Ephesians 6: The Prayer That Pushes Back the Darkness

Introduction

At KXC (King's Cross Church, London), Pete Hughes brings the "Teach Us to Pray" series to a close. It follows three movements of the Lord's Prayer: abiding, asking, advancing. The first week was about the most basic truth of prayer: we can call God "Father," abide in his presence, and rest in the fact that we are his beloved children.

The second week was about asking. In Luke 11, Jesus tells the story of a man who knocks on his neighbor's door in the middle of the night to ask for bread, and keeps knocking until the door opens. "Ask, seek, knock": three verbs in the continuous present, meaning "ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking."

This last message is about the third movement: advancing. How do we push back the darkness through prayer? Pete Hughes answers with four points, drawing mostly on Ephesians 6.

Message Outline

1. What Happens When You Pray

According to Pete Hughes, the great spiritual figures of church history share one thing: they understood the power of prayer.
Charles Spurgeon: "Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence." Just as your brain sends a message through your nerves to make your hand move, your prayer sets in motion the hand of an almighty God.
Karl Barth: "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." Picture a three- or four-year-old child kneeling by the bed with hands folded. It is not just cute: even weak, even half convinced, a prayer turned toward heaven is the beginning of a spiritual uprising.
Mark Batterson: "Prayers are like prophecies. They are the best predictor of your spiritual future. Who you become depends on how you pray." The pastor adds, with humor, that to guess someone's future he would like to read their prayer journal: what you pray today probably announces your future.

2. Praying in the Middle of a Battle

First point: we pray in the middle of a battle, so no one can be a pacifist in prayer. Jesus taught nonviolence, but he knew that a battle is being fought in the spiritual realm. The kingdom of heaven advances with force, and forceful people lay hold of it (Matthew 11:12).
Paul says it in Ephesians 6:12: our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, the world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. C. S. Lewis: "There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan."
There are two extremes: those who deny the spiritual world and explain everything by natural causes, and those who see a spiritual attack whenever they stub a toe. Between the two: take these things seriously, but hold them lightly, for the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
Martin Luther is a model. The German monk wrote that he often drove the devil away with a fart. The joke hides a deep idea: I resist the darkness seriously, but I hold this fight lightly, because I trust God.

3. From Footholds to Strongholds

In climbing, you look for a foothold, a small grip that can bear your body weight. The enemy looks for the same thing in your life: a sin, a bitterness, a jealousy, an unconfessed fault, a small grip where he can set his foot and gain ground.
Paul writes: "Be angry, and don't sin." "Don't let the sun go down on your wrath, neither give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27). Anger is not a sin, and it is even right in the face of injustice. The question is what you do with it. Don't let twenty-four hours go by and resentment settle in.
Peter warns: be sober, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). James: submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). This is also what we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "Do not lead us into temptation."
Ignored, the foothold becomes a stronghold. The Greek word literally means "fortress": walls go up, light no longer gets through, and you find yourself shut in the dark.
The pastor cites the definition of Neil Anderson, an American pastor, then simplifies it: a stronghold is a lie you have accepted, which begins to influence your behavior, pulls you away from Christ's purposes, and ends up enslaving you.
Two examples. Anger left to ferment becomes resentment, then bitterness. At night in bed, you replay conversations you have never had. With lust, what begins as a struggle in front of a screen ends up controlling you. "What you held now holds you. What you owned now owns you. What you controlled now controls you." The person is no longer bitter at times; they have become bitter.
"We are all addicted to something," says Pete Hughes, each in a different area. But there is good news.

4. Tearing Down Strongholds

Paul writes to the Corinthians: we do not fight according to the flesh, for the weapons we fight with are not fleshly, but are powerful, by God's strength, for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). According to the pastor, Paul is speaking above all about prayer.
The text does not say to confront or challenge strongholds; it says to tear them down. We tear down arguments and every high thing that raises itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
For a foothold, you flee temptation and confess your sin. For a stronghold, the walls have to come down so the light can get in. Pete Hughes offers a simple model in three steps.
Confess: God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). A practice to live out every day.
Withdraw permission: take responsibility for your choices and say to the enemy: "If I gave you, knowingly or not, permission to work in my mind, my heart, my body, my soul, I withdraw that permission. You are no longer welcome. If I gave you the keys by accident, I am taking them back."
Order the darkness to leave in the name of Jesus, then say: "Come, Holy Spirit." Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17).

5. Praying From Victory

Second point: we pray from a position of victory. Whatever you feel, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). The risen Christ, the conquering King, sits at the right hand of God, and you are in him.
Weak or fervent, your prayer starts from this place. By his life, his death, and his resurrection, Jesus did everything necessary to defeat sin, darkness, and death itself.
Satan has been defeated, that is the message of Easter, but he has not yet been destroyed. We live between Christ's first coming and his return. When he comes back, he will finish what he began: there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4).
Until then, we pray from victory, but in the middle of the battle.

