WHAT IS "CALL TO WAR"?
Excerpt from Bishop Chester M Wright WHAT IS "CALL TO WAR"? To answer that question, some foundation needs to be laid first. Are we trying to do from a pulpit what the Lord never intended? In verses 16-18 of the Acts 26 account of what the Lord told Paul on the road to Damascus, the Voice from heaven declared to Paul that the purpose for Jesus appearing to him was to make (Grk = “appoint or destine”) him a “minister and witness” and that He was sending (Grk - apostello = “to send forth with a commission”) Paul to the Gentiles. It is extremely important to note what the Lord told Paul that He was commissioning him to do. Jesus commanded Paul “to open [their] blinded eyes” so that they could be delivered from “darkness to light” and from the “power [Grk = “authority”] of Satan to God” so that/in order that/to this end that they might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among the saints (salvation). Only this last part of Paul’s commission could be done through the act of preaching the Gospel! What about the first two parts of Paul’s commission: opening spiritually blind eyes AND delivering the lost from darkness and the authority of Satan? You cannot do either one of those through preaching! For the preaching to the lost to be effective, the initial two steps have to be done in prayer FIRST! The coming of or manifestation of the Kingdom God has to be sought for FIRST (Matthew 6:10, 33), BEFORE the Kingdom can be “preached”! Bro. TW Barnes told me personally on more than one occasion that the lost are blind and cannot even choose whether or not they want to be saved until someone with the faith and authority to do so sets them free from their spiritual blindness. The Bible emphatically states that the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not preventing them from being saved (2 Corinthians 4:3,4), and that the lost are subject to/under the authority of the prince of the power of the air causing them to be controlled by the “spirit of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-4). Paul proclaimed to the church for all ages that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Even if you can entice the lost into your building, it will not matter how great the messages are that you preach if you are preaching to the blind/deaf who are the bound captives of Satan’s authority. The “old timers” understood this concept. They called it “prevailing/travailing prayer.” They prayed UNTIL they got a “break through.” They did not skip this first step! Andrew Urshan in his book, "The Supreme Need of the Hour," from personal experience, clearly stated this principle. The Welsh revival, Azuza St., and even the results of Charles Finney’s ministry (as only a few examples) were DIRECTLY attributed to this type of praying. Why is this so absent from among us today? When and how did we lose this? We lost this when we gradually put more emphasis on intellectualism, on the personality of the preacher, on “performance” in the pulpit, on church growth programs, and winning the approval of our communities than on having and demonstrating the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)! Biblically and to be Scripturally technical, our Elders did spiritual warfare. They “broke through” the spiritual resistance to revival and harvest in their areas of responsibility through prayer that “prevailed.” Prevailed over whom? They warred in the Spirit for the souls of men until they prevailed over the powers of darkness (“the gates of hell” - Matthew 16:18-19) that ruled their towns and cities! Whether they understood it or not, whether they called it this or not, spiritual warfare is exactly what they did. Prevailing Prayer (spiritual warfare) was the foundation for the impact and results of the revival and harvest at the beginning of the last century. Why don’t we abandon the perversion of so many “church growth” ideologies (which ignore the place and significance that only belongs to prayer), get back to our “true roots,” and once again have revivals that powerfully change our cities? Satan offered Jesus a "short-cut" to power and success during His temptation of Christ in the wilderness. He offered Jesus the Kingdoms WITHOUT the cross! Trying to "grow" a church without the first and foremost emphasis being "prevailing prayer" (Spiritual Warfare) is taking the devil's "short-cut"! Prevailing prayer is the only element of true revival and of seeing a church grow that there is NO SUBSTITUTE for! You cannot build a church from a pulpit without first establishing and maintaining a solid foundation of warfare prayer as the main weapon in liberating the captives so that they can see spiritually and be free to choose to be saved. You cannot spoil the strongman’s house until you FIRST bind the strongman (Matthew 12:28-29; Mark 3:26-27; Luke 11:20-22)! To attempt to do so only causes frustration, weariness, and defeat. Our participation in Prevailing Prayer demonstrates our faith in Jesus' statement that WITHOUT HIM we can do NOTHING (John 15:5)! It also reveals that we, as a grain of wheat, have fallen into the ground and died so that there can be much fruit (John 12:24-26). Unfortunately, so many seem to know so little about spiritual warfare. Still others are uncomfortable with the whole idea. It feels strange to them, but it was not strange to our pioneering elders. So many are frustrated with the struggle to see real revival and harvest in their cities. Worse yet, they do not know what is wrong, what is missing. In Matthew 10 and Luke 9 and 10, when Jesus sent the disciples out, He did not send them out to just “preach.” He sent them out with power and authority over the spirit world! Preaching was only a part of His plan to reach the world! Do we know how to do the rest that they were sent to do? Are we not sent out with the SAME EXACT commission as they were? How do we find the answers when so many are afraid to even address the issue/situation openly? Psalms 79:11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;
