"God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.... The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which God carries on His great work upon earth.... God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer."¹

My biblical image of the spiritual warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan was rather weak until I visited Corinth and began to understand 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Our family returned for our first furlough by way of Greece. We were disappointed with the old city of Corinth, because all that remains is a pile of rubble and a few pillars.

Undaunted, we drove our car to a huge, ancient fortress atop the mountain that overshadows the city. A wall wide enough for a chariot to drive on encircled the mountain. We hiked up the mountain and through the first gate, only to encounter a second wall about one hundred yards farther up the mountain. Beyond it was a third wall. My wife and daughters stopped to rest at the third gate, while my sons and I climbed to the top of the mountain. When we looked back, they appeared to be about an inch high, and we were all still inside the fortress!

I turned to look in the other direction and caught my breath at the panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea. To the east I could see Athens. If I could have seen far enough to the west, I would have seen Rome.

Obviously, whoever controlled this fortress had authority over this part of the world. The fortress, built before the time of Paul, was not conquered until thirteen hundred years after his death.

Paul mentioned war, weapons, strongholds, casting down high things, and bringing into captivity. He told the Corinthian Christians that they battled a spiritual enemy who was humanly invincible and that they must fight with spiritual weapons because the battle took place in the spirit world. Note that Paul’s instructions deals with the mental end the spiritual. They were to cast down imaginations, high things that exalted themselves against the knowledge of God, and to make every thought obedient to Christ.

We fight an enemy whose strength and cunning are surpassed only by God’s strength and wisdom. We are at war! Therefore, Christ has given us spiritual weapons with which to fight. Prayer is included in the list of weapons in the spiritual warfare with the forces of Satan.

PURPOSE OF PRAYER IN MISSIONS

Our battle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities, with powers, with rulers of darkness of this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). Christ already has defeated the principalities and powers through the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. He has triumphed over them and has made a public spectacle of them (Col. 2:15). He has been raised to the throne of heaven far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion (Eph. 1:20-21).

However, the battle is not finished for his body, the church. The church is to make actual the victory Christ won. God has revealed the mystery that had been hidden from the beginning of time-that all nations are to be a part of Christ’s body. He called Paul and the rest of us "least saints" to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

God’s eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, is that the church should make known the manifold wisdom of God to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Eph. 3:10). Paul immediately followed this statement with a statement about the boldness and access that we have to God through Christ (Eph. 3:12). He added, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:14). Prayer is the mighty means by which the church is empowered to demonstrate the wisdom and power of God to Satan and his hierarchy of rulers and demons.

Paul E. Bilibeimer goes so far as to say:

. . . prayer is not primarily God’s way of getting things done. It is God’s way of giving the Church "on-the-job" training in overcoming the forces hostile to God. This world is a laboratory in which those who are destined for the throne are learning, by actual practice in the prayer closet, how to overcome Satan and his hierachy.²

PATTERN OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Jehoshaphat fasted and prayed when attacked by the kings of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir (2 Chron. 20:1-25). The whole nation prayed until God assured them that "the battle is not yours, but God’s.... Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you" (2 Chron. 20:15-17). They praised God for the victory; and by the time they reached the battlefield, God already had caused the three enemy armies to annihilate one another. Israel just picked up the spoils. Here is the secret of victory-win the battle in prayer first!

Daniel fasted and prayed three weeks before God answered his prayer. Daniel described the spiritual battle that was taking place in the spirit world with the words of the angel to him:

"Don’t be frightened, Daniel, for your request has been heard in heaven and was answered the very first day you began to fast before the Lord and pray for understanding; that very day I was sent here to meet you. But for twenty-one days the mighty Evil Spirit who overrules the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the top officers of the heavenly army, came to help me, so that I was able to break through the spirit rulers of Persia. When I leave, I will go again to fight my way back, past the prince of Persia; and after him, the prince of Greece. Only Michael, the angel who guards your people Israel, will be there to help me" (Dan. 10:12-13,20-21, TLB).

The purpose of intercessory prayer in missions is to overcome the spiritual powers that rule the nations and the hearts of unsaved men. God responds to prayer and receives the glory for the victory. He uses his people as intercessors to train them in his purpose, to direct them in his battles, and to display to the evil powers his glorious plan of eternal partnership with man.

