Movement of the Spirit – True Intercession

I was once a part of an intercessory prayer group that congregated in a friend’s home. This prayer life of each prayer warrior in this group was strong and God often did miracles when we agreed in prayer together. Repeatedly God would show His all-powerful grace by moving in many strong ways in our midst.
Through this experience, I learned that deep prayer is just as personal as the most personal of spiritual or physical acts. I learned that deep intercession takes a hart of vulnerability and obedience above all things. It was an honor to be a part of this group.

Even though every weekend was richly blessed there is one weekend that stands out in my mind. I had just completed a 40 day fast and that evening we had a slightly larger than normal list of requests to pray for. The prayers we prayed in confidence for were submitted by members within the church in written form. Names were often not attached and sometimes the requests were quite vague. I found great joy in prayer when as we prayed for certain events God would bring into our mind’s eye the completeness of the situation and we would know exactly how to pray and what to pray for. Simply miraculous in my opinion.

In this group we would quite often pray for each other after we had finished praying for the needs that were requested of us. We called this little tradition “putting ourselves in the Hot Seat” at it involved the person being prayed for to sit down on a chair in the middle of the room while others laid their hands on them and prayed. This experience was like being placed in the center of a black hole where hugely powerful spiritual gravity would immediately consume every part of your being. God moved in mighty ways in this group and his healing and glory was manifest in many ways. For example, one “Prayer Warrior” person suffered from a chronic knee problem stemming from a knee injury. Through the prayers of this group, her knee was completely healed. Another Prayer Warrior through the prayers of this group recovered a severe arthritic condition. Those were just physical signs of healing. There was also much emotional and spiritual healing that also took place. I am told the impacts that happened within the congregation or church family was equally as profound as we prayed for them in our little group of six. God is mighty and does answer our needs and prayers. Hallelujah.

Now that you have a background of the group, let me cut to the miraculous experience that happened that night.
For some reason that night we broke from tradition as one member felt directed to pray for each other before praying for the needs in our church. This was quickly welcomed by the members of the crew not only because we would look forward the miracles God did but we also knew by praying for ourselves before the requests of the church, we would be placed in a deeper more in tuned experience with God. We would become more sensitive to his leadership and in turn bless our church even more deeply. Prayers that night would be answered in a way that none of us expected. I happened to even have a prayer request in the list that also went answered that night in a miraculous way.

If I was one of the last to be prayed over that night. Coming from a 40 day fast I had become highly attuned to the flow of the holy spirit in my life and that night would bring a huge awakening in my life. About halfway into the group's powerful prayers for me the Holy Spirit began to deeply move in my life; He magnified Himself within me and began to overwhelm me exactly like how I was overwhelmed in worship not much more than a year earlier. Once again I found myself not able to feel my arms and legs as that all familiar high-intensity spiritual electricity flowed through my flesh. All of my physical sensations were quickly consumed and my breathing began to labour as the rest of my body trembled with the deep presence of God. Being a part of this, the intercessory prayer group continued praying. I then I began to feel dizzy from the mighty force that was consuming every cell in my body. The power of God is so awesome.

Now just to be clear, I was not getting “possessed” in any way, nor was I experiencing sensations of control over my life like one might often feel when experiencing counterfeit movements in the “New Age” world. God was not controlling me at all, I was just completely overwhelmed by the extensive power of His spirit. I was in control of my body and mind and at all times and felt empowered to stop the experience simply by exiting the worship / prayer experience. I share often with others that God is a gentleman and will not pound in the door. He does not control us like puppets, nor does He expect that from us. He is a gentleman that waits for us to give permission to do a work in our lives.

While I was still dizzy and disoriented because of the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life and body, one of the prayer members suggested (as let by God) that I pray for all of the prayer requests that were given to us for that night. I think the suggestion caught everyone by surprise as there were so many requests, gut this group was extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit and realized each in their own heart that this is where God was leading.

Now I am not special in any specific way. It is not as though I am some magical healer or deep and powerful Prayer Warrior. I simply take the gifts that God bestows upon me to the measure of His grace and utilize them for the furtherment of His kingdom. The prayer requests were placed into my hands I knew God was going to continue to do a mighty work.
In the flash of one moment, I realized that I need not pray for each prayer individually as we normally do, but all I had to do was give the stack of requests directly to God and He would answer each one. God knew the requests of each individual intimately and at this time I felt no need to re-iterate the list to Him.

With trembling hands I held the little pile 3” x 4” sheets of paper and bellowed “You know the requests of each individual, God answer them!” and with that, I let the sheet slip from between my fingers and fall to the floor. I knew as they fell Jesus’ spirit was going forth into their lives and doing a miraculous work for them. My personal prayer was answered within the next 30 days as it was a prayer for financial provision. Within 30 days my life had changed and my wife and I have never struggled over finances since.

God is mighty. He is mighty indeed.