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Fighting the Flesh in Prayer
By Sade Tagbo | March 13, 2008
The very first obstacle you will run into when you set out to begin a life of prayer is not the devil. Neither is it other people who may discourage you. The first obstacle will not even be a lack of time or the lack of an appropriate prayer spot. The very first obstacle that will stop you from obtaining a prayer life will be YOU. You, or rather, your flesh and the unrenewed parts of your soul (mind, will, emotions and intellect) will be the very first enemy you will have to deal with if you want to be an overcomer in the area of prayer.
The moment you begin to pray privately, your flesh will begin to put up a resistance. This resistance can come in many forms:
- feelings of frustration, anger or depression
- thoughts that your prayer is accomplishing nothing
- reminders that you have lots of other things that you should be doing right now
- unbelief and doubting God’s Word
- you may wonder why you should have to do so much work in prayer
- feelings of unworthiness
- ………..insert what stops you from praying here…
The list goes on and on. An example from my life is when I set out to learn how to worship God without the aid of a choir or a public service. I went into the prayer room at our home and began to worship God by speaking scriptures of worship to Him. Within 30 minutes, feelings of being unloved began to well up in my mind. I ignored them and continued because I had set the clock for two hours, paid a babysitter to watch the kids and was determined to stick to the time. As I continued, the thoughts became stronger and stronger. My mind began to focus on every time I had been rejected by someone, and I could not seem to drag my mind back to worship. Behold the attack of the soul!
However in the midst of all that, a scripture floated up to my mind. I know this was the Holy Spirit speaking to me to give me a way out of this temptation to give in to the pain and stop worshipping. The scripture He gave me was Hebrews 13, verse 15:
By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.
Now, this Scripture is part of a larger discussion of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But, I wasn’t thinking about that at that moment. What I heard was the words “fruit of lips” and “continually”. I realized that I could win this battle to stay in prayer if I just continued to use my lips to speak words of worship continually to outlast the attack on my mind. And that’s just what I did.
I raised my voice louder and began to thank God for loving me so much, for sending Jesus to die for me, for adopting me into His family. I just kept going and going for about 20 minutes. Would you believe me when I say that the thoughts just disappeared? In one moment, it was as though the barrage of thoughts about being unloved just ended and disappeared without a trace.
I hate to think how I would have lost that moment of victory if I had turned tail and given up because I felt bad in prayer. The harder the flesh fights in our emotions, the closer we are to the change and our answers. When everything is fighting prayer and fighting spiritual principles, that is the time to forge forward.
Understand this: when your soul is putting up a fight and resisting prayer, your spirit-man is not doing the same thing. Your spirit is having a jolly time fellowshipping with God. This is why we must resist the flesh and put it under subjection to the spirit. The spirit wants to stay in prayer, but the soul wants to get out. Don’t let your unrenewed soul be the boss. Stay in prayer until it becomes renewed and lets your spirit rule. This is our ultimate goal: to let that life of Christ in us grow until it takes over everything.
The soul has issues, and prayer is the place where we deal with those issues. Don’t put off praying until you’ve sorted yourself out. Let the Holy Spirit sort you out. You don’t need to spend $200 an hour on a therapist or read another self-help book!
God made you and knows you better than anyone else. His Son Jesus has been tempted with every frustration, depression and feeling of unworthiness that you may feel. Again, in Hebrews 4 verse 15 – 16:
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Don’t let your flesh talk you out of staying in prayer. Your born-again spirit-man is stronger than anything your flesh can throw at you. And don’t forget you also have the Holy Spirit helping you!
Grace and Peace to you,
Sade
Topics: Endurance, Prayer | 2 Comments »
March 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Great!
I am learning how to be ‘absolutely’ led by God’s Spirit following the example of Christ who did nothing till he heard from the Father. But I’m curious, we are instructed to put to death the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit. How? By vocal confessions?
April 17th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Kehinde,
The verse you are referring to in Romans 8:13 is an incredible one: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
The word “Spirit” there is not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to our new nature, the same type of spirit (or life)that was in Christ Jesus and has now been given to us when we were born again.
You can get this understanding be starting to read from the beginning of chapter 7 through chapter 8. The Holy Spirit’s work begins in chapter 8 verse 26 “Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” In the same way that our new nature or new life puts to death the deeds of the body, the Holy Spirit ALSO helps us achieve this by interceding for us.
The short answer your question is that you need a combination of speaking the word of God (Vocal confessions) to build up your faith in what God has already done for you, Fasting, Praying in Tongues for Personal Edification and Yielding to your New Nature (conscience).
Some people take just one of these keys and are able to gain some measure of victory in their Christian walk. Even denominations where they do not fast or pray in tongues produce people who are able to walk in holiness. This is because of their ability to yield to their new nature.
However, your path will be much faster and victorious if you will combine all these keys as the Holy Spirit leads you.
Please listen to Dave Roberson’s free tape series, The Born-Again Trail available from http://www.PrayerCenterMedia.com for more on the New Nature.
He also deals with putting too death the deeds of the body in Chapter 10 of his book, The Walk of the Spirit, The Walk of Power available as a free download from http://www.DaveRoberson.com. The chapter is titled Purging & Mortification.