Prophetic Intercession

Are you getting excited about prophetic intercession yet? I know God is excited about your wanting to listen to His prayer requests. I am confident that as you press in to God about prophetic intercession, He will lead you. But be prepared for God to sign you up to cover a specific event or situation anytime, day or night. He may wake you up at 3 in the morning and give you an assignment. God is involved 100 per cent and He is in charge. It's like being on call and when He calls we respond.

Of course we have the choice of telling Him that we do not want this assignment. God is a gentleman and will not force His children to obedience, but there is a price to pay for everything. If we want to be used by God it should be our heart's desire to obey.

Let me illustrate. Let's imagine a tool, let's say a hammer. This hammer is lying in the carpenter's hand. By itself it can't do a thing, it just lies there, but in a carpenter's hand this useless hammer becomes a powerful tool. What would happen if it would say, "No, not at this time, I am tired," or "I am busy"? Would not the carpenter have to use another hammer to finish the task? He may think twice about using this hammer next time he needs one.

The same applies to us. We need to decide daily whether we want God to be Lord over our days and activities. The more we yield to His lordship, the more He is able to use us. Our prayer life is included in that. If we tell Him that He can give us assignments only at certain times during the day, God may ask somebody else. We are not the only ones God can use. Elijah thought he was the only believer left, but God let him know that there were 7,000 others who were faithful to Him (1 Kings 19:18).

This doesn't mean that, as we are learning and slip up every once in a while by falling back asleep when He wakes us up at 2 or 3 A.M., He will not use us again. God knows our hearts and He knows that we will at times have a hard time staying awake. The good thing is that He is gracious and patient. He is always willing to help us.

As we start moving in prophetic intercession we will notice that our prayer life becomes more of an attitude than a task. Would you not want an attitude of prayer? We will be prepared to pray anytime from one minute to the other. Our prayers will become so integrated into our daily activities that it's almost as natural to pray as it is to breathe. It's like you are walking side-by-side with God talking to Him about things.

There are times when God will not give us assignments for some time. With God things are easy. They are not complicated. We do not have to be anxious when there are days when we do not have a specific assignment. During those days the enemy will often come in to try to convince us that somehow we "missed it" or he may try to make us feel guilty for not having an assignment. Sometimes he will even send people to load us up with all sorts of prayer assignments that are not of God. They may be genuine prayer requests, but they may be assignments for others. When this happens, just stop and ask God before you feel guilty about not praying for that situation. We can't possibly pray about everything just as much as we can't help with every need that comes along. When we feel condemnation because of a prayer request we are not able to pray about, it is not God. With God there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1 tells us that, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

God does not want us to be anxious and worry when He doesn't assign anything to us for a few days. With God everything is peaceful. Isaiah 26: 3 states: "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

God will always do His part. It is God's responsibility to give the assignments. Our responsibility is to be obedient when He calls us to pray and to be available. As we are available, He will be sure to call on us when he needs us. Easy, isn't it? No fretting, no worrying, just being obedient.

So what do these assignments look like? It's difficult to describe spiritual things with our limited vocabulary, but I will give it a try (smile). In my experience the assignments come by sensations of importance or I feel a sudden sense of urgency. It's like my spirit is being stirred or my spiritual ears are perked up. When I notice something like this coming on, I ask God what it is about and He starts giving me insight about it. This doesn't always happen immediately. Often it requires that I press into Him. I will then pray according to what He is showing me. In a later lesson I will give examples of different forms of how God gives assignments. Please remember though that God is not limited to one specific style, and He may drop in your assignments in a completely different way.

There are many times when you will get bits and pieces about a situation but you will not know whom it is for. All you will know is that there is a situation and you will get enough detail to be able to pray. You may not get names or locations. You may be wondering about not knowing. The truth is that it really doesn't matter whether we know or not. What does matter is that God knows. It may not be necessary for us to know. Sometimes our knowing could affect the way we pray. It is the same way when we pray in tongues. We pray by faith even though we don't understand. When God gives us assignments we don't fully understand, we can pray what we do understand. There is a reason why God does not fill us in completely.

When I am in need of intercession for my family or me, I call upon my friends and those I trust will pray. But I also ask God to raise up intercessors throughout the world who would cover me about the situation. There is no need for me to know who these intercessors are. I trust that God is able to answer that prayer because He is not limited to people I know. Some people may worry about whether enough people are praying for them. Well don't worry. Ask God and He will provide.

A few months ago, somebody gave me a prophecy that stated that as long as there are not enough people to pray for me, the situation I prayed about will remain the same. I thought, "Boy, that puts a lot of pressure on this situation because I don't have control over how many people pray for me." That would put my life into others' hands. I was relieved when God let me know that He is aware of everything and can call upon any of His intercessors to pray if those supposed to don't. What a relief!

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." God is not limited to what we know or understand, but He can have us intercede for things that are going on and need covering on the other side of the world.

Other times we know exactly who and what we are praying about. This is when we need to be careful to keep what God shows us to ourselves. God does not reveal these things to us so we can go out and let everybody else know about the situation. God entrusts these things to us solely for prayer and intercession purposes.

God puts a certain amount of trust into us when He shares things with us. Often it is to see if we can be trusted with more. As we are obedient with what He gives us, He will add on to it. We will notice that He will call on us more and more when a situation needs to be covered. We will also notice that God is more willing to share things with us. Sometimes He is just waiting to be able to share more with us.

We can see this principle applied in one of the parables Jesus shared in Matthew 25:21. "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things, come and share your master's happiness."

God wants to give us more. The master is happy because the servant is faithful. Luke 16: 10 states: "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." Proverbs 11:13 says, "A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret." Further, it states in Matthew 25:29, "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

Once the assignment is completed, there will be a "release" in our spirit. We will have a sense of breakthrough or just sense some sort of closure.