The Power of Prayer | Daniel Bentley

Think for a moment about what hung in the balance with Moses' prayers, and this is the part of the sermon that just wrecked me this past week. I mean, it's not just the outcome of this battle that we're talking about. It was far bigger than that. Israel in this fight is fighting for their very survival. I mean, think about it. The fate of an entire nation and people group hinged on the fervency of one man's prayers. [00:29:01] (31 seconds)  #PrayersChangeNations

The very course of history was shaped by Moses' prayer life. If that doesn't underscore the impact and the importance of prayer, I don't know what will. I mean, what if you knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that your prayers could change the outcome of situations, that your prayers could impact communities, that your prayers could affect atmospheres, that your prayers could determine or shape in some way what takes place at a national or even governmental level? [00:29:32] (37 seconds)  #PrayerShapesHistory

Moses had Aaron and Hur, and I would suggest that you build a prayer team that includes a couple of hims and a couple of hers. We need them all. We need prayer partners. Why? So that when our arms are faltering, they can lead you to the rock. Who's the rock? It's Jesus. And then you can rest on him, and then they can come under you. They can support you and help lift your arms. [00:34:19] (24 seconds)  #BuildYourPrayerTeam

And who does the devil like to pick off? It's the worn out and the weary, the tired, those who are lagging behind. I love watching animal shows, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, all of these things. And and if you've ever watched, you know, a pride of lions as they hunt a herd of gazelle or whatever, it's always the gazelle that lags behind, the one that's injured, the the young or the infirmed that the lions tend to go after. And that's exactly what the devil does to us. He waits until you're weary, bone tired, worn down by life, and that's when he ambushes. [00:13:32] (41 seconds)  #DevilTargetsTheWeary

While it's true that this world and this life is going to be marked and characterized by battle after battle after battle. Battles in the home, battles in the workplace, battles in your relationships, battles in your career, battles in the spiritual arena. It's true that you're gonna have to fight battles, but you need to know that the Lord fights the battles for you. And it doesn't matter who comes against you if God stands behind you. Amen? That's what Paul tells us in Romans eight thirty one. He says, if God is for us, then who who who can stand against us? I mean, you're coming against me, but you're really fighting the Lord. Praise the Lord. [00:20:18] (40 seconds)  #GodFightsForYou

After reading carefully through the plaintiff's complaint and the defendant's reply, the judge opened the his ruling by stating, this is a tough one. I don't know how I'm gonna decide this case, but one thing's clear. We have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and a church that doesn't. But for anyone who's ever wrestled with or doubted the efficacy of prayer, the difference that prayer makes, can I just bring you back to the story we just read? [00:28:25] (36 seconds)  #DoesPrayerWork

Jesus said, men ought always to pray and not to faint. Now it's interesting that he would say that because as I as I survey the landscape of the world today, what I see everywhere is people giving up on prayer and fainting. We're anxious. We're we're we're we're grief stricken. We're just overwhelmed by life. Well, perhaps we'd see more praying and less fainting if we had more people surrounding us who can lift our arms when we feel weak. Christianity and prayer are not solo sports, they are team efforts. [00:34:43] (35 seconds)  #PrayerIsTeamSport

The same staff that had God used to bring a series of judgments on the Egyptian people. The same staff that he stretched out over the Red Sea and the waters parted. The same staff that Joshua had just seen Moses strike a rock with, and out of that rock comes water. I mean, this was a a powerful stick. Now, mind you, there was nothing magical about this staff. I mean, it was just just a shepherd's staff. It wasn't imbued with mystical, magical properties. It's what it represented that made all the difference. And what that staff represented was the power and the abiding presence of almighty God. [00:19:08] (39 seconds)  #StaffRepresentsGod

Joshua didn't have much to work with. He had less than twenty four hours to assemble an army from this ragtag group of survivors. I mean, the Israelites were disadvantaged and disadvantaged in every conceivable way. They were more familiar with being a slave than they were with being a soldier. They had no weapons or battlefield experience to speak of. They're traveling with the elderly, women, and children. Meanwhile, their counterparts, the Amalekites, were well versed in the art of warfare. [00:17:12] (37 seconds)  #UnderdogArmy

