"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." (Ezekiel 22:30)

God is seeking and searching for those who will intercede, who will "stand in the gap" for people and nations of peoples. Sin requires a response from God, however God does not want anyone to perish but that all would come to repentance.

This may seem obvious but many of those in your prayer meetings will not have a vision for the importance of intercession. And even for those of us that do we must be encouraged again and again of God’s purpose for and response to intercession.

Without Moses' intercession for God's people, God's wrath would have been poured out against His people many more times than it was for their sin (Ex. 32:7-14; Deut. 9:8-9, 12-20, 23-27; Ps. 106:23). When man's sin requires a response from God we can change the outcome through intercession like Moses did in Exodus 32:7-14: "So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people."

When we get a vision that intercession is both an intimate partnership and an agreement with God we will begin to enter into it with a greater passion to touch the heart of God. God wants us to know His heart and more so, to feel the very emotions of His heart, then to hear us cry out for the longings of His heart to come to pass. We begin to feel and do what the Father feels and does.

“For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest...” (Isaiah 62:1)

“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest...” (Isaiah 62:6)

When we partner with the heart of God in intercession we are being the means by which God’s will is established on earth. God does not act apart from human beings partnering with His heart. In intercession we come into agreement with God and what God promised to do. When we ask God to do what He desires to do, we are declaring that we agree that His desires are good, and that His desires have become our desires.

Below are some practical ways to encourage ourselves and others in gaining vision for intercession:

Genesis 18:23-32; Job 16:21; Lamentations 2:18-19; Joel 2:17; Acts 12:5-12

 “7 Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night…? 8 I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily.” (Lk. 18:7-8; NAS)

God ties intercession as essential to the breaking in of justice for those in need. This justice comes in partnership between Jesus and His people. There is a mystery and a majesty of intercession that we must seek revelation on. In intercession, we basically tell God what He tells us to tell Him and He does the rest. This is how He has chosen to operate His kingdom, in partnership with His people. It is profoundly simple and seemly weak in the world’s eyes, yet accessible to all.

When we as God’s workers, do works of justice out of a place of intimacy with Jesus we are positioned to be energized to love God and people far better than if we tried in our own strength. God has chosen to use the things that men consider weak (i.e. prayer and fasting) to triumph over evil. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood when we pray, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness…in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Thus, we are contending for power to confront the demonic forces behind injustice. Power to heal the sick is far better than only helping the sick with care or finances.

Through intercession we are united to God’s heart for the people and the places we pray for. Love is expressed in a practical way through intercession that releases deliverance to those in need.

“You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” (2 Cor. 1:11)

“This will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer…” (Phil. 1:19)

We must have a vision for justice in our prayer life and our prayer meetings. Let us pray always, not lose heart, and stand in confidence that God will give speedy justice to those who cry out night and day.

Having a vision for intimacy with Jesus as a foundation to your prayer meeting will keep the focus of your meetings on encountering Jesus. If our primary focus is on encountering God and not on speaking to and binding Satan, our prayer meetings will be enjoyable and sustainable. The latter element is there at times, but it is not our primary and regular focus. We want to create an environment that makes it easy for people to come and rest in the presence of God and meet with our Creator face to face. When our prayer meetings are focused on the preeminence and supremacy of Jesus Christ, all of our circumstances are diminished, our enemies are defeated and we can stand in confidence in the place of prayer.

When we have a vision for intimacy with Jesus in the place of prayer, we gain a right view of God as a tender Father and a passionate Bridegroom. Prayer positions us to be energized to love God and to love people. We love others far better as we regularly encounter God’s heart. When we connect with God regularly we gain the “oil of intimacy” spoken of in Matthew 25:3-4.

“That the world may know that You…have loved them as You have loved Me” (Jn. 17:23).

In John 17:23 Jesus prayed that we would know that the Father loves us as much as the Father loves the Son. That is an astounding statement. The uncreated God loves me just as much as God loves Jesus.

Get a vision for encountering the living God and His heart of unrelenting love in the place of prayer. Encountering truths like these in the place of prayer are essential to sustaining prayer long term.

Once you have started your prayer meeting and you have a few weeks, months, or even a year under your belt, how do you sustain it? How do you keep your prayer meeting going week after week? How do you fuel people to keep the fire burning? You must have vision, and your vision must be fueled by the message.

Most people will try anything once, but there must be a vision for something greater than yourself, greater than your meeting in order to sustain your prayer meeting over years. Your vision must transcend your own ability to accomplish goals, yet also be clear enough for people to wrap their mind around and get behind.

Your vision must also be founded upon the message. Here at IHOP-KC we have determined four primary pillars that fuel everything that we do. These 4 pillars are intimacy with Jesus, intercession, end times, and justice. The messages that come out of IHOP-KC will fall into one of these categories and the direction that we are headed is filtered through these as well.

