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How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life, Part Five

1 Samuel 12:23

This morning marks the official ending of a 4-week spiritual journey that we have been sharing together, called, “A Season of Prayer.” It’s been a very rewarding experience. God has blessed us abundantly. Throughout these weeks, I’ve shared a series of messages called, “How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life.” In those recent messages, I’ve been identifying the various types of prayer that we want to incorporate into our own, personal prayer practices.

The first type or category of prayer that we identified was, “praise.” Praise is the way we pray when the desire of our heart and the focus of our mind is worship. Praise is giving God the glory, the honor and the thanks that He deserves for who He is and for how He has blessed us. It’s my conviction that praise should be the very first focus in all of our praying. Before we ask God for anything, we need to take time to tell Him that we love Him, why we love Him and to thank Him for all of our blessings.

And when we begin our prayers with praise we are then lead, quite naturally, into a second type of prayer called, “confession.” Having stood in the presence of a God who is altogether pure and holy we need, then, to acknowledge that we are not. Even after we are saved we sometimes sin. And God hates sin because it is the one thing that can separate us from Him. And God’s remedy for sin is forgiveness. And the way we access God’s forgiveness is through confession. And confession is simply saying about our sin the same thing that God says about our sin. So, confession demands that we resist our natural inclination to justify, excuse or minimize our sin and just admit that it is exactly what God says it is—sin.

And the confidence we have in confessing our sin to God is built on the rock solid promise of God’s forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

And with that forgiveness, the wall that our sin had built between God and ourselves comes tumbling down, God’s Spirit is once again free to work in us and God’s blessings begin to flow into us. And the first of those blessings is the lifting of a huge burden of guilt.

And that brings us to a third type of prayer…the one that we looked at last week…and that is, “petition.” And petition is the form that our prayers take when we bring to God’s attention our own personal needs, desires and wants. When we offer prayers of petition we are asking God to provide for our needs—our personal needs, our financial needs, our emotional needs and so forth. The things that matter to us also matter to God and God doesn’t want us to handle those concerns all by ourselves. He wants us to bring those matters to Him and trust in His provision.

And after we’ve lifted to God’s attention the concerns, needs and desires in our own lives we are then led, quite naturally, into a fourth type of prayer called, “intercession.” And “intercession” is going to be the focus of our attention, this morning. What exactly is “intercession?” Well, basically “intercession” is simply “petition” turned outwards; it’s petition with an outward rather than an inward focus. In “petition,” we ask God to provide our own needs and desires, while in “intercession” we ask God to provide the needs and desires of others. Physical needs. Emotional needs. Financial needs. Relational needs. Spiritual needs. And any other need that we’re aware of. In intercession, we come into the presence of God on behalf of someone else to ask God to provide for their needs.

We get a beautiful picture of intercession in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. The context of the passage is this—God’s people had fallen into such a terrible pattern of immorality, that they had rightfully earned God’s judgment and destruction. But because God’s heart is always inclined towards redemption, rather than destruction we see Him, here, looking for someone to stand as an intercessor on behalf of the people.

In Ezeliel 22:30 God says, “I looked for a man 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 none.” So in this particular case, the role of the intercessor was to plead for God’s mercy on behalf of the people. In a more general sense, we see here that the role of the intercessor is to bring to God the needs of other people.

And that means that intercession is a very selfless thing to do. By definition intercession gets our eyes off of ourselves and on to others. Intercession is an act of kindness and compassion that grows out of a heartfelt concern for someone else’s welfare. I love what Richard Foster says about this in his wonderful book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. He says, “Intercession is a way of loving others.” What a wonderfully simple, but profound statement. One of the most loving things that we can do for someone is to pray for them.

When my mom passed away last year, you were so kind to send cards and letters of support. They were so precious to me that I saved every one of them. And the expression in those cards that meant more to me than anything else was, “I’m praying for you.” Every time I read those words, what I felt was loved. I received the assurance of your prayers as an expression of your love. And it was a gift beyond value. Intercession is a powerful way of loving others.

Throughout our Season of Prayer I have kept this stack of cards front and center on my desk. More than 250 cards that you filled out to indicate your commitment to enter The Prayer Closet every day of this journey. I kept those cards on my desk to remind me of this journey that we’re sharing together. And I also kept them there as an invitation to pray for you…each of you…by name. Throughout our Season of Prayer I have paused throughout the day to pray for you.

“Lord, thank you for John. Bless his time in The Prayer Closet with you. Show Yourself to him in a new way. Give him a sense of Your pleasure.”

“Lord, thank you for Joyce. Grow her excitement about this prayer journey. Help her not to get distracted. Help her to look to You often throughout the day.”

It has been such a delight to pray for you like this. To care for you like this. To love you like this. God has blessed my heart tremendously as I have lifted your spiritual need to God.

I mentioned a few moments ago that intercession is a selfless act because we’re thinking of the needs of others rather than ourselves. And that’s true. But, as is oftentimes the case, in the midst of focusing on the needs of others we end up being tremendously blessed ourselves. Talk to anybody who is serious in their commitment to intercessory prayer and you will quickly see that they don’t wear the call to intercession as a burden or an obligation. No, intercession for them is a privilege, a joy and an absolute delight. They’ve discovered that in the process of praying for others God pours out His blessings on them.

