[MUSIC PLAYING]

Moments ago we saw the story of a boy who was nearly

killed in a car accident, and the family who

went to bat for him in prayer.

Prayer is the best defense we have at our disposal,

and according to David Ireland, it's

our greatest weapon, as well.

NARRATOR: David Ireland is the pastor of Christ Church

in northern New Jersey.

But he's best known for his teachings

about battling spiritual warfare.

But often times we neglect to see that God is a general.

God, the general, when you deal with the general,

you deal with military matter, warfare matter,

weaponry matter, battle matter.

NARRATOR: In his book, "The Weapon of Prayer,"

Dr. Ireland clears up any confusion about prayer,

and helps you hone the skills you'll

need to activate your greatest weapon.

Well, David Ireland is here, and we welcome him

back to "The 700 Club."

It's good to have you with us.

Oh, good to see you again, Terry, thanks for having me.

What a timely book, "The Weapon of Prayer," your latest.

And, you know, I think we heard you

say, as you were speaking on that piece of video,

that God is a general.

You know, I think we kind of like the warm fuzzy father

figure, and the friend.

But you say we need to see God as a general.

I think that the Bible gives us different metaphors of God,

to help us understand who He is, and to be

able to relate to Him better.

For example, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.

So he has a flock, we're His congregation.

John 15, my Father is a gardener, Jesus says.

There we see, not only is God a Father, paternal perspective,

but also a gardener caring for plants.

We tend to never see him as a general.

And the scripture teaches that he is that.

And so, in Joshua 5, we see that the Lord's a general,

he's a commander of the army.

And therefore, when we deal with God the general,

our prayers are different.

Our expectations are different.

The strategic nature of what we pray are different.

We now have this militaristic perspective.

I mean, it's not antithetical to the Christian faith,

but it's saying, look, God wants to get some stuff done.

And things that get in his way, we

need to make sure we unearth those things,

detonate those things, solve problems in a way that says,

God's in charge.

And that's why we need to take a fresh look at prayer,

and see it as a weapon, and not simply as just warm fuzzies.

And that starts with, as you're saying,

looking at God in that way.

But then you also talk in the book about looking at ourselves

as having been given this tool.

And that it has such power to it.

Especially, you talk about Peter, and how God prepared,

Jesus prepared his disciples before he left.

So how should we see ourselves in this mix?

I think that what unfolds everything, Terry, is

when we look at Luke 22, and verse 30 and 31,

where Jesus is speaking to Simon Peter.

And he says to him, Simon, Simon, Satan

has asked to sift you his wheat, but I have prayed for you.

And so in olden days, when wheat was sifted,

it was placed on this sieve and shaken up vigorously,

so that the kernels fall through the holes and are collected.

The chaff, the rocks, the debris,

are thrown to the wayside.

Satan's desire was to shake up Peter's life,

so that the essence of who he was will fall away,

and he will not become the apostle

that God's called him to be.

Or to be the leader in the Lord's Church,

as God has so desired and predestined.

What Jesus said to thwart Satan's attack against Peter,

he said to him, Peter, I have prayed for you.

Therein we see that prayer is a weapon.

And so I say to people, have you used that weapon?

When you're seeing Satan trying to wreak havoc

in your marriage, or with your children, in your home,

on your job, in your career, what

have you done about that, with the very weapon

that God gives you?

And God invites prayers.

He welcomes prayers.

But most of all, he responds to prayers.

And so Jesus prayed that defensive prayer.

I've prayed for you, Peter.

Talk a little bit about defensive prayer.

What does that look like, and how do we utilize that?

I think prayer has two perspectives

that we must take on.

One is, it's a defensive weapon.

Second, it's an offensive weapon.

When I look at the defensive side of prayer,

defense is to block, to hinder, to protect, to safeguard.

What has God given to me, or says he wants to do,

that needs to be safeguarded and protected?

Then I pray that way.

Again, if I refer to Luke 22, Jesus said to Simon,

I have prayed for you.

In other words, I have defended you.

I have placed a hedge of protection

around you, through prayer.

I've unseated, I have thwarted Satan's attack against you,

by protecting you through prayer.

And so we are called to protect our interests

and God's promises to us through prayer.

So talk about offensive prayer.

The offensive is about really moving forward.

It's about strategizing, it's about taking new territory.

If I look at sports, you can't win a game, even basketball.

You can't win a basketball game if you only play defense.

At some point, you have to go on the offense

and throw the ball into the hoop.

And so the same thing holds true when it comes to prayer.

When we deal with offensive prayer, it's saying,

what has God promised us that remains unfulfilled?

What will we do about that?

What will we say about that?

How we pray towards that end?

So offensive prayer is strategic prayer.

It's looking ahead and being a forecaster, so to speak,

and saying, I know what God's will is, let me pray

that God's will be done.

You talk so much in the book about this tool, this weapon

that God has given us, that maybe we don't completely

understand.

You say that we have a sort of spiritual HIV.

What do you mean by that?

I know, it's like a shocker when I use that term, HIV.

And I say that we have this disease, many people.

It's high indifference virus.

And so when the Christian has been beset by that, you know,

the symptoms are very jarring.

They get disinterested in the fight.

They have a disbelief towards the spiritual battle.

We're in this high stake battle, it's

dealing with the souls of people.

And when the Lord's Church is not

functioning in high gear, and in full throttle,

as this powerful army, we are--

I tell people that we need to be a warship,

and not this cruise ship.

Because the motivation, and the perspective, the behavior,

are totally different.

That when we have spiritual HIV, high indifference virus,

we behave like we're on a cruise ship.

We're just lounging around--

Enjoying the stuff.

We're on vacation.

Exactly.

The next port is supposed to give us more fun.

But when we're on a battleship, the next port

is for more deliverance.

When we're on a battleship, the Lord's

seen as the fearless general, and not the entertainment

director.

When we're on a battleship, we're

sailing for the Son S-O-N. When we're on a cruise ship,

were sailing to the S-U-N, more rays.

And it's a totally different perspective, Terry.

And so I encourage people, you have to see that if you become,

you know, infected with spiritual HIV,

the response is, you need to say,

God forgive me for my indifference.

In fact, Samuel says, prayerlessness is sin.

And with that indifference comes

a lack of understanding of who we

are called to be as the sons and daughters of the King of kings.

Yes.

I mean, your book is such an amazing instructional book

of understanding, but also direction for all of us.

I just want to encourage you to wage war in your prayer life.

And if you want to learn more about how to do it,

get David's book, "The Weapon of Prayer."

You can pick up a copy in stores nationwide,

and it will change the way you utilize prayer in your life.

And that's your inheritance, so maximize your greatest strategy

against the enemy.

We're not done with David just yet,

because he's going to be the special speaker at our campus

chapel this afternoon.

We want you to know you can be a part of that service

by going to our website, cbn.com.

That's taking place at noon Eastern.

Don't miss what he has to say.

It's great to have you here.

Thank you, Terry, thank you.

Thank you so much.