Prayer for Leadership

QUESTION: Prayer for Leadership

ANSWER:

Prayer for Leadership – Insights from God’s Word
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes fro the Lord, who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:18

Prayer for Leadership - Prepare the Way of the Lord
Prayer: My Lord and my King, I acknowledge You this morning as the only One worthy of my praise and my devotion. I decided many years ago to try and serve You alone -- and the doing has often been challenging. I come to You this morning trying to understand authentic Christian leadership -- realizing how much You value those You have entrusted to lead us.

I live in a time where I see You growing many Godly men and women to become true spiritual leaders. You appear to be building up Your Body to step into their rightful places where they have learned to follow You as You lead. By worldly standards this is certainly an upside down form of leadership -- but by heavenly standards, it is leadership that will impact not just the world, but heaven itself. You have shown me that true spiritual ability is not reflected by our worldly influence with men, but rather by the influence we have with You. This humbles me as I realize why I have been in a training time learning to be a follower -- learning to follow You -- learning to trust in You.

Over and over, I am watching You change us into Your image as we acknowledge the gift of Your grace and the gift of righteousness. I can see how it is all dependent on the degree to which You live in each one of us -- and I can see how different this is from the worldly standard that surrounds me.

I remember reading somewhere, Lord, that human authority uses people for their own purposes while spiritual authority gives itself for the sake of the people. This has stuck with me as I have tried to navigate the often muddy waters of my own human nature. I have found You pointing me upwards many times as I began to rely on men. I was often looking for an answer that served my own needs, and You reached out from heaven to "pop me upside my head" so I could see the path I was headed down before I did harm. I still cannot believe how many times You have had to convict me! What a stubborn woman I am!

I am praying today, Lord, asking You to raise up an army of effective Christian leaders who walk in Your true spiritual authority. I pray their goal will be to impact our world for eternity -- while not losing sight of also making a difference on this earth. It is a hard road to walk, Jesus, but with Your help, I know we can release an army of Godly men and women to minister as You did when You walked the earth. Help us to focus on making a difference in heaven -- only then can we be effective on the earth.

I pray, Lord, for spiritual fortitude and perseverance -- and I ask You to blend into that mix Your wisdom and Your strength. Help us to be practical and wise in our planning as we turn to You as the source of all of our visions and plans. Where You see selfish ambition rear its ugly head, I ask You to turn them back to the true source of wisdom and knowledge -- back to the tree of life. Help us to not be man obsessed -- but be God obsessed. Help us to receive Your vision and to be obedient to what we receive.

I war this day against any counterfeit spiritual authority that has gotten foothold in our churches. I stand against impure motivations, and I ask You to save us before we misstep and lose our commission by falling from Your grace through a disobedient spirit or the fear of man. Do not allow these counterfeits to rear their ugly head -- choking off the true life of Christ from being exhibited in our leaders.

Do not remove Yourself from us, my King. I ask for Your patience and I plead for mercy over our failures which have caused us to trust in the ways of man instead of relying on You and Your ways -- which You have clearly shared with us. We need leaders of every type -- detail oriented, dreamers of dreams, practical and pragmatic, teachers and preachers -- men and women -- boys and girls -- functional and dysfunctional -- educated and street smart. We need the complete mix in Your Body, but You are the only One who can put it together in a woven tapestry that covers every need. Forgive us for trying to play God! Help us to trust You!

I am also reminded in this moment that we may not always understand it in our times -- so give us endurance and patience -- and help us to look beyond the temporary -- keeping our eyes fixed on the Eternal One -- the most Holy, High God. Then I know we will not fail! To You be all the honor and glory!

Prayer for Leadership – Making it Personal
Reflect: Our goal should be to prepare the way for Christ. We should always be focused on how to reveal Christ in every meeting we have -- every conversation we have. We must always pray to see Christ increased in us. We must worship the Lord -- not the temple of the Lord. It is so easy to follow the standards of the world as Satan really doesn’t put up much resistance when we go down that path. It is much harder to stay faithful to our first love and do it His way. As our leaders become more and more like Christ, their followers will soon reflect that same glory. If God’s glory is in us we will be a genuine reflection of him. Conversely, if WE are being lifted up and He is not -- we slip off the path and need to turn around and go back. No man can presume glory or leadership in the Presence of God.