TONY EVANS HOUSE
Tony Evans - Prayer and Spiritual Warfare
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Draw you near, closer, so that you're like Jacob and say, "I'm not going to let you go until you answer me." So welcome to the fire. When you get close and want to live for him, want to please him, want to honor him, want to exalt him, want to draw near to him, then heaven opens up and he lets you find him. He lets you find him. Welcome to the fire. When you've lived long enough, it becomes pretty clear that life is not a playground but a battleground. When you've lived long enough, you've come to realize that life is not always easy. While we cherish those times of fun and frivolity and play and excitement, we dread those times of pain and anguish and struggle. Someone has said that life can be described as being bittersweet. It has those sweet moments that we cherish and embrace and those bitter moments that bring us to tears, hurt and pain. Paul is writing and he concludes his treatise to the church at Ephesus to talk to them about the battleground of life. We call it spiritual warfare. But he's not just talking about any kind of battle. He describes this one specifically by calling it the evil day. The evil day. The evil day is when all hell breaks loose on you. The evil day is when you are overwhelmed. Yes, life has its normal ups and downs but that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about when you are under major attack. When your world is being shattered, your dreams are being destroyed. Your hopes are being dimmed and where you look out and all you see is the light of an oncoming train. He calls that the evil day. The day when hell is after you and your name has come up. He says when that day comes, when that period of time when your under major assault comes, he says, "I want you to understand how to approach this." Because he says on that day, you're going to need the strength of the Lord, verse 10. Normal stuff is not going to work and play in church, show enough won't work. He says on that day, you're going to need the supernatural and so he goes into these verses leading up to the subject of prayer to tell us how to approach this time in your life in my life. Now I want to make sure that I'm not wasting my time on this sermon. So is anybody here know what I'm talking about when I talk about an evil day? Evil day when you're under massive spiritual assault. Well, let me remind you that everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. Everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. So Paul wants you to know if you want to address in the time of your attack the visible and physical, you need to do it from the perspective of the invisible and spiritual. He gives you the term that he uses throughout the book of Ephesians of heavenly places. Heavenly places means the spiritual realm and what he's saying is that when you are under assault, when your life is being shattered, you're trying to be in the will of God, you're trying to walk with God, but you're being attacked, your wellbeing is being attacked, your dreams are being attacked, your health is being attacked, your stability is being attacked, your resources are being attacked, your future is being attacked, you are just under assault. He says during those times, you have to view things from the location of heavenly places or the spiritual realm, if you're going to be strong to walk through, work through the times of those attacks. And he wants to set the plan in place for how you're going to make it through the evil day. For those of you who've not yet been to the evil day, keep living, it's coming. When you're under assault and your stability, your world is being shaken. He says during those times, three times he says, I want you to stand firm, stand firm, stand firm. Don't quit, don't quit, don't quit, because the temptation is easily to throw in the towel. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand, and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next-gen, tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90% compared to our older designs, and working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable, and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's Energy in Progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. I'm Victoria Cash. Thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun, for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear. 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He says the first thing I want you to understand is that you wrestle not against flesh and blood. In other words, people aren't the source of your problem. They may be the conduit for your problem, but they're not the source of your problem. For we, Christians wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers and world forces that are located in heavenly places or the spiritual realm. If you address the resource without addressing the source, all you've done is created a delay for it to come back up again because you've not gotten to the root of the problem. We're just addressing the fruit of the problem. And so what he is saying is the source is spiritual. He first of all wants to set the stage by saying on the evil day, when you're in this season of attack, I want you to stand firm, which means to hold your ground in the Lord. He says, "Be strong in the Lord to hold your spiritual ground." It is easy to be swayed and moved off of center when you're suffering. It is easy to be swayed and moved off of the source of your hope when you're going through it and you see no exit sign. It is easy to be moved, but he says during those times, when you are under assault and your world is being stripped from right underneath you, he calls it the evil day. He says, "During that time, I want you to grab more tightly your faith. Don't loosen it up. Stand firm. When you're under the fire of the evil one, when you're under fire of demonic attack, when you're under the fire of suffering, you do not run away from God when you are in the evil day. You have to run to God when you're in the midst of the evil day because you're now engaged in spiritual warfare." He says, "Stand firm. Hold on to your faith." He then tells you how to dress for spiritual success. He gives you the armor of God. He tells you, "I want you to get dressed for the battle." Now, when you're in a war and when you're in a parade, a military parade, they show the weapons. When you're in a war, you use the weapons because in the evil day, this is not show time at the Apollo. This is time when you've got to get dressed. He says, "You've got to put on truth. Put