Calling for Artillery (prayer)

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided insight in details of modern military strategy. In particular I see the highlight on coordinated attacks. This is military speak for using artillery and aircraft in support of ground troops. This may seem trivial to you but there is a great deal of coordination and trust that must exist between various units to ensure success . There is an important analogy between artillery support and prayer that the Marine for God must learn to use effectively and consistently.

First, how does artillery work? Essentially an infantryman with a radio and a map gets to a point where they can see the target that they want to hit with artillery. The infantryman tells the artillery team key information like: grid coordinates, type of artillery that they want, how long they want it to continue and the rate and direction that they want the artillery to shift. Let me explain a little.

In order to limit the number of casualties in a battle, it is best to attack a well defended enemy from as far away as possible. Therefore, the first attack is typically through the use of artillery and mortars. The idea is to keep the enemy as vulnerable as possible. There is a timing game that you have to play if you are going to attack a well defended enemy. You move in on the enemy such that you are on top of them as the last artillery explosion has occurred. That way the enemy has the least amount of time to prepare to defend themselves. In this same way an enemy can be pushed backward by continuing to land artillery shells just in front of the ground troops as they move ahead. This is called “walking a target.” In a sense the artillery explosions move further and further along making it safe for the advancing troops to capture ground.

Prayer is very similar. We should only take on the forces of evil after we have sufficiently prayed to God. This is our call for artillery support. No Marine unit would assault an enemy without a wide array of support, as such no Marine for God should approach any situation without requesting God’s support. As American writer Dorothy Bernard said, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers”. We must pray to God to overcome our own fears. Certainly we must attack the enemy but we must prepare for the attack with vigilant and steady prayer. Staying consistent with prayer requires many of the same things that a good Marine would need to keep consistent help from their artillery support; open communication, commitment, trust and patience.

Communication

There must be a good line of communication. If even one number in the coordinates is wrong, the artillery could land on the infantryman instead of the enemy. In the same way we need to be specific in our prayers. There is nothing wrong with praying for “everybody to be healthy and good” but it is something that a child would say when they don’t know what to say. As adult Christians we must establish a deep personal relationship with God. We must be unafraid to pray specifically for things. In my life I have had some incredible miracles because I prayed specifically for something. A great biblical example is Gideon in Judges 6 and 7.

“Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand as you said.’ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.’ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.” – Judges 6:36-40

God answers Gideon’s specific prayer.

Elisha, Daniel, David, Moses, Noah and more prayed specific prayers. Many of the great people of faith were specific and deep with their prayers. They prayed with faith, a trusting confidence in God’s ability to work. Our part of the communication is specifics. We must be open with our lives in prayer. We must deal with ourselves honestly before God. This is the action of the repentant heart. Thomas Jones points out that through Jesus we come before God and call him ‘Daddy’, ‘Father’, ‘Abba’. Romans 8:15-16 “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” (Teach Us To Pray, 17-20) We were created this way. We need the satisfaction that comes from a deep relationship. No one gets married with the intention of never knowing that person deeply. In fact, depth of relationship in a marriage is the only way for a couple to stay together. Ron Rolheiser goes so far to call this deep seeded spiritual need, erotic:

“Few of us would, I suspect, consider Mother Theresa and erotic woman. We think of her rather as a spiritual woman. Yet she was a very erotic woman, though not necessarily in the Freudian sense of that word. She was erotic because she was a dynamo of energy.” – The Holy Longing 7-8.

We must be constantly willing to take things deeper in our relationship with God. We always push ourselves to understand Him more, to involve Him more in our daily lives, to become more comfortable talking about Him with others (for who would be ashamed of praising their wife, best friend or comrade?) We must also search the scriptures for direction, we must keep our hearts like the disciples in Luke 11:1 “Lord, teach us to pray…” Constantly even asking God to help us get closer to him.

