Prayer and Intercession
Prayer is simply talking to God, and it is also how we take part in what He is already doing. You don't need special words. You need a willing, honest heart.
What "intercession" actually means. When we say we're interceding for you, we don't mean simply saying your name in a prayer. The Bible uses specific words for this:
In Hebrew, pāgaʿ means to meet or intervene on someone's behalf. Isaiah 53:12 uses it for the Messiah, who "made intercession for the transgressors."
In Greek, entynchánō pictures someone approaching a king with a petition. Romans 8:34 uses it for Christ Himself, who "is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." Romans 8:26 uses the same idea for the Holy Spirit, who "intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" when we don't know how to pray.
So biblically, intercession means standing before God on someone else's behalf, the way Abraham stood before God for Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33) and Moses stood before God for Israel (Exodus 32:11-14). That's what we're doing when we pray for you. We're not casting a wish into the air. We are bringing your name into an audience with the Most High King, the same way Christ Himself continually does for us (Hebrews 7:25).
Here's how we approach it:
1. Start with gratitude. Before you ask for anything, thank Him. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving" (Psalm 100:4). Gratitude puts your heart in the right place before you ask for anything else.
2. Follow the shape of the Lord's Prayer: Adore, Confess, Thank, Ask. Jesus gave us the pattern in Matthew 6:9-13, and it repeats all through Scripture, not just there. Four movements:
Adoration — start with who God is ("hallowed be thy name")
Confession — be honest about who you are ("forgive us our trespasses")
Thanksgiving — thank Him for what He's already done
Supplication — then ask, for yourself and for others
It's not a rigid formula, it's the natural order of a heart that's actually approaching God rather than just demanding something. Even the rawest prayers in the Psalms, the ones that open with "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me," still end by turning back to trust. If you don't know where to start a prayer, start with adoration and let it move from there.
3. Remember who you are, and whose blood you're praying by. Start by acknowledging you are a sinner saved by grace, not someone with special standing of your own. We approach God through the blood of Jesus, which makes us righteous enough to come near, and we ask the Holy Spirit to pray through us. "The Spirit himself intercedes for us" (Romans 8:26). This is never our own ministry. It's the Holy Spirit working through us.
4. Cover yourself before you begin. Ask the Lord to guard you from any watching/monitoring or interfering spirit of the enemy. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against... the spiritual forces of evil" (Ephesians 6:12). This is spiritual work, done quietly, in communion with the Lord, not for show.
5. Keep it private. There is no need to brag or show and tell others you're part of an intercession ministry, and don't discuss the requests you carry unless with trusted wise council. Paul was given "a thorn in the flesh... to keep me from becoming conceited" because of the depth of what he'd received from God (2 Corinthians 12:7) — visibility and pride in spiritual things invites more spiritual attack, not less. Jesus taught the same about prayer itself: "when you pray, go into your room and shut the door" (Matthew 6:6). High confidentiality, always.
6. Pray for alignment and mercy, not a wish list. We do not guarantee you will get what you ask for. What we promise is this: we will bring your petition into audience with the Lord, the Most High King, and ask on your behalf, the way an intercessor stands before a king (Hebrews 4:16). Where judgment could rightly fall, we ask Him to delay it, or cancel it, and to extend mercy, the way He did for Nineveh, or when Moses interceded for Israel. Our main mission in this is that the Lord continues to open your heart and mind, to renew you, and to help you see and align with His will, not simply to hand you what you asked for. We are not a genie in a bottle or a wishing well. We bring the desire of your heart before God, and ask for His wisdom and mercy in how He responds. He stays sovereign. We are participants in His work, not directors of it.
7. End in worship. Close every prayer pointing back to Him: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:13).
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