Spiritual Warfare: Prayer Service Pastor Daniel Reese and others

It's a little different. We're digging into a sermon series from Cornerstone Church.

And let's just say the topic is spiritual warfare.

Oh, wow. Okay. I'm intrigued already.

Pastor Daniel, he's the one leading it. And you can just feel the shift in the room, you

know.

And you know, that feeling, it's something a lot of us can probably relate to. Like,

have you ever felt like that? Just like a weight, but you can't quite put your finger

on what it is.

Exactly. And that's exactly how Pastor Daniel kicks things off. He's talking about those

times when something just feels off that like you're in a battle you can't quite see.

This morning, we're going to do something that we've never done at least, at least since

I've been here.

And here's what I want you to hear from me. I believe that we are on the cusp of God doing

some really great things here at Cornerstone. I believe he's going to just blow us away

here soon.

And we have so much to look forward to. So we have so much to celebrate in regards to

what God is doing amongst our church. But throughout my ministry, I've seen God move

in the most powerful ways right after a difficult season of testing. And I have no doubt that

we are in one of those seasons right now.

This past week during our staff meeting, we all discussed the ways in which we feel like

the enemy is coming against us. We wrote them all down on the board. And then we began to

categorize them and how we're seeing the enemy come against us. And it was a lot. It was

a lot.

And those are the things that we are going to be looking at this morning and praying against.

It's one thing to talk about spiritual warfare and recognize spiritual warfare. But I want

us to fight spiritual warfare in this place together.

And after we wrote all the ways the enemy is coming against us, we also wrote down all

the good things that we see going on in our church. And the encouraging moment for me,

the pessimist in me, is that there was so much more good going on than that. And we celebrated

that together.

Which makes sense to me because when God is doing great things, we expect the enemy to

come against us.

So this morning we're going to pray for things as much as we are going to pray against things.

When Jesus sends out the 72, he tells them that he has given them power over the power

of the enemy. He's given them dominion and authority over the enemy. And as a believer

in Jesus, we need to understand that we have been given that same power. We have authority

over anything that comes against us. No weapon formed against this church shall prosper.

So we're going to spend some time this morning praying against the works of the enemy in

this church. And as we pray, there will be a slide on the screen to show you what we

are praying against in case you get distracted and you forget what we're in the middle of.

There will be a slide on the screen with some scriptures that go along with that that maybe

you just kind of want to pray through. If you don't know what to pray, maybe just pray

for these things to happen.

I want you to hear me when I say this might be the most important service that you have

been to in a long time. This is not a time to take a nap, but for you to engage with

us as we fight off spiritual attacks. I am fully expectant this morning to experience

the Lord in a powerful place that he will move amongst his people. And you being here

on this day in this service is not an accident. I believe it's a divine appointment for the

Lord to do a work in you just as much as he is going to do in me.

So our first topic that we're going to pray against this morning is false expectations.

False expectations always lead to disappointment. And when we are disappointed, it's easy to

blame others for that disappointment. And that creates a wedge between the people of

God. It keeps us from being content in who we are in Christ. We have seen a lot of disappointment.

We have seen a lot of offense being taken because of that disappointment. And if you

have been disappointed in this church, if you've been disappointed in your life, or

if you've become offended by something that was said or done to you, know that that's

where the enemy wants you to sit. That's where he wants you to be. He wants you to be in

a state of offense. He wants you to be in a state of discontentment. So we're going to

spend a few minutes to pray against the false expectations and the spirit of offense this

morning. This might be a time where you need to repent before the Lord. This might be a

time where you need to come to the altar. This might be a time where you will come and

have an elder pray with you or over you. However, the Lord leads you in this time. I want you

to walk in obedience. So we're going to spend a few minutes just praying and then I will

come up and close us with this section. Let's pray against the spirit of false expectations.

Father, I confess before you that I have walked in disappointment and I have walked in offense.

Father, we're not going to let the enemy win. So Father, we ask you to bind that spirit in

this place. We pray, Father, that we will seek after holiness and faithfulness and righteousness

that we will delight in you, that we will find all of our comfort in you and not what others

can give us. So Father, we ask you and we trust and we claim victory over the spirit of false

lies and expectations and offense. We claim victory over that in this place. And Father,

I pray that you will move in us, that we will hear your voice as we continue to just pray

against the works of the enemy. We believe that you are about to open up the floodgates.