It's why Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and to wage warfare in the spiritual realm. Let me tell you something, Christian. If you're going to follow Christ, then you better prepare yourself for a fight. You say, when do I get a break? When you get to heaven. Okay? But between now and then, just expect the battles to keep coming. Now to lead this fight, Moses taps a man named Joshua on the shoulders. Now here's where we first get introduced to Joshua. [00:16:02] (36 seconds)  #PrepareForSpiritualWarfare

And so Moses tells Joshua this because he wants him to know, you're gonna go into the fight tomorrow, but you won't be fighting alone. There's a God in heaven who fights your battles for you. So while the Amalekites might have superior weaponry, and they might have camels, Joshua, you can have the confidence of knowing that God is on your side. And can I just say that makes all the difference? And what Moses told to Joshua is equally true for every one of us. [00:19:48] (30 seconds)  #YoureNotAloneGodFights

But the weapons we fight with are mighty in God to pull down strongholds, to defeat every enemy, every attack. Now one of our greatest weapons is prayer, and that's what this scene depicts. Prayer is again our secret weapon in the fight against the enemy. And I can picture Joshua. Just go back in your mind's eye and and allow the scene to unfold before you, and there he is in the midst of the fight. And from time to time when there's a lull in the battle, he can look up through the fog of war, and there silhouetted against the the setting sun, he can see the image of Moses standing on the hill with his outstretched arms, the staff of God resting in his hands, and it gives him confidence. [00:22:17] (48 seconds)  #LookToPrayerForConfidence

First, it is a sign of surrender when you lift your hands. What does a cop say to a robber when he catches him in the act and he pulls out his gun and he says, freeze. And he says, raise your arms. It's a sign of surrender. Not only that, it's also an act of praise. You know how it is when you're watching your favorite football team later this afternoon, or you're at a game and they score a touchdown. Involuntarily when your team scores, your arms go up in praise and in celebration. And then thirdly, it's a sign of dependence. [00:25:15] (36 seconds)  #LiftHandsInPrayer

And he said, gentlemen, this is my boiler room. The boiler room is the factory. It's it's where the power is produced. And Spurgeon, oh, man of faith, he rightly understood that the powerful sermons he preached were a direct result of the prayers that were being offered on his behalf in the basement below. [00:36:25] (22 seconds)  #BoilerRoomPrayers

The word of the Lord through Moses to Joshua back then is the word of the Lord to many of us today. It's time to stand up and fight. I think that the church needs to regularly be reminded of the fact that the Christian life is not a picnic, nor is it a stroll through a park, just kind of a leisurely afternoon, a sunny Sunday afternoon. No. The Christian life, at its essence, at its core, is a battle. And this imagery of warfare is something that weaves its way throughout the whole of scripture, and particularly in the New Testament, like a thread. [00:15:21] (41 seconds)  #ChristianLifeIsWarfare

Think about a kid who wants to be picked up, and their their mom or dad walks in the front door, and when my kids were little, they would run up to me and they would just hold up their arms as a sign of, daddy, I want you to pick me up. And when we lift our hands in prayer, it symbolizes all these things. But in addition to this important posture of prayer, it also speaks of a particular kind of prayer. You see, there are all different forms of prayer that you find in scripture. You find things like adoration, [00:25:52] (29 seconds)  #PowerOfIntercession

confession, supplication, and thanksgiving, just to name a few. But but none of those describe the kind of prayer praying that Moses is doing in this scene. This scene depicts intercessory prayer, and I wanna talk for a moment about intercessory prayer. What is it? Quite simply, intercessory prayer is when you begin to pray for others, and it is quite possibly the most powerful form of prayer that exists. [00:26:21] (30 seconds)  #FerventPrayerMatters

In this story, we see not only the incredibly powerful aspect of intercessory prayer, but it also highlights something else for us. It shows us how exhausting prayer can be. You can only lift your hands for so long before they become tired and they give out, they start to fall. And that's why the story highlights the need for building a team of prayer partners. You see, luckily for Moses, he didn't go into this fight alone, and you shouldn't be fighting your spiritual battles alone either. [00:33:46] (34 seconds)  #ChurchThatPrays