# Prayer Shield (Wagner)



## RamistThomist (Mar 29, 2015)

Wagner, C. Peter. _Prayer Shield: How to Intercede for Pastors, Christian Leaders, and Others on the Spiritual Frontlines_. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1992.

*Overview*: Wagner sets the need for intercessory prayer

*Main points:
*
The Law of the Vital Few and the Trivial Many (39ff). This is also known as the 20/80 ratio. The “vital few” in prayer are the ones who have “the gift of intercession” (41). Wagner lists 27 gifts. To be fair, other scholars have made similar claims. Wagner also advances a rather more controversial claim: because none of the three lists of gifts (Romans 12, 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4) are complete in themselves, they are open-ended. From this he adds to more gifts: deliverance and intercession. 

*Good*:
*Any book that gets us to pray more is to be appreciated. There are some helpful tips on how to deepen and lengthen your prayer sessions.
**As always, Wagner has some amazing anecdotal accounts about warring against the principalities and powers. While these aren’t on the level of Scripture, we see no reason to discount them. This reminds us that Paul’s admonitions against the “principalities and powers” are not just fuzzy verses for a quiet time, but can literally be life and death situations.

*Bad*:
~Wagner is not really a deep theologian and it shows. He veers very close to open theism (he does affirm it in another book, but I don’t think he realizes what Open Theism is). What he calls Open Theism is actually Middle Knowledge. I think Middle Knowledge is an error, but it is not an error on the same level as open theism. The danger is that Wagner quotes a situation where God knows possible counter-factuals (Wagner 29), and rather than exploring what this could mean in terms of exhaustive divine foreknowledge, he just moves on.

~~On a more practical level: Wagner is correct to warn against making “intercessor teams” or “x number of hours” a divine law (Wagner 190). I am not pointing out a mistake he makes, but rather highlighting the danger on making “good ideas” mandatory on people. Wagner’s practical advice on enriching prayer time is spot-on and is something I have incorporated in my own walk. It is under the category of “proven practical wisdom,” not divine law. As long as we keep it there we are safe.

~~~Ironically for someone who affirms that the gift of discerning the spirits is continuing today (as I do, cf. 1 Cor. 12:10), he shows remarkably little discernment in recommending different theologians (numerous references to Finney et al). I did find it interesting that Archie Parrish is one of his “prayer partners.” You might remember Parrish as R. C. Sproul’s co-author in Spirit of Revival. If we wanted to, we could play “7 degrees of Kevin Bacon” and connect Sproul with Wagner!

~~~~This isn't a theological problem but it's worth mentioning. While some of the anecdotes are quite exciting and edifying, it becomes overkill towards the end of the book.

*Conclusion*:
It’s really easy read with some great recommendations on enriching prayer life and making us more cognizant of demonic warfare. Be careful, though, because Wagner doesn’t always draw a visibly hard line between “good ideas” and “you need to do this.”


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