Prayer & Dealing With Spirits

Posted by Rev. Mark Slay

Luke 11:1 - It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."

One thing to understand here, is that this was before the Day Of Pentecost. Things were a little different before then they were after as far as praying is concerned. He goes on to give them a model prayer and some are taught that you just memorize this prayer and repeat it. Really, He gave this prayer as a model and the different parts of this prayer are demonstrating what we should be saying with our hearts to the Father.

Luke 11:2 - And He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come."

"Hallowed be Your name" means honor be to Your name. Does anybody say hallowed anymore? No. It just means to honor Him, to reverence Him, to respect Him.

Luke 11:3-4 - "Give us each day our daily bread. 4 'And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'"

I want to stop and point something out here. This tells us something that when we do someone wrong to someone we are indebted to them to some extent - in God's perspective. As He goes on in these verses, He's still talking about prayer here.

Luke 11:5-8 - Then He said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7 and from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs."

Now verse 8 tells us "because of his persistence". Some people have taken this verse and think that they will wear God out with their persistence. Persistence is good, but the problem is they have a persistence of unbelief. You can be persistent until Jesus comes back and if you are persisting in unbelief, you will never have your answer.

Remember when the disciples had tried to cast out a demon but were unsuccessful and they came to Jesus and asked Him, "Why could we not drive it out?" And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith." They were persistently trying to cast it out, but they lacked proper faith. He goes on to say, "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." Do you know some demons are more aggressive then others? He tells us this right here.

So, persistence in faith will get you the answer.

Luke 11:9-10 - "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened."

In verse 9 the word "ask" in the Greek is in the continuous present tense. He literally said ask and keep on asking - in faith.

Luke 11:11-13 - "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

He's saying here if I will give you the Holy Spirit what more could you possibly ask Me for that I would not give you? Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" If He will give you His Son, why would He tell you no on these lesser things?

Luke 11:21-22 - When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22 But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him (or drives him away), he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

Do you realize what Jesus said here? He said the devil doesn't attack us, we attack him. Don't always be in a defensive posture with the devil. You can attack him and run him out of town - if you've got faith.