What is intercessory prayer?
Intercessory prayer is when one person prays to God on behalf of another person. Most of the time, the person performing the intercessory prayer does so without the consent of the person for whom he is praying.
Intercessory prayer is not complicated. You don’t need special training. You do not need special permission from your church. You don’t even need to be in a special place when you pray. You can be driving down the highway on your way to work and say something as simple as, “God, please help my sister find a boyfriend!” You have just performed the intercessory prayer.
While the act of praying for another person is relatively simple and straightforward, there are certain things you can do to improve your prayer that will increase its effectiveness.
The most basic element of effective prayer is this: know what you want before you begin to pray! The more specific your wish, the more effective your prayer can be.
The intercessory prayer mentioned above (God, please help my sister find a boyfriend!) uses descriptive, simple, and direct words. But just as important as the words used for the sentence, the visual images are just as important.
If you were to pray such a prayer for your sister or a friend, what would you visualize at the time you prayed? Basically, you have two options: (1) visualize your current life without a boyfriend or (2) visualize your life with a boyfriend.
Can you imagine your sister alone at the movies? Would you picture her home alone on a Friday night, wrapped in a blanket on the couch and watching a romantic movie? Or would she visualize her happy and laughing and holding hands with a handsome gentleman?
The images we hold in our minds when we pray are extremely important to the effectiveness of our prayer. If we have the wrong images in mind, we could be doing more harm than good.
As you have probably guessed, it would be much more productive for you to visualize your sister happy and content with her new boyfriend. By visualizing the desired outcome rather than a current negative situation, you will greatly improve the effectiveness of praying for it.
While there are many elements to effective prayer, I think visual imagery is the most important. Once you have mastered the use of reinforcing images during prayer, you should take the time to learn the other elements associated with effective prayer.
