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Prayer Warrior Guide: How to Create Your War Room Prayer Strategy

Following the release of the Christian movie War Room, a lot of articles and books have been written on creating your own War Room prayer strategy. These books don't go far enough, though. They lack the full breadth of War Room strategy developed over the course of Christian history. In particular, other War Room strategy guides lack Catholic resources.

Here are your first 4 steps to creating a War Room Prayer Strategy. You will find additional resources below, as well. 


I am releasing on this site some of the sections of a new book I just published Pray Like a Prayer Warrior: Spiritual Combat and War Room Prayer Guide (see below)In a previous article, we have put on the Armor of God, as described in Ephesians 6

I have also already published a reprint of Dom Lorenzo Scupoli's classic on spiritual warfare, The Spiritual Combat:




Now, we are ready for the next key battle strategy to defeating the evil one in prayer: developing a War Room Prayer Strategy. You might be asking yourself …

What is a War Room Prayer Strategy? 

The War Room. It’s where prayer strategy happens. Where the fight against sin and temptation gets real. Where battle lines are drawn. 

Just as a military needs a command center, a headquarters, you need a “inner room” or a quarters in your own head. Christians need a sacred space where you go to battle against a very real enemy. 
You need a war room prayer strategy. 

Have you seen or heard of the movie War Room starring Priscilla Shirer? This is where the idea of a “War Room” comes from, but it is not a new idea. 


War Room is a reminder of the authority promised to us in 2 Corinthians 10:7-9: 

Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that as he is Christ’s, so are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame.

Jesus gives us power over evil! We must never forget this. Merely by invoking the Name of Jesus, we are given power and authority over evil. 

Remember, also, the power we possess according to 2 Timothy 1:7:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

It’s time to claim the power and authority given to us by His Supreme Majesty as His adopted sons and daughters. 

How to Create a War Room Prayer Strategy:

1. Be Prepared

This book is full of wisdom and quotes from the Bible and holy people, but for this section we’re doing something a little different. Here is some battle-hardened wisdom from Ulysses S. Grant to help us develop our War Room Strategy: 

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.
 
A very simple, pragmatic man, Grant gives us a simple formula: (1) Find your enemy, (2) Strike quickly, (3) Strike hard, and (4) Keep moving. 

Find your enemy: You know where the enemy is. He is prowling about like a lion. He is where your joy is, looking to steal it. He wants to devour your life and destroy your family through you. 


Strike quickly: Don’t wait. Act now. We can move much faster than armies. It takes only a moment to call on the Name of Jesus, to pray the “Our Father”, or to trace the Sign of the Cross on your forehead. These are each fine choices for an opening salvo. Any one of these can deal a mortal blow to your enemy. 

Strike hard: Jesus has empowered you to call on His angels for help. God has given each of us, specifically, a guardian angel to call on. You’ve been given permission to wield “the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left” (2 Corinthians 6:7). It’s okay to battle. We are called to battle. In fact, God calls us to it in Ephesians 6, as discussed in the previous chapter. The “Armor of God” is not meant to be decorative.

As a new creation in Christ, confidently believe that your prayers are powerful.  Be bold and stand unveiled, for you stand under the banner of Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:12-13:

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.

Moses’ face shone with the light of God, and yet he veiled it. Unveil your face when facing the enemy. Let the light of your face shine in the darkness.

Keep moving: Time spent in the war room will sharpen and enlighten your spiritual senses, making you keenly aware of the enemy’s approach. Catch his lies before you fall prey them.

2. Be Well-Positioned 

The enemy will attack. There’s no secret to the evil one’s strategy. It is not a matter of if, but when he will attack. His timing is awful and his pursuit relentless. He will take advantage of every weakness, weak moment, person, and situation in your life. He will hit where it hurts. His objective to destroy you by whatever means necessary. 

Here is more battle-hardened wisdom from the author of The Art of War, the great military strategist Sun Tzu:

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

Are you ready? Is your “position unassailable”? What position can you take that will prevent the devil from ever reaching you?


Consider James 4:7-8:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. 
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Put yourself under the banner of God, and the devil will flee from you. Draw near to God, and you will find his fortress and legions of angels encircling you. God, Himself, will come close to you.

But this takes practice. Turning towards God is a difficult pivot to make when encircled by temptation and despair. Time spent in the war room prepares you for the coming battle. It builds endurance, strengthens your spiritual stamina, and prepares you for the coming storms.  

Remember, Jesus has already defeated death and sin. He has conquered the grave. The enemy has already been defeated. 

Develop and practice your strategy for calling on His aid when under siege. Like the character Boromir in Tolkien’s classic Fellowship of the Ring, blow the horn of Gondor, the horn of Christ, and your allies will come to your aid.

 
Boromir blowing the Horn of Gondor
when surrounded by enemies at Amon Hen

3. Stay In Community

Speaking of “fellowship,” God has prepared us for a community of believers and fellowship within the Body of Christ. God calls us to community. The devil wants us to be alone. He hopes to divide and conquer, and so destroy us. We are not meant to live life alone. Christ surrounded himself with the love and support of faithful friends. And Saint Paul tell us to call on this great “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us for help. 

Jesus feasted with his disciples. In times of struggle, Jesus prayed with them, too. Jesus went to His own War Room, the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before His crucifixion. He did not go alone, either. He brought with Him Peter, James, and John, the inner circle of His Apostles. 

Jesus was ministered to by angels and his most trusted friends in the Original War Room:

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
 
This same dynamic can be found in soldiers rallying during times of war and generals preparing for battle with their key lieutenants. This time spent in fellowship helps the army work as One and prevents the devil from dividing them. 

None of us can do it alone. Community helps us live and pray as witnesses to the resurrected Christ. “The community of believers was of one heart and mind (cor unum et anima una)” (Acts 4:32).

Nineteenth-century military strategist Carl von Clausewitz understood the role of troops and unity in winning the war: 

Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war.

The time you spend in fellowship with Christ, with your prayer partners, with your heavenly intercessors rallying in the war room will increase your chances of victory in battle. Invite friends to establish war room space in their homes so that they may join you in the war against the enemy.  

4. Be In Your War Room

A War Room is defined as a location where teams of communications experts monitor and listen to dispatches and transmissions describing allied and enemy troop movements. It is the place where the leaders respond to such communications and form prudent opinions to determine the best course of action.

Here is the President's War Room: The Situation Room

President's Situation Room

What is the most essential and precious communication to be heard and received in the War Room? The word of God, whether it is spoken in our hearts or found in Scripture. 

The War Room is the precious, sacred space for the Christian to come before the Lord. This is the place where we remove our sandals, like Moses, and stand before the burning bush, the Presence of God. 

Here, we communicate with God, hear God’s voice, and respond to God’s promptings in our hearts. 
Develop a habit of bringing your struggles to the War Room, that is, to God. There is no struggle too great or too small for the War Room. Meet God here on your knees, develop your strategies with Him, and learn to submit to and trust His will. 

What kind of struggles can you take to the War Room? Are you struggling with your spouse? Take your marriage to the War Room. Has your child fallen away from Christ? Take your parenthood into the War Room. Are you or a loved one sick? Bring them to the War Room for healing.  

The more time spent in the War Room, the more the War Room will become part of you. The ultimate goal, as Saint Paul describes, is to “pray without ceasing”. With God’s grace, you will be within your War Room “without creasing”.


Adapted from Jennie McChargue's "How to Create Your War Room Prayer Strategy" from RockThis.org.

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