Encarnacao Alliance Unleashing the power of intercession of

Encarnacao Alliance • Unleashing the power • of intercession of behalf of the urban poor. The privilege of being an intercessor.

Advocates for the urban poor • Every person who has suffered loss needs an • • advocate Jesus knows our lost position as a result of the fall. He pleads for us before the Father as our advocate We have the privilege in joining with Jesus in this great ministry for the urban poor A good advocate understands and empathizes with the needs of the needy person A good advocate knows an enunciates a just solution before the judge

The ministry of intercession • In pastoral ministry it is very important for us to intercede for the people God has entrusted to us to care for. 1 Timothy 2: 1 It is a privilege to intercede for others. It was an ultimate act of love • Our shortcomings in discipling, mentoring and pastoral care can be overcome through effective prayer for those persons we are responsible for. Peter addressing the elders encouraged them to cast all their anxieties on the Lord – I Peter 5: 7

• Intercessory “Jesus Christ is He who died, prayer yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ” Romans 8; 34 -35 • "He saw that there was no one, and he was appalled that there was no one to intercede. . . " Isaiah 59: 16.

Understanding intercessory prayer • The ministry of intercession is unknown to many Christians, but it is a very important part of the prayer ministry. According to the concordance, the word "intercession" means: 1. "A meeting between" 1 Timothy 2: 1 2. "To come or fall upon; to meet" Jeremiah 7: 16; 27: 18 3. "To meet with; to come between" Romans 8: 27, 34; 11: 2; Hebrews 7: 25 4. "To meet with on behalf of another" Romans 8: 26

Intercession’s role before throne of grace is one of advocacy • The intercessor is • • • moved with compassion Advocates on behalf of another The Judge is just and loves justice Help is available to those who ask • The subject of the • • petition is poor and unable to pray or advocate for themselves The subject is in great need The subject does not know the judge

Scriptural examples of intercession Ø 1. Abraham. Genesis 18: 20 33. Ø 2. Moses. Exodus 32: 9 14. Ø 3. Daniel 9: 2 19 especially Ø 4. Nehemiah l: 2 11. Ø 5. Elisha 2 Kings 5 6 • Petitioned on behalf 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. of; Sodom, Gomorrah The Israelites Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, all Israel The Jews who were refugees Naaman an Aramean

Jesus as Our Intercessor • But the great example we have of the ministry of intercession is that of the Lord Jesus Himself (Romans 8: 34). • The death of Jesus upon the Cross was an act of intercession. He was not dying for his own sin and guilt, but for ours. He was bearing God's judgment in our place.

Intercession is to take the place of another: As He hung upon the Cross, He hung between heaven and earth, between God and man. That was the final act of intercession for the sin of the human race never to be repeated (Romans 6: 10). However, from this wonderful act of redemption we are given the picture of what the ministry of intercession really is taking the place of another in prayer before God.

The continuing ministry of the Lord Jesus as our intercessor • Jesus' ministry in heaven right now, as our eternal High Priest, is to intercede before the Father for us, His brothers. Hebrews 2: 10 11; 7: 25. • He is able to make intercession for us because He knows how we feel, for He has lived on the earth as a man. Hebrews 2: 14; 4: 14 15.

His Priestly ministry: • ). His priestly ministry is also expressed through • the Church, His Body upon the earth. 1 Peter 2: 5, 9; Revelation 1: 6. This kind of intercession is prayer that is anointed by the Holy Spirit so that the one praying can feel how the person he is praying for feels, and often can only be expressed through deep, inutterable groans. Romans 8: 26.

Our Priestly ministry • In the Old Testament • Exodus 19: 5 -6 “ Now then if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. • In the New Testament • “ you are a royal priesthood and a holy nation” 1 Peter 2: 9 • “And He made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth”. Rev. 5: 10

The role we have as priests • To lead people in holistic worship of God in every aspect of their lives. • To intercede on behalf of others for God’s blessing to be poured out into their lives. • To minister the power of God into the lives of those He has made you responsible for. • To be an holistic example of godliness.

Praying for one hour? • Divide the hour into 7. Petition for the poor– a time of expectation 8. Thanksgiving for answers - appreciation 9. Singing - edification 10. Meditation – a time of investigation 11. Listening - revelation 12. Praise – jubilation five minute sections and start praying for the following; 1. Praise and exaltation 2. Waiting - adoration 3. Confession – a time of examination of self 4. Scripture praying, a time of appropriation 5. Watching- observation Ask the Holy Spirit to 6. Intercession for the help you pray as you poor - intervention should.

Four anointings of intercession • Around the world, as Christians pray for needs that the Holy Spirit lays upon their hearts, they sometimes find one of four distinct anointings of intercession come upon them, enabling them to enter fully into the burden the Lord is giving them.

