Getting In God's Order

We spent the first nine lessons looking at God's order and how to line up with it. Lesson 10 looked at why it is so important for prayer warriors and intercessors to be in the center of God's order. And lesson 11 demonstrated how we leave ourselves open to enemy counterattacks when we wander outside of His order.

Now it's time to change gears and look at these topics from another perspective. Let's look at how to pray and intercede into these important areas. This is not to say that you have to pray all of these things in all of these areas. And it is not to say that this is an exhaustive list of how to pray when covering these areas. Instead, think of this lesson as some ideas and suggestions for how to pray and intercede on these subjects.

This lesson will make some suggestions on how to pray regarding the five purposes God has for the church. The next lesson will look at "praying into" the other areas covered by this series.

Worship

Pray for believers to come to a deep and personal relationship with God, to be filled with His Spirit, to know Him mentally (head knowledge) and experientially (heart knowledge). Don't just pray this in the abstract, make it personal. Pray specifically for your family, your pastor, your friends and acquaintances at church. Ask God to manifest Himself to them and reveal His presence to them. Invite Him to do the same thing in your life. Don't just pray for believers to experience deep worship, practice it in your day-to-day life. Ask God to teach you how to worship Him in a way that blesses and pleases Him. If you ask Him this, He will be faithful to teach you.

Also, pray that God would increase His presence on His people. Pray that we, as a church, would corporately learn to worship Him.

Evangelism

Pray that God remove the enemy's ability to blind people to the good news, so that they can see and understand just how good that news is; and so that they will receive Jesus and enter into personal relationship with Him. Pray that for your city or for the people group that God has put on your heart. But also "bring it down" and make it personal. Pray for household salvation if you have any unsaved relatives. Pray for each person by name. Ask God to make them understand the good news and to touch and melt their hearts. Pray for your friends by name. Pray for your coworkers and for your neighbors. Get personal and specific with God. Ask Him to let you see the fruit from you prayers; that people who you know personally and have prayed for would not only accept Jesus, but that they would tell you about their decision.

Pray that God would transform each of us to be a good witness, to reflect His life and His character, and to put His power and His words of testimony in our mouths. Pray this for yourself personally. Jesus instructed us to ask the Lord of the harvest for more laborers. So, pray for more laborers and volunteer to be one yourself. Tell Him you are available, invite Him to use you in this capacity and expect Him to give you opportunities to win the lost.

Also that God will transform the members of His church -- the entire body of Christ -- to be an effective witness. Pray for those on the mission field and those in evangelism roles, that God would grant them grace and wisdom to represent Him, that He would empower them to win the lost. Pray for a release of God's healing anointing on the church so that the unsaved will see God's love and power and turn to Him. Pray that those you work or go to school with, those you shop at the same supermarket or who sit next to you on the bus, and those you pass on the street -- that they would come to know Jesus. Pray for revival to come to your city and to your state or providence. And don't forget those in the war zone. Pray that God would reach the Muslims with His love and with the truth of the good news, so that they will be saved and that they will begin to bring God's influence into world events.

Relationship and Accountability

Pray for unity in the Body of Christ. Again, look for ways to make it personal. If there is someone who drives you nuts, whom you can't stand, pray for God to give you His supernatural love for that person. If there is someone who has deeply wounded or offended you, choose to speak and release forgiveness regarding that person. Tell the Father that you choose to forgive and release that person because you know that pleases your Heavenly Father, and that He is much much more important to you than the person who hurt or offended you. Ask Him to empower you to walk out your decision to forgive with His supernatural anointing.

Pray that God will knit you in tightly with those in your church or local fellowship group. Don't just pray in the abstract, back it up with intercessory actions and prophetic acting-out. Make an effort to touch bases and get to know those in your fellowship. Reach out to them in love and support and encourage them. Get together for lunch or for a cappuccino. (Or if you are in the UK, invite them over for tea.) Back up your prayers for relationship by doing behaviors that promote relationship. Don't wait for someone else to reach out to you; reach out to them. This type of prophetic acting-out of our prayers is very much a form of intercession.

Also, ask the Lord to give you a teachable heart. Ask Him to help you not be offended when those who you are in relationship with speak into your life. Remind yourself that their motive is not to tear you down, but to make you aware of a deficiency and to help you overcome it. Ask God to give you His heart in this area. Ask Him to knit you together with like-minded believers and to put quality relationships into your life. Ask Him to do the same for your acquaintances and others in your local church body.

Maturity

The Bible is rich in prayers for maturity and rich in prayers that believers enter into everything that God has for them. The epistles of Paul are laced with many excellent prayers along these lines. Look these prayers up and pray them over your friends, loved ones and members of your church. Let me just share one of them with you. This is from Phil 1:4-6, 9-11.

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -- to the glory and praise of God."

Service

Pray that those who are called and gifted in service will not grow weary in well doing. Pray that they will not be taken for granted or made to feel unappreciated. Pray that they do not get frustrated where others are not rising up to help carry the load. Pray that they won't feel overwhelmed by the needs, but that they will be lead of the Spirit in how they serve. Pray that God will make them realize that what He has given them to do is important Kingdom work. As the same time, pray that they will always stay focused on Him, that they serve out of their intimate relationship with Him rather than instead of a substitute for intimacy time with God.

Pray that the Lord will raise up those who have gifts of service and who aren't using them -- that they will rise up where the needs are: the nursery, Sunday school, visitation, helping the elderly and sick, etc.