The Secret Weapon
By Karen Elengikal
(To read from the beginning start with Part I. and Part II. of this three-part series.)
CORPORATE CELEBRATION
The solution to Jehoshaphat’s dilemma started with corporate prayer and ended with corporate celebration, the direct consequence of binding the strongman and plundering his goods.
‘On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised the LORD … Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the LORD with harps and lutes and trumpets. The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. (Remember the demons tremble at the name of Jesus uttered from our lips!). And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.” (2 Chronicles 20:26-30). Only days before the city of Jerusalem was in high alert. Now it was pulsating with music, song, rejoicing and celebration! Their prayers miraculously answered! Their enemies dead and plundered!
Corporate celebration and worship is the final victory of corporate prayer.
ACTIVATING THE ‘SECRET WEAPON’
Jehoshaphat and Judah had prayed together, plundered together and celebrated together!
Through effective prayer, ‘we are working together with God to determine the future. Certain things will happen in history if we pray rightly.’ (3.)
In World War II, the secret weapon of corporate prayer was used powerfully to defeat the Nazi invasion of England. Corporate prayer changed the course of history! In September of 1940, Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England during WW II, had received intelligence reports that a Nazi air invasion of England was pending. The British Royal Airforce were hopelessly outnumbered. The invasion commenced with more than 200 Nazi bombers heading towards the shores of England. The British responded with a meager 26 squadrons. The following historical account of this event is taken from British history as recorded in Katherine Pollard Carter’s book, ‘Hand on the Helm’.
“… Then inexplicably the discs on the wall chart began to move eastward. The great air flotilla had turned back. With 185 of their aircraft downed in flames they were in retreat! Miraculously, against all logistical probability, the Royal Air Force had won the battle…
Amazing reports came from the downed Nazi pilots. [Several were] quizzed as to why they had turned back when only two planes were attacking. “Two”, exclaimed one pilot. “There were hundreds!” Another Luftwaffe officer asked them in perplexity, “Where did you get all those planes you threw into battle over Britain.?” His British interrogators managed to mask their surprise. Actually, the powerful Nazi bomber force had been met by a mere handful of little outmoded Royal Air Force Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. There was no sky full of Royal Air Force planes!…
A Nazi intelligence officer captured still later came nearest to disclosing the divine source of the … mirages which had confused the Luftwaffe pilots. “With the striking of your Big Ben clock each evening at nine,” the Nazi told the British intelligence officer, “you used a secret weapon which we did not understand. It was very powerful, and we could find no countermeasure against it.”
He was right! There was a powerful force set in motion each evening as Big Ben struck nine. It was the powerful force of a nation in heartfelt prayer against which no countermeasure could hope to prevail – a nation in prayer to the omnipotent God of creation. Each evening as Big Ben struck nine, the people of the British Isles and of the far flung English Commonwealth halted for the famous Silent Moment of Prayer …”(4.) (Bold italics are mine.).
It was the secret weapon of deliberate, united corporate prayer that wrought the miraculous and defeated the seemingly ‘more powerful’ enemy.’ E.M. Bounds correctly points out that, ‘Prayer is not preparation for the battle; it is the battle.’
“MY HOUSE WILL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER!”
Now is the time to bring to fruition the desire of Christ and revolutionize His House into ‘a house of prayer.’ (Matthew 21:13). The hour has come for the church to rise to her full potential in holy resolve. The time is at hand for the church to fight and take back for God the spiritual dominion over our cities, regions and nations. Once the strongman is bound, his goods can be looted. But, until that victory is won, relentless, unified, strategic corporate prayer must continually raid and bombard the heavenly realms, to destroy the devil’s strongholds and to usher in the kingdom of God.
The ‘secret weapon’ of praying churches result in rewards for all and culminates in corporate celebration. Will you join the prayer assault? Will you activate in your church, the ‘secret weapon’ of corporate prayer, to see the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven, here and now?
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FOOTNOTES:
(1.) Peter Wagner, “Churches that Pray’, Chapter 7.
(2.) Cindy Jacobs.
(3.) Richard Foster, ‘Celebration of Discipline.’
(4.) Katherine Pollard Carter, ‘Hand on the Helm’. (Springdale, Pa.: Whitaler House, 1977), pp. 4-5.
Karen Elengikal is an inspirational, published writer from Sydney, Australia. Karen’s first book ‘Kidz Battle Zone’ was released in 2007. (see FW Book Review).
2006 Karen Elengikal
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