Years ago I used to go to a Wednesday night prayer meeting where we would sort through scores of 3x5 cards and letters from people asking for prayer. To me, sitting in a wheelchair around the table, it was always interesting to notice how many – actually, almost all of the prayers – were for healing or relief or release from some difficult situation – mainly a painful illness. Being in a wheelchair, I could understand. What one of us doesn’t want relief and release and healing?
But prayer is so, so important, so powerful, so instrumental and key to God's grand scheme of things… it’s so critical to His overarching plan for the advancement of His kingdom that, well… its purpose is so large, so big, so much more than a conduit for our comfort. Like Dr. John Piper says, “Prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie for spiritual warfare; not a domestic intercom to increase the comfort of the saints. And one of the reasons prayer malfunctions in the hands of so many Christian soldiers, is that they have gone AWOL.”
Dr. Piper is right, he really is. Because we forget that the primary purpose of prayer is like a walkie-talkie on the battlefield. Friend, there’s a war going on out there, a spiritual war and we soldiers in the Lord's army employ prayer as our direct communication with the Captain of the heavenly hosts. My goodness, the very success of God's Word going forth in this world depends on prayer. In Colossians chapter 4, the apostle Paul says, “Pray for us that (now get this) God might open to us a door for the Word.” And elsewhere in 2 Thessalonians, he says, “Pray for us that the Word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored.”
John Piper describes the way we soldiers can grab hold of prayer and call on God for courage. We can call on God for troop deployment and target location. We can call on God for air cover and protection, as well as for fire power to blast open a way for the Word. We can use prayer to call on supplies for the forces that are on the field. And prayer is our communication link for needed reinforcements. And, yes, finally (getting back to all those requests for relief and healing)… finally, we can pray for the miracle of healing for soldiers who become wounded in this spiritual battle, asking God for not only physical healing, but increase of faith in the midst of the pain.
I’m going to share that quote from Dr. Piper one more time, because this is the place of prayer on the battlefield of the world. “It is a wartime walkie-talkie for spiritual warfare. Prayer is not a domestic intercom to increase our comforts and securities.” Friend, today when you pray, remember the big picture. Remember God's grand scheme of things. Remember that when you pray, you’re on the front lines of kingdom advancement. It is the large, it is the soldierly way to pray.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends