By Colin Stott, Special to ASSIST News Service
MURRIETA, CA (ANS – July 18, 2015) -- “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Col 2: 15 NIV)
Imagine two nations at war. One
nation is victorious; the other has to surrender. But the defeated
nation is holding many soldiers’ captive in their POW camps. Those
prisoners may not even know the war is over. It is only when the
victorious army exercises its battle-won authority that it can liberate
the camps and set the POWs free.
The Church is called to
liberate captives. In the age-long war between the kingdom of God and
the kingdom of darkness, the decisive victory was won by our Lord Jesus
at Calvary. Through His death and resurrection, He disarmed the
principalities and powers, breaking their hold over the nations.
Although Satan is a defeated
foe, he still holds captives. But he is operating without valid
authority and is in effect conducting an illegal warfare against the
peoples of the earth. He has vast numbers of people under his control by
using deception and lies to keep them in bondage to false belief
systems and godless philosophies.
As a victorious army liberates its POWs, so our Lord has given His Church the authority to “proclaim freedom for the captives.”
(Isa 61:1) We need to use that authority in prayer and in preaching if
we are to see people free in Christ and experiencing the wonderful love
of God.
To set captives free we first must take care of business in the spiritual realm. We need to use “God’s
mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of
human reasoning and destroy false arguments that keep people from
knowing God.” (2 Cor 10:4,5 NLT) With the battleground being the
minds of the people, our prayers will help clear away the enemy’s lies,
allowing them to recognize Truth when they get to hear it.
People need to be free to
choose what they will believe. Once they have heard the gospel, they may
choose to reject it and stay with their gods and false belief systems.
But they will at least have an understanding of what is at stake—the
eternal destiny of their souls.
Photo captions: 1) Prisoners at
the Abersee, Austria, concentration camp, liberated by the 80th
Division - May 7, 1945 (National Archives, Wikipedia - “World War II” 2) Colin Stott
About
the writer: Colin Stott is International Prayer Coordinator for Global
Recordings Network (GRN), a mission that provides audio Bible stories in
over six thousand languages and dialects. Colin was born in England. He
and his wife Patti make their home in Murrieta in Southern California.
For more information about GRN and using its materials visit www.globalrecordings.net. For more information about reprinting this article and others in this series on prayer, contact Colin at colinstott@globalrecordings.net
** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).
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