Gospel Ramah Church
Pastor Philani Zincume 02 June 2019
Intercession - praying to a resourceful God on behalf of your fellow Man.
- The focus of your intercession is God.
- Before you pray, you need to locate the One you are praying to.
- Locating God means prioritizing God; there is no prayer request that is bigger than God.
With every situation you face, start upstream with God. His grace will flow downstream to where your needs are.
The foundation of your intercession
- What drives your intercession?
James 5:16
1 Intercessory Prayer
Praying for one another.
It is the prayer of a righteous person that produces results
2 Corinthians 5:21
- Jesus became sin so that you become the righteousness of God.
- Righteousness means to be in right standing with God.
- It speaks to having an intimate relationship with God.
The basis of intercession:
1. Our relationship with God
- Your relationship with God is the currency of your intercession; No relationship, no intercession.
- Every effective intercession begins with an intimate and functional relationship with God.
How do you cultivate an intimate relationship with God:
- It is done through prayer.
- For you to learn to pray, you must pray.
Virtuous Cycle
- Pray -> Get better at praying -> Enjoy Praying -> You pray even more
Vicious Cycle
Less prayer -> worse at praying -> no enjoyment in prayer -> prayer becomes a burden -> you pray less
You can only break the vicious circle by beginning to pray earnestly.
- Do not be in a distant relationship with God.
- Relationships fall apart without communication.
- Some Christians appear as if they are doing well externally whilst they are dry inside (spiritually).
- God is calling you back to having an intimate relationship with Him.
2. Relationship with fellow Man
You need to have someone whom you can be vulnerable with.
How you feel about someone/something will affect how you will intercede for them.
- The reason why you need someone to motivate you to pray about something it's because you are not interested in the issue.
- Where there is genuine interest and authentic relationship, intercession becomes easier.
- You need to practice genuine love; when you love genuinely, you will pray effectively.
- You can never intercede from a place of a place of selfishness.
3. God's desire to partner with humankind
God can do without our prayers but chooses not to as He wants to partner with Man in accomplishing His purposes.
- God can do without you but chooses not to.
Genesis 2:5
From the foundation of earth, God chose to partner with Man.
- Some things are not happening not because God cannot but He is waiting for you to intercede.
- There are certain things God won't do without Man being involved.
- Intercession becomes effective when we acknowledge God's desire to partner with you.
- God wants to partner with you regardless of your shortcomings.
What are the experiences of intercession?
I. Realignment to God's will
Intercession does not change God but it changes you.
- It elevates you to a place where you see things the way God sees them.
- Your prayer won't make God care about the issue you are praying about more than He already does.
- Your prayer elevates you to a place of God's perspective.
- Prayer gets us what God wants and not necessarily what we want.
II. Deeper fellowship
Intercession makes us realize our need for God.
- The more we pray, the more we become dependent on God.
III. Moved to action True intercession is not a substitute for action. - Just because you are praying about an issue, doesn't mean you should not act. - After you pray, you still need to take action. - Jesus spent so much time interceding and He still addressed people's needs. Prayer didn't make Him become passive. Jesus's actions were a response to His intercession. - When you pray, you are moved to act. - God still expects you to act even after spending hours in prayer.
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