Lesson 4 - Prayer and Intercession

 

A teaching by Ruth Mahoney Swaim

The subject of Intercession in prayer is so vast that it seems presumptuous to try to cover it in one lesson. So I will give you simply a quick dose and outline. Suffice it to say that prayer is the most vital link to God and intercessory prayer is the strongest connection to His heart.

E. M. Bounds says “He who does not pray, robs himself of God’s help and places God where He cannot help man.”

Note: This teaching is about intercession. Intercession is seeking God. In a later

teaching we will address warfare. Warfare is obeying God. You go into warfare under orders of the Commander.

What is Intercession?

Intercession has been described as “Prayer on behalf of others, under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, knowing there will be results.”

Intercession may also apply to you personally when God is placing a particular burden on you for a direction or situation in your own life in which He wants to accomplish something.

The writer of Hebrews aptly describes the intercessory praying of Jesus in Hebrews 5:7:
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death….;”

And in Romans 8:26:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself (or Himself) maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Purpose of Intercession

God never puts anything on us or asks us to do something that doesn’t have a reason or purpose. Intercession in prayer has a purpose. Let’s explore some of the main purposes of intercessory prayer:

Salvation

To step into a situation with divine purpose in view. We intercede for a person, praying for their salvation or deliverance from bondage or for their healing.


“Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray;…is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him… The effectual fervent prayer (or intercessory prayer) of a righteous man availeth much (or is extremely effective and will bring results)”. James 5:13, 14 16

This can apply to praying for a nation. In the 59th chapter of Isaiah we see the Lord lamenting the iniquities of his beloved people. They have strayed far from Him, making themselves vulnerable to their enemies and he looks for someone to intercede (pray fervently and in truth) for them and finds none.

“Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him for there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor…..”
Isaiah 59:15,16

Does this sound familiar? Our nation, even now, is in this condition. There is no

righteous judgment in the land. We have become a prey to the enemy, he is trying to take not only us, but our nation down. We need intercessors to intercede for our nation, to save our nation.

“If my people which are called by my name, shall humble

themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
IIChronicles 7:14

He has given us the power of reconciliation, to intercede for the nations.

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”  II Corinthians 5:18

Direction

A second example is direction in our lives. A place where two roads meet and cross each other - a crossroads. A place of decision. To seek direction in your circumstance or someone else’s life. Your intercession might determine the outcome of someone at a crossroads in their life. Or you may be praying for someone who has a call of God on their life and needs the power to fulfill it. Your intercession for them can give them ‘staying power’ to continue on.

“And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail..’” Luke 22:31

Jesus, knowing He Himself had a hard road to travel, spent time in intercessory prayer for strength and direction from the Father, so that he did what the Father did and said what the Father said. 

“..Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does and He will show Him greater works that these that you may marvel.” John 5:19

Now where did Jesus learn to hear and see the Father? During the countless hours he spent in intercessory prayer, seeking the face of God. Notice that I said he sought the face of God. Some people only seek the hand of God, wanting his works, his power but not His character and holiness. Jesus only wanted the Fathers will. When you seek Him and Him only, then the works will automatically follow.

Moses is a wonderful example of someone who only wanted God. He never wanted fame or responsibility for that huge company of people. He wasn’t interested in glorified leadership, in sitting in the place of honor. So what was the reward of this humble servant?

“He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.”
Psalms 103:7

Moses was privileged to get to really know God in intimacy. He understood how God worked, understood His thoughts and His ways.

Birthing

The third purpose of intercessory prayer is to birth a vision, pray through to the
fulfillment of a prophesy or a calling.

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
Galatians 4:19

Paul spent much time in travail over the churches he was establishing in various nations. The works of God must be birthed and someone must spend time in the spirit bringing them forth.

You will remember in I Kings 17, because of the idol worship and evil reign of King Ahab, Elijah had prophesied that for some years there would be no rain in the land. Then in I Kings 18:1 the Lord told him that He would now send rain upon the earth. So Elijah prophesied to King Ahab that God was going to send rain.

After Elijah had proved the power of God before all the children of Israel and showed the failure of the false prophets, he went up to the top of Mt. Carmel and he began to intercede for rain. 

“And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.” I Kings 18:42

Elijah went into the birthing position and interceded on behalf of the nation for rain.Even though God had said it and Elijah had prophesied it, that prophesy still had to be birthed through intercession.

In this same way, you may have words of prophesy* spoken over you or a vision placed in your heart from God. That prophesy or vision most likely will need to be prayed into fruition, or birthed through intercessory prayer.

Practical Application

 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself (Himself) maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (expressions hard to be understood). And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26,27

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

Ephesians 6:18

“…building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” Jude 20

The above verses show us four aspects of Intercession:

1. Praying God’s Prayers: The Spirit makes intercession thru/for us, causing us to pray what the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray.

