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Pray for Protection

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:11-17

There’s a legendary story of a pastor who was boarding an airplane and, as he usually did, he looked forward to striking up a conversation with those next to him. And if the opportunity was there, he’d share the gospel. On this particular flight, as he grabbed his seat, the person next to him was already seated. The pastor sat down and was about to introduce himself to his neighbor but saw that he was praying. His eyes were closed, he was mumbling the prayer to himself and in his hands he had a list of names. Pleasantly surprised, the pastor thought to himself, “Oh, nice, I’m next to a Christian on this flight, and he’s a man of prayer!”

As the plane took off, the man praying opened his eyes. The pastor finally had the chance to introduce himself and said, “Hi! I noticed you were praying, so I didn’t want to disturb you before. I’m a Christian too! What church do you go to?” The man replied, “The Church of Satan, and I’m a leader there. I just finished praying through this list of pastors in our neighborhood . . . that they would all fall.”

Variations of this story have been circulating for years, and it’s probably not true. Even so, every time I hear it my heart is burdened to pray for the pastors in my life. It is a reminder for me of the great warfare pastors are under. My heart breaks when I hear a news story of another pastor who has fallen morally. Not only does my heart break, but my heart grows fearful, knowing that that story could also be mine one day. The warfare is real, and there is an enemy out there who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. That is why I have written this book as a call to the church to rise up and faithfully intercede for the spiritual leaders and shepherds in our lives. They face intense warfare, and in this generation that spiritual warfare is only increasing.

Bill McRae is the former president of a prestigious evangelical institution near Toronto, Canada. Previously he pastored the North Park Community Chapel in London, Ontario. He reported this while he was a pastor:

“It was brought to our attention that a group of satanists who worshipped in a church situation within London had committed themselves to pray to Satan for the elimination of a number of our evangelical leaders in the city through marriage and family breakdown. During that summer the cell group in London was honored at a particular satanist convention for being so effective and successful during that year.”

Why did they win the award? McRae says, “In the course of the previous year they had succeeded through their prayers to Satan in eliminating five of our very significant leading men from pastoral ministries through immorality and marriage breakdown!”

He goes on to say that he was deeply involved with one of the pastors who was going through this nightmarish and disgraceful fall from Christian ministry. “We were very much aware of the desperate need for prayer, but I must frankly confess none of us was quite as alert to the reality of the satanic warfare we were fighting until it was over.”1

Unfortunately people often realize too late that serious prayers were needed—the damage has already been done. We begin this chapter with one of the most important prayers to pray for your pastors: to pray for protection. But how specifically should you pray for this?

Pray for Protection Against Temptation

First of all, we need to pray against temptation for our pastors. Luke 22:40 says, “And when he came to the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” In this verse, we see that Jesus is engaged in serious spiritual warfare. He is on the Mount of Olives. He is about to face the cross. He is about to die. He is quite literally at the greatest crossroads in history. So he asks his closest disciples to pray with him while his soul is in anguish. The enemy, hard at work, wants to take down Jesus and destroy the disciples. Jesus revealed to Peter earlier that Satan had asked to sift him like wheat. The disciples will be tempted to deny and betray Jesus. Satan is working hard to bring down Christ and his followers. So what does Jesus say? He says, “Pray! Pray that you won’t fall into temptation.” Also in the Lord’s Prayer he teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”

Jesus is revealing that prayer plays a vital role in protecting us against temptation.

Prayer can release the power of God and the grace of God into our lives to overcome temptation. Therefore, pray for your pastors to be protected from temptation.

For the past few decades, there has been an epidemic of fallen pastors all over the world. The top reasons pastors drop out of ministry are burnout, moral failure and church conflict. The lure of money and the lust of the flesh have disqualified far too many pastors from continuing on in ministry. The pastoral position has one of the highest rates of stress and high expectations, but it is also one of the loneliest and most difficult professions.

Shawn always struggled with viewing porn ever since he found his older brother’s stash of magazines when he was in the fourth grade. After becoming a Christian his freshman year in high school, Shawn thought his porn addiction would just go away. It didn’t. It was his secret that he was able to keep hidden even after graduating from seminary. He was even able to keep his secret hidden from his wife for the first seven years of his marriage. What he didn’t imagine was how stressful pastoral ministry would be and what kind of strain it would place on his marriage. He began viewing porn as his source of escape each time he felt the stress from a critical church member or after another argument with his wife. But it was torment for him. He knew it was sin. He hated himself afterwards, but he just couldn’t stop himself. As the pressures from ministry increased, so did his risks in viewing porn, even in his church office.

One day, after reading a couple of emails from people who complained about his sermon from the past Sunday, he decided to visit a website to relieve his stress. What he wasn’t expecting was a visit from James, an elder who worked for a computer software company. Earlier that week, James felt led by God to install some privacy software that would block spam, porn sites and other websites that might cause a distraction to the church staff. James walked into Shawn’s office, and with a shocked look in his eyes, Shawn desperately scrambled to close the website window that he was looking at. But right at that moment, Shawn’s computer screen froze. Nothing worked. His mouse cursor didn’t move and neither could he. James looked at Shawn’s face, which looked like a deer frozen in the headlights, asked if he was okay and walked over beside him. James looked at Shawn’s computer screen and then into Shawn’s eyes, and both of them said at the same time, “Oh no.”

Unfortunately for Shawn, this discovery ended his marriage. His wife was too shocked and embarrassed to talk to anyone at church, and she left him. But thankfully, James chose to stick by his side and connected Shawn to a Christian counselor, with whom he is still meeting to this day. It began a much needed journey of looking at his demons—demons from his past, demons that speak into his mind when he is stressed—but also looking at the spiritual warfare that increased in his life after starting his pastorate in that church seven years ago.

This is not a rare story for those who are in church leadership. And this is not the only kind of warfare that pastors face. Here are some more stats that look at the struggles our pastors face:

• 70 percent of pastors said they have no close person to confide in.
• 90 percent work more than fifty hours a week and feel their work never ends.2
• 54 percent of pastors said they had viewed porn within the past year.
• 50 percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• 40 percent said they had an affair since starting ministry.
• 70 percent fight depression.3

These are just a small part of the reasons why 1,500 pastors leave the ministry each month. This is a clear message to the church that we must pray for our pastors, who face great warfare and temptations.

How are all these factors connected? High stress, high warfare and high isolation lead to high levels of personal temptation. In 2014, Bob Coy, who was the senior pastor of the eighteen-thousand-member Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, stepped down from his role...