Today’s Devotional: Intercessory Prayer
An intercessory prayer is a prayer prayed on behalf of someone else. Our devotional today from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for his Highest, gives us a stern warning that we should not idly take on the responsibility of interceding on someone else’s behalf. When we pray an intercessory prayer we need to be careful. We are putting ourselves not in their place, but in God’s place:
You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, It is putting yourself in someone elses place. That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in Gods place; it is having His mind and His perspective.
[…]
What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply patched up. We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
Read the rest of the devotional at utmost.org.
Have you ever prayed an intercessory prayer?
I was just about to put on my prayer garment and go into intercession. This stop had to be God-ordained. Thank you for your insight on intercessory prayer. This was very timely for me. May God bless your work.
I don’t see intercession as praying for people but as praying for God’s purposes to come into all situations, all people groups, everything for which Christ died, as stated in the devotional. It is not about putting ourself in anyone’s place or God’s place for that matter – it’s praying down the work of Christ that is already completed.