I have found even in my personal life that setting these four areas as a foundation for personal devotion, bible study, and setting up an action plan for the Word has catapulted my time with God. My encouragement to you is to make your vision personal. Give yourself, your time, and your energy to your vision in a personal way, not just for your ministry. Let the vision God has given you be your guide regardless of whether or not you have a ministry that is leading others. Once you have a vision, get an action plan for the Word based on your vision and begin to unpack the layers of that vision. You can’t sell others on your vision if you are not sold yourself.

This article is for worship leaders and prayer leaders of a prayer meeting that is of any size. I hope this encourages you to try incorporating spontaneous singing into your prayer meeting.

“I will sing with the Spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (1 Cor. 14:14-15)

There are two ways to sing spontaneously. First, we can do this by singing from the Scriptures. Secondly, we can sing with our spirit in tongues.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 to be filled with the Spirit by speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. The Word of God does not return void, so when we sing the Scriptures we are singing and speaking forth words of life. In 2 Chronicles 29:30 it says, “King Hezekiah and the leaders commanded the Levites to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness…”

Paul also talks of the necessity of praying in the Spirit with all perseverance. “…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…” (Eph. 6:18). When we pray and sing in the Spirit we are speaking mysteries, or in other words speaking inspired ideas, to God and receiving inspired ideas from God in our prayers and our spontaneous singing. “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; However, in the Spirit he speaks mysteries” (1 Cor. 14:2).

When To Go Into Spontaneous Singing

You can go into spontaneous singing at many different times during a prayer meeting, however it usually works best at the end of a worship song. After singing a known worship song, continue with an easy chord progression and begin to sing spontaneously with your spirit or in your understanding from Scripture, singing about the truths of who God is.

At IHOP-KC we incorporate spontaneous singing as a regular part of the prayer meeting, entering into it after a worship song. This also acts as a signal to the prayer leader that we are moving from a time of “Worship Songs” to “Spontaneous Singing.” This is helpful because the prayer leader knows that a time of “Intercession” will usually come next.

Pick Easy Chord Progressions

Picking an easy chord progression is really helpful to the singers on the worship team, but also very helpful for everyone else in the room who want to join. When we make it easy for people to join in with us by avoiding difficult chord progressions, we help bring the room into unity as well as invite people to engage with the Lord by singing their own song to the Him.

Another thing for the worship leader to remember is to sing melodies that are in a range that 90% of the room can sing. Avoid singing in a very high octave and avoid highlighting one particular person during this time. Everyone should sing together all at once so as to invite everyone to lift their voices to the Lord together.

Make Clear the Time to Begin Spontaneous Singing

It is important for the worship leader to clearly signal that it is time to begin spontaneous singing so that everyone will feel free to sing out with boldness, especially singers on the worship team. Two ways to bring clarity to the beginning of spontaneous singing are:

Either the worship leader or the prayer leader can encourage the people in the room to lift their voices and sing to the Lord their own song that is on their heart. This encouragement helps everyone know what is going on if it is new to them as well as gives them freedom and permission to boldly engage.

I’ve talked a bit about how to start a prayer meeting as well as the different aspects involved in leading a prayer meeting. In this article I’m going to cover the question, “how do I sustain my prayer meeting?”

Small Groups (Developing Community)

Acts 2:42-46 gives us a great example of how the early church sustained prayer and their community. It says they continued steadfastly in four things: 1) the apostles’ doctrine, 2) fellowship, 3) the breaking of bread, and 4) in prayers. In Acts 2:46 it says, “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house…”

If we are going to sustain our prayer meetings it must be coupled with the study of the word and fellowship. Add to your weekly prayer meeting weekly small groups where you can build community while going deep in the word together and even add in a bit of food to the mix.

A couple of things I want to mention: make the prayer meeting and the small group on two different days. Make your prayer meeting the primary thing with your small group the thing that is adjustable. As your prayer meeting grows increase the number of small groups. Find leaders who are willing to lead a Bible study and care about other people.

If your community is connected outside the prayer meeting then your prayer meeting will be stronger and last. Be blessed and keep the fire burning.

I want to start by breaking this down a bit and answering the question, “what is a chorus?” A chorus is a simple phrase or sentence sung repetitively. The main point of a chorus is to bring a group to singing in unison.

More people will sing the chorus if it is easy to sing. Many worship leaders and chorus leaders get caught up in the complexity and poetry of creating the “perfect” chorus and create more difficulty for themselves. The easier for the non-musical person to sing the better, especially in a prayer meeting. In most situations, about 80–90% of the people in any given prayer meeting or church service are not gifted musically, but they still love to sing and they love music.

