Praying for the “Joshua and Moses Workers” for defeating ISIS

Thanks for everyone’s input and discernment concerning the Four Archons that are converging in the demonic strongholds that have been built and are quickly reaching levels of spiritual, military, economic and cultural power where they can implement Satan’s purposes. Each high level demonic power seems to be able to carry out its different agenda nearly unimpeded:
Gog – with totalitarian oppression;
Moloch – death of innocents;
The Lawless one – Anarchy and confusion leading to even greater tyranny;
Amalek – who is blocking God’s Kingdom purposes in the world.

As I watch the news, even as I am at the beach on vacation, I see all this gaining momentum. While the battle to destroy the demonic stronghold of Hamas seems to have abated, there is the escalating crisis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ISIS continues to consolidate power as it seeks to fulfill its apocalyptic dream of the new Caliphate. The tragic reality is that day by day, advance by advance, any effort to stop them will become more costly in blood and treasure.

How do we pray for our Father’s response to these four Archons, that He may reverse, confound, and ultimately defeat the converging trajectory of these evils?

To get an answer to this, it may be revelatory to look back at history to another time when Christians were called into the gap to defeat and reverse the stronghold of Islam. This was an era when the demonic stronghold of Islam had accumulated massive political, economic, and technological power, all embodied in the Ottoman Empire. This was built in Turkey on the land and in the hearts which originally belonged to Christ and His Church.

The date was September 11, 1683. A massive army of 250,000 Muslims had gathered at the walls of Vienna ready to take over the rest of Western Christendom. Their months-long siege had reduced the 5000 defenders of the city to starvation and a plague of dysentery.

The Muslims were tunneling under the walls and placing massive explosive charges. The Christian relief army had just arrived with only about 70,000 soldiers, much fewer than the besieged had hoped for. It looked bleak, as if the city would fall and Islam, in short order, would be marching on to Rome. And then, on September 12th the Muslim advance was so completely defeated that the tide was turned. Islam was repelled and the Islamic Caliphate started its long retreat from Western Europe. What happened?

This amazing victory, a miracle, I believe, took place because of two great men of Christian faith. Marco d’Aviano, a Capuchin friar, took on the Moses role of intercessor, and the King of Poland, Jan III Sobieski, assumed the warrior role of Joshua. This great battle and the spiritual dynamics of these two great men of God, is depicted in a recent movie entitled, Day of the Siege. Be assured this will not go down in history as a great movie! However, they did an amazing job of depicting Marco the friar as a man of great Christian faith.

The Moses worker was Marco d’Aviano, the Capuchin friar, who was committed to bringing Muslims to salvation in Jesus Christ even if he were martyred in his efforts. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit to move in signs and wonders, and was a man of prayer. He also saw the threat to the Christian Faith posed by Islam and worked fervently to get the short-sighted Christian churches, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, to unite against the Muslim threat to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. He was the spiritual confidant of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

He spent most of the battle day, September 12th, in prayer in a small chapel, except for the time depicted in the statue to the left, when he stood with a Cross against the army of Islam before the great cavalry charge that won the battle.

Jan III Sobieski, the King of Poland, filled the shoes of Joshua. He put aside his political differences and ambitions to heed the call of the Pope to go to the aid of Vienna to save Western Christendom from Islam. He was well equipped for this decisive battle. He had served in Istanbul as an ambassador, was fluent in Turkish, and knew and respected the Ottomans. He had defeated them in other battles. And what is more, he had developed the best cavalry of the time in the Winged Hussars. He was also a man of great faith as well as tactical skill.

How does this history lesson instruct us in our prayer approach to ask our Father to defeat the schemes of these Four Archons?

1. Let us pray for those called to the Moses work to step into the gap now. Pray for the Lord to raise up intercessors in the manner of Marco d’Aviano, Christians who:
• Are anointed to move in signs and wonders,
• Have a passion for Muslims to come to faith in Jesus Christ;
• Can see clearly and speak clearly about the threat that Islam poses not just to Christians and to Jews, but to liberal pluralistic democratic society and government;
• Can stand in the gap and lead others into spiritual warfare in Jesus’ name in order to overcome the demonic powers at work in Islam.

2. It may well be that some of us (who are in the eyes of the world a group of no-name powerless people) are called to the great work of intercession. As crazy as it may sound, I know that I am called to such prayer. When I watched the movie, Day of the Siege, with its poorly done battle scenes I found myself saying “yes!” I am called to do just what Friar Marco was doing. Ask the Lord to guide me in that. But what was distinct about Marco’s Moses work was that he had direct influence among the political and military decision makers of his day.

So ask the Lord to raise up those who can intercede like Moses. Pray also that their calls of warning would indeed mobilize Christians, Jews, and peace-loving Muslims who cherish life and human freedom, to come against ISIS and the other strongholds that threaten us all.

It seems surely there are those whom the Lord has prepared with more anointing, faith, position, and influence among decision makers than those of us who receive Discerning the Times. The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Franklin Graham, others with such name recognition? The Lord knows whom He has chosen to step forward. Let us pray that those called are willing to obey, to step into the gap. Father, here we are—send us that we ourselves may be willing to hear the call and obey!

3. We need to pray for Joshua workers in the thick of the battle. They, like the King of Poland, Jan III Sobieski, or Thomas Jefferson who defeated the Muslim Barbary Corsairs, see the threat that radical and political Islam poses. We need to pray for a great man or woman of faith but also of great military skill who can lead the way to the complete destruction of the demonic stronghold of ISIS. What is required is someone who can understand the spiritual dimensions of the war that we are in and can welcome the role of Intercessors in it.

When I was invited to meet with President Bush in the White House in 2005, with a small group of evangelical/charismatic church leaders, I was amazed and encouraged to hear the President speak of this engagement with the demonic stronghold of Islam after 9/11 in which the work of prayer was as important and essential to victory as were the other means of national defense.

Who could this be? David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, persuasively presented a plan to Parliament this week on defeating ISIS. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel certainly knows the danger. President Obama’s administration is working on a strategy. Could it be someone behind the scenes with the necessary access and influence?

This needs to be a matter of urgent prayer. Without political and military leaders to mobilize the Joshua workers, the demonic stronghold of ISIS cannot be overcome. More was needed than the prayers of Rees Howells and thousands of other intercessors to defeat the demonic stronghold of Nazism. It took the combined military power, mobilized populations, and industrial output of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. Even then, the outcome was not a sure thing.

Our prayers are desperately needed at this time. Father, raise up both spiritual and political leaders to speak and act courageously!

Share with me guidance you receive from the Lord. I am on vacation. Still the time is short. Please pray!

In Christ,

Brad Long