Luke 11:23-28 - Prayer is Choosing Sides

23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does notgather with Me scatters. So far in Luke 11, Jesus has given us the pattern ofprayer (vv. 1-4). He tells a story and emphasizes the persistence ofprayer (vv. 5-8). He has encouraged us with a great promise of prayer. Ourheavenly Father will give us the good gifts of the Holy Spirit when weask in prayer (vv. 9-13). And Jesus illustrated the power of prayer asHe cast a demon out of a mute man (vv. 14-22).   Now in Luke 11:23-28, Jesus is going to give us a lesson onthe position of prayer. In this passage Jesus is teaching us that wemust choose whose side we are on. I believe that from these verses that welearn that prayer is a part of choosing sides and putting us in the position ofbeing on the Lord’s side! In verses 15-22, Jesus was accused by the hypocriticalreligious leaders of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Jesus respondedby reminding them that a kingdom or a house that is divided against itself willbe destroyed and cannot stand. He also likened Satan to a strong man who isguarding the “spoils” in his house but that he can be stripped of his defense, “hisarmor”, by a Stronger Man. And then his spoils can be taken from him. When we pray, we are engaging in “spiritual warfare”. Ourprayers can bind Satan and strip him of his defense and his power and then wecan release those who have been captured by him. 2 Timothy 2:26 speaks of theseprecious souls being delivered from the devil by our Godly living and ourprayers with these words: “And that they may come to their senses and escapethe snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” It is impossible to be neutral in this spiritual war. Jesusmakes it clear in verse 23 that we are either for Him or we are against Him.(Also see Luke 9:50). Neutrality means standing against Him. There are twospiritual forces at work in the world, and we must choose between them. Satanis scattering and destroying, but Jesus Christ is gathering and building. Wemust make a choice, and if we choose to make no choice, we are really choosingagainst Him.  Jesus illustrated the danger of neutrality by telling thestory of the man and the demon. The man's body was the demon's"house" (Luke 11:24, and note vv. 17 and 21). For some unknownreason, the demonic tenant decided to leave his "house" and goelsewhere. The man's condition improved immediately, but the man did not inviteGod to come and dwell within. In other words, the man remained neutral. Whathappened? The demon returned with seven other demons worse than himself, andthe man's condition was abominable. We are either going up or we are going down. When I wasgetting my pilot’s license, I learned very quickly that you can’t park a planein the air. The moment you stop, you are going down! Any dead fish can float downstream,but it takes a live one to swim upstream. We are either getting closer to theLord every day or we are drifting further away from Him. I’ve always picturedthe “narrow way that leads to life” right in the middle of the “broadpath that leads to destruction”, except it is going in the oppositedirection. That is why is so difficult to live the Christian life in this oldworld we are in.  In verses 27-28, we learn that taking sides with Jesusmeans much more than saying the right things, like the woman who cried, "Blessedis the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!" She wascertainly sincere, but that was not enough. We take sides with Jesus Christwhen we hear His Word and obey it (see Luke 6:46-49; 8:19-21). Praying Biblicalprayers is applying God’s Word to our attitudes and actions and give us the powerto do God’s will! Praying puts us in the position of being on the Lord’s side!Today, whose side are you on? Are you praying? God bless!