O. J. Frazier, missionary to China, literally brought thirty thousand Lisu people to Christ through prayer. His first six years in the area resulted in very little fruit among the primitive tribes. Then he began to intercede for them and to enlist prayer partners in England. God honored their spiritual warfare over the evil forces possessing the Lisu people. Once response came, Frazier noticed that the churches that he did not visit as often grew faster than those where he worked regularly. His conclusion was that he prayed more for the churches that he could not visit and, therefore, they prospered more.³

POWER OF PRAYING ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL

Prayer is designed to involve us in God’s purpose more than to involve God in our plans. Once we understand the purpose of God in the world, we should invest our lives in it. God delights in answering prayer that is according to his will. He refuses to answer prayer that is not in his will. Our task, then, is to discover what God wants and to ask for it.

God clearly presents his purpose and will in his Word. To pray successfully we must know his Word and base our prayers on its promises.

We know we are praying according to his will if his Spirit reveals it in the Word. Once we have that assurance, we are confident that what we ask for has been granted. We accept it as an accomplished fact even though we must wait for the physical evidence.

The Spirit comes to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). When we pray according to truth, the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God (Rom. 8:27).

When we pray for the things for which Jesus prayed, we know we pray in God’s will. He prayed for his disciples more than he prayed for the world, because he was sending them to the world. Just so, our focus also should be on Christ’s disciples and their ministry to the world.

God decided long ago that he would not save the world apart from his people. His concern for the world is linked to the concern his people have. He did not tell us to send out laborers into the harvest. He said, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt. 9:37-38).

The reason we have so few people reaping the harvest is because we are not praying that the Lord will send out laborers. As I write this book, I am praying that the Lord will impress and send you, along with a spiritual army of laborers, into the ripe harvest fields of the world. He sends each of us into the nearby harvest fields in our communities. He sends many of us to other nations.

Jesus prays that the Father will keep us from evil (or "the Evil One" [John 17:15, GNB]). He engaged in spiritual warfare for us and is now interceding for us at the right hand of God.

The intercessors you have just read about prevailed in prayer; God spared his people and continued his purpose through them. But when there were no intercessors, God did not spare the people. "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none" (Ezek. 22:30).

The biographies of George Meuller, Praying Hyde, Hudson Taylor, Rees Howells, and other great intercessors reveal a common pattern. They sought God’s will about a matter until the Spirit impressed them with a Scripture. Then they claimed the Scripture promise by faith, and God answered their prayers.

Examine your prayer list and prayer life to see if you are praying according to God’s purpose. Are you praying for the world? Are you engaged in spiritual warfare? Are you praying for laborers for the harvest?

POSITION OF THE INTERCESSOR

New Testament priests are to intercede for others. Each Christian bears the responsibility to come to God first for his own sins and, second, for the sins of others. Paul wrote, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men . . . for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:1-4).

The position of the intercessor is directly between God and the one for whom prayer is made. The Old Testament priest illustrated this when he came before the mercy seat to intercede for the people. Jesus took the position of the intercessor in Gethsemane and on the cross. When he died, the veil to the holy of holies was split from top to bottom, symbolizing the access that all believers have to the Father through Christ. Jesus presently sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us. This is one reason we pray in Jesus’ name.

Moses placed himself in the position of the Israelites when he prayed: "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written" (Ex. 32:31-32). He was willing to take their punishment, even to being blotted out of God’s book.

Paul said: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:2-3). Paul positioned himself between God and his people with an urgency that caused him to be willing to go to hell in their place. He could plead with men for God because he had pleaded so fervently with God for men.

Rees Howells so identified with those for whom he prayed that he often felt compelled to identify with their physical conditions. As he prayed for tramps, he felt he should eat what they could get at the British government’s lodging houses. So for two and one-half years he ate only two meals-of bread, cheese, and soup-a day. God greatly used him in ministering to the indigent.

After interceding for four orphans, Howells felt led to take them into his home. He prayed intensely for God to give him a father’s love. He was then able to say:

"Any child without parents has a claim on God to be a Father to him, so these four orphans had a claim on the Holy Spirit who was to be a Father to them through me.... I felt I loved every little child in the world that had no one to look after it. It was the love of God flowing through me.". . . That is the law of intercession on every level of life, that only so far as we have been tested and proved willing to do a thing ourselves, can we intercede for others.4

Howells’ intercession prepared him for missionary service in Africa. God sent great revival there in answer to his prayers. Later Howells gave himself full time to intercession. According to Norman Grubb, Howells’ biographer, battles of World War II were won because of his prayers and those of his prayer partners. Howells’ final intercessory prayer victory was for the Lord to provide one hundred thouand pounds for the spreading of the gospel to every person.

Where among us are the intercessors who will give their lives in the spiritual warfare of prayer for the world? When will every believer realize his priesthood and spend part of his time in intercession for missions? We should position ourselves between God and those who need him so desperately.

