08/29/2024
This morning let’s talk about leading people to prayer. The subject of the devotional message I read today raised the importance of praying leaders as being a critical need in the church today. Who in your church leads others in prayer? If you can’t identify anyone are you being called to fill that office?
The Apostle Paul reveled in prayer and encouraged those around him, and throughout the church, to pray effectively. He did this often by example and in one instance that stands out his leadership was demonstrated by his words to the Philippians...
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,”
Philippians 1:3-4 KJV
Praying for others, and leading them to prayer should bring us happiness just as it brought Paul the joy he wrote about. When prayer infuses the church then the faith of the entire body is magnified and God is glorified through it. Praying is a necessity for every Christian, but leading the church to prayer and instructing others in how to pray lifts that person up as a true leader. Pastor E.M. Bounds writes about such leaders:
"Increased prayer will not happen as a matter of course. Only praying leaders can have praying followers." – E. M. Bounds
He talks about the position of these leaders in prayer and how they will be viewed by church history and in heaven...
"He who can set the church to praying will be the greatest of reformers and apostles." – E. M. Bounds
Then Bounds goes on to conclude...
"If this is realized, our prayers, faith, lives, and ministry will take on such a radical and aggressive form that it will bring about spiritual revival in people and in the church." – E. M. Bounds
Many Christians read words such as this and cringe at those that characterize anything of faith as being radical or aggressive, but the life , death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was nothing if not a radical shift from the norm, and an aggressive change to the faith that existed before he was born. His life, prayer, and relationship with God shook up the world, and especially the Jewish establishment, but it returned mankind to God through His ultimate crucifixion and resurrection. Our prayers will do the same thing today.
Christ’s demeanor was humble, but his message was an unsettling one to those in power, and ultimately brought him to Jerusalem where His teaching, prayers, and faith would so upset the status quo that they would lead to His death. Jesus had a radical message, an aggressive message of faith, and He demonstrated such a powerful nature of God that it changed the world forever. Our prayers will revive the Church, and follow His example.
Our leaders in prayer will shake up the churches who have strayed, and they will unsettle people who have compromised their faith to gain the approval of the world. As Christians we are meant to proclaim the truth of God’s Word, and His reality. We should attest to the fact that He hears and answers prayer, but when some believers happen upon a brother or sister in Christ who is praying openly in public (like John the Baptist did) it causes them to turn away. Their faith and prayers remain hidden beneath a basket like a dirty family secret... They have developed a "genteel" form of religion, one that has been shaped by a "polite" worldly society... not by a religious life that has been formed by fervent prayer, a firm belief in the Word of God, and inspired by Christ's imminent return.
Jesus taught prayer in word and deed. He prayed and led his Apostles to become men of incessant prayer. In the end, they would upset the norm of their day to such a degree that all except John would be put to a violent and torturous death. Their faith would not, could not, be denied even in the face of such horrible deaths... their belief was as aggressive in its nature as it was humble in its presentation. The apostles were truly leaders in faith, and leaders in prayer.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 ESV
I pray this morning that a revival of prayer sweeps through our churches, and through all of Christianity... Not prayer that is hidden from sight out of embarrassment or fear, but prayer that radically and aggressively returns our lives, our faiths, and our relationship to the great I Am! I pray that leaders in prayer will be raised up around the world to lead the church back to a strength of faith and worship that will glorify God. I pray, as Paul did, with an infusion of God’s joy… a joyous desire for every saint’s wellbeing, and a closer walk with God.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for giving us an open avenue into your presence through prayer. Thank you Lord for the powerful prophets of the past who repeatedly led your people through prayer, and who’s prayers brought faith in you back from the brink of being lost, time and time again. Help us today Holy Father for we fear that the faith of the Church has been under attack from within, and without, and that our prayer lives have suffered as a result. Raise up powerful men and women of prayer to lead your children back from this modern day precipice of the lost, from the brink of damnation, and reinstate the truth of your Word, and a vision of your will into your children. Pour out a double dose of your Holy Spirit upon us Lord so that we will remember and understand your Word. Open our hearts and minds to your Spirit so that he will teach us how to pray once more. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is with us always. Holy is your Son Jesus who has made a way for our redemption, and your Holy Spirit who helps us to pray as we should. Strengthen us in them as we seek out our salvation in fear and trembling for you are merciful Father, and your grace knows no bounds if we will only accept it, and return to you. Wash us clean of our sins in the blood of Jesus, and reinstate our prayers and firm belief in your Word through the leadership of your Holy Spirit. Save us Father, heal our land, and return our churches to the uncompromised belief in your Word that you demand of us. Help us to return to you, and to be firm in our faith, and not lukewarm in our prayers. Help us in this way so that you will not spit us out, but find us pleasing and worth to be eternally in your presence.
Amen.
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”
Revelation 3:15-17 CSB
“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV
“ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
1 Colossians 1:9-12
Rich Forbes