Prayer Shield set up!
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 for prayer, where it's needed. If you are not feeling secure in sending prayer requests thru, you will find yourself not asking for help and not asking for prayer. A true recipe for disaster.. Nothing makes the enemy happier than a prayer shield that doesn't get used!
So... remember when you are setting up a prayer shield for yourself - please have people on it who have a heart for you, BUT they aren't necessarily a part of your current church or ministry situation! Sometimes it works even better to have people from outside of sphere of responsibility to be praying for us - it gives them a different perspective to pray from! AND ..that perspective can be exactly where the right intercessors will help you find some hidden wisdom!
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 for prayer, where it's needed. If you are not feeling secure in sending prayer requests thru, you will find yourself not asking for help and not asking for prayer. A true recipe for disaster.. Nothing makes the enemy happier than a prayer shield that doesn't get used!
So... remember when you are setting up a prayer shield for yourself - please have people on it who have a heart for you, BUT they aren't necessarily a part of your current church or ministry situation! Sometimes it works even better to have people from outside of sphere of responsibility to be praying for us - it gives them a different perspective to pray from! AND ..that perspective can be exactly where the right intercessors will help you find some hidden wisdom!
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