Intercession is identified with spiritual warfare. In Ephesians 6:10, 11 it says, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, and then the passage speaks of the various pieces of the armor and ends in verses 17 and 18 speaking about …the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. How inclusive that is—all supplication, all prayer, at all seasons praying in the Spirit.
“At all seasons praying in the Spirit”—I think it is very necessary that we consider this, for the ministry of intercession has tended to be the most arrogant and least submissive of all the ministries in the church.
There is no other ministry that should look for confirmation of the will of God more carefully through many sources than the ministry of intercession.
If you pray about someone becoming an elder and everyone is praying over it and seeking God together, it is a communal, collective activity of the Body.
When you go to pray about anything else, there is an element of confirmation. But when you get down to pray, “O Lord, Brother So and So is this, that and the other,” how do you know? That is your opinion. Did anybody confirm that to you? “Lord, I pray that You will judge him.” Who told you that he needs to be judged? Is that your opinion? Or was it confirmed for the whole Body? “Lord, I pray You will deliver him out of that situation. You’re judging him and I pray You’ll just deliver him, Lord; spare him.” Who said he needs to be spared? You did. How do you know? You do not know whether to judge him or spare him; you do not know whether to bless him or curse him.
Too often, intercessory prayer has been our informing God the way we want it to turn out. Consequently, most intercession fails, because it is your opinion.
But if, by revelation, you start to intercede according to the will of God, you still ought to bring that revelation in and have it prayed about.
For example, if someone close to us were dying, it would be the most effective thing to do. For when we come to the place where we feel guilty and have a mixed-up sense of responsibility, we constantly stand in the way of what God would do to make a good, clean decisive thing, because the love of God is deep and it is not weak. “He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Hebrews 12:6).
Intercessory prayer tends to put so much human sentimentality in the place of the strong love of God. Intercessory prayer, as we have known it, has stood more in the way of the will of God being done in the church than it has helped. Prayer is part of the general scope of revelation, of the truth that should be, but I do not believe it has been as effective as it could be!
Why are we going to intercede? Because, Romans 8:27 tells us that the Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God, and He that knows the hearts of men knows what the will of God is and prays accordingly. He lets the Holy Spirit begin to make that intercession for you.
If you sense that, when you pray, pray by the Holy Spirit; when you speak in tongues, you speak in tongues by the Holy Spirit; when you work miracles, you work miracles by the Holy Spirit. If you are going to intercede, intercede by the Holy Spirit, praying in the Spirit at all times. We need to learn how to do this in the Spirit.
The burden is very great and you may or may not have a conscious knowledge of that which you are to pray for. You say, “I can’t see not even knowing what I’m praying for—just to stand and be praying in tongues, interceding and groaning, and not knowing what it’s for.” So what?
People talk in tongues and they do not know what they are saying. They can pray in tongues and they do not know what they are saying, but the Holy Spirit follows one principle that God has set in the Body, which you must never forget: God has set certain laws in motion, and He does not interfere with them.
The wicked will do wickedly until he finally crushes himself by certain principles already in existence, but God does not interfere.
Prayer is the one means by which God has set in motion a principle higher than all other principles; a law higher than all other laws.
The man who intercedes and cries unto God is capable of superseding or abrogating every other law in the physical, mental or spiritual realm.
It is by prayer, that people have walked through fiery furnaces, that lions have not been able to chew up their victims, that people have walked on water, divided seas, divided rivers, and have brought the dead back to life.
Prayer is a powerful means by which all law can be changed, all circumstances that would say, “This plus this plus this will accomplish this.” God can set it all aside so that you could walk backwards and arrive at your destination, if it pleased God to do so, by prayer.
I think that is the way Joseph did it. Everything that happened to Joseph brought him into reverses until finally he was lost sight of in a dungeon. In the next step, because of his faithfulness before God, he was next to Pharaoh himself. God knows how to do this, through intercession.
You do not know how to pray. Face it. Stop exalting human intelligence to the place where you become an advisor to God, telling Him what to do in His church, in your family, and in your life, when you do not know.
If you do know, and it has been confirmed again and again, then stand and pray with wisdom and intelligence. If you do not know, I would suggest that with the burden upon your heart, you break forth in the Spirit and pray according to the will of God.
Otherwise you may continually fall a victim of being the judge and jury, deciding what God should and should not do in a certain case, when He has not indicated and not spoken.
You can stand on a certain promise and say, “The Lord’s Spirit has borne witness,” and start praying. You can pray for a millionaire to be converted who will give all his millions to the Lord. You can pray along that way and there is no great harm done, because I rather doubt whether God does very much with prayers like that.
But bring your burdens to the elders and have them confirmed because you do not want to spook; you do not want to get off. You want something that will work; you want to get something done. You do not want to pray and get nowhere.
If you have a revelation, submit it and say, “Elders, pray over this—it’s a fantastic thing.” You will be surprised how God will give the right answer and you will start praying over it and something fantastic will happen.
But when you do not know, and you have no revelation from the Lord or confirmation, then I suggest that you pray in the Holy Spirit, and I think it will work.
You will be effective in prayer when you find yourself drawn in the Spirit to certain ones, so yield to it.
