How to Pray More Strategically
"Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do
not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but
also you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,
and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you
ask for in prayer." (Matt. 21:21,22)
Strategic - Serving the ends of strategy (the planning for war) to
reach the enemy's home territory.
Story: John Robb of World Vision's Mission Advanced Research
Center writes, "The adults of Ethiopia's Awash River area, two hours
north of Addis Ababa were suffering through famines. In their
suffering the people looked to a giant tree for help. They worshiped
the towering giant tree, believing a spirit had given it divine
powers. Adults would kiss its great trunk as they passed by. They
spoke of the tree in hushed, reverential tones and the children
said, "This tree saved us... One morning as the World Vision staff
prayed together, one of Jesus' promises struck them from Matthew
21:21,22. "If you have faith, you can say to this tree, Be taken up
and removed and it will obey you." Soon the whole community knew
that the Christians were praying about the tree. Six months later,
the tree began to dry up. Its leafy foliage disappeared, and finally
it collapsed like a stricken giant into the
river. The people were astonished, "Your God has done this!" they
said.
Within a few weeks, about a hundred villagers received Jesus Christ
because they had seen His power displayed in the spectacular answer
to Christians' prayer." (Perspectives, p. 145, John D. Robb)
Here are a few guidelines to help us pray more strategically for the
completion of Christ's great commission and the expansion of His
kingdom and righteousness throughout all people groups of the world.
1. PRAISE GOD FOR HIS POWER OVER ALL. Praise assures us that God's
purposes will be accomplished. Worship affirms our hearts that God's
plans will supersede all other human or demonic endeavors. Praising
people are infused with a continual sense of God's courage,
confidence and hope. People who are on intimate terms with the Lrod
always expect God to work all things together for good. (Rom.
8:28-38)Praise assures us that any human, demonic or organizational
plot against God's plans will fail. Praise helps us submit to God's
power, planning and processes. James wrote, "Submit yourself to God.
Resist the devil (stand firm against him) and he will flee from you.
Come
close to God and He will come close to you." (James 4:7,8)
2. PRAY FOR GOD TO REMOVE ALL OBSTACLES FOR CHRIST'S KINGDOM
EXPANSION. Pray that the Lord will remove all obstacles (political,
social, moral, emotional, personal, family, economic, spiritual, or
people) that stand in the way of the Christ's kingdom and
righteousness. God delights to remove mountains to
prove His mighty power to people who only believe what they can see.
Both the secular materialist and the animist are deeply touched by a
demonstration of God's mighty power over the material world. God
told Zerubbabel, "Not by might or by power, but by my Spirit, says
the Lord Almighty. What are you, O mighty mountain? Before
Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the
capstone to shouts of 'God bless it!" God bless it." (Zech.4:6,7)
3. CONFESS, RENOUNCE AND SEEK GOD'S FORGIVENESS. James wrote,
"Recognize that you are sinners, get your soiled hands clean;
realize that you have been disloyal wavering individuals with
divided interests, and purify your hearts (of your spiritual
adultery). As you draw near to God be deeply penitent and grieve,
even weep over your disloyalty...Humble yourselves in the presence
of the Lord and He will exalt you (He will lift you up and make your
lives significant). (Jaems 4:8,9) The most effective praying happens
when we approach the Lord with brokenness and complete yieldedness.
Christ triumphed over all the forces of evil when He humbly went to
the cross out of submission to the Father's will. We are most
powerful when we come against evil through confessing and renouncing
all of our sins of commission, omission, negative attitudes and
faulty assumptions about our responsibilities before God. Perhaps
there are areas where we are still in
bondage to the ease, fears or selfish desires of our flesh.
4. ENLIST MANY INTERCESSORS TO PRAY FOR VICTORY. Jesus said, "If two
of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together)
about whatever (anything and everything) they may ask, it will come
to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven." (Matt. 18:19)
God blesses corporate prayer by using the intercessory prayers of
His people to accomplish greater things than we can do by ourselves.
Illustration: John Robb writes about the power of intercessory
prayer, "In 1994 a group of Cambodian Christian leaders told me
about the intensity of their spiritual battle and requested support
from a team of outside prayer leaders. The following March, I took a
team to assist sixty Cambodian pastors and evangelists in prayer for
their nation. We quickly encountered the influence of the spirit of
murder, exemplified in the worship of Shiva, god of destruction and
Naga the serpent god who was said to be the guiding spirit of the
Cambodian people. On the second day of the conference, the Spirit of
God spoke through one of the members saying, "Some of you have blood
on your hands." In the room, were former Khmer Rouge killers who had
executed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. Great weeping
followed, with confession of heinous acts in the killing fields...
