Strongholds Tumbling Down

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Ephesians 6:17-18  (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

‘Take up the sword of the Spirit. Pray in the Spirit at all times.’ Ephesians 6: 17, 18

‘We wanna see *clap clap clap* We wanna see *clap clap clap* We wanna see Jesus lifted high!’ You’re welcome for the earworm. Many of us will remember the 1993 song, ‘We want to see Jesus lifted high’ – perhaps you still sing it at your church? If not, as was proven by the band Oasis, we’re surely due for a 90s comeback. The verse in that catchy ditty includes the line, ‘Every prayer a powerful weapon, / Strongholds come tumbling down’ (I’ll wait here while you finish singing the bridge and chorus to yourself. Done? Good: let’s continue).

Talking of the 1990s, that was when my team (Man Utd) was riding high season after season. Alas, no longer. One of the things the new manager Ruben Amorim has said he will work on is the team’s transition – the skill of turning defence into attack with speed, agility, and menace.

These two verses in Ephesians 6 are likewise train us, Christ’s team, for our transition in the spiritual match against sin, the world, and the devil, from defence to attack. In verses 11-16, Paul has been instructing us on our defensive game – namely, how to put on the ‘whole armour of God’ so that we might stand in the struggle against the ‘powers of this present darkness.’ We’ve clothed ourselves with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, and in the first part of verse 17, the helmet of salvation – all defensive, protective garments. But in the second half of verse 17, we pick up a weapon: something that can do some real damage in attack: ‘the sword of the Spirit.’

How can the Spirit be wielded as a sword? Well, the sword of the Spirit is ‘the word of God.’ Scripture read and preached, the gospel of Jesus proclaimed: these are the arms with which we can claim more territory for Christ’s Kingdom and drive back the enemy. But Paul puts more into our arsenal (not that Arsenal, +Philip, despite mention of football in the 90s) in the next verse: ‘Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.’ The sword of the Spirit is yielded also in our prayer life: every prayer a powerful weapon.

I’m going to resolve to make my prayers more aggressive; more spiritually martial. In Jesus’ powerful name, our prayers can drive out demons, disarm the devil, dispel the darkness, defeat depravity. Let us pray boldly for evil to be exposed, expunged, and exiled – from our own hearts first of all and from our churches second (for judgment begins at the house of God – 1 Peter 4:17); and then from our unjust and broken world. Let’s see strongholds come tumbling down.

Let us pray: Lord, give me the unction and courage to wield prayer as a Spiritual weapon against sin, the world, and the devil. Amen.

The Revd Tom Woolford, Vicar of New Longton.