of blood because the battle was so intense. His entire being – spirit, soul, and body – was engaged in an appeal to the Father. He was fighting a supernatural foe.

Most of us do pray harder when we are attacked. Like Jesus, our first prayer is that God will stop the attack. We’re only human! We call friends and ask them to pray for us when we don’t think we can go on.

While Jesus did ask the disciples to pray, He didn’t rely on them. In fact, His disciples were so grieved at Christ’s imminent departure that they fell asleep from sorrow. You might say they were sleeping on the battlefield!

Jesus, however, went straight to the Father and shared His heart with the only One who could change the situation. He fought a supernatural enemy by interacting with a supernatural God.
 
Here’s the problem: the external situation didn’t change, despite Jesus’s prayers.
​
Why Pray? Part 3: We Have a supernatural Enemy. By Deborah Perkins of Hisinscriptions.com. #prayer #Christian #faith #Jesus #inspiration #Bible #supernatural

Jesus Prayed To Receive Supernatural Power to Combat a Supernatural Foe 


Christ's prayers were not a failure. Jesus knew that sometimes the battle isn’t won by prayer alone, but by walking in obedience to God’s plan. Just as the enemy’s lawlessness causes chaos, so a believer’s obedience brings blessing. Supernatural intervention, for Jesus, meant receiving the strength to go on.

In the middle of Christ’s prayer time, (Luke 22:43), an angel appeared from heaven and strengthened Him. God gave supernatural aid to His Son so that Jesus could obey Him in a humanly impossible situation. (See Hebrews 2:16.)

After the angel strengthened Jesus in the garden, He prayed even more powerfully. Having received God’s strategy, which was to go through the situation, not be removed from it, Christ brought His soul into compliance with God’s will and gathered supernatural strength for the days ahead.

Friends, when your situation doesn’t change, but your heart does; that is power in prayer! Scottish commentator Alexander MacLaren writes of Gethsemane: “Such conformity of our wills with God’s is the highest blessing of prayer and the true deliverance.”

Thanks to Christ’s obedience, we have been delivered from the enemy. It is our job now to enforce Christ’s victory. To overcome a supernatural enemy, we must use the supernatural aid God gives us through prayer. Sometimes our prayers have immediate effect. Other times we must persevere through difficult situations until we reach the place of blessing. In His wisdom, God is allowing a supernatural enemy to refine us for an end-time supernatural reign. 


Quiet Time Questions:


1. Have you ever received supernatural strength in prayer? What changes in your situation did you see? Were they internal or external?

2. A supernatural foe requires supernatural strength to overcome. Apart from prayer, how else do you tap into the supernatural power of God as you walk through life’s challenges? Think of a few other biblical ways to tap into the power of God.
 
3. Someone has said that the enemy is an abuser. Fear and anxiety are the abusive "cycles" he uses to keep believers in a place of pessimism or unbelief. How has prayer or renewing your mind helped you to break this abusive cycle?  Share your comments below or post your story on our Facebook “Connect and Pray” Group so that others may be encouraged by your testimony. 


© Deborah Perkins / www.HisInscriptions.com
Read Part 1 of the series: Why Pray?
Read Part 2 of the Series: Why Pray?
About Deborah Perkins / www.HisInscriptions.com #christian
Subscribe
Comments

    Free Link to the Subscriber Resource Library when you join His Inscriptions!

    JOIN FREE
    Deborah Perkins, Author and Founder of HisInscriptions.com
    About
    ​Deborah Perkins

    RSS Feed

    Click to Order Deborah's Books on Amazon.com
    Author Deborah Perkins' books on Amazon.com
    Picture
    Author Deborah Perkins blogs for Bible Gateway.
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Bible
    Book Reviews
    Christianity In Culture
    Church
    Communication
    Communion
    Consecration
    Creativity
    Deliverance
    Easter
    End Times
    Evangelism
    Faith
    Family
    Fear
    Feasts
    Finances
    Forgiveness
    Glory
    God The Father
    Government
    Grace
    Healing
    Hearing God
    Heaven
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Humor
    Interviews
    Jesus
    Judaism
    Justice
    Leadership
    Lifestyle
    Love
    Ministry
    Missions
    Passover
    Peace
    Persecution
    Prayer
    Prophecies
    Protection
    Relationships
    Rest
    Revival
    Satan
    Service
    Suffering
    Supernatural
    Technology/Social Media
    The Bible
    Trials
    Trust
    Warfare
    Women
    Worship
    Youth

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Author

    A severe hearing loss from childhood caused Deborah Perkins to develop what she now calls her secret weapon: tuning in to God's voice.  A Wellesley College graduate and an award-winning writer, Deborah is now a wife and mother of 3 boys. Deborah has devoted over 25 years to professional and lay Christian ministry in New England and beyond. Her passion is inspiring people to cultivate greater intimacy with God. 
    You can follow her on social media using the links above. To subscribe to her weekly blog (free) by email, click here. 


    Salvation Pic
Photos used under Creative Commons from leireunzueta, kelgal77, graphia, Orin Zebest, MartialArtsNomad.com, put_the_needle_on_the_record, zeevveez, rebamae, jonycunha, traveling.lunas, Newport Geographic, Alexandre Dulaunoy, popofatticus, brendan.lally....away, adamfarnsworth, piropiro3, fabiane13, Luis Roberto Lainez, Snake3yes, ceasedesist, Kevin Shorter, dustinj, feryswheel, rghisi, stuartpilbrow, BLMOregon, Didriks, .Martin., jonseidman1988, feelsgoodlost, francisco.j.gonzalez, imagine_reality, Jay Aremac, Northwest Rafting Company, amsfrank, qmnonic, PhoTones_TAKUMA, chatblanc1, garryknight, limaoscarjuliet, V31S70, lcm1863, Jayel Aheram, SimpleSkye
  • Home
  • About
  • Current Words
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • All Prophecies
  • Houses of Prayer
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Articles
    • His Inscriptions: How God Speaks to Everyday People
    • Have Smartphones Replaced God?
    • How to Pray to God: 5 Easy Steps
    • How to Start a Christian Blog: A Guide for Writers
    • How You Personally Could Spark the Next Great Awakening
    • Finding Beauty in Your Winter Season
    • Silence: Your Secret Weapon
    • Overcoming Exhaustion
  • Bible Promises
  • Friends We Support
  • How to Know God