Prayer: Front Line of Christian Combat

History's annals are bursting at the seams with the kingdoms of men that have appeared onto the world's scene and dazzled onlookers with their respective majesty and glory; mighty empires have been erected, full of militaristic and economic power that had proven invincible to every opponent, save Time's merciless onslaught.  There is, however, one thing we know for sure about any and all nations, kingdoms, and empires—they all inevitably fall.  The duration of their span of influence is attributable to a number of factors, some of which are leadership, access to natural resources, technology, agriculture, and the like.  But one vital determinant to a kingdom's ability to last and flourish rests in its ability to defend itself and to be able to advance its own agenda(s). Advancing said agendas is contingent on the weaponry of the kingdom, the ability of the potentate to lead, and the ability of the soldiers to use those weapons.

For we who hold to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, we clearly (or at least we should) understand the unique nature of our dual citizenship.  The Scriptures are crystal clear concerning our positional status with Christ in Heaven; those born again are even now, with Him, at His feet in Heaven spiritually, even as our physical bodies sojourn here, naturally citizens of our respective countries here.

I've said this to say that our Heavenly citizenship overrules our earthly one and we should be advancing the agenda(s) of Christ, our only King.  The Church, the Body of Christ, has only two weapons, whereas the kingdoms of this world wield hundreds, even thousands of weapons.  The weapons of the Church are the Holy Scriptures and prayer. That's it.  (If you need proof about that see Matt. 4:3-11; I Kin. 18:36-39; Acts 4:23-31; 12:5; Heb. 4:12-13; John 17:17.)  Christ told Pontius Pilate in John 18:36 that His kingdom is not of this world, and because of that, His servants would not fight to prevent His arrest and death.  Yet now, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, we do fight—not to keep Christ from sacrificing Himself (which He has done once for all) but to advance the boundaries of His Kingdom with His Gospel within the very hearts of men.  The Gospel is the mandate of the Church.

Those of us who are born again love Christ and His Word.  We love the lost and we hate sin in ourselves and in the world.  Satan is the originator of all sin and he is a spiritual being, far more powerful than the human race combined.  We need strong weapons to fight him and one of our chief weapons is prayer.  We don't focus on Satan in our prayers, rather we do focus on the will of God alone, and in prayer we daily submit and resubmit to Him, warring with our flesh to bring it under subjection to Christ.

Prayer is where/when we enter into the sacred Presence of God in a special, intentional way to specifically give Him thanks, praise, and to offer supplication.  We know fully well that we're always in His Presence, but again, prayer is special. 

Prayer is where we bare ourselves before the eyes that see straight into our hearts; prayer is when we get right again; prayer is where we mourn over our sin; prayer is when we realign our desires with God's perfect will.  Prayer should be a very serious, nonprefunctory act of pure, sincere worship.  Oh, far too often we go through the motions!

Throughout Scripture, God has literally altered history's course in direct answers to fervent prayers (Num. 14:13-20; II Kin. 19:15-37; II Chr. 32:24-26; John 14:16-17; James 5:17-18). 

We need to ask ourselves why we are not seeing the Lord moving more miraculously in our lives and in the lives of those around us.  Could it be because too many of us are praying prayers rooted in selfishness, materialism, seeking instant gratification?  Oh, yes—we can complain with the best of them, but for us who are born again, each report of yet another teen cut down by gunfire, each broadcast of loss of life after natural disaster or war, each story of God's preordained standard for morality and decency attacked should drive us to our knees, seeking His face!  We should not be found having lost ourselves in the cares of this life, despair, dissipation, or self-absorption.

Our hearts grieve over the ravages of sin, but we take heart knowing that prayer takes us right into the glorious throne room of the living God and there we are empowered to fight the good fight of faith.  We desire to be good soldiers in the war against sin and darkness; we so want to tear down every Satanic stronghold, but prayer is the weapon to be used first.  Satan aims most of his weapons against the act of prayer, for he knows he is powerless against prayers of the righteous.  Satan fights to win, and in him is no mercy no love, no compassion, no fatigue, and no end of his rage.  His sole objective is to prevent the expansion and ultimate victory of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that Kingdom is here, in the hearts of believers (Luke 17:20-21).

