THE PRAYER OF INTERCESSION;
“But if they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts…”(Jeremiah 27:18).
There is an intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit, which He carries out through the believer but there is also the intercessory ministry of the believer, and the two are quite different. The Holy Spirit does carry out His intercessory ministry through us. God may tell you to pray for someone or minister to someone by the leading of His Spirit. You may just be praying about some other things and suddenly the Spirit of God begins to work within you and you find yourself interceding for an individual you never planned to pray for. However, you don’t always have to wait for that prompting before you pray for others.
Our intercessory ministry as believers requires us to pray for others, without the Holy Spirit necessarily inspiring or prompting us at that moment to pray! It’s something you do consciously. When you intercede for others this way and in accordance with the Word, it will be heard by God in just the same way as though the Holy Spirit inspired the words you spoke and carried out that particular ministry through you.
There’re certain rules guiding intercessory prayer which you must take into cognizance. First is, you must know you’re not interceding for yourself. The prayer of intercession is always on behalf of someone else.
Secondly, you’ll have to persistent about whatever it is you’re interceding for. This is because you’re trying to prevail on someone else to align with God’s will. In the prayer of intercession, you’re concentrating the influence of God’s power toward others for their good, and that requires some persistence in prayer. Not only must you be persistent, you must also continue in prayer for as long as it takes for it to work. In the prayer of intercession, you don’t stop praying until you get that note of victory in your spirit and are certain that you have what you asked for.
Further Study:
Exodus 32:11-14