Prayer Shield - The Call to Prayer!

Prayer Shield - The Call to Prayer!

“Brethren, pray for us.” (1 Thess. 5:25).

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

The Lord has really impressed upon me the importance of recruiting a team of intercessors to pray for myself, and also to call His people to begin to be diligent to pray for their pastors. If you haven’t read the book Prayer Shield by Peter Wagner, I highly recommend that you pick it up. When I first read it several years ago, it really challenged me with both the urgency and sense of responsibility to all believers to pray for their pastors. Today’s devotional is an overview of the teaching contained in that book. My prayer is that it would motivate you to begin to pray for your pastor today, and indeed every day. Like the Apostle Paul pleaded with those to whom he ministered, I say, “Brethren, pray for us.” Pray for your pastors!

“You can help defend your leader from Satan’s attacks! Right now, someone you know is in desperate need of your prayers. It’s the person out on the front line, leading God’s army into the world to proclaim His good news. The enemy is doing everything he can to stop your pastor. But as a Christian, you have been given access to a greater power in this battle: God’s intercession.

Pastors, teachers, and all types of leaders depend a great deal on those who are praying for them—people like you who realize the importance of coming to their aid. The enemy knows where our leaders are vulnerable, and he attacks them at their weakest point. Through intercessory prayer, however, you—a mere human—can stand in the gap for them. You can influence the action of an almighty and all powerful God. As surprising as it is, this is the way the Lord chose to structure our relationship with Him.

If we aren’t praying through—if intercessory prayer is missing—the full extent of God’s power is often stifled in the lives and ministries of our leaders. They can’t do it alone! Pastors and other Christian leaders are needy people. But they are God's chosen ones to move His Kingdom forward. Faithful and intelligent intercession can release them to be all God wants them to be.”

I am convinced that most church members have little or no appreciation of the cost of being a pastor… If God is going to raise up a new army of intercessors who will support pastors and other Christian leaders in effective, fervent prayer, these intercessors need to know both the scope and they urgency of the task ahead of them… Over the past couple of decades, an alarming number of pastors have dropped out of the ministry for two main reasons: pastoral burnout and sexual immorality. The numbers have reached epidemic proportions.

Pastors Need Intercession. Every Christian needs intercession. But I do want to argue that pastors and other Christian leaders need intercession more than ordinary members of the Body of Christ. This may sound strange, but let me propose five reasons why I believe it is true.

1. Pastors Have More Responsibility and Accountability

2. Pastors Are More Subject to Temptation

3. Pastors Are More Targeted by Spiritual Warfare
Make no mistake about it, the higher up you go on the ladder of Christian leadership, the higher you go on Satan's hit list. The devil is characterized as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. If he has a choice, he will devour a leader before he will devour anyone else. And he will use every weapon in his arsenal to do it.

4. Pastors Have More Influence on Others
The fourth reason why pastors need intercession more than other Christians is that by the very nature of their ministry they have more influence on others. If a pastor falls, more people are hurt and set back in their spiritual lives than if others fall. The ripple effect is incredibly devastating. Strong Christians are crushed by the hypocrisy and betrayal they feel. Weak Christians take the pastor's behaviour as a license for them to do likewise…

5. Pastors Have More Visibility
Because pastors are up front, they are constantly subject to gossip and criticism. when church members have Sunday dinner, the pastor and the sermon of the morning are frequent topics of conversation… The pastor is closely observed and it is no secret. Just knowing this places a difficult burden on pastors and they need supernatural help to handle that situation well. Intercession opens the way for them to receive this help.

Intercession Improves Ministry: About 89 percent of those surveyed indicated that the prayer had caused a positive change in their ministry effectiveness. They reported more effectiveness in the use of their particular spiritual gifts, a higher level of positive response to their ministry, more discernment and wisdom from God, increased wholeness and completeness in Christ, improved attitudes, more evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, better personal prayer lives and heightened leadership skills. Pastors and other Christian leaders are needy people. But they are God's chosen ones to move His Kingdom forward. Faithful and intelligent intercession can release them to be all God wants them to be.

How do we pray for our pastors?
· Sun: Favour with God (spiritual revelation, anointing, holiness)
· Mon: Favour with others (congregation, ministry staff, unsaved)
· Tues: Increased vision (wisdom, enlightenment, motives, guidance)
· Wed: Spirit, Soul, Body (health, attitudes, spiritual wholeness)
· Thurs: Protection (temptation, deception, enemies)
· Fri: Finances (priorities, blessings)
· Sat: Family (general, spouse, children)

“No matter how well you pay your pastor, praise him or work for him, it is only through earnest, strategic prayer that you can ever really help him be an effective minister in the hands of Almighty God.” (Will Bruce, Pastors Need Prayer, Too).

(today's devotional quoted from Prayer Shield by Peter Wagner).

I want to challenge you to be a faithful intercessor for your pastors—pray for us! “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:” (2 Thess. 3:1).

With love in the Lord Jesus,

Pastor Chris