PRAYER AS A MILITARY STRATEGY
Dr. D. K. Olukoya
Beloved, in this edition, we are considering a rather unusual topic. We cannot but benefit immensely from this discourse if only we read curiously with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We shall move straight into action by commencing with the following militant prayer points which you must pray fervently, effectually, and with spiritual violence, to enable them avail much for you.
1. I paralyze every evil hand pointing at my blessing, in the name of Jesus.
2. I withdraw every satanic instruction targeted against me, in the name of Jesus.
3. Enough is enough of hidden and open infirmity, in the name of Jesus.
4. Every evil river dry up, every evil shrine working against me, be roasted, in the name of Jesus
5. I crush every battle of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.
6. I refuse to be subdued by the forces of wickedness, in the name of Jesus.
7. I refuse to be fed with the bread of sorrow, in the name of Jesus.
8. I nullify every night arrow fired against me, in the name of Jesus.
9. I issue death sentence on all my Goliaths, in the name of Jesus.
10. My miracle will not die, in the name of Jesus.
11. My testimony will not vanish, in the name of Jesus.
12. My dream will not become a nightmare, in the name of Jesus.
13. Devil, you are a liar, you can not capture my destiny, in the name of Jesus.
14. I refuse to waste my divine opportunity, in the name of Jesus.
15. Every authority challenging the move of God in my life, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
16. I break every agreement made between my parents and satan on my behalf, in the name of Jesus.
Exodus 17:8-16 says, "Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim and Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon; And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua discomfitted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua that I will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called its name; JEHOVAH NISSI, (meaning, THE LORD IS MY BANNER). For he said, because the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."
There was a battle between the Amalekites and the Israelites. The physical battle was going on down the hill, but Moses knew that before you could get anything to work in the physical it will first of all have to work in the spiritual. So he fought spiritually. As he prayed, the battle came in favour of the Israelites, but anytime his hands were weak, the Amalekites prevailed against the Israelites. Looking at this beloved, you can see that prayer is an unnatural activity. So, it is not a wonder then, that the largest church in the world was built on prayer. If you have ever read about it, they have somewhere called "Prayer mountain," where people are taken by buses in their thousands, in order to avail themselves of the blessings and power that flow from prayer. Many people do not really know much about prayer before they practice praying. But the truth is that God’s power can only flow to people who pray and pray aright. The Bible says, "The Lord is a man of war and the LORD is His name." So our Commander- in- chief is a warrior and a fighter. Prayer is an important part of that war.
If we look at this story again, we can see that Moses prayed while Joshua fought and he found out that he must keep his hands stretched to heaven in prayer, if he must open the door for God’s supernatural intervention. Moses, discovered that God’s prevailing power is released through prayer and that this power is released into the lives of those who pray. It would be hard for God to release His power into your life, if you do not take praying as a serious business. Prayerless people cut themselves off from God’s prevailing power. Prayerless people are overwhelmed, over run, beaten down, pushed around, and defeated by the enemy.
Immediately Moses could make the connection between prayer and God’s power, his prayers began to yield results at the battle. Jesus said, "Men ought always to pray, and not faint, He did not say men ought always to sing, or men ought always to preach. There is nothing too great, too hard or too difficult that prayer cannot do. It has obtained things that seemed to be out of reach. Prayer has won victories over fire, water and death. It was prayer that parted the Red sea. "So shall your Red sea part today, in Jesus name." Prayer brought water out from the rock and bread from heaven. What does that mean? It means that your impossible situations can become possible through prayers.
A long time ago, at one of the business meetings, I shared the testimony of a man who was a prayer warrior. He would come to the church and pray his heart out, but he was poor and people were laughing at him. When contributions were to be made to buy certain things, this prayer warrior would not be able to make any contributions. Many times, he actually suffered open ridicule from brethren. So, he got discouraged and sat at home. But the church people did not know that it was the prayer of that man that God respected most. Immediately he walked out on the church; problems started. The city council brought a letter that the church should be moved because a road was to be constructed there. Quickly, they called a prayer meeting and started praying to God so that the Council would change its mind. During the prayer meeting, there was a word of prophecy that, "You people have chased the angel out of this place, you better go and look for him." Eventually, somebody was sent to his house to beg him and he came back to the church. When he came back and they prayed together, to the glory of God, another letter came from the Council stating that there was a mistake by one of their Engineers and that the road would not pass through the church again. This was a clear demonstration of the power of prayer.
This man kept coming and God was always saying to him, " I am going to make you a millionaire without you raising a finger." But he did not understand. One day, as he finished his prayer, the Lord said, "Start going to the Bar beach now." And as a good prayer warrior, he just obeyed the Lord and went, praying on the way. When he got to the Bar beach, he saw a corked bottle floating on the river. Eventually, the wave of the sea brought the bottle ashore. He ran there, picked it and saw that there was a piece of paper looking like a cheque leaflet inside it so he opened it and forced the paper out and read it.
There was one rich man some where in America who was not normal. He was very rich but never married. He had no children or relatives when he died. He left a will behind in which he instructed that half of his wealth should be given to his dog and the other half to anybody that could find what he kept in the bottle, and that was what this man found! So, the man who could not afford to come to church by bus, became somebody who they came to fetch with an airplane all the way from America. Indeed, prayer can turn a person’s situation around. Prayer made the sun to standstill, meaning that the enemy will not be able to introduce darkness that will hinder your breakthrough and the sun shall stand still until victory is yours. Prayer brings fire from the sky and so shall help come to you from above too, in Jesus’ name. Prayer turned the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness. So shall every evil counsel against you be turned to foolishness, in Jesus’ name. And I know that all my Ahitophel shall receive confusion, in Jesus’ name.