And so Father, we pray against anything that's going to stand in that way. We come together

as a church this morning to fight off that spirit, protect our people, surround them

with your presence. We ask all these things in your name.

Let's Pastor Scott to come lead us in the next section.

When we hang on to our hurts and our disappointments and our anger, our root of bitterness can

spring up in our hearts. And the Bible says that that root of bitterness poisons our soul

and defiles many. When we share our bitterness with others, it poisons them and it defiles

them. And so that bitterness must be put away. The other thing that happens when we allow

bitterness in our heart is that it gives a devil a foothold. The Bible says that if we

let the sun go down in our anger, if we hold on to our anger, it gives the devil a foothold

in our lives. Bitterness in our heart is like putting out a welcome mat for the devil. Come

on in. Set up camp. Establish a base of operations here. And he will because that defiled ground

gives him a right to occupy that defiled ground. And from that base of operations, he can cause

all kinds of mischief and do all kinds of harm individually and to our church body. So what

do we do? First, we repent. We repent of that bitterness holding on to those hurts and disappointments

and anger. And then secondly, that defiled ground must be cleansed. And it can only be

cleansed with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we apply the finished work of the

Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, to cleanse that ground that had been

defiled by bitterness. Once that ground is cleansed, then we can command the enemy to

leave. He has a right to stay on defiled ground, but not on cleansed ground. So then exercising

the authority that's given to us by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ and

His death, resurrection and ascension, Satan, I command you to flee. I command you to depart

and seize your work. And then finally, we invite the Holy Spirit to occupy that cleansed ground

and then to manifest his presence and his fruit there. So that's what we're going to

do now in prayer. We're going to repent of any bitterness in our hearts. We're going

to apply the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse that defiled ground. We're going

to exercise our spiritual authority and command the enemy to depart. And then we're going

to invite the Holy Spirit to occupy that cleansed ground. Let's go ahead and go to prayer right

now.

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The anger that we have been clinging to, we repent,

of any bitterness that we have allowed to take root in our hearts and souls.

We ask for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, including

all the bitterness that has been in our hearts.

Cleanse us with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Cleanse that ground that has been given over to the enemy through our bitterness.

Cleanse that ground with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then exercising the authority that is ours by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus

Christ and His death, resurrection, and ascension.

Satan we now command you to depart from us, to cease your work among us.

You may not remain on cleansed ground and you must leave.

You may not carry out that work against us that defiles many and defiles our church body

and poisons our souls.

You may not stay, you must leave in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, Heavenly Father, we pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that

the Holy Spirit might occupy that reclaimed ground and manifest among us His presence,

His love, His joy, His peace, His humility, His gentleness, His forbearance, His forgiveness

that we might be made whole.

I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Unity in this body means that we're all pulling in the same direction.

That we're all pulling in the direction of loving God and loving each other and reaching

out and making disciples who make disciples.

Why does God hate this unity?

But because it will get us, keep us, it will distract us from loving Him.

It will distract us from loving others.

It will distract us from making disciples who make disciples.

The evil one loves it when we focus on ourselves.

When we lose focus on building His kingdom and becoming internally focused, that's where

He loves and disagreeing and getting upset about decisions that people have made, making

this even worse.

When we vent our disagreements, when we vent against somebody, it creates this level of

disunity.

Worst case, teams form and churches split.

If you've been in church long enough, you've experienced this and we're going to fight

against it.

Biblical unity does not mean that we will always agree, but it does mean that we address

our concerns the right way.

This includes just recognizing that although the decision is different than what you would

do, you'll just live with it, support it and move on.

Or it may be a situation where you need to talk to that person who has made the decision

to discuss your concerns.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity and let's pray for unity, asking God to help us be humble,

giving others the benefit of the doubt, handle disagreements in a way that honors the Lord

and ultimately not lose focus on working together to build His kingdom.

Let's pray against the spirit of disunity for a few months.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Let's pray against disunity.

Father, we pray against the spirit of disunity in this place.

