How to Pray for Your Pastor
From The Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks
How to Pray for a Spiritual Leader
The outline that follows is for your use as a reference tool as you pray for a particular leader. We cannot lay our hands on our manuals and say, “God, do it!” The Holy Spirit must quicken each prayer time. First Corinthians 14:15 tells us to pray with the Spirit and with understanding. We must trust God to give us specifics regarding the needs of the one we are praying for, in addition to the areas mentioned in this manual. It is vital that the insights we receive from the Lord as we pray only be used for intercession and not as an item for discussion with others (Ps. 25:14).
PERSONAL LIFE
Relationship with God
1. Sensitivity to the Lord
2. Openhearted and tender for obedience
3. Private times with the Lord to be vital, fresh and productive
4. Fellowship and communion with God remains number one priority
5. Receive personal direction, vision and teaching
Priorities
1. Discernment to know what they are
2. Wisdom on how to apportion time
3. Discernment and strength to maintain
4. Awareness that they are unique to each person
5. Open to God’s adjustments and changes
Fellowship
1. Available on their level of maturity
2. Determination to maintain
3. Not to be crowded out by responsibilities
4. Wisdom not to invest all in one person
5. Wisdom and discernment concerning opposite sex
6. How to deal with loneliness and aloneness
Wisdom
1. Not settling for past wisdom to get by but desiring new wisdom for every situation
2. The need for discernment between your wisdom and God’s
3. Godly wisdom for spiritual, emotional and physical decisions (Col.1:9‑12; Prov. 28:5)
4. The Spirit of wisdom (Eph. 1:17)
5. The Holy Spirit would continually remind the leader to seek the Lord’s wisdom
Health
1. Divine health—emotionally, mentally, and physically
2. Freedom from the effects of weariness
3. Supernatural strength—spiritually, emotionally, physically (Ps. 68:35)
4. Desire to care for physical body
5. Ability to rest completely (Ps. 127:2)
6. Wisdom and self-control in work, sleep & eating habits (Phil. 3:19; 1 Cor. 9:27)
7. Time for enjoyable exercise
Temptations
1. Bind outside influences, controls, pressures, including ungodly desires of heart
2. Not to be trapped by the personal desire to “be somebody”
3. That there would be a desire to build God’s kingdom and not one’s own (Lk. 11:2)
4. That their hearts’ desires would be to serve, not to control, manipulate or rule (Mk. 10:43‑45; Phil. 2: 3‑8).
5. Ability to harness ambition
6. Revelation of where he and others fit into God’s plans
Sexual
1. Bind outside influences, controls and pressures
2. Discernment to detect traps of the enemy
3. Strength to resist the spirit of seduction
4. Wisdom in knowing the difference between love and lust
5. Strength to overcome and wisdom to direct all desires of the flesh (1 Thess. 4:3‑8).
Financial
1. Bind outside influences, controls, pressures
2. Revelation that God alone is provider
3. Ability to be content—to abound or be abased (Phil. 4:1 1‑13)
Attitude
1. Thoughts and emotions develop attitudes, which become actions
2. Discerning wrong attitudes with the courage and ability to change them into godly attitudes (Phil. 3: 15)
3. Competition to be changed to unity (Phil. 2:2‑3)
4. Independence to be changed to interdependence (Eph. 2:21)
5. Superiority to be changed to humility (Mk. 9:35)
6. Defensiveness to be changed to openness for cooperation
7. Divisiveness to be changed to embracing of the whole body of Christ (Eph. 2:14)
Evidence of Holy Spirit
1. Graciousness with firmness (2 Tim. 24‑25)
2. Mercy, compassion and forbearance (Eph. 4:2)
3. Desire to bring restoration to all (2 Cor. 5:18; Gal. 6:1)
Motives
1. Pure (Mt. 5:8).
2. Whole and complete in Christ
3. Open to God to reveal if not right
4. Awareness that God alone knows true motives (Heb. 4:12; Ps. 139:1)
Appearance
1. The glow of Christ (Ps. 34:4,5)
2. Reveal the Lord in action, dress and speech (1 Tim. 3:7; Eph. 4:1; 1 Jn. 2:6; 2 Cor. 3:2)
RENEWED VISION (Prov. 29:18).
1. To be clear and unmixed
2. Patience for the fulfillment (Hab. 2:3)
3. That the adversary would be unable to cloud, divert, or accelerate
4. To stop the mouths of the lions that speak against the vision (Ps. 22:13,21)
5. Outreach to others’ visions with honest support and encouragement (I Tim. 2:8; Phil. 2:4)
6. A wall of fire to protect (Zech. 2:5)
THE MINISTRY
Leadership
1. Purpose to equip the saints (Eph. 4:12; 2 Tim. 3:17)
2. Revelation and sensitivity in the Word (2 Tim. 2:15)
3. Messages that are Spirit and life (Jn. 6:63)
4. Anointing to flow
5. Communicate with simplicity and clarity (Col. 4:4)
6. Anointing to pray and minister to people with discernment and wisdom (1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Tim. 4:2)
7. Free flow of the gifts of the Spirit
8. Relationship with staff: wisdom to deal with them as individuals (Col. 4:6)
9. Sensitivity in imparting the vision of the ministry
10. Ability to delegate—and leave it with the person
11. Communicate clearly and completely
Staff
1. Desire to understand and share the vision of the ministry
2. Faithfulness to their commitment (Col. 3:23)
3. Fulfilled in their own relationship with the Lord
4. To enhance and strengthen rather than detract or drain
5. Supportive but honest
6. That there would be a team attitude (1 Cor. 3:1‑9)
7. Anointing to do their job
8. Desire to grow spiritually and in job skills
Those Receiving Ministry & Donors
1. Open hearts—teachable (1 Thess. 2:13; Lk. 8:4‑15)
2. Supportive and responsive (1 Thess. 5:12,13)
3. Generous and faithful (Phil. 4:15‑17)
4. Hungry and thirsty for God
5. Seekers of God and His will and ways
6. Free from dead tradition
FAMILY
Leader
1. Responsibility for provision emotionally, physically, and spiritually as well as materially (1 Tim. 5:8).
2. Ministry concerns won’t crowd out any area of family need
3. Sensitivity to recognize needs quickly
4. Ability to communicate
5. Time to listen to each without divided interest
Family Unit
1. Understanding and flow of unity
2. No resentment when valid sacrifices have to be made
3. Sharing the vision of ministry; comprehending how to be an active part
4. Embracing the vision with wisdom and enthusiasm
Spouse
1. Desire to complement and complete leader
2. True spiritual unity and love flow
3. Discernment for what spouse really needs
4. Fruit of Spirit to flow
5. Fulfillment of own spiritual relationship with God
6. Strength to cope with stress and pressures
7. Ability to resist trying to live up to others’ expectations
8. Revelation of their importance in the fulfillment of the call to ministry
Children
1. To develop a true and intimate relationship, of their own, with the Lord
2. Love, patience, and understanding
3. That their needs would be met with regard to school, studies, friends
4. Flexibility
5. Good relationship with brothers and sisters
6. No resentment or competition with ministry staff
7. Security in parents’ love
8. Strength to cope with stress and pressures
9. Ability to resist trying to live up to others’ expectations
Financial Provision
1. Provision of all needs and some wants (I Tim. 5:18).
2. Family provision not have to be used for the ministry (Phil. 4:19)
3. Faith to believe for their own special needs
4. Revelation of the joy of giving (1 Chron. 29:9)
Compiled by Iverna Tompkins Ministries, Scottsdale, Arizona. Used with permission.
