The Prayer Course
Session 4: Intercession
Key verse
“Your
kingdom come” – Matthew 6:10
In this
session, we’ll explore the power and importance of praying on behalf of others.
Other
key verses include: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, Exodus 17:8-13, Genesis 18:22-33
Summary points
- When
God’s people intercede, God intervenes.
- There is
power in our free will.
- 4 steps
of intercession: get informed, get inspired, get indignant, get in synch.
What did you find most helpful or most
challenging in the video?
I have
always had a sort of “what’s the point” attitude to praying in petition or
intercession. I mentioned in Session 1 that this came to a head in August 2017.
I just couldn’t understand why I should bother praying for something if God had
already ordained our lives and “written” our stories anyway. In the video, they touched upon this and I
was encouraged by the knowledge that our choices can
make a difference – look at when Abraham interceded for Sodom because his
nephew Lot was there (Genesis 18:16-33). God heard Abraham’s
intercession and agreed to withhold His wrath. This shows us that we can make
choices in prayer and partner with God. God is not a tyrant; He is a delegator.
He wants us to partner with Him.
I was also greatly encouraged by the notion that
intercession is for everyone; not just “Spiritual Heavyweights”. Hebrews
7:25 says, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near
to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” - If
we are filled with God, we are filled with intercession. It is part of our
identity and is an expectation for all of us, not just those who are right on
the top of the pulpits or pedestals. Intercession shows that we care; it is a
fruit of the Spirit.
I often felt, particularly in the previous church I
attended, that I wasn’t “good enough”; that I wasn’t spiritual or mature enough
and no matter how much I tried, my prayers would never quite make it as far as
the prayers of those other people who were considered “prayer warriors” or “on
fire for God”. The truth is that, although I may be seeking a simpler and more
truth-based relationship with my Father, I have just as much access to Him as anyone else, because it is not awarded to me based on my ability to pray out
loud, or how many bible verses I can recite, or how much I tithe. It is freely
given to me by the completely, overwhelmingly, undeserved grace that He offers.
In the session notes, there was an “Up/In/Out” model for a prayer
meeting:
Up -worship - We are told to
bring our petitions before the Lord with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6)
and to enter His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4) To lift our eyes from
our own problems and instead look toward the possibilities of God. To use worship
as warfare and combine spoken intercession with sung worship as a way to
release faith in ourselves and others.
In -listen to the Holy
Spirit’s leading
Out – pray for issues
within your community
I found this helpful as I often just head straight in
with my prayer, probably in some part a fear of forgetting what I wanted to
say, but when I think about it, it’s incredibly rude. We’ve all had those
friends who don’t stop to ask how you are or even offer the courteous pleasantries
before heading straight into a spiel about their own personal dramas. I don’t
want to be that person with anyone but especially not with God!
How do you feel about intercessory prayer – do
you find it’s something that comes naturally or is it more of a challenge?
No. I have to be honest and say that intercessory prayer
does not come naturally to me. It’s not that I don’t care about other people;
quite the opposite as I’ve always considered my over-active empathy levels to
be a burden, but I just don’t know how to pray for other people. I’ll
generally say “I’ll pray for you”, and I mean it, but after the initial need
has been prayed for, I’m stumped.
“Our free wills are powerful; they can release
or restrict the purposes of God.”
How does this affect the way that we come to
God in intercessory prayer?
I never
want to do anything to restrict the purposes of God and, frankly, this statement
worried me. I don’t think for a moment that I am important enough that I can
restrict God – nobody is – but I suppose that if I am stubborn or hardened to
something that God has willed for my life and I actively pray against it, God
will not over-rule my free will. I often wonder, if Mary had refused to carry
the Messiah, would He have chosen someone else or would history look very
different now as a result of the promised Saviour never having been born?
In the
same way, I often wonder if there is a need or a job that I have been called
to, and if I never do it, what will happen? For many years I’ve been plagued
with a desperate longing to know God’s calling on my life and, try as I might,
I’ve never had a clear or distinct sign. I worry that I’m not walking in God’s
will and that the longer I go, the farther away I’ll get, and then
what will become of my role in the Kingdom, and the world, if I never fulfil
the part that I alone was born to play?
There is such power in our obedience and in our
intercession. The bended knee is possibly the most powerful position there is
for a Christian.
I try to
make a conscious effort to always pray, “Lord, if it is Your will” but of
course, this is a difficult reality to accept at times, and often we can’t see
it clearly in the moment. It’s not until a long time after the fact that we can
see God’s hand over our situation, and many times it’s too late to do anything
about it.
