HINTS ON INTERCESSION - part three
Hint #13: INTERCEDE FOR GOD’S PEOPLE.
On hint #12, we talked about interceding for leaders, not discriminating the kind of leadership, whether political, family or church and so on and so forth. But here we want to focus on interceding for God’s people i.e. the church.
Again and again Paul the apostle wrote of his intercessory work concerning the churches in his time. He prayed for the Ephesians that they be strengthened with might by God’s spirit in the inner man. He also prayed for them that they should have from God a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that the eyes on their heart be flooded with the light of God’s knowledge. He took it upon himself to focus on the well being of the churches in his days. The impact of his intercessory prayers for churches is an eternal example of the importance of interceding for God’s people – the church.
Paul, in his words to the Colossians introduces a man to us – a man by the name Epaphras. This man was a labourer, but not in the block-carrying sense. He is a spiritual labourer who carries the burden of interceding for the Colossian church. His intercessory focus was to see them not wanting in any of God’s WILL for them.
Intercede also for individuals that make up the church, i.e. your brother or sister in the Lord. This is a good example of being your brother’s keeper just as God wants you to be. By so doing, the full love of God is being extended through you to the other person. Don’t leave others in their problems but be involved in their lives in the place of prayer and God will bless you abundantly.
In 3John 1:2, the writer, John, writing to a believer named Gaius, reveals that he is praying for him that he would prosper and be in health as his soul prospers. Since Gaius’ soul is saved, John focused on praying towards ensuring that he experiences prosperity financially, socially in his family life and in his health. Don’t shy away from following John’s example – pray for believers today.
Hint# 14
INTERCEDE FOR UNBELIEVERS.
An unbeliever is someone whose primary need in the eyes of God is to believe in Christ and be born again; having the life of God in him and becoming a follower of Christ. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he instructed him to ensure that the church he leads prays that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Obey that scripture and you will see your life change for the better.
There are unbelievers all around you, as family members, co-workers, or even as associates and friends. Have you ever thought that maybe the reason why you have such people around you is because God wants you to stand spiritually in the gap for them in the place of intercessory prayer, so that they would be saved? What a loss if someone gains the whole world and loses his soul to hell’s fire. What a sad end to a person’s life. Therefore the most important help you can render for another person is to help them become saved by praying for them. It is the most important help because it is a matter of life and death in the eternal sense.
Paul states in the book of Romans chapter ten verse one that his heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they would be saved. God wants you to desire that the unsaved be saved and not only that but to also translate that desire into intercessory prayer focus. God will hearken to you for he also wants the same thing – the salvation of unbelievers.
How much difference it will make to this world if more and more Christians take it upon themselves to regularly pray for the unsaved? It would result in God pouring out more of his grace to cause many to be drawn into his Kingdom.
Hint #15
INTERCEDE WITH THANKSGIVING.
Philippians 4:6 states, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.” This injunction also covers the prayer of intercession. Thanksgiving signifies confidence in the God that always answer prayers. Thanking God for what he has done shows God that we are appreciative.
Moreover a heart of thanksgiving is a heart of faith. Thanksgiving helps you to get a correct perspective of God - the one who loves to give us what we ask. Thanksgiving and praise can be expressed in songs which is also inclusive in the prayer experience. It is written in scriptures that God dwells in the praises of his people which imply that thanksgiving and praise are instrumental to drawing the presence of God. Additionally, thanksgiving stirs up faith in us for the purpose of effective intercessory prayer.
Thanksgiving and praise can come both before and after prayer of intercession. Before, to appreciate him for what he has done and who he is to us as revealed in his word; and after to express our confidence that he would fulfill our request as revealed in the promises of his word (Matt. 7:7).
Hint#16
INTERCEDE WITH FASTING
What does fasting mean? It means denying oneself of food for a period of time. It brings an added impetus to your prayer. The force in your prayer is multiplied when fasting is involved. In an encounter of Jesus and his disciples with a boy possessed with an evil spirit in Mark chapter 9, he revealed that the secret of his success in casting out the demon and helping the boy was prayer and fasting.
In Acts chapter thirteen, before Paul and Barnabas went off to their first missionary journey (that was to make a decisive impart on the then known world), a group of prophets and teachers took it upon themselves to pray and fast for them. The rest is history. Fasting is a limit breaker for prayer. A fast’s effect is to purge us of internal hindrance to effective praying (e.g. the shortcomings of the mind and soul). When this is achieved it results in greater internal energy to be released in us to impact on our intercessory prayer focus.
In the bible, fasting is referred to as afflicting the soul (Leviticus 16:21, Isaiah 58:5). Our spirit (being the location for communicating with God) is encircled by our soul and our soul by the body. By fasting we de-emphasize the life of the soul. Because the more the life of the fleshly soul is emphasized, the life of the spirit is compromised and vice versa (Galatians 5:17). Therefore, through fasting more abundant life is released from our spirit via our prayer of intercession to neutralise death’s grip on the world around us. God bless you as you increase your commitment to intercessory prayer by adding fasting to it from time to time.
HINT #17:- INTERCEDE WITH TONGUES
As an intercessor, to not be aware of the possibilities that lie in speaking in unknown tongues is such a loss. Speaking in unlearned and\or unknown tongues is a necessary by product of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon believers, after the salvation experience, filling them with the power to be a formidable witness of Christ’s reality (of having been resurrected) in the here and now.
It is clearly elucidated in scriptures that when a person speaks to God in the spirit i.e. in tongues, he speaks from the God in him to God and in the realm of the spirit; he speaks mysterious things too deep for ordinary words to effectively capture (1Cor. 14:2-4). Speaking in tongues help to overcome myriads of problems encountered in the process of intercessory prayer. Examples include
(a) Limited knowledge of the details of the situation being prayed about,
(b) Limited understanding of how to pray.
Speaking in tongues cuts through all those difficulties.
As you pray in tongues, you are using the unlimited knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God to pray, because it is your spirit that is praying and that brings a whole new dimension to your prayer. To seriously intercede, intercede in tongues, after mentioning the intercessory prayer focus, mixing it with along with praying with words you understand, just as Paul does. He said he prays in the Spirit and prays in understanding also. You don’t have to rack your brain about what to say, take up God’s unlimited supply of words to use by speaking in tongues and by so doing, more effectively engage your spirit in the task of intercessory prayer.
Be baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues regularly from today hence forth.
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