Principles for Effective Intercession
Joy Dawson
1. Praise God for who He is, and for the privilege of engaging in the same wonderful ministry as the Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25 – “He ever lives to make intercession for them (His own).”
Praise God for the privilege of cooperating with Him in the affairs of men through prayer.
2. Make sure your heart is clean before God, by having given the Holy Spirit time to convict, should there be any unconfessed sin.
Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”
Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Check carefully in relation to resentment to anyone. Notice the link between forgiveness and prayer in God’s Word.
Matthew 6:12 – When Jesus instructs the disciples how to pray He says, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” and IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the “Lord’s Prayer” He says, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (verse 14).
Mark 11:25 – “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Now notice the link between forgiveness and faith when we pray:
Mark 11:24 – “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.”
Then comes verse 25, warning us to forgive anyone who has wronged us.
Luke 17:3-5 – “‘Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, “I repent” you must forgive him.’ The apostles said to the Lord, ‘INCREASE OUR FAITH!’ and the Lord said, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, “Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’”
Job had to forgive his friends for their wrong judging of him, before he could pray effectively for them.
Job 42:10 – “And God restored the fortunes of Job, when he prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
Galatians 5:6 – “Faith works through love.”
3. Acknowledge you can’t really pray without the direction and energy of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:26 – “The Spirit helps us in our weakness: for we know not how to pray as we ought.”
Ask God to utterly control you by His Spirit, receive by faith that He does, and thank Him.
Ephesians 5:18 – “Be filled with the Spirit.”
Hebrews 11:6 – “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
4. Deal aggressively with the enemy. Come against him in the all-powerful Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the “sword of the Spirit”—the Word of God.
James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
5. Die to your own imaginations, desires, and burdens for what you feel you should pray.
Proverbs 3:5, 6 – “Lean not unto your own understanding.”
Proverbs 28:26 – “He who trusts in his own mind is a fool.”
Isaiah 55:8 – “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”
6. Praise God now in faith for the remarkable prayer meeting you’re going to have. He’s a remarkable God and will do something consistent with His character.
7. Wait before God in silent expectancy, listening for His direction.
Psalm 62:5 – “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.”
Micah 7:7 “But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
Psalm 81:11-13 – “But My people did not listen to My voice; Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. 0, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!”
8. In obedience and faith, utter what God brings to your mind, believing.
John 10:27 – “My sheep hear My voice . . . and they follow Me.”
Keep asking God for direction, expecting Him to give it to you. He will.
Psalm 32:8 – “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
Make sure you don’t move on to the next subject until you’ve given God time to discharge all He wants to say to you regarding this particular burden: especially when praying in a group.
Be encouraged from the lives of Moses, Daniel, Paul, and Anna, that God gives revelation to those who make intercession a way of life.
9. If possible have your Bible with you should God want to give you direction or confirmation from it.
Psalm 119:105 – “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
10. When God ceases to bring things to your mind to pray for, finish by praising and thanking Him for what He has done, reminding yourself of Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
A WARNING
God knows the weakness of the human heart towards pride, and if we speak of what God has revealed and done in intercession, it may lead to committing this sin.
God shares His secrets with those who are able to keep them.
There may come a time when He definitely prompts us to share, but unless this happens we should remain silent.
Luke 9:36 – “And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.”
Luke 2:19 – “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
—The above is reprinted with the author’s permission, © Joy Dawson. This page can be copied in its entirety and circulated in churches and prayer groups; it cannot be shortened or adapted. Any other permission to reprint needs to be obtained directly from Joy Dawson.