The Power of Prayer

   "I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.' Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from perilous pestilence. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor the arrow that flies by day, Nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. (Psalms 91:2-3, 5-7 NKJV)

     In the Spring of 2003 the U.S. invaded Iraq and many men and women were placed in harm’s way for several years to come. West Acres Baptist Church that I attend sent some of it’s sons into this conflict also and these men became the object of many prayers lifted up by faithful men and women throughout the congregation. One young man who deployed was my son, Daniel, who was an infantry platoon leader in the 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. He was involved in numerous firefights and raids to capture enemy leaders but after 6 months of action, neither he nor any of his men had been seriously wounded. One Sunday, shortly after Daniel had been given command of the battalion’s scout platoon, I was just entering the church when a lady approached me and asked: “Do you known how Daniel is doing? God woke me up at 2 AM and I had a strong impression to pray for him. Do you know if he is ok?” I could only say that I had not heard anything but that I would try to contact Dan to find out if anything had occurred that night.

   Several days later Daniel was able to respond to the email request his father had sent. He was able to verify that at the exact time that the lady had been awakened, he and his platoon had been in serious danger. He described it this way: “We had just entered a small village with our 3 Humvees and we found ourselves in a 'close-in ambush.' There were machine guns and small arms firing at us from both sides of the road. Also the insurgents were firing RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades) at our vehicles. One RPG passed right in front of the windshield of my vehicle and missed by inches. We responded by returning fire in both directions and quickly getting out of the kill zone. Not one of my soldiers was injured in any way!”

   Two years later Daniel’s brother, Adam, was deployed to Iraq as a cavalry platoon leader with the 2d Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, of the 4th Infantry Division, attached to the101st Airborne Division. On another Sunday morning history repeated itself as another church member approached me and asked: “Is Adam alright? God woke me up to pray for him at 3 AM this morning.” This time his dad was able to respond with a slight smile. “I don’t know but give me a few days and I will have a good story for you” By Thursday, Adam had responded that he had been in grave danger at the time the prayer warrior had been awakened Sunday morning.

        He described the action this way: “My platoon received the mission to check out the report of a possible IED (improvised explosive device) on one of the main roads. We went to the area and cordoned it off so no one could go near and called in the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Demolition, those who diffuse explosive devices). We were told that they were on another mission and would not arrive for 6 hours. Sergeant Poss and I decided we would look a little closer to see if there really was an IED in the road. Initially, we didn’t see anything and then we noticed a small dirt mound in the road. As we approached within 5 yards of the suspected device, it went off. The explosion sent up a huge dust cloud and sent shrapnel (pieces of metal) in all directions. Shrapnel flew 50 yards and hit several of our vehicles and knocked the medic down who was standing by my vehicle. He stood up and started running toward me yelling: ‘ are you alright lieutenant, are you alright?' I checked myself for blood or the feeling of pain and found none. I yelled ‘I’m alright’ and Sergeanty Poss yelled the same. There were two man-sized silhouettes on the road where we both had been standing with shards of steel from the bomb all around them, but not one piece had hit either of us! As we walked away from the scene we both noticed we weren’t even covered with dust!”

     The complete story of this incident was covered in the 101st Airborne Division newspaper “The Band of Brothers” and can be found on the internet under; “Soldier survives IED blast from 5ft!” (The IED had been determined to be a 155mm artillery round which has a kill radius of 50 meters.)

   Daniel and Adam returned from their tours in Iraq having never been wounded in spite of numerous encounters with possible death or wounding. All of the soldiers in their platoons returned alive. (Several suffered minor wounds). We can attribute this wonderful good fortune to our God and His response to many godly men and women in West Acres, and those of their extended family, that faithfully prayed for these men in their time of need. Are you someone that God can trust to get up at 2AM and pray for someone He has put on your mind?

"More than anything else, prayer enables you to see you own heart and brings you into alignment with God's heart." (Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver.)

Pray that:

1.     God will give you the desire to be one of His faithful prayer warriors and that He will use you in mighty ways to intercede for others.

2.     God will lay on your heart certain individuals who need to be saved and that you will be faithful to pray until He answers that prayer.

3.     You will examine your schedule and see if you can spend more time every day in prayer for those that are going through difficult times.

4.     We as individuals, and as a church, will be more faithful in being obedient to the charge to “pray without ceasing.”