👋 Welcome Back: Spiritual Warfare Series

Welcome back to this series of classes on Spiritual Warfare.

Hopefully, you used my suggestion last time to spend some time in prayer—
📖 with yourself,
🙏 with the Spirit,
👑 with the Savior,
and with the Father.

This is important stuff.
You’re going to find it—you’re probably finding it already as we’re up to session 25 in this class—
and so you’re seeing him more often as you’re becoming a watch person, right?
One of those people who’s watching on the wall for the enemy’s approach.

🙏 Opening Prayer

But now I want to begin this session with a prayer as we continue talking about what we can use on offense.
We’ve seen the defensive armor of God that defends us, but the sword of the Spirit allows us to go on offense.

Are there other tools?
That’s what these next sessions are going to be about—
other tools that we can use that put us on offense in this battle.

Join me in prayer:

“Our Father, God, we are thankful for the presence of Your Spirit.
Jesus, thank You for sending Him.
As we continue to explore this subject of spiritual warfare,
pray that, yeah, the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart,
will be pleasing to You, but will be helpful to the people.
And pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

🛡️ Going on Offense: Prayer

All right, we are now going to be talking about going on offense: prayer.
So this is, again, a turning now from the armor of God to an activity that we can be involved in.

And not just an activity—
prayer is not just an activity, but an activity of prayer that engages us successfully in the battle against the enemy.

🙏 The Key Tool: Prayer

We’re going to look later at the various levels of warfare and all that good stuff.
But prayer is a key tool.

This is how Paul writes right after he’s talking about the armor of God.
There it seems like there’s a break.
In fact, some of the old, old, old translations would even put a break there,
but in the original, there’s no break.

This is his next statement after:

“Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

And this is his next statement:

📖 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me,
so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.
Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

🔑 Prayer: Essential for Battle

Prayer, right?
This is the other thing:
Take up that sword of the Spirit so that you can apply the Word of God—the logos—with a Rhema in particular situations.
Keep that other armor in place because the enemy is going to be fighting back.
Keep it all in place and pray.

Did you notice the parts I highlighted?

  • All occasions

  • All prayers and requests

  • All the Lord’s people

We’re going to explore that later at the end.

📊 The State of Prayer

Now, prayer is one of those things that’s going to be part of our battle equipment,
that we become people of prayer.

That gives me deep concern.
Recently, I found some Pew Research Statistics.

📚 Pew Research is an organization here in the United States that tries to keep tabs on many things,
but one of them is the state of religion in the United States.

So, I found a report on studies they had done, surveys they had conducted,
to try to understand where the church is, where Christians are, and other believers in the United States—
in regard to prayer.

📝 This is going to be small, so I’m sorry about that for you,
but if you’re on your phone, that might be difficult to read.

📊 Prayer Statistics: How Are We Doing?

But here’s the list by religious tradition, and which of them pray at least:

  • Daily

  • Weekly

  • Monthly

  • Seldom

  • Never

  • Don’t know

This listing includes:

  • Buddhist

  • Catholic

  • Evangelical Protestant (about 30% of Protestants in the U.S.)

  • Hindu

  • Black Protestant

  • Jehovah’s Witness

  • Jewish

  • Mainline Protestants

  • Mormons

  • Muslims

It looks like there’s really good news in here, right?

For example:

  • Catholics: 59% pray daily, 20% weekly, 7% monthly, etc.

  • Evangelical Protestants: 79% pray daily, 14% weekly, 3% monthly, 4% seldom/never.

  • Historically Black Protestant: 80% pray daily, 12% weekly, 3% monthly, etc.

  • Mainline Protestant: 54%

  • Orthodox Christian: 57% daily

When you read that, it sounds pretty good, right?
Maybe where your country is, it’s worse—or maybe a little better.

📉 Generational Trends

But then I started looking a little more closely, and that’s when I began to feel discouraged.

Here’s the breakdown by age group:

  • 18 to 29 years old: 16% pray daily, 25% weekly, 27% monthly, 33% seldom/never.

  • 30 to 49: 34% pray daily, 34% weekly, 37% monthly/seldom/never. 34% never pray.

  • 50 to 64: 29% daily, 26% weekly, 24% monthly, 20% etc.

  • 65 and over (my age category): 20% daily, 21% weekly, 15% monthly, 13% seldom/never.
    36% don’t know—what does that mean? Prayer isn’t even on their radar, I guess.

When I look at that, it seems like as the generations progress, prayer becomes less and less important.
Does it strike you that way?

🕰️ Generational Categories

If you look at this one more way—here’s the breakdown by generation:

  • Younger Millennials (my grandkids): 10% at least daily

  • Older Millennials (my children): 12%

  • Generation X: 28%

  • Baby Boomers (my group): 34%

  • Silent Generation (post-World War II): 14%

  • Greatest Generation (World War II): 1%

Look at those numbers, if you can see them.
Now, all of a sudden, I’m not so hopeful, especially when I put this against what the Bible says about prayer, particularly in the New Testament:

📖 Scriptural Reminders About Prayer:

  • Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

  • “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12

  • “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2

  • “Pray continually.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17

🙏 Devoted to Prayer

Now, I find those things to be challenging.
📖 Colossians 4:2 says,
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Look at those words:

  • Watchful – like a watch person, right? 👀 Someone watching for the enemy’s attack.

  • Thankful – gratitude even in the midst of struggle.

The word devote is a powerful word.

For example, I’ve got a friend who’s devoted to the game of golf. 🏌️‍♂️
He’s passionate about it.
Here in Midwest Michigan, in the U.S., he’s out on the course 3-4-5 times a week.

  • He’s hired a coach to help with his drives.

  • He practices indoors during the winter.

  • He’s investing time, energy, and resources—buying new clubs because he’s heard the “next great club” will finally straighten out his drive.

