Prayer for Pastors

“To you I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me. Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications When I cry to You. When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.” (Psalms 28:1-5)

Read and meditate on these Scriptures:

“Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, ‘the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets to your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

“Jesus said to him, ‘’‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

“If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15: 10-11)

“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

“You did not chose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you asd the Father in My name He may give to you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:16-17)

Pray that:

1.     Our pastors and staff will lead the way in humility, repentance, and prayer.

2.     God will protect the staff families from the attacks of Satan and keep a strong hedge of thorns around them.

3.     Our pastors and staff will be faithful in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, and that they will not be bound by tradition, habit, or the fear of man.

4.     That our pastoral staff will be pure physically, mentally, doctrinally, and spiritually.

Holy Spirit's help

    "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you...... I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when  He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." (John 16:7,12-13)

    In an earlier post we were able to read a story by Roberson McQuilken, missionary, college president, and author of "Life in the Spirit', A Promise Kept" and others. Today we will hear from him again as he relates a story about when he was a 10 year old boy:

  “Jim, the school bully, stalked me after school every day, week after terrifying week. Like some evil presence, he haunted my life by day and my dreams by night. Finally, I ran out of ways to evade him. I lingered in the school building long after everyone had gone home. Everyone but Jim, that is. From the second floor window I could see him by the front entrance. Suddenly, I saw something that had never happened before. Walking down the sidewalk was the most marvelous vision I had every seen—my father!

     Down the stairs and out the door I ran. My comforter had come. What a relief! Holding by father’s hand, I marched bravely past my nemesis and waved cheerily, ‘Hi Jim!’ What strength! What joy!

  We may not be 10 years old, but we too, are haunted by the evil presence of an enemy set on destroying us. We have experienced a lifestyle of worry—about a job we have or don’t have, about the children, about old age or health. We have been ambushed by greed or booby-trapped by an explosive tongue. The Bible and church are supposed to help, but the enemy just keeps stalking us.

  

     To cope with the enemy, we try one strategy after another, but nothing works for long. Then down the street comes help. The Comforter has come. (John 14:16) That name means ‘the one called along side,’ but He doesn’t just shepherd us through the crisis of the moment. Unlike my father, the Holy Spirit is with us forever. Better than that—the strong Comforter doesn’t just walk beside us; He resides inside us! The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world’ (1 John 4:4).

  

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees Him or knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with your and will be in you.’ (John 14:16-17)

    

The Spirit acts in me, however, only to the extent I respond. The connection is faith. He acts, but I must respond for the power to flow. So there are two parts to the ‘close connection’—His part and mine.” (Life in the Spirit, Robertson McQuilkin)

  “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” (1 Cor. 6:19)

    If you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ, then you have this same Holy Spirit living inside you. He is your comforter, counselor, intercessor, and He is God Himself, the third member of the Trinity! You don’t have to look out the window to see if He is coming to rescue you from your crisis today. He is already present! He is working for you and “He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Do you have the faith to allow Him to help you? Are you talking to Him every day? He knows your needs already, but He wants you to spend time communicating with Him today.

Pray:

1.     For the desire to spend time with God’s Holy Spirit that resides in your body and to live your life for Him today.

2.     For the strength to keep your body, your temple, pure and clean for Him. To not allow drugs, alcohol, unhealthy food and drink, and illicit sex to defile your temple.

3.     For the strength to keep your mind free of impure thoughts and focused on those things that bring glory to our Lord.

4.     That you will not forget that “You are not your own” and that you have been bought and paid for by the precious blood of the Lamb. You are His and should  live to glorify His Name in your life every day.

Bruchko

“How beautiful on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaim peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things, Who proclaim salvation, Who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7)

   Bruce Olsen is a missionary who has been in the jungles of Venezuela and Columbia for many years bringing the gospel and a better way to live to the Motilone Indians and other tribes that reside in that region. He felt called to go to these Indians at the age of 19 and was obedient to the call of God to go, even though he did not have a college degree or a mission organization to support him. The first tribe he encountered there could not pronounce his name so they gave him the name of Bruchko and that is the title of the book that he penned telling of life there with this primitive tribe.

     He had many hard times learning to live with a stone age culture, living in the large communal hut with them, eating what they ate, suffering sicknesses, hunting and fishing with them, constantly bothered by insects, enduring the heat and humidity, and sleeping in a hammock high in the rafters of the tribal home. After living with them for four years and learning how to speak their difficult tonal language, he was frustrated by his inability to communicate the gospel message so that they could understand what Christ had done for all mankind by dying on a cross and rising from the dead so that we might become His disciples. He had one very close companion whom he had named Bobby, and this is how Bruce explains the breakthrough for the first convert to Christianity:

    “One evening, though, Bobby began to ask questions. We were sitting around a fire.  The light flicked over him. His face was serious. ‘How can I walk the Jesus trail?’ he asked. No Motilone has ever done it. It’s a new thing. There is no other Motilone to tell how to do it.’

     ‘Bobby,’ I said. ‘Do you remember my first Festival of the Arrows, the first time I had seen all the Motilonis gathered to sing their song?’ The festival was the most important in the Motiloni culture.