Secondly you have to establish a standard. If the group of Marines calling for artillery has a different version of the map than the Marines shooting the artillery then you could wind up with the same problem; artillery landing on the wrong people. You might think, that is impossible. We live in the modern age, with sophisticated equipment and satellite maps, handheld GPS navigation systems and satellite phones. I tell you the truth, maps are not what they seem. In 1996 our platoon of 12 amphibious assault vehicles carrying a company of infantry made a movement at night in the desert of Kuwait. We were headed for a Kuwaiti base that was 3 miles from the border of Iraq. Essentially if we made a wrong turn we could wind up in a hostile nation. We were using a map and GPS navigation equipment, but the map was old. The desert in Kuwait is constantly changing due to the strong wind storms and monsoon rains. The only terrain features are "wadi’s"or dried up creek beds. Each year the wadis move. Additionally there are essentially no roads. The land is so flat and constant that 18 wheel trucks transporting things beween Iraq and Kuwait just drive through the desert in any direction. Therefore, there isn’t a consistent path to follow but in fact there are tracks that criss-cross each other and go in all directions. So we basically got lost. Thankfully we found what we were looking for instead of a division of T-92 Iraqi tanks that were training across the border in southern Iraq. Needless to say that was a bit stressful. However my point is that you can’t use a conflicting standard. Just because we are specific doesn’t mean we will get what we pray for. God is not Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. We don’t ask for a million dollars and expect it to drop out of the sky tomorrow. We must be in touch with God’s standard. We must make His standard become our standard. His standard is the Bible.

Commitment

If being a Christian wasn’t a commitment then it wouldn’t be a religion. More than that our prayer life is linked to our commitment. Show me a man who prays consistently and I will show you a man who has built his ‘house on the rock.’ God is our rock and knowing God is wisdom, it takes a full commitment build the relationship.

The word prayer comes from the Latin precari which translates to entreat. It is interesting that we are not simply talking about a request. A request is merely a part of the idea of prayer. Prayer is the negotiations of a treaty between us and God. Not a bargain but the ceasing of hostilities or the building of alliances. We need God on our side. When we first came to him we were enemies (Col1:21). At that time we entered into a treaty to cease our hostilities. We submitted to his authority and sealed our commitment in baptism through the death of his son.

From that time on we are building alliances with him. It is more than simple requests or even whiny demands. We are in communication with him, seeking his input into our decisions and asking for his guidance. We are the ground forces fighting the battle but we are in constant and clear communication with the commander. It is our commitment to his leadership that motivates us to stay close.

Trust and Patience

In order to support our commitment we must have trust. We must trust that God has our best interests at heart. Noah built the ark for 100 years in the middle of the desert. That’s trust and patience! I can have a hard time with a few months of unemployment!

At the time that I first wrote this, I was dealing with one of the more prolific struggles in the Bible, conception. My wife, Jennie and I have been trying in earnest to become pregnant for many years. I know that for many couples the dream of children doesn’t come true and I also have spoken with so many people who waited several years before they were blessed with a child. Some even become pregnant but lose the baby somewhere along the line. No greater struggle exists than the trust and patience we must have with God in regards to reproduction. As an unmarried person our patience is tested as we watch non-Christians live immoral relationships. It takes a trusting heart to hold to God’s standard of sexual relations. As married couples conception itself is not a guarantee. Christians often scoff the world for its rate of divorce however there are a fair number of people who split over the issue of having a family or not. If this were not an issue at the heart of man it would not have occurred so frequently in the lives of the men in the Bible. Those men are honored for their faith because they trusted God when all others had given up.

When we pray we must have the patience to let God, who knows best, work out his plan. That patience must be accompanied by our trust. Trust is an action. To trust you must carry on without fear. The Marine for God is always faithful, certain of what he does not see(Heb 11:1), including God’s plan.

The infantryman on the ground can't see the artillery. They relay information to an unseen supporter who they hope understands the request. They put their trust in the support and begin their advance. Closing the distance toward the enemy position, knowing that he will soon be within range of the enemy's weapons. If the artillery doesn't support them they will be exposed and vulnerable. The Marine for God advances on the enemy's position in the hearts of lost souls. Prayer calls upon the artillery of God to soften the heart and drive away evil leaving the soul open to the weapons of hope, faith and love. Prayer may then be used to defend the heart, calling upon the artillery to shoot flares in order to bring light to darkness or shoot projectiles to keep the enemy at bay.