Ten Minute Mystic: Part 3: Growing in People Through Intercession (3)

Few things shape us into the people-loving individuals Jesus dreams of in his Sermon on the Mount like intercession.  The more we intercede for others in prayer, the more our heart is shoved from its self-centered position to one focused on the needs and wants of others.  Here are three non-traditional ways to practice intercession:

Intercession as Listening

Richard Foster writes that praying for others begins by listening to God.[i]  He writes that “Listening to the Lord is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing necessary for successful intercession.”  For example, he writes, instead of continuing to pray for Aunt Susie’s arthritis just as you have been for twenty years, stop and listen.  Perhaps God wishes you to pray for something else, something deeper, something of even greater need for Aunt Susie.

Think of one individual in your life right now.  In your mind, see that individual.  Now sit quietly before God with that individual in your mind and your heart.  What does he/she truly need?  What is most urgent for that person?  Now, pray about what you’ve heard.

Intercession as Flash Prayers

Richard Foster writes about the practice of “flash prayers”—praying short and silent prayers for each and every person we see and interact with during the day.[ii]  This type of on-going intercession may, in fact, be the most personally transformative type of prayer.  Dallas Willard writes that “prayer as a discipline has its greatest force in strengthening the spiritual life only as we learn to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17; Phil. 4:6).  We can train ourselves to invoke God’s presence in every action we perform.”[iii]

If you have the opportunity to be among a group of people today at work, school, in a store, or in your neighborhood, prayer silently for every individual you see.  As you walk, shop, talk, or do business, pray silently for every individual.  Don’t stop until you’ve managed to intercede in some way for every person you see.

Intercession as Counter-Cultural Action

Besides the Lord’s Prayer, another place in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches explicitly about intercession is in Matt. 5:43-44-You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  The conventional wisdom says we should love our neighbor and hate those who hate us.  But Jesus is building a counter-cultural community in which we actually love our enemies and pray for those who hurt and hate us.  One radical form of intercession is to pray positively for those who have hurt us.  Think right now about someone who has hurt you: a spouse, a child, a parent, a former friend, a coworker or a classmate.  Now, pray positively for that person.  

If you can’t think of anyone who has hurt you recently, James Bryan Smith suggests this: pray for a competitor.  Specifically, pray for the success of a competitor.[iv]  Change the adversarial relationship of the marketplace to one on compassion and kindness.

Take ten minutes today to practice one of these forms of intercession.

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[i] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline Revised and Expanded (Harper & Row, 1978), 39.

[ii] Foster, Celebration, 44.

[iii] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines (Harper San Francisco, 1978), 185-186.

[iv] James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life (IVP, 2009).

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