"Done Under Prayer"

"Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession." (Psalms 83:11-12) There might be more to this than meets the eye; no, actually, I can say without a doubt, there is more to this than meets the eye. Paul again gives us this perfect illustration in Ephesians 6:12, saying, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." These are the forces behind all that is ungodly and evil in this world, and they don't play nice! We can pretend that they are not there all that we want to, but make no mistake, they are as real as the nose on your face. If there is one thing that I have learned in these thirty-five of walking with the Lord, it's that the enemy makes strongholds in our person lives, our families, our churches, and even in our nations. Strongholds are spiritual fortresses that the enemy has established or taken over; barriers that must be taken down for progress to be made in the battle against evil, both personally, corporately, or even nationally. We can see this example given all throughout the history of the Israel, by the way they established places to worship other gods, referred to as "high places" or "groves." Personally, I think the fortresses the enemy has taken over are harder to destroy than the ones he has established; mostly because those that he has established are more obvious for the common Believer to comprehend. Those that he has taken over, they are more a twist on things we accept or all ready practice; so they are less noticeable as something that must be taken down in our lives. That said, prayer is not only our powerful tool to take them down, it is also the tool that we have been given to have them revealed. I have got to be honest, my prayer life has not been something to write home about. Every since the death of my son, I just haven't been as dedicated as I once was; instead of praying for an hour straight, it's been more like thirty minutes, if that. There is a good place to start; let's start by getting back to prayer...
"Then Jehoshaphat, Asa's son, became the next king. He strengthened Judah to stand against any attack from Israel. He stationed troops in all the fortified towns of Judah, and he assigned additional garrisons to the land of Judah and to the towns of Ephraim that his father, Asa, had captured. The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father's earlier years and did not worship the images of Baal. He sought his father's God and obeyed his commands instead of following the evil practices of the kingdom of Israel. So the LORD established Jehoshaphat's control over the kingdom of Judah. All the people of Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so he became very wealthy and highly esteemed. He was deeply committed to the ways of the LORD. He removed the pagan shrines and Asherah poles from Judah." (2 Chronicles 17:1-6) NLT