Enemies Of Prayer Part 2 by Dr. Paul Enenche: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Luke 18:1

It is possible to faint, or to give up, on praying. Prayer is a very potent and impactful force that is critical to life and destiny. The devil knows the potency of prayer and is ready to deploy any force to hinder our prayer lives.

1. Prayer dismantled Haman's evil plot in Persia to eliminate the Jews; it was the prayer of Queen Esther that collapsed it.
2. Prayer, coupled with sacrifice, terminated the age long barrenness of Hannah.
3. Prayer opened and closed the heavens at will under the ministry of Elijah, and it was prayer that brought fire from heaven and led to the judgment of the prophets of Baal.

Recap: The First Four Enemies of Prayer

• The guilt of sin, if a person regards iniquity in the heart, the Lord will not hear.
• The spirit of discouragement, tiredness from attending church without seeing results.
• Lack of value for the spiritual, lack of spiritual priorities.
• The pressures and distractions of life, the same forces that pulled Samson away from God.

The Trap of Success

Success is a trap that makes many abandon their spirituality. Spirituality is easy to uphold in adversity and easy to discard in prosperity. Most people remember to pray in times of challenge but forget to pray in times of success.

Luke 15:11-18

The prodigal son typifies disconnection from spirituality because of prosperity, and reconnection to spirituality because of adversity. As long as the younger son had not yet received his portion, he stayed with his father; once he had his possession, he left for a far country. Many people are close to God only while they do not yet have money, position, or opportunity, and drift once they receive it.

1 Kings 3:5-11

Solomon loved the Lord, walked in His statutes, and offered a thousand burnt offerings. When God appeared to him, Solomon, then small in his own eyes, asked for wisdom rather than wealth, and God gave it to him. But wealth followed, and Solomon began to marry wives.

1 Kings 11:3-6

Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and when he was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, so that his heart was not perfect with the Lord as David's had been. Nobody forced Solomon to serve those gods; he built high places for Chemosh and Molech, the abominations of Moab and Ammon, and did likewise for all his strange wives who burned incense to their own gods. He built one temple for God and seven hundred temples for his wives' gods.

What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Two Counsels on the Trap of Success

1. Relate With God Based on Who He Is, Not What He Does

   Daniel 3:16-18

   Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego told the king they were not careful to answer him: their God was able to deliver them from the fire, and even if He did not, nothing would change their position with Him or convince them to bow to another god. Nothing God does or does not do changes His godness and His goodness. Relating with Him on that basis is what keeps a person stable in both prosperity and adversity.

2. Enter a Covenant Relationship of No Return

   Ruth 1:16

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   Dr. Paul Enenche

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   Ruth told Naomi not to beg her to leave, that wherever Naomi went she would go, and her people and her God would be Naomi's people and God, until death. That is a covenant of no return: I am yours under every condition, whatever it costs.

The Wrong Company

Proverbs 13:20

He that walks with the wise shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Your company can enhance your spiritual life, and your company can destroy it.

• Wrong company undermines and trivializes kingdom commitment. It makes a person feel foolish for holding a conviction, refusing a bribe or refusing to compromise, because "everybody does it."
• Wrong company softly influences and infects through association. Consciously or unconsciously, a person begins to think and behave like those they walk closely with, because association brings assimilation.

How prayerful was Samson, and how prayerful were his friends? How prayerful was Daniel, and who were his friends? A person's spiritual life can be measured by their friends.

Two Counsels on Wrong Company

1. Completely Avoid the Wrong Company

   Do not be diplomatic where wrong company is concerned. If a hand offends and is contrary to destiny, it should be cut off; no friendship is more attached to a life than that. This does not mean hating anyone, but dealing with them from a distance rather than sacrificing a destiny to avoid displeasing them.

2. Seek the Company of People on Fire for God

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   Acts 4:23

   Peter and John went to their own company and reported what the authorities had done to them. Seek out people whose spirituality is authentic and real.

The Spirit of Slumber

Matthew 13:25

While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares. Awakeness and alertness in the spirit are commanded responsibilities of every child of God.

• Sleep and slumber happens whenever the enemy wants to sow evil seed. Anytime a person does not feel like praying, or resists the Holy Spirit's quickening to pray, the enemy is trying to sow something he wants left unopposed.
• Slumber can happen in an epidemic climate of prayerlessness. Matthew 25:4-5 Of the ten virgins, five were wise for carrying oil and five foolish for lacking it, but all ten, wise and foolish, slumbered and slept while the bridegroom tarried. A person can be genuinely wise and still be overtaken by slumber if they are not watchful.
• Slumber can happen when expectations are delayed. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slept. When an expectation is slow in coming, the enemy can lay a blanket of sleep over a person that is not yet discouragement, just a tiredness of praying.

One Counsel: Stay Stirred Up

2 Timothy 1:6

Stir up the gift of God that is in you.

Romans 5:5

The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit given to us. Remain permanently stirred up with the fire of the Holy Spirit; this is one reason it is good to pray much in the spirit.

The Spirit of Pride

Pride is a great enemy of prayerfulness, because prayer thrives on humility. Prayerful people are humble, and humble people are prayerful.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray.

Psalm 35:13

I humbled my soul with fasting.

Anyone who claims to be prayerful while being arrogant is not genuinely prayerful. Boasting about fasting or how many hours a person can pray is a waste of time; real, deep spiritual people hardly talk about their spiritual experiences, and that kind of talk rarely translates into any tangible manifestation of the power and presence of God.

Psalm 34:5

They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. Humility makes people look up to God, and that is what leads them to prayer.