AdamParker.org

Targeted Intercession

Filed under: Intercession

In the previous articles I explained why and how to pray biblical prayers. Much of it was focused on the prayers from the new testament. In this article I’d like to branch off from that and talk about the significance of having a specific target to pray for when leading corporate prayer.

There are 2 types of targets in our prayers I want to address:

1. People
2. Location

Intercession is defined as “a prayer to God on behalf of another” or a “pleading on behalf of another person.” When we are leading our prayer meetings it is important to remember to bring a focus to our prayers by stating WHO we are praying for.

Target WHO You Are Praying For

When Paul prays in Ephesians 1, he is praying for “the saints who are in Ephesus” (Eph. 1:1). He specifically targets a particular group of people here in Ephesians and does the same in the prayers that are in Colossians and Thessalonians.

Whether you are praying for believers or unbelievers you want to specify the target. This also applies to justice issues. Justice issues like abortion, human trafficking, the poor, or the government should apply specifically to a group of people. When you pray for an “issue”, you should make sure to target who you are praying for.

For example, if you are praying for abortion to end in a certain city you can pray for believers in that city, you can pray for the salvation of unbelievers in that city, you can pray for the pro-abortion doctors and politicians, you can pray for the mothers and the fathers or you can pray for the victims who are the babies themselves.

Specify a Location

Paul not only states that he is praying for “the saints”, but he says “the saints who are in Ephesus.” When we tie a specific location to a group of people we are praying for in a prayer meeting we can increase the amount of faith people will have for God to actually do what we’re asking Him to do. Because of our weak human frames it is much easier to have faith for God to break into the church in a particular city than it is to have faith for God to break into the church globally. When people have greater faith for a particular focus you are leading them in, this keeps more people engaged in intercession and less willing to “check-out” during the prayer meeting.

A location can be a city, a state, a nation or it can be a campus or a specific area within a city. However, the smaller we make the target the more personal we make our prayers which helps to keep more people engaged in intercession for that particular focus.

Focused Intercession Helps Us To See Answered Prayers, Which Fuels Intercession

Another benefit to making our prayers more specific is that we can measure whether our prayers have been answered. If we are praying for the salvation of unbelievers in a particular city or area or outreach in a city and salvations actually happen our faith is dramatically increased because we have seen God answer our prayers.