I am well aware that as soon as I raise the issue of prayer, the eyes of many glaze over and people will see my lips moving but no sound coming from my mouth. It is what it is … for now. But I believe God is even now moving on His church to encourage it to pray like never before, because the days are evil, and the god of this world is furious that his days are numbered – and he is doing everything in his power to stave off the inevitable.
The enemy is attacking the church with renewed vigour. He is using every kind of weapon in his arsenal to rip and tear at the church and lure it into division; and the weapons he is using are mainly aimed at silencing the praying church. Oh, he is hard at work setting the rules for current public discourse and social commentary so that the Christian voice is painted as stupid and “unwoke” on all manner of issues; or marginalising the church’s prophetic voice on matters every human being as the right to have an opinion about. Of course, this has been going on for decades, and we are now seeing the chickens flocking home to roost. Wokeism and political correctness now own words such as respect and dignity, kindness and inclusion, love and so on in such a virtually exclusive way that church cannot attain their imposed standards. Such control of the public narrative in these ways make it extremely difficult for the Christian voice to be heard – and taken seriously.
But the apostle Paul reminds us that we have divine weapons capable of demolishing strongholds of human wisdom and reasoning that are arrogantly erected against the holy wisdom and truth of God …
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Here’s the thing: the apostle is not coaching us here on how to win in public debate, or winning arguments for God, or proving our point against opposing human voices. No! He is calling us to pray and intercede so that we pull down in the spiritual realm the sources from which flow demonic inducement to pervert God’s will and distort His truth. Our work is done in the spiritual realm so that, in the Name of Christ, the work of the enemy is brought to no effect on the earth – that is a key reason we are still here. If the church could understand this, and cut off the demonic influences at their source using the divine weapons given us (prayer, intercession, prophecy, wisdom etc.), it would do a heck of a lot better in the public debates. But, alas, the earthly public arena is where we seem to want to always start – we seem to want to fight this spiritual war on Satan’s terms, instead of defeating him in the spiritual realm, first!
Why?
We are called to take on the enemy from a position of victory in Christ – and it starts in the spiritual realm with prayer warfare. Again Paul,
Ephesians 6:12
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Surely this points to where the battlefield is! We fight here – in prayer, on our terms with the authority given us, not the enemy’s terms, in the spiritual realm against spiritual powers and authorities who are influencing outcomes on the earth! We are in a season where need to pray and intercede and be used of God to stop the moral carnage occurring in our day.
This is such an urgent priority! But few will pray first and win in the spiritual realm, preferring to debate and argue first in the natural realm.
I have always been fascinated at the way Moses prayed. He prayed as if Israel’s life depended on it – and it did! – especially after the shocking golden calf incident. Moses did battle in prayer for the people, and out of those places in prayer came great wisdom and authority that had such enormous impact that the people repented. Through meeting with God in the tent of meeting – praying – he directed the affairs of a nation. One man. Imagine a whole church doing that.
The church must be like Moses, praying for our nation as if Australian’s depended on it! And it does! Take a look around; the foundations of our nation are crumbling while the church stands by and prefers to argue, debate and protest our religious freedoms. The church and Christians need to be much more eager to pray and intercede and do ferocious battle in the heavenlies than it is with engaging in public debates and protesting this, that and the other without having done the spiritual work. Yes, there is a time and place for having our prophetic say on social issues, righteousness and so on, but that should be after we have shifted things, and pulled down demonic influencers at their source and prepared the ground for inspired, prophetic comment.
If the church does not take this seriously, it will forever be arguing the point with flesh and blood and never getting anywhere and be pushed further and further from being able to seek the shalom of the city. We will be increasingly ignored. No longer salt and light, or a city on a hill. We are called to pull down strongholds – not discuss why flesh and blood is wrong. That is never the cause. We are called to demolish arguments and rationales through intercession – first! Not argue.
May it be that our churches urgently gather for prayer with the deep desire to do battle in the heavenlies until there is no demonic influence aimed at our community remaining.
Australia does not know it, yet, but it is depending on us.
Selah!
Ps Milton