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Intercession as Partnering with God
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Month 8 classes
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Class 1: What is Intercession?
Class 2: Application of Intercession
Class 3: 2 Corinthians 5 Meditation
Class 4: Listening Prayer
Class 5: Journaling
Class 6: Listening Prayer
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Teaching - INTERCESSION AS PARTNERING WITH GOD
“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give him no rest…”(Isaiah 62:6)
After years of nurturing a prayer life, this still strikes me as unusual. God, the creator of the universe, asks his people to nag him to do things he already wants to do. Think of the parable of the Widow and the unjust Judge (Luke 18)—same concept. Repeatedly in Scripture we see God asking his people to consistently pray for someone else. Surprisingly, the God of the universe actually says such prayers make a difference.
30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” (Ez 22:30)
23 “So he said he would destroy them--
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.” (Psalm 106:23)
These verses describe “intercession”, or “intercessory prayer”. The concept is simple. When you pray for the needs of another person or community, you are becoming and advocate of that community before God. In essence, you stand in the gap between God and whoever you pray for. However, you are not pleading with God to do something. Intercession is partnership. You are listening to what God wants to do and then declaring God’s will over the situation. We are not trying to change God’s mind on an issue, rather we attempt to discern the mind of God then release his will into the situations around us.
Remember, we are not passive participants in the story of salvation. God includes us in the unfolding of his plans. We are the agents through which God accomplishes his purposes. God, in his sovereignty, has chosen to limit himself to working through the prayers of his people. More than that, we are the redeemed people of God, the Bride of the Lamb. We are redeemed not simply as pawns in a cosmic chess match between Good and Evil; we are redeemed to be lovers of God.
Prayer is our opportunity for relationship with the Divine. Can you think of some events, aside from creation, in which God acted without being asked? I can think of God’s initiation of the relationship with Abraham… and that’s about it. One could even lay a case from the Bible that the 1st coming of Christ was in response to the prayers of God’s people (see Luke 2). Every time we see God act on the people’s behalf in the Bible, it is in response to their asking. Why then do they need to ask? Because God wants relationship.
So, if God already has an idea in mind of what he wants for any given situation, how do we pray his will? We ask him. Our job is to pray what he tells us to pray. It’s almost like we are 6 years old again and shopping for our parent’s birthday—we have to ask him for money to buy him a gift. Absolutely everything in the Christian life originates with God. He is both the author and the finisher of our faith. So, we come into a situation, and the first thing we do is listen. We ask God what he’s doing and what he wants us to do. Then we pray back his words.
Once we know God’s will for a situation, it is our job to P.U.S.H.: pray until something happens. We don’t need to pray anything differently. We already know what he wants from us in this particular situation. We declare what the Lord has already said, reminding God of his promises to us, and we wait for him to do the rest.
Prayer cards. PUSH (pray until something happens)
After years of nurturing a prayer life, this still strikes me as unusual. God, the creator of the universe, asks his people to nag him to do things he already wants to do. Think of the parable of the Widow and the unjust Judge (Luke 18)—same concept. Repeatedly in Scripture we see God asking his people to consistently pray for someone else. Surprisingly, the God of the universe actually says such prayers make a difference.
30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” (Ez 22:30)
23 “So he said he would destroy them--
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.” (Psalm 106:23)
These verses describe “intercession”, or “intercessory prayer”. The concept is simple. When you pray for the needs of another person or community, you are becoming and advocate of that community before God. In essence, you stand in the gap between God and whoever you pray for. However, you are not pleading with God to do something. Intercession is partnership. You are listening to what God wants to do and then declaring God’s will over the situation. We are not trying to change God’s mind on an issue, rather we attempt to discern the mind of God then release his will into the situations around us.
Remember, we are not passive participants in the story of salvation. God includes us in the unfolding of his plans. We are the agents through which God accomplishes his purposes. God, in his sovereignty, has chosen to limit himself to working through the prayers of his people. More than that, we are the redeemed people of God, the Bride of the Lamb. We are redeemed not simply as pawns in a cosmic chess match between Good and Evil; we are redeemed to be lovers of God.
Prayer is our opportunity for relationship with the Divine. Can you think of some events, aside from creation, in which God acted without being asked? I can think of God’s initiation of the relationship with Abraham… and that’s about it. One could even lay a case from the Bible that the 1st coming of Christ was in response to the prayers of God’s people (see Luke 2). Every time we see God act on the people’s behalf in the Bible, it is in response to their asking. Why then do they need to ask? Because God wants relationship.
So, if God already has an idea in mind of what he wants for any given situation, how do we pray his will? We ask him. Our job is to pray what he tells us to pray. It’s almost like we are 6 years old again and shopping for our parent’s birthday—we have to ask him for money to buy him a gift. Absolutely everything in the Christian life originates with God. He is both the author and the finisher of our faith. So, we come into a situation, and the first thing we do is listen. We ask God what he’s doing and what he wants us to do. Then we pray back his words.
Once we know God’s will for a situation, it is our job to P.U.S.H.: pray until something happens. We don’t need to pray anything differently. We already know what he wants from us in this particular situation. We declare what the Lord has already said, reminding God of his promises to us, and we wait for him to do the rest.
Prayer cards. PUSH (pray until something happens)
Application - INTERCESSION AS PARTNERING WITH GOD
Prayer cards for situations.
Spend some time praying individually and ask God to bring a situation to mind He/you would like to see changed. Then spend time listening for how you can pray about that situation.
Write down your thoughts then craft a prayer on a prayer card. This is your prayer for that situation. You don’t need to pray anything different. You’ve already done the work of discerning God’s will for the situation, now it is time to pray until something happens.
You may also choose to do this over yourself and your family.
Spend some time praying individually and ask God to bring a situation to mind He/you would like to see changed. Then spend time listening for how you can pray about that situation.
Write down your thoughts then craft a prayer on a prayer card. This is your prayer for that situation. You don’t need to pray anything different. You’ve already done the work of discerning God’s will for the situation, now it is time to pray until something happens.
You may also choose to do this over yourself and your family.
Meditation - INTERCESSION AS PARTNERING WITH GOD
Meditation is simply the art of thinking deeply. So, when we meditate on Scripture, we are going to reflect on, contemplate and think deeply about what the particular passage of the Bible is saying and what God is saying through it to us.
This last month, we’re talking about intercession; praying for anyone other than ourselves. Although almost every Christian (and most non-Christians at some point in their lives) practices ‘intercessory prayer’, not everyone does it well. Many try to change God’s mind on a situation—thinking if they can somehow find something God wants or the magic formula of the right words—they can convince God to do what they want; this understanding of prayer quickly leads to heartache and disillusionment.
Although this passage of 2nd Corinthians is not primarily about prayer, it is about our primary calling in Christ. Spend time reading and thinking about the passage. Particularly, pay attention to how this ‘ministry’ Paul outlines relates to how we live our lives as Christians. From this understanding, why do we prayer for others?
This last month, we’re talking about intercession; praying for anyone other than ourselves. Although almost every Christian (and most non-Christians at some point in their lives) practices ‘intercessory prayer’, not everyone does it well. Many try to change God’s mind on a situation—thinking if they can somehow find something God wants or the magic formula of the right words—they can convince God to do what they want; this understanding of prayer quickly leads to heartache and disillusionment.
Although this passage of 2nd Corinthians is not primarily about prayer, it is about our primary calling in Christ. Spend time reading and thinking about the passage. Particularly, pay attention to how this ‘ministry’ Paul outlines relates to how we live our lives as Christians. From this understanding, why do we prayer for others?
