Prayer band members at work
What Is Prayer Band?
The prayer band is the backbone of any church that knows what it means to be serious with God and His business on the earth. This group of dedicated believers pray fervently for the world, the church, its leaders, and its members. They come before God to ask Him for protection, guidance, strength, and blessings. The prayer team has a unique and vital role in supporting the church’s mission on the earth. This article takes a look at the role of these mighty men and women as it affects their commitment to the church alone.
Prayer Band Supports the Pastor
Pastors carry many responsibilities. They preach, teach, counsel, and lead the congregation. This work can be heavy and exhausting. The prayer band stands in the gap for the pastor. They pray for wisdom, revival, heaven-consciousness, discernment, strength, and protection.
Wisdom for Leadership:
Pastors often face difficult decisions. The prayer band asks God to give the pastor clear direction. They pray that God’s will is revealed in every choice the pastor makes. They ask God to help the pastor be an example of what he preaches and to lead the people in all good work there is.
Revival:
The ability to raise a church that is filled with members who are spiritually conscious and wise is not a mean task. It takes only a pastor who is truly alive and awake in the spirit, not just a fantastic orator, to do that. The prayer band ensures the pastor is always spiritually at alert. In fact, they make sure the pastor is in sound spiritual form day in, day out.
Heaven-consciousness:
It’s quite unfortunate to see that more preachers today are no longer conscious of rapture – the catching away of the saints from the earth. They have lost this consciousness of an eternal home, when Christians would leave this earth at Christ’s return. This is highly unfortunate and such pastors should cover their faces in shame. Yet, whenever this kind of condition takes over a pastor, the first people to blame is the prayer band. It is their duty to keep their pastor’s mind focused on this vital goal through intercessory prayers.
Discernment:
The ability to see beyond the physical realms and pinpoint the forces behind every happening around us and in the world at large is called discernment. It is the Holy Spirit talking to a person through his spirit. He tells the person what is the true cause of this and that. This means, He unveils the real motives behind every action and reaction we see.
A pastor with the ability to discern is a huge blessing to his congregation. The people that make sure such a gift manifests at all times in the pastor and among the members in a church is the prayer team.
Strength in Ministry:
Ministry work can be draining. The prayer band prays for the pastor to have physical, emotional, and spiritual strength. They ask God to renew the pastor daily. This also entails God leading him to know the best food, drink and other things he needs to keep him physically fit at all time.
Protection from Harm:
Pastors often face spiritual attacks. The prayer band pleads for God’s shield to surround the pastor and his family. This also extends to praying for the pastor’s physical needs. They pray for him to lack nothing he and his family may need for survival. This is the prayer against the forces that can attack the pastor through physical needs and wants.
Supporting Church Members
The prayer band also intercedes for the members of the church. They lift up individual needs as well as the collective needs of the congregation. They keep on negotiating every one of them with God till answer comes.
Healing for the Sick:
The prayer band prays for members who are sick. They trust God for miracles and restoration. This means they are ready at all time for any case. They can be summoned at any time to pray for someone in a critical condition. The deadness in churches today is because prayer teams are either not functional or the functioning ones have been manipulated into focusing their prayers on their own personal needs and wants.
Visiting the needy and the blessed:
They visit people who are facing different problems in their families. The problems can be the case of death, sickness, a severe misfortune, repeating challenges and so on. They also visit the people that God has done good things for. Such things can include child birth, conversion to Christ of a family member, recovery of a lost person, restoration of a severely sick person, acquisition of valuables, etc. In each of these cases, they go there to fellowship with the family. They pray to God to protect the good and add more to it.
Outreaches:
The prayer band goes out once in a while. They visit hospitals, orphanage homes, and places where the people in great need can be seen. They go there to pray with them and gift them some relief materials. In some cases, they go out for evangelism outreach. They select a community, move to the place just to preach and pray with people. The church grows by this process in no small measure!
Comfort in Hard Times:
Many people face trials, such as loss of loved ones or bites of financial trouble. The prayer team prays for peace and God’s intervention for those in need. They pray in this manner when they gather as a team in the church or, when they meet at a chosen location. This constitutes what is called general prayers. It is made for everybody in the church. And you need to know it is different from the case where they can choose a family just to pay it a visit.
Spiritual Growth:
The prayer band asks God to help members grow in faith. They pray that the Word of God takes root in every heart. They ask God to help individual member to be rooted in Christ to a point where nothing on this earth can shake their faith and make them fall away.
Spiritual Warfare:
They are the ones who face the hordes of hell who are on a daily mission to destroy the church and its congregants. If there are people in a church that God reveals coming dangers to, it is the prayer band. They musts know when to pray, how to pray, and for whom the prayer is meant. They also know when not to prayer. It’s not everything that the prayer band pray for. There are cases they can bluntly refuse to pray for because God prohibits them from doing that.
You should know they are the first people to discern the type of prayer that fits a situation. Hence, they prepare themselves to pray that type of prayer. A good prayer band knows when to intercede, when to attack, and when to counter attacks. They know when to commune with God and when to petition Him over teething needs around. Their mode of worship is not lippy. It is conscientious, intentional, clear, and always deep.
Building Unity in the Church
The prayer band fosters unity in the church. They pray for love and harmony among the members. Their prayers help resolve conflicts and strengthen bonds. They can even initiate peace moves in cases where normal processes fail to resolve an issue in the church.
Empowering the Church’s Mission
Through prayer, the church finds strength to fulfill its mission. The prayer band prays for boldness in evangelism. Their intercessions destroy all form of opposition tactics that sinners of different kinds can come up with against preaching. They ask for God’s favor in every outreach program. Even the most careless sinner cannot stand a church on evangelism outreach that has a strong prayer team. One of the signs your church is lacking in real prayer is that your members are shy to go out to preach.
Conclusion
A prayer band is not just another group in the church. It is a spiritual powerhouse. Their prayers uplift the pastor, encourage the members, and guide the church. Every church needs a prayer band. Their faith and devotion bring blessings to all. Let us honor their work and join them in prayer. Together, we can seek God’s face and see His mighty hand at work in our churches. Dare to be a prayer band member this day!
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