Common Barriers to Prayer Shields - Prt.II
The second (most common) barrier to establishing a Prayer Shield is 'offense' or wounding in a leader by prayer people. Are you surprised? Don't be! The enemy has used offense since the Garden to manipulate situations and people, to do what is most beneficial to him, and hurtful to them. We will always be offered the opportunity for offense or hurt, but it's how we chose to deal with it that will determine it's finale effect on our lives and ministries.
Over the years, as I've spoken to many pastors and church leaders, their biggest issue is often trusting prayer ( or prophetic) people! If there are any past issues with prayer people who have used their gift of prayer to manipulate/intimidate, judge or gossip about a leader, those unhealed wounds will cause a leader to feel insecure and uneasy when approached about setting up a prayer shield. The first thought is that they can't trust their real needs to those that are offering to pray, because they might betray them, or use their vulnerability against them. ( Doesn't that sound like plan/scheme of the enemy to separate the ones who need prayer, from the ones who need to pray for them?!) Remember the Word says we need to be wise to the enemy's schemes...and unhealed wounds, broken trust are just a couple of the ways Satan is using our weakness and woundings to keep us from getting consistent and intentional prayer!
Without trust...without healing in a wounded leader/pastor's heart, a properly functioning prayer shield will never happen. I've seen prayer shields set up, where the leader only posts the most surface of prayer requests. The reason? He feels if someone on the prayer shield breaks his trust, they won't be able to use anything against him. Now...as terrible as that seems the saddest thing to me is who actually 'wins' in this situation - the enemy. Seems to me, that 'he' couldn't get the leader to turn off or shut down his desire for prayer, so he used his fear ( lack of trust) or previous wounding to get him to actually never get prayer or ask for prayer for the real areas that need it! To me that's sad! The other thing that happens, is the prayer people eventually feel like there is no real need for them, because they aren't doing any different than what is being published in the church bulletin. Remember, we are wanting to match up needs and gifts, and true prayer people WANT to pray - it's in their DNA! They're wired to want to storm heaven on behalf of others. BUT...they want to go where the needs really are. These people want to fight for you!
How do we fix this? Well...first of all pastors/leaders need to be willing to deal with their stuff. My husband and I do this and train up the leaders in our church to do this, all the time - with no shame or recriminations. We continually encourage our leaders to go for prayer ministry or prayer counseling and to keep current with any issues or offenses that are happening in their lives, so the enemy has no foothold to use against them. We have to be ok with the idea of getting 'help' . We also have to be ok with the being honest that we're hurt or offended. Remembering that denial or pushing something away, is not the same as dealing with it . Some people are afraid that dealing with things means confrontation. Not so! It does mean forgiveness tho..and most times that happens without the other person even knowing that they've offended us. Forgiveness is about 'us' being free - free from fear, mistrust, broken relationships, judgements, rejection etc. If an intercessor has misused their gift or position to speak out about things that they were told for prayer purposes - then correction needs to come, not just forgiveness. That shows a great deal of immaturity and lack of wisdom and discernment, when someone shares what was to be a personal or private prayer need with people who weren't trusted with that information.
So..the second barrier is wounding or offense - and needs to be taken care of! From that offense can come the judgement that no intercessor is trust worthy, or prayer groups aren't trustworthy. The result of that judgement is that a pastor/leader withdraws from letting their true needs be known, so that they can be better prayed for.
The other reason why offense can occur is due to prayer people/intercessors who use their gift unwisely. Many pastors/leaders have stories of people coming to them, under the guise of prayer and then demanding a response or an action from the leader. That can come under the heading of: manipulation, guilt and/or intimidation.
When an intercessor/prayer person has heard something that needs to be shared with ( or delivered to) a leader, it needs to be done with an open hand - in other words, in a spirit of humility and love. If a pastor/leader feels that a word is being deliver with a 'demand to respond to it' - then it takes away a persons' personal freedom to wait, judge and weigh a word.
If there has been a history in a leader's life, of people who used their prayer gifting to manipulate or gossip, then again they are not going to feel interested...or secure, in setting up a prayer shield. Instead of it sounding like something that would be a blessing, it will remind them of a how much pressure can come if the wrong people pray for you. More than likely, when you approach this leader about setting up a prayer shield, they'll politely say, 'Thank you, but no thank you.'
A pastor or leader who has been hurt , needs to pray this issue through until they can forgive those that hurt them. The other person they need to forgive is themselves! Sometimes what has happened is because they didn't show good judgement in who they chose to trust with their prayer requests!
Yes..it's true! We have to feel 'good' about who we're asking to pray for us. If there is any unease...or even the smallest little 'check', then we need to listen to that and say ' thank you but no thank you' to that person. Also...they may need to forgive themselves simply because they did feel good about the person that was praying for them and they didn't see the character flaw. We are human! We don't catch everything, and sometimes we will give our trust, open our hearts and put our hope in the wrong people. That doesn't mean we should now base all life decisions or prayer decisions, on who or how or what wounded us! If we do...we are definitely going to limit how we allow prayer to effect our lives, and ministries..and yes businesses! If someone has broken our trust in prayer, it doesn't make prayer wrong - it means that person did something wrong! We don't stop praying for asking for prayer, because of flawed people! We press on, press in and keep developing strong Godly networks of faithful prayer people around us! Remember, we are dealing with people..and that means we will hit occassinaly hit character flaws ! Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater!
So..there you go! The most common barriers that I've hit, when trying to set up a prayer shield. Nothing insurmountable tho..that love, forgiveness and spirit of humility can't take care of!
The biggest thing is that we deal with the different ways the enemy is manipulating us to keep us from getting the proper prayer coverage we need. Kingdom influencers NEED prayer shields. Intercessors NEED to feel useful and have their gifts used for the benefit of the kingdom and for the good of the Body. We need to start working together for that goal - the Body working together, each in their part, no competition!
Next post I'll talk a bit about how the different gifts can bless and benefit each other, as they work together on a Prayer Shield and for the support of a pastor/leader or business leader!
Over the years, as I've spoken to many pastors and church leaders, their biggest issue is often trusting prayer ( or prophetic) people! If there are any past issues with prayer people who have used their gift of prayer to manipulate/intimidate, judge or gossip about a leader, those unhealed wounds will cause a leader to feel insecure and uneasy when approached about setting up a prayer shield. The first thought is that they can't trust their real needs to those that are offering to pray, because they might betray them, or use their vulnerability against them. ( Doesn't that sound like plan/scheme of the enemy to separate the ones who need prayer, from the ones who need to pray for them?!) Remember the Word says we need to be wise to the enemy's schemes...and unhealed wounds, broken trust are just a couple of the ways Satan is using our weakness and woundings to keep us from getting consistent and intentional prayer!
Without trust...without healing in a wounded leader/pastor's heart, a properly functioning prayer shield will never happen. I've seen prayer shields set up, where the leader only posts the most surface of prayer requests. The reason? He feels if someone on the prayer shield breaks his trust, they won't be able to use anything against him. Now...as terrible as that seems the saddest thing to me is who actually 'wins' in this situation - the enemy. Seems to me, that 'he' couldn't get the leader to turn off or shut down his desire for prayer, so he used his fear ( lack of trust) or previous wounding to get him to actually never get prayer or ask for prayer for the real areas that need it! To me that's sad! The other thing that happens, is the prayer people eventually feel like there is no real need for them, because they aren't doing any different than what is being published in the church bulletin. Remember, we are wanting to match up needs and gifts, and true prayer people WANT to pray - it's in their DNA! They're wired to want to storm heaven on behalf of others. BUT...they want to go where the needs really are. These people want to fight for you!
How do we fix this? Well...first of all pastors/leaders need to be willing to deal with their stuff. My husband and I do this and train up the leaders in our church to do this, all the time - with no shame or recriminations. We continually encourage our leaders to go for prayer ministry or prayer counseling and to keep current with any issues or offenses that are happening in their lives, so the enemy has no foothold to use against them. We have to be ok with the idea of getting 'help' . We also have to be ok with the being honest that we're hurt or offended. Remembering that denial or pushing something away, is not the same as dealing with it . Some people are afraid that dealing with things means confrontation. Not so! It does mean forgiveness tho..and most times that happens without the other person even knowing that they've offended us. Forgiveness is about 'us' being free - free from fear, mistrust, broken relationships, judgements, rejection etc. If an intercessor has misused their gift or position to speak out about things that they were told for prayer purposes - then correction needs to come, not just forgiveness. That shows a great deal of immaturity and lack of wisdom and discernment, when someone shares what was to be a personal or private prayer need with people who weren't trusted with that information.
So..the second barrier is wounding or offense - and needs to be taken care of! From that offense can come the judgement that no intercessor is trust worthy, or prayer groups aren't trustworthy. The result of that judgement is that a pastor/leader withdraws from letting their true needs be known, so that they can be better prayed for.
The other reason why offense can occur is due to prayer people/intercessors who use their gift unwisely. Many pastors/leaders have stories of people coming to them, under the guise of prayer and then demanding a response or an action from the leader. That can come under the heading of: manipulation, guilt and/or intimidation.
When an intercessor/prayer person has heard something that needs to be shared with ( or delivered to) a leader, it needs to be done with an open hand - in other words, in a spirit of humility and love. If a pastor/leader feels that a word is being deliver with a 'demand to respond to it' - then it takes away a persons' personal freedom to wait, judge and weigh a word.
If there has been a history in a leader's life, of people who used their prayer gifting to manipulate or gossip, then again they are not going to feel interested...or secure, in setting up a prayer shield. Instead of it sounding like something that would be a blessing, it will remind them of a how much pressure can come if the wrong people pray for you. More than likely, when you approach this leader about setting up a prayer shield, they'll politely say, 'Thank you, but no thank you.'
A pastor or leader who has been hurt , needs to pray this issue through until they can forgive those that hurt them. The other person they need to forgive is themselves! Sometimes what has happened is because they didn't show good judgement in who they chose to trust with their prayer requests!
Yes..it's true! We have to feel 'good' about who we're asking to pray for us. If there is any unease...or even the smallest little 'check', then we need to listen to that and say ' thank you but no thank you' to that person. Also...they may need to forgive themselves simply because they did feel good about the person that was praying for them and they didn't see the character flaw. We are human! We don't catch everything, and sometimes we will give our trust, open our hearts and put our hope in the wrong people. That doesn't mean we should now base all life decisions or prayer decisions, on who or how or what wounded us! If we do...we are definitely going to limit how we allow prayer to effect our lives, and ministries..and yes businesses! If someone has broken our trust in prayer, it doesn't make prayer wrong - it means that person did something wrong! We don't stop praying for asking for prayer, because of flawed people! We press on, press in and keep developing strong Godly networks of faithful prayer people around us! Remember, we are dealing with people..and that means we will hit occassinaly hit character flaws ! Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater!
So..there you go! The most common barriers that I've hit, when trying to set up a prayer shield. Nothing insurmountable tho..that love, forgiveness and spirit of humility can't take care of!
The biggest thing is that we deal with the different ways the enemy is manipulating us to keep us from getting the proper prayer coverage we need. Kingdom influencers NEED prayer shields. Intercessors NEED to feel useful and have their gifts used for the benefit of the kingdom and for the good of the Body. We need to start working together for that goal - the Body working together, each in their part, no competition!
Next post I'll talk a bit about how the different gifts can bless and benefit each other, as they work together on a Prayer Shield and for the support of a pastor/leader or business leader!
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