The demons of hell are real, and Satan, the great archenemy of the Church, is seeking to "wear out the saints". We must recognize that it is Satan who has blinded the minds of the saints and kept them in ignorance of their birthright privileges and of their responsibility to live an overcoming life by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is he who through worldliness, has caused them to leave their first love. It is he who seeks to hinder revival among the saints of God today. Therefore, as we pray for revival, we must not only resist our foe in the all conquering name of the Lord Jesus, but we must proceed to drive him off the field through that same glorious Name. This we have been given the power to do through Him who "disarmed the principalities and the power which fought against Him and put them to open shame, leading them captive in the triumphs of Christ" (Col. 2:14, Conybears).
The early church knew the secret of overcoming through this glorious weapon of prayer. As wave after wave of satanic opposition broke over them, they conquered on their knees. They went forward on their knees. They lived at the Throne. The need in the Church today is to rediscover the secret of power to wrestle with god like Paul and the spirit to agonize in prayer like Epaphras. Then, through our union with Christ on the Cross, prayer will be filled with the Spirit of conquest through which we will be able to vanquish the foe and shout the victory over him. It is not enough that we "resist the devil", who seeks to deceive and to divide the saints of the Lord, thus bringing impotence upon a sub-normal church. The word of God teaches us that we must be 'more than conquerors' in the conquest.
Oh, how alarming is the condition of the evangelical Church today! How few churches have one real, desperate prayer meeting a week. We oftentimes sing, "a little talk with Jesus makes it quite all right", but beloved, it is going to take more than a little talk with Jesus to bring revival. It, as our Lord said, it takes extraordinary prayer and fasting to cast out one demon from on person, how much less can we expect to have him cast out of the Church and the world without any?
