God is preparing our church for a significant move of his Spirit, and it will be revealed by people having a greater hunger and thirst after God and his Spirit over anything else this world has to offer. Last week our prayer practice was focusing on spiritual hunger prayers followed by listening prayer.
- Share within the group what your experience was in praying for more spiritual hunger.
- If there’s something you heard or sensed from the Lord for the group? Have group share.
This week we are going to be practicing prayers of intercession.
Practicing Intercession: When we intercede in prayer we are fighting or battling in the gap for others in some way. We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do when it comes to intercession. In 2 Corinthians 10: 2-5 we see that the weapons we use are not made of flesh.
2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:2-5
The weapons that are used in prayers of intercession are spiritual, not flesh. In fact, Paul uses a word for “power” that means “dynamic miracles from God.” (We even get the word dynamite from that word usage.) We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning, false arguments, and anything priding itself against the truth of God.
But what does that actually mean?
It means that when we pray and intercede for others, we can address the things that keep them from seeing, knowing, and understanding the truth of God and the love He pursues them with. Intercessory prayer is speaking God’s power into situations, circumstances, and obstacles that keep others from coming to faith, being healed, or set free. In essence, through prayer, we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture rebellious thoughts that sets itself up from seeing Jesus and His truth.
In community we are going to practice prayers of intercession for people who don’t know Jesus yet or have walked away. Also, we are going to be interceding for physical, spiritual, and emotional needs in your group.
Needed: Note cards or sticky notes
Break up into smaller groups (3-4 people) and designate a leader within that group. Put away your phones or any other distractions, and get comfortable.
1. In your smaller group, make a prayer cards together – a short list of people or circumstances where you desire to see God radically move.
- Any crises or emergencies in your group
- Any illness, financial needs, etc. in your group
- Any areas in which people need healing in your group
- Any people you know that are Persons of Peace that you’d like to see come to faith in Jesus or persons who have walked away from God.
2. Spend just a minute or two in silence as a group. Incorporating last week’s practice, spend a couple minutes listening. If God brings any additional pictures, Scriptures, or impressions, add them to the cards or sticky notes. Intercession is often like a lightning bolt: Add any impressions to the sticky note that God seems to be initiating.
3. Pray through your prayer cards or sticky notes
- Have each person in the community take on at least one prayer of intercession.
- Continue to pray this coming week at home.
4. Close in a prayers of gratitude and expectation of how God desires to bring heaven to earth in these prayers of intercession. Remember you are praying with God’s miraculous dynamite-like power. We are removing through prayer the things that keep others from seeing God’s Kingdom on earth.
5. Keep on praying. We intercede until the answer comes.
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Remember that the Holy Spirit very often prompts intercession. He tells us when and what to pray for. Stay available and attentive to His prompting. You could suddenly feel heaviness or anxiety for someone, see a name or a face of a person during your prayer time or simply feel an urge to pray without any explanations. Ask the Holy Spirit what’s going on, for whom are you praying and if there are any specific instructions on how He wants you to pray. If you receive no answer, just trust Him and pray until the heaviness lifts and you get a sense that the task is completed (Romans 8: 26-27). If you have a prayer language, many times the Holy Spirit will give you immediate words and things to pray. You could also intercede for certain people or situations on a regular basis. Ask the Lord to show you clearly how and what to pray for specifically (Psalm 25: 4-5, 14), and pray unceasingly until you either see results or the Lord tells you to stop.
