Demystifying Intercession: What It Is, How to Do It, and Why It’s important

Nov. 27

By Alice Clarke

Intercession. The term might be familiar to you, or it might fit into the mystical realm of “Christianese” that makes some spiritual practices feel confusing or unattainable. In this post, we’re going to take away that mystery. We’ll look at what intercession is, how to intercede, and why it’s so important, with the help of April Stephenson, leader of intercession for Catch The Fire.

April leads a team that prays for Catch The Fire’s global leadership team and oversees the teams that pray for specific regions. She also heads up prayer and intercession training for Catch The Fire churches around the world and is about to release a program called Presence Intercession for training intercessors.

April carries peace and wisdom. Spending time with her, it’s clear that she knows God intimately and has pursued this for many years, “At age 28 when I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, my prayer life changed dramatically,” says April, “As a Baptist raised young woman my prayers had always been based on scripture, but now, in addition to that important foundation, God was so real to me that prayer became our conversation. I learned to listen to Jesus more than speak and He taught me to pray. The Bible, which I had always loved and studied, came alive. Prayer was now a dynamic adventure as the Holy Spirit began to teach me how to pray through visions, experiences, and dreams. Over the years, God continued to heal my heart and teach me to love. I now realize that genuine love is essential to intercession.”

Interested in pursuing prayer as a dynamic adventure with the Holy Spirit? Here’s what you need to know.

The Difference Between Prayer and Intercession

“Intercession is speaking to God on behalf of another; another person, people group, situation, church, or community. Intercession is a sacrifice of our time and life’s focus.”

— April Stevenson

You might have talked about prayer and intercession interchangeably, but there’s a difference. “The term prayer can be used for all forms of speaking with God,” says April, “ but to differentiate the term from intercession I would say that prayer is speaking with God about those things which concern ourselves. Intercession, on the other hand, is speaking to God on behalf of another; another person, people group, situation, church, or community. Intercession is a sacrifice of our time and life's focus. It is an example of how we can lay down our life for another. It is a form of loving another.”

Intercession in the Bible

There are references throughout the Bible that talk about prayer; how to pray, when to pray, and stories where prayer makes a difference. Many points specifically talk about intercession. April says, “The Bible is filled with intercessory prayer from the very beginning. Moses, Daniel, Hezekiah, and Nehemiah all interceded on behalf of the people and God responded, forgave their sin, and helped them. One example is in Daniel 10, where Daniel was fasting and praying on behalf of the people. After three weeks, an angel comes and says, ‘Right away your prayers were heard by God.’

“When we get into the New Testament, we're encouraged by Jesus to pray as part of loving one another. We carry one another's burdens, and we can do that in prayer. The New Testament is full of indications to pray and encouragement to pray. 1 Peter 4:7b-8 says ‘Be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.’ (NIV). There you have direction not only to pray but to be clear-minded (alert) and self-controlled (sober), linking it also to love, which God always does, whether it's developing in your spiritual gifts or your prayer life. God is always bringing the two together.

“Acts 12 records the account of apostle Peter miraculously being released from prison by an angel as a result of God's people praying. Today as we pray and intercede for the will of our heavenly Father to manifest in our lives and for others, we are engaging God in His world, a miraculous realm.”

Why Prayer and Intercession Are Important for the Church

“Intercession is important for the church because we're called to love each other. And loving each other is laying down our lives.,” says April, “‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.’ (John 15:13 NIV). We lay our lives down in different ways, as we serve God and we serve people. One way we serve is in prayer.

“We're laying down focus on our own needs and situations, and we're laying down our time. One can never dictate the time when we're willing to pray. It could be during the night hours or the early morning, it could interrupt at any time. Sometimes it's a matter of a minute, a spontaneous prayer, and other times longer. Because we're called to love one another deeply, we are a Kingdom of love becoming more and more like Jesus, then we are all called to pray. Some are called to be intercessors as a ministry, just like some are called to pastor as a ministry, but we are all called to pray.”

Around the world, expressions of prayer and intercession come in diverse shapes and forms. “He's created these incredible prayer movements that are in many nations around the world and they're only growing. But in addition to these large prayer gatherings online or prayer movements, God is also working in a very different way. He's spontaneously bringing together small groups of people; two, three, or four. They get together and they're praying, and He's speaking with them. I believe that the Kingdom is coming through all these hundreds of different small prayer groups,” says April.

Principles of Effective Intercession

How can we intercede effectively? “There's no formula,” says April, “There are principles that are the ones Jesus taught, but there's no formula. He loves doing things in different ways.”

