Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes us. God is always in a good mood. He has been in a good mood since the universe was born. You do not have a problem with God’s mood or God’s heart. We have a problem with our own hearts. So often we come to pray for a specific situation and think the only factors are God and the person. Yet Satan is real. There is baggage that person is carrying. There is a world influencing them. And there is the very heart with which we pray. Jesus said if you speak to the mountain and do not doubt in your heart, it will be removed. Often there is work that needs to be done in our own hearts before God can do what He already wishes, wills and wants to do.
Here are three keys that will change the way you pray for others.
Establish Your Heart in Righteousness
There is something we do not completely grasp, yet we can grasp it both biblically and experientially: the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When you are clothed in righteousness you are bold in the Lord. Remember Esther. She wanted to intercede, not for herself, but for the Jewish people before King Xerxes. She knew that if she came into his presence without approval she could die. Either he raised the sceptre in welcome or she perished. She came in and the sceptre was raised.
The sceptre of God’s kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. Jesus has gone into the presence of the Father and raised that sceptre. I have a right to pray, not based on my good works. So often people think God will answer because they gave to the poor, read the Bible, went to church, or paid their tithe. That actually hurts your prayers, not helps them. Many pray from a place of shame and guilt. We cannot look God in the face because we know we do not deserve what we are asking for. The point to grasp is this: Jesus deserves what we are asking for. We stand in Christ Jesus. As written in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Assuming you are walking with the Lord and walking in repentance, you are washed in the blood of the Lamb. That is how God sees you. The question is how you see yourself. You need to establish your own heart in righteousness. When we plead the blood we are not helping God out. We are helping ourselves and removing the influence of Satan, the accuser of the brethren. When accused we do not plead guilty or innocent. We plead the blood. Do not pray from a place of sin and shame. Establish your heart in righteousness as an ongoing way of life.
Pray the Word, Not the Need
If you are praying for somebody else, so often we pray from sympathy, compassion or empathy. Those are not bad. Yet there is often no authority and little faith. A real key is this: come to the Lord first and ask Him for a word for that person. Give us this day our daily bread. Ask the Lord for a rhema word—a now word, a direct word from Him for that person or situation. Then when you pray you are not praying the need or your emotional response to the need. You are praying what God has said.
Declare it as a finished work, something done in heaven that will be done on the earth. It is like Jesus saying, “It is written.” If the Lord has told you that young man will serve Him, even while he is still far from God, or that the person will be healed, or that the provision will come, come every day and say, “Lord, I thank You. You have declared this. I declare it right back to You. I thank You this is true.” Pray the word, not the situation.
Daniel, after seventy years, opened the scroll of Jeremiah and read that after seventy years of captivity the people would be brought home. He did not say, “God has decreed it; it is going to happen.” He began praying the word of God. He came before the Lord and said, “Lord, You said this.” While Daniel prayed for twenty-one days there was a battle between Michael the archangel and the prince of the kingdom of Persia. After twenty-one days Michael broke through and said, “I have come because of your words.” As written in Daniel 10:12, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.” The word we declare causes the war to be won.
Let the Spirit Intercede Through You
Paul writes in Romans that at times we do not even know what to pray for, nor how to begin. As written in Romans 8:26-27, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
There is a place of intercession where you simply do not know. You have no word. You do not know what good looks like. It is like a pilot who has lost all sense of up or down, who cannot see the horizon. At times we are like that in prayer. What we can do is pray in the Holy Spirit. I believe that is primarily praying in other tongues, which every Christian can do. Yet it is more than tongues. At times you can get on the floor and allow God to groan with you. It is the heart of God. God is Spirit. The heart of the Spirit of God is praying through your spirit. Paul says if I pray in the spirit my mind is unfruitful—my mind does not know what is going on. There is a place in intercession where a burden comes, you pray through it, and you know that the deal is done, that the thing is broken. I find that a very effective way of praying for somebody else.
Establish your heart in the righteousness of Christ. Ask for a specific word and pray that word. When you do not know how to pray, let the Spirit Himself intercede through you. These keys will change the way you pray for others.
Selah.
Scriptures for Study
Hebrews 4:16, Romans 8:26-27, Daniel 10:12, John 4:24, Hebrews 1:8, Psalm 45:6, Isaiah 54:14, Romans 8:16, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 12:11, Mark 11:23, Matthew 6:11, Jeremiah 29:10, Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20, 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, Romans 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 10:19-22, Esther 4:11, Esther 5:2, Genesis 15:6, Philippians 3:9, Romans 3:22, Galatians 3:27
10 Questions for Reflection
- Am I praying from a place of my own performance or from the righteousness of Christ?
- Where has shame or guilt been silencing my boldness before the throne?
- What would change if I asked the Lord for a specific rhema word before praying for someone?
- Am I praying the need and my emotions, or the word God has spoken?
- How consistently do I declare back to God what He has already said?
- In what situations do I feel like a pilot who has lost the horizon in prayer?
- Have I made room for the Spirit to intercede through me with groanings?
- Do I treat praying in the Spirit as only tongues, or also as allowing God’s heart to move through mine?
- How can I establish my heart in righteousness as an ongoing way of life?
- Which of these three keys do I most need to practise this week?
