Warrior Prayer

The enemy does not want us to pray because prayer is powerful.  We have surely heard that before.  And yet I am often tempted to discard prayer requests for big situations far away from my daily life.  That happened recently with something I received in the mail.  I hate to admit it, but I almost tossed it in the trash because I really can't read all the stuff that comes everyday.  Almost, but I didn't.  I opened it and discovered the article quoted below.  It reminds me of just how enormous our power is to bring God's will about in just the way that Jesus told us to pray: 

our nation needs powerful prayer...

"The greatest agency put into men's hands is prayer.  Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and His allies in the enemy's country.  Prayer is not persuading God.  It does not influence God's purpose.  It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle.  It begins in the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its purpose on the downward swing."*

Prayer like this comes from a relationship with God in which He implants the intention of his heart into ours.  Anyone can receive it, but we often don't.  I imagine that God sees who wants to hear and has faith to act on what they hear.  He also calls and equips certain of his children for this kind of relationship with Him.  It is a high calling.
 

White Sands Missile Range Museum, NM

I had never thought about myself as God's ally living in the enemy's territory, but it is true. God is the Captain of the Armies of Heaven and He invites us to participate in the process of delivering His orders to them through our prayers and declarations of truth.  He gives us a role in getting His will accomplished because He created us for relationship.  We are citizens of heaven even though we still live on the earth in our current bodies.  Ultimately we are learning how to rule and reign with Christ in the future (Revelation. 19:8;14 and 20:4).  That's our true destiny!

I confess that I have been 'way too comfortable with my earthly life, but with the way our country is changing I am realizing more and more how out of step I am.  I may feel like an alien here, but how much better to be an ally of God!  I think we are going to have more and more opportunities to choose where our allegiance lies.   

If we knew we were qualified to pray God's will and see it done, wouldn't we pray more boldly?  The victory was won at the cross where Christ made a public spectacle of the enemy (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus gave us the authority of His Name to use when we pray (John 16:24).  God has given us armor and a sword - His Word (Ephesians 6:14-19), and the Holy Spirit to accomplish His will  (Zechariah 4:6).  We may not be grown up into the fullness of this, but we are progressing in that direction by God's grace.  Dear Father, may we realize who we are beyond the everyday activities of our lives!  We were born, and born again, for such a time as this!

State flags at Mt. Rushmore

*From article:  "Prayer:  A War Measure" by S.D. Gordon in Prayer Point, a Samaritan's Purse magazine, Fall 2012, pg. 30.