You will find that as you are blessing or praying along, many times quite unfruitful in your understanding for awhile, soon your spirit brings to your understanding what has been prayed and ministered. The Holy Spirit has been directing it.
Then when you go to church, those for whom you prayed speak of what God has done for them.
But you could sit down and start thinking about all the people, “Now let’s see—what shall I pray about this one?” and try to think up something. It does not work. If we are burdened, and we begin to pray and intercede for them, they come up every time with just the thing God wants them to have.
Have you ever felt that sometimes there is an arrogance to intercessors? They become super-spiritual; they feel they have all the answers and soon they are praying for this, that or the other thing to happen, and it is not good.
It is almost an independent feeling, instead of feeling like we are one Body, submissive to one another. When a few stand out, thinking they know how the whole thing should go, God usually blows on it because He wants all of us to be intercessors.
When you travail, it is a help if you know what you are praying for, but it is not absolutely necessary.
If certain ones have a definite ministry that they are to walk in, pray that God will fulfill His purpose, that He will bring their ministries forth. That is the right way to pray.
God is very careful to reveal objectives that He has in mind, but not necessarily the means.
As a wife begins to intercede for her husband, she may not know whether to pray for the Lord to deal with him or to bless him, to prosper him or make him go broke. So she starts interceding in the Spirit. If he becomes mean, she should not become discouraged, but leave him on the altar. God is bringing the thing up to the surface so he can see himself and see his needs. She should continue interceding in the Spirit, and see what will happen.
A woman intercessor who starts with a burden from the Lord has a tendency, at a certain point, to let her emotions take over. Than she starts directing the situation or interpreting what should be done, instead of holding to the line and staying within the bounds of revelation to her heart and just letting the Spirit pray.
Consequently, she becomes a wrong channel. We were never meant to become so intelligent that we could figure out how God should run His church.
We are to be human channels through whom His power is released. The Head, the authority, the power is to be released through us. It does not make any difference whether our heads understand it or not. God can anoint us and we can bypass a lot of misunderstanding if we are channeled by the Spirit.
That explains why a few Spirit-filled people in some little fundamental church can be so effective. They intercede in the Spirit and do not even know what they are praying for about half the time, but they just keep praying and waiting on the Lord.
They may not have much teaching, no deeper doctrines or anything else—but as you watch, that church is prevailing. You watch it over a period of two or three years, and you think, “All those battles—there must have been a lot of wisdom in that pastor.” Maybe he is not much. “It must have been the board of deacons.” They are not much, either. So you wonder, “How in the world did all that come to pass?” How did they happen to make it?
Because a few people, interceding in the Spirit, turned loose the power of God that led and directed the thing. Silently, unseen, beyond the understanding or the intelligence of the whole church, God was directing it.
Just let God be God. When we let Him be God, and we are not trying to play God by feeling we know all the answers, by sitting on the throne, usurping His place, we just humbly intercede and cry out in the Spirit.
We see a brother who has a problem, and we intercede for him. We try to help him. We do not judge him; we do not condemn him; we do not have a meeting to kick him out of the church.
We do not excuse it, we do not do anything—we remain neutral. But he is in the hands of God and we are his brothers and sisters, praying for him. Then God starts dealing with him and puts him in a desperate situation.
You go to him and witness to him, and he says, “Pray for me!” You say, “Thank you, Jesus.” That is what the interceding of the Holy Spirit was for, to put him in the position where he would see his need.
God brought him down where he needed prayer. Some of the wives want to intercede for their husbands, but they are displeased with the drastic dealings God brings to get those husbands to seek the Lord.
You might begin to intercede for a brother who has no friends, nothing in the world. You intercede for him and God blesses him. He gets a good job, a promotion, starts making money and his heart is suddenly open to the Lord.
That would be a rare thing, but how do you know whether God is to prosper a man or bring chastening? How do you know what to do? But God knows what to do.
When you pray in the Spirit according to the will of God, you are making intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered. And he who knows the will of God is the one who is bringing forth the prayers, interpreting them according to the will of God.
How can you concentrate and how can you focus in prayer? It is done in the Spirit.
You just focus—set the individual before you.
When you are interceding for an individual, it will help you to glance at a picture of him, so your mind does not wander away from him.
Intercede in tongues, thinking of all the aspects of his personality and character while you are interceding and the tongues flow forth. Before you know it, that person will have something go through him because you are tuned into God through the Holy Spirit and you are focusing it right down on that individual and bringing it in with force.
Sometimes when there is a prayer for the will of the Lord, the person for whom you intercede becomes very upset. When you see him, his temper is short, for no reason at all.
Other times, when you get a burden for that individual, everything seems rosy when you see him. It makes no difference: God knows what He is doing. He is focusing on him and bringing His purpose forth just the way He wants it.
It also helps to picture bringing someone before the Lord and talking to the Lord about him. Even though you do not know what to say, your spirit keeps praying. Many times you can be so stirred, but you cannot know the heart of the individual. You could condemn him for something, yet in his heart is a brokenness and he wants God. Do not condemn him; hold him up to the Lord and lift him up.
Prayer is more effective if you spend a day or two repenting for yourself. Then intercede for about ten minutes and you will get your prayers answered!