Overview of the Apostolic Prayers
I. INTERCEDING WITH THE APOSTOLIC PRAYERS: TWO REASONS WHY
A. Key Premise: Whatever is set forth (highlighted) to be contended for in the place of prayer in the New Testament
is of highest priority to the heart of God. We can conclude that the prayers set forth by Jesus and the apostles are
reflective of God’s highest desires and therefore worthy of night and day intercession.
B. First, one of the primary reasons we want to intercede much using the apostolic prayers is because they keeps
us personally grappling with the high vision that God has for our individual lives and what He is postured to give us if
we persevere.
C. Secondly, these prayers keep us connected to the big picture of God’s heart and plan for the lives of His people.
These prayers contain a thread of an epic story line that undergirds them that each of us are apart if. Jesus, Paul, and
the apostles lived and prayed with God’s end goals in view. So what is this bigger picture that consumes and drives the
apostolic prayers? Getting and staying connected to this story line fascinates, exhilarates, and motivates our hearts in
the place of intercession. What is “the story line” or “dream” of God’s heart?
1. Deep in the heart of the Father is a glorious plan which He purposed in Himself in ages past according to that
which filled His heart with gladness and pleasure (Eph. 1). This plan involved giving His beloved Son His former enemies’
voluntary love (Ps. 2) and exalting them to rule and reign over His vast creation with Him.
2. God’s desire to “dwell” with His people - This has been God’s motivation throughout redemptive history (as an
expression of His determined desire for intimacy with people). The LORD steadily emphasized this plan through the Law
and the Prophets and gave glimpses of it until it became increasingly clear that His intent was to directly dwell with His
people in deep communion. This is the evident story line from Abraham, Moses & children of Israel, the tabernacle,
David’s theocracy, and the prophets, culminating in God coming to personally dwell in the flesh with His people.
3. We must constantly keep in mind this end goal of God’s desire. It is this reality that all of the apostolic prayers anticipate, celebrate,
and legislate coming to pass.
4. Paul “believed himself appointed a mediator between God and the churches in his care, charged with the priestly
responsibility of presenting them blameless to God at the parousia.” (Wiles, 1974). See: 1 Thes. 2:19, 3:9-11, 5:23;
Rom. 15:16; 2 Cor. 1:14, 11:2; Phil 2:16; Col. 1:28)
5. It is this eschatological reality that drove Paul to fervent intercession. Yes it was city-wide revival, compassion for
the lost, broken, and sick. Paul was fueled by a big picture. Paul labored in the place of prayer for Christ’s bride to be
counted worthy (2 Thes.1:11; Col. 1:9), enriched in everything, lacking nothing, confirmed to the end (1 Cor. 1:5,7, 8),
without offense (Phil 1:9) (1 Cor. 1:5); blameless in holiness (1 Thes. 3:13) at the coming of our Lord Jesus…in the
day of our Lord Jesus.
6. Paul’s intercession was fueled by the revelation of the end-times and a bride who made herself ready
(Rev. 19:7 unity, intimacy, and maturity) for the return of the Lord Jesus to set up His kingdom on earth (Eph. 1:9;
Rev. 7:15, 21:3).
7. The Holy Spirit is putting these prayers at the center of the end time prayer movement. Because these prayers
are for the preparing of the Son’s inheritance at the culmination of the end-times. He is the ultimate friend of the
Bridegroom going ahead of Jesus to prepare His way. When His work is complete He will empower the most powerful
intercessory prayer of the church, “COME!” (Rev. 22:17)
D. The apostolic prayers embody the vision, values, power, and perseverance (persecution) of the New Testament
church.
E. The End-Time Church worldwide will come into a fullness of maturity far exceeding the church in the first century.
In other words, a victorious church theology is strongly developed in the apostolic prayers. The victory of the church
from God’s point of view is set forth. The church’s victory will be esteemed and evaluated as great before heaven (not
necessarily before men: Jn 16:33; 1 Cor 4:9, 15:19; 2 Tim 2:9, 3:12; Acts 17:32;).
He gave…apostles, some prophets…12…equipping of the saints…13 till we ALL come to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge (intimacy) of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the…stature of the fullness (maturity) of Christ.
(Eph. 4:11-13)
1. Unity: the Church will be unified in context to the revival and persecution.
2. Intimacy: the Church will have deep experiential knowledge of Jesus.
3. Maturity: the Church will mature in the Spirit including His gifts, fruit, and wisdom.
4. Overview of the victorious End-Time Apostolic Church (Eph. 4:13; 5:27; Matt. 16:18; 22:37; Jn. 17:21-26;
Rev. 19:7; 12:11; 15:2). Fullness of revival (Rom. 11:25; Rev. 7:9). Victorious Church (Eph. 4:13, 15; 5:27;
Mt. 16:18; 22:37; Jn. 17:21-26; Rev. 19:7; 12:11; 15:2). Fullness of the Gentiles and the salvation of Israel
(Rom. 11:25-26). Bridal paradigm (Rev. 22:17; Hos. 2:16; Mt. 22:37; 25:8). Worship and prayer movement
(Lk. 18:7-8; Mt. 21:13; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-5; 22:17, 20; Isa. 62:6-7; Joel 2:12-17, 32; Zech. 12:10). Spirit of power and
prophecy and revelation (Acts 2:17; Jer. 31:9; 23:20; 30:24; 5:4-5; Dan. 11:33-35; 12:3, 10; Rev. 11:3-6; 18:20;
Matt. 17:11; Mal. 4:6; Jn. 14:12). Great Harvest (Mt. 24:14; 28:19; Rev. 7:9; 5:9; 14:6; 15:4; Dan. 7:14, 27).
