How to intercede

What is intercession?
Well we must start with what it is not. It is not a boring meeting with God, hoping that God will answer your prayers. It is a great time praying the purposes of Jesus, the bible says that Jesus is standing at the Fathers side praying for us. Wow, to be involved with intercession is to link up with Jesus.

Many people are called to pray, but sadly miss out on going deeper with God. I want to share with you some great times that I have had and I hope that you will be encouraged. I do not claim that I know everything about intercession because I don't. God is always showing us different ways of communication with him and how you choose to pray is entirely up to yourself.

I want to start by saying that to be thankful in all circumstances is paramount to a great prayer life. For example always give thanks for your food Jesus did, I remember when I was doing a forty day fast and I was doing the cooking for the rest of the family. I could not believe how ungrateful we are and how much we take for granted the provision that God gives to us. Smith Wigglesworth was in a restaurant when he noticed that people were not giving God thanks for their food so he stood up and let them know, which caused people to give their life to Jesus.

The next form of prayer is praying in English. (If you are English of course)

I pray in English always, I constantly thank God for all that He has done and all that he will do. When times are tough and I want a good whinge I will pray in English. We all go through tough times, it comes with the calling. There are times when I don't want to pray I get discouraged when things don't go my way. But God is patient with us and brings us through. I need the Holy Spirit that makes intercession through us. The Holy Spirit really loves you and deeply cares when you go through hard times, always telling you "IT WILL BE FINE, DON'T WORRY". The Holy Spirit is really our closest friend, always pointing you to Jesus. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit Jesus tells us. How do you grieve the Holy Spirit? By not loving one another and disrespecting God. We must remember that God chose us we did not choose him.

Now we come to praying in tongues, this is your introduction to the Holy Spirit. To pray in tongues you need to be baptized into the Holy Spirit, if you are not then ask Jesus to baptize you. The bible says HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH FIRE. The Holy Spirit is fire, it is good to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You come into a more powerful way to pray, but it is by faith that you pray in tongues. Many people say that if I do not speak in tongues I am not filled with the Holy Spirit. But I say that you most likely speak in tongues, it's that you don't believe. Jesus said "And these signs will follow them that BELIEVE, they will speak with new tongues". I remember when I was at a prayer meeting with my brother and he was speaking in tongues, and I asked him what he was doing, he told me I am speaking in tongues so I said I want to do that, so he prayed for me. At first I only got four words, but I felt great I was laughing and full of joy. After a while I got pretty bored with just praying four words until God showed me that I was like a little child speaking his first words to his Daddy. After a while I got more and more words.

Now about groaning. Groaning is awesome. Not only does it accomplish what God wants to do, it also causes something to happen in you. I have been going through a season of groaning for the government because we do not know what to pray I tried to speak in tongues but it was so much deeper than that I can't really explain, but that is what it is like. I can't explain it BUT I KNOW IT IS RIGHT. We groan deep within ourselves. Why does God get us to groan? Well I'm not too sure about that he just does. Many people struggle with it but saying that they also struggle with praying in tongues. People love to be safe they do not want to go out on a limb, they think that just to pray in their native language is good enough. But we have to pray the will of God and sometimes this goes beyond our thinking. That is why the bible says WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE OUGHT TO PRAY BUT THE SPIRIT HELPS US IN OUR WEAKNESSES. When we are weak then we are strong. Let us be weak and let the Holy Spirit be strong in us. I have found that when I groan God does a deep work in me, their are issues inside me that I did not realise was there, God brings them to the surface so we can submit them to him and he will heals us. Ask the Holy Spirit to take you into a season of groaning just do it for 5 or 10 minutes a day and see what happens- what is the worst that can happen?

Now we come to the best form of prayer, this will really get you buzzing. God will have you pray all different ways for people or for the will of God to be done but he is more interested in you, He loves to spend time with you. You do not even speak a word you just lie in his presence and just wait on God. "Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles". Many times I have been in the presence of God and it has been so overpowering it is Glorious. On many occasions the Holy Spirit has said to me "I love to be with you just spend another 5 minutes with me" so I do then he says just spend another five. We cannot grasp the love of God for us. I cannot understand why God would want to spend so much time with a broken vessel but he does and over the years until Jesus returns he will spend time with you. We have to understand that God desires a personal relationship with you, you may feel that God does not want to spend that time with you, but we know that the devil is a liar and the only place he can attack us is our mind and he constantly accuses the brethren.

When we are learning to pray and I am constantly learning we have to be patient with ourselves Always asking the Holy Spirit to be with us, always inviting him to come and he will come. The bible says learn to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.