SA Ep75 - Becoming a Prayer Warrior (Part 8)

SA Ep75 - Becoming a Prayer Warrior (Part 8)

In this episode we examine the phrase “deliver us from evil,” where Jesus teaches believers to pray for protection and rescue from a real spiritual enemy. This request reminds us that the Christian life is not lived in a neutral environment, but in the presence of active spiritual opposition.

The phrase can also be understood as “deliver us from the evil one,” pointing to Satan as a personal adversary who works through deception, distraction, and accusation. While the enemy is real and persistent, he is not equal to God. Scripture reminds us that the power of God is greater, and believers are not left to face this battle alone.

This episode emphasizes the need for daily dependence on God’s protection. Prayer becomes an act of surrender and resistance, placing the believer under God’s authority while standing against the schemes of the enemy. It also highlights the importance of spiritual awareness, recognizing that not every battle is visible, but many are deeply spiritual.

Ultimately, this episode encourages believers to trust in God’s ability to deliver. While the enemy seeks to weaken and destroy, God is faithful to protect, strengthen, and rescue His people. Prayer is not a response of fear, but a declaration of dependence on the One who is greater than any enemy we face.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Seeking Approval Podcast. I'm Dr. Chris Smelster from Iliad Baptist Church. You know life moves fast, and faith is not meant to be rushed. I want to take some time and slow down with you and have some honest conversations from the Word of God about daily living. So join me here today on Seeking Approval. Do you remember playing peekaboo with your child whenever they were just little? Science says that the child actually believes when you cover your face that you're actually disappearing. Because what the child cannot see in their actual peripheral just disappears from their mind. It's like it's not even there. That's why you can uh hold a sheet up and then jump out from behind it, and then the child thinks you actually just appeared out of nowhere. Or jumping from one room into their view, they believe you just came from nowhere. A lot of people do that with Satan. They try to ignore him and pretend he's not there because they just don't see him. They convince themselves that everything is fine, that Satan's not near me. But that doesn't mean that he's not there. He's simply just playing a game of spiritual peekaboo with us. Jesus didn't just pray to or tell us to pray to uh lead us not to temptation or uh you know guide us away from things that will tempt us, but he goes on to say right after that, deliver us from evil. We might render that as deliver us from the evil one. And the reason is it's because the enemy is real. And without God's help, we we are no match for Satan. You know, I hear people say a lot of times that, you know, boy, Satan's been on my back this week. And and I understand the context of that, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't I never want to shame people for saying things when um you know sometimes it's just the the semantics of the way we say it, we understand when somebody says Satan's really been on my back, that means that they've been having a lot of difficult times. But to truly understand what that means, if Satan ever turns his gaze upon you, go read the book of Job. That's what happens when Satan really has his eyes on you. Most of the time we're being bothered by the sinful nature in which we live in. And we all live in sin. Um we're bothered by the nymphs and the principalities and the powers of the air that just you know cast stumbling blocks in front of us and try to uh offend us, which means to cause us to turn from one direction to another. That's really what we're facing. But when Satan turns his gaze on us, that's a whole different thing. And I wouldn't doubt that there are some people out there that are that probably feel as Job felt, that you have lost everything. I I know of folks who are dealing with uh multiple bouts of cancer in their own home. Uh one sweet family, the the wife is dealing with cancer that she is taking treatments for every other week that just render her just very sick. Uh, but this is something that she has to do. Um and then not only that, but her her son now is dealing with cancer and his uh second type of treatment to try to help him. Her husband has just found out that he is dealing with a a terrible disease for which there's no cure for, uh, and they're very uncertain about his future. Uh other uh things that are going on in their life that I just I won't mention, but uh I'm sure that you know this family probably feels a lot like what Job would have felt like. Like everything. My kids are being attacked, my home's being attacked, they've they've had to shut down their business because um they're they're uncertain of the the husband's you know track and and how uh he will uh progress over the next uh few months. So they've they've lost business, they've lost income, they've they've lost health, they've lost mobility, they've I mean it just seems like I'm sure there are people out there who feel like Job. They feel like every aspect of your life is being affected, and that is very true. There are some. And the only way, whether it's the just the normal nagging things of everyday life in this sinful world, whether it's the nymphs and the principalities of the air that are casting blocks in front of us to try to uh avert us from the ministry that we are in or the direction that we're wanting to take in life, or whether it's those who are really facing the the attacks of Satan in their life. The only way that we can rid that of our life is through prayer and this this model prayer, this Lord's prayer, where Christ tells us in Matthew 6.13 to deliver us from evil. We pray for protection in saying, lead us not to temptation. But now we're we're praying for for God to get involved and for God to become the warrior that we need him to be. We read we can read over in the in the book of Joshua, and I love the book of Joshua. I love the whole account of Joshua's life. I love the I shudder to use this word character because it makes this sound like some you know Hollywood account, but I like the character of Joshua. Just reading his story. If you could just pull Joshua out, I want to do a character study so bad uh at church in our Sunday morning or Sunday evening series. I don't