I rejoice that your salvation has united me in separately, not only with yourself,

but also with every other believer. I long and pray for the bringing together of your

born againings. We have been terribly wounded by those things that have divided us.

Thank you, Jesus, for planning for unity rather than uniformity. The diversity of your body is

part of its beauty and appeal to the lost. It adds to your glory. Help us to love one another in our

diversity. Father, I recognize that Satan and his kingdom are relentless in their efforts to keep

believers divisive towards one another. As the accuser of the believers, he continually plants

suspicions in believers' hearts. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pull down that work of

darkness and bind our enemy that he might not succeed. I ask the Holy Spirit to supplant all

divisive works active in believers. In Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen.

The things that we pray about this morning are important to our spiritual growth individually

and as a body. And the area of spiritual warfare that I want to speak to is a critical spirit,

having a critical spirit. The fruits of a critical spirit are not hard to spot. Satan

assigns a critical spirit to a person or to a body for one purpose and that's to divide.

A critical spirit, Jesus said a house divided cannot stand. A critical spirit differs from

constructive criticism which we embrace and encourage. But a critical spirit differs in

that it doesn't speak for something, it speaks against something. In a negative and often

destructive way, it doesn't offer solutions. It's targets may be a situation, a person,

a new idea, leadership, and just change in general.

As said before, a critical spirit is also inwardly focused. It will convince me that what I think,

what I believe, what I need, and what I want is more important than how I act.

Let me say that again. A critical spirit will convince me that what I think, what I believe,

what I desire, what I want is more important than how I act and it will justify my actions.

It places my opinion above my responsibility to walk in love, to extend grace,

to forgive, and to think of others more highly than myself.

You know, we live in America and as Americans, we are used to having our needs met.

We enjoy many freedoms and rights and we fight for our rights.

However, these rights come with responsibilities.

While we are used to getting our needs met, the church, the body of Christ, was established

to meet the needs of others. Herein lies the potential conflict with the American church

where a critical spirit can come in. In America, everyone has an opinion

and some opinions are very strong. It's not wrong to have an opinion.

It's a matter of what we do with our opinion.

Ephesians 4.27 says, nor give place to the devil.

One way that we give place to the devil is with anger.

When we don't agree with something or with someone or we become offended by someone,

the temptation to get irritated and angry is there and maybe even lash out.

The word says, be angry and sin not. There is a righteous anger to which God says, be angry,

but he also calls out another anger when he says and sin not.

Anger that leads to sin is how we give place to the devil.

This anger will cause you to take your ball and go home to quit.

And I say this morning, don't quit. It can start very innocuous,

but when we share our discontent with others, we facilitate Satan's plan for division.

Camps form, cases are built against others, accusations made, feelings are hurt,

offenses abound, and we get off mission. That's Satan's plan.

So before we go to prayer this morning, I'd like to give you a word of encouragement.

When something or someone rubs you the wrong way, notice I said when, not if.

Notice I said when, not if. When something or someone rubs you the wrong way,

before you say anything to anyone else, I encourage you to talk to God about it first.

Don't talk about the problem to God. Talk about your response to the problem.

He will always lead you to act in a righteous way, grounded in love.

In this, we will preserve our unity. These are times of change and in times of change,

it's opportune for a critical spirit to arise among us.

We are not to give way to it. James 4 7 says therefore submit to God,

resist the devil and he will flee. That's on us. That's a command to us.

Let's resist a critical spirit in Jesus' name and give each other the benefit of the doubt. Amen.

Amen. So as we go to prayer this morning, let's give account for our own attitudes

towards the ministry, towards the leadership, towards whatever distracts us from getting off

mission and let's make a stand to resist a critical spirit. Amen. Amen.

Heavenly Father, you have not given us a critical spirit,

nor have you given us a spirit of fear, but one of love, power and a sound mind.

You give us a spirit to love and to love one another. This is what you called us to.

Satan, we're aware of your devices to bring a critical spirit among us. We call you out in

the name of Jesus. We command you to leave now in Jesus' name. We do not embrace you. We give

each other the benefit of the doubt. We speak love over one another. Father, I thank you, Lord, for

causing us to consider our others above ourselves and for providing a way forward,

Father, as we work through things and sometimes hard things where conflict is possible.

