USE 1.
If prayer prevail over God and Christ, even to the overcoming of the Devil, then much more will a praying people prevail over hell and malignants. It were wisdom then for malignants to yield and strike sail to those who can by prayer set omnipotency on work, and engage the Strength of Israel against them. Amalek had Omnipotency against them, and a harder party than spears, and bows, and armed men, in that praying Moses was against them. The third Psalm was a strong piece against Absalom and Ahithophel, and all that conspired against David. Christ’s prayers for the perfecting of his own body, and gathering in his firstborn, include in them a curse upon all those that hinder the gathering in of his flock, woe to the enemies, then, against whom our Intercessor prayeth curses; the prayers of Christ against His enemies shall blast them and their counsels, and all their war-undertakings.
USE 2.
Some are discouraged; they can neither fight for Christ, nor do anything to promote this cause, as wanting strength of body and means. Nay, but if thou canst pray, thou dost set the whole wheels of Omnipotency on work, for the building of the Lord’s house; in which regard, the prayer of a sick and poor man shall do more in war for the cause of God than twenty thousand men. It was not Ahasuerus, nor the grace that Esther found in the eyes of the king, that saved the whole church of the Jews from destruction, but the prayers of Esther and her maids. It is true, an angel brought Peter out of prison (Acts xii) but what stirred that wheel in heaven? Here’s the cause, “Prayer was made without ceasing to God for Peter by the church” (Verse 5). Prayer, prayer can put a reeling and tottering on king and court, pope, prelate, and Babylon; we are to pray the king of the bottomless pit, the man of sin, the graven images of apostate Rome, out of the world. Prayer can yoke all the swords in Europe against the Whore. Every one who hath the spirit of adoption, though poor and rejected of men, by prayer hath powerful influence on all the nations of the earth, on all Europe, on the hearts of the Jews, on Turks and Indians. Prayer can reach as far as Omnipotency, accompanied by the wise decree of our Lord; and the poorest girl or maid that can pray, doth lend a strong lift to heighten the footstool of Christ’s royal throne. Children and poor maids, by prayer, may put the crown on Christ’s head, and hold up his throne, and may store and increase heaven by praying “Thy kingdom come,” and enlarge hell, and fill the pits with the dead bodies of Christ’s enemies; and may, by prayer, bind kings in fetters, chain up and confine devils, subdue kingdoms.
(Extracts from The Trial and Triumph of Faith by S. Rutherford)