Here are Corrie's notes from her powerful message on prayer this month.
Interceding for Others
Interceding for Others
OPEN
Welcome, we are glad that you here with us today.
Four years ago, this past week I was getting ready to deliver our twin girls. Wow time flies! I was 38 weeks at the time of delivery, which is fantastic for twins. Both girls were a healthy weight and everything seemed to look fine on my ultrasounds. Things were going well during labor and my delivery seemed to go as planned. Ellie was born first and they laid her on my chest. Within minutes she was pulled off my chest and the nurses started rushing around the room. I was told to focus on delivering baby “B” and I was assured that the nurses had everything under control with baby “A”, 11 mins and 45 seconds later I had Emberly, “Pippa” as we call her. I was then told while delivering Pippa, Ellie was having breathing issues and not transitioning like she should. Adam and I were told (after everything seemed to calm down) that the babies were going to be taken to the nursery for further monitoring and that they would be in our room shortly. At about 5am we found out that Pip would be joining us, but not Ellie. We were told that she had been moved to the NICU unit in critical care. That little stinker didn’t want to breath. As a mom who had delivered 4 healthy babies before this it was new territory. It killed me to see my baby laying there with wires on a machine helping her breath. I cried a lot that first night. The next day I got a text from my sister who went through a very similar situation with her twins. She assured me that she understood what I was going through and then asked me this question, “Have you prayed?” Ouch! Here I was sitting feeling sorry for myself because things didn’t go like I thought they should and I didn’t have a magical ending after such an easy pregnancy.
So, that is what I did and that is what Adam did. We started to pray! We committed to praying for the babies and families in the NICU every time we walked through those doors. And because we did this, we saw the Father start to break in not only in Ellie’s healing, but in the healing of the other babies around Ellie. On one specific day, I was in the NICU, and the baby/family across from us got some very bad news while I was sitting there, in fact the infant started to code while the doctor was talking. So, I began to pray right there, under my breath, and as I began to pray the little girl’s signs started to change. After things calmed down I asked if I could pray with the parents and they said yes. The next day when I went in, the little girl had been moved from the incubator to a warming bed! This was huge!!!
As a church, we are learning that we are a People of Prayer. Last week Di kicked off our new series, “People of Prayer”, with an impactful message about how the Father wants us to “ask” and that just like in any relationship we grow through conversation with the Holy Spirit.
So, today we want to talk about what it looks like to prayer for others. In the church world, we call this “intercession”, but to put it in practical terms it is simply a way to put others and their needs in the forefront of our prayers. Praying for someone else or situations is found from Genesis to Revelation in our Scriptures/Bible.
However, most of us struggle with the issues of how, what and when to pray for someone else’s needs and not our own. While we should know how to pray for others, we quickly find ourselves in a struggle to know what to say and how to pray effectively. Or we we just make excuses of why we shouldn’t pray...Like someone else can do it or maybe we think that the person doesn’t need anyone else to pray for them.
Today, we will look at some aspects of intercessory prayer, but let’s call it practical prayer (a simple way to put others and their needs in the forefront of our prayers) that will help you see how basic your prayers can be, while still making a huge impact in the Kingdom.
Pray…
The Christian life revolves around prayer (or at least we should want it to). We want to see the Father move in our lives, the lives of our family and friends. We want to Him to change things, circumstances and impossibilities within our sphere of influence.
But, when we don’t see things go the way we think they should or if something doesn’t happen right away we begin to wonder if our prayers are being heard. So how do we keep moving forward? How do we continue to pray for others and stay positive while sometimes the things around us seem to be in turmoil?
Bible:
I want to take a moment and look at King Hezekiah’s story in 2 Kings 18 and 19. Hezekiah was King of Judah and he was known to have had a personal growing relationship with God. He also developed a powerful prayer life throughout his reign… while still making a lot of mistakes. I think he is a perfect example of how even in difficult circumstances, he put his people first and prayed for his country’s future. He knew that complete dependence on God would have amazing results.
