The place where intercessory prayer must start is with you. It's great to know that others may be stepping up for someone before God, but God wants you to put something of yourself on the line. Otherwise, it's too cheap to be real. Your private devotions are not just for your own benefit. If God's love is at work in you, you will care about others, and your love for them will lead you to take it to the ultimate Source of strength, healing, and love. Don't be fearful; be persistent and stubborn. God doesn't mind; God likes to see divine love at work in you. God honors your part in the relationship. I personally do not believe special people are intercessors per se, I do believe the work of intercession is special and ALL believers SHOULD be intercessors. I work as a Chaplain in a Psychiatric Hospital and I have groups of mentally ill patients that tell me all the time, “Chaplain we are praying for you” I firmly believe God can use anyone. It is best to always be aware that you never really pray alone. For when the honest love in you for other people causes you to ask God to act to strengthen, heal, defend, change, or bless them, there is someone else praying with you: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is leading you to pray. When your love is not whole or your mind is not clear, the Spirit steps in for you, to express the intercession and draw you into it. Christian intercessors over the past two millennia have prayed their intercessions in a 'Trinitarian' manner: to the Father, through the Son, and in and with the Holy Spirit. God isn't fussy about the pattern, but it helps us to see some part of how God works in prayer. The Holy Spirit helps in intercession because He knows what we need to pray for better than we do.
The intercessory prayer you first pray about someone may not be what God wants you to pray for. For instance, you might be praying to lift a burden, but the Lord might be using the burden to prepare them to do something for God. Then again, your prayer might be what God wants to happen. Thus, we are to pray listening for the Spirit, and pray that God's will be done. I find myself concentrating better when I mutter the words; it gives my mind more focus. The mind may go off to explore something during personal devotions, but not while you're interceding for others -- those others must be your first concern. So, it's sometimes best to do it before you seek stillness (though God will sometimes lead you out of stillness into intercession -- be open to it).
Don't be surprised if the Holy Spirit starts tugging on your heart to take some sort of action about a matter you're praying about. You may be the answer God sends into their lives. That's not a license to be nosey, stepping into everyone's private lives like some sort of conquering hero. But the Spirit might be calling you to be more than a bystander. Be ready for it. When you intercede, bring your knowledge, gifts, abilities, attention and energies before God and say, “use these, if that's what it takes to set this right”.
Chaplain Mark H. Stevens, B.Th, M.Min
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