II. DEFAULT FOCUS OF THE APOSTOLIC PRAYERS: OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
A. For corporate intercessory prayer meetings the best focus for the majority of the prayers is for the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. Why? Because this prayer focus never loses its life. Weak people can sustain this focus, multiple times, over
the years, whereas praying for a more narrow focus for 100’s of prayer meetings wears on the people over time.
B. This one general request (outpouring) never gets old because you can pray it so many different ways.
There are 3 different ways to pray for the outpouring:
1. Gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7-9) - power realm, 9 gifts plus other manifestations of the Holy Spirit; dreams and
visions, mighty rushing wind, etc. We can pray for this in different ways including asking the Spirit to fall on those we
lay hands on (Acts 8:18), to release the spirit of revelation (Acts 2:17) or for corporate release of the Spirit’s power
when we gather (Acts 2:1-4).
2. Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) -intimacy and integrity, 9 fruit, godly character. We pray for the release of
conviction of the Spirit that results in godly character in those who hear the Word. We can prayer for this in different
ways including the release of the fear of God, peace, joy and righteousness (Acts 9:31, 2 Thes. 2:16, 17,
2 Thes. 3:16; 2 Cor. 1:3, 4; Rom. 14:17; 15:13). We pray for the release of God’s power on the preaching or
singing of the His Word so that those who hear it are pierced through by the sword of God’s Word (Heb. 4:12;
Acts 2:37-41), consumed with the fire of God’s Word (Isa. 33:13, 14) or have their hearts shattered by the hammer
of God’s Word (Jer. 23:29).
8He (Holy Spirit) will convict the world of sin...righteousness, and judgment: (Jn. 16:8)
a. The way to get a breakthrough in interceding for godly character (of course people have to make choices for
righteousness) in the New Testament (in terms of God’s power breaking in) is for the conviction of God (power) to be
upon the preaching of the word.
b. In Acts 2, the word was like a fire in the mouth of Peter, resulting in 3,000 people getting pierced by the Spirit of
God (some of these were people who were in Jerusalem and were not moved by Jesus’ signs and wonders…interesting).
By the end of the week these 3,000 people they are living sharing their money and time, serving, etc. They didn’t get
godly character because of good seminars on sharing, rather it was the fruit of God’s power on the spoken word
piercing hearts
c. The Spirit was poured out in New York City through Charles Finney’s preaching resulting in an atmosphere that
was alive with the conviction of God. Thousands got saved on a weekly basis for 8 weeks in a row.
d. The best way to ask for the fruit of the Spirit in a prayer meeting isn’t by going through a list of character traits
and ask for each one of them, we pray for the release of conviction. I found that the people in a prayer meeting are more
unified because most inevitably end up “sermonizing” character traits by explaining the value of righteousness, patience,
etc. Sermonizing prayers empty a prayer room, but we want to pray for character. We want to talk to God about people,
not to people about God.
3. Spiritual Wisdom (Jas. 1:5) - divine direction. We pray for God’s wisdom to be imparted to the Church and
individuals in it (Col. 1:9-10; 4:12; Ps. 25:5, 43:3-4), for the spirit of revelation (Eph. 1:17) or for the release the Holy
Spirit’s teaching ministry (Jn. 14:16, 26; 16:13-15, 26, 27).
III. KEY APOSTOLIC PRAYERS (NOT COMPREHENSIVE)
A. John 17 - the longest & greatest intercessory prayer by Jesus Himself. This prayer is the anchor and “table of
contents” of all the other apostolic prayers.
B. Eph. 1:17-19 - Prayer for revelation of Jesus' beauty and the Bride's destiny unto transforming our heart
C. Eph. 3:16-19 - Prayer for the release of supernatural strength in the heart unto experiencing God's emotions.
D. Phil. 1:9-11 - Prayer for God's love to abound in our heart resulting in discernment and righteousness.
E. Col. 1:9-12 - Prayer to know God's His will, to be fruitful in ministry and strengthened by intimacy with God.
F. Rom. 15:5-7 - Prayer for unity within the church across a city.
G. Rom. 15:13 - Prayer to be filled with supernatural joy, peace and hope.
H. 1 Cor. 1:4-8 - Prayer to enriched with the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit leading unto righteousness.
I. Rom. 10:1 - Prayer for Israel to be saved through Jesus.
J. 1 Thes. 3:9-13 - Prayer for the release of apostolic ministry and to abound in love and holiness
K. 2 Thes. 1:11-12 - Prayer to be equipped and prepared to receive the fullness of God’s destiny for the church.
L. 2 Thes. 3:1-5 - Prayer for the Word to increase by the release of Holy Spirit power.
M. Acts 4:24-31 - Prayer for the impartation of Holy Spirit boldness through the release of signs and wonders.