The Purpose of Choruses in Prayer Meetings

Corporate Prayer Choruses are sung to help everyone in the prayer meeting to intercede in unison. Also, when you sing your prayers your heart connects at a much deeper level than when you speak your prayers.

In a prayer meeting, choruses are created spontaneously, are sung AFTER a person has prayed, and are PRAYERS (in song) on the same topic of the person that just prayed. They are not generic choruses about anything and everything, but specific to the prayer that was just offered to God. When the chorus is created it should be sung at minimum 8-12 times.

Choruses should be easy on-ramps for everyone to join in so that we can have as many people in the prayer meeting as possible singing the same prayer. They should be easy melodies, with phrases that are easy to remember, in an easy vocal range without forcing too many words in so that it is easy for ungifted singers to participate quickly.

If you haven’t added choruses to your prayer meetings yet, I would recommend finding a worship leader and giving it a try. Once you do you’ll be surprised at the level of enjoyment it brings to your prayer meeting.

In the previous articles I explained why and how to pray biblical prayers. Much of it was focused on the prayers from the New Testament. In this article I’d like to branch off from that and talk about the significance of having a specific target to pray for when leading corporate prayer.

There are 2 types of targets in our prayers I want to address:

   1. People

   2. Location

Intercession is defined as “a prayer to God on behalf of another” or a “pleading on behalf of another person.” When we are leading our prayer meetings, it is important to remember to bring a focus to our prayers by stating WHO we are praying for.

Target WHO You Are Praying For

When Paul prays in Ephesians 1, he is praying for “the saints who are in Ephesus” (Eph. 1:1). He specifically targets a particular group of people here in Ephesians and does the same in the prayers that are in Colossians and Thessalonians. Not only is he praying for “the saints,” but “the saints who are in Ephesus.”

Whether you are praying for believers or unbelievers you want to specify the target. This also applies to justice issues. Justice issues like abortion, human trafficking, the poor, or the government should apply specifically to a group of people. When you pray for an “issue,” you should make sure to target who you are praying for.

For example, if you are praying for abortion to end in a certain city, you can pray for believers in that city, you can pray for the salvation of unbelievers in that city, you can pray for the pro-abortion doctors and politicians, you can pray for the mothers and the fathers, or you can pray for the victims who are the babies themselves.

When we tie a specific location to a group of people we are praying for in a prayer meeting we can increase the amount of faith people will have for God to actually do what we’re asking Him to do. Because of our weak human frames, it is much easier to have faith for God to break into the Church in a particular city than it is to have faith for God to break into the Church globally. When people have greater faith for a particular focus you are leading them in, this keeps more people engaged in intercession and less willing to “check-out” during the prayer meeting.

A location can be a city, a state, a nation, or it can be a campus or a specific area within a city. However, the smaller we make the target the more personal we make our prayers which helps to keep more people engaged in intercession for that particular focus.

Focused Intercession Means Answered Prayer, Which Fuels Intercession

Another benefit to making our prayers more specific is that we can measure whether our prayers have been answered. If we are praying for the salvation of unbelievers in a particular city or area or outreach in a city and salvations actually happen, our faith is dramatically increased because we have seen God answer our prayers.

In leading others in prayer we know that New Testament positive prayers and prophetic promises are sure fire will of God prayers, and they are also helpful because they bring unity. Praying from scripture usually helps you to be able to connect with others in the prayer meeting. It is hard to agree with unbiblical, negative or preaching prayers. We end up getting distracted or disengaged from the prayer meeting. However, when we use the prayers of the New Testament that are positive, they bring life, joy and victory to our prayer meetings.

It may be able helpful when leading others in prayer or in your devotional prayer time to create an outline of your prayer. It may help you to organize your thoughts, which will help others to follow along as you lead the room in intercession.

Pick 2-3 Points (Phrases) to Pray Through

For example, if you pick Ephesians 1:17-19, your three phrases may be: 1) “That the Father of Glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” 2) “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” 3) That you may know the hope of His calling.”

Make Notes Under Each of Your Main Points

As you write out the phrases you want to pray through, put into your own words what the phrase is saying as well as express how it relates to the current topic you are praying for. It is also very helpful to use cross-references under each of these points to further develop God’s heart to fulfill His word.

Practice Putting Scripture Into Your Own Words

As we develop the ability to put scripture into our own words we expand our own understanding of the Word of God as well as become more and more fascinated by the longings of God’s heart to fulfill His Word.

“That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”

“That the innermost part of your spirit would be illuminated”

“That your innermost man would be awakened by the light of God”

“That the eyes of your heart would fully comprehend”

Pray Through Each Point, One at a Time

Now that you have created an outline for your prayer, take each point and pray through them one at a time expounding from your heart and from cross-referenced scriptures the prayer on your heart. As you get to the end of each point, pause and then move onto the next point. You will find it much easier for others to follow along with your prayer if your prayer has focus.