This is the Truth Network. Encouraging prayer. God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James.
So, today we're going to talk about leading with prayer, and this applies to you know, much of life, especially if you're a leader in the church, but if you're not.
Well, right, you may be called to lead at work or another public place. I mean, how much do you let prayer? into your life in those kind of places, right? Because to let prayer in is to let God in, right, James? Yeah, it really is.
You know, and I don't think we realize how much we need to do this on just on a regular daily basis. You know, I mentioned last week that I was flying to Wausau, Wisconsin. And let me tell you, that was an adventure because. As soon as I get into Minneapolis, which was the connecting flight to Wausau. We get on the plane, and the pilot says, Look, there's a line of thunderstorms 40,000 feet high, 100 miles wide.
You don't want to fly through this.
So, why don't you guys go ahead and deplane? As soon as we get off the plane, He he says uh Well, he didn't, but they they told us the flight's cancelled.
So No other flight available that night for us. It was full. And the next flight was at three o'clock, and I had to be at my event at like, you know, 8:30 the following morning. And So what do you do?
Well, first I had to find my luggage, which had been routed through to Wausau, had to get that in Minneapolis, and then I had to rent a car and drive through. A tornado watch. Yeah. To Wausau, and actually, I got there right after the tornado touched down. And The the pastor, as we were talking about this, said, you know, Okay.
Yeah. I was wondering what was happening. with all of this, because it just seems like we've had so many obstacles. And then it occurred to me. You know, here we are.
This whole ministry is about prodigals and reaching them for Jesus. And he said, Prodigals have a powerful testimony.
So no wonder we got that Pushback. And in the spiritual realm, we have to understand that we're in a battle. every day. And especially if we're trying to reach the lost and love people to Jesus, it's going to happen.
So here's a quote from Spurgeon that I absolutely love. Again, Charles Hedden Spurgeon, pastor of the largest church in the world at the time, says: As long as your prayers sustain me, I shall not flag nor fail. But if your prayers be gone, then my power is gone. For the Spirit of God is gone. And what can I do?
All through the Church of God, the true progress is in proportion. to the prayer. In other words, he says, what's going to become of me if you're not praying for me? And this is one of the reasons why we just have to make prayer a part of our life. Consistently, especially as we're leading.
So that night, you know, I sent a text to some of my prayer warriors and got them going because I knew I needed it. And um You know, had a great weekend. Everything went went well. But man, you know? Wow.
Yeah, really. Really? And you know, those are the moments that That makes all the difference, right? When you sense God's presence, when you're in prayer. And you know, I can even tell you just in the recent moments that, you know, within the last hour, you know, had two.
ministry opportunities and people really hurting one. Um it just uh ha lost a wife that it you know, that was 34 years old and two parents. Yeah. And another man dealing with depression and the first go-to. because I know these are both way above my pay grade.
Like how am I gonna is to go to God with it. along with them and you can sense you know in that other person The the um The joy of just touching God to some extent, because in his presence is fullness of joy, and in spite of how horrible it is. There's that opportunity. Right. And you may have faith in that moment that they don't because they're struggling just because of all of the nerves and the emotion.
And it's a beautiful thing. God made us to sustain each other in this. Think about 1 Samuel 12, 23, where he says, Far be it from me, Samuel tells Israel, you know, far be it from me to sin against God by failing to pray for you. In other words, is our lack of prayer a sin sometimes? That's a question worth asking.
And that's a question that's been asked in a good book I've been reading recently called Lead with Prayer by Ryan Skoog and Peter Greer and Cameron Doolittle. And listen to this quote from Tim Keller that they share in this. He says Prayerlessness will kill you. It won't just hurt you, it will kill you. He tells this group of Christian leaders.
He goes on, the more successful your church or organization or small group is, the more likely you're going to feel too busy for prayer. And that's deadly. It is utterly deadly. You know, think about all the pastors who have tripped up along the way. Because again, not letting God in.
And they may have a great ministry and things are going and growing. But if it's in our own strength, We're going to drop the ball every time.
So, you know, What does this look like? First of all, it looks like humbling ourselves and asking for prayer. And just, you know, if people, if people prick us, let prayer and the Bible come out, you know, and secondly. Initiate it yourself, you know, instead of just talking so much about something. Let's pray about it, you know, and just make that a part of your daily conversation, whatever the situation may be.
And you said something right before we came online about this that I thought was really good. And that is that Of course, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said, you go ahead and say it. Yeah, my house will be a house of prayer. And God the Father said, you know.
That his house would be a house of prayer. And so, wow, if we're the temple, then our houses need to be a house of prayer. And I think that's a. I mean, that's the question to ask. Is this house, my body, my temple, you know, that people see as they interact with me?
Is it a house of prayer? Am I a house of prayer? Because if I am, then I'm leading well. And if I'm not, no matter how good I may think I may be, or others, whatever they may be saying about me. I'm missing, I'm missing the greatest strength of all.
So, Robbie, would you lead us with prayer as we wrap this up? That would be awesome. Lord, this topic is so near and dear. oh lord that you are our strength and you are our hope and help us to really realize to open that door. and prayed.
Lord, you're knocking. We just need to open and help us to go there. Help us to. To spread this amongst others in Jesus' name I pray. Amen?
Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