on righteousness. Put on peace." He goes on, he says, "You've got to put on faith." He says, "You've got to put on the helmet of salvation." Then he says, "You've got to use the sword of the Spirit," which is the word of God. He gives these six pieces of spiritual arsenal or spiritual armor that the believer is to utilize when it comes to taking a stand in the evil day or when you're under spiritual attack and spiritual oppression that's affecting your physical, financial, circumstantial, emotional, family, well-being. Take your stand harder than you've ever taken it before, but put on this armor. But now, you may not remember all the pieces of the armor. Let's make it easy because Romans 13 verse 14 says, "Put on Christ." If you can't remember all the pieces, remember this one. "Put on Christ." Why? Because he says, "I want you to be put on truth." Jesus says, "I am the way the truth and the life." He says, "I want you to put on righteousness." Scripture says, "Christ is our righteousness." He says, "Put on peace." Jesus said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but I give you my peace." He says, "Put on the helmet of salvation." Scripture is clear. Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation. Then he says, "Put on the word of God. Use the sword of the Spirit." John 1-1 says, "In the beginning was the Word." The Word was with God. The Word was God. Verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus says, "He is the Word." So if you don't remember, truth, remember Jesus. If you don't remember righteousness, remember Jesus. If you don't remember peace, remember Jesus. If you put on Christ, you become centered in Him. This is not belief in God. This is centered in God's Son, who is the revelation of God, the manifestation of God, who is the power of God to manifest Himself particularly in the evil day. Now you want to do it all the time, but you better do it in the evil day when the doctors don't have answers. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand, and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next-gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90 percent compared to our older designs, working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable, and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. Hey everyone, it is Ryan Seacrest here, ready to heat up your summer vacation. Get ready. Things are about to get sizzling at Chumba Casino. Your summer getting a whole lot hotter with a special daily login bonus waiting just for you. So sign up now for reals of fun and reals of prizes right here at Chumba Casino with yours truly. Join me at Chumba Casino dot com and dive into a summer of social casino fun. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group, forward we're prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. When the bankers don't have answers, when your friends don't have answers, and show enough when you don't have answers, you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ and all the tools that he offers you, but he says you got to put him on. The question is how do you put him on? That's where verse 18 comes in. Let me read it again. He says in verse 18, with all prayer and petition, pray it all times in the spirit, and with this of you be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. The way you put on Christ, that is practically utilize him to equip you to move through the battle you face is with prayer. Now prayer is relational communication with God. A lot of people want to pray when they're in spiritual warfare, who have not prayed till they got the spiritual warfare. In other words, they don't know how to stand strong in the Lord, because they haven't been standing with the Lord. But now that they're in an emergency, they need the Lord. He's talking about staying in touch with him all day. That's why 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray without ceasing. In other words, stay in touch with me. Now let me explain why this is so important. The evil day is principalities, powers, and moral forces. This means you are under attack. This means that this attack is coming from the devil and demons. It is unfortunate that far too many Christians have lost sight of demons. Demons are angels that went rogue. Demons are the spiritual mafia that attacks us in the spiritual that brings about our pain in the physical. And the Bible has an answer to demons. The answer to demons are angels. So here's how this works. The Bible declares every Christian has been assigned an angel. And the job of the angel is to look after the well-being of the believer. So every Christian has an angel that is assigned to you by God. One of the jobs of your angel is to throw wort the demonic attack that is coming against you because angels know how to fight angels. And so when the demonic angel comes to bring pain and anguish and defeat in your world and in your life, you have an angel. The Bible says when we pray, we engage God, the Holy Spirit, and I'll talk about him in a moment, who activates the angel assigned to you to deal with the demonic oppression that is coming against you. So he says with all parrots. But he tells you something else and it's the key. He says pray in the spirit. Verse 18. Don't just pray, meaning don't just have conversation, but he says I want you to pray in the spirit. The question is what does that mean? The Bible talks about the role of the spirit is to deliver the mind of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 and 10. But just as it is written, things which I have not seen and eared not heard, and which has not been entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. For to us God revealed them, he's not done by heaven, he's done by earth. To us God revealed them through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. See, when you're in the evil day, that means folk can't help you. When you're in the evil day, they have limitations that they can do for you. And you need something that I have not seen, eared not heard, and the imagination is not conceived of. You need the supernatural to enter into the natural. Now, being in the spirit is opposed in scripture to being in the flesh. To be in the spirit, let me start with the part of simple end. He wants you to be in the spirit. So he does not want you visiting and exiting. He wants you operating in the realm of the spirit. What is the realm of the spirit? The realm of the spirit is a spiritual mindset. In Romans 8 verses 1 to 13, he gives this extended discussion about the spirit and he says, when you have the spirit, you have the mind of the spirit. So this has to do with how you're thinking. The mind is your thought. He wants you to think spiritually, not secularly. He wants you to think biblically, not worldly. He wants you to think the mind of Christ, not the mind of man. Galatians 5 verse 16, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. He says there is a battle and it's a battle between the spirit and the flesh. Let me define the flesh. The flesh is the desire to please self-independently of God. The flesh is the desire to please yourself as opposed to pleasing God. We all battle with the flesh. