Prayer
Published on September 2, 2013
Comments 17

Radical Redeeming Prayer

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He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. Galatians 1:23

What do you do about those who curse you, hate you, despitefully use you, persecute you and those who even try to kill you? What do you do about the one who is doing everything within his power to destroy you and what you believe in?

For the early believers nothing much could be done about the man we’ve come to know as Paul, the apostle. Only prayer! Scripture is silent about whether prayers were offered up to God to stop this man who was running a campaign to exterminate the “people of the way.” But we know that prayers were indeed lifted to God to stop him. Thank God, today we have the writings of Paul the Apostle a man who was once a murderer and a persecutor of the Church.

In the late 90s a mad man named Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked roamed the streets of Monrovia killing, eating human flesh and drinking human blood. He was initiated as priest at an early age over an African traditional religious cult and endowed with demonic priestly powers. Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known as General Butt Naked and his men fought completely naked during the Liberian Civil War because they believed that supernatural powers were given to them through this strange ritual. Together with his men, General Butt Naked set the city on fire and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Within that period a brave group of believers were praying for God to kill the General. During one of their prayer meetings, someone began to prophecy that God wanted them to change the way they were praying. Instead of praying for the death of the General – they were to prayer for his salvation. So they did.

Within a short time, General But Naked attended a church service where he got saved. At the altar the power of God came upon him and for several days they had him laid up in his bed.

According to him, for three days, what seemed like black smoke left his body while he laid on his bed. He got delivered, filled with the Holy Spirit and today he goes around preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is power in prayer. Prayer releases a kind of power that this world knows nothing about. It can soften the heart of the most hardened sinner. Too often we try to educate the sinner into salvation instead of praying him in. We fail to realize that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,” and praying for unbelievers moves the hand of God to draw them to himself.

Maybe its your boss, your neighbor, that bully at school. Whoever they might be. I don’t care how evil or difficult they are. I know one thing that can change them – it is radical redeeming prayer.

We are to bless, do good to, and love our enemies. But there is one more thing we are all called to do – that is pray for our enemies. Love them enough to pray for them. You’ll be surprised by what God will do.

September 2nd 2013/ Walter Bright ESV Notes on Galatians 1:23/ Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked

17 Comments

  1. PAULSON LOVES BOOKS says

    Gods words say to bless and pray for our enemies so I do that. It’s not easy. I always like the verse, “a dog does not go back to his vomit.” I use it for so many things in conversations. We are to strive ahead and never look back as our HOPE is in eternal things. Unseen things.

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  2. lessonsbyheart says

    Praise Jesus who specializes in doing the seemingly impossible! Oh that we would pray for those who offend instead of stand in judgment over them. Lord, help us to have Your mind concerning the lost.

    \o/

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  5. forestmtnhike says

    Hi Walter, thank you for getting back to me and explaining further.:) It all makes sense now. That truly is an amazing story.

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    • walter bright says

      you were right, I went back and added some of the missing pieces.
      It is such an incredible story of redemption. I had the privilege to interviewing him on my radio show a few years ago.

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      • forestmtnhike says

        That is pretty neat that you got the chance to speak to him about his experience. And yes, what an incredible story of redemption. May the Lord continue to bless you as you continue to share, encourage, enlighten and inspire.:)

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  6. forestmtnhike says

    Hi, I’m a little confused… which General attending the church service and got saved? I’m confused with the one you mentioned was going around in the 90’s and the other General from the Civil War.
    And this sentence right here kind of throws me off a little too:

    “We fail to realize that the god of this age has blinded the hearts and minds of unbelievers and prayer is a critical tool in God’s strategy to prepare their hearts to receive Jesus.”

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    • walter bright says

      hey there, sorry about the confusion… I hope I was a better story teller or writer for that matter.

      I am talking about just one general in the story:

      In the late 90s a mad man named Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked. He roamed the streets of Monrovia killing, eating human flesh and drinking human blood. He was initiated as priest at an early age over an African traditional religious cult and endowed with demonic priestly powers. Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known as General Butt Naked) and his men fought completely naked during the Liberian Civil War because they believed that supernatural powers were given to them through this strange ritual. Together with his men, General Butt Naked set the city on fire and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

      It was this same General who the Christians in the city prayed for and the same General who attended the Church service and got saved.

      My reference to the god of this age is taken from a passage in 2 Corinthians 4:4
      “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’

      The point I am trying to make with verse is that God wants us to pray for unbelievers, we just can not wish for them to believe, we just can not hope for them to be converted – it take prayer to move the hand of God to draw them toward him.

      I hope that helps
      Thanks for reading and asking these questions.
      Stay blessed
      walter

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