In previous blogs, I’ve talked a good bit about prayer assignments and prayer alerts, but what if you don’t have a prayer assignment? What if you don’t feel God leading you to pray for a particular person or issue?
In 1 Corinthians 14:15, the apostle Paul declared, “I will pray…” (NKJV). He was talking about praying in the spirit and with the understanding, but for our purposes here, I want to point out that he chose to pray. It was an act of his will. He didn’t need divine revelation to lead him to pray. When he saw a need in a person’s life or in a situation, he prayed for it. Jesus also assumed we would pray regularly, not only by inspiration, when He said, “When you pray…” (Matt. 6:6 NKJV).
When I was in Bible school, we had all this amazing teaching, Bible reading, and ministry, yet I had this sense that there was something more that I was missing. I now know that was the Holy Spirit drawing my heart toward the life of prayer and intercession.
The scripture is so important, but we also need prayer. We must choose prayer every day. We must decide that we will not wait for inspiration, but we will be obedient to what we know is God’s will for all believers—that we consistently pray.
When I first started praying for people, I didn’t know exactly where to begin, so I just began with what I knew. I began with the needs of my family and friends that I was already aware of. Then I read in 1 Timothy 2:1–3 that we should pray for those who are in authority, so I added the president to my prayer list.
Gradually, I added more and more things to my list. After a while, the Holy Spirit said to me, “You know, it’s good to have your prayer list, and it’s good to see the fruit of what’s going on in people’s lives and set yourself to pray, but I also want you to be led by My Spirit.”
So, He began to teach me about the various types of prayer alerts and burdens. But it all began with my choice, my deciding to say yes to the call of prayer and to simply do it out of obedience.
The goal is that we would operate out of both principles—that we would be led by the Spirit in our prayers and that we would also pray according to what we see in the natural even when we don’t have a supernatural unction or dream or alert. We can simply choose, by an act of our will, to go into our prayer closets and partner with God’s purposes for a particular individual or situation.
And God is faithful. I believe the more we pursue His purposes in prayer and are faithful with the revelation we have thus far, the more He will entrust to us.
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Keynote speaker, author, founder, and president of The River Ministries, Margie Fleurant speaks in the prophetic voice, challenging and building up the Body of Christ through keen biblical insights. Margie’s messages and books inspire and ignite a deeper passion for pursuing the presence of God. Margie graduated from Rhema Bible Training College in 1977 and is an ordained minister through Covenant Ministries International, Sayreville, New Jersey. She is also an ordained member of Faith Covenant Ministries. Please visit www.Margiefleurant.org.
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