Pray for your country (Part 5)
The angel Gabriel clearly stated that the prince of Persia resisted him 21 days. My question is this: did the resistance come in the form of King Cyrus since he was the official king of Persia?
I think that the answer is NO because Cyrus could not resist an angel simply because he was a man just like us. The prince of Persia mentioned by the angel Gabriel was a powerful spirit (demon) in the heavenly realm. This tells me that each nation has a hostile prince in the spiritual realm and in order for the will of God to be accomplished in that nation, this spirit must be conquered. In Daniel’s case, he fought this battle in prayer. His prayer brought Michael’s intervention without which Gabriel would never have arrived with the message.
Burundi just like the United States or any other nation has a spiritual prince or king that opposes the realization of the plan of God for his people and his church in the nation. For this reason, the church must rise up and fight in prayer against these spirits and not against people.
3. Prayer for the authorities
Before I speak on prayer for the authorities, we must first see what the bible has to say about the authorities in a nation. Paul wrote to the Romans to inform them that they must respect the governmental authorities because there is no authority except that which God has established (Romans 13:1).
The paradox here is that during this period Romans were governed by Nero considered to be the worst persecutor of the church in that time period. If I were to try to place myself in these Roman Christians situation, I would find it nearly impossible to be able to pray for someone who not only mistreated people in general but also persecuted the church. Worse still, Paul says in verse 4 that the ruler in authority is God’s servant for our good.
Why would Paul speak of God’s servant when he knew full well of the atrocities committed by Nero? The answer is found in 1 Timothy 2:1-3. Writing to Timothy, Paul exhorts him to pray for all people and especially those in authority such as kings (presidents) so that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives in godliness and holiness. If we don’t pray for our presidents, governors, senators, etc… the devil will know how to best use them to accomplish his will in the earth since Jesus described him as the prince of this world (John 14:30). We must pray then that God would use them to accomplish his will here on this earth. We don’t pray for them because they are righteous but rather because they hold a very important place in the sight of God and the people.
The Word of God says that it is God who changes the times and seasons, he removes kings (presidents) and raises up others (Daniel 2:21). This means that we need to accept those who govern over us, pray for them despite their evil actions for this is good and pleases God our Savior (I timothy 2: 3).
