Prayer as a Weapon of Attack

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."  Ephesians 6:12

Early in my ministry,God impressed upon me that intercession is essentially defensive prayer.  Yet He also seemed to say to me, "My people are beginning to move out on the offensive."  Therefore, I want to share in this article about offensive prayer  -  prayer as a weapon of attack.

In the above quote from Ephesians, Paul is talking about a wrestling match.  To me, this is significant because he is taking his metaphor from the Olympic Games, where the most severe, total test of strength, power, endurance and skill was the wrestling match.  In a wrestling match, it is one man totally pitted against another.  It is this figure of total involvement which Paul uses for spiritual conflict, telling us that it involves our whole being.  Paul says that the supreme target of our Christian warfare is this kingdom of darkness under the control of Satan.

Looking in the Old Testament, we find (in Daniel) that over each major empire was a satanic prince directly responsible to see that Satan's purposes were carried out in that empire.  I believe this is true of the world today.  Every major nation and empire has a particular satanic prince set over it to ensure that satan's purposes are carried out and God's purposes are frustrated.  Ultimately, the destiny of a nation is determined by who wins this heavenly warfare.

We are dealing with a government of evil that seeks to control the world with spiritual power for Satan's purposes.  The ultimate challenge of the Church is to defeat that government.  I believe this responsibility rests on us, the Church, because we alone have the spiritual weapons to do the job.  It is spiritual warfare  -  it must be won with spiritual weapons.  Carnal weapons cannot do it.  Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh."  We are at war, but it is not in the carnal, fleshly, material realm.  "Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

Can you see that the warfare is spiritual, and the objectives we have to capture are in men's minds?  Our warfare is to liberate the minds of men from the control of Satan and bring them under the control of Christ.  To do that, we have to pull down Satan's strongholds, which are built up in people's minds.

What are our spiritual weapons?  There are three main spiritual weapons.  Number one is the name of Jesus Christ.  Number two is the blood of Jesus.  Number three is the Word of God.  These are all spiritual weapons.  Consequently, they have to be launched by spiritual artillery.  What is the launching mechanism or channel for all spiritual weapons?  The mouth  -  and there are four main ways of launching our weapons through our mouths.  Number one is prayer.  Number two is praise. Number three is preaching.  Number four is testimony.

So we see that there is a battle for men's minds.  The weapons are spiritual.  The artillery through which they are launched is our mouths.  The victory will go to the side that makes the best use of its mouth.  I truly believe that if the children of God, filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, would fill the atmosphere with the spiritual weapons God has given us, Satan's kingdom would be bound, silenced,and rendered ineffective!

I believe that in every area of the earth, it is within the pwoer of God's people to win victory for their particular territory, and Christians in every area are responsible before God for their area.  I believe the destiny of this nation and other nations will be determined by the way Christians use the spiritual weapons which God has put at our disposal.
(This article is an adaptation of an article by Derek Prince originally published in the July/August 1975 issue of the Intercessors For America Newsletter, www.IFAPray.org)