There is always the back door that needs guarded.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, their goal was to control the Pacific. That same week they attacked the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the British held colonies of Malaya, Burma, and Hong Kong.
Malaya was a huge rubber and tin source, which Japan needed for their war machine. Malaya was defended by a citadel of Singapore.
The British built the fortress there to be impregnable with their concentration on the open seas. Large guns were placed in cement pointed out to sea, with the understanding that no army could make their way through the jungle behind them.
Japan attacked using bicycles to transport their troops through the jungle. When the tires punctured, they rode them on the rims. They hacked their way through the jungle with machetes for seventy days and six hundred miles!
When the British finally realized that they were being attacked, it was too late. Their guns were cemented in place pointed out to sea. They couldn’t be swiveled around onto the enemy. February, 15, 1942, eight days after the start of the attack, the British surrendered along with 85,000 troops becoming prisoners of war.
The enemy had used a back door that was believed to be secure and impenetrable.
Anne Graham Lotz posted a Preprayer 2016 in January. Please take time to read and pray the whole prayer. You can feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit as you sincerely read the prayer to God. There is a link where you can listen to Anne pray this prayer also.
Anne uses the example of Honi’s prayer from the 1st century Jerusalem calling for rain during a time of drought. Honi drew a circle around himself and sat on the ground praying over and over until the rain began to fall. At first there was only drops falling slowly to the parched dry soil.
Then Honi cried again to God:
“Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill the cisterns, pits, and caverns.”
Then the heavens opened in into a gully-washer filling threatening to flood the city.
Then Honi cried:
“Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of goodwill, blessing and graciousness.”
It is said, and recorded by the Jewish historian, Josephus, that in response to Honi’s third prayer, a long, soaking rain began to fall that ended the three-year drought. Honi had prevailed in prayer.
Anne says:
“As I look ahead into 2016, I feel compelled to draw a circle around this city, this state, this nation…and pray! Until God answers. Do the same. Please. On this first day of the New Year, draw your own circle. Then pray for everything that’s inside of it.”
We need to be like Honi-
- Honi was smarter than the British. The British trusted in their massive guns to protect them from the Japanese. Honi trusted only in God.
- The British forgot to watch their back door-thinking a jungle could not be penetrated by an army. Honi drew a circle around himself and set on the ground aware of all around him, giving voice to the only one who could answer with rain.
- The British relaxed believing they were secure with no enemy in sight. Honi vowed to keep praying until the rain came in the right way for the good of the thirsty and for the good of the crops.
Zephanhiah 2:3 says, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do His just commands, seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.”
Just as the Japanese wanted to destroy the British and America’s stronghold on the Pacific, so the devil wishes to destroy all that is good, pure and righteous before God in each individual life, and in every country of this world.
We cannot trust in our own fortresses, we have to surrender our dependence in our own selves and humbly trust in the only one who can save us; The Lord Jesus Christ.
We do this by praying prayers like the prayer Anne Graham Lotz has called for America to pray; with humility and obedience to God’s commands, while we seek that which is right, avoid that which is wrong, acknowledging that we cannot produce our own rain, and that we definitely cannot defeat the devil in our own strength!
The back doors of the jungles of our lives are only kept closed and secure by humbling ourselves, in fasting if necessary, and seeking with all our heart the mercy and grace of our God to keep His circle of angels around us and His blessings and protection upon us and all we pray for.
Zechariah 2:5 says, “And I will be to her a Wall of Fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.”
May God surround America once again with His Wall of Fire in His Holy Spirit and holy angels, so that the harvest can be reached and He can call us all home to His safe haven of rest.
