WITHOUT CEASING!

Scripture Reading:

Ephesians 6:18-19 AMP

With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God's people. [19] And pray for me, that words may be given to me when I open my mouth, to proclaim boldly the mystery of the good news [of salvation]

Prayer simply put, is the act of communicating with God. This type of communication is a two way street, we speak, God speaks. Today we are going to focus on the area of intercession under prayer.

Intercession basically means that you are "standing in the gap" for someone, or praying on behalf of someone. I'm sure almost every Christian, at one point in time in their lives, have found themselves praying on behalf of someone. Throughout scripture we see various intercessors that prayed on behalf of God's people; there's Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Samuel, Daniel, Esther, Jesus Himself, the Apostles and the early church, etc. We are always encouraged to pray for others, because the fervent and effectual prayer of the righteous avails much. God, through our prayer for others, can cause them to be delivered from many troubles.

When we look at the story of Peter the Apostle (Acts 12:1-17), around that time, James brother of John had been arrested and killed by Herod. After he saw that the jews were pleased with this act, he proceeded to arrest and kill Peter too. So Peter was arrested and put behind bars, with four squads of four soldiers each to guard him. It is noteworthy that the Apostle Peter was basically the general overseer of the early church, and Herod probably believed that killing Peter will cause the rest of the disciples of Jesus to scatter, and their "activities" will be stopped forcefully.

When the Church saw that things were getting out of hand, they got serious. There are no records that the Church prayed for James brother of John when he was arrested; maybe they did pray. But when they saw the audacity of Herod "shoot to the stars", as he arrested Peter, they probably thought, "this is getting out of hand, we'd better get serious."

And serious they did get!

They gathered together and lifted up prayer on behalf of Peter, they interceded fervently. And that very night, whiles intercession was still ongoing, Peter the Apostle was miraculously released from prison by the angel of the Lord. Glory to God!

This is just one of the many accounts in scripture which points to the power of intercessory prayer. As people of God, we are admonished many times to lift up prayer for the Church, it's leaders, our countries and it's leaders. Remember the many times you said to someone, "I'll pray for you" and you never did?? Yeah, things are changing starting todayyy.

It is our responsibility as members of the body of Christ to pray for one another, always. One secret in praying for others is that you develop a love for them. Once you start praying for the wellbeing of another individual, you unintentionally develop a love for them, which makes it easy for us to deal with their shortcomings.

In fact, one of the steps that is encouraged to be taken, by anyone seeking to forgive another for offending them, is making it a point to pray for the offender. In the initial stages it's difficult, no lie there. Like, all you want to do is "pray doom" on their life. But once you allow the Spirit of God in you to lead you to pray according to God's will, you begin to experience the love God has for His people, you feel His heart, and you inadvertently love them too, leading to true forgiveness.

Pray for people. Be a woman, a man of prayer. You can't tell me you have nothing to pray about...

Unfortunately, It's only when we are afflicted, or when our loved ones are afflicted that we run to the prayer room. But God wants us to pray, in season and out of season, praying without ceasing, to pray and not faint. So, pray for the Church, pray for it's leaders, pray for your country and it's leaders, pray for the salvation of souls, pray for missionaries, pray for the war torn countries, pray against the agenda of the evil one against God's Church, pray for the sick, pray for the weary, PRAY PRAY PRAY. Pray everyday, pray without ceasing. Pray.

"Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscle of omnipotence."

~Charles Spurgeon

Prayer:

Lord we come before you today in the sincerity of our hearts to say thank you. It is always an honour knowing that we are privileged to come before You to lift up prayer, and having the great assurance that You hear us, we approach with all boldness. Father we ask that even as we have been called to prayer, may a fire begin to burn in our hearts; break our hearts for what breaks Yours, and draw us into the stance of an intercessor. Now more than ever, the cry for the rise of intercessors is deafening! Birth in us the desire to pray for others even as You lead, may our prayer altars always be lit in the name of Jesus. We thank you Lord, we know You always hear us. In Jesus' name, AMEN.