OK….let’s you some back story about the conflict that was happening in chapters 18 & 19...King Sennacherib was the king that deported Israel’s people into captivity. So, to keep the Assyrians from attacking the southern kingdom again and again, they paid a tribute annually. Four years after Sennacherib became king, Hezekiah stopped paying his money, in hopes that Assyria would forget about him. When the King and his army retaliated, Hezekiah realized his mistake and paid his money. But Sennacherib attacked anyways and sent his commander in chief, his field commander and his personal representative and a huge army to confront Hezekiah. Let’s pick up the story in 2 Kings 18:28-36…
2 Kings 18:28-36 The Message (MSG)
28-32 Then he stepped forward and spoke in Hebrew loud enough for everyone to hear, “Listen carefully to the words of The Great King, the king of Assyria: Don’t let Hezekiah fool you; he can’t save you. And don’t let Hezekiah give you that line about trusting in God, telling you, ‘God will save us—this city will never be abandoned to the king of Assyria.’ Don’t listen to Hezekiah—he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Listen to the king of Assyria—deal with me and live the good life; I’ll guarantee everyone your own plot of ground—a garden and a well! I’ll take you to a land sweeter by far than this one, a land of grain and wine, bread and vineyards, olive orchards and honey. You only live once—so live, really live!
32-35 “No. Don’t listen to Hezekiah. Don’t listen to his lies, telling you ‘God will save us.’ Has there ever been a god anywhere who delivered anyone from the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Ham/ath and Ar/pad? Where are the gods of Seph/ar/vaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And Samaria—did their gods save them? Can you name a god who saved anyone anywhere from me, the king of Assyria? So what makes you think that God can save Jerusalem from me?
36 The people were silent. No one spoke a word for the king had ordered, “Don’t anyone say a word—not one word!”
As a church, we are learning that we are a People of Prayer. Last week Di kicked off our new series, “People of Prayer”, with an impactful message about how the Father wants us to “ask” and that just like in any relationship we grow through conversation with the Holy Spirit.
So, today we want to talk about what it looks like to prayer for others. In the church world, we call this “intercession”, but to put it in practical terms it is simply a way to put others and their needs in the forefront of our prayers. Praying for someone else or situations is found from Genesis to Revelation in our Scriptures/Bible.
However, most of us struggle with the issues of how, what and when to pray for someone else’s needs and not our own. While we should know how to pray for others, we quickly find ourselves in a struggle to know what to say and how to pray effectively. Or we we just make excuses of why we shouldn’t pray...Like someone else can do it or maybe we think that the person doesn’t need anyone else to pray for them.
Today, we will look at some aspects of intercessory prayer, but let’s call it practical prayer (a simple way to put others and their needs in the forefront of our prayers) that will help you see how basic your prayers can be, while still making a huge impact in the Kingdom.
Pray…
The Christian life revolves around prayer (or at least we should want it to). We want to see the Father move in our lives, the lives of our family and friends. We want to Him to change things, circumstances and impossibilities within our sphere of influence.
But, when we don’t see things go the way we think they should or if something doesn’t happen right away we begin to wonder if our prayers are being heard. So how do we keep moving forward? How do we continue to pray for others and stay positive while sometimes the things around us seem to be in turmoil?
Bible:
I want to take a moment and look at King Hezekiah’s story in 2 Kings 18 and 19. Hezekiah was King of Judah and he was known to have had a personal growing relationship with God. He also developed a powerful prayer life throughout his reign… while still making a lot of mistakes. I think he is a perfect example of how even in difficult circumstances, he put his people first and prayed for his country’s future. He knew that complete dependence on God would have amazing results.
