Got Rust on That Weapon of Prayer? Clean It Off and Start Using It!

Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.--- Psalm 141:5

If asked whether they consider prayer a "weapon", most folks would probably say that they don't regard the practice of prayer in that manner. To these prayer is mainly the issue of making confession, submitting petitions to God for help and seeking blessings with perhaps a little thanksgiving thrown in here and there. But viewing prayer as a weapon with visions of warfare is more than a bit of a stretch!

But here is how it is:

We live in a world that is dominated by a spirit that is hostile to God and this hostility is greatly intensified when it comes to His Son, Jesus Christ, Whom He sent into the world to redeem every human being from his/her sins. Every human being ever born into world comes under the scope of God's love and mercy, but at the present time the vast majority has chosen to reject that love.

God has revealed much about the practice of prayer, recorded numerous experiences people have had in prayer, and urged those who claim to have faith in Him to engage in the disciplined exercise of praying.

And since the Christian life is described at times as being engaged in warfare, it stands to reason that one of the weapons available in fighting this war is that of prayer!

Psalm 2:1-5 provides a graphic backdrop and reminds us that we are in a vicious conflict with the souls of human beings at stake. Notice it is the governing authorities that are at war with God because of attitude and at the present time those who head up the United States federal government more than fit the description given in the opening statements of the Psalm:

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure..."

Consider some examples:

Arise, O LORD! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, "You will not require an account." But You have seen it, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until You find none. The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations have perished out of His land. LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more. --- Psalm 10:12-18

Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" --- Psalm 12:1-4 [Note: we see the aforementioned attitude as being on display constantly in Washington DC by elected officials in high places, hence the need to pray that God will deal with it in His way and time!]


Stir up Yourself, and awake to my vindication, to my cause, my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, "Ah, so we would have it!" Let them not say, "We have swallowed him up." Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. --- Psalm 35:23-26

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. Selah --- Psalm 57:5, 6

There are numerous other statements in the Psalms which have to do with praying against the wicked, even those who sit in high places of power and influence. While there is much talk of the impact of ObamaCare on the republic and the change that may come about during the elections this coming November, don't wait for some political "process" to take place, but be praying now "against the deeds of the wicked" and all who leading our nation on a path toward sure and certain destruction!

Clean off the rust and start using that weapon! "Return upon their heads the fruits of their deeds, O Lord!"

LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells. Do not gather my soul together with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands is a sinister scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place; in the congregations I will bless the LORD.
--- Psalm 26:8-12

What If We Are Told Not to Pray Any Longer?

"Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you."

"Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble."

Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence." --- Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11, 12

There has been a very deadly assumption down through the centuries to the present time -- that God always answers all prayers. It seems to be especially entrenched as a society of people get careless and very sloppy when it comes to spiritual, moral and ethical responsibilities. The more lax they become when it comes to the issue of seeking to obey God and fulfilling His divine plan, the more insistent they are that God always answers prayer and all we need to do is ask Him for whatever we have in mind and He will just pour out a ton of blessings in response! Some professing Christians are about willing to engage in a "knock down, drag out fight" over this thing of God answering prayer.

Jeremiah the prophet lived at a time when the spiritual and moral climate of the nation in which he lived was shockingly very much the same as what we are witnessing in the United States. There was a lot of noise generated throughout the country that just about everyone "believed in God." The major problem was the wide gap between what was claimed by way of belief and performance in conduct that provided credibility to that profession of "believing in God!"

There had been the adoption of idolatry, immorality, the "shedding of innocent blood" (child sacrifice to heathen deities), the profaning of the day of worship, and the corruption of the teaching of God's Word -- that is, if it even qualified as "teaching," since the revelation of God to which they had access didn't really mean much to them any longer. For instance, when something is considered vitally important you give attention to it, but when it is not a priority, then it is mainly ignored!

Finally God revealed that the time for praying and being heard had passed -- even a godly person such as Jeremiah was told to pray no longer, because God would no longer listen. He had sounded the warning for years and no one took him seriously, and then it happened -- his nation was invaded and totally destroyed!

Want to think on a troubling question -- how long do you think it will be before God begins to reveal a similar instruction -- "Don't pray any more for your country because I won't hear you!"

For further thought -- when the calamities began to really hit, the people began to say, "Why is God doing these things to us -- what have we done?"

Take a slow and very prayerful walk through the book of Jeremiah and then follow through with the book of Ezekiel -- after you finish, do it again a few more times and see how very up to date these two really are!

Moreover He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. And He said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you." So I ate it, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness. And He said to me: "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted." --- Ezekiel 3:1-7

Through another prophet God said He was going to return to His place until there was honest recognition of having sinned against Him -- the implication was that if they prayed and called on God without repenting and turning from their wicked ways, He was not going to hear them! Ah, you can check that one out in Hosea 5:15 -- yes, it's in the Old Testament -- you might have to hunt a while, but he's there. He lived quite a number of years before Jeremiah and Ezekiel but the spiritual "cancer" was already at work, and God gave Hosea a command to marry a harlot -- a rather dramatic object lesson spelling out how the country had betrayed God in constant acts of spiritual infidelity! If Hosea were living in Washington DC or some other section of our republic today, he would be given the identical "marching orders!" And it is more than an outside possibility that God would say the same today as He said through Hosea a long time ago -- "I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will diligently seek Me." --- Hosea 5:15