A Prayer For The Gift Of Intercessory Prayer

 

 

Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this week we come to You pleading for the gift of intercessory prayer.  As the deer pants after the water brook, so our hearts pant after the power of intercessory prayer.  Heavenly Father, we know that nothing puts us in better company than when we intercede for others.  In Your Word You remind us often that Christ is our heavenly intercessor. Your Word also teaches us that, “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”  O Lord, could it truly be said that we are the third side of the triangle of holy intercession?

 

We truly long to see Your name glorified as the result of the intercessory prayers of Your people.  We long to make supplication for the needs of the world.  We rejoice when broken bodies respond to the prayers of intercession.  We praise You when broken hearts are mended; when discouraged souls are consoled; and when the wayward return to You in answer to intercessory prayer.  Mighty God, in our generation we have seen walls come down,  Communism destroyed and wars averted through intercessory prayer.

 

Father, we believe that intercessory prayer is a very specific type of prayer and thus we refer to it as a gift.   It is not magical nor is it mechanical.   It is not something we do with the lips while our lives are out of cynic with Your Word.  James reminds us that, “The effective prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  It was written of Daniel, “and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.”  The Apostle Paul wrote: “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with understanding.”  Though all believers must be people of prayer, James reminds us that in the early church there were those who were to be sought out with the power of intercession.  It was the elders of the church.  He wrote, “Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him.”  Certainly we are not to interpret this to mean that only the elders have the gift of intercessory prayer but rather to be reminded that the gift of intercessory prayer is given only to those who have a deep passion, an expectant spirit and a extraordinary faith that sets them apart  in the body of believers.

 

Heavenly Father, may we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly, so compassionately, so fervently that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit may be satisfied with us as joint intercessors with them.  

 

In the powerful name of Jesus we make this prayer.    Amen