Lord, may we walk worthy of the calling that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ,

that let our actions speak louder than our words.

And when our actions get out of line, Father, may we stand back from our words,

Lord, in yield to the spirit of truth. I ask you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning we're going to be speaking about false assumptions.

False assumptions are those negative thoughts that we might harbor in our minds and our heart

against somebody or something, a situation, a decision, something that was said,

or maybe something that we thought should have been said but wasn't. And so we hang on to these

negative thoughts, we hang on to them and accept them as being truths even though we haven't fully

examined or confirmed what the intention of that individual or that situation was.

I think the root of these false assumptions can be found in several lies that Satan speaks to us.

Subtle lies that are built upon our own fears, our insecurities and doubts, maybe on our pride

or our selfish desires even. I think it's very telling that when Satan wanted to

lead the first man or woman into sin, he didn't use great hardship in suffering like he did with Job

or he didn't take them to a mountainside and show them vast kingdoms and riches and honor

and glory like he did Jesus when he tempted him in the wilderness. Instead, he just simply planted

a little seed of doubt in Eve's mind. He got her to question the intent that God had for her in Adam

to question what was it that was really said, what was the intent that God had for you.

And from that she drew false assumptions and she followed them where those assumptions led her.

And so likewise Satan is trying to plant those doubts, those false assumptions into

our minds. He wants to divide us, he wants to discourage us, he wants to separate us.

He wants to hinder our fellowship with one another in our unity as a church

because he knows that as a church that stands together that we are strong but as a church divided

that we are weak and then he can take us on individually one at a time.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians Paul writes,

but I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray

from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. And that's what happens when we focus on

these negative thoughts and lies of false assumptions. We are led astray from our devotion to Christ.

And so this morning as we pray, I ask that each one of us ask, has or is Satan trying to plant a seed

of doubt, of distrust or discontent in my mind about a situation or a person or something that's

going on in our lives? Or have I allowed this false assumption to take hold of me to the point

that I am even speaking out these two others? As Bucky said, James 4 tells us that resist the devil

and he will flee and draw near to God. And so today that's what we need to do is resist the devil,

draw near to God, confess, repent, and step into God's light.

ASMR

Father God, we draw near to You today, Lord, because we know that You are near to us.

Your Word tells us that if we resist the devil, he will flee.

And so in Your name, Lord, we resist.

In the name of our Father, we command that the devil flee.

So we resist lies and doubts and deceptions.

We pray that we will search our hearts and minds and that we will continue to serve and

honor You as our Lord and Father.

And in doing so, we will honor one another in Christ-like love and that we will stay

unified and we will not let deception separate us.

We thank You, Lord, for loving us and as we together love You.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Amen.

I'm going to invite the worship team to come back as we close out our service, fully believing

that we've done everything we can, that we can now step forward into what God has for

us.

As we declare this truth, my prayer all week has been that we would lay these things beforehand.

Every single one of us that is held on to something would lay these things before Him

and keep our eyes focused on Him who is the author of our faith, who is the perfecter of

our faith.

And so as we close out this service, if I can pray with you, if any of the elders can

pray with you, we invite you to come.

If you need to lay it at the altar, we invite you to do that.

We're going to move forward believing that we're moving forward in unity in all things.

So let's do that.

Surrendering our will to God's will, surrendering our fears to His love, surrendering our doubts

to His truth.

Okay, so it's not about giving up, but about giving it over to a higher power, recognizing

that we don't have to fight these battles alone.

Exactly.

And in that space of surrender, we open ourselves up to a level of peace and strength that we

could never achieve on our own.

Wow, this has been such an eye-opening conversation.

Thank you for diving deep with us today.

My pleasure.

I always enjoy our chats.

And to our listeners, we hope this deep dive into spiritual warfare has given you some

things to think about, some tools to use as you navigate your own journey.

Remember, you're not alone in this battle.

We have a God who loves us fiercely and is always fighting for us, even when we don't

realize it.

So stay connected to Him, stay rooted in your faith, and never be afraid to step into the

light of His love.

Until next time, keep seeking, keep growing, and keep the conversation going.