6. Advancing by Standing Firm

Third point: we advance by standing firm. If the idea of waging war on the darkness overwhelms you when you already struggle to stay on your feet, take heart: it comes down to holding your position in prayer.
In Ephesians 6, Paul describes the armor: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the sword of the Spirit. Pete Hughes encourages us to reread this text and to put on the armor of God regularly.
The armor does not protect the back. Paul has a Roman battalion in mind: the order is given to a people, not to an isolated individual. We close ranks with our brothers and sisters, shield against shield. "Many Christians in a city like London become arrogant," and think that a personal moment with God, a little music, and a devotional book are enough. "You won't make it. You will be easy prey." The soldier who breaks ranks becomes very vulnerable, like the disciple who abandons the local church.
Paul repeats the same verb four times in a few verses: stand firm against the devil's schemes, resist in the evil day, stand firm after having overcome everything, stand therefore (Ephesians 6:11-14). The pastor, who is sometimes accused of repeating himself, points out that Paul repeats himself to make a simple point: our first task is to stand.
Exodus 14: facing the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites feel the ground shake under the chariots. God does not tell them "swim" or "turn around and fight." He tells them not to be afraid, to stay where they are, and to watch the deliverance the Lord will bring, for the Lord will fight for them while they keep silent. In short: "You stand. I advance. That's the deal."
2 Chronicles 20: three armies join forces against God's people. King Jehoshaphat admits that he has neither the strength nor a plan, then he lifts his eyes: "Our eyes are on you." For Pete Hughes, this is what prayer is, the folded hands of the uprising. God answers that they should not be afraid or dismayed before this vast multitude, because the battle is not theirs but God's. Then he tells them they will not need to fight in this battle: take your positions, stand still, and see the deliverance the Lord will give (2 Chronicles 20:12, 15, 17).
Above all, we stand firm against the lie. The devil is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). He accuses your past ("I know what you did"), he accuses you in the present to distract you ("you are a fraud, you are alone, nobody cares about you"), and he feeds anxiety about the future.
The best way to spot a lie is to know the truth deep within you. Scripture is not a bonus reserved for the most spiritual; it is daily bread.
Paul ends his passage on spiritual warfare with a call to pray: pray at all times in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers and requests, stay alert with all perseverance, and pray for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18). Sitting in an armchair, walking around the room, in tongues, in English or in Portuguese, drawing or listening to music: "but pray."
Praying also means praying with authority. According to the pastor, most Christians pray so little because they do not understand the authority they have in prayer.
Jesus gave the authority to bind and to loose (Matthew 18:18). Pete Hughes asks: when did you last pray to bind what opposes you, your family, or your friends? And your last prayer to loose, so that the blessings of the spiritual realm would flow into your situation?
Seated with the risen King, you have authority when you pray. And you pray in the name of Jesus, for at that name every knee bows, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Philippians 2:10).

7. Praying God's Promises

Fourth point: in prayer, we receive God's promises. "What you have said, Lord, let it come to pass."
Derek Prince said, in essence, that the highest and most effective prayer is to go into the Word, find a promise that fits your situation, and say: "Lord, you said it. Now do it." God is faithful: if he has made a promise, it will be fulfilled.
Pete Hughes ends with a parable by Larry Christenson, taken from a text published several decades ago under the title "The Renewed Mind." You live in a building under a landlord who makes your life impossible: exorbitant rent, loans at frightening interest rates, break-ins by day and by night, your apartment trashed and then fines for failing to maintain it.
One day, someone arrives and says: "I have bought the building. You can live here for free as long as you want. The rent is paid. I am going to live here with you, in the manager's apartment." This is a picture of salvation, the passage from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
Then there is a knock at the door: it is the old landlord, come to collect the rent. You do not pay him. You do not hit him either, since he is stronger than you. You tell him calmly: "Take it up with the new owner." He may threaten, coax, come back twelve times with official-looking papers: "Take it up with the new owner." He knows it, but he hopes to make you doubt that the new owner will really take care of everything.
If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. When the old landlord comes to accuse, intimidate, and bombard you with lies, your answer is simple: "I am under the lordship of Christ. Take it up with the new owner."
The message ends with the Lord's Prayer said together, stressing the last two lines: "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We have a deliverer, and his name is Jesus.

Key Takeaways

Prayer sets God's hand in motion. Even weak, a prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.
Take spiritual warfare seriously, but hold it lightly: close the footholds before they become strongholds.
A stronghold is torn down by confessing, by withdrawing the permission given to the enemy, and by ordering him to leave in the name of Jesus, then by inviting the Holy Spirit.
You pray from Christ's victory, seated with him in the heavenly places, but in the middle of a battle that is not over.
Your task is to stand firm, with others and on God's promises. He is the one who advances: the battle belongs to him.

Personal Application

Is there anger you have let go past nightfall, and that is turning into resentment or bitterness?
What lie about your past, your present, or your future have you ended up believing? What truth from Scripture can you set against it?
When was your last prayer to bind what opposes you, or to loose a blessing over your family?
Are you holding your place in the ranks, within a local church, or are you trying to stand alone?
Which promise of God fits your current situation, so that you can say to him: "Lord, you said it, now do it"?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a foothold and a stronghold?

For Pete Hughes, a foothold is a small grip the enemy finds in your life: anger held for more than a day, a bitterness, an unconfessed sin. If it is ignored, it becomes a stronghold, an accepted lie that ends up controlling you. You flee and confess a foothold; a stronghold has to be torn down through prayer.

How do you tear down a stronghold through prayer?

The preacher suggests three steps. Confess your sin, knowing that God is faithful and righteous to forgive. Withdraw the permission you may have given the enemy, taking back the keys. Order the darkness to leave in the name of Jesus, then invite the Holy Spirit, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

What does it mean to advance by standing firm?

In Ephesians 6, Paul repeats the verb "stand" four times. Pete Hughes concludes that our first task is to hold firm, together, like a line of Roman soldiers, and to let God advance. As at the Red Sea and in the days of Jehoshaphat, the battle belongs to the Lord.