Strategic Prayer: Applying the Power of Targeted Prayer - Softcover

Smith, Eddie; Hennen, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764203428 ISBN 13: 9780764203428

Publisher: Bethany House, 2007

Synopsis

Learn to Pray Targeted, Specific, Result-Oriented Prayers Prayer practitioners Eddie Smith and Michael L. Hennen identify twenty-seven principles that will equip you to pray more purposefully and effectively. Using them, you will focus on the Lord's answers rather than your requests understand strategies for a successful offensive grasp the critical importance of timing learn the enemy's goals and strategies and prepare for victory as God's glory is revealed Complete the practical survey that follows each principle to spiritually map your prayer target. Then use your map to effectively focus both personal and corporate prayer. This goal-based, proactive approach to prayer will bring results in individuals, churches, cities, and nations as you enter into partnership with God.

About this title

About the Author

EDDIE SMITH, cofounder and president of the U.S. Prayer Center, equips pastors and intercessors worldwide. He's coauthor of the bestseller Spiritual Housecleaning with his wife, Alice. The Smiths make their home in Houston, Texas. MICHAEL L. HENNEN has served as a pastor, missionary, and church planter to diverse cultures and peoples. He and his wife, Aimee, spend most of their time in the Middle East and return periodically to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

STRATEGIC AND
TACTICAL PRAYER
PRAYER MUST PROCEED SIMULTANEOUSLY ON
BOTH A STRATEGIC AND A TACTICAL TRACK
TOWARD A DEFINITE DESTINATION.
There are 1,200-1,500 demolition companies worldwide that raze skyscrapers, chimneys, towers, bridges, and other struc-tures. At least two things set Baltimore, Maryland-based Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) apart.
First, CDI, founded in 1960 by Jack Loizeaux (retired in 1984), today is a family business run by his two sons, Marc and Doug, and Marc's daughter Stacey.
Second, CDI is the globe's undisputed champion of large-structure implosions. Whether a 2,000-ton skyscraper, a 384-foot communications tower, or the Seattle Kingdome―by volume the largest building ever demolished by explosives―they will bring it down. CDI holds four Guinness Book world records and has imploded more than 7,000 structures―more than all their competitors combined! Their projects are amazing to witness. In mere seconds massive edifices crumble in on themselves in a shower of dust and debris. Perhaps the very essence of Controlled Demolition's work is in their name: CONTROL.
Each project CDI accepts requires months of precision planning by a world-renowned team of engineering experts to determine the best equipment, materials, manpower, and methods to be used. Their goal? Guaranteed complete predictability.
While being interviewed for a Learning Channel special on CDI, President Marc Loizeaux was asked, "How do you determine how much explosive will be required to bring down a large struc¬ture?" He replied, "The secret isn't in knowing how much explosive to use; the secret is in knowing where to place it."
Engineers determine exactly which steel beam must be severed with explosives, what concrete masses must be pulverized, and in what sequence everything should happen. The building is then rigged with timed explosives. On the day of the implosion, one pressed button releases a chain reaction of explosions; the structure that required years to build collapses in seconds.
One day when I (Eddie) returned home from a speaking engagement, I was stunned to see that the beautiful four-bedroom home at the end of our block had burned to the ground. As I stood looking at the charred remains the Lord spoke to my heart. He pointed out that while more than nine months went into building the house, it was destroyed in less than ninety minutes.
Then He said, "Satan is angry about what the church is learning today about strategic prayer. He is angry because he has but a short time" (see Revelation 12:12). It has taken Satan thousands of years to construct his demonic network for promoting evil around the world. What targeted, strategic prayer can destroy in a few minutes, Satan has neither time nor resources left to rebuild.
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
As Marc Loizeaux explained, what's critical in demolishing manmade structures is knowing where to put each explosive and in what order to detonate them. As for spiritual structures, one of the biggest challenges facing any intentional intercessor is knowing how to prioritize prayer. We're surrounded by pressing needs, so many expressions of satanic activity in our lives, our homes, our cities, our nations; how do we know where and how to invest prayer? And how can we be certain that our prayer coverage is adequate? The answer to these questions is prayer targeting. In the same way the military carefully evaluates and selects its target objectives, so must we carefully evaluate and select ours.
STRATEGIC PRAYER TARGETING
We use strategic prayer targeting to prioritize our prayer to achieve a specific goal.
First we define our goal: What do we hope to accomplish through prayer? If we don't know our goal, we won't know how to pray. Our goal ought to be well-defined, specific, and comprehensive; if it's vague, indefinite, or incomplete, our prayers will certainly fall short of their mark.
Hebrews 11 offers what some call the Hall of Faith, a list of the faithful throughout biblical history; then it makes a startling declaration:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. (v. 13 KJV)
