"War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."
-Faramir, Lord of the Rings
Have you ever thought of prayer as violence? It sounds a little extreme, but stick with me.
Prayer is communication with God, right? That is probably the most general definition for it, yes. What about when we are praying a prayer of supplication or an intercessory prayer? We’re still talking to God, it’s true. But what about when we are praying against the works of the devil? Well, we’re still talking to God, but He’s not our only audience. This is where prayer becomes confrontational–in common language, where it becomes spiritual warfare. It’s not just words and feelings flowing up and down to and from Heaven. It’s the exercise of spiritual power against evil, in the hope and promise that God will make it happen (because we ourselves can do nothing; cf. John 15:5).
There is a story that I heard on the radio once which I think perfectly demonstrates this point (full story here). It’s about David Livingstone, a missionary to Africa. He was in a village in Africa when a rival village sent a message saying, “We are going to come and kill everyone in the village tonight.” They were very scared, but stayed at home praying all night. Nothing happened. David later talked to the chief and asked what happened. The chief said that they did come to the village but there were 39 huge warriors defending the village so they left them unharmed. David eventually went home to his sending church and told this story to them. The church secretary asked him what date this happened, opening the church diary to that date and finding that that very night, 39 Christians were in the church, praying for David and for the tribe. No violence occurred in this story, but there was the threat of one, and it is only because of prayer that David was safe. Prayer can be spiritual violence, and it is essential both in keeping missionaries safe and in opening the door for the Gospel in a place where the enemy does not want that to happen. The devil is not passive, so Christians ought not to be passive either.
I’ve been getting ready to go overseas and join the frontlines of that spiritual war for quite a bit now. The more I get prepared for that journey the more I realize how I have been failing as a Christian in this spiritual war. Billions of people around the world don’t know Jesus. I didn’t really care until God got a hold of me and set me on the missions path. But you know what? The single most important thing that any Christian can do to make His name known among the nations is to pray. Did you know that a conservative estimate says that 25% of Muslims convert to Christianity because of dreams they had? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that that statistic is primarily the work of prayer from faithful Christians. Did God call all to be apostles? See 1 Corinthians 12 for an in-depth answer; I’ll satisfy my rhetorical question with a short no. Not everyone is supposed to be a missionary! But everyone is supposed to participate in the fulfilling of the Great Commission. Again, the absolute most important thing that the average person can do is to pray.
The world is full of brokenness and unbelief. The best solution? “Hasten the day of the coming of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:12) when everything will be set right. How do we do that? It will come when the “good news[d] of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations.” (Matthew 24:14). Therefore, we must fight “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12) with the power of the Holy Spirit, which we have, in spiritual violence, or, prayer.
We must pray like our lives depend on it; or, if you’re feeling Christ-like, pray like their lives depend on it. They do.