OK….let’s you some back story about the conflict that was happening in chapters 18 & 19...King Sennacherib was the king that deported Israel’s people into captivity. So, to keep the Assyrians from attacking the southern kingdom again and again, they paid a tribute annually. Four years after Sennacherib became king, Hezekiah stopped paying his money, in hopes that Assyria would forget about him. When the King and his army retaliated, Hezekiah realized his mistake and paid his money. But Sennacherib attacked anyways and sent his commander in chief, his field commander and his personal representative and a huge army to confront Hezekiah. Let’s pick up the story in 2 Kings 18:28-36…
2 Kings 18:28-36 The Message (MSG)
28-32 Then he stepped forward and spoke in Hebrew loud enough for everyone to hear, “Listen carefully to the words of The Great King, the king of Assyria: Don’t let Hezekiah fool you; he can’t save you. And don’t let Hezekiah give you that line about trusting in God, telling you, ‘God will save us—this city will never be abandoned to the king of Assyria.’ Don’t listen to Hezekiah—he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Listen to the king of Assyria—deal with me and live the good life; I’ll guarantee everyone your own plot of ground—a garden and a well! I’ll take you to a land sweeter by far than this one, a land of grain and wine, bread and vineyards, olive orchards and honey. You only live once—so live, really live!
32-35 “No. Don’t listen to Hezekiah. Don’t listen to his lies, telling you ‘God will save us.’ Has there ever been a god anywhere who delivered anyone from the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Ham/ath and Ar/pad? Where are the gods of Seph/ar/vaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And Samaria—did their gods save them? Can you name a god who saved anyone anywhere from me, the king of Assyria? So what makes you think that God can save Jerusalem from me?
36 The people were silent. No one spoke a word for the king had ordered, “Don’t anyone say a word—not one word!”
The conflict began as words – Just like in our own lives when we face difficulties the devil likes to throw words at us to convince us that “God won’t save us, God doesn’t care about us, God won’t help us or those we are praying for”, just so we will stop praying.
The Father wants good things for you, so don’t stop praying just because you don’t see break through the first time. Don’t choose to listen to the father of lies, choose to listen to the Father!
Hezekiah chose to not listen to the lies and the words of the Assyrians and he did what we all should do...He prayed for his people in chapter 19 vs. 1
2 Kings 19:1 New Living Translation (NLT) -
19 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord.
In a tough situation, our job is to pray – Hezekiah’s first response was prayer. Our first response in any crisis should be prayer…BUT we shouldn’t wait until things are hopeless to start praying. We should already be in a growing conversation with the Father, so that our problems can be His biggest opportunity.
If we are in a growing conversation with the Father about the other people in our lives, the Holy Spirit tends to let us know how to pray before they even ask. Example: I usually tend to know what is going on with my kids lives before they do. Why? because I am lifting them up before the Father everyday. That doesn’t mean I can see into the future, it just means that the HS partners with me on how to pray so they can see breakthrough in their lives.
In verses 2-4 Hezekiah sends a message with some of his officials to the Prophet Isaiah about the current situation…listen to how Isaiah responded in verses 5-7:
2 Kings 19:5-7 New Living Translation (NLT)
5 After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah, 6 the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. 7 Listen! I myself will move against him,[a] and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’
5 After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah, 6 the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. 7 Listen! I myself will move against him,[a] and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’
God LOVES to answer the prayers of His people – You see Judah didn’t stand a chance against the Assyrian army. There were 2,000 of them and 185,000 Assyrians (rough estimate). But, when all our hope is exhausted the Father is pleased to deliver his people as they seek his face.
When we think we cannot do anything more...the Father steps in and says. “Watch me”. You see when we begin to get tired and we don’t know what else to ask for the HS comes and prays for us.
When we think we cannot do anything more...the Father steps in and says. “Watch me”. You see when we begin to get tired and we don’t know what else to ask for the HS comes and prays for us.
Romans 8:26 New Living Translation (NLT)
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
But the conflict of words continued in chapter 19 vs. 14-19 and Sennacherib continued to insult the God of Judah. He didn’t care and he didn’t learn the first time God answered Hezekiah’s prayer. So he sent a letter back to Hezekiah and when he read it, Hezekiah went back to the temple to pray...AGAIN. He took the letter that Sennacherib wrote and laid it before the Lord. Hezekiah called on the Lord to move and he prayed in faith that something would happen.
Sometimes you MUST keep praying to see all the breakthrough – Prayer changes everything! Hezekiah kept praying for his people and his country. He went back and prayed again… because he knew that total dependence on God could change any situation. His pursuit of God for his people provides us great model on how we should not be afraid to approach our Father with anything.