This deep outpouring of emotion and confession of sin began a
process of reconciliation that led, in turn to the formation of a
national Christian fellowship. At this writing, the number of
churches has grown from about 100 to over 500. In addition, the
Khmer Rouge havee been badly weakened, if not destroyed, as a
terrorist movement. ...Our team and the Cambodian Christians were
not praying alone. We were supported by thousands of people who
interceded for us around the world.
5. ENCOURAGE LOCAL LEADERS TO PRAY WITH IDENTIFICATION
REPENTANCE. Only when the locals leaders are willing to pray with
according to God's formula will there be revival, renewal and
advancement of the kingdom of God in that community. 2 Chron 7:14
says, "If my people who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgiven their sins and will
heal their land." God wants to bring liberty to the captives, healing of the
hurting and deliverance from sin for all people in every place, let
it begin with us.
6. DEPEND ON GOD FOR EVERY NEED, DECISION AND SOLUTION. Solomon once
wrote, "A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory
is in the hands of the Lord." (Prov. 21:31) Do you part but realize
that the battle belongs to the Lord and He is the one who will give
the victory in His own way and timing.
7. PRAY FOR A COMPLETE MATURITY IN CHRIST FOR THE PEOPLE. Paul
wrote, "Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all
things into Him who is the head, even Christ." (Eph. 4:15) Pray for
a holistic change growth of the kingdom in the leaders, the social
relationships, the culture of the people, and the spiritual
qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,
faithfulness and self-control. Prayer that seeks to bring about
changes that will effect people in every aspect of society shows the
power of God through mulitiple dimensions and channels.
8. PERSIST IN PRAYER BY SPENDING TIME WITH GOD EVERY MORNING. Jesus
said, "If you keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking
(reverently) the door will be opened to you." (Matt 7:7) It may take
months, years or even decades, but the Lord will respond to the
prayers of those who will persist with God. Most people who do not
see their prayers answered are just not persistent enough and
patient to see God bring about His miracles. Those who fail to
endure in prayer and be consistent with it allow the evil forces to
encroach back in to areas that were previously taken by Christ's
soldiers.
Let us be like good sentinels who watch over the nation to see it
win the
victory without being caught off guard. Otherwise, the enemy will
take
advantage and cause division, decay and destruction.
Story: John Robb writes, "IN May of 1995 an all night prayer vigil
was hosted for a few thousand people. 30,000 showed up to pray
through the night for the transformation of Cali, Columbia, the
center of the infamous Cali drug cartel. The primary purpose of the
vigil was to take a stand against the cartels and their unseen
spiritual masters. Both have been ruling the city and nation for too
long. After humbling ourselves before God and one another, we
symbolically extended Christ's scepter of authority over Cali -
including its bondage over cocaine, violence and corruption... Upon
seeing the impact of the believers' prayers, the mayor of Cali,
Columbia announced, "This city needs Jesus Christ to bring peace.
The believers in Cali decided to hold a second all night prayer
rally. In preparation, they surveyed the political, social and
spiritual needs in 22 administrative sections of the city. Then they
prayed in specific terms about what they had learned. Again,
dramatic changes followed. Columbian authorities launched an
anti-corruption investigation - not only within the city government
of Cali, but even up to the office of the nations's president. Since
that time Cali has grown economically with more than 25 percent
improvement. The city authorities have provided sound systems and
platforms for 22 concurrent evangelism crusades with 40 national and
international evangelists. The churches in Cali have grown
tremendously in a spiritual explosion. Peter Wagner writes, "Cali
has become a cutting edge city, since its spiritual awakening is
spreading to other cities. But a price for this has been paid in
spiritual backlash. In the past two years, over 200 pastors in
Colombia have been killed by guerillas or paramilitary forces. "
(Perspectives -p. 149,150, John Robb)
Conclusion: If we want to help complete Christ's great commission we
must pray strategically. Prayer breaks the stronghold that Satan has
over peoples' minds and hearts and lifestyles. Only prayer that is a
part of spiritual warfare will prevail against the world, the flesh
and the devil. Bold and persistent prayer is needed to dislodge the
forces of presumption which are blocking the knowledge of God. Most
of this presumption involves self-sufficiency, secular humanism and
self-love over our love and submission to God. Ask the Lord to send
forth laborers into His harvest fields that will engage in effective
spiritual warfare and prayer ministries. Then we can expect to see
some of the greatest removing of obstacles by the hand of God that
the world has ever seen.
Paul J. Fritz
Answers2Prayer Subscriber PPaulFritz@aol.com
Appearing Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003