Fifty Days of Prayer for the National Election 2012 – Day 46

Focus:  Spiritual Warfare Surrounding the Elections 
Nothing is achieved in the Kingdom of God without warfare. That includes the election of righteous individuals to the leadership of one of the key nations in the world. As we pray, we must expect the enemy to attack in many ways. There will be attacks on candidates and their families, on the media, the Church, and perhaps the nation itself. Some will be clearly spiritual, while other attacks may have physical manifestations. Our call is to have great discernment as we pray and stand in the strength of Christ’s victory. 
We battle from the position of victory. On the cross Jesus defeated Satan in a total and final victory. (Colossians 2:15) Christ’s victory was not only a victory in depth, it was a victory with eternal consequences. Satan and his forces are defeated rebels, usurpers who have been stripped of all power. They have already been led like prisoners in disgrace by Christ in his triumphal procession. They have become Christ’s prize of war.
 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. (1 Thess. 5: 6)
This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  (Ephesians 5: 14) 
Almighty God
In the mystery of Your sovereign will, You are permitting Satan and his evil forces for a time to continue ranging about, within limits You have set. While awaiting their final expulsion and being cast into the lake of fire, they are trying to deceive humankind by bluffing as if they had not been defeated. But their doom is already settled! You are permitting them to show their fury and hatred within the limits You have set for this brief moment of eternity that we call time. 
Alleluia! At the Cross, Jesus Christ won an eternal cosmic victory over Satan. It was decisive and final and needs never be repeated. It can never be reversed. Satan’s doom is already decided and announced. He and his princes of darkness are like wild beasts captured and chained. They can roar and thrash around, but they are to some extent chained. (Matthew 8:29) You have planned for Your people to enforce that victory by prayer warfare. You are teaching us priceless spiritual experiences which we will be eternally grateful as well as the eternally honored and reworded. We see Satan already defeated. We look down upon the battlefield from the vantage point of Christ’s throne. But in the meantime, You assign us to battle and occupy for Christ all the territory that Satan is presently holding. (Joshua 1: 3,5)  We battle forward, routing Satan from one stronghold after another. We point Satan back to the blood Christ shed, the blood that sealed Satan’s doom. He was eternity’s fool to lay his hand on Jesus. He suffered eternity’s greatest defeat, and it will prove to be his eternal defeat. 
We pray for the Church in the United State of America to awaken.  We learn that when the leaders arose to lead Israel, the people volunteered to go to battle. We say, “Listen, kings. Pay attention, rulers! We, God’s people, will sing to the LORD. We will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.”
When You came from Edom, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the skies rained, and the clouds dropped water. The mountains shook before the LORD, the God of Mount Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel!
In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the main roads were empty. People hid away. Travelers went on the back roads. There were no warriors in Israel until Deborah arose, until she arose to be a mother to Israel.  Our nation, our world, and our culture are being trampled upon and captured. Where are the warriors in Your Church, O God!  People are choosing to follow new gods. Because of this, enemies fight us at our city gates. No one can find a shield or a spear among all the people. We pray that the Deborahs among us will arise. May we be Your Deborah’s, O God.  May our hearts be with the commanders of Your Church. May leaders rise up and volunteer to serve freely among Your people. May Your people go down to the city gates and fight. And may we give testimony of Your cause and Your power to save. 
May we awaken for battle. Wake up, Church! May we sing a song. May we fight against the enemies of Almighty God. May all the people who love You be as strong as the rising sun. Awaken Your Church, O LORD, we pray.  In the Name of Your Son, Amen. 
Awake, awake, arm of the LORD, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old.  (Isaiah 51: 9)   
“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”  “Oh, Thou God that heard Solomon in the night when he prayed and cried for wisdom, hear me. . . . I cannot guide the affairs of this nation without Thy help. Hear me and save this nation.”  (Abraham Lincoln’s Prayer)  
Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other   (Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI)