Understanding Prophetic Intercession
Our Role and Authority as God’s Image-Bearers
Intercessory prayer is prayer on behalf of others — the church, the sick, the lost, the spheres of society, and the nations — in alignment with God’s will. We live in a broken world of pain and injustice where not everything that happens is necessarily the will of God. In Ezekiel 22:30, we see God looking for intercessors — someone who would “stand in the gap” on behalf of the land, so He would not have to destroy it. What is the gap? It is a breach of God’s righteousness in the land through sin, and hence God looks for intercessors who will mediate between heaven and earth. Sadly, in Ezekiel 22, God found no one. How can you and I today answer God’s call for intercessors?
Being the only creatures created in the image and likeness of the Creator God, we human beings are image-bearers, and hence representatives of God’s real presence in the world. The Hebrew word “tselem” is the same word for image and idol. In Old Testament times, the people understood that where the material image of the idol is, so is the essence of the god. Hence God told the Israelites not to make images of anything to worship, Exodus 20:4, as God had already made images of Himself — in men and women like you and me, Genesis 1:27 — and we are meant to reflect His presence and exercise His authority on the earth.
Intercessory prayer is one of the essential ways that we human beings partner with God to see His kingdom of order, beauty and abundance established “on earth as it is in heaven”, Matthew 6:10. As image-bearers carrying God’s presence and authority on the earth, we have the priestly responsibility to stand before God — to see His will established in the lives of people, and to see His just reign prevail in the affairs of nations.
Why is there a need for human involvement through intercession in what God desires to do on earth? “Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning the affairs of earth, to working through human beings”, Dutch Sheets in Intercessory Prayer.
In 1 Kings 18, we see the story of Elijah’s fervent prayers for rain. Although it was God’s initiative to send rain on the land, He needed a human being to “birth” the rain through prayer. Again, in Daniel 9, we see Daniel had discovered from Jeremiah’s prophecy that the seventy years of exile was nearly up, and so he gave himself to fasting and prayer in repentance for the restoration of Israel. The angel Gabriel was also sent out as an answer to Daniel’s prayers, Daniel 10:12. Both these narratives give a Biblical basis for the necessity of intercessory prayer and assert the fact that God has chosen to limit Himself to working through the prayers of His image-bearers.
Praying from Heaven to Earth
There are different kinds of prayers, 1 Timothy 2:1, and in many prayer meetings we are a part of today, petitionary prayers are the most common where we see the needs around us and lift them up for God’s intervention. I would term this posture of prayer as praying “from earth to heaven”. Petitionary prayers and supplications are well and good, but this is not the only kind of prayer we can engage in. How is prophetic prayer different?
Prophetic prayer is seeing the natural realm from God’s perspective, and as we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, we declare and speak God’s truth, releasing on earth what God is doing and speaking in the spirit. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that “we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places”, hence the prophetic intercessor takes into consideration this position we pray from.
How does God see a situation of injustice? What does the Word of God say about God’s character that is unchanging? What revelation of God’s character is needed in this nation, situation or individual you are praying over? Even when we do not know how to pray, we can declare aspects of who God is — His love, His righteousness, His fatherhood — over a nation, a war situation, or a crisis. Are there scriptures that the Holy Spirit would give us to declare over the people and lands we are praying for? When we do not know how to pray specifically, we can turn scripture into proclamations, prayers and blessings.
In essence, proclamations are different from petitions. Petitions are good and needed indeed, but proclaiming scriptures and aspects of God’s character, as we are being led by Holy Spirit, is taking a stance in the spirit to pray “from heaven to earth”. The more we live our lives in relationship to Holy Spirit and understand our identity as children of God and His image-bearers, the more spiritual authority we gain in prophetic intercession.
Intercessory prayer is prayer on behalf of others — the church, the sick, the lost, the spheres of society, and the nations — in alignment with God’s will. We live in a broken world of pain and injustice where not everything that happens is necessarily the will of God. In Ezekiel 22:30, we see God looking for intercessors — someone who would “stand in the gap” on behalf of the land, so He would not have to destroy it. What is the gap? It is a breach of God’s righteousness in the land through sin, and hence God looks for intercessors who will mediate between heaven and earth. Sadly, in Ezekiel 22, God found no one. How can you and I today answer God’s call for intercessors?
Being the only creatures created in the image and likeness of the Creator God, we human beings are image-bearers, and hence representatives of God’s real presence in the world. The Hebrew word “tselem” is the same word for image and idol. In Old Testament times, the people understood that where the material image of the idol is, so is the essence of the god. Hence God told the Israelites not to make images of anything to worship, Exodus 20:4, as God had already made images of Himself — in men and women like you and me, Genesis 1:27 — and we are meant to reflect His presence and exercise His authority on the earth.
Intercessory prayer is one of the essential ways that we human beings partner with God to see His kingdom of order, beauty and abundance established “on earth as it is in heaven”, Matthew 6:10. As image-bearers carrying God’s presence and authority on the earth, we have the priestly responsibility to stand before God — to see His will established in the lives of people, and to see His just reign prevail in the affairs of nations.
Why is there a need for human involvement through intercession in what God desires to do on earth? “Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning the affairs of earth, to working through human beings”, Dutch Sheets in Intercessory Prayer.
In 1 Kings 18, we see the story of Elijah’s fervent prayers for rain. Although it was God’s initiative to send rain on the land, He needed a human being to “birth” the rain through prayer. Again, in Daniel 9, we see Daniel had discovered from Jeremiah’s prophecy that the seventy years of exile was nearly up, and so he gave himself to fasting and prayer in repentance for the restoration of Israel. The angel Gabriel was also sent out as an answer to Daniel’s prayers, Daniel 10:12. Both these narratives give a Biblical basis for the necessity of intercessory prayer and assert the fact that God has chosen to limit Himself to working through the prayers of His image-bearers.
Praying from Heaven to Earth
There are different kinds of prayers, 1 Timothy 2:1, and in many prayer meetings we are a part of today, petitionary prayers are the most common where we see the needs around us and lift them up for God’s intervention. I would term this posture of prayer as praying “from earth to heaven”. Petitionary prayers and supplications are well and good, but this is not the only kind of prayer we can engage in. How is prophetic prayer different?
Prophetic prayer is seeing the natural realm from God’s perspective, and as we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, we declare and speak God’s truth, releasing on earth what God is doing and speaking in the spirit. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that “we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places”, hence the prophetic intercessor takes into consideration this position we pray from.
How does God see a situation of injustice? What does the Word of God say about God’s character that is unchanging? What revelation of God’s character is needed in this nation, situation or individual you are praying over? Even when we do not know how to pray, we can declare aspects of who God is — His love, His righteousness, His fatherhood — over a nation, a war situation, or a crisis. Are there scriptures that the Holy Spirit would give us to declare over the people and lands we are praying for? When we do not know how to pray specifically, we can turn scripture into proclamations, prayers and blessings.
In essence, proclamations are different from petitions. Petitions are good and needed indeed, but proclaiming scriptures and aspects of God’s character, as we are being led by Holy Spirit, is taking a stance in the spirit to pray “from heaven to earth”. The more we live our lives in relationship to Holy Spirit and understand our identity as children of God and His image-bearers, the more spiritual authority we gain in prophetic intercession.
Listening to God, everyone can be prophetic!
Prophetic prayer begins simply with listening to God. Listening prayer is not a gift reserved only for gifted people, but it is a skill for all believers to develop. Not everyone is a prophet by calling and gifting, but everyone can prophesy, 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 — every Christian can listen to God and speak words of life for the purposes of strengthening, encouraging and comforting others.
There are different levels of the prophetic, and here we refer to “Ground Level Prophetic” where everyone can be prophetic; everyone can hear the voice of God, John 10:27, and engage in intercession, as we are being led by the Spirit of God.
Before we dive into prayer based on a list of prayer requests at a prayer meeting, can we lay aside our own agendas, and take time to listen to God for His heart, His thoughts and His agenda?
To effectively listen to God in prayer and be led by the Holy Spirit, we have to grasp some of these Biblical principles:
1. Lordship of Christ. Luke 6:46, John 10:27
Acknowledging Jesus as Lord means we live lives of surrender where we are ready to obey and follow the Lord, not only when it is reasonable and convenient to us, but even when we may not understand it. See the example of Abraham in Genesis 22 when the Lord told him to sacrifice Isaac. If Jesus is Lord in our lives, we can be confident that He speaks to us, and we do hear His voice.
2. Clean Hearts. 1 John 3:21-22, Psalm 66:18
Repent of any unconfessed sin when we prepare ourselves to listen to God in prayer.
3. Be Filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18, Luke 11:11-13
Ask for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit and trust the Spirit to lead you in the prayer agenda. This also includes being willing to lay aside your own burdens for what you feel you should pray for.
4. Faith. Hebrews 11:6
When we come before God in prayer, we must be expectant for Him to speak, and that He will lead us by His Spirit. For this reason, it is always good to start prayer with praise and thanksgiving — whether in musical worship or a time of spoken praise — because praise calls us out of the drudgery of the circumstances to fix our eyes on the magnitude of who God is.
5. Be Still and Wait on the Lord. Psalm 46:10, Psalm 130:5-6
Before you dive into intercession, take time to wait on the Lord in silence, trusting Him to bring to mind scriptures, pictures and impressions for what to pray for and how you are to pray it.
There is no formula to practising listening prayer or prophetic intercession, but if we live out these Biblical principles, personally and corporately, we will experience intercession as exciting Spirit-led times of partnering with God.
Prophetic prayer begins simply with listening to God. Listening prayer is not a gift reserved only for gifted people, but it is a skill for all believers to develop. Not everyone is a prophet by calling and gifting, but everyone can prophesy, 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 — every Christian can listen to God and speak words of life for the purposes of strengthening, encouraging and comforting others.
There are different levels of the prophetic, and here we refer to “Ground Level Prophetic” where everyone can be prophetic; everyone can hear the voice of God, John 10:27, and engage in intercession, as we are being led by the Spirit of God.
Before we dive into prayer based on a list of prayer requests at a prayer meeting, can we lay aside our own agendas, and take time to listen to God for His heart, His thoughts and His agenda?
To effectively listen to God in prayer and be led by the Holy Spirit, we have to grasp some of these Biblical principles:
1. Lordship of Christ. Luke 6:46, John 10:27
Acknowledging Jesus as Lord means we live lives of surrender where we are ready to obey and follow the Lord, not only when it is reasonable and convenient to us, but even when we may not understand it. See the example of Abraham in Genesis 22 when the Lord told him to sacrifice Isaac. If Jesus is Lord in our lives, we can be confident that He speaks to us, and we do hear His voice.
2. Clean Hearts. 1 John 3:21-22, Psalm 66:18
Repent of any unconfessed sin when we prepare ourselves to listen to God in prayer.
3. Be Filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18, Luke 11:11-13
Ask for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit and trust the Spirit to lead you in the prayer agenda. This also includes being willing to lay aside your own burdens for what you feel you should pray for.
4. Faith. Hebrews 11:6
When we come before God in prayer, we must be expectant for Him to speak, and that He will lead us by His Spirit. For this reason, it is always good to start prayer with praise and thanksgiving — whether in musical worship or a time of spoken praise — because praise calls us out of the drudgery of the circumstances to fix our eyes on the magnitude of who God is.
5. Be Still and Wait on the Lord. Psalm 46:10, Psalm 130:5-6
Before you dive into intercession, take time to wait on the Lord in silence, trusting Him to bring to mind scriptures, pictures and impressions for what to pray for and how you are to pray it.
There is no formula to practising listening prayer or prophetic intercession, but if we live out these Biblical principles, personally and corporately, we will experience intercession as exciting Spirit-led times of partnering with God.
Discernment in the Corporate Setting
Unlike individual prayer, corporate intercession requires us not only to listen to God, but also to one another. There is power in agreement when two or three come together in prayer, Matthew 18:19.
In my mission organisation (YWAM), we are trained to practise listening to God in corporate intercession through the teachings of Joy Dawson. How do we effectively listen to God as a group, and discern what it is that God may be leading us to pray for?
Take time as a group to prepare your hearts before God in praise, worship, thanksgiving and waiting on the Lord. Share your impressions with one another before you dive into intercessory prayer.
When the Holy Spirit is leading the prayer meeting, He may give “a piece of the puzzle” to each member in the group, so don’t worry if you do not fully understand the scripture, picture or impression that you may have received in the time of silence and waiting. When you share your piece of the puzzle with the group, perhaps everyone will see a bigger picture and gain greater clarity on the direction of prayer the Holy Spirit is giving the group.
What if people in the group receive different insights that don’t seem to fit together? The Holy Spirit is dynamic, and the way He speaks and works in each of us can be dynamic. If people in the group seem to be receiving different agendas in prayer, or if clarity is lacking, we can go back to the Lord again, ask for clarity and wait in silence to listen and discern.
Some Biblical principles to consider in group discernment:
Humility
Philippians 2:1-8, Ephesians 5:21
We are to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”. Is there humility in the group, or does someone always have to be right? If others are sensing the urgency to pray for another world event, can I lay aside my own prayer burden and agenda for this prayer meeting?
Unity
Psalm 133, Philippians 2:2
Can the group come to a place of agreement to pray from a place of unity in the spirit? There is power in agreement, Matthew 18:19.
Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Love is the mark of character of someone who has matured in the prophetic. The more prophetically gifted we are, the more we need to mature in love and operate our gift
in love.
In corporate settings, corporate humility leads to corporate unity, which then gives us corporate authority in prayer! Above all, prophetic intercessors learn to grow and mature in love, for without it, our prophetic gift can be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal at its best.
Mediating through Identificational Repentance
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Is there sin in the land that hinders answers to prayers? Perhaps there is a need for Identificational Repentance where the people of God are called to stand in the gap — to identify with, confess and repent for sin in the land. Some examples in the Old Testament are found in Nehemiah 1:6-7, Jeremiah 14:20 and Daniel 9:8-20. None of these characters had necessarily committed the sins they were confessing, but as leaders, they representatively confessed the sins of their forefathers and their people. God heard and God responded.
The Bible indicates that while God most definitely engages with us individually and personally, He also relates to us as families, tribes and nations. In the West particularly, where individualism has infiltrated the church, our emphasis has been on personal salvation and relationship with God. We need to recover an understanding of our corporate identity as people groups before God. God does not punish the children for the sins of their fathers and mothers, but the consequences of the iniquity of the forefathers can still have an effect upon the children. It falls on the Church in each generation to take corporate responsibility for the spiritual state of their church, people group and nation.
Even when we feel we cannot identify with the ethnic history of the people we are praying for — where we see division, brokenness and the failure of the Church in the land — can we identify with the prejudice, the judgments and the lack of love in our own hearts for our neighbour when we come into intercession for that particular nation or situation? Instead of praying, “Lord, have mercy on them”, can we stand in identification and pray, “Lord, have mercy on us”?
Corporate humility leads to corporate unity, which truly gives us corporate authority in intercession.
In prophetic intercession, we have the privilege of partnering with God by listening to His Spirit, laying a hold of what God wants to do in the spirit realm, and releasing it from heaven to earth through our lives of surrender, obedience and intercession as God’s ambassadors on earth.
Unlike individual prayer, corporate intercession requires us not only to listen to God, but also to one another. There is power in agreement when two or three come together in prayer, Matthew 18:19.
In my mission organisation (YWAM), we are trained to practise listening to God in corporate intercession through the teachings of Joy Dawson. How do we effectively listen to God as a group, and discern what it is that God may be leading us to pray for?
Take time as a group to prepare your hearts before God in praise, worship, thanksgiving and waiting on the Lord. Share your impressions with one another before you dive into intercessory prayer.
When the Holy Spirit is leading the prayer meeting, He may give “a piece of the puzzle” to each member in the group, so don’t worry if you do not fully understand the scripture, picture or impression that you may have received in the time of silence and waiting. When you share your piece of the puzzle with the group, perhaps everyone will see a bigger picture and gain greater clarity on the direction of prayer the Holy Spirit is giving the group.
What if people in the group receive different insights that don’t seem to fit together? The Holy Spirit is dynamic, and the way He speaks and works in each of us can be dynamic. If people in the group seem to be receiving different agendas in prayer, or if clarity is lacking, we can go back to the Lord again, ask for clarity and wait in silence to listen and discern.
Some Biblical principles to consider in group discernment:
Humility
Philippians 2:1-8, Ephesians 5:21
We are to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”. Is there humility in the group, or does someone always have to be right? If others are sensing the urgency to pray for another world event, can I lay aside my own prayer burden and agenda for this prayer meeting?
Unity
Psalm 133, Philippians 2:2
Can the group come to a place of agreement to pray from a place of unity in the spirit? There is power in agreement, Matthew 18:19.
Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Love is the mark of character of someone who has matured in the prophetic. The more prophetically gifted we are, the more we need to mature in love and operate our gift
in love.
In corporate settings, corporate humility leads to corporate unity, which then gives us corporate authority in prayer! Above all, prophetic intercessors learn to grow and mature in love, for without it, our prophetic gift can be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal at its best.
Mediating through Identificational Repentance
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Is there sin in the land that hinders answers to prayers? Perhaps there is a need for Identificational Repentance where the people of God are called to stand in the gap — to identify with, confess and repent for sin in the land. Some examples in the Old Testament are found in Nehemiah 1:6-7, Jeremiah 14:20 and Daniel 9:8-20. None of these characters had necessarily committed the sins they were confessing, but as leaders, they representatively confessed the sins of their forefathers and their people. God heard and God responded.
The Bible indicates that while God most definitely engages with us individually and personally, He also relates to us as families, tribes and nations. In the West particularly, where individualism has infiltrated the church, our emphasis has been on personal salvation and relationship with God. We need to recover an understanding of our corporate identity as people groups before God. God does not punish the children for the sins of their fathers and mothers, but the consequences of the iniquity of the forefathers can still have an effect upon the children. It falls on the Church in each generation to take corporate responsibility for the spiritual state of their church, people group and nation.
Even when we feel we cannot identify with the ethnic history of the people we are praying for — where we see division, brokenness and the failure of the Church in the land — can we identify with the prejudice, the judgments and the lack of love in our own hearts for our neighbour when we come into intercession for that particular nation or situation? Instead of praying, “Lord, have mercy on them”, can we stand in identification and pray, “Lord, have mercy on us”?
Corporate humility leads to corporate unity, which truly gives us corporate authority in intercession.
In prophetic intercession, we have the privilege of partnering with God by listening to His Spirit, laying a hold of what God wants to do in the spirit realm, and releasing it from heaven to earth through our lives of surrender, obedience and intercession as God’s ambassadors on earth.
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