Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: Regardless of your leadership role—pastor, teacher, Sunday School leader, lay leader, youth leader, missionary,[or work place]—adapt this to your situation.
1. Plan your intercession for your people. You will be sure to fail God and your people unless you have a regular prayer plan for your intercession times. If anything in life is worth planning, surely this is. (Google image, Lessons on Prayer)
(a). Reserve a special daily time for your intercession. This is as important as setting apart time for preparing your messages or for visiting your people. This should be daily time, choice time, when you are physically alert and able to intensive intercession.
In addition, God will bring your people and their needs to your attention at special times at the particular moment when someone needs your prayer. When God thus specially prompts you, as far as possible put other work aside instantly and pray.
God will also bring your people to your prayer attention as you work, travel, as you have moments when your mind is comparatively free. As their leader, your people should constantly be on your heart, even as they were on the heart of Paul.
(b). Have a place where you intercede for your people. If you have a private room, you can make that your prayer closet. It is an added blessing when you have a special place to pray.
When I visit John Wesley's house in London, I always treasure the the time I can spend praying quietly in his prayer room at the top of the stairs.
(c). Have prayer lists of your people. God greatly blesses the use of prayer lists. There is strong evidence that Paul used them. You will also want special lists—of unsaved people you are seeking to win, of leaders of your nation, of missions needs (nations, people, ministries), a prayer-partner list (people in whose ministry you want to share by prayer), a family list. Your major responsibility, as shepherd, is your prayer list or lists for your own people.
Jesus said the good shepherd calls his sheep by name (John 1:3). If a shepherd knows the name of each sheep, how much more should the spiritual shepherd pray by name for each one of his flock.
Hudson Taylor, founder of the China inland Mission, used to pray for every mission station, every missionary by name, and every specific need and circumstance of which he was aware. His prayer lives on in China today.
It may be that the greatest change that could come in your life and ministry would be for you really to learn to pray for your people and for your ministry among them.
(d). Plan how you will cover with prayer the needs of your people.
If your congregation is too large to pray for each one personally each day, plan ways to include regularly all for whom you are spiritually responsible and accountable to God (Heb. 13:17).
You may need to segment your list so that you pray for a portion of your congregation each day of the week. Perhaps you will want to have a list of family names so that you do pray each day for each family by name.
You will want a constantly changing "need list" on a separate sheet of paper with the special needs of your people as they arise. This would include sickness, accidents, bereavement, unemployment, special discouragement, or trial. As your people begin to realize how personally you pray for each of them, they will gladly share their needs as they arise so you can more effectively be their prayer shepherd.
(e). Have a prayer plan for major needs of your people and community. Special concerns and major needs weigh heavily on the heart of every pastor. If your congregation is small, perhaps you can pray for them all each day. If it is large, you will need to plan your prayer with separate topics for each day of the week.
Among your major prayer concerns for your people as a whole are unity, integrity, godly living, a praying people, witnessing people, revival, a growing church impact, a worldwide church impact, God's presence in your services.
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Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.
Ablaze for God
#71 Your Prayer Controls Your Work (original posting)
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 217- 218) ZondervanPublishingHouse
Let's pray-
Father, help us be concerned enough about our "work" to spend ample prayer for Your guidance and blessing in what we do. We don't want to fail You or the people we're responsible for.
We understand that our setting apart time to pray for those who look to us for guidance is important. May we pick a time when we are physically alert and able to do intensive intercession for them.
When You prompt us to pray about someone's special need, may we be willing to instantly pray for them, and to have them on our hearts for their particular needs.
The need for our demonstrating unity, integrity, godly living, a praying people, a witnessing people, experiencing revival amongst us, and a growing church, is evident that Your presence is with us. May Your Word be preached in simplicity and with power.
We pray for Christ's blessings, as we become more committed to praying for Your help in everything we do at home, at our regular work or for the Kingdom. Amen
706- Eph. 1:7 "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to his grace."
707- Rev. 3:22 "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
708- Ps. 22:19 "but be not far from me, O LORD: O my stsrength, haste thee to help me."
709- Ecc. 12:7 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
710- Ps. 119:63 "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."
Quote for today-
Daniel 9:1-25
- Daniel’s prayer was built on the word of God. He modeled the importance of being a student of scripture to “plead the promises of God.” When we pray God's word back to Him, its effective, powerful, and encourages our hearts because we know God is faithful and His Word will not return void.
- Daniel made the choice to confess and not complain. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings a deep conviction of sin. When we respond appropriately, we can rest assured that God hears our prayers.
- As Daniel confessed his sin and the sin of Israel, he remembered the sin of not praying. Without prayer, our relationship with God is impaired for lack of crucial communication. “All this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God” (Daniel 9:13-14).
Words of wisdom-
~ We need to be stirred to do something! How we build on what we do behind the scenes, hopefully, is activily building something that honors God! We are all building something with our lives. May we be careful to make every effort to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus!
Today's guest post-
Healing on the Other Side of Heartbreak [Excellent faith message!]
"We’ve all been hurt by life and struggled in some form or fashion; no one is immune to suffering. But rather than view the pain as our burden to bear, what if we considered it a gift for growing? Healing on the other side of heartbreak is not simply returning to how we were before but becoming better than we would have been without it—someone stronger, someone wiser, someone gentler. And that’s something we all want."
Upcoming posts:
16/11th- Strike the Mark: #81 Prayer Note:
Dutch Sheets
18th- PRAY FIRST
James Banks
25th- Prayer In Perilous Times
Lois Stacky
Jean's blog (Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
Helpful ways the Lord helped me in my marriage
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