- Welcome to a week of prayer here at CBN,

we call it seven days ablaze,

where we are praying for you.

We want to pray for you.

And if you've got prayer requests,

all you have to do is callus and we'd be glad to pray.

1-800-700-7000, you can alsowrite to us at CBN Center,

Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23463.

We'd be delighted to pray for you.

You can also post yourprayer requests on cbn.com.

There's a lot of differentways you can post.

You can also post on our Facebook page.

Whatever way you want to have prayer,

we want to gathertogether to pray for you.

And this has been a longstandingtradition here at CBN,

where the staff of CBN guests together

to pray for our viewers.

So we want to pray for you.

We're going to do that today.

I'm going to read someprayer requests for you

that have come in.

Today is a day where peopleare requesting prayer

for physical healing,healing in their body.

So if you have that, we'llbe praying for you as well

and joined together.

If you don't have a prayer need,

join with us becauseyou're a part of this too.

You can be part of our week of prayer.

There is no time or distance in the spirit

when we all joined together in prayer,

wonderful things happen.

And the book of revelationrecords that the prayers

of the saints are incense in heaven.

You go straight to the throne room,

so let your voice be heard in heaven.

God wants to hear your prayer.

Now, our first request issomebody from the CBN community.

They've retired, but Billis now in the hospital.

He's been revived.

He had heart failure, noheartbeat, but he's alive,

extremely weak and needsprayer for healing,

for his body, healing for his heart.

Here's one that's come into be free of insomnia.

And the financial burdensthat keep me awake.

To be healed of ulcerative colitis.

Healing from 60 years of headaches.

Doctors have tried everything and then,

a prayer for successfulsurgery on my left foot.

If this surgery isn't successful,my leg will be amputated

from the knee.

Healing from months ofunbearable back and body pain.

Can't walk, doctors are unable to help.

You hear these requests?

Your heart goes out to them,

realize God's heart goes out to them too.

Went out to them beforethey even requested prayer.

When you have that mindsetthat God loves you,

that he created a waybefore you were even born,

before he even founded the earth,

he knew what was going to happenand he made a way forward.

That's why Jesus is called, the lamb slain

from the foundation of the world.

He is the alpha.

He is the mega.

He is the reconciler of all.

To God, he's the one that builds

all the bridges back to God.

We may have torn them down,but Jesus has built them back

and they will stand forever.

So let's pray, let's believe.

And let's let God do all the rest.

Lord, we lift these prayer needs for you.

And we just ask now for Bill,that you would heal his heart

and give him strength in his body.

For anyone who can't sleep,who has financial trouble,

who is wondering aboutwhat to do in the middle

of the pandemic, what to do in the middle

of all the violence in our cities,

let your peace reign overtheir hearts and minds.

Give them good sleep.

The sleep of the just.

For anyone with colitis,anyone facing surgery,

anyone having problems withdiabetes, all of these things,

Lord God, stretch forthyour hand to do miracles.

And for anyone watching rightnow, needing physical healing

in their bodies, we declarePsalm 103 over them.

That you, you forgiveall our transgressions.

You forgive them all.

You heal all our diseases.

And if you have healed themand if you have forgiven them,

we don't have to carry them anymore.

We thank you that you loved us so much.

That you gave yourself for us.

You did it willingly.

You did it out of love.

You came up with the idea, we didn't.

We believe in you.

We believe in your unfailing love.

We believe in the covenantmade with your body

and you are blood.

We enter into it now andwe say to any disease,

any pain in our body, be gone now.

I have been bought withthe blood of Jesus Christ.

It is not I who live anymore,

it's Jesus that lives through me.

So heal now, Lord.

Stretch forth your hand todo miracles, for we ask it.

In Jesus name, amen and amen.

If you need prayer, we're here for you.

All you gotta do iscall us, 1-800-700-7000.

You can also go to cbn.com.

You can also go to ourFacebook page and again,

if you want to use mailin, it's real easy.

Mail to us, CBN center,Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23463.

Anyway, do it now, 1-800-700-7000.

Well, a healthy prayer life iscrucial for every Christian.

The apostle Paul urges us to be vigilant.

For we are in a spiritual battle,

wrestling against dark forces.

