We must be clear that whether or not God’s kingdom can come and whether HE can rule on earth all depend on whether or not God’s people will pray.
In the spiritual realm, there’s a warfare going on ever since Satan rebelled against God. Today God is looking for men on earth who stand one with Him and pray to cooperate with Him and defeat His enemy.
Our prayer is a battle – the goal of our prayer is to bring in the kingdom of God and dislodge Satan, evacuate him, and cast him out. Through prayer, we can overturn the power of darkness and open the way for God’s will to be done on the earth.
Daniel and his three friends prayed and brought in the age of the return of the captivity. We need to be the Daniels of today, those who pray for God’s kingdom to come on the earth!
For God’s kingdom to come in its manifestation (the kingdom age), we need to be those living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today in the church life. Just like our forerunner and brother John, we will suffer for the kingdom, and to bear the suffering we need the endurance of Jesus (Rev. 1:9).
Lord, may Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is being done in the heavens! We declare right now, dear Lord, that we are one with You! We are in Your name, in Your person! We are in the spirit, in You Yourself, in Your resurrection and in ascension! By faith we are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and Satan is under Your feet and under our feet. We tread upon him, we shame him, conquer him, and give no ground to him. Christ is victor, and Jesus is Lord!
Genuine Prayer is a Spiritual Battle
There are all kinds of prayers, and we need to bring all our needs to God in prayer. But real prayer, genuine prayer, is a spiritual battle.
The Lord teaches us that before we pray for our own needs, we need to pray for His name to be sanctified, His kingdom to come, and His will to be done (Matt. 6:9-10). First things first: the Name, the Kingdom, and the Will of God – they are not yet here, so they need to come, be sanctified, and be done!
How can we as the church hasten this and bring it about? It is through prayer, especially through fighting prayers. The prayer ministry of the church needs to be recovered to the fullest extent in all the churches in the Lord’s recovery!
In prayer, we fight for the Father’s name to be sanctified, for the Lord’s kingdom to come, and for the Spirit’s will to be done. We need to be the overcomers today who live in the reality of the kingdom and pray for the bringing in of the manifestation of the kingdom (Rom. 12:10).
The responsibility of the church today is to continue the warfare that Christ fought while on earth. The church must continue the victorious work that Christ has already carried out against Satan (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8b; Col. 2:15; Psa. 149:5-9).
Fighting, Suffering, and Enduring for the Kingdom
God’s intention for the church is to have the kingdom, and for this, all His believers must be matured to the extent that they can live in the reality of the kingdom and bring in the manifestation of the kingdom.
In Matt. 12:22-37 we see that the Lord Jesus didn’t just cast out demons or heal the possessed people, but He was in a spiritual battle as He was doing all these things.
He cast out demons by the Spirit of God and He brought in the kingdom of God! Christ was establishing the kingdom of God by fighting to uprooting, displace, and cast out the kingdom of Satan.
People in His time and nowadays don’t see this warfare. They may see people’s problems and behavior outwardly, but they don’t realize what is taking place inwardly. For God’s kingdom to come, we need to pray and fight for it.
As the overcoming church, we need to fight – we are born to fight, we are saved to fight, and we fight one with Christ the Victor to bring in God’s kingdom a little more on earth today! We need to pray fighting prayers to displace the power of darkness by the authority of God.
John tells us in Rev. 1:9 that he was our brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus. The local churches all over the earth are the kingdom of God today, and the proper church life today is the reality of the kingdom.
For this kingdom we not only fight but also endure tribulation with the endurance of Jesus. Today we enjoy the church life as the reality of the kingdom, and to enter into the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming age we need to suffer, enduring the tribulation with the endurance of Jesus.
God intends that the church would become the kingdom, and for this all His believers need to be matured to the extent that they live in the reality of the kingdom today and bring in the manifestation of the kingdom soon!
One Name, Two Kingdom, and Three Wills
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).
In spiritual warfare today we have one name (the name of our Triune God), two kingdoms (the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan), and three wills (God’s will, Satan’s will, and man’s will).
The name of our Triune God, the name of our exalted Lord Jesus Christ, is the highest name in the universe! But due to the opposition of God’s enemy on earth, this name has become profaned, reviled, slandered, desecrated, and trodden on the ground.
God’s name must be worshipped, praised, and bowed down to on this earth. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth (Psa. 8:1)! This is why the church needs to pray, that God’s name would be sanctified!
The two kingdoms fighting are the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan (the kingdom of darkness, see Acts 26, Matt. 12, and Col. 1). The name of Jesus should be written and spoken all over this earth because the earth is His! But today these two kingdoms are at war, and God’s kingdom must defeat and destroy the kingdom of Satan!
