Praying Pam

Recently I worked with a leader who had originally been 'working' his prayer shield with a lot of success, but something changed in the past year.  I had noticed that less and less prayer needs were being sent out to his 'team' and eventually in the last 6 months almost nothing was going out to his prayer team at all!  Hmmm... something was definitely not right! As I began to look more deeply into his prayer shield, I began to see that it was 'top heavy' with intercessors that were made up of people and leaders from his church. That might not seem to be a problem except in the the last 12-18 months, his church began to experience some relational and leadership issues.. As these things were coming up, it made relaying information to his prayer shield feel 'unsafe' . This is one of the reasons why, I tell pastors and leaders alike, NOT to put too many people from within their church, or even family, on their prayer shields. You need to be able to ASK f...

I had a wonderful email from someone on the Mission Field, asking 'how' do we find the intercessors we need to make up a prayer shield. That really got me thinking. My own personal prayer shield has been up and running for over 10 years...a number of the prayer shields that I've set up for other leaders, have been running as long and one even longer ( 15 years).   The question made me stop and go back to remembering, what it was that I first looked for.. When  I first 'accepted' the fact that my husband and I also needed a prayer shield - it was hard! I'd prayed for other leaders for so long, I struggled with thinking that 'I' was worth asking others to commit to praying for me.  That's probably the biggest hurdle to get over!  Once I decided I wasn't so 'strong' that I could do my mission on earth without prayer support...I began by praying and asking God to show ME if there were already people in my life who might be able to pray for ...

When you are privileged to pray for a leader, the hope is that you have enough relationship to be able to prayer effectively with information that they relay to you. What happens if you have a desire to really pray for the things that matter to your pastor/leader, but you can't get past the 'surface' prayer requests? Well, for those of you that are personal or crisis intercessors, that will probably irritate you, or discourage you...or just plain drive you crazy! You're wired to want to pray effectively! And always 'praying in the dark' without any focus, is hard. So? What can you do? Here's a couple of suggestions: #1 The best place to start, is always just showing faithfulness, even with the surface prayer requests. Remember, if you can show them your faithful, their confidence in you will grow. It may grow slowly..but it will grow. #2 Start with sharing a one or two things you 'get' when you pray for them. Don't overwhelm them, and DON...

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has either been given a 'word' that someone felt they received while praying for me - that ended up being a HUGE hindrance. I used to shudder to think that I would ever do that to anyone...but I've come to realise that as we grow and learn about praying for others, and in particular, praying for leaders, our learning curve increases and yes, sometimes our immaturity gets exposed. My top 5 'bad pizzas'! I remember once praying for a specific leader  who was in the public eye, and had a lot of pressure on him. I also remember sensing that because he was charismatic, and in the public eye, that there were alot of women who wanted to get close to him.  So, it probably would have been a good idea just to pray protection for him and his marriage, right? Right! But that's not what I did! I got so puffed with pride, that  God had shown me something, and I wanted to prove that I was hearing from the Lord about important stu...

OK...so did that title peak your interest?! What does 'delivering the pizza' have to do with praying for leaders? Well, I'm so glad you asked! As an intercessor, when I'm asked to pray for a leader, I'm usually asking God to speak to them,or show them what He's wanting them to do. I also often ask the Lord to let me be a confirmational voice  - I try very hard NOT to be directional ( and I'll explain that why later).  Often I will also ask God to 'give me something' for them - that's where getting words, scriptures or pictures, comes in! This is what I teach people to do with what they 'get'. When you feel you have received something for a leader, the best thing you can do is just 'deliver it' with no strings attached.  By that I mean, don't interpret it for them, give them your take on it . Just give it to them, and encourage them to ask God what He's saying to them through it. I liken this to 'delivering pizza...

How often have you been asked to pray something for a leader, that you too, are waiting to see an answer on?  Believe it or not, I personally feel that this is a GREAT position for you to be in! Why?  Well, it's simple..... Matthew 7:12 The Message (MSG) 12 "Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get. So often I find that people feel that if they are still waiting on a victory in an area, or waiting for an answer to prayer, that they feel they can't pray with authority for someone who has the same need!  Not true!  Matthew 7:12 clearly tells us that we should do for them, what we'd want done for us.  I'll give you an example..... A number of years ago one of our children was not walking with God - in fact he was running in the opposite direction!  As a pastor and leader, I really struggled...

Luke 18: 1  ' Then He spoke a parable to them, that men should ought always to pray and not lose heart.' The greatest temptation for those of that have taken on a prayer assignment for leaders, is to lose heart while we wait for an answer.  To become faint-hearted. To be discouraged to the point of despair when we don't see the breakthroughs coming sooner !  We need to NOT let the enemy tell us that our prayers are not being effective, simply because some answers take longer than others. Those we are praying for cannot afford for us to give up or come to the conclusion that we 'don't have what it takes' to pray for them! Delayed answers by nature tend to stretch us, or cause us to lose hope. ' Hope deferred makes the heart sick'. Prov. 13:12.  "This 'heart sickness' ' is a natural human response when we are waiting on God for a long time.  But then the enemy comes to add his demonic fuiel to the the fire. He interjects doubts and li...

Called to Prayer Conference. With  Marilyn Wishart  and;  Pam Dyck.  February 24-25 Join us for a weekend of discovery of the joy of prayer!  Friday night 7 – 9:30 pm. Session 1   What is the call to Prayer? Session 2   Types of Intercessors Session 3   Activation excerise... Sat. 9a.m. – 4:30 pm. Session 4    Strategies of Battle and; How to endure in prayer. Session 5    Warfare Praying in Psalms – staying God focused when we prayed Session 6    Activation exercise Lunch  12:30 – 2:00 Session  7    Individual and Corporate Prayer Session  8    Prayer Shields – praying for those in spheres of influence Session  9    Activation exercise Being hosted at: Central Heights Church 1661 McCallum RdAbbotsford, BC V2S 3M4 Room 3003 /3004  Enter and park at the  Southside entrance (Please do not ...

I often teach or write on the different prayer styles. Why? If we don't understand that different people are wired and created to want to pray different ways, we'll get frustrated that everyone is not praying 'like us'.  OR..worse yet...we'll get critical of others, frustrated with them and their prayer style and you know what happens when intercessors get frustrated and critical....?  They usually end up either quitting prayer groups and praying by themselves.  Now, praying by yourself in itself, is not bad, but there are times when we need to come together to pray, and if we can't be 'ok' with the different pray styles, we'll miss out on some awesome corporate prayer.  Why does that matter? Well, every now and then, we get invited to these wonderful gatherings called 'prayer meetings' on behalf of someone, or on behalf of a need in the Body.  If we can't pray in a group, we'll miss out on the incredible blessing of Corporate Prayer!...

A wonderful friend of mine just wrote a song, and released a new CD called, ' Level Ground'. I love that song! ...I love that visual that we all stand on level ground before Him.  That is so true...and such a comfort isn't it? Saints and sinners - we'll all stand on level ground before Him. So scary..but so awesome too! And while I love that picture....recently I was asked,  'If we're all on level ground, why should leaders get more prayer than others? Why are we always asking for prayer for the leaders, if we're the same in God's eyes?"  Good question!! Well my friend....first the Bible tells us to pray for those in authority over us! AND that's not just meaning pastors - it means those in any positions of authority eg. teachers, principals,  politicians, police . Amazing isn't it!  On one hand we are all the same in His eyes...and on the other hand He asks us to pray for those that carry  or have authority in our lives. Why?  Those w...