He reminds us to take up our weapons

and put on the armor of God.

So how do we approach prayeras a soldier would go to war?

Well, bestselling author and speaker,

Stephen Mansfield is here to share the key

to warrior prayer.

(uplifting music)

- Hello, CBN family.

I'm delighted we're in the season

of prayer and intercession.

And so I want to talk to youabout four warrior prayers

that we ought to be prayingover ourselves during this time.

Let's get to it.

I'm sure you've read in Second Kings,

chapter six in verse 17of the time that Elisha

was stuck with his servantin the city called Dothan.

And overnight, when Elishagot up the next morning,

he discovered thatovernight foreign troops

and foreign chariotshad surrounded the city.

Well, his servant, as youmay recall, freaked out,

oh Lord, what are we gonna do?

How are we gonna get out of this?

And Elijah says to comforthim, don't be afraid.

Those who are with us are morethan those who are with him.

And then Elisha prayssomething very important

for his servant.

Something that we're gonnamake a prayer over us.

He says, oh Lord, openhis eyes that he may see.

Let's change thosewords just a little bit.

Open his eyes, that he maysee what the true nature

of the war going on around us.

And then the Bible tells us,

then the Lord opened theservant's eyes and he looked

and saw the hills full ofhorses and chariots of fire

all around Elisha.

What happened?

The servant was ableto see the true nature

of the warfare going on.

This is what we need.

As we're in a seeding, aswe're praying for our nation,

as we're praying for the world,

as we're praying forchurches and ministries,

as we're praying for people groups,

we need to not just relyon what we see in the news

or our own thoughts and impressions,

we need to have oureyes opened by the Lord

to what's truly going on,so we know how to pray

and we know how to war.

So let's make this our prayer right now.

Lord, open our eyes that wemight see the true nature

of the spiritual battles going on

and know how to contend in them.

All right, number two.

In Psalm 144 in verse one,the scripture say this;

praise be to the Lord, my rock,

who trains my hands forwar, my fingers for battle.

I want to suggest that this scripture

can really be understoodas a prayer for us

to play our individual role,

for us to be specificallytrained for what we are called

to do in prayer and intercession.

As believers in Jesus, weall have a general calling

to prayer and a generalcalling to spiritual warfare

and a general calling to puton the full armor of God.

But then we also have ourunique individual purposes

and gifts and sensitivities.

I find, for example, when Ipray because of what I'm called

to do, I ended up praying for leaders.

I pray for Kings andpresidents and prime ministers.

I pray for governing realms.

I intercede for theleaders of people groups,

that organizations and CEOs and so on.

Nobody really knows about it,

but it's my uniquesensitivity, my unique calling.

It's rooted in history,it's rooted in scripture.

It's something that I'm gifted to do.

There are others whoare gifted to do that,

but then still others areyou called to maybe pray

for sports figures ormaybe others are called

to pray specificallyfor missionary efforts.

Everybody's got their uniquegiftings and sensitivities

and abilities in prayer.

In addition to their general callings

and giftings as believers.

We want to be prepared for those.

We want to be skilled for those.

I want the Lord to teachme and to prepare me

and to hone me and tomake me more sensitive

and teach me scriptures,even nurture understanding

from history and maybe fromwhat's going on in the news,

so that I'm able to pray more effectively.

So let's turn this to prayer.

Lord, prepare our hands for battle.

Our fingers for war, teachus, train us, sharpen us,

give us that general Christian gifting

for war and intercession,

but also give us the unique training

for what you've uniquelycalled each one of us

as an individual to do.

Those sensitivities, thoseperceptions that help us

to intercede in unique ways.

All right, number three.

Second Timothy, chaptertwo in verse four says,

no one serving as a soldier gets entangled

in civilian affairs, but rather tries

to please his commanding officer.

Well, you know, this is fascinating

because what the scripture is not saying

is that soldiers shouldn'thave civilian affairs.

What the scripture is not saying

is that there are civilian matters

that soldiers have to deal with.

Soldiers have car paymentsand they have bodily needs

and they have, you know,need to press their uniforms

and they have house paymentsand they have husbands

or wives or children.

