Not all prayers are the same. For the more spiritually immature Christian, the prayer is usually for selfish reasons. He says to God, “Give me, give me, give me.” God is not our butler or our maid. There are radical preachers that teach that God is obligated to do we want. Of course, that is foolish! If anything, we are obligated to God by the teachings of the Scripture and by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
It’s important that we see intercessory prayer as different than how we pray and what we pray. To make intercession in behalf of others, we must set aside our own interests. We must put the well-being of the other person ahead of our own selves. This means that we incorporate empathy into our lives. We must pray as the other person would pray. We must assume the other person’s burden asking God to reveal himself in that person’s life.
As a child of God, we step forward taking the blunt of the pain that the other person has experienced. When we are offering intercessory prayers, we are divesting ourselves of our needs, wants, and wishes. An intercessory prayer is based on the fact that I’m more concerned about the other person than myself. To pray as an intercessor, our efforts are contrasted with supplications or giving of thanks. To pray in this manner, we are emphasizing how natural it is to connect with God in behalf of someone else as Jesus did multiple times and especially on the cross. It is to display a familiarity with God as no unbeliever or even a weak Christian could do.
When we perform this significant spiritual highlight, we are drawing closer to God ourselves. We are an advocate for someone else as a lawyer would before the judge. We are experiencing preventative work that cannot be complicated by evil in our own lives. A great example of this was when Jesus said, “I have prayed for thee [Peter] that thy faith fails not.” (Luke 22:32) Thus, Jesus extended a compassionate concern toward the man who was in spiritual trouble. As such, we are reflecting back on the Old Testament priesthood in which intervention is made for the one in need.
This requires boldness on our part and determination in behalf of the other. To pray intercessory, is to declare a position in behalf of someone that perhaps could not even help himself spiritually. At some point in our lives, we will all need another person to pray as an intercessor with God in our behalf. We would not want that person to let us down. Therefore, we cannot let that person down. This is a spiritual and mutual admiration society as believers who have joined together in truth and faith. This is what it means when the Bible says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst.” Strong believers seeking God for others is a powerful weapon against the bothersome ways of this world.
Christian Writer 