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Intercessory prayer is the highest expression of love. It is impossible to be selfish when interceding, because intercessory prayer is always for another person's benefit. It is putting a halt to the influence of Satan in that person's life so that he can walk in the fullness of the redemption that God has provided.

That is why intercessory prayer always precedes the preaching of the gospel in power. Revivals have never been the result of good preaching. It takes the Anointing of the Holy Spirit to cause changes in the hearts of the people.

Intercession is the tool that activates that anointing. Good preaching is the result of prayer. The reason God is moving so powerfully by His Spirit in the earth today is because thousands of believers have interceded and continue to intercede in prayer.

Giving Birth in the Spirit
Intercession is giving birth in the spirit realm. Just like babies are born into this natural world, so must believers be born into the kingdom of God. It takes travailing in the Spirit like that described in Romans 8:26-27:

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

The groanings are the spiritual travailing. Travailing in the Spirit is a spiritual process. Travailing in the Spirit goes beyond the realm of your mind to your inner man. The Bible says that a man who prays in an unknown tongue speaks mysteries unto God.

The literal meaning of Romans 8:26 is that the Holy Spirit helps your spirit pray with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech. The word "helpeth" in Romans 8:26 literally means that the Holy Spirit takes hold together with us against the forces of darkness which have come against another person.

Once you have made the decision to stand in the gap and pray, you can depend on the Holy Spirit to help you pray as you yield yourself to Him. Your spirit, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, is interceding and urging and issuing forth spiritual power in order to accomplish the will of God in another person's life.

Through intercession, you are helping give birth in the realm of the spirit to that which needs to take place in the world of the natural.

Removing the Blinders
God's purpose in our travail in prayer is not to violate the will of the person for whom we are praying. His purpose is to enlighten them to His Word by the Holy Spirit so that they will no longer be blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4).

Ephesians 2:2 says "Satan is the spirit at work in those who have not been born again." God desires to deliver them from Satan's power so that Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, is the One Who is at work in them.

Through our intercession, God will reveal Himself to those for whom we are praying. They will realize His love in sending Jesus to pay for their sin and to deliver them from the evil of this world. He will bring them to the understanding that they need to be born again through faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As soon as they make Jesus their Lord, spiritual rebirth will take place. This new birth is the result of your intercession and travail in the Spirit.

But don't let your intercession stop with the new birth. The Apostle Paul writes it is the will of God for "all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).

The truth is that, through the cross, Jesus destroyed the power of Satan, sin, sickness, poverty, fear, and all the curse of the law (Rom. 8:2; Deut. 28:15-68).

While we are to pray for the lost, we are also to pray for the many Christians who are sick, poor, and defeated. They need a revelation of the Word of God in their lives.

In that same passage, Paul also instructs us to pray "for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (v. 2) One benefit is that we may live in conditions that provide maximum opportunity for us to share the gospel.

Preparing the Heart
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The preaching of the gospel brings the power of God on the scene. Intercession prepares the hearts of the people to receive the gospel because it tears down the strongholds of deception that Satan has brought against them.

No matter who you are in the Body of Christ, minister or layperson, you can have an eternal effect on the lives of others through your intercession. All it takes is a decision to start praying specifically for a given body of people—a family, town, city, county, state, or nation.

Do not wait for a burden or a feeling to motivate you to pray. Jesus was not moved by His feelings. He was moved with compassion. He did what He did because God told Him to do it.

Stir up the gift of intercession in you by making the decision to stand in the gap for the lost, the sick, and the oppressed. As you decide to yield yourself to Him, you become an extension of Jesus' ministry, making the redemption He provided available to those you pray for.

Once you've made the decision, keep your faith on the line and keep the pressure on Satan. You have joined forces with God to change situations. Lay hold of them and stay there until they change! Intercession is the key that unlocks the inheritance of the kingdom of God in the lives of others.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Kenneth Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God’s WORD to their lives.
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