know if I'll be able to do that next. I'm praying about where God wants me to go uh as we are uh beginning to wrap up the book of Mark, and we'll be wrapping up Revelation probably in the next few months. But I would love to do a character study, and Joshua is one of those wonderful characters, him and Caleb. I mean, what stories that they have that they could share with us. But in the book of Joshua, when he's standing there in Gilgal and and he's facing this uh impenetrable force of Jericho, and I could go into the the walls of Jericho that were twenty six feet, uh 26 feet in in in in depth. I mean they were they were built almost like a pyramid style shape, like a trapezoid. Uh but anyway, I don't want to get into that. Um this as he's standing there in Gilgal facing a battle that he could not win, there was no way for him to conquer this, with no amount of of army or force that he had. And this little this band of Jews has just recently been moved from from slavery to nomads, and now he's got to conquer this place. And he he he runs into to to Christ, to basically uh uh uh Christophany there in in uh in uh Gilgal and calls out and calls out to Christ to lead them in the battle. That is what we need to have. We need to have one of those Gilgal moments in our prayer life, and not just whenever we're facing the battle that we can't win, you know, not don't not waiting until the Jericho shows up in our life, but every single day, because every day for us is a Jericho moment, if you think about it. I mean, just stop and think about it for a moment. Every day of our life is a Jericho moment because we're facing a battle every day that we can't we can't win on our own. And the moment you think that you're something, and this is what this is what Paul wrote, the moment that we think that we're something is the moment that we're going to find ourselves laying at the base of the wall of Jericho and Satan laughing at us. You know, I like I go back over to uh Acts a lot whenever we're talking about things like this, and I talk about those seven sons of Skeva. Uh Skeva was the uh the priest, and his sons were, they they had no idea what they were doing. Um we could talk about those things, but they had no idea what they're doing, and so there's an evil spirit, and they called out the evil spirit in the name of Jesus and Paul. And the evil spirit looks back at him and says, Paul, I know. Jesus, I know, but who in the world are you? And those seven sons ran out of the temple that day naked and scarred and and bruised and cut up from trying to deal with that spirit. You know, the moment we think that we're something, we stand up and say, Let me tell you something, Satan. I command in the name of Jesus for you to get out of my life. That sounds good. And there's a lot of a lot of TV preachers and radio preachers that'll tell you to, you know, to stand up and and and and face Satan and say, you know, you know, get thee behind me, Satan, in the name of Jesus. Better be careful. Better be careful with that. It'd be best to do what Christ said and every single day deliver me from evil. Don't please don't make me have to stand and tell him to get behind me. Deliver us from evil. Jesus described Satan very clear in John 8 44, where he says he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. You know, we're dealing right now, uh, I don't know when you'll be listening to this because I I know these lessons will be archived for for many years. But right now, as it is in 2026, we're dealing with this uh um war in Iran. Or now uh America and Israel are at war with Iran. Uh they uh nuclear uh weapons and uh holding basically the world hostage with the the Strait of Hormuz and the oil and all those things. And so there's been a war going on now for about five weeks. It looks like it may be coming to an end, and and America is now trying to make a deal with Iran, and and a lot of the generals that they're the you know, former generals that they're interviewing, they're they keep saying, do not make a deal with Iran. You're at the point where right now, with two or three more days between America and Israel, they could basically set Iran back to the stone ages by destroying their entire infrastructure of electricity and uh power, all their power grids, their water makings, they they were they rely on the desalination of water that basically could just set them back a hundred years. And all the former generals are saying, do not make the deal with Iran. They will they they're gonna crawfish that bet, they're gonna renege on everything they're doing. And this is what I mean, this is what it's like dealing with. I mean, this these extremists, and it's not all Iranians, don't get me wrong, but these extremists that they're dealing with, these uh what's called the the 12er uh Shia Muslims, they they they believe in the 12th Imam, and I mean this is like a a this is a crazy cult. Uh I mean it's a demonic cult. This group does not they're not gonna honor any deal. I mean, they might for a short time, and that's what Satan does. He'll make you think that everything's going okay. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you you you can still have your you know your your alcohol, you can still dabble out there and and uh you know flirt around with the other women or the other men, however it might be. You know, everything's okay, nobody's gonna do anything, but then all of a sudden, when you least expect it, and that's what Jesus said, He's a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth. Not that there's a little bit or he's lacking truth. There is no truth in him. If he tells you he's gonna do something, he's gonna do the exact opposite. That tells us about his character and his intent. He's not going to tell you the truth because he has no character to him at all. I mean, he has character, but it's it's a it's a flawed one. But he has no moral character to him, good moral character to him at all. But then his intent is he wants you to stand there with the egg on your face saying, Look, I made a deal with Satan. And Satan laughing the whole time saying, Yeah, you made a deal with me. This is what we we need to pray for deliverance from. Peter tells us to be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, I mean he calls him out, the devil as a roaring lion. Oh, I love that. I love that as a the simile there, as a roaring lion, because we know who the real lion of the tribe of Judah is, and Satan is trying to mock him as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I know