That’s what devotion looks like.

We might read about a parent devoted to their child. ❤️

  • If you’re devoted to your child, you spend time, energy, and effort.

  • You bring all your resources to bear because you want your child to thrive.

💬 What Does It Mean to Be Devoted to Prayer?

What does it mean in that context to say,
“Devote yourselves to prayer”?

  • What resources have to be pulled into our lives to make prayer important?

  • How do we become devoted to prayer?

It sounds like we should be praying every minute of every day, right?
So how do I do that? How do I “always pray and not give up”?

Well, let me reply… Just some thoughts on that.
I like this.

📖 Romans 12:1 in Everyday Language

The Message is not a translation in the traditional sense. The person who worked on it called it a dynamic equivalency translation—taking the Old Testament and New Testament Greek and making it living for English speakers.

Here’s Romans 12:1 from The Message:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

In other words, I begin to look at my life and consciously bring it before God:

  • Requesting things for people

  • Doing battle on behalf of some people

  • Lifting people up in prayer

I do that now.

⏰ A Friend’s Prayer Habit

A friend of mine uses an alarm on his phone.
It goes off at certain times during the day, reminding him to take himself back to prayer—briefly, because he works.

He’s chosen to say,
“I’m going to be praying about this because it’s important to me.”

🙏 Following Paul’s Commands

It takes something intentional to do this.
Let’s look again at the passage we saw earlier:

📖 “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert.”

  • All occasions – when you’re celebrating, when you’re down, when you’re busy. Be someone whose mind turns to eternal things.

  • All kinds of prayers – The word “prayers” here refers to general words for prayer, so “all kinds” might include:

    • Adoration: Praise to God, celebrating who He is.

    • Confession of sin.

    • Waiting: “Be still and know that I am God.”

    • Intercession: Praying for someone else.

  • Requests – The word here could be translated as supplication, meaning “to want” or “to beg.” It conveys a sense of urgency.

❤️ Personal Examples

Sometimes God brings people to mind.

One of my brothers—one of my six brothers—had a son, 52 years old, who died last week. They’re going to have the funeral next Saturday. He comes to mind many times a day, so with a sense of urgency I pray for him and his family:

  • His wife and three young children.

  • I ask God, “Help them. Give them words. Give them strength.”

Their faith is shining through in magnificent ways.

I also think of my wife. She’s engaged in work—she teaches nursing at a local school and occasionally fills in.

  • When she leaves for work, I think of her during the morning and pray for her.

  • Sometimes it’s an urgent request—like last week, she went to work while still getting over the cold I had after traveling.

🙏 All Kinds of Prayers and Requests

Paul’s instruction continues:

“Pray with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

  • Singing can be a prayer.

  • Meditation can be a prayer.
    We are to keep all kinds of these in mind.

🕰️ Staying Watchful and Persevering

Paul says, “With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying.”

Now, the English translation doesn’t fully capture the depth of Paul’s words.
Here’s another translation:

“Continually being watchful in all perseverance and supplication.”

This means:

  • Being on alert.

  • Being watchful, every day.

Since developing this class for Christian Leaders Institute, I’ve become much more watchful. I find myself wondering,
“Is this an attack of the enemy?”

I’ve become more and more aware of the battle, both in my life and in the lives of others.

  • I watch for missionaries I know—like a young woman in Spain working with migrants, particularly Muslim migrants.

  • I bring supplications and desires to God for her and others.

🌍 Praying for All Saints Everywhere

We’re called to pray for everyone, everywhere.
And it’s amazing how God answers.

I recently came across a powerful story about angels, which I’ll share when we reach sessions 34, 35, and 36.

✨ Story of a Missionary Protected in Africa

A missionary stationed deep in the African jungle often rode his bike through the jungle to a city for supplies.
One day, he came across a fight, helped an injured man (thanks to his medical training), bought his supplies, and camped overnight in the jungle.

Later, back in town, the man he had helped asked,
“Who were those men with you?”
The missionary replied, “What do you mean? It was only me.”
The man explained that they had planned to rob him in the jungle because they knew he had money and supplies.
But when they arrived, they saw 26 armed guards standing around him.

At a church presentation back home in Michigan, he told this story.
A man in the congregation stood up and declared,
“We were with you in spirit.”
He explained that while the missionary was in the jungle, it was morning in Michigan.
He had stopped by the church, felt a strong urge from the Lord to pray for the missionary, gathered some other men, and prayed.

Then he turned to the congregation and said,
“All of those men who prayed with me that day, please stand up.”
And one by one, they stood up—all 26 of them.

This account comes from a reliable publication, not a fly-by-night source.

🔵 When We Pray, Things Happen

When we pray, things happen. It’s a powerful prayer.

And partly because of this:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for us, the saints, according to God’s will.”

Now, if you need help developing your prayer life, I just want to end this session with a couple of suggestions.

🔶 A Prayer Tool
This is a prayer wheel developed by a man named Dick Eastman. It’s several years old now, but you can still get the book.

It takes 12 facets of prayer and says, if you spend just five minutes in each area, then you’ve spent an hour in prayer. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Worship and Praise

  • Waiting

  • Confession of Guilt and Sin

  • Praying Scripture

  • Watching

  • Intercession for Others

  • Petition (Asking for Yourself)

  • Thanksgiving

  • Singing

  • Contemplation and Meditation

  • Listening to God as Part of Prayer Life

  • Praise

You can find all of this in that simple phrase:

“Pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers.”

🔶 Pray for Everyone

  • Pray for all the Lord’s people.

  • Pray for yourself.

  • Pray for the people you love.

And you’ll see the battle being turned.

✅ We’ll see you next time!


Last modified: Thursday, May 29, 2025, 10:16 AM