Is intercessory prayer effective?

SCRIPTURE

Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

CONTEXT

We are in a season of prayer here at The Elm. Believers across the world should be interceding for members of the kingdom and world we seek to save from manifestations of living in sin. Today, we ask the question, “is intercessory prayer effective?”

The Bible teaches us that our Lord and Savior Jesus would pray before the sun rose. In keeping with this teaching, I started praying at 6:00 am every weekday morning myself. It was good, no it was great, seeking God in the morning. Initially, I set my alarm at 5:55 am. After a couple of weeks or less, my internal clock started getting me up without the alarm. To keep me motivated to rise in the morning I asked a few guys connected to my men’s ministry to join me in prayer on a conference call. We started with reading a Psalm followed by the Proverb of the Day. Then we went around the virtual circle of men I asked for praise reports and prayer requests. Word traveled around the east coast that men were praying and miracles were happening. Some mornings were filled with tears and other mornings were covered with laughter. Marriages were made whole, depression was destroyed, and illness was defeated. The oil that dripped from the beards of these men of God overflowed for over 10 years. For a long season when these men needed to strengthen their walk with God was someone to intercede for them . . . just like Jesus did for his disciples and for us.

There is no “one right way to pray.” We see several different types of prayer on display in the Bible. A strong prayer life incorporates many different types of prayer because we will face many different situations in our lives. Here are seven different types of prayer for you to learn and master to take your prayer life to the next level…

Prayer of Worship 

Prayer of Thanksgiving 

Prayer of Faith 

Corporate Prayer 

Prayer of Consecration 

Prayer of the Holy Spirit

Prayer of Intercession 

WHAT IS PRAYER?

Prayer is a complex activity. One person prays for healing from cancer while another prays for strength to live with cancer. One person prays according to God’s will, another person does not. One person prays an intercessory prayer, another person prays a prayer of confession. With so many different types of prayer and different motives for praying, it is understandable that the effects of prayer will be varied.

By praying people begin to exert some control over their circumstances. They are doing something significant about their situation. They are communicating with God, and through God, they believe that they can impact their circumstances and their lives. This increases people’s sense of mastery and lowers stress. It promotes a sense of self-efficacy, which is associated with many positive psychological effects such as decreased anxiety and depression and increased success on a variety of tasks. Prayer gives people a sense of strength for overcoming their problems.

Prayer serves important social functions. Being prayed for helps people to feel secure, valued, and part of a caring community. Patients often report wanting their physicians and counselors to pray with them and for them. Praying for others is a way that people bear one another’s burdens and form bonds of empathy and identification. Christians are often told to pray for those toward whom they are bitter because prayer develops positive feelings toward them and leads to forgiveness and caring. Prayer also allows people to have an important part in the lives of people thousands of miles away, whom they may never have met. Prayers for others enhance both self-efficacy and a sense of community.

Above all, it must be remembered that prayer is a form of praise and worship to God. God commanded it, delights in it, and reveals himself to those who do it. Through the communication of prayer, people are transformed into Christ’s likeness.

The Twelve Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs.

THREE (3) EXAMPLES OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

ABRAHAM INTERCEDED FOR HIS FAMILY

Abraham's Intercessory Prayer In Genesis 18, Abraham was trying to save the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He asked the Lord if they could find 50 righteous would he spare the city; how about 45? How about 40? And on and on he goes until he comes down to ten. And the Lord said; “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.” Abraham’s intercession saved the lives of his nephew, Lot, and his family!

James teaches us in James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

We all have family and friends connected to us that require us to get bold and go before God on their behalf. You know the ones … the spiritual ones … the ones that can't come to church because they spent early Sunday morning coming home from the hookah lounge. You know the ones that think they only need to pray when they need a loan, a tank of gas, or a date. lol

As Believers, as saved folks, we should use Abraham as an example of how we go to God for people we love with boldness, respect, and humility expecting God to hear our prayers. Moses started off praying to God to save his people if 50 people were righteous in the city. And before he finished his negotiating intercessory prayer he was down to “if there are only five righteous folks in the city.” Be the righteousness of God! our Family needs you to pray for them.

MOSES FOR INTERCEDED FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

Moses's Intercessory Prayer When Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people could not wait until he returned. They persuaded Aaron to build a golden calf that they could worship. Again, God was ready to destroy them; they had transgressed to be sure! Moses interceded on their behalf and asked God to spare their lives.

There was a television show on BET called Sunday’s Best. It aired for 10 seasons with gospel great Kirk Franklin as host. The singing was amazing. The talent was impressive. The show and the contestants literally displayed the best of Sunday gospel music. Our lives are much like a television show on Sunday. We present the best of us on Sunday by greeting people with a smile, giving out church hugs to people we can’t stand, and putting on our church clothes to show we can come out in public and not embarrass grandma and dem. Come Monday many of us have returned to the folks hanging out with Aaron at the base of the mountain chasing after the golden calf called “getting the bag” “getting paid” or “getting mine.” We need a Moses to step up and bow before God and intercede for us. Where are the leaders? Where are those courageous and caring enough about us to go before God and say spare their lives for they know not what they are doing?

JESUS INTERCEDED FOR ALL OF US

And, of course, He did. Jesus's Intercessory Prayer. Jesus interceded on our behalf! He prayed with such fervency that the sweat on his body fell as if it were great drops of blood. He persevered, He did not give up. He knew that He was about to face a tremendous battle and before He could take His place on that cross, He had to prepare Himself in prayer. That intercession, that prayer meeting, saved the world! In the Garden of Olives with the stress of completing his assignment, Jesus looked beyond the pain, humiliation, and inhumane brutality to pray for us. His sweat became blood drops from the stress. His prayer became fervent because the hour was near.

JESUS INTERCEDES THESE TIMES

Jesus Prays for Peter . . . the Church

Lk 22:30–32 “so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

At some point, you will be sifted. Actually, over the last couple of years most, if not all of us, have been sifted. Life Simon Peter, you are a Believer but doubt chases after you and when she catches you … you fall. But someone has been praying for you. If it were not for my grandmother, Mother Austin, I am sure I would have never made it. Bishop Marvin Sapp sings the song “Never Would Have Made it”. He states that the song emerge from a time when three men who guided him in life and ministry moved on to Glory. These three wise men taught him, mentored him, and prayed for him. From this pain and coming into the reality of who he is he delivered an anthem that will last for generations… Never Would Have Made It! Someone prayed for him. Like someone is praying for you right now (and you probably don’t even know it!)

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

John 17:8-10 “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those, you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”

Pastors have a burden, responsibility, and calling to pray for those in partnership with them in the church. The Bible teaches us that we have to give an account for the souls under our leadership. Parents, you have a responsibility to seek the blessings of God through prayer for your family . . . for your children. Jesus teaches us how to pray for those connected to us when he prayed for them, “I pray for them. I am NOT praying for the world, but for those, you have given me.”

Jesus Prays for all Believers

John 17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The love Jesus has for us is a love that was before there was. One that loves us now. And, a love that will love us well after we are gone from this life here on earth. We are the Believers Jesus was praying for thousands of years ago and the ones he is championing right now. We too need to follow his example and pray for the church and her believers like Jesus did for us!

CELEBRATION

Romans 8:34 “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”