Ministries
May / June 2006
Lynne Hammond
Dearest Friend and Pray-er,
Do you ever wonder just how much of Satan’s oppression we, as God’s people, are going to put up with before we get fed up with it? How much crime are we going to put up with in our cities? How much moral darkness are we going to allow in our communities? How much godlessness and atheistic teaching are we going to allow in our schools?
How long will it take for us to get so sick of it all that we finally rise up, put on our spiritual armor, take our place in prayer, and put Satan on the run?
We have the spiritual authority to do that, you know. For the most part, we just haven’t been fed up enough to use it.
In many ways the Church—especially the American Church—has fallen into the trap the Israelites often did in the Old Testament. Just as they groaned and complained about the oppression of Pharaoh, yet continued to submit to it, we groan and gripe about the encroachments of Satan. We complain about the abortions in our nation, about the exploding pornography industry, about gay marriages, the legal assaults on the public expressions of Christianity, and countless other issues. Yet we continue to put up with it, year after year.
That must be a common problem with God’s people because the Israelites didn’t do that just once. They did it again and again.
The fourth chapter of Judges, for example, tells about the harsh oppression they suffered during the reign of the Canaanite king named Jabin. He didn’t have any real legal right to rule over the Israelites, but they tolerated his tyranny anyway for 20 years.
Why? Probably because they thought he was stronger than they were. After all, he had 900 chariots of iron and the Israelites didn’t. He had a mighty military commander named Sisera and multitudes of soldiers. The Israelites had no such military might.
So they put up with Jabin’s devilish domination year after year—until they finally got fed up.
Do you know what they did then?
Judges 4:3 says, they “cried out to the Lord” (NKJ).
In other words, they began to pray.
Be Patient and Let the System Work
“But, Lynne, I’ve already done that,” you might say. “I’ve prayed for my neighborhood. I’ve prayed for my city. I’ve prayed for my nation. I just didn’t see any results, so I got discouraged and quit.”
That happens to most all of us at one time or another. We’re inspired to pray about some ungodly condition we see around us, but when things don’t change right away, we start thinking our prayers aren’t doing any good.
What we need to do at times like that is follow the advice President Bush recently gave to someone who was asking him why certain changes hadn’t yet taken place in government. He said, “Be patient and let the system work.”
I realize he wasn’t talking about prayer when he said that, but it’s good prayer advice anyway. Be patient and let God’s system work!
Some prayer assignments have to be worked on a little every day for long periods of time. That’s why Colossians 1:11-12 says we must be “strengthened with all might, according to His [God’s] glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (NKJ). Very often in prayer we must just keep marching… marching… marching toward victory.
We can’t just have emotional outbursts of prayer in times of crisis. We must be constant and consistent, refusing to give up until the total victory is won.
Keep Growing Stronger
That’s what the Israelites did when they got sick and tired of Jabin. They did more than just cry out to God once or twice. That was only the beginning. After they cried out, two leaders stepped forward—the prophetess Deborah and the warrior Barak. At God’s command, Deborah and Barak assembled an army of 10,000 Israelites (no doubt that was quite an effort in itself), who went out to fight:
And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots… all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left. However, Sisera had fled away on foot…Judges 4:15-17 NKJ).
The Israelites could have stopped at that point. They could have said, “Well, we’ve whipped the army. That’s good enough. Let’s just forget about Sisera and let him go.”
Do you know what would have happened if they’d done that? Sisera and Jabin would have put together another army, and before long, the Israelites would have been under their thumbs again. But, thank God, that’s not what happened.
A little woman named Jael stepped forward and finished off the wicked commander Sisera. He came to her tent thinking it was a safe place to hide. Hungry and worn out from the battle, he quickly accepted when Jael offered him some milk and a place to rest; and he was soon sound asleep.
Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple. So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. (Judges 4:21-24 NKJ)
When Leaders Lead
Brother Hagin, my father in the faith, used to say, “Don’t just pray until you get 50 or 75 percent victory. Pray until you get 100 percent!”
That’s what the Israelites did. They didn’t just stop when they defeated the army. They didn’t even stop when Sisera was killed. They kept opposing Jabin until he was completely destroyed!
As pray-ers, we can learn a lot from their example. We can learn, for instance, that some prayer battles can only be won when we pray corporately and work as a mighty army like the 10,000 warriors did who fought with Barak. Other battles will be won by individual prayer—prayer in your kitchen, prayer in your car. At those times, we’ll conquer the enemy in a solitary setting like Jael did.
