Sunday, September 23, 2012

Just like God...

The morning after I wrote the last post, I was reading in one of my devotional books, Streams in the Desert, book 2, and just like God does, He dropped a timely word. Perhaps it is because we live in a foreign country apart from past comfort zones, or perhaps it is because we see these things happening on a daily basis, or because we have walked in places where the evidence of the evil one is very real, but whatever the reason, we are more aware of the need for prayer covering than ever before.  Hear our heart in these words.

The weapons of our warfare are...mighty to the pulling down of strongholds
(2Cor. 10:4)
 
In the Great War in France a strong position had to be taken.  The enemy's lines were so defended by trenches, parapets and barbed wire, that any assault, however determined, by whatever number of men, must have failed.  However brave the attackers might have been, not a man would have reached the enemy's trenches alive.  It was, in fact, quite impossible for the place to be taken by infantry assault.  But the attacking general had collected large numbers of the most powerful artillery, firing the most powerfully explosive shells.  With this excessive strength of massed artillery a continuous fire was kept up for over five hours on the one objective till trenches were blown in, palisades thrown down, and wire entanglements blown to pieces.

Then, when the artillery had done its work, the waiting troops were at last able to go up "every man straight before him," and, with comparatively little loss, to capture the position.  What had been absolutely impossible to them before had been made possible by the sustained fire of the artillery.

I believe this is a most accurate and instructive picture of spiritual warfare.  There are positions of the adversary that cannot be stormed or starved.  There are defenses that are impregnable.  There are obstructions which effectually bar the progess of the most devoted members of God's great missionary army.  Before such can possibly succeed, there is necessary the sustained and continuous fire of the artillery of prayer.  Nothing else will take its place.  Nothing will avail until it has done its work.

Too often, in the absence of prevailing prayer, the assault has to be made without, and precious lives are sacrificed, time is lost, and all efforts are in vain; not because God is unfaithful, or the servant is not devoted, but because the artillery of prayer has been lacking, and no breach has been made in the enemy's defenses.
Northcote Deck, Streams in the Desert, book 2
 
Will you join with us as we make a continuous fire on the strongholds in the Chorti area? 
It is just like God to answer in accordance to our prayers.
 
We have work in
La Cumbre de Nearar
La Iglesia Bautista Canaán, Chimaltenango
Pastor Victoriano Cojti
Pastor Nahum
David and Regina White
Local Believer and Leader Reyes
Brainerd Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN
 
Beginning work in
Lagunetas
David and Regina White
Chorti Baptist Agriculture Development Project
 
Beginning work in
Chancó
Corral de Piedra
Iglesia Bautista Shalom, Zacapa
Pastor Rolando Cruz
Iglesia Bautista Shalom, Chiquimula
Pastor Elfidio Castillo Arroyo
FBC, Mt. Pleasant, SC


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