Intercessory Prayer
Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 09:53AM What is intercessory prayer? Have you ever asked God to help someone else? Yes? That was intercessory prayer. An intercessor operates like a lawyer, pleading someone else’s case to a judge. Christ is our intercessor (Jeremiah 15:11; Romans 8:34). God listens to us if we pray in the name of Jesus. When we use the Son’s name, He presents our prayers to the Father and the Father listens to the Son.
Graphic design by Billy AlexanderIntercession is the act of setting up a meeting between two parties. When you go to God, asking Him to act in another person’s life, you are interceding (or mediating) between that other individual and God. When you command Satan to stop acting in a person’s life, you are interceding. Be careful how you intercede. When you intercede in the spiritual realm, you MUST DO IT IN JESUS’ NAME, because His is the only authority you have to expect anything of God or suppress Satan (John 14:13-14, 16:23-26; Luke 9:1; Matthew 28:18; John 14:6; Luke 16:17; Acts 4:12, 19:15).
The most surprising thing to me, when I began to study intercessory prayer, was learning that God needs me to pray because He has elected to work on earth through human beings. Our Father gave us free will, and He will not replace our will with His own perfect will. That’s our task (see Philemon 1:14; Luke 18:1824; Ezekiel 3:11).
God allowed Adam and Eve to run His world (Genesis 1:26, 28). They botched their job and conferred the key to Satan when they surrendered their will to his. Christ died, was buried, went to hell (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31; Ephesians 4:8-9; 1 Peter 3:19; Revelation 1:18), and rose again to reclaim our rights. Those rights can be employed by anyone who accepts Christ’s gift. (Read Romans 5:12-19 for a further comparison of Adam and Christ.)
When I ask God to act, I open a doorway for Him to come into my life and the lives of others for whom I pray (1 John 5:14-16). My first conscious experience with intercessory prayer was on December 2, 2002, when my late husband Jae and I fasted and prayed for Jae’s estranged twenty-six-year-old son. Shane had refused to speak to us for close to one year. The previous day, Sunday, we had gone before our church to request prayer for him. That Monday, we sought God not only for our son but also for the lost family members of everyone in our church. We prayed for separation from bad influences, for salvation, and for family reconciliation. We continued in prayer after that day, believing our prayers were already answered. On Christmas Eve, we phoned Jae’s ex-wife; Shane was at her home, and he was ready to reconcile. Praise God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Because of intercessory prayer, Shane had the opportunity to be a part of his dad’s last nine months of life. (Sadly, I have “lost” Shane again since my remarriage, but I believe that if I and others continue to pray for him, God will use this test for good.)
If I don’t know what to ask for or how to pray, God has equipped me with instructions for prayer in His book. If I ask for His will to be done, everything will turn out right (Matthew 6:7-13; 1 John 5:14-15). Maybe not right away, but everything will turn out right.
When I already know God’s will, there is more required of me in prayer than to say “thy will be done.” I know God wants you to be healed, so if I pray for your healing, what I need to do is claim it in Jesus’ name, commanding Satan in Jesus’ name to let go of your health and back away. I can direct your body to be restored in Jesus’ name (Matthew 9:6). You can do the same for me or for yourself.
If I’m seeking deliverance for someone, I may need to combine fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21). Fasting literally helps me to empty myself before God so I can fill up on Him through prayer.
God has provided me in His Word a way to pray for every situation. If I am in the dark, that is my doing and not His.
(This is an excerpt from "Stepping into the Light: You're a Christian, what now?" by Diane L. Harris)
Reader Comments (6)
Hi Diane,
I enjoyed reading this post on intercessory prayer until I came to this..."I know God wants you to be healed, so if I pray for your healing, what I need to do is claim it in Jesus’ name, commanding Satan in Jesus’ name to let go of your health and back away. I can direct your body to be restored in Jesus’ name (Matthew 9:6). You can do the same for me or for yourself."
Can you really do this? What do you tell people who are chronically ill for years, or are perhaps disabled? It sounds like something is wrong w/ OUR spiritual life, if we rebuke satan in Jesus name, and we don't get well? Maybe you need to explain this?
Yours is a valid question, with no easy answer. I have been chronically ill for at least 12 years. What I tell myself is that faith is not a magic wand. (See my post of October 4th, 2008.) God says His ways are higher than our ways. Just because He's made a thing possible, doesn't mean it will happen.
I can't answer for myself or anyone else why some prayers are answered immediately while others are answered much later than we might hope. I can't say why some mighty prayer warriors, faithful to Christ, die sick. I know that sickness is never one's "thorn in the flesh".
When I do have a better answer, I'll report it here.
Thanks for this. This is a great reminder of how everyone should pray. God's blessings to you and your readers.
Beautiful post... thank you for allowing the Lord to use you to speak to my heart... (((hugs)))
Great post in intercession. Sometimes the Lord will tell us whom to pray for, as it happens often to me. I will think about someone, pray for them and usually e-mail of phone them.
God has never missed once!
Love those! I enjoy following your posts on facebook and rss! ydraaw ydraaw - Discout Hermes Sale.