PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH, ITS LEADERS & THE LORD’S HARVEST
Father, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we come before You on behalf of Your Church.
Father, we acknowledge that the Church belongs to You. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, and we are His body. You purchased the Church with Your own blood, and You declared that upon this rock You would build Your Church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
Therefore, Father, we pray for the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the earth. Strengthen Your Church. Purify Your Church. Awaken Your Church. Correct Your Church. Unite Your Church in truth. Restore holiness, reverence, prayer, sound doctrine, spiritual authority, compassion, boldness, and the fear of the Lord among Your people.
Let the Church become everything You ordained her to be.
FATHER, STRENGTHEN THE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY
Your Word declares that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Therefore, Father, strengthen Your apostles.
Raise up true apostolic leaders who establish, build, govern, equip, correct, strengthen, and advance the work of Your Kingdom. Give them wisdom to lay proper foundations. Give them courage to confront error and grace to establish order. Let them build according to the pattern You reveal and never according to human ambition.
Strengthen Your prophets.
Purify the prophetic voice. Give Your prophets eyes to see, ears to hear, and courage to speak what the Spirit is saying unto the churches. Deliver the prophetic ministry from manipulation, pride, greed, performance, fear of man, and the desire for recognition. Let Your prophets speak with accuracy, humility, holiness, wisdom, and love.
Strengthen Your evangelists.
Put the burden for lost souls upon them. Send them into streets, neighborhoods, cities, nations, workplaces, schools, prisons, hospitals, homes, and wherever lost people can be found. Give them boldness to preach Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and coming again.
Strengthen Your pastors.
Give them hearts after Your own heart. Give them wisdom to feed the flock, protect the sheep, restore the wounded, pursue those who wander, strengthen the weak, and lead Your people beside still waters. Protect pastors from burnout, discouragement, isolation, temptation, and spiritual attack.
Strengthen Your teachers.
Give them revelation and understanding of Your Word. Let them rightly divide the Word of truth. Give them the ability to make difficult things understandable without watering down truth. Raise up teachers who will teach the whole counsel of God and produce disciples who know what they believe and why they believe it.
Father, cause these ministry gifts to work together.
Destroy competition between apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
We declare that there is no competition in the Body of Christ.
Let every gift supply what You designed it to supply.
“For the body is not one member, but many.” — 1 Corinthians 12:14
FATHER, STRENGTHEN EVERY MINISTRY IN THE BODY
Father, we pray for elders and overseers. Give them wisdom, integrity, maturity, discernment, and the ability to govern Your house faithfully.
We pray for deacons and servants. Give them faithful hearts and clean hands. Let them serve without seeking recognition, knowing that service unto Your people is service unto You.
We pray for those who have been given the gift of helps. Strengthen the people who work behind the scenes. Bless the ones who serve when nobody is watching. Remind them that no work done for Christ is insignificant.
We pray for those called to governments and administration. Give them supernatural organization, wisdom, strategy, stewardship, and understanding. Bring order wherever there has been confusion.
We pray for those with gifts of healing. Let compassion flow through them. Let the sick be ministered to in faith, wisdom, humility, and obedience to Your Spirit.
We pray for those through whom You manifest the working of miracles. Let every manifestation point people toward Jesus Christ and never toward the vessel.
We pray for those with the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, faith, divers kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Let every spiritual gift operate according to Your Word and under the direction of the Holy Ghost.
We pray for intercessors and watchmen.
Station them upon the walls.
Teach their hands to war and their fingers to fight.
Give them spiritual endurance to remain before You when others become weary. Make them sensitive to the burdens of the Holy Ghost. Teach them when to pray, what to pray, and how to pray.
Let the watchmen refuse to come down from the wall.
We pray for worshippers, singers, musicians, psalmists, and those who minister before You through worship.
Purify the sound coming from Your Church.
Let worship cease to be entertainment and become ministry unto the Lord again.
Let musicians be anointed.
Let singers be consecrated.
Let worshippers worship You in spirit and in truth.
Let the sound coming from Your house drive darkness away and prepare an atmosphere where Your Word can go forth with power.
LORD OF THE HARVEST, SEND LABORERS
Jesus, You looked upon the multitudes and were moved with compassion because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
And You said:
“The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” — Matthew 9:37–38
Therefore, Lord of the Harvest, SEND LABORERS!
Send apostles.
Send prophets.
Send evangelists.
Send pastors.
Send teachers.
Send missionaries.
Send intercessors.
Send soul winners.
Send disciplers.
Send counselors.
Send mentors.
Send administrators.
Send helpers.
Send servants.
Send builders.
Send organizers.
Send worshippers.
Send musicians.
Send those who can work with children.
Send those who can reach teenagers.
Send those who can strengthen marriages.
Send those who can minister to the elderly.
Send those who can reach the incarcerated.
Send those who can minister to people battling addiction.
Send those who can minister to the brokenhearted.
Send those who can reach the homeless.
Send those who can minister in hospitals.
Send those who can enter neighborhoods others have forgotten.
Send those who can go into nations where Christ has not been preached.
Father, do not merely send available laborers.
Send SKILLED laborers.
Send trained laborers.
Send disciplined laborers.
Send mature laborers.
Send dependable laborers.
Send laborers who know Your Word.
Send laborers who know Your voice.
Send laborers who understand spiritual warfare.
Send laborers who can endure hardship.
Send laborers who do not run when ministry becomes difficult.
Send laborers who are not looking for titles but are willing to carry towels.
Send laborers who will serve when nobody applauds.
Send laborers who cannot be bought.