It was prayer that overthrew the army of Senacherib, when they encamped against the children of God. But after prayer, the Lord sent just one angel, and that single angel destroyed 185,000 soldiers encamping against a few people. So shall all encamping enemies be put to shame, in Jesus’ name. You may wonder, can a person have up to 185,000 enemies? Oh yes. There was one man in the Bible, who had 6,000 demons living inside him and he was still moving about. Some black people have more than that and they are still drinking beer in the streets. Sometimes, you wonder how someone can drink a whole carton of beer. He is not the one drinking it. A white man friend of mine used to say, that "The child of many prayers can never perish."
A lot of people wonder why they pray but still have attacks. The Bible says, "Pray without ceasing." It means that if you cease, something bad will happen, because, we have a ceaseless enemy, who does not sleep. Some people take sleeping pills when they can not get enough sleep. But the enemies of the souls of men do not sleep at all, they are ceaseless devourers. When God told Moses that He wanted to destroy the people of Israel because of their stubbornness and make of Moses a great new nation, Moses said no and began to appeal to God not to destroy them, his prayer held God’s hand. As long as Abraham was asking for mercy on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord granted him and did not cease until Abraham stopped. May be if he went further and said, "Supposing You find one, perhaps Sodom and Gomorrah would have been saved but he stopped at ten and the Lord stopped at ten too.
As God’s children, beloved, we are supposed to do all our things militantly. We read the Bible militantly, speak militantly, evangelize militantly and pray militantly because God is not a civilian, but a soldier. Revelation 19:11-14 says, "Now I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He doth judge and make a war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns, and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood: and his name is called the word of God. And the armies which were in heaven, followed him upon white horses. Clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of Lords."
The Lord himself is a man of war. So when you pray, you are employing a very powerful military strategy. The most useful soldiers in the army of the Lord are the prayer warriors. Satan has raised up a great antagonism against prayer, and he launches his violent attacks on any ministry of prayer. He tries to ensure that people do not pray. The devil wants to ensure that nobody prays and if he fails in doing that, he makes sure that the prayer is weak. If he fails in that too, he manipulates the person to pray civilian prayer that is, useless prayers, prayers that will go up and bring down nothing.
Militant prayers
Militant prayer must have power and fire in it. It must get the supernatural power of God to work in overcoming problems and unprofitable situations. When you pray militantly, you rise from your knees refreshed. When you pray and rise up weak and wary, know that you have prayed the civilian way. Militant prayer is a powerful weapon. It has the capacity to issue embarrassing surprises on the enemies, because they can never know what you are going to say next or your direction. This is part of the reason the devil fears prayer especially somebody who prays in the Holy Ghost. Militant prayer can turn the table in favour of the minority.
Peter was put in prison with very tight security and there was no way he could get out. Why did they take that kind of precaution on Peter? They did because they had thrown some apostles into jail before and an angel came, opened the door and said, "All of you walk out, go back to the market, where they caught you and start preaching there again." So, sixteen soldiers were attached to Peter and he was tied with two chains. But something happened, his miracle did not come late. The doors opened, the chains broke, the soldiers did not know what they were doing, the chains broke and Peter walked out. The doors opened for Peter on their own accord without anybody touching them. It will be wise beloved that you too pray like this: "Let the doors of breakthrough open for me by their own accord, in the name of Jesus."
CHARACTERISTICS OF MILITANT PRAYER
1. Militant prayer must be anointed prayer and not one taken from a 17th century book that has no relevance to your life now. It must be done in a divine presence. Jesus prayed at a particular place and the Bible says that, "His countenance changed." When you pray without the anointing, you chase away the presence of God.
2. It is prayer filled with determination. There is nothing many of us can achieve in the school of holiness if we can not stay long alone with God in persistent prayer. The forces wanting to pull people down are so many and the Bible laments, "How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of way perish." You just have to pray with more determination and persistence like Jacob.
3. It must be specific and intensive not just anything from anywhere. There are many promises for the believer in the Bible, so you must be specific when you pray. After blind Bartimaeus had finished screaming, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" So be specific. It is an insult for a man to be asking God for things that are of no value, so in your prayer, call a spade a spade.
4. It must be according to God’s will.
5. It must not be cold. It must have life. We must not offer dead prayers through laziness. Laziness in prayer will cause trouble for you.
6. It must be done by violent faith, believing God for a breakthrough.
7. It must be bold, in other words, prayer must have holy boldness.
Prayer as a military strategy must be faced and addressed with militant aggression, military tactics and with a sense of purpose. We must remember that the battle is the Lords and the victory has been given to us. We are only battle axes in the hand of the mighty God of War. If we yield ourselves as effectual instrument of prayer in our God’s hands then we are sure to win any enemy that confronts us, in Jesus’ name.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Every stronghold of wickedness fashioned against me, let the fire of God burn them to ashes, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every ritual and sacrifice working against me, be neutralized, in the name of Jesus
3. Every evil bird delegated against me, fall down to the ground and die, in the name of Jesus.
4. You drinkers of blood, my family and I are not your candidates, in the name of Jesus.
5. I refuse to dwell in the building constructed for me by my enemies, in the name of Jesus.
6. Let the blessings, presence, domination and authority of God be experienced in every department of my life, in the name of Jesus.
7. I destroy every satanic establishment against my life, in the name of Jesus.
8. I break every satanic cooperation against my life, in the name of Jesus.
9. I command confusion and disagreement between my hardened enemies, in the name of Jesus.
10. I break every covenant formed between my enemies against me, in the name of Jesus.
11. I paralyze every spirit of wastage, I shall not borrow, in the name of Jesus.
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