we quote that all that verse all the time, but have you ever thought about the language that that that Peter's using? You have to say the devil as a roaring lion. We we know what that's talking about. He's he's a he's a he's trying to be a type of Christ. But he says walketh about. I mean, just think about it for a moment. Just think about yourself in a department store, a crowded department store. And you're just you're shopping for the things, whether it's your groceries or clothing or your your fishing gear, wherever you're at, you know, your Bass Pro or somewhere, wherever your favorite store, and you're just walking around, crowded store, lots of people, tourist type area. And you're you're just minding your business, and they're just walking through the crowd, not causing a scene, garnering no attention. There's Satan. Could be standing shoulder to shoulder with you at one moment, could reach, could reach for the same item on the shelf that you're reaching for, and you would never know it. Because he doesn't run around with a pitchfork and horns and a red cape. He runs around in beauty. He he hides himself in plain sight. He just walks about. People don't even see him, don't even realize he's there. Listen to what Peter's saying, listen to the language in this. But the whole time, he's not looking for the you know, the fruit loops that you're trying to get off the shelf. He's not looking at the same uh, you know, dress shirt that you're looking at on the shelf. You know what he's looking at? Who am I gonna kill next? Seeking whom he may devour. Which one of these is a good candidate? Oh, I know. I'm gonna go for that one that just made a big profession of faith. I'm gonna go for that one that just bragged about how good his God is. Look at him over there. Yeah. I'm gonna get that one. I'm gonna cause them to I'm gonna make them I'm gonna make them bleed in front of everybody. I'm gonna make them cry. Make them second guess who their God really is. That's what he does. That verse, when you read that verse and you actually slow down instead of just, you know, be sober because your adversary of the devil is out there, read that verse one time. Just sit down and look at it. It'll it'll it it changes when you stop for a minute. But here's the greatness of all those things. John 4 4. First John, sorry, 4-4. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Satan is very real, and there is there is no lying. This this new liberal Christian, this uh as uh as Brother Chris Brown at our church uh says often, this cultural Christianity, this new cultural Christian that likes to deny that Satan is real because they don't want to believe it. They don't want to believe that there's some war going out on out there that we can't see. What are they doing? They're playing spiritual peekaboo. I don't see him, so he's not really there. So let's just deny that Satan actually exists. You better be careful because he is out there. And 1 John 4, 4 not only gives us the truth that who is in us, Christ being in us, what it's also saying is greater than he than the world. What it's also saying, not only is Christ real, but Satan is real. Christ taught more on hell and Satan than anybody else in all of Scripture and really almost all of Scripture combined. But he that is in us is greater than he that the enemy is real, but so is our God. We we must this is not a recommendation. We must pray a very defensive and dependent prayer. Deliver us from evil. The moment we think that we stand is the moment we're gonna fall. We must submit ourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. That's what James, the book of Christian character, growing up Christian. Submit yourself to God. He doesn't he doesn't say you need to resist the devil and submit to God. There's a reason that he has it in the order he has it. Submit to God first. God deliver me from the evil one. Then I can resist the devil. I'm not going to fight him. There's no way. But God, you can deliver me from it. That's what that's what we must do. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and deliver them out of all their troubles. Not part of, not some of, out of all their troubles. But look, preacher, I've still got this ailment, this problem, this disease, this financial thing, and and I keep submitting myself to God every day, and I'm still dealing with it. Yes, that is true. We we are going to have, as long as you are taking a breath of oxygen on this green earth that we live on, or blue, it's mostly water, as long as we are breathing here, we're going to have troubles. Christ told us that. In this world, you will have troubles. But when David says that he will deliver them out of all of their troubles, I'm not done yet. This life is not my finality. This life is not your finality. And if if this, as Joel Olstein tries to say, if this is your best life, if you're living your best life now, you got problems. You got problems because my best life is not happening now. I I'm I'm in I I I'm walking in joy, I'm living in joy every day. I've got I've got problems, I've got cares, just like you do. But this is not my best life. I'm looking forward to when all these troubles come to an end and he takes away all these problems and cares. People say, you know, I want to I'm ready to go to heaven, but I don't want to go on the next bus load. Sign me up. Punch my ticket. If it's if it's today that I need to go, I'm ready to go. I hate it for my family that you know that I won't be there for them, but there's they're going to be set, they're going to be just fine. Uh my my wife is is a is she's a tough lady. She'll she's gonna survive. My daughter is probably more independent than you know most anybody I know. Uh, you know, she's she's learned a lot. They're they'll be fine. They'll be fine financially, they'll be fine. I hate it for them, but I'm ready to go. Deliver us from evil is not a statement of fear, it's a declaration of our dependence and our defensive stance with God. And the sooner that we recognize that we need God's help, is the sooner that we can have the confidence that He will deliver us from the evil that is certainly out there. Thank you for joining us today on Seeking Approval. You know, our faith oftentimes grows in quiet places. I hope today's conversation gave you something worth carrying throughout the rest of this day. And join me, Dr. Chris Smelser, again next time as we continue thinking, learning, and walking together. Until then, grace and peace to you from Seeking Approval at Gilead Baptist Church.