Send laborers who cannot be intimidated.
Send laborers who cannot be manipulated.
Send laborers whose private lives agree with their public ministry.
Send laborers who love Jesus more than platforms.
Send laborers who love people more than recognition.
And Father, before we ask You to send somebody else, prepare us.
Make us laborers fit for Your harvest.
FATHER, BUILD YOUR CHURCH
Father, raise up strong local churches.
Let churches become houses of prayer.
Let churches become places of healing.
Let churches become places of deliverance.
Let churches become places of discipleship.
Let churches become places where families are restored.
Let churches become places where children learn Your Word.
Let churches become places where young men and women discover their calling.
Let churches become places where elders impart wisdom to younger generations.
Let churches become places where sinners encounter Jesus Christ.
Let churches become places where the bound become free.
Let churches become places where the broken become whole.
Let churches become places where disciples become warriors and warriors become disciplers.
Restore the altar.
Restore prayer meetings.
Restore Bible study.
Restore discipleship.
Restore evangelism.
Restore holiness.
Restore accountability.
Restore spiritual fathers.
Restore spiritual mothers.
Restore sound doctrine.
Restore the fear of the Lord.
Restore genuine fellowship.
Restore compassion for the poor.
Restore concern for widows and orphans.
Restore the burden for souls.
And restore the expectation that when the Church gathers together, God is going to move.
PROTECT YOUR CHURCH
Father, expose wolves among the sheep.
Expose false doctrine.
Expose manipulation.
Expose hidden agendas.
Expose corruption.
Expose anything operating in Your Church that did not originate with You.
Give Your people discernment without making them suspicious of everybody.
Give us wisdom without making us cynical.
Give us boldness without making us arrogant.
Give us holiness without making us self-righteous.
Give us authority without making us controlling.
Give us revelation without making us unteachable.
Keep us balanced in Your Word and sensitive to Your Spirit.
AWAKEN THE NEXT GENERATION
Father, visit our children.
Visit our teenagers.
Visit our young adults.
Before the world defines them, let Your Word define them.
Before culture disciples them, let the Church disciple them.
Before darkness recruits them, let the Kingdom call them.
Raise up young Samuels who know Your voice.
Raise up young Davids who know how to worship and war.
Raise up young Daniels who refuse to compromise.
Raise up young Esthers who understand that they were born for such a time as this.
Raise up young Timothys who know the Scriptures from their youth.
Put Your Word in their mouths and Your fire in their bones.
Let our sons and daughters prophesy.
FATHER, RELEASE RESOURCES FOR THE WORK
Your work requires resources, so we pray for those You have gifted to give.
Raise up Kingdom financiers.
Raise up business owners.
Raise up entrepreneurs.
Raise up professionals.
Raise up people with land, buildings, equipment, technology, transportation, influence, knowledge, and resources who understand that what they possess can become a weapon for Kingdom advancement.
Give Your Church wisdom concerning stewardship.
Teach us to manage what You place in our hands.
Let there be provision for ministry, missions, evangelism, benevolence, discipleship, outreach, children, families, widows, orphans, and the poor.
Let there be no lack concerning the assignment You have given Your Church.
MAKE US ONE
Father, Jesus prayed that we would be one.
Break unnecessary division.
Break jealousy.
Break competition.
Break territorial spirits.
Break denominational pride.
Break racial division.
Break generational division.
Break personality-driven ministry.
Teach us to recognize the grace You have placed upon one another.
We do not have to look alike to belong to the same Body.
We do not have to sound alike to serve the same King.
We do not have to carry the same assignment to fight in the same army.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
Teach us to contend earnestly for the faith without devouring one another.
PREPARE THE BRIDE
Father, prepare the Church for the return of Jesus Christ.
Let us not become sleepy in this hour.
Let our lamps be burning.
Let our garments remain clean.
Let our hearts remain ready.
Let our hands remain working.
Let our eyes remain watching.
Let our mouths remain preaching.
Let our knees remain praying.
Let our feet remain moving toward the harvest.
We declare that the Church will not retreat.
The Church will not surrender.
The Church will not bow to this present world.
The Church will not exchange truth for acceptance.
The Church will not become ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will preach Christ.
We will teach Christ.
We will demonstrate Christ.
We will love like Christ.
We will serve like Christ.
We will suffer for Christ when necessary.
And we will occupy until He comes.
Lord of the Harvest, send forth Your laborers.
Send us into highways and hedges.
Send us into cities and rural communities.
Send us across the street and across the nations.
Send us to those nobody else wants.
Send us to those everybody else has given up on.
Send us to the wounded.
Send us to the wandering.
Send us to the bound.
Send us to the lost.
Send us to the harvest.
And when You say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Let Your Church answer:
HERE ARE WE, LORD. SEND US!
Build Your Church, Jesus.
Strengthen Your Church.
Purify Your Church.
Equip Your Church.
Anoint Your Church.
Unify Your Church.
Mobilize Your Church.
And send Your Church into the harvest with the power of the Holy Ghost.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” — Zechariah 4:6
We decree that Jesus Christ shall be glorified through His Church.
We decree that the Gospel shall be preached.
We decree that souls shall be saved.
We decree that disciples shall be made.
We decree that captives shall be set free.
We decree that the wounded shall be restored.
We decree that laborers shall arise.
We decree that every gift God has placed within His Body shall come into proper alignment and function.
And we declare that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church that Jesus Christ is building.
We ask all of these things, and we give You all glory, honor, dominion, and praise.
In the mighty, matchless, victorious name of Jesus Christ.
AMEN.