Praying With Purpose: Pray For Your Leadership

“Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” Acts 12:5

Peter is in prison because of his faithfulness to preaching the gospel. King Herod “has stretched forth his hand to vex the church of God” and the best way to strike fear into the heart of the church is to kill or imprison it’s leadership. James was killed, Peter and John was put in prison. The pillars of the early church are being tried and how do the rest of the believers respond. In fear? No! They respond in prayer!

The believers form a prayer meeting at John Mark’s mothers house and began to pray for Peter. He has been sentenced to die and they knew that the only way for him to be set free was to seek the face of God by praying for Peter’s release. As they prayed, God sent an angel to open the prison doors and led Peter out. Peter thought he was dreaming but as he entered into the street he then understood that God miraculously set him free. It was an answer to the fervent prayers of the church. There are a couple of lessons we can learn from of this account.

First, The leadership of the church are not exempt from testing and trials. Church leaders fight the same devil that everyone else fights and are in need of prayer just as much as the believers they serve. Many churches have failed because of failures in leadership. Most of the time it starts when congregation take advantage of or take for granted their pastor, deacons, elders, and others by not praying for them. The thing to remember most is that many of our pastors may not be put in a literal prison like Peter, but are imprisoned spiritually. Spiritual prisons such as

· Discouragement

· Depression

· Overworked

· Overwhelmed

· Burn out

And a host of many other conditions. If the leadership is bound, then in many cases, it will influence and have an effect on the congregation itself. So let us learn from these early believers to pray for church leaders that God would open up the gates of their prison doors and set them free.

The second lesson to learn is that God answers the prayers of a fervent praying church. James said “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) If the fervent prayer of one righteous person avails much, then how much more will a church full righteous men and women accomplish. When Peter was released he went to the house where they were praying. When he knocked on the door they did not believe it was him. He had to convince them that it was him and that God’s angel sent him free. At first they didn’t believe it! They couldn’t believe it! But yet the answer to their prayer was granted. I think that they were more astonished than doubtful. Sometimes we pray for hard things and when God answers that prayer we are stunned! I think that their reaction was we prayed for the impossible, and God did the impossible. Praying believes God for the easy things. Fervent praying believes God for the impossible things!

In Exodus 17 as Israel is fighting against the Amalekites, Moses is up on top of the hill with his hands lifted. As long as his hands were up Israel prevailed, but when his hands dropped down the Amalekites prevailed. Moses was tired, so Aaron and Hur stood on each side of him and held his weak arms up until the battle was won. As strong of a leader as Moses was, he still needed support. I want to encourage you to pray for your leadership and to pray fervently for them. The pillars must have the firm foundation of a congregation to hold them up in trying times.

Pastor Robby