Corporate Intercession: How?
I. ENJOYABLE PRAYER - THE PROMISE OF ENJOYABLE PRAYER – FOR EVERYONE
“Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD…to love the name of the LORD…EVEN THEM I will bring to
My holy mountain, and MAKE THEM JOYFUL in My house of prayer.” (Isaiah 56:6-7)
A. God promises to release enjoyable prayer (Isaiah 56; 62; Psalm 149; Revelation 4-5). The only type of prayer that
will continue night and day is enjoyable prayer. Anointed enjoyable prayer is for everyone, “even them.” Isaiah referred
to the idolatrous barbaric nations around Israel as being invited to enjoy God in prayer.
B. The most significant passage related to enjoyable prayer outlines the beauty of God in context to the heavenly
worship around the Throne (Revelation 4-5). The beauty of God fascinates the heart and makes prayer enjoyable.
Music provides a unique dynamic in enabling large numbers of people to feel the same truths together in unity for
sustained periods of time. The Spirit of God is musical. Thus, the human spirit is musical. We are moved by music
because of how we were created in God’s image.
II. CORPORATE - ‘GATHER’ THE PEOPLE BOTH CONSISTENTLY & OCCASIONALLY
12 “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping (poverty of spirit), and with mourning.” 13 So rend (tear) your heart…
15 CONSECRATE a fast, Call a SACRED assembly; 16 GATHER the people, SANCTIFY the congregation… 18 Then the
LORD will be zealous…and pity His people…afterward…I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. (Joel 2:12-28)
A. We most commonly expect churches & ministries to be built around the “command to go” (Matthew 28:19-20). The
Lord is also issuing many the “command to gather” (Joel 2:15; Luke 24:49-53; Acts 1:14, 2:1, 42, 46). The Lord urged
them to (1) consecrate a fast; (2) call sacred (in our schedules and attitudes) assemblies; (3) gather the people; (4) and
sanctify the congregation. When we sanctify people under our leadership, we lay aside ministry programs to make
seeking God the top priority in terms of time, money, and work force.
B. God desires prayer that is corporate. It requires humility to embrace all that is implied in gathering corporately.
The differences between worship and prayer styles, doctrinal emphases, as well as our personalities, make humility
necessary if we are to gather together in a regular way. Also, this bonds us together as a spiritual family.
III. LEAD BY LEADERS
8 And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you…
15But…the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall
come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me… 16They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall
come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge. (Ezekiel 44:8-16)
A. The Lord is raising up leaders who will ‘gather’ both themselves and His people to sacred assemblies of prayer and
fasting. This session will focus on how we can faithfully sustain these prayer meetings for years. The way in which we stay
steady over the years in leading corporate intercession is dynamically related to our connectedness to its pleasures
(rewards, benefits, glories, etc.) and a right perspective of the pressures that seek to pull us away from watchful prayer.
Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! (Joel 1:2)
B. The blessing of “leaders who hear” – when leaders enter into fasting and prayer and leading by example, “the
inhabitants of the land” tune in (Joel 1:2). The blessing of God arises when leaders lead in God’s way. The mandate to
“hear” begins with spiritual leadership. The ‘hearing’ of the book of Joel refers to mounting crisis, the need for
wholehearted repentance, and the outpouring of the Spirit in revival. The progression in Joel 1:2 is that leaders first
hear what the Spirit is saying, and then the people earnestly give ear to it (Judges 5:2). People only do what their
leaders are doing recently.
“When leaders lead… the people willingly offer themselves, Bless the LORD! (Judges 5:2)
IV. ASKING FOR THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT
A. This is the only prayer focus that never loses life. Humans 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. This one general
request (outpouring) never gets old because you can pray it so many different ways.
B. There are 3 different ways to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit: asking God for the release of the gifts (power realm,
9 gifts plus other manifestations of Spirit), fruit of the spirit (intimacy, integrity, godly character), wisdom. Note: 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 asking for each
one of them, but rather praying for the for the release of conviction. People in a prayer meeting are more unified when
doing it this way because most inevitably end up “sermonizing” character traits by explaining the value of righteousness,
patience, etc.
V. PRAYING BIBLE PRAYERS
A. Praying the apostolic prayers of the New Testament and the Prophetic/Intercessory Decrees of the Old Testament
are powerful in unifying, sustaining, and governing corporate prayer meetings.
B. We encourage people to not just pray the bible but to actually pray the bible prayers. We keep a list of these on
sheets, easily accessible to whoever may come. The reason is that most of the time it is too difficult for people to avoid
the temptation to “preach” their prayer with their eyes closed. I define “preachy prayers” by the 3 “E’s”: explain (details),
editorialize, and exhort the room.
VI. ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH (WHAT WE CAN ENVISION)
A. The take-away point to mentioning this is that our prayer focuses will not be gigantic. I find it more helpful to
avoid praying for “all the lost people in the world” or “all the churches in the globe or even nation” because I can’t
picture them. Therefore I do not have faith (confidence) in the Lord answering.
