Pestilence & Prayer Power

I love trees, especially fruit trees, and my favorites are oranges. That's one reason why I love California with its' huge orchards of citrus, and why I planted oranges as soon as we moved here.

Now I'm deeply concerned; a citrus pest has ravaged orchards in Mexico and Florida, and it's headed for Arizona and California. The pest is the Asian Citrus Psyllid, which often carries a killing blight called "Citrus Greening Disease" or "HLB." Uninfected Psyllids have already been found in San Diego and Los Angeles Counties. Entimologists believe the disease will surely follow within a year or two into the great citrus growing areas of the State.

I know that the State agricultural officials and farmers will diligently spray to limit the spread of HLB, but this killer could still destroy much of our $1.6 billion citrus industry! But there is hope; ancient Biblical truth can help us to save the trees and the livelihood of tens of thousands. The Old Testament clearly teaches that drought and pestilence can be overcome by repentance and prayer. The plagues that ravaged Egypt were removed through prayer -- they included swarms of insects and locusts (see Exodus 8:20-31 and Exodus 10:3-19). II Chronicles 13 and 14 contains a famous promise: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my Name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (II Chronicles 6:26-31 elaborates on this famous promise.)

A friend of mine lived in St. Louis. He was deeply troubled to see all the elm trees on his street dying from disease. Believing strongly in healing prayer, and knowing that trees are living things, he put his arms around the elms in his yard and prayed for them to be preserved. All the elms on the street died, but his were preserved. Inspired by his example, I began years ago to pray for trees on the successive properties that I owned, and eventually prayed for the orchards of a friend in need. During the last ten years my wife has joined me in those prayers. James 5:16b sums up what we have learned, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (See also James 5:17-18.)

Here are the lessions we have learned:

1. We must be rightly related to God and other people. In Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 God's blessings (which include the prospering of crops, fields and herds) are promised to people who obey His commandments. Jesus summed up those commandments with two. "You shall love your God will all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37 and 39

2. Some prayers are more effective than others; Jesus teaches the prayer of faith, which is basically a prayer of command. In the Gospels He commands the fig tree to die and it withers away (Mark 11:14), He commands persons to be healed and they are made whole, He commands diseases and demons to depart and they go. We are taught to pray that same kind of prayer in the Name of Jesus. Jesus said to His disciples, "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say this sycamine tree, 'be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." Luke 17:6.

3. To know when to pray and what to pray for and how, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then we can pray according to God's will and with the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

4. There is no magical formula; we have to be close to the Lord and listen to Him because one or two correct prayers will not always do it. A prayer of faith may suffice for one small tree; sometimes three prayers over a short period of time are needed. A larger tree may need even more prayer. An orchard may require two or three persons praying in unity over a period of time, and an area like our Arroyo Grande valley probably would require one or more churches praying. An area like Ventura or the San Joaquin Valley would surely take several churches praying in faith for a season. For instance in the book of Joel when the country was devastated by locusts the prophet Joel called for the priests to declare a fast and to summon leaders and people to assemble and cry out to God for deliverance. (Joel 1:13 and 14) Later Joel encouraged the people in their prayers with the following: "Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity."

5. Prayers are no substitute for sound agriculture practice. There are exceptions of course. We have a nectarine tree which I forgot to spray last winter. The result was a horrible disease that made all the leaves on this young tree be covered with a discolored cancerous growth that was awful to look at and the young fruit were deformed. We layed hands on it and prayed over it two or three times. This is something of what I remember of that prayer: "We take authority over this tree in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We command every disease and every infection to depart by the power of His Name and we pray Dear God that You will have mercy on this tree and fill it with Your healing blessing and cause it to grow and prosper and put forth healthy leaves and fruit." Believe it or not, within a few weeks the tree started to put out healthy leaves and fruit. Now the problem is that the tree is growing so fast and so big that I'm wondering if we allowed enough room for it in the orchard!

Obviously in this troubled world there are more important matters to pray for than sick trees, but certain things indicate that agriculture in America needs our attention now. The whole land is groaning; droughts and floods and tornadoes and hurricanes and fires have taken a toll. In the Southwestern United States there has been a serious drought for seven years; the Central Valley is greatly impaired by a water shortage, and farmers are fighting for their existence in many other ways. So we offer this paper with the hope that it may encourage embattled farmers and all of us who depend on their work to pray for the healing of our land in the Name of the Lord.

P.S. We invite your comments and responses to this article.