When prayer groups or praying individuals "run out of steam" (lose faith), its usually because their prayers were vague, indefinite, or incomplete; they've not seen, been persuaded of, or embraced their goal. Once we have a clearly defined, nonnegotiable, ample goal, we can prioritize our prayers: we know where to put the explosive (where to direct our prayer, the target). Now we need to prioritize our detonations, that is, the order in which we detonate (pray our prayers) to accomplish the goal.
How do we prioritize our prayers?
We prioritize our prayers along two parallel, complementary tracks: tactical and strategic. Consider your prayer as a locomotive traveling down rails that lead to your specified target or goal (your defined destination).
4 Strategic prayers target the enemy (powers and principalities).
4 Tactical prayers focus on the subjects acted against by the enemy (powers and principalities) (see Ephesians 6:12).
For example, praying against a spirit of communism is a strategic prayer. Praying for people influenced by the spirit of communism is a tactical prayer. If we fail to pray against principalities and powers, their ability to influence people will not diminish. If we fail to pray for the people, their tendency to yield to powers and principalities will only increase.
MISSION-CRITICAL INFORMATION
How do we know, at any given time, whether the tactical target or the strategic target is more urgent? In both physical and spiritual warfare, strategic timing is "mission-critical information." A prayer prayed at the wrong time is the wrong prayer. If our targeting process isn't sufficiently flexible to accommodate changes in circumstances, then our prayers will miss the mark when the circumstances change. To properly prioritize prayer, we must apply flexible target¬ing techniques. Flexible targeting techniques depend on reliable reconnaissance (investigation).
Reliable reconnaissance makes prayer strategic. Strategic timing makes reconnaissance reliable, and strategic timing is the exclusive com-petence of the Holy Spirit.
Intelligent targeting requires vigilant reconnaissance. We must engage in thorough research and become well informed of circumstances in natural and spiritual realms. Spiritual mapping often provides much-needed detail for effective prayer. We should neither neglect to map the influence of evil powers over nations nor ignore their current influence over the lives of people.
Nevertheless, the most critical reconnaissance relies more on the Spirit's direction than on our efforts. Without it, all forms of reconnaissance will amount to little more than spiritual vanity. With it, our vigilance can and does discover truly mission-critical information: the right knowledge in the right place at the right time.
MAPPING: TWO KINDS
George Otis Jr. has defined spiritual mapping, our reconnais-sance of the spiritual world, as "superimposing our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain onto places and circumstances in the material world" (Last of the Giants, 85). Spiritual mapping identifies and defines the geographic or cultural pattern of spiritual oppression.
Its counterpart in the natural world is cultural mapping: defining the sociological patterns of common traditions practiced among one or more distinct people groups. These traditions, practiced by people, are the rituals through which spiritual forces establish a stronghold within a culture.
Spiritual mapping is strategic (relating to principalities and pow¬ers). Cultural mapping is tactical (relating to the people the enemy is affecting). They are complementary, and they're of equal value in forming an effective prayer strategy and in selecting prayer targets. When we lay our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain over our outline of cultural traditions, we can clearly see what our strategic and tactical prayer priorities must be.
APPLICATION )
KEY POINTS
(1) Clearly define your strategic and tactical prayer goals.
(a) Strategic prayers target powers and principalities.
(b) Tactical prayers target those whom powers and principalities act against.
(2) Your prayer goal must be well-defined, specific, and comprehensive.
(3) Prioritize your prayers along the parallel and complementary tracks of strategic and tactical prayer.
(4) Reliable reconnaissance makes prayer strategic.
(5) The Holy Spirit (not our efforts) leads us to the right place at the right time and opens our eyes to truly mission-critical information.
(6) Traditions are the rituals through which spiritual forces establish cultural strongholds.
SPIRITUAL RECONNAISSANCE
(1) What prevailing demonic powers and principalities are exercising influence over our territory?
(2) Which of these can be identified as the ruling spirit?
(3) Who are the people against whom these powers and principalities act, and who are their leaders?
(4) What appear to be the Holy Spirit's current mission-critical prayer priorities in this territory?
(5) What cultural rituals serve to deeply imbed the influence of these powers and principalities in the people's hearts and minds?
PERSONALIZE IT
(1) What demonic powers and principalities are exercising influence in my life?
(2) Can one of these be identified as the dominant source of spiritual attack?
(3) How do I discern when these powers and principalities are active against me, and through what relationships or situations do they tend to act?
(4) What appears to be the Holy Spirit's most mission-critical prayer priority for my personal life at this time?
(5) What personal habits, traditions, or rituals serve to deeply imbed the influence of oppressive powers and principalities in my heart and mind?

Edition details

• Publisher: Bethany House
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0764203428
• ISBN 13: 9780764203428
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192