A
Mighty
Prayer
Shield
Beverly Warner
Prayer Coordinator
Every Community for Christ
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Several years ago, the Lord showed me a man in prison for his faith in
Russia. His name was Valeria. I prayed for him, asking the Lord to tell me
more about him before I died. Five weeks later, I received a letter from a
ministry I didn’t know. On the front page of the letter was Valeria’s picture
and story. He was a Christian musician who had just been released from a
Russian prison. The story doesn’t end there. A couple of years later, a friend
of mine visited a Russian church, and guess who was sitting in the pew in
front of her? Yes, Valeria!
I’m so glad I prayed.
Most of us have received missionary prayer letters, asking us to pray.
Sometimes, we read through the letter right then and there; sometimes,
we set it aside, only to find it months later when we clean off our desk or
the kitchen countertop. Do we stop to pray for the requests now, or are we
laying those aside as well, intending to come back to them later to pray?
If you’re like me, life gets busy, and somehow, we forget to pray.
In the past few months, I have received more prayer requests from
missionaries and OMS partner ministries than ever before. These folks
are being bombarded from all directions by attacks of the enemy. Some
struggle in their marriages or with parenting issues, others have serious
support problems, and it seems like more and more deal with serious
health concerns.
I know that when I was preparing to go on a short-term overseas trip, I
had to really guard against attacks from the enemy, especially in my relationship with my husband. We very rarely fight, but before the trip, it happened often, and it seemed to come out of nowhere … for no real reason.
The Lord has given OMS President Bob Fetherlin a new vision for One
Mission Society. Now, more than ever, we must pray. When we receive
those missionary prayer letters, OMS World Intercessors prayer requests,
or the ECC 24/7 newsletters, we must stop then and there to pray.
Know that when you pray, you are putting a prayer shield around your
missionary and surrounding OMS’ work with a hedge of God’s protection.
Scripture gives examples of what happened when the people of God
prayed fervently, putting a prayer shield around his people. While Peter
was in prison, his chains fell off, and he walked past prison guards and
showed up at the house where people were praying for him. The people
were amazed (Luke 12).
Many people of God prayed for Paul as he shared the Good News of
the Gospel with the Gentiles. How else can we explain that Paul became
aware of a plot to kill him? How else do we explain that “churches were
strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers” (Acts 16:5)? How
else can we explain Paul meeting Lydia, who responded to his message?
Later, Paul and Silas were miraculously released from prison and showed
up at Lydia’s house where the brothers were meeting. I believe they were
having a prayer meeting, asking that a prayer shield or hedge of God’s
protection be placed around Paul and Silas.
As more OMS missionaries and partners share the Gospel in more
places and reach out to more unreached people groups around the world
in the coming decade, we must pray more fervent prayers.
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