Personal Prayer Life

A large part of the instruction that Jesus gave to his disciples was on prayer. They would be grateful for this teaching in the days following the Ascension as Peter and the others struggled to make sense of their situation. Yet, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was ready and able to speak out according to the words the Spirit gave him. The leadership that he provided to the church on that day provides an example of true Spirit led leadership, that can only originate in prayer.

Without praying, we cannot know Gods call and direction, we cannot call upon his strength, and we are left to our human judgement. We have just considered the need for future vision to be that which God is laying before the church organisation. Without such prayer, any future vision put before the church will be solely the desires of those who have had chance to shape the vision. Moreover, our prayer needs to be daily prayer if we are to handle the daily challenges of leading God's church having received His insight and guidance.

There is a danger that we merely commit our plans to God, and ask Him to bless them. Whilst this is a good start, we surely need to pray in sufficient depth and with sufficient openness to allow God to challenge and change our pre-conceived ideas about how He would want us to act on a particular issue. When we read of Jesus praying, he withdrew from the disciples in order to be able to spend quality time with the Father. He knew the importance of renewing his relationship with the Father on a daily basis. So it surely has to be for us. If Jesus needed to spend quality time with his Father each day, then so do we. This is not solely for our leadership of the church, but in order that we ourselves may be in a rightful relationship with God, so that we can allow him to mould us and shape us, and ensure that our lives have the integrity and wholeness that He, and we ourselves, so earnestly desire.