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desire. Please don't misread that. He didn't say you won't have the desire because the flesh... We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next-gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90 percent compared to our older designs. Working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable, and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy in progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. With Lucky Land Sluts, you can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather's fine, but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky. No, no, nothing like that. It's just these cash prizes out of quick. So I suggest you sit back, keep your tray table upright, and start getting lucky. Play for free at LuckyLand Sluts.com. Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. Void we're prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. That's once what it wants. So you will have the desire, but the spirit will override it. Don't read the verse in reverse. Don't read to get rid of the desire of the flesh. Walk in the spirit. That's backwards. Walk in the spirit and it will overrule the desire of the flesh. It will overrule it. The capacity to do what you need to do or what God once done will be activated in your experience as you walk in the spirit. Now, many times people will say, I'm praying, but nothing is happening. Let me explain. Many Christians pray they're doing the right thing, but they're doing it in the flesh. They're doing it in the wrong environment. And if you're doing the right thing in the wrong environment, the right thing won't work. So just because you say your prayers in the morning, say grace at dinner and say your bedtime prayer, that's the right thing. But the question is, have you been walking in the right environment? Because if you're not walking in the right environment, doing the right thing won't work. And in fact, it can help kill you quicker. So he says, all, all, all, all. I want you to be consumed with being in my presence. Walking in the flesh, he says, we'll put you in a spiritual graveyard. But walking by the spirit will put you. And here's how you know, because you're no longer having to force things. When you're in the spirit, but the Bible calls the spirit a wind. A wind. It blows. The Bible says the Holy Spirit guides us. He pulls us. Now you can walk. You should walk, but you're walking on some power. You're walking on some undergirding. You're walking on some strength because you're walking with the mind of the spirit, consistent with the revelation and word of God so that he can override. And so you begin to flow in it, even though you still have to walk, and even though you may have a ways to go. He says, pray always in the spirit. Spirit will lead. And so he's my only out. And so we cry out to God and trust God. But you have your evil day. Well, you will. And if we make prayer a lifestyle, walking in the spirit of lifestyle and not a visit, don't treat the spirit like a tree church. Don't just come for a visit. No, he says, you roll with me. And you stay in contact with me all day, every day, short, long, fast, slow. When we contact God, if the timing is wrong, he'll say slow. If the request is wrong, he'll say no. If we are wrong, he'll say grow. But if the request is right, the time is right, and we are right, sooner or later, he'll say go. So I want this to be known as a house of prayer. Praise God for great music. Praise God for preaching all that's critical to worship. But if we don't make contact with heaven, all we did was come to an event, a religious event. But if we as a church will cry out to God. And when God meets you in your evil day, however that happens, sometimes he takes you through it, sometimes he delivers you out of it, and sometimes he just gives you the strength to deal with it. He does it in all kinds of ways. But however he decides to do it, you'll know he's right there in the midst. He changes your perspective in the midst of your evil day. And you know you can go a long way with a change of perspective. There's a battle taking place in the invisible realm that affects us in the realm in which we exist. It's called spiritual warfare. We've got a dress right for this battle. It's called the armor of God. We have to dress for success. You've heard that phrase. How do you put on the armor? You know there's six pieces of armor that are given to us that we're supposed to be wearing and utilizing to defeat the enemy on what's called the evil day. That means the day when you're under major attack, you're under major assault. That is an offensive against you. And you know what that feels like when all hell breaks loose and things are bam, bam, bam, bam, hit you from every direction. As soon as you think you have one crisis, you wind up into another crisis and another conflict. Well, you got to keep your attire and the way you do that is through prayer. That's why we're told to pray without ceasing. That doesn't mean you're on your knees. That means you're staying in contact with God. You know we all have cell phones. We all live on our cell phones because we stand in contact with somebody, okay? Well, guess what God wants to be. He wants to be on your cell phone of life where you stay in contact with him so that you catch things early. You deal with things early. You reward things early. Why? Because you're in contact with God as a way of life and not as a you know, Sunday morning worship service or even a morning devotion. But as a regular bringing them into decision, bringing them into your parts, bringing them into your relationship, bringing them into your decision making because he's part of every aspect of your life. Now you're doing spiritual warfare. You know, when you we all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90% compared to our older designs. Working to provide Colorado with energy that's affordable, reliable and ever cleaner. So everyone can get to where they want to be. 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