The Prayer Life of a Leader

Nehemiah 1:4–11 NKJV

4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, 6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; 9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ 10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

I want to talk to you about the prayer life of the leader.

One thing that we share in common in life is that we all have responsibility.

Authority is connected with responsibility and competence. The more responsibility we have or the more we excel in a subject or topic the more authority we have, naturally speaking.

What this means is that we all have a measure of leadership, even if we don’t have a formal title. And for many of us, we have had times where we felt ill-equipped for the responsibilities and leadership we have been given.

There is a great need in our world for godly leadership. We need to understand that God has given each of us a calling, which is a sphere of authority (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:13-16).

We are responsible for the sphere of authority that God has given us. And we need to embrace the calling of God and the responsibility He has placed in our hands.

Prompt: Consider speaking on the “SO” scenario - avoiding responsibility when you feel the pressure of calling.

When we choose to embrace prayer as a primary strategy, we will discover that our leadership is more effective. We’ll find that we are well able to take the giants of the land, so to speak.

The Path to Leadership Success

To be a godly leader requires that our priorities are always God-and. That means that God is first in everything. It is God-and my wife. God-and my kids. God-and my job, etc.

Additionally, we need to recognize that while business best practices or popular leadership principles can be effective they lack the supernatural grace and perspective of God (think Jericho, or digging ditches).

We need to learn how to lead through prayer, where prayer is our primary strategy. It is what we lead with and add the best practices and principles to.

What we really need to understand is that this is the path to kingdom success.

All authority comes from God and He has given us His Spirit to help us pray (Romans 13:1, Romans 8:26-27). He has given us access to the throne of grace to ask for help and receive empowerment (Hebrews 4:16).

Leading Through Prayer

We are going to look at three aspects of the prayer of Nehemiah. He was a great leader used by God to rebuild the torn down walls of Jerusalem and along with Ezra restore the temple. God was with him as he successfully guided Israel in this time.

Position

Nehemiah 1:11 NKJV

O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

There are two aspects of position that we need to look at. The first is the position that God has called us to.

Nehemiah was a servant to the king. Beyond that, he was a servant to God. And he recognized that position and accepted the responsibility that was being assigned to him.

When you pray, you pray in the authority that God has assigned to you and according to your position.

Are you a mom? You have authority in your home and in the lives of your children that others don’t have.

Are you a manager? You have authority over your staff and in your environment.

Are you a ministry leader? You have authority from God over the people under your charge.

God has given you responsibility over whatever your sphere of authority is.

Nehemiah 1:4 NKJV

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

The second position is found here in the words of Nehemiah. He said, “I sat down and wept…for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

The Hebrew word that Nehemiah used was yāšab and it means to “sit, remain, dwell.” In other words, this wasn’t a simple and quick “take a knee” prayer at the end of a game. He was fortifying himself in prayer over many days. He set himself before God.

Godly leaders position themselves before God and stay in that place until they are heard.

Godly leaders also pray from their position. They approach God with the understanding that they have authority over their area of responsibility.

Illustration: When mom or dad tells you to get something from your sibling. You don’t come in your name (which may or may not be rejected) but you come in theirs. You are able to exercise authority in order to fulfil their will.

Take your position before God and then pray from your position of authority. When you pray into the areas that God has made you responsible you will be effective as God works with you and through you.

Persistence

Luke 18:1 NKJV

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,

Nehemiah did not simply pray once and quit, nor did he pray a quick microwave prayer. He prayed day and night. He prayed many days.

Nehemiah 1:6–9 NKJV

6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; 9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’

When it comes to persistence, often ours is misplaced. We persist in our will, desires, or what we think is best.

God is a God or righteousness and justice and mercy (Micah 6:8). And persistence in these things is what leads to success and breakthrough in prayer.

Notice how many times that Nehemiah referred to God’s word, specifically His commandments.

When we are persistent that God would apply His word to our lives and situations, we will see God move. This is putting God in remembrance and appealing to His justice and grace (cf. Isaiah 43:26).

A survey made by the National Retail Dry Goods Association reveals the following results:48% of the salesmen make one call and quit; 25% make two calls and quit; 15% make three calls and quit; that shows that 88% of the salesmen quit after making one, two or three new calls.But 12% keep on calling. They do 80% of the business.The 88% who quit after the first, second, or third calls do only 20% of the business. - Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (5904 The Persistent Salesmen)

Let us pray into our lives and the lives of the people that we are responsible for.

When we are persistent for the things that please God, we will be effective in our ability to see change and transformation.

Passion

Nehemiah 1:10–11 NKJV

10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah prayed with passion. His words are full of intensity and desire. But what was he passionate for? What was his motivation in prayer?

Matthew 22:35–40 NKJV

35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Nehemiah’s motivation was his love for God and love for his people.

Effective godly leaders lean into their love for God and for the people under their responsibility when they pray.

Pray the will of God…the things that will make Him happy.

Pray for the good of others…pray for them like you would pray for yourself.

Illustration: David Brainerd. Missionary to the Native Americans in the Northeast. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 29. He was so burdened for the souls of the natives that he would even be overcome and kneel in the snow. He’d pray so passionately that the snow would melt 2 feet around him even while he was coughing up bits of lung. After he passed, revival broke out among the tribes he was laboring for.

As a leader, pray the will of God and pray the good of your people. When you seek God’s blessing on your pursuits with the right motive, you will see great things.

Conclusion

Godly leaders give themselves to prayer. They pray positionally. They pray with persistence. And they pray with passion.

If you and I would make prayer our first step as we lead in our sphere of authority then we will see our leadership marked by God’s grace and our prayers. Not only that, but our prayers will be guided like missiles and therefore more effective.

Abd because we choose to do this then we will find ourselves leading more successfully and even supernaturally in God’s purpose.