And, folks, the good news here is that while the scriptures make it clear that some people have a special calling and special gifting for the ministry of intercession, God gives every Christian both the responsibility and the privilege to pray for one another. I Samuel 12:23 says it like this, “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” Clearly, God expects us to pray for one another.

So, with the time that we have remaining, I want to quickly identify 6 KEYS TO EFFECTIVE INTERCESSION. Whether you are moved occasionally to intercede for others or this is your special calling and ministry, these are keys that will unlock the doors to greater effectiveness in your prayers of intercession.

Key #1—Personal Purity That doesn’t mean that we can’t be an effective intercessor unless we live a sin free life—that would rule all of us out. But it does mean that we will not be effective in our intercession if we have grown comfortable with sin in some aspect of our lives or are living with unconfessed sin. James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Key #2—Stay Close to Jesus In John 15:4,7 Jesus says, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” So, the key here is to live in such close relationship with Jesus that we get to know Him really well. We know His heart. We know His character. We know His mind. And because we know Him so well, we begin to seek through our intercession the same things that Jesus already desires for the person for whom we are praying. And God delights in answering those prayers because they’re consistent with His will and His purposes.

Key #3—Be specific, not general While there’s nothing inappropriate with praying unfocused, generalized prayers of intercession: “Lord, please bring back all the Christians who have turned their backs on you.”…those kinds of prayers lack the power of more specific prayers. One weakness of that kind of generalized praying is that there’s no way to know if a prayer like that has been answered. So, pray as specifically as you are able. “Lord, my brother John has wandered far away from You. Lord, crush his rebellious spirit. Soften his heart so that he can receive the conviction of Your Holy Spirit. Help Him to see all that he’s losing by running from You.” Be specific when you intercede.

Key #4—Focus more on God’s eternal purposes, than on temporal needs We talked about this last week as it related to prayers of petition. The same principle is true in our prayers of intercession. While it’s good and appropriate to ask God to provide for the immediate, temporal needs of our friends—things like shelter, safety, finances and so forth—it’s very important that we also intercede for their spiritual development and for the realization of God’s plans and purposes for their life.
We looked, last week, at Galatians 5:22-23 which says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These are character traits that God desires to produce in all of His children. So, in our prayers of petition, we can ask God to produce that fruit in our lives…and in our prayers of intercession, we can ask God to produce that fruit in the lives of our brothers and sisters. And we can be confident that He’ll answer that prayer because it’s consistent with His will. As we saw last week, 1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

So, we can confidently use scripture, like the Galatians passage, to guide our intercession.

“Lord, my brother Bill is going through a tough time, right now, at home and at work. Lord, comfort Him with Your peace. Lord, remind Him, this very day, to trust his concerns to You and leave them there. Lord, fill him, right now, with your peace.”

“Lord, my dear friend Mike has developed a very short temper toward his son. He’s harsh in his comments. He says hurtful things in his anger. Lord, drive his anger away and fill him with gentleness. Give him the self-control he needs to reflect Jesus to his son.”

God delights in answering prayers like this because they are completely consistent with His will.

Key #5—BE PERSISTENT Our natural tendency is to pray for something once…or, maybe twice…and then, if we don’t see an immediate response we move on to something else. But that’s not a biblically based pattern for effective intercession. We don’t have time to explore them, this morning, but Jesus told some parables that were specifically intended to teach us to be persistent in our praying. Luke 18:1 says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” It’s not that we are trying to talk God into doing something that He doesn’t want to do, but rather that persistence is a godly character trait and God blesses our persistence.

And, finally, Key #6—WAIT ON THE LORD If your desire is to be an effective intercessor one of the most important things that you can do is to share that desire with God, ask Him to show you who He wants you to pray for and how He wants you to pray for them and then wait for Him to show you. If you’ve not done this before, you are in for a very exciting, even surprising experience. When you lift this desire to God and then wait for His response, He will bring into your mind names and faces of people that, to you, may seem to have come completely out of left field. Pray for them, anyway. And then, later on, tell them that God put them on your heart and you prayed for them. And then listen to what they say. You’ll be amazed at how often God will move you to pray for someone at the very moment when they were most in need of prayer.

In closing, this morning, I want to lead us in a prayer. It’s a pray of confession that leads to a petition that is focused on intercession for the purpose of praising God. In other words, this is a prayer that will move us through all four of the prayer types we’ve considered so far.

“Father, I confess that I spend way too much of my time thinking mostly about me. And I sense that You would like me to spend more time thinking about others. Lord, I can’t think of a better way to start that process than by praying them. But I’m not sure how to do that. Lord, would You teach me? Lord, help me get started. Show me who You want me to pray for; show me how You want me to pray for them.

Lord, I don’t need any praise from anybody for doing this. I don’t need anyone’s attention. It’s enough for me just to be a part of what You’re doing because what You’re doing is always right and always good. And I thank You that you’re even doing it in me. You are such an awesome God. And I pray in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen.”

Join me as we give God the praise that He deserves.