We want to see powerful answers to our prayers but how can we when our private lives may be steeped in secret sin, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy?  Some of us pray publicly in ways that we don't even do privately.  Some of us have no clue what acceptable prayer looks and sounds like, as we rattle away solely from our emotions and in our flesh.  Victorious prayer is always aligned to the will and Word of God and in the Spirit!

The monsters of the world can all be defeated by fervent prayer; every form of bondage in our lives can be broken in prayer; and every mandate of Christ's Kingdom concerning our lives can be executed in prayer as we fully subject ourselves to His will.

We need not feel powerless in this world, tossed to and fro by our circumstances; we need not be fearful at all of the terrors of the wicked; we need not go uninformed about God's specific plan for our lives; we can not let more precious time pass without interceding for the Church, suffering horribly for Christ all over the world!

Christian, look no further for soldiers fashioned for the front line for the most ferocious combat in existence—you are one of those warriors armed with irresistible weapons!  Fight!

Christian, It's Time to Make War!

“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

This is a YouTube video clip of movie director Paul Verhoeven,  producer of a film that purports Jesus Christ is the product of a brutal rape of His mother, Mary by a Roman soldier.

          Immediately after watching this video, a rage filled me that I've never felt before; a level of anger ignited within me greater than any other in reference to the multitude of indignities belched out by this increasingly godless society.  I am well aware that untold billions of people do not share my faith, but I know that hundreds of millions do.  And I felt in my every bone and sinew all of their righteous indignation over the sullying of the blessed Name of the One who purchased us for Himself with His own red blood.
          I am not ashamed to say that I have been born again by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, nor does it shame me to say that I love Him and long to see His shining, beautiful face, but to have Mr. Verhoeven (or anyone, for that matter) to rail so viciously against a loved One of mine is infuriating beyond language to express.  To me, and millions more who belong to the Way, this cannot go unaddressed. Sure, curse and blashpeme Jesus—but don't even dare say a word against Mohammed and Islam; spread lies about Christ—but endorse Buddhism and Hinduism as noble religions of peace!
          But as I prayed concerning this burning issue, the Holy Spirit began to minister to me.  Anyone born again can also attest to when the Holy Spirit deals with us during prayer—and He always deals with is according to Truth, not fleeting emotion.  The ministering of the Spirit put my “high-faluting” holy zeal in its place and directed me to examine myself.  I know this seems a terrible detour, especially since a reader of this may have gotten as “worked up” as I originally was.  But the Spirit of Truth showed me 3 things during and after prayer:

1. He reinforced from my own study of the Word that this is the last hour, the set time for apostasy and increased hostility to the Name and things of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. My personal weaknesses and areas of compromise.
3. True spiritual warfare is waged not by railing against demons or "chasing demons", or exorcising them or "binding" Satan—but is done with Scripture, through the preaching of the glorious Gospel, by using Scripture to cast down every philosophy, argument, methodology that snares the minds of men, thereby their souls.

He (the Spirit) really made particular emphasis on my weaknesses.  I had to agree with Him as I made my confessions and sought mercy and forgiveness.  This society says such things against Christ because I, and the Church at large (in America), are living such defeated, compromised lives in the nation's sight.  The Spirit showed me that I would be more effective in my ministry to my family, friends, associates, and to the lost, if I didn't resemble the lost in so many ways.  (I'm not saying that I have "one foot in the world" and just "living saved" on Sundays.  I'm just saying that I have some improvements to make and must shed the spiritual lethargy and addiction to comfort and ease that has seduced me, and so many like me.)

          We are supposed to be salt and light but so many of us look just like the world—!

          Of course the Lord always, always, always has a remnant (I Kings 19:18) who are blameless and uncompromised before Him.  This remnant does not shy away from standing up to oppose those who blaspheme and spread lies against their Lord (Peter and the Apostles, Acts 5:17-42; Stephen, Acts 7:51-8:1-3; James, Acts 12:1-2).

