For whom should I pray?

A week of worldwide fasting and prayer for the US begins today, April 30th, and will continue through May 6th. This fast was not called by Americans. Australian believers have sent out this alarm.

Because of that, I want to recycle several blog entries I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed for the nation. In short, I believe God showed me these four things for which to pray:

• Pray for people to know what to do.
• Pray for people to receive wisdom along with their knowledge.
• Pray for those people to receive the boldness to step out in what they know to do.
• Pray for those people to be filled with boldness to carry out their tasks to completion.

Originally posted last year (fourth in series):

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority… 1 Timothy 2:1-2a, emphasis added

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel… Ephesians 6:18-19, emphasis added

Pray for people to know what to do. This is what I heard from the Lord this year, early in April. He then let me know that He had been pouring insight and revelation across the nation and upon people of all walks of life and would continue to do so. His instructions to me involved praying for them to know what to do with the knowledge, truth, and insights they had gained.

We live in the time of which Daniel prophesied, when knowledge of all sorts is being revealed at increasingly enormous rates (see Daniel 12:4). Wherever you go, with whomever you speak, no matter the topic, knowledge is increasing, expanding, and exploding.

Information is in perpetual motion. It stops for no one. As soon as you start to acquire an elementary grasp of any component of current events, the whole thing divides and subdivides and morphs into something new. And as information explodes, lives are involved—multitudes of lives are affected, countless lives are changed—and all too often, lives are destroyed.

Pray for people to know what to do. Who are these folks? We need to know so we can pray for them.

Look at the lists the Lord provided for us in 1 Timothy 2 and Ephesians 6. They give a clear line up of those for whom we should pray.

Kings. Whoever has leadership over this nation and other nations needs to be covered by our prayers. Ask God to reveal to the heads of state what they are to do. God has a plan for them, and it is probably not going to look just like your plan for them. Here’s the truth of the matter: These men and women need to know what to do, and you need them to know what to do. When we cover them with prayer, they will more likely be influenced by God’s leading—even if they genuinely dislike the concept of yielding to the God of the Bible. Let God direct you in your prayers, showing you which leaders for whom to pray.

All who are in authority. Knowledge—information that others in high places want to keep hidden—has been pouring out on many in strategic positions these days. So much so that it’s not hard to imagine that these leaders are overwhelmed and swamped—their heads are spinning—in the torrents of ever-cascading information. In every position of authority is someone who needs to know what to do by the Spirit of God with all the information and revelation that is piling up around them. They need your prayers. You need them to know what to do. So pray as the Spirit of God brings someone—or an office or a position of authority—to your mind or heart. He will help you to pray for them. And it’s very likely that they will start to make better decisions—whether or not they know why.

All the saints. Paul told the Ephesians to be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. The Ephesians were charged to be instant—ready and willing at a moment’s notice—to pray for their fellow Christians. He also instructed them to stay the course with this prayer-ready lifestyle—to persevere in it.

How do you discern which believer for whom to pray? You pray for the individuals that come to your heart or who cross your mind. Perhaps you have a dream about them or a random experience reminds you of them. Then pray. Your friend—or brother or sister in Christ—have need of God’s help. They need to know what to do, and you can stand in the gap for them. By the leading of the Holy Spirit, you can touch God on their behalf, and then He will touch them—and He will drop into them what to do as a result.

Pray on my behalf. The Apostle Paul wrote this, requesting prayer on his own behalf. Why? That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Paul needed prayer so that God’s utterance—the knowing of what to say by the agency of the Holy Spirit—would be given to him whenever he opened his mouth. His desire was to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. In order to fulfill this task given to him by God, he needed believers to pray for him so he could speak boldly the oracles of God. Without prayer coverage—although he was called and although he knew the gospel—he would be less effective.

Who is like Paul to you in your life? Even though you probably perceive them as spiritual giants who have it all together, your “Pauls” need your prayers. Your pastor, your Bible teachers, the visiting evangelists, the missionaries overseas, the Christian counselor you visit, the prayer group or Bible study leader, the radio, TV, or internet ministry, your mentors in the Lord, and even the person who led you to Jesus—they all need prayer. Anyone who points the way to eternal life in Jesus Christ needs prayer, so you never go wrong by praying for them to know what to do and what to say so that they’ll be bold with God’s boldness and effective in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And just a reminder: Even as Christianity itself has come under greater attack in this hour, all of the godly leaders mentioned above are likely experiencing an increase of the same kind of attack in their own lives and ministries. Pray for them. Let God lead you. As a result, they will be strengthened and helped, and the fruit that will abound to their account as a result of your prayer will abound to your account as well.

All men. Paul wrote to Timothy to pray for all men. That would include the good, the bad, and the ugly. If someone crosses your mind, pray for them. If someone blesses you, pray a thanksgiving prayer for them. If someone irritates, offends, misrepresents, or otherwise crosses you, pray for them. Instead of stewing, storm Heaven on their behalf. Trust God to direct you; all men (and women and boys and girls…and teens!) need to know what to do in this critical hour. When one of them appears on your “radar”—despite who they are—then they need your prayers. So many miraculous happenings start as a “random” thought planted in the heart of a person of prayer.

As you follow through with all prayer and petition, praying at all times in the Spirit…being on the alert with all perseverance and petition, the men and women for whom you pray will know what to do in their own realms of authority, expertise, and life; and God will be free to download His will into a culture that was heading off the edge of the cliff in their efforts to flee from Him. And then the glory of the Lord will be seen and honored once again.

May it be so, Lord Jesus! May it be so.

Dorothy