It is not uncommon to have enemies. Jesus actually said “You will be hated by all because of My name” (Matthew 10:22). He added that “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19). Yet it is into the world, where we will inevitably encounter enemies, that He has sent us. His purpose for sending us was not to go kill our enemies in the world but that we will make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20). So, if we take up a lifestyle of praying to kill those who oppose us, who will we have left to preach the gospel to, and to teach the ways of God? For being angry at a brother or sister, Jesus says you are liable to judgement (Matthew 5:22). How much more if you intend to kill them, and that by prayer? 1 John 3:15 says “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him”. Therefore, let us not be like those who do not have eternal life abiding in them by following a route of hate to pray for calamities on and even the death of those who oppose us.
God does not hate the world. The Bible says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The burden of God’s heart is to see the world reconciled to Him, not that some people will perish. So we are told that God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ has also given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). One of our foremost goals in life, as Christians, is to partner with Christ to reconcile the world to Himself. If we then turn around to pray for the misfortune and death of the very people God has commissioned us to reconcile to Himself, do we not directly work against the purposes of God? God said He takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner (Ezekiel 18:23). Why then will you choose to bring displeasure to God by praying for the death of your enemies, who by their actions show that they are lost in sin?
Jesus rebuked His disciples for inquiring if they could call down fire from heaven to destroy those who opposed them (Luke 9:52-55). If He rebuked them for making such an inquiry, why do you think your request to Him to destroy lives, out of revenge or hate, will escape His rebuke? In the words of Jesus, “He did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:56).
These so-called “dangerous prayers”, as used in this write-up, are curses, calamities, and/or deaths that are issued as prayers unto God against enemies out of revenge or hate. These prayers are deemed justifiable by those who pray them, due to the gross evil of those to whom the prayers are directed. They also include paying enemies back in their own coin out of revenge, what may also be referred to as “back to sender”. Interestingly, though these are practices Jesus warned us against (e.g. Matthew 5: 43-48; see also Romans 12:19). Therefore, in whose name and to whom do we suppose we are praying, when we offer these dangerous prayers Jesus Himself speaks against? Definitely not God, since He promises to hear and answer only those prayers that are in line with His will (1 John 5:14-15). Therefore, what we may suppose are answers to our dangerous prayers may be what we have empowered the devil to do against those who oppose us or what we ourselves may have brought about – for life and death are in the power of the tongue and they who love it may eat it fruit (Proverbs 18:21).
This does not mean that God is not a God of righteous judgment, who also offer retribution including death to those who oppose Him and afflict His people (for example, see Revelation 2:22-23). In 2 Thessalonians 1:6, we also read that “After all it is only right, and a righteous thing, for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you”. So, God is indeed a righteous judge, and has appointed wrath, indignation, and distress for the children of disobedience (Romans 2:8-9). However, God does not permit us to take His place by taking our own revenge and has declared that vengeance is His, not ours (Romans 12:19).
So how do we to deal with those who have sworn and are actively working to see our downfall? We shall look at this in the next post.
To be continued….
Kwadwo Omari
(c) 2015