Prayer as a Weapon against Persecution

In this day and age, we have been listening, reading and viewing several messages online and in physical meetings about prayer. But very few children of God have practically discovered the value of Prayer as a Spiritual Weapon in our hands.

Right from the time when a soldier is inducted into the Army, he is taught to guard with his life the personal weapon issued to him for his safe custody. The sanctity of any weapon, known as a “controlled store”, that is issued to any soldier is to be taken very seriously. A cadet under training is taught to clean and maintain his weapon and ensure its safety until it is returned to the armoury for safe custody.

I recall a very serious incident that took place in a battalion while posted in Bikaner, Rajasthan. One soldier had lost his rifle issued to him while the battalion had gone for a three-month long training and exercise in the deserts. When the battalion had proceeded on a night long exercise, one soldier from a Company fell asleep in the middle of the pitch-dark night when they were given an official rest in between a long and tiring march. When the company was ordered to re-start with the night long march, Sepoy ‘X’ altogether forgot about his weapon when he awoke from his sleep. The matter was treated as very serious. To cut a long story short, the entire company was alerted and literally the whole battalion went into a search mode. His immediate seniors including his Company commander were all hauled up by the Battalion Commander. It took the entire battalion almost two days and two nights before the weapon was traced in the wide and open desert, which put everyone in distress! It was like searching for a needle in a haystack! It was an unforgettable experience for all and a slur on the officials directly or indirectly involved, besides the individual who was personally responsible for the loss of his weapon. His future in the Army was tainted. Such was the punishment!

As far as a soldier of Christ is concerned, the precious weapon issued to him by the Lord Himself, is the weapon of PRAYER. If the loss of a weapon by one soldier in a battalion in the Army was considered to be a very serious lapse that affected the career of a soldier and his superiors, how much more grave is the loss of the weapon of prayer to a child of God! 

As believers in Christ, we are to consider ourselves as Soldiers of Christ in the Army of God and our only weapon, both of offense and defence, is the weapon of Prayer. The more we spend time with God in our Prayer Chamber, the more He is pleased with us by sharpening our weapon of Prayer by His direct involvement! The more a soldier handles his weapon and sharpens his skills of shooting, loading his rifle, unloading and quick handling of stoppages and rectification of defects and addressing trouble shooting; the more he becomes skilled at his weapon handling and getting ready for the battles ahead that would save his life and the lives of the others. 

A prayer warrior develops intimacy with God and gets to know Him more while engaged in a spiritual warfare against the forces of darkness. In intercessory prayer, a soldier of Christ is literally doing the weapon handling and getting to understand the nuances of warfare with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. In John 18:3-6 we read how a detachment of Roman soldiers accompanied by officers sent by the Chief Priests and Pharisees carrying torches, lanterns and weapons with Judas Iscariot on the lead; met with the Lord along with His disciples near the garden at Gethsemane. When Jesus stepped out, knowing fully well about their intentions, asked them, “Whom are you seeking?” And they replied, “Jesus of Nazareth” and with the Lord replying, “I am He”, they immediately drew back and fell on the ground in response! That is the power of prayer demonstrated by Jesus after his agonizing Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:40-46), where even the Angel came down from Heaven to strengthen and minister to Him in His agony! Prayer changes things and it supernaturally empowers us!

During my early days in Bikaner, Rajasthan, as a young Lieutenant, I was staying with the other bachelor officers in the accommodation meant for us. One night, the other officers were making merry, drinking late into that Saturday night and engaged in wild drunken revelry with loud music and dancing, while I was kneeling ajar to ajar by my bedside and praying in agony for these officers engaged in sinful activities. 

Soon thereafter in the midnight hour as I was reading the Bible and praying and preparing to attend the following Sunday worship service, I heard a loud thud on my front room door with shouts of, “Father! Open up the door! Open up! Open up!” I was nick-named as 'Father' those days! I would not budge and asked the Lord to help me in my distress since they were all my seniors and in the normal course, I was not supposed to disobey them. I could feel my adrenalin rush and really did not know how to respond to the situation! As I continued in my prayer to the Lord on my knees, suddenly the front door opened a jar with the force of the strong boots kicking against them and with the tower bolt giving way! I was still on my knees and certainly shaken up with this sudden unexpected turn of events! 

The senior most among them, a hurly-burly officer, fully drunk, mockingly asked me using very foul language as to what I was doing on my knees by my bedside with the Holy Bible in front of me. The question did not deserve an answer I thought and I remained silent. He and his colleagues thereafter literally demanded me to join them in their revelry. I politely refused, by displaying utmost respect to them by stating that I am a Christian. They laughed out loud and became more menacing toward me and I thought I am going to be mauled! One of them shouted at me angrily using unparliamentary language, “We have seen plenty of Christian officers who drink like fish and perhaps beat us in all such areas”! I remained silent since they were heavily drunk and not in their senses. When they gleaned no response from me, I was physically abused. I thought it unwise to talk to these officers at that time of the night in an inebriated condition.

