A couple of weeks ago, my squad and I were at an event called The Awakening. Us and 3 other squads came together to celebrate what the Lord is doing in all of us and through all of us at one big 4 day gathering.
While we were there, we had many breakouts, including one about intercession.
Intercession according to a google definition is “the action of saying a prayer on behalf of another person.”
While sitting in this breakout I came to realize just how important intercession has become in my life.
Oswald Chambers has a quote that I think fits it more than anything: “Prayer is not preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle.”
About 3 years ago, I was doing YWAM and my team and I were in Amsterdam for outreach. We walked the red light district nearly everyday. We spent day after day praying over the women in the windows that were trying to make a profit from selling their bodies.
Our prayer was that the red lights would go out.
We saw a few things that brought us hope that these prayers were being answered, but eventually we had to leave the country without ever really knowing if or how how our prayers would affect the city.
I can really only speak for myself when I say I haven’t actually prayed for the red light district of Amsterdam more than a handful of times since we left but I still remember the emptiness that was in the eyes of the women looking down at us as we walked by their windows.
Recently one of my friends I was there with, sent our team a link to an article stating that the red light district may soon be a distant memory.
The article states, “What once looked like a revolutionary approach to prostitution in Holland is now clearly seen as a disaster, by all except those who seek to make a profit”
The coolest and maybe the hardest thing about intercession is the heart you gain for a person or a place but not always being guaranteed the fruit or maybe never actually getting to see if any difference was even made.
You see, in a world where “doing” is seen as so much, it can often feel like prayer isn’t actually serving the Lord at all.
But y’all! Things change when we come before the Lord for someone or somewhere..I’ve seen it myself.
I’ve seen rain come after having no rain for months.
I’ve seen finances come in when we had deadlines and no wifi to fundraise.
I’ve seen people be healed, mentally and physically.
I’ve seen our own hearts be transformed by the power of prayer.
So I’m going to leave you with yet another quote from Oswald Chambers but I’d really like to encourage you to take the time to build prayer into your daily routine. You may just change the world…or your heart.
“Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him?….Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray.”
