Discerning The Times

Intercessors Cooperating With The Holy Spirit

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

September 3, 2014 by Brad Long 4 Comments

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.

Battle of Vienna
Battle of Vienna

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.

Statue of Marco d'Aviano
Statue of Marco d’Aviano

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.

Sobieski Sending Message of Victory to the Pope after the Battle of Vienna by Jan Matejko

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

Filed Under: Discerning The Times

Comments

  1. Holly Whitten says

    September 4, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    Brad,
    This most surely is an urgent call to prayer. I am in complete agreement with you and I am praying with you for the much needed prayer, political involvement and warfare clout that is now desperately needed to defeat this powerful move of satan against the kingdom of God, His people and the nations of the world .May He raise up many Moses and Joshuas to take their place on the wall to stand for the defeat of this demonic and powerful attack from the pit of hell

    Most sincerely, Holly Whitten

    Reply
  2. Bob Bellingar says

    September 4, 2014 at 3:48 pm

    Father God! I ask You to raise up Rees Howells all around the world, men and women who have a love for seeing muslims come to faithh in Jesus Christ. I also pray that these men and women will bind the strongholds of satan and his allies in the name of the Risen, Ascended, Seated and Coming Lord Jesus Christ, very God of very God and very Man of very Man. I ask that they and we would cast down these archons with the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Word of God. I pray that you would raise us a Joshua or many Joshua’s who will deliver the people of God and the citizens of this planet from the terrors of the islamic jiihad and the agenda of the marxist regimes around the world. In Jesus name I pray, AMEN!

    Reply
  3. Ren Vandesteeg says

    September 9, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    Brad,

    I returned home last night from a wedding for my son. Therefore, I’m late in my reply.

    Tomorrow (September 10) President Obama is scheduled to lay out the plan (geopolitical and military) on how to deal with ISIS. I’m not trying to be derogatory to the President or his administration, but he and his administration have shown lack of understanding regarding military war plans; specifically double-talk, vague language and no clear goal(s). I’m really concerned that he will divulge too much information within the plan and that will aid the enemy.

    I plead for all intercessors to pray that God will not allow this to happen. The military is astute in writing war plans. Let’s pray that the President will listen to his military advisors and speak publicly only what they advise. If this happens, then the public will hear the plan in general and the specifics will remain classified so the enemy won’t know what will happen.

    In Christian Concern,

    Ren Vandesteeg

    Reply
  4. BASHIR says

    March 6, 2015 at 5:59 am

    PLANTING CHURCHES INSIDE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
    Dear Prayer Warriors in Christ,
    Greetings to you in the most precious name from our Lord Jesus Christ!
    I am very glad to share with you that our Living God has filled my hearts with His burden & vision in in my life to reach specifically to the Muslims by The Gospel of Jesus Christ & plant House Churches inside Muslim community. While Muslim terrorist groups such as Islamic state , Taliban, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram are killing Christians in different countries, He is leading me to reach out to the Muslims for His own glory and help them to know that Jesus Christ is The Only Living God and Saviour.
    I am facing lots of challenges and oppositions by the Militant Muslims but God has protected us and the believers for His own glory. The believers at our fellowship from Muslim background are constantly facing opposition from their own family members, relatives and Militant Muslims for their new faith in Christ.
    The Militant Muslims tortures, beats, mocks, spat, try to burn believer’s houses for their new faith in Christ. The believers are reaching to their Muslim neighbors, relatives and militant Muslims in the midst of persecution & oppositions by His grace & mercies.
    However, I humbly request you kindly pray for God’s protection in my life, family and the new believers from the hands of militant Muslims. Pray also for His wisdom and guidance in all our lives and ministry.
    Regards,
    Bashir
    Email: gospel2muslims@gmail.com / muslimsfoundjesus@gmail.com

    Reply

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