Faith in Action International Ministries: Pastor's Page

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"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"

Romans 10:9-10

The Assignment of a Prayer Warrior

The assignment of a prayer warrior is one that must be taken very seriously. After all, prayer is one of the most important weapons in the life a believer. Prayer is valuable; it’s indispensible. In fact, the Word of God says that we are to always pray and not faint. Prayer is the believer’s line of communication with The Almighty. Now I love all of you. I love standing here in front of everyone that has come to hear what God has to say. But imagine this. Prayer is your invitation to have an audience with the Ruler of all Creation. Although He hears each of us when we pray, even when we’re praying at the same time; he is still listening to our individual supplications, requests and petitions that we are putting before Him. He says go ahead, you have my undivided attention! That’s the kind of God we serve. In James 5: 15-17 we read:

¹⁵And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

¹⁶ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of righteous man availeth much.

¹⁷ Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

From this passage of scripture we are going to take the "b" part of the 16th verse. The effectual (successful in producing a desired or intended result) fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth (you benefit, or gain from) much; which leads to our title tonight, the faithful, the focused and the fervent ( enthusiastic, passionate, eager). Ask yourself, am I fervent in my prayer life?

There are also certain attributes one must take on as a prayer warrior. For instance, you must think like a warrior. You must talk like a warrior. You have to walk like a warrior. You must act like a warrior. We must fight like a warrior. We must last but not least, follow in the footsteps of the greatest warriors of all time, Jesus Christ.

I took the liberty of doing a little research on the term warrior, and I found out some interesting things. The term “warrior” refers to "an individual engaged in or experienced in warfare." It also refers to "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics, athletics, or battle. As prayer warriors we fight spiritual battles all the time. The first thing we must realize is that these battles are warfare and the devil doesn’t play fair. Next I looked at the regimen of a warrior, and then I looked at how as prayer warriors we must develop the same. Listen at these five things:

Warriors are disciplined. Without discipline, they could not stay alive long enough to call themselves a warrior. The word says that we are to pray without ceasing. Jesus gives us the model in Matthew 6. This has to be a part of our regimen and more importantly, we must pray God’s word. He tells us in Isaiah 55:11 – So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Warriors must develop mental focus. No one can develop essential skills of dealing with life, protecting one's self or facing a foreboding opponent with an unfocused mind. You can get side tracked by what the enemy wants to do in your life. It’s only to keep you off balance. Tell you neighbor…keep your focus; keep your focus….. When you are in prayer, you are looking for the glory of God to show up in the situation. If you are distracted by circumstances, by situations, by people, you have already missed the glory….tell your neighbor missed the glory, missed the glory. Your prayer life is what keeps you focused.

Warriors are persistent, they’re faithful. Although you may have to face difficulty, pain, discomfort, discouragement, fear and the prospect of failure and utter doom; you must make up your mind, “I’m not gone quit. I’m not gone give up.” As prayer warriors we must remain faithful to what God has called us to do. If He tells us to be on the wall, we must be on the wall. If He tells us to intercede for the church, the pastor, whomever, that’s what we do. He needs to know, He can count you faithful. Paul exhorts us in II Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Meaning we share in the same troubles everyone else has but we can’t get caught up with everyday matters; we have an assignment, we have a mission.

Last, but not least, warriors train for the battle. We are in a fight and we must know our weapons, we have to condition ourselves through prayer and meditating on God’s word. Your training comes from reading God’s word daily. If you don’t know His word, how can you pray His word? As we stated before the devil don’t play fair. The word says in Ephesians 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. You have to know your weapons and stay trained and equipped for battle. Imagine that you found yourself in a gunfight and to your surprise; the clips in your gear don't fit your gun. Do you say, "Uh.. Excuse me!.. Uh.. Can we have a time out? I brought the wrong bullets!" If you don't train, you don't develop the skills that you need to survive … and you die spiritually and sometimes naturally!

Fervent – Ask yourself am I fervent about my assignment. I tell you this, if you can’t get excited, if you don’t have a passion to pray for God’s people, then maybe you need to be in the choir or with the parking lot ministry. Don’t get me wrong these are important too. The thing about a good warrior is that have to know their assignment. Stick to what is telling you to do.

So, I implore you to think about the assignments we have as prayer warriors. Then I want you to ask yourself if you are doing what you need to do to get the job done. Ask yourself are you like the marines, simper fidelis (always faithful). The marines also tell us that they are looking for a few good men. Guess what, so is God. Ask yourself like are you like those in the army, being all you can be, which they have now replaced with the slogan Army strong. Ask yourself, are you army strong tonight? I don’t know the answer, only you do. Guys, your prayer life is very important. Your prayer life brings the glory of God in. Your prayer life helps you live a life of purity and holiness. Your prayer life keeps you faithful. Your prayer life keeps you focused. It’s your prayer life that keeps you focused, and when you follow the regimen of a true warrior….Your prayer life warriors will get you the victory!