One of the most important lessons we can learn from the Israelites’ war with Jabin, however, can be found in the victory song Deborah sang after the battle was won (Judges 5:2 NKJ). It begins with these words:
When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord!
Israel’s victory began when Deborah and Barak stepped forward. It began when leaders “took the lead.” Taking the lead wasn’t easy for them. It put them in difficult places. It wasn’t convenient or comfortable. But when they did it, the nation of Israel was transformed from a group of oppressed, discontented sheep into a mighty, conquering army.
No wonder 1 Timothy 2:2 instructs us to pray for leaders and all who are in authority! When they obey the command of God and lead the people in the right direction, the oppression of Satan can be destroyed—not just in individual lives but in cities, states, and nations.
Shepherds and Commanders
Recently, I’ve become especially aware that we need to pray for pastors in that regard. We usually think of pastors simply as shepherds who feed and care for God’s flock. We think their only job is to help the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, tend the sheep.
But, the fact is, our Great Shepherd has many functions. He has many names. One of those names is the Lord of Hosts, the commander of heaven’s army. Jesus can change in a heartbeat from a shepherd into a commander who is leading His troops out in battle to enforce Satan’s defeat and take territory for the kingdom of God.
Pastors are called to do the same thing. They’re divinely ordained to take up their divine responsibility not just to feed God’s people but to mobilize them to pray. If they will do that, they won’t just have a sheepfold of sweet, precious sheep. When necessary, those sheep will become the army of God. They’ll march forward in prayer against the onslaughts of Satan. They’ll rise up in the authority God has given them and start pushing back the enemy’s advances.
Many believers already know how to do that. They understand the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of His blood. They’ve even used that authority in their own lives and families. They’ve used it in their pup tents.
But it’s time for all of us to reach out further—to use our authority in our neighborhoods when we see things that aren’t right, to use it in praying for our city and state government. It’s time for us to do what the Lord told Israel to do in Isaiah 54:2-3:
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. (NKJ)
“Let’s Meet It in Prayer”
For that to happen, the leaders must lead. Pastors must rally the troops. In many churches, those troops are already well prepared. The pastors have faithfully taught them about their spiritual weapons.
What those troops need now is a military leader. They need the pastor to assemble them in corporate prayer and tell them where to shoot.
I saw a demonstration of that overseas not long ago. I was visiting a church in a nation where Christians are severely oppressed and persecuted. When the pastor of that church first began to minister to the congregation, he just functioned as a shepherd. He lovingly taught the Word to them and operated in the gifts of the Spirit, calling out various individuals, giving words of wisdom or knowledge to some, and ministering healing to others.
When he finished that part of the service, he opened his Bible again, intending to feed the sheep some more. Then something amazing happened. The look on his face changed. When he turned back toward the congregation, it was as if something in him had clicked and he’d been transformed from a kindly shepherd to a military commander.
The people instantly responded. Apparently, they had seen that look before, so they switched from the sheep mode and became a prayer army awaiting the leader’s command.
Sure enough, it came. “I see a wave of violence coming against this nation,” said the pastor. “Let’s meet it in prayer!”
Right then and there, the people began to pray. They didn’t pray long but they prayed with power and authority. They prayed in unity and one accord, and they got their job done.
Right now, I am believing to see more churches operate like that, especially here in the United States. I believe with all my heart that if there were two such churches in every state, this whole nation could be blanketed in prayer. If there were at least two churches with pastors who functioned not only as shepherds but as spiritual commanders, receiving prayer direction from heaven, the oppression of Satan could be overturned and that state could be protected.
If the leaders will lead, God will give them the strategies. He will give them directions. And He will give His people the will and the wisdom to follow.
Until I write again, keep praying for pastors. Stand in faith with me for prayer armies to rise up in churches all over this nation. And always remember that…
You are loved by,
Lynne
TESTIMONIES:
Bournemouth, England
I am so grateful and encouraged by your TV program A Call to Prayer, and by PrayerNotes. Just lately it is as if God is giving me confidence to lead our little church in prayer and the things you say are timely confirmations of the inklings that are becoming a strong burden in me to pray, call other pray-ers together to pray, and encourage people who say “I know I don’t pray enough” to start praying!
Your words about being obedient quickly and accurately in the mundane, little things that don’t make a lot of sense and about praying for civil, military, and spiritual leaders to be used by God is all confirming and revealing God’s purpose for how I should pray. And to think that He is revealing the same thing across the world is exciting because thousands of pray-ers are hearing the same call—as I know I’m not the only soul to be stirred by His words through you!
–S.S.