Then one of them came forward and held my hand and forcibly tried to pull me out of my bedroom to join with them. That’s when I picked up courage with a strange anointing of the Holy Spirit in me and I cried out by saying, “leave me in the Name of Jesus!” In a fraction of a second as if some kind of an electric shock hit him, he was thrown back by a few feet with a thud. Suddenly, there was a deathly silence even when they were in their drunken stupor! Very soon, each one literally retraced their steps petrified, by moving out of the room facing me, as if they had seen something that instilled in them a strange fear that engulfed them. I was excitedly praising my Jesus within Who came to my rescue at the nick of the moment by sending His guardian angels to me! That incident changed the perspective of my fellow officers who viewed me differently thereafter. As I look back at that night’s divine and supernatural intervention, I can only vouch that our Lord is faithful and just to test us for not more than what we can bear. He is in the business of sharpening our tools of prayer for our victory in the midst of Persecution. When we prayerfully take a stand for the Lord amidst persecution, it becomes a powerful weapon in our hands. That is because He is faithful by taking a strong stand for us! When the Lord is with us, who can be against us? - Rom 8:31 

Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were great prayer warriors who ended up using the powerful weapon of prayer against persecution to oppose the strong and mighty King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. When Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King’s delicacies or the wine which the King drank (Dan 1:8), the Lord honoured him and his friends by answering their prayers and revealing to them deep secrets and mysteries that only God could reveal to them. With the strong weapon of Prayer, Daniel and his friends were used by God to come out unscathed from the hungry lions in the den or the furnace of fire! Thus Nebuchadnezzar, the strong and mighty King of the Kingdom of Babylon officially announced, “Blessed be the God of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego … Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because THERE IS NO OTHER GOD WHO CAN DELIVER LIKE THIS”. Then the King promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon...! - Daniel 3:28-30.

Joseph is yet another great example from the Bible who used the weapon of prayer against persecution and who fought his battles personally with God’s help. When nobody was there to watch over Joseph except the Lord Whom he feared, God revealed to him through visions and dreams; great secrets and mysteries by which he ultimately became the Prime Minister of Egypt! With the powerful weapon of prayer that he used always and every time and by staying in touch with God, he knew the heart of God and the Lord made his persecutors, including his own blood brothers, to respect him! The value of prayer as our weapon against our adversaries is something that cannot ever be imagined! Such a weapon being used turns our enemies in becoming our friends. 

We hear of Christian Persecution in our nation of India becoming more severe than ever before. It’s high time we draw out our weapons of prayer in these days of Persecution and be ready for the Lord to help us. 

When we fast and pray and are in personal touch with God, we are like a soldier handling his weapon and sharpening the skills of weapon handling and going to the firing range (prayer closet) to practice our skills of sharp-shooting! That is when the Lord begins to share deep and mysterious things to us. “The Lord seeks/yearns for Himself a man after His own heart” to pray, intercede and commune with Him – I Sam 13:14.

God seeks to entrust the powerful weapon of prayer into the hands of intercessors and leaders to pray against the forces of darkness that are causing or instigating persecution in the nations. The persecuted Church in India and the ethnic and religious cleansing that is taking place in India, I believe, is being allowed by the Lord! For, He is seated on the Throne and is in control. The situation appears to be getting more and more complex and going out of control in Manipur. As I write these lines, I am overwhelmed with mixed feelings about the stories that are woven around the loss of several lives, houses and church buildings in the state of Manipur. It is my prayer and firm belief that during these crucial and complex days when the Church is being subjected to persecution, the Lord will touch the persecuted and their persecutors equally and ultimately, that they will each experience the salvation through Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” – John 3:16. Our Lord loves all and He abhors killings, destruction, rape, violence, murder and all kinds of evil; which are all perpetrated by the devil and the forces of darkness.

The time is very critical for the churches in India to go down on their knees, using our weapon of prayer against persecution of Christians in Manipur, UP, Chattisgarh and other such states. It is indeed time for us to seek our God of Mercy to act in this emergency and to save our nation from a great calamity and distress. 

When the persecuted resort to violence or hatred against the persecutors they do not allow the Holy Spirit to work. When Jesus was being subject to persecution, He could have easily commanded a host of His guardian angels to come to His rescue and eliminate those who persecuted and ultimately crucified Him on the cross. Prior to His persecution and crucifixion, Jesus had prayed earnestly at the garden of Gethsemane with much agony till His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:43-44). He prayed that if his Father willed the cup of affliction be removed from him, however he prayed not for his will but for the will of His heavenly Father’s will to be fulfilled. Father God in heaven with much pain, instead, sent His angel to minister to His Son to strengthen Him! Father God may have encouraged His Son to somehow bear the pain and allow His Blood and Life to be sacrificed on the cross – for the sake of the world and its sinners for the generations to come! The events following are so poignant that it was because of Jesus’ awesome sacrifice and pain on the cross, that you and I including the persecutors stood the chance of being saved. So, when we pray for the persecutors, we must look at the matter from God’s heart and perspective – not with vengeance or asking God to punish the persecutors. That would not be a godly prayer. Instead, we must pray against Satan and the evil forces of darkness that control the perpetrators of crimes against innocent souls. Our Lord Jesus Himself said in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.

May the Lord help us use our secret weapon of prayer against persecution judiciously and according to His will by tuning our hearts with our Abba Father’s heart! That is when He would be pleased with our prayers and answer our prayers miraculously.