Now, just to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea, this is not about NOT asking others to pray for some of your prayer concerns and/or prayers for you and/or others.
No. This is about helping to build YOU up into a prayer warrior; to help YOU and all of us to become giants in the faith BY faith AND knowledge AND understanding AND discernment THROUGH our prayer lives and the instruction and filling of Holy Spirit.
So, what is a 'prayer pimp'?
Basically, that is a phenomenon that is by choice, not a state of being. What I mean is, this is a cumulative observation I have made through many years of groups meetings, both within institutions and in homes. There are those I have encountered who routinely lay upon others their own prayer burdens.
For example, someone shows up in the meeting and verbalizes a request for prayer for their neighbor's distant cousin's great aunt's dog's previous owner's grandfather...
We've all experienced this type of buck-passing, right? Now, again, don't get me wrong. There are those who thrive on praying for those they don't know, and some love the private information of details because they crave gossip style requests. Again, nothing wrong with praying for others. I do that all the time for the believers in Church in China...people I have never met, and will never meet in this life.
What I do when encountering people who share such requests is to say to them, "You go ahead and pray for that distant person, and we will quietly pray along with you in agreement:
Mathew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
This is great stuff, and when I put the initial burden upon the requestor, this opens up for the rest of us to touch upon mutual agreement together for the request, which then greatly empowers the prayer by way of our agreement upon its merits, remembering, of course, that the Lord's will prevails on earth as it does in Heaven.
In all of this, I also want to encourage you all to also keep in mind this other instruction from our Lord:
Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
This is where our prayers and prayer requests should begin, always. Go into YOUR closet, and seek the Lord's response to a need for which you are praying, and if you then need additional support, then seek out others. This is one way we refrain from pimping ones prayers out to others to make up for his or her own lack in ones own prayer life.
YOU do the praying initially, and THEN seek out others so that a collective voice is then offered up in such a way that is pleasing unto the hearing of our Lord.
No. This is about helping to build YOU up into a prayer warrior; to help YOU and all of us to become giants in the faith BY faith AND knowledge AND understanding AND discernment THROUGH our prayer lives and the instruction and filling of Holy Spirit.
So, what is a 'prayer pimp'?
Basically, that is a phenomenon that is by choice, not a state of being. What I mean is, this is a cumulative observation I have made through many years of groups meetings, both within institutions and in homes. There are those I have encountered who routinely lay upon others their own prayer burdens.
For example, someone shows up in the meeting and verbalizes a request for prayer for their neighbor's distant cousin's great aunt's dog's previous owner's grandfather...
We've all experienced this type of buck-passing, right? Now, again, don't get me wrong. There are those who thrive on praying for those they don't know, and some love the private information of details because they crave gossip style requests. Again, nothing wrong with praying for others. I do that all the time for the believers in Church in China...people I have never met, and will never meet in this life.
What I do when encountering people who share such requests is to say to them, "You go ahead and pray for that distant person, and we will quietly pray along with you in agreement:
Mathew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
This is great stuff, and when I put the initial burden upon the requestor, this opens up for the rest of us to touch upon mutual agreement together for the request, which then greatly empowers the prayer by way of our agreement upon its merits, remembering, of course, that the Lord's will prevails on earth as it does in Heaven.
In all of this, I also want to encourage you all to also keep in mind this other instruction from our Lord:
Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
This is where our prayers and prayer requests should begin, always. Go into YOUR closet, and seek the Lord's response to a need for which you are praying, and if you then need additional support, then seek out others. This is one way we refrain from pimping ones prayers out to others to make up for his or her own lack in ones own prayer life.
YOU do the praying initially, and THEN seek out others so that a collective voice is then offered up in such a way that is pleasing unto the hearing of our Lord.