Asking for Prayer Support
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To recruit the base level of prayer support, leaders will need to have the courage to ask their churches to pray for them. This could be part of a general encouragement to people to pray seriously for their church, for each other, for the communities around them. That our churches have prayer lives which root the life of the church in the Lord is probably one of the greatest priorities facing Christian leaders today. A leader who is prepared to stand up and acknowledge his or her own need and dependence upon prayer communicates very positively the importance of prayer. |
There may be many potential candidates for the middle and top layers of prayer support, close at hand or far away, but who should you ask? Perhaps we should turn to the Lord first, acknowledging our needs in humility, and asking Him to provide supporters.
Once we have asked, we can trust God to provide us with the
support - He may point us towards people within or outside our church communities who we
can ask; alternatively He may lay the concern upon the heart of the intercessor who will
approach the leader. A general request for prayer to the church community may bring
forward several who want to engage seriously in praying for their leadership. However, it
is important that the Lord is doing the selection, and that we are obedient to His
direction in these matters.
Praying for leaders also plays a vital defensive role in increasing the protection upon
them and their families, and upon their work, like an umbrella of prayer cover. Whatever
we may believe about Satan, we can be certain that things which lead to the growth of the
church, and of the Kingdom of heaven, will not be to his liking. Whilst the base of the
pyramid provides broad prayer support, it is the middle and top levels in the pyramid of
prayer that are more likely to provide intercessory support which may involve 'standing in
the gap' between the leader and Satan, as well as in the gap between the leader and God.
'Prayer Shield' by Peter Wagner and 'Possessing the Gates of the Enemy' by Cindy Jacobs
both give good guidance on spiritual warfare in relation to prayer for leaders.