    He nodded. The fire flared up momentarily, and I could see his eyes, staring intently at me.

   ‘Do you remember that I was afraid to climb in the high hammocks to sing, for fear that the rope would break? And I told you that I could sing only if I could have one foot in the hammock and one foot on the ground?’

   ‘Yes Bruchko.’

   ‘And what did you say to me?’

  He laughed.  ‘I told you you had to have both feet in the hammock. ‘You have to be suspended, I said.’

    ‘Yes,’ I said.  ‘You have to be suspended. That is how it is when you follow Jesus, Bobby. No man can tell you how to walk His trail. Only Jesus can. But to find out you have to tie you hammock strings to Him and be suspended in God.’

   The next day he came to me. ‘Bruchko,’ he said, ‘I want to tie my hammock strings into Jesus Christ. But how can I when I can’t see Him or touch Him?’

    ‘You have talked to spirits, haven’t you?’

     ‘Oh, I see now.’

     The next day he had a big grin on his face.  ‘Bruchko, I’ve tied my hammock strings to Jesus. Now I speak with a new language.’

    I didn’t understand what he meant. ‘Have you learned some of the Spanish I speak?’

    He laughed a clean, sweet laugh. ‘No Bruchko, I speak an new language.’

    Then I understood. To a Motilone, language is life. If Bobby had a new life, he had a new way of speaking. His speech would now be Christ-oriented.

   We put our hands on each others shoulders. My mind swept back to the first time I had met Jesus and the life I had felt flow into me. Now my brother Bobby was experiencing Jesus himself, in the same way. He had begun to walk with Jesus.

   ‘Jesus has risen from the dead!’ Bobby shouted, so that the sound filtered far off into the jungle. ‘He has walked our trails! I have met Him!’” (Bruchko by Bruce Olsen, pp/ 138-139

    Bobby grew in the knowledge of Christ over the following months. His entire personality and demeanor changed, and the tribe took notice. At the next Festival of Arrows Bobby sang a song that told the story of Jesus to the tribe. The singing lasted for fourteen hours with Bobby singing and another repeating what he sang. At the end of the song the entire tribe asked if they could suspend their hammocks into Jesus also and become followers of Christ!

   Who have you suspended your hammock on: yourself, your education, your possessions, your family, your job, your boy or girlfriend, your spouse, your intelligence, your talents,  your good looks? Or have you put your trust in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords?

   “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, to be reconciled to God.’  (2 Corinthians 5:17,20 NKJV)

Pray:

1.     Lord thank you that I can “hang my hammock on you” that I can trust you to uphold me and guide my path if I am seeking to know you better and being obedient to you Word.

2.     Lord help me to daily, hang my hammock on you and to “cast all my cares upon You,” knowing that only You are ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

3.     Help me to look for ways today to tell others about You and what You have done in my life.

   

     

  

   

    

    

Prayer and action

      Phillip Yancey is an author I have enjoyed for many years. In his book entitled, “Prayer, Does It Make a Difference?” he gives many insights into how the Bible and many godly men and women have participated and lived by prayer. In one chapter he has this to say on the subject:

    “Some people worry that prayer may lead to passivity, that we will retreat to prayer as a substitute for action. Jesus saw no contradiction between the two: he spent long hours in prayer and then long hours meeting human needs. The church in Acts prayed together about the cultural controversies between Jews and Gentiles, then convened a council to hammer out a compromise.

   The Apostle Paul prayed diligently for the early churches, but also wrote and visited them. He prayed and worked with equal abandon. On a sea voyage, after being convinced as a result of his prayers that all passengers would survive the impending shipwreck, he proceeded to take charge of the 276 on board, giving orders and organizing salvage efforts.

   The accounts in Acts present a double agency that makes it impossible to distinguish God’s work from the Christians work---the point exactly. Recall Paul’s paradoxical command to the Philippians: ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you to will and to do for His good pleasure.’” (Phil. 2:12b, 13)

   Mr. Yancey then continues with a story that his pastor, Peter, tells about working with his five year old daughter. “My pastor spent a day of hard labor installing stone steps in his backyard. The individual stones weighed between a hundred and two hundred pounds, and took all of Peter’s strength and a few tools to maneuver them into place. His five-year-old daughter begged to help. When he suggested she just sing, to encourage him at his work, she said no. She wanted to help. Carefully, when it would not endanger her, he let her place hands on the rocks and push as he moved them.

   Peter admitted later that Becky’s assistance actually complicated the task. He could have built the steps in less time without her ‘help.’ At the end of the day, though, he had not only new steps, but a daughter bursting with pride and a sense of accomplishment. ‘Me and Dad made steps,’ she announced at the dinner that night. And he would be the first to agree.” (From Prayer, Does It Make a Difference?’ by Phillip Yancey, pp.113-114)

   Well, I suspect everyone with children and grandchildren can tell a story like that. Does that make you feel like you are just a child or do you remember that we are praying to the Creator of the universe and He is graciously allowing us to be a part of His grand plan to win people to Him. We should be humbled and at the same time overjoyed that the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, Peter, and Paul is willing to allow us to come along side of Him and be involved in His plans and purposes!