          The Holy Spirit showed me the areas of my own compromise, where I have made concessions to the my flesh and the world.  Why isn't the Holy Spirit more powerful in my life?—because of compromise; why aren't I more influential for Him?—because of the sins I am holding on to, those things I'm willingly not sacrificing.

          The Spirit of Truth was brutally honest with me, holding before my eyes the mirror of Scripture in which I could see that I was an unprofitable servant (Matt. 25:26), and not because I'm not involved in service in my church, but because in the late hours of the night and wee hours of the morning as I lay on my bed, I've had the audacity to tell the Spirit when He speaks in that still voice to my soul what I wasn't ready to do.  Sure, my Lord is using me (the flawed, unworthy tool that I am) but when He ministers to me in order to take me to where He wants me to go next—I resist, out of fear, unbelief, addiction to comfort, etc.  God's measuring stick is the only valid one.

          How can we fight against the enemies of the Lord if we are holding on to this world?  How can we stand tall, full of the Holy Spirit and of His power if there are areas of our lives that we aren't willing to completely relinquish to His control?  JEHOVAH told Joshua in no uncertain terms that He would no longer go out in battle with Israel unless their secret sin was expunged from their midst (Josh. 7:9-13).  Since our God is immutable (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8), He demands that we, the blood-bought Church of Jesus Christ walk blamelessly and righteously in His sight, in every area of life (Lev. 20:24, 26; Deut. 18:13; 23:13; Matt. 5:20, 48; I Pet. 1:13-16).  Joshua, the mighty man of battle, would be defeated by his enemies as long as sin was in their midst, and since God does not change, we must also walk holy before Him.  Joshua fought with swords and shields—as we do—but not swords of iron and steel, or shields of wood and bronze, but with the Sword of the Spirit and the shields of our faith!
          Only when we get our own lives right with God, and align our motives and agendas according to His own perfect will, will we resemble those mighty armies of old that valiantly fought in the Name of the Lord.  Of those armies, I include the Apostles, who waged war against the spiritual darkness of this age with the unstoppable, irresistible Gospel of Jesus Christ, at which the kingdom of darkness has no lasting defense.
          Only then can our zeal be directed at those issues that we are required to war against.  (A Christian who's knowingly in sin is a most miserable person.)  It would be great hypocrisy to step forth in Jesus' Name, knowing that we are not in total obedience to Him especially where men's eyes cannot see; it's very easy to maintain a facade, and quite frankly, we've gotten far too adept at it.  I would think that quite a few Christians depict themselves as holy, at peace, and under self-control but inwardly are overcome with sin, anxiety and worry, burning with lasciviousness.  These are not fit to fight the good fight of faith, but by all means, these should fervently seek the mercy of God, for He stands ready to receive and restore His own, just as a loving father longs to do for his own children.
          Christ, who reigns with all power in Heaven and on earth at the right hand of the Father doesn't need us to fight for Him.  However, we who love Him, because He loved us and gave Himself for us (Eph. 5:25) should want His Name to be only praised and honored and proclaimed as the only means to deliverance from the penalty of sin.
          Some time ago, there was a skit on a popular American show called Saturday Night Live, whereupon our blessed Lord and God was reduced to the role of a bumbling buffoon, concerned more with Tim Tebow winning football games, rather than the salvation of the lost.  I heard an excerpt of the show on a sports radio station and my mouth was agape!  I'm not expecting mainstream culture to really honor Christ, but I've been hoping that there was still something left in America that would restrain her from mocking Him as this skit did.  A clip is embedded below.
         

 

Anyone who is born again would never be entertained by this egregious slander of our Lord!  Yet we must be honest with ourselves about the Jesus we are displaying before the world.  If we were constantly throughout each day through our lives showing Christ as merciful, loving, holy, and powerful then the culture would think twice before blaspheming the Lord of Glory.

We should be filled with righteous indignation when our Lord is so terribly dishonored, but if we are to war against the philosophies of this world and be successful, we can't be entrenched in sin ourselves (Deut. 23:9; Josh. 7:12-13), we must be devoted to regular, fervent prayer (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; Jam. 5:16-17)), and we must prepare ourselves with the Word of God (Deut. 6:6-9; Josh. 1:8; Psa. 119:11, 97-104).