OUR PRAYERS AGAINST EVIL AND THE EVIL ONE

Our Prayers Against Evil and the Evil One

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principlaities, against powers, agaisnt the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." - Ephesins 6:12

"Lord, teach us to pray. . .And lead us not into temptation:   but deliver us from evil (the Evil One)." Luke 11:1, 4

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."  - I John 3:8

"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:  for we are not ignorant of his devices."   -                   II Corinthians 2:11

Each one of theses verses will give us an opportunity to develop our prayers against the advancement of hell.  We will give place to what is being said and taught and make needed application to our prayer times.  We will take each verse, as well as others to learn the four areas for our understanding of what is happening, why it is happenign and what we are to do for our Lord's glory and work.  May the Lord use this for our prayers to be united for Him and against the works of the devil. 

I.  Praying Against Evil and the Evil One

This first verse in Ephesians is demonstrating to us the opponents against us.  As listed: against principalities; against powers; against rulers of the darkness o this world; against spiritual wickendess in high places.  It was stated, 'not against flesh and blood', but then what was it against?  The opposite of flesh and blood is spiritual. 

A very simple consideration to our prayers is: what are we praying for? and what are we praying against?  As we see the Apostle Paul express it in Ephesians, chapter 6, there is much against us  It is not flesh and blood, it is beyond the carnal and temporal.  It is not finite, it is infinite;  it is not temporal, it is eternal;  it is not carnal, it is spiritual.  Much labor, work, effort, prayers, sweat are for the carnal, temporal, finite things of this life.  And therefore much is not addressed nor given in the labor of infinite, eternal and spiritual. 

It is found in this process of 'praying for' things, people, situations that leaves 'praying against' the works of the devil. 


The R's of Satan - reprimand; remove; restrain; and restrict him and his ways.
The P's of Satan - pervert; profane; perish and provoke.

"He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me; he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me." - Job 16:9

II. Praying against temptation and the evil (Evil One)

It is the sole directive of Satan to destroy everything that gives God glory. 
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whome he may devour (destroy)." - I Peter 5:8
He is seeking God's children to destroy them in their pursuit to honor and glorify the Lord God.  He sees man made in the image of God and seeks to destroy our image of Him.  He sees a soul following hard after God and he sets his aim to attack, assualt and assail that they may fall and be vanquished.  We see a more graphic imagery of this in John Bunyan's, 'Pilgrim's Progress' of the conflict of good Christian and the assualts and assailing of differnt ones against Christian to get him to fall and lose his place of the Celestial city. 

It is just as true today and we must recognize that these things set before us and upon us by Satan for one purpose - to destroy us and our loyalty to our Lord and King.  He, the devil, also came to Christ to tempt Him.  And as we know the account, with three temptations, Satan was defeated 3 times.  Christ overcame him by quoting Scripture to him to defeat him.  He gave no place to the temptation and therefore the tempation had no root to take hold of.  We also know from Scripture that tempation is not of the Lord. 

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:  for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man:  v. 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."  - James 1:13, 14

God does not tempt, it is the devil or our own flesh which is weak and given much to the things of sin and self.  Satan knows this and he uses this to tempt us and lead us astray.  Just as did to Eve, just as he did to Judas, just as he does to us today.  He knows wherein our weakness is.  It is true of many dear and precious saint, 'the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak'  And herein Satan comes to do his worst damage.