A Guide To Intercessory Prayer
by Rev. Richard W. LaFountain

The Battle Is the Lord's
Let's Get It Right!

I get nervous around people that are too aggressive. I mean the people who are always on a rampage about something. They become Christians and suddenly they are in a perpetual state of war. Their thoughts, demeanor, actions, and attitudes are war like. They are crusaders hell bent on smashing something. These well-meaning Christians have become spiritual warmongers. They see the enemy in every shadow, behind every tree, and operative in every negative thing that happens.

When we speak of "spiritual warfare" we are not talking about a perpetual rampage. Spiritual war is a reality. We are in a fight. The enemy is real. Demons are real. Attacks of the enemy are real. But we must be careful not to give the devil too much credit. He is not in charge - God is!

Satan is not god-like either.

He cannot read our minds. He is not omnipresent. He is not all powerful. He is not sovereign. He does not own the universe, or the earth for that matter. He is a created being, a fallen angel, whose end is certain, and his defeat final at the cross. (Hebrews 2:14)


Our Battle

Get it right!

"No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that rises against you will be put to silence." You are bought with the precious blood of Jesus, kept by the power of God, translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, your name is written in heaven, you can never perish, and no man can pluck you out of God's hand. Satan is not on the throne, never was, and never will be! It is time for believers to stop acting like Satan is God's negative counterpart. He is not!

We are simply put tools in the hand of our all-victorious God to announce to fallen spiritual authorities that God is indeed still in charge. God chooses to use us, frail human creatures, to embarrass the enemy with the fact that even the weakest saint, in Christ, is stronger than he. Why? So that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of us.

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood."

Our wrestling is not with God in prayer, but with "idealogies" (2 Cor 10:3-4), that is, wrong thinking, that proceeds from the pit of hell. We are those who set the record straight in the name of Jesus. We do not kill demons, and we cannot even wound the devil. It is not that kind of fight. that kind of thinking is "flesh and blood" thinking.

This is a thinking battle.

"Casting down imaginations ... and everything that exalts itself above the knowledge of God." It's not about mighty arguements or strong wrestling arms.It is about thinking right. It is about believing God and thinking his thoughtsabout the battle. The battle is the Lord's.