Application:
Ok, so how do we take what King Hezekiah did and do it ourselves? How do we pray for other people and put their needs in the forefront of our minds? You may be saying to yourselves right now, I am not a king, I do not have a prophet to help me hear like Hezekiah did, I am not capable or in a place to pray for others...I have enough problems of my own.
Let me show you how by using the old tool we used in English class:
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Who:
Anyone can intercede (or pray practical prayers) – It is not the place of a few, it is a place for everyone. We are called to be a people who pray for others. Who is the Father asking you to pray for right now? Is there someone in your life that you feel God has placed them in front of you for a reason?
But the conflict of words continued in chapter 19 vs. 14-19 and Sennacherib continued to insult the God of Judah. He didn’t care and he didn’t learn the first time God answered Hezekiah’s prayer. So he sent a letter back to Hezekiah and when he read it, Hezekiah went back to the temple to pray...AGAIN. He took the letter that Sennacherib wrote and laid it before the Lord. Hezekiah called on the Lord to move and he prayed in faith that something would happen.
Sometimes you MUST keep praying to see all the breakthrough – Prayer changes everything! Hezekiah kept praying for his people and his country. He went back and prayed again… because he knew that total dependence on God could change any situation. His pursuit of God for his people provides us great model on how we should not be afraid to approach our Father with anything.
Application:
Ok, so how do we take what King Hezekiah did and do it ourselves? How do we pray for other people and put their needs in the forefront of our minds? You may be saying to yourselves right now, I am not a king, I do not have a prophet to help me hear like Hezekiah did, I am not capable or in a place to pray for others...I have enough problems of my own.
Let me show you how by using the old tool we used in English class:
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Who:
Anyone can intercede (or pray practical prayers) – It is not the place of a few, it is a place for everyone. We are called to be a people who pray for others. Who is the Father asking you to pray for right now? Is there someone in your life that you feel God has placed them in front of you for a reason?
People put expectations on themselves- We make excuses that say only those that have a special standing with the Father can intercede on the behalf of others. Or we are too discouraged because we have yet to see our own prayers answered. We think how can I pray for them, if I can’t even see answered prayers. And sometimes we just don’t want to…
1 Timothy 2:1 New Living Translation (NLT)
2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
What:
Intercession is just talking to the Father on the behalf of others. It is brining another person’s need and asking for help. Practical Prayer! Sometimes people need you to go to the Father on their behalf because they don’t know where to start and they need someone to approach the throne room for them. It’s “all about asking” and we can “ask” for them.
2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
What:
Intercession is just talking to the Father on the behalf of others. It is brining another person’s need and asking for help. Practical Prayer! Sometimes people need you to go to the Father on their behalf because they don’t know where to start and they need someone to approach the throne room for them. It’s “all about asking” and we can “ask” for them.
Interceding for someone can just mean that you pray a simple pray of blessing over them or you just ask the Father to Help! It can also mean that you pray for a specific need such as a healing in their body, or for marital issues, or their career. You can just simply pray promises over their lives…whatever or however you do it, you are inviting the Kingdom of Heaven to invade their lives.
Start asking the Father what your areas of influence are and begin to pray for people. We have been given authority to do this. Example: Virgil praying for businesses in BloNo today.
Some people do have the gift of intercession and can see people’s needs before they see them because they are pursuing the Father’s heart on their behalf. Adam and I have a team of people that pray for us on a weekly basis. They are lifting our marriage, our family, our ministry and our church up. We don’t need to know what they praying, but we KNOW that they are praying.
I am so thankful for these men and women and the time they take to lift our family up in prayer. In fact, this week I was tapped out on praying for a situation and I reached out to one of our intercessors. She took the torch from me and began to partner with me...and you know what I began to see more breakthrough in the situation.
When:
Ephesians 6:18 New Living Translation (NLT)
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
How does this work in everyday life? Whenever you see a situation, you can pray for someone immediately by asking this very simple question. “Can I pray for you right now?” Sometimes people don’t want you to pray right then, but you can remember their need and pray for them throughout the week.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to do just this. A friend shot me a text message asking for prayer. So that is what I did, right there over a text message. You see we don’t have to make it complex. It can be as simple as a text message between friends.
