“…we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:18
“…two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.” Mattheew 8:28
“Pray for us… I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” Hebrew 13:18-19
“…I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.” Philemon 1:22 (KJV)
One thing you will notice, is that when you step out in faith to work in the Lord’s harvest, the enemy is sure to be near at hand to hinder you. Paul said to the Corinthians, “a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”[1] These two things, an open door of ministry and the hinderances of the devil often coincide in the life of the believer.
Geoffrey Bull, a missionary to Tibet in the 1940’s wrote, “If one examines the history of those who have sought to enter Tibet it is significant to notice that many, if not all of those who have presumed to go up against these gates of evil, have been mauled in one way or another by the very talons of the devil.”[2]
The apostle Paul was also imprisoned multiple times and asked the churches to pray for him, and he trusted that through the prayers of the saints that he would be delivered from prison. As much as it might seem like earthly authorities may be enemies of the church, ultimately, our struggle is not against men but “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”[3] Paul’s time in prison was a ploy of the enemy to hinder the work of the gospel, but Paul believed that the way to deliverance from those circumstances was through prayer.
This was the situation with Peter in Acts 12 when he was shut up in prison by Herod Agrippa. As he spent the night surrounded by Roman guards, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”[4] And it was this earnest praying that was the key to his deliverance.
Prison is not the only type of hinderance that the apostles or others have faced. Countless stories could be told of sicknesses, malfunctioning equipment, relationship issues, as well as overt spiritual confrontations that saints have come against when they step out to do something in obedience to the Lord. But through we may encounter these hinderances, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”[5] And when we call out to God in our distresses, He delivers us. And when we cry out to the Lord when others are distressed, He delivers them too.
As the gospel reaches further into Tibet it can be expected that there will continue to be opposition and hinderances both to those who go out to preach the gospel and to those that would hear it. Our brothers and sisters that stand on the frontlines of the battle need not fight alone.
In 1 Chronicles 19, the scriptures record the story of a war that Israel fought against the Syrians and the Ammonites. King David’s general, Joab and his brother Abishai seen that they were surrounded by the enemy armies in front and behind them. But Joab strengthens his brother with these words, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.” [6] This should be our response when we hear and see the spiritual battle raging against our brothers and sisters who are seeking to wrest Tibet from the devil’s grip. If that battle is too strong for them, we must go and help them, using the spiritual weapon of prayer to fight alongside them. We are guaranteed a victory, if we step out and fight.
[1] 1 Corinthians 16:9
[2] Tibetan Tales (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1966), 70.
[3] Ephesians 6:12
[4] Acts 12:5
[5] 1 John 4:4
[6] 1 Chronicles 19:12-13