I found the “IF, WHEN, THEN” discussion interesting in the
video: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 says, “If I shut up the
heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the
land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by
My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their
land.”
IF we make prayer our first priority and don’t immediately
try other things first, then WHEN things go wrong, because they
inevitably do at some point or another, THEN God will hear our prayers
and our cries and heal our land. Our land is in such desperate need of healing
right now, and if we would all humble ourselves and take the knee before the
Lord, only then will He reach out and help us. He’s not a dictator; He won’t
force help on us. We have to ask for it. When God’s people intercede, God will
intervene.
Have you ever had a feeling that you needed to
pray for something or someone? What happened?
Several times, and I’m ashamed to say that I don’t always
follow through, especially if it involves me going out of my comfort zone and
laying hands or speaking directly to someone – I’m very much a private pray-er
and I struggle to pray out loud or in a group setting. In church prayer
meetings I freeze up if there seems to be an expectation for us to take our
turn at praying out loud. I don’t know if I’m overwhelmed or intimidated by the
more “spiritual” people who know all the fancy words and can pray long and loud
prayers without even thinking, or maybe I still see myself as that young child
sitting beside her mum, being offered a colouring book because “this is grown
up stuff” and out of my league.
I used to attend the early morning Saturday prayer
meeting at my church. 7am every Saturday. I enjoyed it because it was different
than the Tuesday evening prayer meeting. There were only four or five of us and
it was a very relaxed, almost meditative meeting where we were encouraged to
spend time in quiet contemplation as much as spoken prayer.
We also had prayer and fasting weeks where the church
would be open throughout the day for us to pop in and out and pray. Often there
were “stations” set up around the sanctuary with prayer points for specific
areas of need, within the church and community, and also further afield. I
enjoyed these kinds of prayer events the most because I could go in, whenever I
wanted to, and just go around the different zones in my own time and order, and
just spend time seeking the Lord in each of the situations. It helped me to
have those “headings” and suggested topics but still having the freedom to pray
in my own way. I have several prayer journals from these kinds of days and,
looking back on them, I find that I’m actually much more competent at praying
than I give myself credit for – especially when I write them out.
I have always believed – and I still do – that prayer is
such a personal thing. It’s my private conversation with my Father; the moments
where I allow my mask to slip for a moment and I open myself up in complete
vulnerability, crying out to my “Abba”. I never had a dad so I can’t say with
any kind of authority, but I’d imagine that most girls talking with their dad
would prefer not to broadcast their quiet, intimate conversations. That said, I
do completely understand the need for and power in corporate and collective
prayer and have been part of some larger scale prayer meetings which were very
powerful.
“Prayer isn’t about trying to get God to say
amen to what I want; prayer is about me saying amen to God’s will for my life”
What would it look like for you to pray this
week with this perspective?
It’s important for us to fully grasp the gravity of what
we are doing when we pray. So often have I corrected myself from praying too
formally, that I fear I may have overcorrected and gone slightly too far
the other way. We must constantly remind ourselves of the greatness of our
Almighty Father, and this can be done easily by the act of beginning our
prayers with a time of worship and adoration, as discussed in previous
sessions. In professing His indescribable greatness, His might, His majesty,
His mercy, His all-consuming love, and all the wonderful virtues that He alone possesses,
we come to His throne in complete awe, and honour Him with our minds as well as
our spirits. Only then can we fully grasp the enormous privilege that we have
been granted in being able to approach the King of the Universe directly and
offer up our prayers of petition and intercession. At this point, when we are
fully aware of just how awesome our God is, we can do nothing else but submit
to His will. We would be foolish to think that our own worldly desires could
stand a chance next to His! Here we are in the perfect place to wholly submit,
prostrate at His feet, and say with absolute fervency, “Your will be done!” And
that’s the place where God will pick us up and work with us.
When we pray “Let Your will be done” we are interceding.
We are opening ourselves up as obedient servants and willing participants. We
aren’t saying that we will do anything in our own strength, or that our desires
are more important, we are simply providing a landing pad for God’s will to be
done in our lives or situations.
This week my grandad has gone into a care home full-time.
This man has been my rock. The only father I ever knew for the whole of my
childhood and adolescence. His health has declined drastically and my family
are heartbroken but I have found a peace in praying, “Lord, let Your will be done”
and a comfort in trusting that He knows best. ““For I know the plans that I
have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to
give you a future and a hope.”” (Jeremiah 29:11)
There is a strength that comes from those words, “Your
will be done”, that I never truly appreciated until recently.