B. Rather, I find it more helpful and enjoyable (vs. wrong or incorrect) to pray according to what I can picture or see God
doing.
VII. ON A MICROPHONE
Principle - In a corporate setting, we want to pray loud enough for everyone to hear (mic) or soft enough for no one to
hear, but not in between. We don’t want people around them to be ‘held hostage’ so to speak by them - this is just basic
consideration of others.
VIII. WITHOUT PREDOMINANTLY SHOUTING
A. Don’t Need to Scream/Shout Prayers - it is OK a little bit. It is not like God is going to hear better. Demons and
angels do not move more. Authority, passion, power, and anointing are not equated with volume. Neither is standing to
be equated with engaged (rather, engaged is sustained heart attentiveness to the Holy Spirit).
B. This means that the other 80% of the people are not passionate (neither are the ones sitting down). What
happens 10-20% of the people have the personality to scream on the mic, most do not have the personality to do that
in a corporate group. So what happens? 80% of the army of God concludes they are out of the game (can’t participate
in a public way). The average person concludes – I am not going to announce to all on a mic that I have no passion
and no anointing.
IX. FOR THE CHURCH/CITY/REGION/CONGREGATION
A. Rarely do we find Paul praying for himself or for individuals. Paul’s general custom was to pray for the whole house of
faith in a city. Paul had a very powerful and pulsating understanding of the church as an organic body (Ephesians 5).
When we pray for the church in a given city we are in reality including ourselves in our prayer. But more than including
ourselves in the prayer it actually forces a paradigm shift of the believer. This kind of praying forces us into a “family”
or “body” paradigm.
B. We all love the “lost” because we don’t know them. They are just a whole bunch of folk out there that don’t
mostly bug us - no names, no faces, but no attitudes, so we all love the lost because we don’t know them. It is totally
unreality.
C. The Lord might say, ‘why don’t we pray for your church?’ They bug me, the people are off, the leaders bug me,
this bugs me, etc. People are by nature adversarial toward the church. You weren’t the unique one who the church
abused. Why? Because we are by nature most adversarial with the people we are most familiar with (i.e. see your family).
We will become more humble, unified, and patient with the church if we pray for the church. So the Lord’s strategy is to
get us falling in love with the church WHILE we are reaping the harvest. This is brilliant!
D. The reason Asia was touched in Paul’s day is because there was an anointed church in Ephesus. The Lord’s
strategy is to labor for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to be released on the church. An anointed church brings in the
great harvest in power and in unity.
X. WITH CONSISTENT FASTING
A. The purpose of fasting is to increase our experience of God—the One we love. Above all, it tenderizes our hearts to
receive more of God, faster and deeper as we commune and respond to the Holy Spirit. Fasting makes us more aware of
the false drives, passions and movements of our hearts. The comforts and pleasures that dull our spirits are
progressively removed and we become increasingly sensitive to the Spirit.
B. God created our physical body in such a way to where we were made for fasting. Fasting is not mostly a restrainer
of pleasure but an enhancer of it. It is not intended to frustrate our physical life but to release it. Typically we approach
fasting as something that wages war against our physical being, when in fact it is intended to release it. It is the world’s
system that wages war against us, both physically and spiritually. The reality is that true pleasure comes only by feasting
on the person of Jesus. This actually puts our physical being into its proper perspective and allows it to come into place.
Our dilemma is that we get it backwards. We think that somehow we are going to come to greater life if we pamper our
body. The western culture holds this mindset by so overemphasizing physical comfort and pleasure.
XI. AVOIDING THE FOLLOWING WHICH TEND TO SCATTER FOCUS:
A. Praying for things that involve too many details, personal concerns, teaching content and issues that are not
shared burdens of the group.
B. Informing God of the details of specific situations and circumstances.
C. Informing other people concerning details of things that need to be changed, doctrinal insights, prescriptions of
what you believe are needed.
D. Devotional prayers that focus on your personal spiritual needs and longings.
E. Requests for people and situations that others are not aware of; and therefore may find it difficult to agree with you in
prayer.
F. Praying in such a manner that gives the feeling that you are teaching and/or exhorting others.
G. Prayers that catalogue the content of holiness and whole-heartedness.
XII. APPLYING 10 CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR EFFECTIVE PRAYER
1. Faith (Mark 11:23-24; Matthew 21:21,22; 1 John 5:14-15)
2. Persistence (Luke 18:1-8; Matthew 7:7-11; Isaiah 30:18-19, 62:6-7; Luke 11:5-13)
3. Holy Life (Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2; 1 John 3:19-22)
4. Honor Wife/Spouse (1 Peter 3:7)
5. Will of God (1 John 5:14-15)
6. Using Name of Jesus (John 14:13-14, 26; 16:23-24)
7. Pure Motives (James 4:2-3)
8. Boldness (Hebrews 4:16)
9. Forgiveness (Matthew 6:15)
10. Unity (Matthew18:19-20; 5:23-24)
Summary: Holy, believing persevering prayer is an essential aspect of co-laboring with God for the release of the grace He
desires to give us.