The Purpose and Power of Intercessory Prayer
How To Partner with God in Prayer to Bring Heaven to Earth
Four people sat across from me, facing me with smiles. I was at a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, about to receive prophetic ministry for the first time. One of the prophetic words I received there was that God had called me to be a Nazirite. However, the prophetic team did not explain to me what the word “Nazirite” meant—and I had never heard that word before—so I assumed that they had meant “Nazarene.” I had never heard the word Nazirite before. When I returned home, I did a quick internet search about Nazarenes, to try to understand the significance of the prophetic word. But since I am not from Nazareth or part of the Nazarene denomination, it made no sense to me. I figured they had made a mistake.
Shortly after that time, I was browsing our local Christian bookstore, and I saw a book called Elijah’s Revolution by Lou Engle and James Goll. I thumbed through it and a chapter title caught my attention: “For the Nazirites to Arise.” There was that word. Nazirite. Not Nazarene. This explained why the prophetic word did not make sense to me.
I immediately purchased the book and read through it quickly — first reading the chapter about Nazirites. I discovered that Nazirites are those throughout history who were uniquely consecrated to God for their lives (such as Samson or Samuel) or for a season of time. Nazirites lived a “fasted lifestyle” that abstained from certain pleasures, such as wine in order to be set apart for the Lord.
As I worked through the book, I felt the tangible presence of God multiple times. God was inviting me to pay attention. I had the sense in my heart that the things he was writing about were deeply connected to my own personal destiny. I wanted to learn more about Lou Engle and James Goll. They seemed to be some of the only folks talking about Nazirites, and I knew this was something God had called me to be.
I found a website for Lou Engle’s ministry, The Call. They had hosted a gathering on the National Mall in Washington DC in September 2000, where 400,000 people, mostly students, had gathered for a day of fasting, worship, repentance, and prayer for America. I began watching some grainy videos on their website. I heard Lou and other intercessors praying with a fire, desperation, zeal, anointing, and passion that I had never experienced before. It was startling and captivating. Who were these people? How did they learn to pray like this? As I watched, I began feeling God’s presence as goosebumps rose all over my skin and tears welled up in my eyes.
One of the videos I clicked on was of Lou’s ten-year-old son Jesse. He began praying for the Nazirites to arise across America. Immediately, my tears began to flow. I started shaking and weeping uncontrollably.
For minutes, I sat in my computer chair in my room, sobbing and trying to keep myself contained. At that moment, through a video on a website, I was receiving an impartation from the Holy Spirit. God was inviting me into a deep place of intercession and marking me as a “Nazirite” to Him. I later understood my experience to be what some call “travailing” in prayer.
This encounter with God was, in many ways, the beginning of my journey as an intercessor. The Holy Spirit deposited something in my heart, and I would never be the same. I had touched a new dimension of prayer that was scary, exciting, beautiful, and overwhelming all at the same time. Despite the intensity of this initial encounter, my subsequent journey into intercessory prayer has brought great joy to my relationship with the Lord. There is something deeply intimate and enjoyable about experiencing the longings of God’s heart and partnering with Him to see them manifested in the earth.
Every Christian Is An Intercessor
What exactly is intercession? And what does it mean to be an intercessor? Intercession, or intercessory prayer, is one kind of prayer that Jesus taught us to use in the Lord’s Prayer. It is encapsulated in Matthew 6:10 where Jesus says, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The apostle Paul also encourages intercession as one of the key types of Christian prayer available to us in I Timothy 2:1:
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.
Intercession is simply praying for others. The word “intercede” means to stand in the gap. When we participate in intercessory prayer, we are “standing in the gap” between the Father and the people for whom we are praying. This dimension of prayer is often neglected or misunderstood. Some parts of the body of Christ have relegated intercessory prayer to a small group (usually older women) that meets in the church basement on Tuesday nights. Other churches have abandoned all prayer meetings and prayer ministries completely. Some streams within the church even discourage intercession and mock leaders who are mobilizing intercessory prayer and fasting. The enemy hates intercessors and works hard to discourage and isolate them. The last thing Satan wants is for the church to come into its identity as a Bride who partners with the Holy Spirit in prayer to release God’s kingdom on earth.
