Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 118 - Essential qualities of leadership: Prayer.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 118 - Essential qualities of leadership: Prayer.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

M. Prayer and leadership

 

HEB 5:7

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety [reverence].

 

We are not to pray frivolously but with great reverence of the Father's power and authority.

 

God demands our fear, respect, and awe and at the same time He is our tender Father. The great respect we have for Him as well as our gratitude should remove all frivolity from our prayers and the comforter that He is should make us long to draw close to Him in private audience.

 

Prayers means "definite requests in general." Supplications means "a cry from one in need of protection." Supplications carries with it a sense of urgency.

 

The need of supplication prayer comes upon us suddenly, whether for ourselves or for others. Our concern for others must drive us to intercession. In the case of the unbelievers in our lives as well as the carnal believers, we know what we are looking for in God while they do not. We can only seek God's involvement when we know Him. The unbeliever and the carnal believer have no hope of this. They have no idea what they are looking for.

 

Yet, what the disciple of Christ does is put himself in the position of the one he is supplicating for.

 

MAT 7:12

"Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

The Law of the Prophets is to look upon other men as forgiven sinners who owe their lives to the love of God - Love the Lord your God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself.

 

He can say, "If I were in his position, what would I pray for?" And since he knows the mind and person of God he can intercede for the other in a way that the other would have no clue about. In this the disciple is Christ-like, especially when the other is his enemy, for he is interceding for him.

 

In this, God is bringing us right into headquarters where the decisions are made. Unlike a low-ranking serviceman in the military, we are invited into HQ and asked to make requests and to look for answers. It is an amazing privilege in the church age to all be made believer priests. Our high priest is our great Mediator before the Father. Never neglect this right to enter the great decision room of the invisible war.

 

The word cry means a loud, vocal outcry of one who is greatly disturbed. This summarizes His Gethsemane experience. It emphasizes intensity of suffering.

 

It is not entirely possible to do, but try and put yourself in Jesus' place in Gethsemane.

 

We have a tendency to crawl into our own hole when we are greatly pressured and disturbed. We must rather approach the Father of lights who will enlighten our hearts and comfort us in our sufferings. Christ was at His weakest in Gethsemane and yet He prayed to the Father three times and without encouragement from His sleeping disciples. One prayer may not be enough at these troubling times. The throne of God is open 247 and He never tires of hearing you, in fact He says, "ask, seek, and knock."

 

LUK 11:5 And He said to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves;

 

LUK 11:6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him';

 

LUK 11:7 and from inside he shall answer and say,' Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'

 

LUK 11:8 "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

 

He is not suggesting that God behaves like this, like a fallen man who can be easily inconvenienced and bothered. He is illustrating a point of continuous prayer. God is not waiting for us to ask Him about something a predetermined number of times before He will do it. If we ask, He will do. The point of the story is to keep asking, seeking, and knocking to the Father; for the same things, for different things, for all things. We are to have a very consistent prayer life.

 

LUK 11:9 "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

 

LUK 11:10 "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

 

LUK 11:11 "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

 

LUK 11:12 "Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

 

LUK 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"