“Prayer Is Invading the Impossible”
As we intercede for righteous causes and against the influence of evil, it is important that we do so on a firm biblical foundation. This week, I’m going to share some thoughts regarding spiritual warfare, which are applicable for our personal lives, as well as for nations.
It comes as a surprise to many Christians when they hear that the basic concept behind “intercession” does not necessarily have to do with prayer. The English word basically means to “go between.” Mediation is one of its synonyms. Intercession is used in the context of prayer because when interceding for someone, or perhaps for a place, we are “going between” them and God, mediating for them with our prayers.
What many more Christians don’t realize, however, is that our intercession on behalf of individuals and places is not just heavenward, going between them and God, but it is also placing ourselves between them and the powers of darkness. Intercession, therefore, involves two very different activities: One is a reconciling, a connecting, becoming a bridge in order to unite individuals with God and His blessings; the other is a separating, a breaking, a disuniting from satan’s influence. These two opposite activities are what Christ did for us through His work of redemption, and they’re what we do in our representation of it. We petition the Father and enforce Christ’s victory over satan.
It is often not enough to simply ask the Father to do something, although this is most Christians’ total concept of prayer. Many times it is necessary to accompany the asking with spiritual “warfare” (2 Corinthians 10:4) or “wrestling” (Ephesians 6:12), enforcing the victory of Calvary. As Arthur Mathews said in his great book, Born For Battle, “Victory is an accomplished fact, but it does need a man to lay hold of that victory and precipitate a confrontation with the enemy, and resist him.”(1)
Jack Hayford, in his outstanding book, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, says:
“To see both sides of Jesus is to see both sides of prayer. It is to see the need for compassion, for care, for concern, for weeping with those that weep, for sympathy, for groaning, for aching deeply because of what you sense transpiring in human lives. And it is to learn the place and time for anger, when we see satan’s wiles successfully destroying; for indignation, when the adversary’s program violates territory that is rightfully Christ’s; for boldness, when demonic hordes announce their presence; for attack, when the Holy Spirit prompts an advance.”(2)
Certainly, we must guard against imbalances and not become preoccupied with satan or demonic spirits. I once heard someone describe a humorous cartoon they saw that depicted an overemphasis on spiritual warfare. It portrayed the devil with 40 to 50 strands of rope around him, and several individuals nearby discussing the situation. “What do we do now?” one asked.
“I say we bind him again!” was the response of another.
We don’t want to become imbalanced in our approach to spiritual warfare, but satan and his evil spirits are real and must be warred against. Our Hebrew word translated as “intercession,” paga, backs up this assertion. Though translated as intercession, paga is used in many ways in the Old Testament. Its primary meaning is “to meet with,” and can describe any type of meeting. One of these meetings, of course, is to meet with God on someone’s behalf. It might surprise you, however, that paga, this word for intercession, is used to describe battle or conflict no less than 15 times in Scripture. It is translated “attack,” “fall upon,” “strike down,” “impinge,” and with other battlefield terms (see Judges 8:21; 1 Samuel 22:11-19; 2 Samuel 1:11-16; the essence is the same in all of them - people in battle attacking one another).(3)
It is impossible to separate the concept of paga from warfare; violence and war are prevalent in the use of the word. Hear me clearly: Intercession involves spiritual warfare!
Jack Hayford also said in his great book, “But there is a way to face impossibility. Invade it! Not with a glib speech of high hopes. Not in anger. Not with resignation. Not through stoical self-control. But with violence. And prayer provides the vehicle for this kind of violence?”(4)
When we try to separate spiritual warfare from intercession, we do so to our own detriment. Much time and energy is wasted dealing with symptoms and effects, when in many situations the real cause of the problem is spiritual or demonic: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). Yes, we must guard against an overemphasis upon satan and demons, but most believers in America err in the other direction. Most of them, in fact, stop reading Ephesians 6:12 after the words “we wrestle not!”
The importance of spiritual warfare for individuals can be seen in the following testimony.
I heard a minister tell of a person for whom he had prayed for a long time. It seems this person could never achieve any stability in life or in his walk with the Lord. He would find a job, then lose it. He would walk with the Lord for a while, then turn away. This cycle repeated itself again and again; no amount of prayer seemed to make a difference.
One day, as the minister prayed for this young man, the Lord showed him a vision of three demons following the fellow everywhere he went. In the vision, they were not in him, but were always present and had a great influence over him. The minister saw names over each demon, describing what each caused in the young man. One at a time, he rebuked them in Jesus’ name, breaking their hold over him. From that moment on, everything changed. Stability came to him. He became very successful, eventually becoming a wealthy businessman and an ordained minister.
It is always appropriate to ask the Father to mature and strengthen individuals, but this man needed something more. He needed someone to exercise authority over the demons controlling him and command his deliverance. He was simply not strong enough or mature enough to overcome the spiritual strongholds on his own. The church in Galatia was experiencing demonic-induced deception (Galatians 1:6-10; 3:1). Paul said he was in travail until Christ was formed in them (Galatians 4:19). Sometimes people need help to get freedom and grow in spiritual maturity.
Pray with me:
Father, as we represent Christ and His victory over the powers of darkness, teach us to war with wisdom. As we mediate, standing in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30-31) for people and nations, guide us as You did the man interceding for the unstable individual in today’s post. You showed him exactly what was needed for the young man’s freedom.
Remove all fear of spiritual warfare from the body of Christ. Give them the assurance that they can intercede for deceived and bound individuals, setting them free in Jesus’ name. Even now, we bind demonic deception over our family members, freeing them from the control of darkness.
And Father, we can also push back the forces of evil on a broader scale as the Ekklesia joins together in binding the powers of darkness. We do so now, binding the influence of evil powers in the Middle East. We declare the victory of Jesus over that region and ask that it be released into Iran and the entire region. Bring deliverance, Father, and send revival. We ask all this in Christ’s name. Amen.
Our decree:
We decree that the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord, Jesus Christ. (Revelation 11:15)
Today’s post was adapted from a chapter in my book, Intercessory Prayer, published by Baker Books.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
R. Arthur Mathews, Born for Battle (Robesonia, PA: OMF Books, 1978), p. 113.
Jack W. Hayford, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible (South Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1977; revised edition, Bridge Publishing), p. 45, 1977 edition.
James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 6293.
Hayford, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, p. 5.