Here are five principles to follow for more effective intercession:

DIG INTO THE BIBLE

“I'm very strong on people who pray knowing the Word of God, being in the Scripture, more than any other books,” says April, “Because we must know God, begin to understand Him, to know what He requires from us and what He's looking for.”

The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 is an excellent example of Jesus teaching us how to pray, but it’s important to see this prayer in context, “In Matthew six and seven, Jesus talks about not judging, being giving and kind. He talks about time with God in closet prayer, short prayers, and not being too wordy. He talks about many things, and then in the midst of all of it He gives the example of the Lord's Prayer,” says April, “We can all be more effective if we do not single out scripture verses on prayer, but always take them looking at what it says before and after, and what the context is.”

2. PURSUE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Prayer is part of our life together with God. It is our continual conversation and communion with our loving Father. “I don't single prayer out from lifestyle, because intercession is all about relationship with God in conversation with God,” says April, “Following the ways of Jesus is very important. Then our prayers are more effective because we are not only hearing what we should be doing and how we should be approaching life, we are actually doing it.”

3. ASK AND WAIT

“Whenever you think, ‘I wonder how we should pray,’ or ‘I wonder about this, what does this mean?’ Stop and just ask God and wait,” says April, “Wait and listen, then continue in your prayers. I have found that God loves being asked. He just loves being part of the process. It seems to please Him more, even, than the times where I think I've got it all right and I know what to pray. I find the presence of God so much stronger, the times when I've walked the journey of prayer with Him, stopping and starting. To me, this is colabouring with Jesus in intercession, colabouring with the Holy Spirit, colabouring with the Father. It's just a wonderful experience that way.”

4. PURSUE THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Intercession works together with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as He reveals prophecy, words of knowledge, tongues, and discernment to guide the prayer. April explains that through these revelatory gifts, “You'll get specifics and that's where we want to go in intercession. We want to go from general, to specific to be more effective.”

5. TRUST IN GOD’S MASTER PLAN

Asking God how to pray takes the pressure off us to get everything right. He wants to partner with us in prayer.

“God has a masterplan, a strategy for every situation. But we only get to see and engage in our part of it. God may have other people praying other parts of His 'rescue plan' or God may only be prepared to do a certain part of the plan now and more next week or next year even,” says April, “The spiritual realm is complicated and sometimes God's plan is layered in pieces and timing. I have found it to be restful knowing that I can depend upon our faithful God to give me my part to pray when I give Him the opportunity to speak. Ask and follow the plan in prayer.”

“ I have found it to be restful knowing that I can depend upon our faithful God to give me my part to pray when I give Him the opportunity to speak. Ask and follow the plan in prayer.”

— April Stevenson

Intercession Makes a Difference

With decades of experience in intercession, April has seen effective prayer on behalf of others make a difference in countless situations. As she has travelled with teams of intercessors, they’ve felt God leading them to travel to specific places to pray, only discovering later that there were significant spiritual strongholds in the area that God wanted to see broken. April often has pictures of specific places and times, including churches, where God shows her strategies for how those churches can move forward from current problems and see breakthrough.

She describes a recent example of persevering in prayer, “I was in prayer and had a picture. I could see a young couple, and they were seated on the sofa. They looked to be in their late 20s. I saw them in their living room, and I could feel the tension between them. The wife just turned away, got up and left the room and the picture was over. So I began to intercede for them. I knew from their conversation with each other, that he was in a police force.

“I began to intercede in every way I knew to do, including listening to God, but I didn't feel the burden lifting from my heart. So I persevered with God. I believe in talking normally, being very real with God. So, I said, ‘God you know something I don't.’ Eventually, He said to me, ‘This is a young couple. He is in the police force. He is having to deal with very difficult situations every day at work when he's out there on the streets. It's painful, and he just can't share it with his wife. And she has taken that as coldness on his part. She does not understand he is struggling with the trauma of his work.’ That gave me something solid upon which I could go further in intercession. As I did so, the burden lifted. I have no doubt in my heart that God moved in that marriage because he gave me the information that was needed to pray effectively.

“I have no idea who they were, but I saw them very clearly. It's like God let me go into their house. This is not uncommon, it has scriptural reference. Elisha was in on the enemy's plans and prayed strategically from that knowledge. It's not unusual for God to be able to take you right into a situation. It can be in the form of a word of knowledge, discernment, a vision, or an intercessory dream, which gives you the information so that you can effectively pray.”

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Are you looking to dig deeper into intercession? Look out for April’s training program, Presence Intercession, to be released later this year. April also recommends the following books and authors: