Prayer Warriors
by Francis Frangipane
In our rapidly changing times people are desperate to know the future. Barely do we adjust to the last changes, when totally new realities explode into our world.
In answer to the common fears spawned by change, society has seen a plethora of occult and demonic sources--fortune tellers, astrologers and psychic hotlines---all pretending to be able peek into the mystery of tomorrow. Indeed, how many otherwise intelligent individuals glimpse, at least occasionally, at their "astrological signs" trying to get an edge on knowing the future!
Why anyone would consult someone who can't predict their own future is beyond me. These fortune tellers almost always live in abject poverty. Shouldn't their ability to predict the future at least work for themselves? They could invest in the stock market or pick the right lottery numbers. They can't even predict or better their own fortune, yet people go to them for discernment.
Tremendous Power In a Christian!
For Christians, God condemns this demonic, fleshly probing into the unknown. Indeed, as intercessors, He has called us not to wonder about the future, but to create it through the knowledge of His Living Word and prayer! Our Father gives us access to the future right now. You ask, How do we know what to pray? The Lord Jesus told us plainly,
"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:9-10).
We can look at the conditions of the world and faint or look at the possibilities of God and take faith. To bring revival is to pray for the reality of God's kingdom to manifest on earth. Jesus was not offering His disciples a millennial prayer focus, for that rule of God's kingdom is coming whether we want it to or not! No, but Christ calls us to pray for God's kingdom to manifest in our world today.
How will tomorrow look if God answers the prayer Christ gave us? Read the gospels. What we see in the life and power of Jesus Christ is a faith picture of God's kingdom. Jesus said that we can have that same full manifestation. In fact, He actually commanded us to pray for heaven's release!
The Prayer Womb
The reality God has planned will always manifest first in the prayer life of His intercessors. When you hear from God and then pray His Word, you are impacting the unformed essence of life with the Spirit of God Himself! Thus, God calls us, not only to know His Word, but to pray it. We must go from intellectualizing God's Word to being impregnated by it.
I know churches have special areas where intercessors can pray or people meditate. But maybe we ought to change the name from "prayer room" to "prayer womb." For everything good and holy that we see manifested in people, in churches and in life is first conceived, and then birthed, in the womb of prayer.
We have answers to prayer all around us. The place you are living in is an answer to prayer. Your church is an answer to prayer, as well as are your pastors, teachers and youth workers. As a church member, your attendance and participation is an answer to the prayer of your pastors and intercessors. When you asked God to lead you to the church you should attend, your current church became God's answer to your prayer!
Paul wrote, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might" (Eph. 1:18-19).
If you are a Christian, there is a power accompanying your life that is greater than great---the "surpassing greatness of His power." It is not human power, but the actual "strength of His might."
Think about it: The strength of God Almighty is attached to your prayer life!
The power of God's might is His resurrection power. What does resurrection mean? It means that things which look dead, smell dead, and act dead, can be touched by God and raised to life!
God demonstrated this "power toward us who believe" first "in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:19,20).
Right now, you have resurrection power attached to your prayer life! You can look on things that are absolutely dead and pray forth eternal LIFE! The power in us is the same potency God demonstrated when He raised Jesus out of the grave; it is resurrection power. Our mission is to bring resurrection life to situations that are dead.
If the devil challenges your prayer, remind him that you are seated with Christ, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come" (Eph. 1:21). Christ's authority is final. But not only has the Father put "all things in subjection under His feet," but He "gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23).
Notice the Lord uses anatomical metaphors to explain the downlink of authority: Christ is the "head" of a "body" that has all things put under its "feet."
This is a most profound understanding of our role: What the Head, Christ, has attained, the feet of the church walk out. In other words, God has positioned the church as the living bridge between the terrible conditions on earth and the wonderful solutions from heaven!
As we truly, passionately, and accurately submit to Christ in prayer, the kingdom of heaven steadily enters our now prayed-for world. The key of course, is to know Christ's word. We do not have authority; Christ has authority. What we have is revelation and submission. But as we submit to the Word, and persevere in prayer, we can see the future conformed to God's will.
Francis serves as senior minister of River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Francis' heartfelt prayer is to see the Lord fulfill His call to His church, and that He will continue to give grace until, in every city, Christlike pastors and intercessors are standing before God for their communities. |
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