This is part 2 of ‘prayer is not for wimps’. We read in part 1 about how the seeming lack of discernment on Abners part led to his untimely demise. Mighty warrior though he was, he never really stood a chance against his hidden foe Joab.
Now lets turn to another mighty man well trained in the art of battle like Abner. He however depended on prayer like no other. In fact he realised his very life depended on it. Let me introduce to you King David. You may have already guessed.
King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel knew when to fight and how to fight. Not all his battles were fought by might. He took on a bear and a lion by the power of the Spirit with his bare hands, he smote Goliath with a small smooth stone, he never lost a battle during his time on the throne, yet there was one battle where he may well have lost……and that big.
The battle of Absalom. You can read the full story and how it all started and ended in 2 Samuel 15,16,17 and 18. In a nutshell, Absalom plotted a coup against his father King David to oust him from power. He very nearly suceeded but he forgot one crucial point. That his willing and able father was not only a skilled warrior but a mighty man of prayer.
King David actually fled from Absalom despite all his battle experience because he knew not all battles are won by hand but by PRAYER. In all of this confusion, fear and uncertainty about his future, he prayed this line.
Turn Ahitophel’s Counsel to foolishness. 2 Samuel 15:31.
It worked like a miracle. From that point onwards Absalom was doomed to lose this battle and lose he did. Not only the battle but his life.
It was the rejection of Ahitophel’s counsel that was the undoing of Absalom’s coup but which led to the victory in Davids camp. King David had no less than 30 elite warriors and plenty others but it was prayer that saved him from this particular battle and not physical might. David was no wimp but he knew that a mighy warrior lacking prayer strategy in the place of battle could very well become a wimp.