What does the intercessor life look like?
This is a follow-up post to the most-read story on my blog over the last two years.
So, while we may know what an intercessor is, what does it look like to be one?
Intercessor life basics
People called to intercessory prayer are interested in the needs of others.
They’re attuned to tears, fear, grief, worry, and uncertainty.
They feel a passionate need to help.
Sometimes they feel overwhelmed by the needs they recognize.
But they know who can answer those needs, so they pray.
It not only affects the people being prayed for, but the intercessor, as well.
Oswald Chambers observed, “Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.”
The intercessor life includes a willingness to stop, even if the timing feels ridiculous, and pray for someone.
People in crisis often don’t remember that God can provide what they need in that situation.
An intercessor, in essence, puts out a hand to encourage them. S/he serves as God’s minister and can point them back to their Creator.
Intercessors often are changed, themselves, as a result:
You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God.
True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance.
My Utmost for His Highest
Intercessor life on the road
How do you react when you hear an ambulance or a fire truck?
Perhaps you get impatient even as you pull over to the side of the road?
Do you pray for the people involved?
I do.
I ask God to bless the people going through one of the worst days of their life as they’re hurried to the hospital.
Here in fire country, we always pray the fire engine and firefighters will get there on time.
Short, quick, done.
While playing tennis one day with my teenager, I noticed smoke not far away.
I kept looking at it as I volleyed the tennis ball, I finally called her to the net and pointed.
“It looks like a house on fire. Let’s pray.”
She put down her head, I prayed a quick prayer, and then we returned to the game.
Firefighters arrived in time, based on the smoke color.
Two days later, I learned the house– 2/3 burned–belonged to a Bible study friend.
Wow. God ministered to people I knew that day. When I wrote them a letter, they were blown away with gratitude.
The thought someone knew and prayed meant a great deal to them.
Time and the intercessor
As described above, intercessory prayer can be quick and immediate.
But it also can take a long time. Rees Howell’s Bible School of Wales prayed every night of WWII for the war efforts–often going from seven in the evening until midnight.
Part of the intercessor’s job is to listen and wait for the Holy Spirit to direct the prayers.
Even if the intercessor is not physically with the person for whom they are praying, the Holy Spirit can (and usually does) encourage continued prayer.
That may look like the intercessor can’t shake the person’s need or request–it keeps coming to mind.
I always see that as having been enlisted in God’s prayer army–and it’s a call to pray.
Intercessory prayer often involves praying at odd hours–immediately, but then maybe in the middle of the night, or even first thing in the morning.
If we are willing to pray on behalf of another person, time becomes less important. Asking God on behalf of someone else is the important part.
How is intercessor prayer work?
You need to pray.
It can be work–especially if you can’t sleep for concern about the prayer request.
Or, if you wake up all night long and the first thing your mind goes to is the prayer request.
Oswald Chambers wrote about intercessor prayer in My Utmost for His Highest on December 13:
Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.
My Utmost for His Highest
It often changes the person praying as well as the circumstances for the person being prayed for.
What’s the joy?
Joy comes from lots of places.
- Hearing a surprising answer to your prayer.
- Knowing God used you to encourage and console a person needing prayer.
- Being astonished at how God used your feeble request.
- Awe at the answer–even if you didn’t pray quite that way.
- Connecting with God on behalf of someone else.
Intercession differs for everyone. Chambers noted:
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “…but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26).
And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
My Utmost for His Highest November 7
Kingdom Work–always
God needs people to pray.
We need to pray for one another.
Interceding–praying–for the needs of all is important.
Tweetables
What does an intercessor’s life look like in practical terms? Click to Tweet
Work or joy? Praying for others in every day life. Click to Tweet
Intercessory prayer is amazing. I’ve been a receiver of answered prayer throughout my life. One particular situation was when I had continuous seizures the first four months of my life. The pediatrician told my mother that there was a high risk of my brain being damaged. When I studied nursing I had a similar patient. I asked my mother what my situation had been. In a letter, my mother described how the pastor of a certain church prayed for me as though I was his child. Years later, that church became my “spiritual home.”
I’m sorry to admit I have not always been as alert to pray for other people’s needs. This is a good reminder.
Thank you, Michelle
Praise God!
Found your page through ordering your book on the life of Biddy Chambers , I have the complete works of Oswald Chambers and actually visited Dunoon in Scotland several times before discovering Oswald Chambers ! Wow ! Glad to be here……😃