This is the 2nd chapter of the blog series I am doing. I am sharing with you ways God has been transforming me on the World Race. I am going through all the things that I told myself and others that “I am Not” and how God showed me that “I am” and “I can” through Him.
The next area that I have seen growth in is me being an Intercessor.
I grew up in church my whole life. I was reading the Bible as soon as I could read and I was praying as soon as I can talk. These may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. I had the “Christian” things down. Some of the first prayers I remember God answering were weather prayers. I would ask God for a beautiful sunny day, and God would cause the sun to shine. I asked God to miss school because of snow, and the busses would be cancelled (that actually happened a couple times!). I knew God answered our prayers and I would pray and ask for things every so often when certain needs arose.
As I grew up, I never really had a set prayer time. I heard about it, people talked about it and preachers encouraged me to have one, but I never did. It seemed boring. I had an idea of what an Intercessor was, and I didn’t care for it. I thought that Intercessors go into their rooms for an hour or more and pray for people and other stuff, and that seemed lame to me. I would read biographies of great men of God who did incredible things. All of them seemed to love going into a room early in the morning and pray for multiple hours. I have always been a radical guy, but these guys made me look like the average Joe when it came to spiritual zeal. I would think to myself, how could I ever sit in a room for that long and pray for things? I cannot do that.
Just like my last blog post of being a teacher, I used comparison to “figure out” that Intercessor was not one of my gifting’s. I had friends who were Intercessors and they loved to go by themselves and pray for long periods of time. I looked at them and said, “I am nothing like them, I am definitely not an Intercessor”. I did not like to sit and pray for other people. I can sit and pray for myself for short while, but nothing in me was stirring me to pray for other people.
And then came Nepal. Month 2. I went with my squad mates to a soaking night that YWAM and Iris Ministries was putting on. Basically they put on worship music and let God minister to people. If people get words, they can share them. I was praying by myself and a YWAMer got up and said, “I’m supposed to pray for someone who has lost their voice. This could be a physical thing or could be a spiritual thing as well”. Something God had been doing in me at that time was showing me that I had a voice and I need to use it, but wasn’t using it. (That may be another chapter in this series) So I knew I was a person that needed prayer for that. I went to the guy and told him that I wanted prayer for my voice. As he prayed, he prophesied over me and said, “You are an Intercessor. God loves it when you pray and wants to hear your prayers. So do other people. People want to hear your prayers and say ‘Amen’ to them”. He said a bit more than that, but that’s what I remember.
As I heard these words, I was like, “Hmm, well…I’ll test that and take it to the Lord”. I don’t usually have people prophecy over me things that don’t make sense or line up with things God has already shown me, so I was a bit confused by this word. It didn’t make sense to me because I knew I didn’t enjoy sitting around and praying for others! Over the next few months God began to show me how much of an Intercessor I am. It hit me the most in Estonia, month 7.
In July I arrived in Estonia and got to stay in an awesome spirit filled church. They have a huge passion for the nations and had built a prayer room specifically for that. I got to wake up every morning at 6:30, shower and brush my teeth, then go into this room by myself and read my Bible and pray. I challenged myself at the beginning of the month to pray for each of my teammates everyday. So I had until 9am to read my Bible and pray for 6 people. I would usually begin by 7, read the Bible for and hour, then pray for an hour. Well…praying for 6 people in an hour is pretty easy. So I began adding people to my list. It has been a little over a month since I began adding people and I am already at 29 people!
Something I started noticing though, after spending a few weeks doing this, is that I actually enjoyed it! And 2 hours in the morning, was now no longer long enough! I wanted to keep praying for at least 2 more hours. WHAT??? That’s crazy! I never thought that I would ever get to a place where 4 hours of prayer was something I enjoyed. But God has been showing me just how much of an Intercessor I am.
He began taking me back and showing me times where I prayed for others. Something I did in Bible College was when all the guys in the dorm went to sleep, I would go out in the hallways and walk by their rooms and pray for them outside their doors. I also did the same for my sister when I was at home. Memories of me praying for people came to my mind and I realized how much of an Intercessor I have been throughout my life. Just like all our Gifting’s, unless put into action, they don’t seem like much. But when we use them, they grow and are evident for all to see.
The first week in Estonia I picked up a book called “Intercessor” and read it throughout the month. I discovered that their are many different types of Intercessors and I am one type of many. For me, I love to pray with lists. I like a list of names, a list of what I prayed for and a list of what God answered. I also like to pray for people personally. Some people like to pray for big people groups or nations, where I like to pick a person I know and care about, and pray for them. I also like to pray for finances. While someone else is concerned about what a person is feeling in their heart, or how their family is, I am more concerned for their physical needs. I also like to pace back and forth or be moving while I pray, compared to sitting down and being still.
Knowing what things I like to pray for and recognizing how God built me has helped me grow in my Intercessor gifting. You see, I used to view an Intercessor as someone who sits down and prays for hours about some tribe in an African country I never heard of and intercede on their behalf. This is definitely one type of Intercessor, but not how they all function. God created us uniquely and has different tasks for us to accomplish here on earth. If everyone prayed the same, not everything or everyone would get prayed for. And if an Intercessor prayed for everything, it would get super overwhelming. We need the body of Christ to spread out the work and use our individual gifts.
I will confidently say now that I am an Intercessor. God loves when I pray and is waiting to hear what I will ask of Him next. Maybe you are an Intercessor and never knew it. Seek God on this topic and find out what type of an Intercessor you are. There are people and places waiting for your prayers and for you to step into the area you were made for. Don’t miss out on all that God has for you!
