Mark 16:14-18 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." Mark 16:14-18 (NKJV)
Matthew 9:37&38 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
The enemy tries to prevent people from coming to Jesus. They try to prevent Christians from wanting to be missionaries, and the enemy attempts to keep Christians who want to be missionaries from going to the mission fields. If the enemy is not able to keep a Christian from going to the mission field, they do various things hoping to cause that missionary to quit being a missionary. Pray for Christians to want to go to various mission fields and pray for them to not be prevented from going to the mission fields, and pray against missionaries quitting.
If the enemy cannot prevent potential missionaries from going to the mission fields they try to prevent them from preaching the gospel on the mission fields, by various means. If the enemy cannot keep the missionaries from preaching the gospel, they try to prevent the natives from listening, by various means. If they are unable to keep the natives from listening to the preaching of the gospel, the enemy uses various tactics in the attempt to keep the natives from accepting Jesus. Prayer is vital all along the way.
Pray for Christians whom God wants to be missionaries to get the education which they need, pray against them committing various sins, pray for them to grow spiritually, pray against them being harmed physically, and pray for the necessary money to be provided.
Some missionaries have left the mission field because their parents were sick and needed those missionaries to return and take care of them. When praying for the missionaries of a particular mission field, you can pray that it will not be necessary for any of them to return to their countries because their parents are sick.
My parents were missionaries to Ethiopia, and when they were on their second furlough, they were told that a couple had been found who would substitute for them until they returned. However, while they were still on furlough, the man wrote to my parents saying that he had known that missionary life was rough, but that he did not expect it to be that rough. He told about a few things which a few Ethiopians did which he resented, and said that he and his wife would leave right away.
Pray for missionaries to not leave the mission fields through death or being told by a government to leave, and pray against them leaving because of being discouraged or because of illnesses.
Pray about the selection of missionaries. Pray for mission boards to be wise concerning which people to send to the mission fields. Pray against them sending people who are homosexuals and people who are mentally deranged. One missionary in my parents’ mission was dismissed because of fornication, and another one was dismissed because she was a lesbian and caused no end of trouble. Another one was mentally deranged and ought to have been dismissed, or at least not given the assignment which he had most of the time. A field director was a child molester. There were others which I can tell about, but will not tell about here at least. Pray for the moral purity of missionaries.
Also there a few people who were in my parents’ mission and were kicked out--not because they were unsuitable—-but because someone disliked them.
Pray that, if certain missionaries are unfit to be missionaries, mission field directors and mission field councils will recognize that that is true. Pray for Christians to be prepared for various categories of ministries and to be placed in those ministries. Some possibilities are blind people evangelism, deaf people evangelism, prisoner evangelism, door to door evangelism, street meetings, drama, aviation, medical, leper colony, Bible school, dental, orphanage, waifs home, translation, mental hospital patient evangelism, elementary school, high school, radio and television.
Pray for missionaries to go to various countries. It might be beneficial to look at an atlas.
Intercede against the decrease of missionaries’ love.
Pray for missionaries to not neglect to pray enough, and for them to realize that nothing is more important than worshiping God.
Intercede for missionaries to continually learn from the Bible. Pray for them to understand scriptures well.
Pray for them to overcome various kinds of spiritual attacks-- including witchcraft.
Intercede for natives to be willing to listen to the preaching of the gospel, and pray for them to believe what they hear. Pray against procrastination, and pray for people to accept Jesus in spite of threats.
Pray for missionaries to get along well with native Christians and other missionaries.
Intercede for them to have joy, and have confidence that they are doing what God wants them to do. That is very vital.
Pray for missionaries to be wise concerning the use of time, resources and energy. Pray that they will be wise concerning requests for money and food.
Pray for field directors and field councils to be wise concerning where to open mission stations.
Pray against missionaries being involved in occult activities. Pray that they will not attempt to obtain things by occult means. That is always very disastrous.
Intercede for singles to receive suitable spouses (as per God's will for them). Pray for missionaries to have the strength to resist the temptation to form unwise relationships with those of the opposite sex (natives or missionaries).
Pray for missionaries who have children to enjoy them, and to have wisdom for raising them.
Pray for various categories of things to be provided for missions according to the kinds of missions.
Pray against the murder of missionaries and their children. Pray for missionaries to realize that they have the right to sacrifice themselves, but not the right to sacrifice their children.
It is beneficial to pray for a particular ministry which a particular mission conducts or two missions conduct in a particular country. Sometimes it is a joint effort. Some of the ministries which are conducted by missionaries are agriculture, aviation, Bible teaching, blind people evangelism, child evangelism, construction, deaf people evangelism, dental, disaster relief, elementary school, evangelism training, hospital patient evangelism, hostel, leper colony, literacy, literature, optical/optometry, orphanage, radio, secondary school, youth evangelism and television.
One tactic of the enemy against missions is to cause natives of a country which missionaries are in to think that the missionaries are there because they want to exploit the natives. That can include theft accusations and the claim that the missionaries are becoming rich at the expense of the natives. That is especially true in countries where the standard of living is much lower than it is in the United States and Canada. They do not realize that the missionaries’ standard of living is lower than it is in the United States and Canada. One of the specific aims of the enemy is to get natives to plunder mission stations. Another one is to get natives to injure missionaries. It is my opinion that missionaries in such countries live more dangerously than cops and fire fighters in the United States and Canada. We can pray against natives of various countries thinking that the missionaries are there to exploit them