Yet intercession is part of God’s calling for all believers. There is no spiritual gift of intercession. It’s not on the lists of gifts and ministries in the New Testament. I believe this is because every Christian should be giving themselves to ministry to the Lord through worship, prayer, and intercession. You are an intercessor. However, just as every Christian is a child of God but does not always live as though they are, many believers are not living as the intercessors that the Lord has designed them to be.
Jesus Is Our Intercessor
The apostle Paul, after instructing Timothy to pray intercessory prayers, reminded him that Christ is the Church’s intercessor or mediator. I Timothy 2:5-6 says:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Jesus is the One who “stands in the gap” between you and the Father. Your prayers and intercession are tied to the ongoing mediation of Christ. Jesus stands forever as the go-between for God and man, and you are invited to stand with Him as an intercessor. You pray to the Father “in Jesus’s name” because you cannot come to God otherwise. The answers to your prayers are dependent on the ongoing intercession of the God-man who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. This same reality is described in Hebrews 7:25:
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Jesus is the one who stood in the gap for sinful humanity on the cross, and He continues to intercede for us now. The gap that He fills is the separation between a holy God and sinful humanity. The only solution was for God Himself to come as a man, to bridge the gap and reconcile us to God through His death on the cross, resurrection from the grave, and ascension to heaven. Because of the intercession of Jesus, all who put their faith in Him can be restored back to a right relationship with the Father.
You have a Savior standing in your place, making a way for you to come to God. As Jesus stands in Heaven as our high priest and mediator, I wonder if He is also not whispering prayers of intercession to the Father for the people of the earth? I believe there are conversations, “prayers” if you will, within the Godhead.
Psalm 2 gives us a glimpse of the conversation happening between the Father and the Son regarding the nations of the earth. The psalmist wrote a prophetic song about what would happen — the nations rage against God, the Father exalts His Son as the King, and the nations either worship the Son or come under God’s judgment. In the middle of the unfolding drama, the Father speaks to the Son:
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage. Psalm 2:8
The Father tells the Son to ask for the nations, but not because there’s a conflict of desires. God wants what God wants. But inside the trinitarian God, the way things get accomplished is through conversations that involve requests. God has chosen to rule the universe through intercession, even within His own being. The eternal heavenly Intercessor, Jesus Christ, is asking the Father for the nations. Jesus is making intercession for you. He is talking to the Father about the fate of your soul. This is stunning!
This perspective is vital for you to enter your intercessory calling as a praying Christian. When you intercede, you are not just asking God for your desires to be released. You are not trying to talk the Father into doing something. You are joining with the intercession of Christ, in unity and partnership with God, to release His kingdom on the earth. This happens through conversation with God about what God wants to do. Mike Bickle says that intercession is when you “use God’s words to tell Him what He tells us to tell Him.”
Intimacy and Intercession
God has sovereignly chosen to execute His purposes on the earth through the means of intercession. He does not have to wait for you, but He chooses to involve you in His plans. The invitation to intercession is an invitation to partnership and intimacy with God. So while intercession is “praying for others,” it is much more than that. It is an intimate partnership with the Lord. It is joining Christ in being a vessel through which God can have his way in the earth.
The prophet Isaiah describes an end-times intercessory prayer movement that will flood the earth before Jesus returns.
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:5-7
The intercessors here are called watchmen on the wall, and they give God no rest until He establishes His kingdom on the earth. What is the cause of these cries? Intimacy with the Lord. Isaiah describes God relating to His people with covenant love and joy. Before the watchmen are set on the wall of intercession, God rejoices over them as a groom rejoices over a bride. The foundation of their intercessory prayer is a personal, joyful, loving relationship with the Lord.
The pattern is clear: intercession is awakened through intimacy with God. Just as God rejoiced over Israel in Isaiah 62, He rejoices over His people today. The church is the Bride of Christ, and Jesus the bridegroom is delighting in us. As we respond to His invitation and draw near to Him in love, He will awaken an intercessory cry in our hearts. As we stand in the gap with Jesus, our hearts will erupt with the very words He taught us to pray: “Let your kingdom come!“
This article is an excerpt from Matthew Lilley’s book Enjoying Prayer: Knowing God and Transforming the World. Paid subscribers may continue reading below the rest of the chapter below.
