{"id":6472,"date":"2015-04-30T00:27:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T00:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6472"},"modified":"2015-04-30T00:27:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T00:27:23","slug":"for-whom-should-i-pray-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6472","title":{"rendered":"For whom should I pray?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">A week <span style=\"color: #800000;\">of <\/span>worldwide fasting and prayer for the US begins today,\u00a0April 30th, and will continue\u00a0through May 6th. This fast was not called by Americans. <em>Australian<\/em> believers have sent out this alarm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Because of that, I want to recycle several blog entries I wrote last year. At that time, God\u00a0prompted me to\u00a0shift my focus as I prayed for the nation. In short, I believe God\u00a0showed me\u00a0these four things for which\u00a0to pray:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for people to know what to do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for people to receive wisdom along with their knowledge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for those\u00a0people\u00a0to receive the\u00a0boldness to step out in what they know to do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Pray for those people to be filled with boldness to carry out their tasks to completion.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Originally posted last year (fourth in series):<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of <strong>all men, <\/strong><strong>for kings and all who are in authority<\/strong>\u2026<\/em> 1 Timothy 2:1-2a, emphasis added<\/p>\n<p><em>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 <strong>for all the saints, and<\/strong><strong> pray on my behalf<\/strong>, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel\u2026<\/em> Ephesians 6:18-19, emphasis added<\/p>\n<p><em>Pray for people to know what to do. <\/em>This<em>\u00a0<\/em>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.<\/p>\n<p>We live in\u00a0the 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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2014multitudes of lives are affected, countless lives are changed\u2014and all too often, lives are destroyed.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pray for people to know what to do<\/em>. Who are these folks? We\u00a0need to know so we can pray for them.<\/p>\n<p>Look at the lists the Lord provided for us in 1 Timothy 2 and Ephesians 6. They give a clear\u00a0line up of those for whom we should pray.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Kings.<\/span> 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 <em>your<\/em> plan for them. Here\u2019s the truth of the matter: These men and women need to <em>know<\/em> what to do, and you <em>need<\/em> them to know what to do. When we cover them with prayer, they will more likely be influenced by God\u2019s leading\u2014even 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.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">All who are in authority.<\/span> Knowledge\u2014information that others in high places want to keep hidden\u2014has been pouring out on\u00a0many in strategic positions these days. So much so that it\u2019s not hard to imagine that these leaders\u00a0are overwhelmed and swamped\u2014their heads are spinning\u2014in 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 <em>them<\/em> to know what to do. So pray as the Spirit of God brings someone\u2014or an office or a position of authority\u2014to your mind or heart. He will help you to pray for them. And it\u2019s very likely that they will start to make better decisions\u2014whether or not they know <em>why<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">All the saints.<\/span> Paul told the Ephesians to<em> be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. <\/em>The Ephesians were charged to be instant\u2014ready and willing at a moment\u2019s notice\u2014to pray for their fellow Christians. He also instructed them to stay the course with this prayer-ready lifestyle\u2014to persevere in it.<\/p>\n<p>How do you discern <em>which<\/em> 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\u2014or brother or sister in Christ\u2014have need of God\u2019s 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\u2014and He will drop into them what to do as a result.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Pray on my behalf.<\/span> The Apostle Paul wrote this, requesting prayer on his own behalf. Why? <em>That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.<\/em> Paul needed prayer so that God\u2019s utterance\u2014the knowing of what to say\u00a0by the agency of the Holy Spirit\u2014would 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\u2014although he was called and although he knew the gospel\u2014he would be less effective.<\/p>\n<p>Who is like Paul to you in your life? Even though you probably perceive them as spiritual giants who have it all together,\u00a0your &#8220;Pauls&#8221;\u00a0need 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\u2014they 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&#8217;ll be bold with God&#8217;s\u00a0boldness and effective\u00a0in the power of\u00a0the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">All men.<\/span> 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; <em>all<\/em> men (and women and boys and girls\u2026and teens!) need to know what to do in this critical hour.\u00a0When one\u00a0of them\u00a0appears on\u00a0your \u201cradar\u201d\u2014despite who they are\u2014then they need your prayers. So many miraculous happenings start as a \u201crandom\u201d thought planted in the heart of a person of prayer.<\/p>\n<p>As you follow through with <em>all prayer and petition, praying at all times in the Spirit\u2026being on the alert with all perseverance and petition<\/em>, 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\u00a0free 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.<\/p>\n<p>May it be so, Lord Jesus! May it be so.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week of worldwide fasting and prayer for the US begins today,\u00a0April 30th, and will continue\u00a0through 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\u00a0prompted me to\u00a0shift my focus as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-praying-for-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6472"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6478,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472\/revisions\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}