How can we intercede to hear from God?
Discussion topic for September 24, 2010.
Intercessory prayer is where the Holy Spirit has the intercessor praying God’s will into a situation so God is released to do here on this earth what He wants to do. We will practice intercessory prayer as a team, listening to the Holy Spirit and hearing from the Lord to guide our prayer.
Principles for Effective Intercession[1]
- Praise God for who He is. God’s power is especially released through worshipful song.
- Make sure your heart is clean before God by giving the Holy Spirit time to convict should you have any unconfessed sin.
- Acknowledge that you can’t really pray effectively without the Holy Spirit’s enabling.
- Deal aggressively with the enemy. Come against him in the all-powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God.
- Die to your own imaginations, desires and burdens for what you feel you should pray.
- Praise God now in faith for the remarkable prayer time you’re going to have.
- Wait before God in silent expectancy, listening for His direction.
- In obedience and faith, take action on what God brings to your mind, believing.
- Have your Bible with you should God want to give you direction or confirmation through His Word.
- When God ceases to bring things to your mind for which to pray, finish by praising and thanking Him for what He has done, reminding yourself that “…from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
[1] Joy Dawson, Intercession, Thrilling and Fulfilling, YWAM Publishing, 1997.
This from the sweet sister for whom we interceded this morning:
“Steadfast Partners,
New news=good news. The masses on my liver are fatty infiltrations! Yay! No mets, no tumors, no change in the cancer picture.
I had an MRI today to decide whether the masses were fat or mets. It came back identifying them as fat.
The plan changed from the liver biopsy to the MRI yesterday after my doctor consulted other docs. He called me tonight at 8:20 to relay the news.
From here, I see the doc in 3 months and have another CT scan then–surveillance continues. Also, I consider some dietary changes that would help prevent more liver issues and perhaps cancer–pass thatraw rutabaga, would ya’?
Thank you for your prayers, your interest, your outreach to us and to our kids.
Many blessings this weekend,
Mary”