The movie War Room, by authors, directors and actors Stephen and Alex Kendrick, is an awesome testimony on the power of prayer to not just fight for us but to win our battles before they even begin.  The movie is such an uplifting story that I don’t want to give the plot away.  I want you to see it for yourself.  Without spoiling your enjoyment, I can say that it is about a couple who fight against principalities – consciousness that fails to realize its oneness with Spirit.  Not only are the actors great, but the movie is good because it is also filled with the spiritual energy of prayer.  While watching, you will be blessed by a fresh anointing of the Spirit.

In the Kendrick brothers’ accompanying book, The Battle Plan for Prayer: From Basic Training to Targeted Strategies, they call prayer “an armored tank.”  In other words, when prayer is put into action, “the gates of hell cannot prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).  We need these basic strategies – not only for church and family and city and community, but also for the workplace.

I was recently talking to a prison guard who made me realize that her experience with both inmates and co-workers was a living hell.  Not only did she have to deal with the violence and behavioral problems of grown men but also with the most foul language imaginable and most deplorable health and sanitation issues, which included rodents and other vermin.  But every workplace offers its challenges, including other kinds of vermin – those who do not have your best interests at heart; those who want to see you fail; those who never tire of keeping up discord.  Regardless of whether you are labor or management, working for the private sector or for the government, each position has its own set of challenges – all of which can be overcome by prayer.  A bold practice of praying without ceasing annihilates the enemy in any environment before they are even able to attack.  Those who attempt to do you harm find that it all results in good.

“Spiritual warfare is about standing our ground against the enemy and taking new ground for the kingdom,” The Battle Plan for Prayers says.  The enemy only becomes our own sin, which is the ultimate enemy, when we allow it to use us to miss the mark.  We miss the mark anytime we fail to love.  We love through our prayer of forgiveness.  We love through our prayer of surrender.  We love through our prayer for complete release – to let go and allow God.  We love by prayer to realize that the battle is not ours but a God who loves us without ceasing.  “Prayer is an admission that we are not in control”: God is.

The Course in Miracles says that “prayer is the medium of miracles.”

These miracles that flow through prayer are our right.

The request that we ask of the universe is the harmonious presence of Spirit that is already waiting for our request.  Good sometimesfails to manifest simply because we have not exercised our right to pray it into being — through words as well as silence.  When we use the power of prayer to heal a situation with love, it liberates all of those involved with miracles.  That supervisor’s surliness turns to consideration.  That once unfriendly co-worker becomes your best friend.  That colleague of like-mind begins praying with you.  That which appears to be evil is suddenly realized good.

We are blessed by the appearances of challenges when we realize that they are no more than appearances, and we suddenly find the room that we need within our hearts to grow in God’s grace through prayer.

Perhaps the room that we find is a physical space like the one in The War Room.

Regardless of how it manifests, the secret place of prayer – where we go within and shut the door – is really a spiritual state in consciousness, one where we stop wasting time on bad habits and instead reside in a constant state of prayer.

What we need to do is be courageous enough to clear our outer clutter so that we can cleanse any inner clutter that we are allow to interfere with our prayer time, our meditation, our centering in God.

Here and now, I being the process of cleaning up that which is taking up too much space in the flesh – be it clothes or books or relationships or pity parties or conversation or laziness or procrastination or fear – and I create a space inside and/or outside to kneel at the altar of God.

God I love you and I trust you and I praise you and I know that you are my protector, my redeemer, my perfect peace.  You are my way-shower, my energizer, my director, my guide of infinite and endless prosperity, of perfect alignment and peace.  As I go through my closet of life, I put you first.  I know that you go before me, so that everywhere I step, I enter into the realm of your perfect kingdom.  You give me the divine words to say.  You anoint me with your holy wisdom.  

You put me at my right place and at my right time, and you bless all of those around me who realize the power of your grace always emanating through me.  

You lift me out of the realm of judgment and grudges, of hatred and pettiness, of animosity and shame.

You pray through me and each and every breath of my existence with the miracle that you are.

Thank you for teaching me to value each step of your divine grace.

Thank you for blessing me through the power of your miraculous love.

Thank you for blessing every space of my existence with victory and for winning all of my battles before they have even begun.