Why Prayer?

We are not fighting people. We are fighting a spiritual battle. Freedom on a large scale will only come by a direct move of God's hand. We will merely be the instruments he uses. A scalpel cannot claim any credit for a successful surgery, it has only performed its small function - it has no responsibility other than to be sharp and to move effortlessly in the surgeon's hand. The surgeon alone can claim the credit for the work he has done. Therefore we must stay sharp and learn to move easily within God's grip wherever he directs us. At the same time we must also never forget, at every step, to publicly place the responsibility for success on God and always give 100% of the credit to Him alone.

The Lord has also made clear to many of us that anything we do about human trafficking must come out of a place of prayer and not just the usual "God help us do this thing we are doing" prayer, but that it must be led from the place of consistent prayer, fasting, and focused intercession for God to rescue those being oppressed and exploited. We must ask Him to lead us through prayer and not expect him to jump on board with whatever plan we have come up with.

There is powerful evil at work here and in order to defeat it we must call on the Lord to fight the battles for us in the spiritual realms.

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Just as Daniel (Dan 10) continued to fast and pray for 21 days before receiving the message he sought from God while the angel sent to deliver it was resisted by spiritual forces, those of us who have been given a burden for this issue must also live a lifestyle of fasting and fervent prayer for the ending of modern slavery. It is certain the ultimate answer to this prayer will not come in 21 days, but that makes it all the more imperative that we be consistent and persistent in these things.

We all want with all our heart to run out and "do something" about this problem, but the truth is that we, like Jesus, can only do what we see the Father doing.

John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

If Jesus himself, being God, can do nothing on his own, how much more helpless are we to do anything without the leading of the Lord? So, everything we do needs to be initiated through prayer, asking God what he would have us to do each step of the way and then continuing to cover it in much prayer as we follow His leading.

Prayer is not part of the formula. Prayer is the formula. Everything else is follow-up. In fact to think that we can accomplish God's will in any other way is pride, because it takes the focus away from God and positions us above Him. Prayer is the chief thing! Nothing, literally nothing will be accomplished without it.

Whatever we do Exodus Cry Atlanta will, with God's help, continue to focus on prayer first, before anything else. Then we will respond to the Lord's leading to accomplish His purposes.