Prayer Is Warfare

June 5, 2018

Good Morning Fellow Travelers, 

Read: Exodus 17


“And 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.”  Ezekiel 22:30


The situation described in today’s key verse moves me.  Was Israel really in such straits that there was not one man to intercede for them?  God said that He had found none.  This brings up another question: Will God use just one man to stem such a flood of sin?  Would just one fill the gap or make up the hedge?

From the account in Exodus, it appears that this is exactly the case.  Just one faithful man on his knees, in his closet, interceding before God for his church or his community can have amazing power with God.  Such a man is taking the battle to the level where it should be fought.

If we are not known in the spirit world as Paul was known (Acts 19:15), we are worth little as preachers or intercessors.  You and I should be known by the devil as dangerous enemies of his satanic agenda because of our persistent, consistent, prevailing intercession.

Prayer is spiritual warfare.  The battle for spiritual victory and lost souls depends heavily on prayer.  The battle is won or lost right here.  Evangelistic efforts and outreach programs are simply the trucks that God’s people drive out on the field to pick up the spoils of the warfare of prayer.

Aaron and Hur helped Moses’s intercession by holding up his hands.  Where was the battle won that day?  In the valley?  No, on the mountain.  The victory in the valley was decided by the intercession on the mountain.  Likewise, the church would win more victories in her valleys if there were more intercessors on the mountain.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). 

Be that man!  Stand in the gap.  Make intercessory prayer a way of life.

 – James Baer