Have you ever had a fleeting thought or a person that you just can’t get off your mind? This is usually a prompting from the Holy Spirit that they need something. Can I challenge you that when this happens during the week, you just stop and pray? It doesn’t have to be a long complex prayer. And then not only pray, but follow up? Not only does this build up the body, but it allows the Kingdom of heaven to break in on someone’s lives that might just need a desperate touch in that moment.
*We would love to invite you to start praying for people in your sphere of influence every day. Our leadership team has been using this app called 8to15. (SHOW APP GRAPHIC) You can set the reminder to a time of day that you know you can take 5 mins to pray over those people on your list. Since, I have committed to this I have had impactful conversations with some of the people on my list while seeing some others come to church and others asking questions about faith. My kids are even doing it! If you don’t want to do it by yourself, do it as a family. It is awesome to see your kids begin to pray for their friends and their families.
Pray the Lord’s prayer. Di walked us through what this looked like last week. It is a great place to start when you are just starting.
Why:
Back to my story about the NICU. During our pain watching Ellie go through what she was going through, we chose to see the needs of the other families in the NICU. Adam and I chose to walk in there every day and pray in the spirit over every baby in that room. We also went to the extent and prayed that any child who would lay in the same incubator/crib after Ellie, their little body would be healed. It would have been easy to just focus on what was going on with her, but because we believed that the Kingdom could break we saw families lives changed forever.
We pray and intercede for others because we want to see life change.
We pray and intercede for others because we don’t give up on asking (Luke 11:9-10)
Luke 11:9-10 New Living Translation (NLT)
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
When:
Ephesians 6:18 New Living Translation (NLT)
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
How does this work in everyday life? Whenever you see a situation, you can pray for someone immediately by asking this very simple question. “Can I pray for you right now?” Sometimes people don’t want you to pray right then, but you can remember their need and pray for them throughout the week.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to do just this. A friend shot me a text message asking for prayer. So that is what I did, right there over a text message. You see we don’t have to make it complex. It can be as simple as a text message between friends.
Have you ever had a fleeting thought or a person that you just can’t get off your mind? This is usually a prompting from the Holy Spirit that they need something. Can I challenge you that when this happens during the week, you just stop and pray? It doesn’t have to be a long complex prayer. And then not only pray, but follow up? Not only does this build up the body, but it allows the Kingdom of heaven to break in on someone’s lives that might just need a desperate touch in that moment.
*We would love to invite you to start praying for people in your sphere of influence every day. Our leadership team has been using this app called 8to15. (SHOW APP GRAPHIC) You can set the reminder to a time of day that you know you can take 5 mins to pray over those people on your list. Since, I have committed to this I have had impactful conversations with some of the people on my list while seeing some others come to church and others asking questions about faith. My kids are even doing it! If you don’t want to do it by yourself, do it as a family. It is awesome to see your kids begin to pray for their friends and their families.
Pray the Lord’s prayer. Di walked us through what this looked like last week. It is a great place to start when you are just starting.
Why:
Back to my story about the NICU. During our pain watching Ellie go through what she was going through, we chose to see the needs of the other families in the NICU. Adam and I chose to walk in there every day and pray in the spirit over every baby in that room. We also went to the extent and prayed that any child who would lay in the same incubator/crib after Ellie, their little body would be healed. It would have been easy to just focus on what was going on with her, but because we believed that the Kingdom could break we saw families lives changed forever.
We pray and intercede for others because we want to see life change.
We pray and intercede for others because we don’t give up on asking (Luke 11:9-10)
Luke 11:9-10 New Living Translation (NLT)
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
1. Keep on asking – you will receive it
2. Keep on seeking – you will find it
3. Keep on knocking – the door will be opened
4. Don’t give up!
We pray and intercede for others because our prayers make a difference! Remember King Hezekiah? Prayer changes the atmosphere and perspective around you!
2. Keep on seeking – you will find it
3. Keep on knocking – the door will be opened
4. Don’t give up!
We pray and intercede for others because our prayers make a difference! Remember King Hezekiah? Prayer changes the atmosphere and perspective around you!
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