PLAN FOR INTERCESSION

Because we wrestle not with flesh and blood, God provides spiritual armor for the intercessor. We must realize that we are behind enemy lines and that spiritual warfare goes on all around us. Our natural inclination is to fight with physical means.

How does one fight a spiritual warfare in prayer? Ephesians 6:10-20 lists the spiritual armor for prayer warfare: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching "hereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Eph. 6:18). Each piece of this armor is essential to the prayer warrior.

One of the most important days of my life I awoke feeling terribly depressed. This was unusual for me. Then I realized I was not really depressed but oppressed. I had no idea of the importance of the day, but obviously Satan did. As soon as I recognized this oppressive spirit, I knelt by the bed and used the prayer armor of Ephesians 6 to gain the victory. It was a great day, and God won the victory in some very important decisions.

The enemy is defined in Ephesians 6:11-12 as various levels of evil spiritual rulers. Satan uses his tricks to defeat the saints even in prayer (v. 11). Most Christians think they are immune to Satan’s attack when they are on their knees, but that is precisely when Satan is most active. He hates to see even the weakest saint on his knees.

God wants us to stand against (v. 11 ) Satan with all his wiles in spiritual warfare. He wants us to withstand (v. 13) in the evil day and then finally to conquer and to be standing when the battle is over (v. 13).

The prayer armor should be used specifically in the following situations. First, when Satan attacks us. Second, when we attack Satan and enter his realm to claim those he has captured-the strayed and the lost. Third, when we are seeking release from Satan’s dominion over some area of our own lives. Satan jealously guards all that he has captured and will surrender it only when forced to by God.

Look at each part of the armor and relate it to prayer. The helmet of salvation may symbolize protection of the mind, a favorite place for Satan to begin. Satan places doubt, disobedience, and dread in the mind (2 Cor. 10:5). When you begin praying, place the helmet of salvation securely on your head by claiming the blood of Christ as the basis of your right to pray (Rev. 12:11), by praising God for your salvation and your assurance (Ps 145), by giving thanks to God for your salvation and all its attendant blessings (Eph. 5:19-20), and by claiming the mind of Christ (Rom. 8:5).

The breastplate of righteousness may symbolize protection for the heart. All evil comes out of the heart (Mark 7:20-23). At this point, ask the Lord to search your heart and show you any wicked way in it (Ps. 139:23-24). As the Spirit reveals sin in your heart, confess it (1 John 1:9) and claim Christ’s righteousness as the substitute for it (2 Cor. 5:21). After you have confessed your sins and have claimed Christ’s righteousness, picture the breastplate of righteousness securely fastened so that Satan cannot get to your heart.

The loincloth, or the belt of truth, may represent the protection of the emotions (usually thought to reside in the solar plexus). Determine to want nothing but truth and integrity in your life and prayer. Examine your evaluation of things, words, and feelings, and then surrender all of them to God in exchange for truth. This makes you more objective in your praying and in your living and less vulnerable to Satan’s lies. Ask God not to allow your emotions to cloud the truth. The belt held all the armor of the Roman soldiers in place; truth makes our spiritual armor secure.

Having you r feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace puts you in a position to attack the enemy (Isa. 52:7-8). This means you are prepared to take the gospel to anyone for whom you pray. If you are not ready to take the gospel, it will be difficult for you to intercede for lost persons. Envision the countries of the world where the gospel needs to be taken and pray for them as well as for your friends and your neighbors.

The shield of faith fends off Satan’s attacks as you advance. He tries to shoot his fiery darts through your mind, heart, and emotions, but God gives you the shield of faith to ward them off. The faith shield is used for advance, not retreat. With this shield you overcome the world (1 John 5:4). Neither temptations nor trials can pierce the shield of faith. Faith is the key to winning the victory in prayer. Jesus told his disciples, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24).

The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Spiritual victory cannot be attained apart from the Word. The shield of faith is most effective with the sword of the Spirit. As you march into Satan’s territory and begin to reclaim for God the things that Satan has stolen out of his kingdom, ask for those things which God reveals through his Word. Find Bible promises and use them to claim that which God really wants to give you. Satan cannot withstand the Word of God and falls back when you move in to possess God’s possessions through claiming his Word by faith.

The armor prepares you to intercede for others. Now you are in position to pray for others and to expect an answer. The battle is on! Advance clothed with the armor of God. Persevere in intercession until the victory is won and you stand victorious with your trophies of grace. Intercession pleads that God’s plan be executed and that his gospel be proclaimed boldly (Eph. 6: 19-20).

