I spent most of my childhood in churches that did not emphasize prayer. Prayer consisted of, at the most, 15 minutes at the end of a Bible study. In fact the sharing of prayer requests would take as long as the prayer time itself. I experienced a few longer prayer meetings but was usually bored. The exception was when I would join my Dad when he would go and pray with his friend Bud. Bud is a wise old man a bit older than my grandparents. The three of us would pray for an hour or longer as we lifted up our requests to the Lord. We would lift up those in our churches, our families, and our city. I very much enjoyed these weekly meetings with these two prayer warriors as I was in my teen years.
Then I moved for school and started attending a Vineyard church. At that time I started to be exposed to larger prayer meetings. I was surrounded by prayer warriors. I loved to be in those prayer meetings and began to grow as an intercessor. But I didn't consider myself one. I compared myself to people who would lie on the floor of their bedroom praying for five hours straight. I couldn't do that. I didn't have that kind of endurance. And thus I would tell people that my gifting was in the prophetic and not in intercession.
Fast forward a couple years and I had the opportunity to meet with Kirk Bennett. Kirk is a mighty man of God who was a founding member of IHOP-KC and now heads ZHOP in Charlotte, NC. It was a very intimate setting which changed my life. During that time he shared, from scripture, on how the primary role of the prophetic is intercession. A prophet is meant to be an intercessor. A prophet doesn't just get downloads from God so that he can write them down and share them with others. He or she is meant to pray them forth.
This changed my viewpoint of who I was. I realized that I was an intercessor. And over time God has taught me more and more. That meeting with Kirk was just over a year ago. Since then God showed me things about what I call throne room intercession. We are meant to pray FROM heaven. Too often we sit down here on earth and cry out to God to hear us. But we are, in Christ, seated in the heavenly places. Our prayers should reflect this. My intercession shifted when God showed me this.
I now will often, when the Spirit prompts me, make declarations in my intercession. Before I would pray "Lord, please bring healing tonight to those with mental illness." Now, if the Lord speaks a word about mental illness, I will declare something like "we come against all mental disease in Jesus' name- we declare healing tonight!" This is taking the authority that is ours in Christ Jesus. One has to be sensitive to the Spirit in order to pray like this. I don't pray for hours a day. Often my prayer times are quite short. Sometimes one sentence is all that is needed.
Recently there were some things that I needed to war against. So I dropped by the prayer house when no one was there. I cried out to the Lord and complained about the way things were. Then He started speaking. Under the Spirit I started to make declarations and came against certain spirits and principalities. It probably lasted 15 minutes. But it was all that was needed. I broke what needed to be broken at that time. There are other times when my intercession will be quite longer. But I prefer my intercession to be brief and my communion to be long. I want to be close to His heart.
It's all about being close to His heart. Intercession is aligning our heart with the things of heaven. It is about bringing heaven down to earth. At the age of 23 I have learned a lot about intercession and have been blessed with that gift. I have been blessed with a breaker anointing. But I know I have much more to learn. And I know that I will learn all that I need to know by sitting at the feet of the Father and looking at the example of Christ who is the great Intercessor.
Lord, may you release the gift of intercession upon each and every person reading this. Reveal to them your heart for their lives. Show them your ways. Teach them how to pray. Bring them up into the heavenlies and teach them how war is waged in heaven. Do not allow them to lean on their own understanding but may they acknowledge you in all their ways. Raise them up as the mighty men and women that they are. Continue to raise up a generation that will seek your face. Pour your Spirit out upon us so that we may advance your Kingdom. May You reign over all things, Amen!
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