Spiritual leaders are both male and female, but this week let’s focus on the men in spiritual leadership as “fathers.” In a typical year, thousands of Christian leaders leave the ministry. Our “professional” staff is increasingly beat up, discouraged, burned out, frustrated, tired, isolated, and running on empty. Their wives are usually hurting as badly or worse. This ought not to be. All of them could be far more victorious and fruitful for the kingdom if they had the effectual fervent intercession of their people.
In our personal lives, our dads, husbands, brothers, sons, and other men whom we love need our prayers as never before. And not just on Father’s Day. Our male leaders should be among our most prayed-for people, to step into the God-given role He designed them to fill, being the men He designed them to be. Without prayer, they will accomplish only what they can do in the power of their own natural abilities and predispositions, which is our human tendency.
But with prayer, God will do what He can do. Each leader needs intercessors who will be committed to lifting up his needs each day. As long as Moses held up his hands, God’s side prevailed in the battle for the kingdom in the valley below. When he tired, Aaron and Hur came alongside to hold his hands up until the victory was won.
David knew the power of surrounding himself with battle-seasoned fighters whom he called his “mighty men.” (Using this Scriptural term does not exclude women who are mighty women of prayer.) They were faithful to guard him from danger, to defend him, and to win battles for him. They were covenantally committed to him. This translates today to effective, serious intercessors who are called of God and who faithfully pray for spiritual leadership in all its forms.
You are called to be a mighty man of prayer for your spiritual leaders. Pray that your spiritual leader with lead your fellowship of believers, whether family, ministry, or church, to have a sense of the presence and possibility of God. Pray that you and they will be a fellowship of men and women who seek God, love him, and follow his leadership with the anointing of Spirit that produces vitality in body life.
Are you this kind of “mighty man of prayer” for those whom God has assigned you to love, and serve, and influence?
In the church setting, pray diligently that your spiritual leadership will be an example of how to seek God, will demonstrate how they follow the Holy Spirit, will equip you by teaching you how to apply and live the Word of God, and will release you to serve in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of Jesus in the world
to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim freedom for prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
If you are a leader of a family or a Christian group, do you have some “mighty men of prayer” praying for you regularly?
For more prayers for spiritual leaders, see Prayer Essentials For Living In His Presence, Vol 2, page 175-187. © Sylvia Gunter 2000
Available at www.thefathersbusiness.com. An archive of past devotionals is available on the website.