You cannot pray like this in five minutes. Spiritual warfare means wrestling with the enemy. It may take an hour, or a day, or a week, or longer. God is looking for soldiers armed for combat. In fact, he has limited himself to prayer warriors. Every advance of the kingdom is dependent on the prayers of the saints. God is determined that we should be full partners in claiming the kingdom and, therefore, waits until we have put on the prayer armor and entered the spiritual warfare.

Each Christian should set aside special times for prayer warfare in addition to his regular times elf prayer. It may begin with an hour a week and then be stretched to a day of fasting and prayer. The job of a prayer warrior is not for retired saints only. God intends for all of us to be praying always with all prayers and supplications The greatest privilege he gives us is the privilege of fighting in his army on behalf of those who have been captured by the Evil One.

PRIORITY OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER IN MISSIONS

John Wesley said, "God will do nothing but in answer to prayer." All advances in the kingdom are preceded by prayer. No revival ever begins without prayer. When God wants to do something, he moves men to pray for it. Trace the movements of God in history, and you will find they were born in prayer, bathed in prayer, and grew by prayer.

The birthplace of the American foreign missionary movement was a prayer meeting in a haystack near Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1806. A spiritual awakening in the churches motivated Samuel John Mills and four friends to pray outdoors twice a week. One Saturday afternoon they ran to a large haystack for protection from a thunderstorm. They prayed and talked about Asia, which they had studied in class. Mills declared that they must send the gospel to the heathen. One disagreed, saying that civilization must precede Christianity. They knelt to pray to be united in purpose. As they finished praying Mills cried out, "We can do it, if we will." Later in Andover Theological Seminary, Adoniram Judson joined Mills’s prayer group and became the first missionary of the American Board for Foreign Missions.

God’s mission to the world begins when his people get on their knees.

Importunity gives God an opportunity to demonstrate his power. Intercessory prayer is not to be done at our convenience but because of someone’s inconvenience. Jesus said, "Ask . . . seek . . . knock" (Matt. 7:7). We must make priority what God makes priority.

When God led us to the mission field, he laid on my heart the need for intercessors. I realized that I was a very ordinary person, and I said, "God, I would like to see what you can do with an average person who is backed by prayer." Through the years several thousand people have prayed for us, some without missing a day. Each month in our prayer letter I asked them to pray about specific needs. In the weeks and months that followed, I reported on how God had accomplished his work through their prayers. Literally hundreds of answers to prayer have been recorded as a direct result of intercessory prayer by people in the United States. If every missionary had people praying daily for his specific requests, a great surge of power would be felt all over the world.

PRACTICE OF PRAYER FOR MISSIONS

Every local church should have an intercessory prayer ministry enveloping local, associational, state, national, and international missions. We must develop trifocal vision which allows us to pray for the needs near at home, the needs in our nation, the needs around the world. Prayer is the one ministry that supports all of the other ministries of the church. Our failure to accomplish God’s will is not so much for lack of strategy or of activities as for the lack of prayer. Most churches have programs for everything except prayer.

Individuals should have a systematic, daily prayer ministry for others. In your prayer ministry, each day you might pray for a different area of the world, or for different types of ministries, or for different persons on mission.

Twenty years after I had been converted in a little rescue mission in Fort Worth, Texas, I returned to preach. Mrs. Ferguson still directed the services. She was so thrilled that one who had been saved in the mission had returned to preach. Before the service began she gathered all the derelicts around to sing "Amazing Grace." Her hands, gnarled by arthritis, sought the notes on the ancient, upright piano.

After the song she gathered everyone around for prayer. She said in a voice that broke, "Come on, men, we are going to pray for a worldwide revival!"

I was astonished at the fervor with which she prayed for the Spirit to be poured out on the nations of the world. She is dead now, but her cracked voice intermingled with sobs for a lost world still rings in my heart, "Brother Willis, we must pray for a worldwide revival!"

I have continued to pray for God to answer that prayer. Will you join the growing band of people around the world who will pray for the desire of God’s heart to become reality, for the Spirit to be poured out, and for the gospel to be preached to every person? God waits for intercessors to be his go-betweens.

NOTES

1. E. M. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer (Chicago: Moody Press, n.d.), pp. 9-10. Used by permission.

2. Paul E. Billbeimer, Destined for the Throne (Fort Washington, Pa.: Christian Literature Crusade, Inc., 1975), p. 40.

3. Mrs. Howard Taylor, Behind the Ranges (Chicago: Moody Press, 1964).

4. Norman P. Grubb, Rees Howells, Intercessor (Fort Washington, Pa.: Christian Literature Crusade, Inc., 1976). pp. 97-98.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

How to Pray for Others. Equipping Center module. The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1979.