It seems wise to me that we should increase our knowledge of the great adversary, Satan. Of course, our primary purpose in the School of Prayer is to increase our knowledge of Christ Jesus, the Holy One; and in so doing, we hope to be more like Him. 
SATAN HATES PRAYER 1 Peter 5:8
Satan must be exposed in his deceitful ways to dilute our efforts of commitment to a Scriptural prayer life. Much misguided prayer is being offered by sincere Christians today. Our adversary is diligent in his effort to hinder God’s children from establishing a prayer life. Prayerlessness plagues every child of God. Prayer is by the grace of God. He will bestow the grace of a praying heart and give victory over Satan who fights against our personal efforts in prayer. There is indeed a great conflict between Satan and the child of God. Satan knows that a child of God can conquer everything by prayer. It is no wonder that he fights us in our efforts of prayer. Prayer is the one weapon of the saint that Satan would rob from us.
How does he go about hindering prayer? Satan hinders us from real prayer by causing us to pray incorrectly.
As an example, I point out to you the often-used formal rituals that are more legalistic than renewals of holiness. We must not go through a “form of Godliness and deny the power thereof”.
Earlier in this conference we were directed to the three personalities of Jehovah . . . God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; thus learning it takes four to pray; The Father, Son, Holy Spirit and you, the saved sinner. There is a fifth personality involved in prayer; the fifth person being Satan, the adversary.
In the Bible he is called by many names; A-bad-don, A-pol-ly-on, Deceiver, Adversary, Old serpent, Prince of demons, Prince of the powers of the air, Prince of this world, Ruler of darkness.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
By increasing our knowledge of him, we can best defeat him and draw nigh unto Christ in prayer.
WHAT HE CAN DO: He can appear as God. 2 Cor. 11:14 teaches us that he has power to transform himself into an angel of light. He misuses Scripture . . . robs Scripture from the heart . . . makes sinners blind to truth . . . binds believers with “strong holds”. According to Luke 13:16, he can bind the children of God from doing Christ’s service.
WHAT HE CANNOT DO: He cannot kill nor destroy Christians . . . “Greater is He within you, than he that is in the world”. He is not omnipotent, omniscient, nor omnipresent.
We must know as much as possible about Satan and the satanic system that could destroy all righteousness and holiness in our lives.
Satan’s strategy is to beguile, ensnare, and deceive all who are ignorant of his devices. “Lest Satan should get advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”. (2 Cor. 2:11)
WE ARE IN A BATTLE! We are on the battlefield for our Lord. He is our King . . . our Chief Captain, in Whom we must stay in constant contact in order to receive daily battlefield instructions. Jesus instructs us to watch and pray. We are to wear the whole armor of God. (Eph. 6:10-18). Above all else, we must pray! Through prayer we pull down Satan’s strong holds. (2 Cor. 10:3).
DEMONS DISTORT PRAYER
Satan is but one. How then is it possible for him to exercise such evil destructive force upon prayer? He has in his power a vast army of fallen, evil spirits . . . demons who are evil, powerful, many in number, unclean, fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4).
Demonology is clearly set forth in God’s Word. They are intelligent. (Recognized Christ, Mark 1:24). They possess people (Matthew 8:29). They overcome men. (Acts 19:13-16). They know their destiny. (Matthew 8:29). They create error through lies (1 Tim. 4:1). They produce harm. (Mark 5:1-5). They are assigned to cause prayerlessness.
Satan is defeated! For this purpose, Christ came into this world through the Virgin birth, lived a perfect life and shed His innocent blood on Calvary . . . was buried . . . and was resurrected by the power of God. All strong holds are pulled down by the power of Christ’s shed blood. “Greater is He that is within you than he that is in the world”. We can have a victorious prayer life by pleading the blood!
(The above comments were adapted from the 2001 North Carolina School Of Prayer – W. Clyde Martin is editor of the monthly online magazine, The Prayer Life.)
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