Executing Your Prayer Assignment
By Pierre Eade
I grew up playing three team sports: baseball, basketball, and football. Of the three, football requires the most team involvement to win games. A superstar basketball player can potentially carry a team to victory. An all-star pitcher with a great ability to shut down batters can hold an opposing team in check.
In football, however, it’s impossible to win a game without great team cooperation. There are so many assignments that no one player can cover them all. A running back cannot break through the line without a coordinated effort by the linemen. Teammates have to cooperate and execute their roles well in order to win.
In the same way, in God’s Kingdom all of His children have roles to play. And when it comes to prayer, the Lord gives each of us specific “assignments.” He calls some to block the enemy and others to carry the ball of the gospel past the goal line. Each person has a God-assigned prayer burden.
Handing Out Assignments
The Bible makes it clear that our God is full of compassion: “The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion” (Ps. 116:5). And when Jesus saw the multitudes, Scripture says, “he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36, KJV).
We might wish we had that kind of compassion, but I have told our church congregation, “If God gave you (as an individual) all of His compassion for the world at one time, you would be crushed.” In fact, the only One ever able to bear all the compassion of the Father’s heart at one time was His Son, Jesus, as He hung on the cross.
It is as if God distributes His compassion to His children like coaches give assignments to team members. And out of the compassion He gives us, He compels us to pray. One person, filled with compassion to pray for the lost, feels compelled to pray for individual people’s salvation. Another person, filled with compassion for the unborn, is burdened to pray about abortion. Yet another, filled with compassion for our country, feels a compulsion to pray for spiritual awakening in our land.
The Apostle Paul was a man of many passions. One burden he carried was for the people of Israel to come to know their Messiah. He wrote to the believers in Rome, “Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved” (Rom. 10:1, nlt). Paul’s longing and desire to see all of Israel saved created within him a prayer burden for his people.
When Prayer Is Easy
Paul’s burden for Israel was obviously connected to his heritage and upbringing. On the other hand, most scholars agree that Luke was a Gentile. For this reason, I presume that Luke did not share the same burden for Israel that Paul did. If Luke tried to pray with the same fervency and frequency as Paul did for the people of Israel, he would probably soon feel exhausted in prayer.
The same is true for us. If we try to take on someone else’s burden for prayer about a particular topic, we will eventually feel weighed down and unable to carry the unique assignment associated with that burden. But if we identify our role on the team and keep our head in the game, prayer comes more easily. Here are a couple examples:
As a pastor, I love intercessors. When God places it on a person’s heart to pray for me—especially for my family—it is like a kiss on the cheek from heaven. I truly feel God’s love through the intercessory burden He gives to other people on behalf of my family and the ministries the Lord has entrusted to me. One intercessor, a dear saint, recently said to me, “It’s not hard to pray for you and your family, Pierre. It comes real easy. It’s not a burden. It’s a delight. It just flows from within me.”
When God gave Nehemiah a specific prayer burden, this servant took his assignment seriously. He had received a troubling report of his people in his beloved city of Jerusalem. The Jews had survived the exile, but their city lay in disarray—its walls broken down and its gates burned (Neh. 1:3). Listen to Nehemiah’s compassionate response in verse 4: “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”
Nehemiah’s heart was broken. His obvious great burden for his people not only translated into personal sorrow but into a time of fasting. Intercessory prayer flowed naturally. God uniquely chose Nehemiah to pray on behalf of His people, and Nehemiah, in turn, fulfilled God’s purposes in rebuilding the wall.
Follow Your Unique Burden
What are the things that break your heart these days? What news do you hear on television or read in the newspaper or on the Internet that causes you to cry out to God? Do you see things within your church family or other circles of influence that translate into a prayer burden? Where is God challenging you to fast, pray, and believe Him for renewal, revival, or reconstruction of broken-down walls (in people, families, or societies)?
Personally, I struggle with discouragement over the breakdown of society around me. I look at all the problems—including crime, hatred, pain, and sorrow—and I get overwhelmed. I can’t carry all those burdens in prayer. It is too much for me to take on singlehandedly. The good news is this: God never meant for me to carry it all by myself. He assigns certain burdens to me, but in His sovereignty He gives others their own unique prayer burdens. As all of His people carry out their individual assignments, God demonstrates His compassion to this world.
When we remember this truth, we no longer have to feel responsible for praying for everything. Instead, each of us can ask God to reveal the burdens or passions He has assigned us, individually, for prayer. Then our responsibility is simply to walk in obedience to that calling.
So how do we know whether or not we are being called to pray for a particular issue, need, or vision? I personally like to test my spiritual assignments by the should-versus-must test. Here is how it works: If our prayer burden completely relies upon a feeling that we should pray about it, we may be taking up another “teammate’s” assignment. Whenever we hear the word should rising in our thoughts, it may indicate that this issue is not our prayer assignment from the Lord. Obligatory prayer is rarely powerful, focused, and effective prayer.
The healthier and stronger word that compels us is must. When our spirit is gripped with the sense that we must pray about something—or we can’t go on—I believe that indicates a burden, a passion, and thus a prayer assignment from the Lord. We want to be Spirit-led, empowered intercessors, not just burden bearers.
God Decides and Assigns
Sometimes a football coach may assign a player to an entirely different position. Seeing a coachable skill set, the coach may shift that player around, assigning particular positions most needed at the time to make a team complete.
In like fashion, the Lord, our heavenly coach, will often move us from one assignment to another in prayer. In this transition, some must prayers become should prayers for us—because they’re not our responsibility. Here’s a battlefield example: When King Saul tried to put his armor on David for a showdown with Goliath, David realized he needed to shed that armor and operate in a different way to be effective in battle (1 Sam. 17:39). At times God will direct us to shed an assumed prayer assignment to put on an assignment more fitting to a new role.
I have often heard of intercessors carrying prayer assignments well past their expiration date, and soon prayer was no longer a delight. When prayer becomes a constraint and an overwhelming burden, the intercessor can become unmotivated and ineffective. In every sport I played, I learned that the most important quality of an effective team player is a good attitude. The players who are eager, waiting, and ready for the coach to send them into the game are the players most likely to accomplish the team goal. Strategic team members are the ones who take up their individual assignments and keep going—even when they’re tired or when time is running out—because they know that their contribution to the team is invaluable.
Thanks be to God, who is our great Coach! He knows how to use us strategically in His Kingdom. He guides us in our assignments, and then He refreshes us and encourages us in the battle. When we team up with God and follow His instructions, we know we are on the path of spiritual victory in Jesus.
Intercessors, ask God to put you in the game. Ask for your prayer assignment, and pray it with all your heart. Then trust God to use your teammates in the same way. As your Coach, He knows how to manage each of His players. And He has the end game all figured out.
PIERRE EADE serves as a pastor and is the author of Born to Grow. His book and other writings on spiritual growth can be found on his blog, discipleshipnetwork.com.
