When I was fourteen I decided to join the local boxing club. I was five foot eight and a whopping 126 lbs. Not exactly a physical specimen. But I wanted to learn to fight and I reasoned that even if I never became a champion I could learn some things that would help me protect myself.

My boxing “career” was a short lived one. I had a total of three bouts. Two were exhibition bouts with guys from my own gym and the other was with some kid from the South Boston that had facial hair. He came at me like the Tasmanian Devil. I didn’t even make it through the first round before I decided to take a dive and end it before he ended it for me. I remember being so humiliated. I wanted so much to be a tough guy and be known all around town. In many ways over the years I counted it as a failure in my life. I felt I was not man enough to stay in the ring and fight. I didn’t know it back then but God in his infinite wisdom was not missing out on a chance to train me. What looked like a failure to me was the beginning of my spiritual warfare school.

1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

It has been helpful to me over the years to recognize that life is a battle and like it or not we have all been placed in the ring with an opponent that is carrying out an attack against us and he never takes a break. There is only one way to win a boxing match and that is to go on the offense. A good defense is important but if all you do is block punches you will never win.

Imagine the insanity of a boxer stepping into a ring and never throwing punches yet this is often the posture we have as believers. We are so busy blocking punches we are not throwing any back. Like me when I saw the kid with the facial hair I was defeated before I even started. I took it a step further and gave up altogether.

In boxing your posture is important. You learn right away how to stand in such a way to be a more difficult target. To hold your shoulder or elbow in the just the right place to protect yourself more. How to move from side to side, and lunge forward when necessary. But all this moving , posturing, and protecting is unto one thing. Landing punches of your own.

On the offensive side of things you learn that the “jab” is meant to keep the opponent busy and keep him off balance so you can set him up for the power punch. You are always looking to land that knock out blow.

There are many ways we can go on the offense but prayer is the primary weapon in the arsenal. It can be done from anywhere and at any time. It can be done alone or with others. From one location you can have influence across the earth.

Watchman Nee the great apostle of China had this to say about prayer.

“Prayer is work. The experiences of many children of God demonstrate that it accomplishes far more than does any other form of work. It is also warfare, for it is one of the weapons in fighting the enemy.”

E. M. Bounds had this to say when expounding on Paul the apostles teachings.

“His teaching is that praying is the most important of all things on earth. All else must be restrained and retired to give it primacy. Put it first and keep it’s primacy. The conflict is about the primacy of prayer. Defeat and victory lie in this one thing. To make prayer secondary is to dis-crown it. It is to fetter and destroy prayer. If prayer is put first then God is put first, and victory is assured.”

When we pray we are going on the offensive. When we pray with persistence we are jabbing, jabbing, jabbing, and making the enemy’s job very difficult. When we pray the scriptures we destroy the lies of the enemy with the truth of God. When we pray all the way through to victory we deliver the knockout blow we are looking for.

Lets unleash the power of prayer on our adversary, get prayer back in first place and partner with Jesus in “destroying the works of the evil one.”