Soldiers have civilianmatters to take care of,

things that are commonto the rest of society.

But what they're told notto do in this scripture

is to not become in tangled by them.

My father was a high rankingofficer during the whole time

that I was growing up.

And I can tell you, he fought in Korea.

He fought in Vietnam.

He was involved in the coldwar in Europe quite a bit.

And he was in intelligencein special forces.

And he would make surethat the civilian affairs,

the business matters andother matters that pertain

to our family were alldealt with before he went

to battle, before hewent away on assignment.

Why, so that he would not be distracted.

So that he certainly would love his family

and they'd be provided for, butalso so that he could focus.

He was an intelligence officer.

If he didn't pay attentionto what he was doing,

people might die, peoplemight be harmed in some way.

He had to do his job well.

He was a good soldier.

And so he sought to pleasehis commanding officer

and he took care of civilian affairs,

so that he did notbecome entangled in them.

That's the operative word that Paul uses

in talking to Timothy.

So that's the issue for us.

It's not that we shouldn'thave business matters

and family matters andpayments and jobs and things

to take care of, but especiallyduring the seasons of prayer

and intercession, it's criticalthat we not be entangled

by civilian affairs, thenormal business of life.

I'm guilty of this.

I have an active mind.

I can get minutes into prayeror a few days into a season

of prayer and intercessionand find myself distracted.

Find my mind pulled off.

It's not that I'm undisciplined.

It's that I've got otherthings that I'm thinking about.

It's that I praying aboutone thing causes my mind

to run to another.

I've got to be careful not to be entangled

in civilian affairs,

so that I can please mycommanding officer, in my case,

Jesus Christ and I can prayand war as he has called me to.

Very important, let's turn thatto prayer for us right now.

Oh living God, help us,

give us grace to disentangle ourselves

from civilian affairs,get them in proper order,

so we can devote ourselvesto the seasons of prayer

and intercession that you'vecalled us to with clear minds,

focused hearts to please you.

And then finally, number four.

We're told two things aboutthe kingdom of darkness

that should challenge usand change our prayer life.

Number one in Second Corinthians,chapter two in verse 11,

we're told not to be ignorant,

depending on the translation you're using,

it's either probably schemes or wiles.

Don't be ignorant of the devil's wiles.

Don't be ignorant of his schemes.

The Greek word there is noema.

It means purposes orintentions of the mind.

You might just use the word strategies.

So the kingdom of darkness has strategies.

Let's hold right there.

I'll add something else toit and then I'll comment.

We're told Ephesians6:11, not to be ignorant,

not to be unaware of his, it's translated,

schemes or wiles again, butit's the Greek word, methodia.

We obviously get ourEnglish word method from it,

tactics, specific practical approaches.

So we're told the kingdomof darkness has strategies

and specific methods or tactics.

Well, when we pray, when we intercede,

we need to be very careful to ask the Lord

to give us the counter to thestrategies and the methods

of the kingdom of darkness.

In other words, we need tobe asking for the same thing.

Lord, what is the strategy inpraying for Washington, D.C.?

What is the strategy inpraying for our precedent,

for a governor?

Not just abstractly, butthis specific loved one.

I'm sitting right nowin Nashville, Tennessee.

There's a mayor of the city.

There's a governor of the city.

There's a strategy ofthe kingdom of darkness

against the city.

There are specificmethods against the city.

Now, heavenly father,

would you give me the prayer strategies

that are just as strategic, if not more so

and the practical tacticson how to teach me

how to intercede and the practical tactics

that counter the tactics of the devil.

In other words, havingthis military intelligence

about the kingdom of darkness means

that we also can't have military.

We can ask the Lord formilitary intelligence

that lets us spring andcounter the strategies

and the tactics of thekingdom of darkness.

Let's turn this to prayer.

Living God, give us strategicapproaches to our prayer life.

Give us specific tactics toour prayer life that trigger,

expose and counter thestrategies and the tactics

of the kingdom of darkness.

So while we're doing thisin this season of prayer,

let's pray these four warrior prayers

from scripture over ourselves.

They're words from scripture,

there are things we're meant to pray

and they can give us victoryduring this exciting time.

(uplifting music)