The crucial side in this war is MAN – Man has a will which can stand with God’s will! Initially, there was only God’s will, but there arose a second will in controversy with God’s will (the satanic will, Isa. 14).
In the middle is the human will. God created us with a free will that we may choose Him and stand on His side to be one with Him to deal with Satan’s will and accomplish God’s will on earth! We choose God! Through our fighting prayers one with God we choose God and His kingdom to come and be brought in!
Lord Jesus, You are the Victorious One! Satan, the Lord rebuke you. We are joining the Victorious Christ and the entire church, the Body of Christ, to rebuke you. We give you no ground, Satan! We are here to bring in the victory of Christ and to bring in the kingdom of God on earth. Satan you have been defeated. We today execute God’s victory upon you. We stand one with the Lord to withstand you and resist you. You have been defeated two thousand years ago. You have been sentenced and judged by God. We declare to the whole universe that the church is standing here on earth one with the Victorious Head in the heavens to execute God’s judgement on you and stand against all your stratagems and plots! Christ is Victor! Jesus is Lord!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Minoru Chen’s speaking in this message and portions in, Life-study of Matthew (msg. 33), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 5 (entitled, The Vision of God and His Universal Dominion and of the Coming of the Son of Man to Receive a Kingdom and the Necessity of Spiritual Warfare to Bring In the Kingdom of God).
- Further reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament (msg. 421).
- Hymns on this topic:
# As a member of the Body, / With the brethren stand for God; / Praying always in the Spirit, / Claim the vict’ry through the Blood.
# In the Overcomer’s Name / Be an overcomer too! / Stand and put the foe to shame / All the livelong battle through!
# In the mighty Name of Jesus, / When we bow before the throne, / Many deadly foes are vanquished, / Many victories are won. - Pictures credit: both via, Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page, HWMR Daniel and Zechariah Quotes album.
Genuine prayer is a joint labor with God to bring His kingdom to the earth and to carry out His will on earth. Hence, prayer is nothing less than a spiritual battle (2 Cor. 10:2, 4; Matt. 6:10; Eph. 6:12). Prayer overturns the power of darkness and opens the way for God’s will to be executed on earth. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 44, p. 781)
Lord, we must bind the strongman before we can plunder his house(Mat 12:29), by means of prayer & fighting the spiritual battle so the kingdom of the heavens are manifested on earth, as the churches, Your temple! Christ, You are the source of our endurance through tribulation as this battle rages! Thank You for strengthening us from the joy in the body life as our portion!
We love You Lord Jesus!!! 🙂
amen!
Let strong pray and spiritual pray for upcoming of the kingdom.,Lord to withstand you and resist you.Lord Jesus.
Ephesians 5:16 says, “The days are evil” because in this evil age every day is an evil day because Satan, the evil one, is at work every day. Since Satan’s rebellion, the earth fell into his usurping hand, and God’s will could not be done on earth. The kingdom people must pray to the Father that His kingdom come, we must pray until the earth is fully recovered for God's will…
Satan, the ruler of this world (John 12:31), and the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph 2:2) and his angels as rulers, authorities and world rulers (Eph 6:12) has a kingdom (Matt 12:26), the authority of darkness (Col 1:13). The Lord said if He, by the Spirit of God casts out Satan, then the kingdom of God comes. To deal with the power of Satan we must stand on the position of God’s kingdom and apply the kingdom of God…While we are praying for the manifestation of the kingdom, we must live in the reality of the kingdom (Matt 5:3). The proper church life is the reality of the kingdom. In Revelation John says he is a brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus. Tribulation and endurance are linked with the kingdom. We must suffer WILLINGLY for the kingdom, thus endurance of Jesus is needed. God’s intention for the church is to have the kingdom, for this all His believers must grow into maturity that they can live in the reality of the kingdom and these matured overcoming ones will eventually wage war against Satan to execute the Lord’s judgment upon him, and thus usher in the kingdom. Hallelujah!
I have been enjoying the session/series on prayer since beginning of January. I have been passing them on to others I know who enjoy the Lord; friends in Birtish Columbia, Thunder Bay, Ontario & Norway. My perception was that this was the work of a group of believers and not one person. Praise our Lord that He can do such wondorous works even through a single person. The emails on prayer are perfectly timed as we study the book of Daniel (man of prayer) & Zechariah
Brother Doug, it is both the sharing of one brother and the sharing of many saints. It's a combination. But one thing I can tell you – these are not "my words"; rather, as the last paragraph says, they are inspired from the Bible and from many spiritual books available today. Thank you for your appreciation, and I hope you are loving the Lord more and enjoying Him as you read + comment on these articles! May God get all the glory. May His Body be built up even through this sharing on the blog. Much grace to you!