Pray:

2.     That our God will show up in everything we are involved with this week, and that the hearts of the people will be turned to God and to His Son Jesus.

3.     That the Holy Spirit will fill us with a desire to worship and adore the King of Kings and he Lord of Lords in a way that we have never experienced.

4.     That we will be faithful to spend time alone with God today in His Scriptures and in prayer so that we can know and love Him more today than yesterday

Patient prayer

“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth---Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord. Many, O LORD my God are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.” (Psalms. 40:1-3,5 NKJV)

“If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. Prayer is not the preparation for greater things, prayer is the greater thing.” (Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest)

Read and reflect on these words from the Lord, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who redeems us from sin and adopts us as His children.

“I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior. Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of my hand; I work and who will reverse it? I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.” (Isaiah 43:11,13,25-26)

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.” (Isaiah 49: 15-16)

“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:17-20)

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:31, 35-39)

Pray:

1.     Thank God that He has saved you and that “He will never leave us or forsake us” and that He loves us with a love that is beyond understanding.

2.     Thank Him for forgiving you of all your sins, past, present, and future; that “you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

3.     That you will be faithful to pray for those you know that have not professed Jesus as Lord and Savior.

4.     Pray that Christians will be conformed more to His image and start living more for Him and not themselves.

The supper of the Lamb

      In chapter 14 of the book of Luke we find the parable of the Great Supper that Jesus gave at the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Jesus knew that their motives for inviting Him were wrong but He went anyway and shocked them not only with his healing of a man who had dropsy but also gave them a class on humility and how to entertain at home. But the longest discourse He gave that day was on what would happen when the Kingdom of God has come and who would be sitting at the table when it comes. Doctor Luke records it this way:

    “Then He said to him,  “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him. ‘I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘ I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ (Luke 14:16-20)

    Life is full of busyness, things that have to be done. Things that we want to do for one reason or another that take our time and we often have to make decisions on what is most important. These men decided that the normal day-to-day activities that they had on their schedule were more important than the invitation to the great supper.

     Jesus continued: “So the servant came and reported these things to the master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant,  ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and byways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ‘For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’” (Luke 14:21-24)

    Jesus told this parable to inform the Pharisees that He had come to them, and the Jewish nation, to give them the Good News of the Gospel but that they had rejected Him and now the message of salvation would be taken to the Gentiles. This coming week, at your church, Jesus has prepared another banquet for you and me. We all have busy lives and things that need to be done. But, think of it this way; the King of the Universe has prepared a feast for you and me at His table. Let us come with excitement and joy in our hearts to see and hear what He has prepared for us! Let’s not miss a single Sunday in our church home where His word is taught faithfully and let us come with joy in our hearts and great expectation of what He will do in our midst. 

Pray:

1.     That I will be faithful to attend each church service that the Lord has prepared for us at His table.

2.     That I will come with faith in Him to provide the words I need to hear, and the desire to be obedient to His voice as He lovingly speaks to my heart.

3.     That I will invite others, if I have not already done so, and even pick them up and bring them if they need my help.

4.     That God will be glorified in all that is done in His precious and Holy name this week and that we will never forget what God has done in our hearts and lives.

     

   

    

Elijah's prayer

  

    In the book of First Kings, chapter 18 we read the awe inspiring story of Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. I know you have heard the story of how Elijah, that great man of God, went to the evil king Ahab of Israel and challenged all those prophets to a duel of prayers. They all assembled at Mt. Carmel along with all the people of Israel to witness the prayer challenge. “And Elijah came to all the people and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people answered not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.”

   Then he proceeds to tell the people that they both he, and the Baal prophets, will cut up a bull and prepare wood to burn it, but not set it on fire. Then they are to call upon the name of their god and Elijah will call upon his God to set it on fire. The god who answers will be the real god. So the prophets of Baal called upon their god from morning until noon. Elijah began to mock their prayers around noon and the pagan prophets danced and shouted all the more, cutting themselves with knives to get Baal’s attention.

  Then Elijah called all the people to him and took 12 stones, one each for the tribes of Israel, and built an altar, put wood on it and laid the pieces of the cut up bull on it. He then had them pour water on the wood three times so that the water overflowed the trench around the altar.

    “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, ‘LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to you again.’ Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now all of the people saw it and fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!’” (1 Kings 18:36-39)

    Then at Elijah’s command, the people rounded up the false prophets of Baal and Asherah and executed them all. Then Elijah went up on top of Mt. Carmel to pray that the drought, which had plagued Israel for more than three years, would to come to an end. He bowed his head between his knees and sent his servant to look to see if there were any clouds seven times. On the seventh time a cloud appeared on the horizon and soon it was pouring down rain in Israel.

  Elijah was a great prophet, but what about you and me? James tells us in his book that, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months, And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” (James 5:16b-17)

Pray:

1.     Lord help me to have the faith of Elijah and pray with the fervency and faith that he possessed as he took on the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah.

2.     Lord, thank you that you use people just like me to cry out to you with great expectancy and joy to accomplish Your purposes.

3.     Lord, forgive me of my many sins and shortcomings that block my path to You when they go unconfessed. Help me to confess and forgive regularly.