1. Bearing the burden of the Lord for the injustice of the evil mankind suffers • As Workers among the urban poor when • • praying, we feel a sense of deep grieving and sorrow, and begin to weep for the injustice of the poor. The Holy Spirit has laid a burden on our hearts so we can feel how God feels as He intercedes for His divided, broken Church, or for an individual, a city, its slum dwellers, abused people, corrupt leaders, evil systems, nation or a despised or rejected people. Praying in the Spirit allows the burden to be prayed through as the Spirit leads.

We weep and agonise as he did: As His Body, we can enter into the same heart felt sorrow that Jesus expressed as He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19: 41) and as He agonised in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 37 38). And He brings the same challenge to His Body today that He brought to His disciples in the Garden. "Could you men not watch with me for one hour? " Matthew 26: 40.

2. Compassionate identification with the needs of others Sometimes the Holy Spirit anoints prayer in such a way that the person praying actually feels what the other person is going through This might be depression, loneliness, rejection, condemnation, grief, bitterness, fear, pain, or the like Thus, just as the Lord Jesus understands what we go through, and thus is able to go on our behalf before the Father (Hebrews 4: 14 16), the person praying will know how to pray for the one in need.

We are experiencing this for others: • Here the Christian must realise that he is not • experiencing it for himself, but for someone else. He is standing in another person's place before God (see Galatians 6: 2).

3. Travail – praying until a breakthrough comes • Another anointing of intercession is that of travailing a deep groaning of the Spirit within us to bring something to birth in the spiritual realms (Galatians 4: 19).

4. Warfare • The fourth anointing of the Holy Spirit in • intercession is that of spiritual warfare. This is a coming against the spiritual powers of darkness, battering the gates of hell (Matthew 16: 18 19; Mark 3: 27).

How is this anointing manifested? • This anointing is not manifest in weeping 1) 2) 3) or groaning, but in: a militant wrestling with the enemy. Ephesians 6: 12, in declaring the Word of God with authority. Ephesians 6: 17, in praise and in proclaiming Jesus as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and victor over the forces of Satan. Philippians 2: 9 11; Revelation 17: 14.

We will experience joy and victory! With each of these aspects of intercession, the Christian should know/sense by faith when the victory has been won in the spiritual realms. This is true even if it has not yet been manifested outwardly. The Holy Spirit will lift the burden from him with a tremendous sense of joy and victory.

Armour for intercessors? • Since the ministry of intercession enters the front line of the battle against the enemy taking the battle to him, as it were it is essential that those involved in this ministry are protected against counter attacks.

1. The covering of a pastor or eldership • It is extremely important for intercessors to move into their ministry under the guidance of their pastor or elders. Hebrews 13: 17. • This ensures spiritual protection for the believer within the context of the Body of Christ. • Their ministry then becomes an extension of the rest of the Body of Christ.

2. For wives: The blessing and covering of their husbands • It is also necessary that wives are in right attitude • to their husbands. 1 Corinthians 11: 3. Equally important husbands must be in right attitude with their wives so their prayers are not hindered. 1 Peter 3: 7. Also, If there is anything wrong in a believer's relationship with another Christian, it must be sorted out. James 5: 16.

3. Personal armour ØThe Apostle Paul exhorts us to put on the whole armour of God in our battle against the enemy and against his hold on people's lives. Ephesians 6: 11 19. ØFor example, faith is a vital ingredient in the ministry of intercession, for without it the enemy has a foothold to attack; Øand how can we intercede for someone else if we don't have on the breastplate of righteousness an awareness of our right standing with God?

Our Challenge: In Bible times, men and women changed the course of history through intercession. Now, in these crucial days when God is bringing to closure His glorious plan, the call to obey the Spirit comes to us: "And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land. . . but I found no one" Ezekiel 22: 30. “ Seek the welfare of the City where I have sent you, and pray on its behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare” Jeremiah 29: 7

Acknowledgements: • The producer of this presentation wants to acknowledge the • • • • following persons and their publishers; Dennis Balcombe. Revival Church. HK. Bill Bright. Revival Now. Regal. USA. John Bevere. The Voice of One Crying. Messenger. USA Loren Cunningham. I that Really You God. YWAM. USA. Viv Grigg. Cry of the Urban Poor. MARC. USA. Rodney Henry. The Filipino Spirit World. OMF. Manila. Ed Murphy. The Spiritual Warfare Handbook. Regal. USA. Patrick Johnstone. Praying Through the Window. YWAM. USA. Phyllis Kilbourn. Children in Crisis. MARC. USA. Douglas Pennoyer. Wrestling with Dark Angels. Monarch. UK. Stuart Robinson. Praying the Price. Sovereign. UK. Basilea Schlink, Repentance the Joy-filled Life. Germany. Peter C Wagner. The Prayer Series for Pastors. Regal. USA. Walter Wink. Naming the Powers, Unmasking the Powers, Engaging the Powers. Fortress, USA.