2. Expressing God’s Feelings: We pray with groanings which we do not understand, causing us to feel what God is feeling, His compassion, His desire.

3. Uttering God’s Words (or vocabulary): We cannot in our own selves express in words what is going on, we can’t find human expression in this. It is only the words or utterances of the Holy Spirit

4. Praying God’s Will (or thoughts): We are then praying according to the will (mind) of God, expressing His very thoughts in prayer.

Personal Testimony

Let me give you an example in an experience I had early in my adult life.

We were attending the very first World MAP (World Missionary Assistance Plan) camp in the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California. My husband, John, had not been saved too long (this was in 1966) and we were attending a Baptist church. This was our first experience together attending a real Charismatic, Spirit-led type of conference.

John, having been raised in a very formal Methodist church, had almost no experience in a setting of this type and the worship and free expression of this worship were totally alien to him. I, being raised in a Pentecostal home, was accustomed to it and was not shocked at the lifting of the hands, the outward expressions of worship and adoration and the singing in the Spirit of the congregation.

I was asked to help out with the music, so I was usually sitting at the keyboard up front near the platform and had good visibility of what was going on in the audience.

I noticed in the first two or three services that each time the congregation began to worship, John would get very angry and exit the premises. I later found out that his anger stemmed from the people raising their hands in worship. Each time they would start to worship and raise their hands, the Lord would speak to him and ask him to raise his hands, which of course is the universal sign of surrender. John, not feeling this was really necessary, would refuse, get angry and walk out.

This was a conference that was a week long, so at this rate, he was going to be doing a lot of walking. Now keep in mind this was early in his Christian walk and he had not been saved very long.

Suddenly, in the third service, a deep spirit of intercession came upon me and I began to weep profusely and groan deeply. When I would pray I could only pray in my heavenly language (tongues). This condition went on all week.

I could hardly sit at the instrument to play because the groanings were so hard and so deep. It felt very close to labor pains in giving birth. There was no letup. I would groan and weep all night, getting little sleep and then I would be sobbing and weeping all during the services.

It was a real challenge to try to hide this from people, and especially from John. I did not know what was happening and I could not seem to get control. It simply didn’t abate.

The only thing I knew was that it was for John but I did not know why. I knew he was not liking the apparent “fanaticism” and was not agreeing with what was going on but that did not seem to me to be cause for such deep feelings and burdens on my part.

In hindsight, I know what it was, but at the time I was at a loss as to what was happening. The last night of the conference we were called up front and a group of ministers began to pray and prophesy over us. The prophetic messages to us were that the Lord had called us to ministry, that he was doing a work in us to prepare us for a future time when He would use us in the Kingdom of God. One of the ministers also turned aside and said “The Lord shows me that Ruth has been carrying a tremendously heavy burden all week.”

This groaning and weeping was indeed ‘birthing’ a ministry, especially in John, for a future time. Just as you have deep groanings and birthpangs when you give natural birth, this was happening to me in the Spirit. Now since that time I have had many occasions to travail and intercede for someone but I have never experienced since then such a sustained and prolonged period of intercession.

It was a tremendous lesson to me of the importance and practical application of the birthing of a vision or calling through intercession.

I don’t presume to compare it to Christ’s travail in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I do believe I experienced a tiny touch of what He was feeling in the Garden as He was beginning to give birth to His Church.

Conclusion

You may have needs in your own life or see needs in others that need prayer. I want to encourage you to launch into spiritual prayer.

Call on the Lord with fervent and strong desire and allow Him take you into intercessory prayer. Then, watch the exciting work He begins in both you and those for whom you

intercede in bringing to fruition the outworking of the burden on your heart.

This is especially true for your children and grand children. God may have given you precious promises for them. Now, intercede for them and begin to watch the process.

God is faithful and He will bring into being those things He has promised.

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Romans 4:20

*Note on personal prophecy: A prophetic word must be received, allowed to mature, then birthed.

Personal prophecy is not given for exhilaration. It is given for confirmation, strength and warning.

If you are frustrated, restless, wondering what the will of God is you are probably in it! Do what is before you. Seek His communion. He will open or shut the right door. If you want His leading, you can’t miss it. If you are fighting your circumstances, you are probably fighting God. He can place you in it and He can remove you from it.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I enter your presence with thanksgiving and praise. Thank you that I have a part in the work of your Kingdom and that you have also given me the ministry of reconciliation. I now enter into prayer and intercede for ________________.

Holy Spirit pray through me so that I will pray according to the will of God and give me the strength to pray until you lift this burden from my heart. Thank you for your faithfulness to me.

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