Thoughts for Life: #61 Prepare Your People for Prayer Ministry

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: Prayer is a form of ministry Christ desires for every believer. We are saved to pray for others. Prayer is the basis for whatever other ministry one has.

Prayer can be the most important ministry in most Christians' lives. One of your greatest responsibilities is to help your people become a praying people, and to help them make their intercession effective for Christ. (Google image, Silhouette of people praying)
How much prayer time does your average believer invest in Christ's kingdom per day? This preparation has two phases. You must prepare them to be personally strong in prayer and intercession.

You must also guide your people as they develop their personal prayer plans. Nothing is more important to a ministry of intercession than a personal prayer plan.

1. Help them deepen their personal prayer life. Your people not only need your repeated clear teaching on prayer, they need to see in you a beautiful example of a life and ministry of prayer. A love for prayer needs to be taught, caught, and practiced.

a. Deepen your own prayer life. Prayer must become the life, the joy, and the passion of our own soul. Your people must see that prayer is your eager delight and your very life-breath.

If you only talk about prayer and do not demonstrate the joy and power of prayer, your teaching will seem to be mere words—pious words to which everyone agrees. But they will not realize how blessed prayer can be, until they see it in you.

All Christians believe in the duty of some prayer each day. Most, however, have an ordinary prayer life except in emergencies. Too often they have never realized the thrill and excitement of communion with Jesus and prevailing in prayer for others. There are exceptions—people who pray more than others.

Don't expect your people to hunger for what they fail to see in you. They must sense your joy in the Lord, your intimacy with God, your love for Jesus and for themselves. They must sense your vibrant faith as you pray—that you really expect and get answers to your prayers.

They must sense these things in your normal public praying; then they will begin to hunger to go deeper in prayer themselves. But remember that your public praying reflects the quality of your personal, private prayer life.

Many Christian leaders' prayer lives are inadequate to satisfy Jesus. Is that true of You? Learn to pray if you want your people to pray.

b. Give priority to prayer in your public ministry. Prepare your heart as much for your public praying as for your speaking and teaching. If your heart is not melted when your pray, it will probably not be melted when you speak. If your heart is not aflame for God when you pray, it will probably not be while you preach.

Live and pray so that your public prayers are fragrant with God's presence and vibrant with God's power.

c. Make prayer a natural and vital part of all private ministry. Include a brief prayer in all your personal counseling, home or hospital visitation, farewelling, or committing a task to a person or group. Make prayer so constant and natural a part of all you do that you are known for praying about everything (Phil.4:6).

Prayer must be an ever-present part of your entire ministry. Remember, prayer adds God's benediction to anything you say, God's presence to anyone you contact, and God's power to answer any need you try to meet.

2. You can guide them in developing their own prayer plans. Every Christian needs to develop a personal prayer plan. No one will bring prayer into the full role God desires for his life unless he plans for it. We plan our times for sleep and food. When we miss our usual food or rest time we become conscious of it. We may even become uncomfortable.

In the same way, prayer must be built into the normal day's schedule of each believer. This does not happen unless definite prayer habits are formed and plans are specifically made to build prayer into the spiritual lifestyle. This will please the Lord, fulfill His will, and bring the eternal reward Christ longs to give.

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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
#61 Prepare Your People for Prayer Ministry
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 182-185) ZondervanPublishingHouse

Is God involved in
your daily life?

Father, as Jesus' desires for us to pray for others, as well as for whatever our ministry may be, we ask for divine help to know how to pray effectively.
We see that nothing is more important to a ministry of intercession than a personal prayer plan that we are committed to.

We are in need of Your Holy Spirit's help in anything we say, Your presence while speaking with anyone, and power to answer any need we try to meet.
Our making prayer a vital part of our ministry will make our public prayers fragrant with Your presence and vibrant with Your power. May we please You by filling Christ's will for us as Christians to faithfully pray, so He can bring the eternal reward He longs to give us.
I ask this in His name. Amen.

Today's Bible verse-

Is. 41:13 (KJV) "For I the LORD thy God will hold

thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will

help thee."

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV "For God has not given us a
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a
sound mind."

Jer. 24:7 (KJV) "And I will give them an heart to know
me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me
with their whole heart.

Today's quote-

O. Hallesby- "When we go to our meeting with God, we should go like a patient to the doctor, first to be thoroughly examined and afterwards to be treated for our ailment." (p. 97 of his book, PRAYER)

Today's special link-

He’s Holding Your Hand By Jill Savage

"The nurse walked into my room and said, 'Jill it’s time to go. You’ll need to leave your glasses here.' Mark prayed for me, gave me a kiss and then waved as the nurse wheeled me out of my room towards my lumpectomy surgery. Without my glasses I can’t see much so the feeling of being disoriented seemed to heighten the emotion of the moment . . . "

Today's question-

Does true faith change behavior?

Our obeying God is our reasonable service to Him, and we become His workmanship, becoming like Christ doing it. Although many downplay spiritual warfare, it becomes exciting to watch God fight for us in various challenges as we learn to pray for His help.
We are to be on the alert not to be deceived by false preaching, which actually challenges us not to allow God to change us into His image, but twists the Gospel, and to licence sin.
We are to have an eternal perspective and build up ourselves in the Holy Ghost and power. We are to uphold God being our Master, and to never complain about His efforts to change our thinking and behavior.
We are to be merciful to those who resist truth and obedience to the Lord God. We are not to get angry with them as they wrestle with truth and obedience, but keep ourselves in God's love, and to win them to what His Word teaches. We are not to entertain their sinful teachings.
Joy comes through obedience to Truth!

Upcoming posts-

#62 Guide in Establishing Regular Daily Prayer Time

14th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

The Power of the Word

16th- Saturday's post by Richard Stillman

#63 Teach the Stewardship of Time & Possessions

19th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#64 The Stewardship of Life & Possessions

21st- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel