I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.
I Timothy 2:1–4

 

The Character of Corporate Prayer

This book is not dealing with private or personal prayer but rather with corporate prayer; and although I shall make references now and again to private prayer, they will be few. I will confine myself to the subject of corporate prayer which is so little understood and so little taught. Indeed, it seems that it is almost a lost art.

For example, there are hardly any books written on corporate prayer. There are a multitude of books written on personal prayer and private devotions, but I know of only three books on corporate prayer. One is Arthur Wallis’s “Prayer in the Spirit,” and even that is dealing more with personal prayer than corporate.

The second is Stephen Kaung’s book entitled, “Teach us to Pray” which is extremely valuable. The third is Watchman Nee’s book entitled, “The Prayer Ministry of the Church.” This is a simple but clear book on the necessity of corporate prayer, and I strongly recommend it.

Another most valuable and helpful book on corporate intercession is Pat Hughes and Gay Hyde’s book, “Helps to Intercession and Spiritual Warfare.” Another valuable book which illustrates the principles of corporate prayer is Norman Grubb’s biography of Rees Howells entitled, “Rees Howells, Intercessor.” It is a living illustration of corporate prayer, and particularly of corporate intercession, drawn from that one life and the community of God’s people that came together in Derwen Fawr, in Wales.

It would be helpful at the beginning of this book to  define what is meant by the term corporate prayer and intercession. It is obvious from the use of the word “corporate” that it is the prayer and intercession of the body of Christ, the Church. The members of His body are in living touch with the Head, the Lord Jesus, under the direction of the Spirit of God in prayer and intercession. It requires a minimum of at least two people. It may be ten, or twenty, or fifty, or more, who are engaged in such corporate prayer or intercession. It cannot be corporate if it is one child of God alone.

It is a very sad fact that one can count on the fingers of one hand the groups, including charismatics, who really know how to pray. Of course, there must be companies of which I am unaware, but I think it is sad evidence for the lost art of corporate prayer. There are many prayer meetings, but there are very few companies of believers who really know how to move together in prayer under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and how to pray a matter through to Divine fulfilment.

The powers of darkness have worked so insidiously and powerfully that many prayer meetings are anything but prayer meetings. In many of them prayer is tacked on to the end of a Bible study. (Alan Redpath used to say years ago, that if you have the Bible study and the prayer meeting on the same night, you have neither a proper Bible study nor a proper prayer meeting.) Sometimes, it is just ten minutes at the end of an evening. Other times, a tremendous amount of information is given at a prayer meeting, and the time for prayer is wasted, leaving only ten or fifteen minutes for prayer. There are also weeks when believers from different denominations come together for corporate prayer. In the end, forty-five to fifty minutes of ministry on prayer is given, leaving only fifteen to thirty minutes for prayer.

We Wrestle Not Against Flesh or Blood

Whole companies of God’s people are paralysed or blockaded by the powers of darkness, and the work of God is rendered very largely ineffective. For whether we like it or not, God’s Word tells us: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (see Ephesians 6:12). We are told to take the whole armour of God and having done all to stand. And we are to take the sword of the Spirit and pray at all seasons with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

So often, we think we are only up against flesh and blood. We see the apathy of our neighbourhood; we see the indifference of the people around us; we see some kind of hardness against all evangelistic outreach. Sometimes, there are difficult Christians in key positions who appear to block everything. Then we often come to the conclusion that it is flesh and blood which is the blockage. Sometimes, we believe that it is either the pastor, some other leader in the congregation, or some child of God who has gone wrong in some way. Our mentality is that it is always flesh and blood which is the root cause of the problem. Of course, the enemy uses flesh and blood, but the Word of God says: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Principalities, Powers and World–Rulers

What are principalities and powers? Principalities are princes or rulers, who are not physical but spiritual beings. Powers are authorities. What are world-rulers of this darkness? It means that behind flesh and blood, behind ideologies, behind new philosophies, behind new current ideas, there are spiritual powers that are ruling the present spiritual darkness and holding in their captivity thousands of people. It can be false religion or false philosophy. Whole civic communities, even nations, can be kept in bondage to darkness by these spiritual forces. Even new current ideas which contradict the Word of God can be the result of spiritual authorities or spiritual world rulers. Local churches can be subjected to a blockade and finally paralysed and crushed by the enemy. If God’s dear children do not wake up, the enemy will sit on them and smother any spiritual life or power. These princes, these powers, these world rulers of darkness, are the great spiritual beings with whom we wrestle. Even if we take this matter at the minimal, the true Church of God and the true believer is wrestling with spiritual forces of wickedness, hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies. Is this a fairy tale belonging to the distant past when people believed in hobgoblins and demons? Or is it the Word of God revealing the real nature of our warfare? As the redeemed people of God in the twenty-first century, if we do not wake up to the real nature of the battle, we are destined to fail in all our endeavours and become, finally, spiritual casualties.

After all, the apostle Paul did not say, “We are playing in a tennis championship with Satan;” but he said, “Our wrestling … is against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness.” Wrestling is an impolite sport. It is not just some polite and sophisticated tennis match where one hits the ball back and forth, back and forth, and marks up the points, saying: “We have done well today; the enemy is beaten.” Through the apostle Paul the Holy Spirit uses this illustration of a more violent and impolite contact sport wrestling. That involves much sweat and at times even blood. It means that one may have his arm twisted up his back by his opponent, or his leg nearly torn off, or he may be flung to the other side of the ring and the next moment have some heavyweight sitting on him.

Spiritual Soldiers in a Spiritual Battle

Many Christians, however, do not seem to think in this way. They believe that the Christian life should be one long joy ride, and we should have a wonderful and bubbly experience continuously. If there is any sense of the enemy’s presence, then something must be wrong. Now we must thank the Lord for those wonderful and ecstatic experiences of Him, those spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in our Lord Jesus, and which are normal to Christian life and work. Nevertheless, we are spiritual soldiers in a spiritual battle and the fact that there are times when spiritual beings come against us and the work of the Lord, it is no evidence that we are in the wrong place or in the wrong way. Indeed, it may be evidence that we are in the centre of His will. There are times when those powers of darkness will seek to blockade us or lay siege to us, when they will sit on us or seemingly hold us in a vice-like grip. If, however, you have ever watched a wrestling match, you will know that just because some heavyweight is sitting on another heavyweight, it does not mean that he has won the match. The one underneath may rise up and proceed to win the whole match.

Intercession Is the Key to Paralysing the
Enemy and Advancing God’s Kingdom

So what does it mean to wrestle with these powers? Surely it means that somewhere there has to be a ministry of intercession. Before we can see a civil community broken open to the power and working of God, some believers have to go behind the scenes and paralyse the enemy. Our Lord Jesus said: “Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matthew 12:29 NASB).

We tend to think that as long as we have good preaching or a well organised evangelistic crusade, people will automatically be set free and saved. But one can have all of that and discover that one is up against an insurmountable and impassable wall. The more spiritually vital a work is, the more likely it will be that the enemy will seek to come in, sit on it, and paralyse it. He will not stand back and let you have a good time if there is any chance that there will be a permanent and powerful breakthrough. The many great moves of the Spirit of God in the history of nations is evidence enough of this. Therefore we have to understand this very simple fact: there can be no matter more strategically vital to the true Church of God and the work of the Lord than this matter of corporate prayer. In the days that lie ahead, during the last phase of world history, we shall need to know how to pray together. Furthermore, should real persecution come in the decades that lie ahead and should we lose our liberty, then we need to know how we can break through together, and see the fulfilment of God’s purpose even in times of enormous difficulty.

Learning the Lessons of Corporate Prayer

We need to learn the lessons of corporate prayer and intercession now whilst we have time. Unless the Spirit of God has burnt into us these lessons, we shall be found lacking in the day of crisis. It is as necessary therefore for new Christians, as well as for those of us who are older in the Lord, to learn these lessons, however hard or costly they may be. Some of us who are older have learnt such bad habits in prayer that they have become second nature to us. If we feel that we are in this condition, we often think it is impossible to learn the right way to pray together.

Nevertheless, the Lord can keep all that is best and most valuable in our background and can overcome all the bad habits, if we will only trust Him and be open to the correction of the Holy  Spirit. The basis of all learning is to be meek. The moment a believer says I do not need that correction or realignment, that person ceases to learn.

It is not that I desire for you to swallow everything I write, but I want you to take it all back to the Lord and ask Him. Let Him sort it out in our hearts. My desire is simple! We need to learn how to use this colossally effective weapon which God has placed in the hands of His Church.

 

4 Kinds of Prayer

In I Timothy 2:1 the apostle Paul defines four kinds of prayer which cover all aspects of prayer. It is interesting that each of these four words is used in the plural—supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings.

Furthermore, the apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit is so burdened about the importance of this matter that he urges and exhorts the people of God to pray. He sees such prayer and intercession as being of paramount importance to the health of the Church and the progress of the work of God.

1. Supplications: Understanding the First Aspect of Prayer

The first aspect of prayer is the word translated by the English word supplications. It primarily means “a need.” The Authorized Version, the Revised Version, the American Standard Version, and the Revised Standard Version all use the word supplications. The New American Standard Bible uses the word entreaties.

The reason is that the word primarily means a need, and then an asking, an entreaty or a beseeching concerning that need. This is not just asking something of God; it is something more. It is an earnest appeal, or entreaty, or beseeching of the Lord that we might understand His mind and will. This is the best way we can understand the word supplications. It is because of a need that there is an enquiry of the Lord, an earnest beseeching of Him that He would reveal His mind concerning that need.

How to Pray Effectively

Why is so much prayer ineffectual? Why is it that so often when we go into a prayer meeting and come out of it, we have to pull ourselves together and declare: “God does hear prayer”? It is because there is a witness within our Spirit that testifies that most of that prayer did not go beyond the ceiling. The problem is that we never stopped to enquire of the Lord, not even for a single moment.

Instead we plunged into prayer matters without any direction from the Spirit of God. For this reason supplication is the first aspect of prayer because, obviously, it is the most fundamental. Unless we earnestly enquire of the Lord on the basis of the urgent needs which confront us, we shall never know His mind about them. Therefore, because we do not know His mind, we shall be threshing around in prayer, using many words and getting nowhere.

Enquiry of the Lord is Fundamental to all Prayer

We cannot pray aright or use the provided weapons of our warfare unless we first know the Lord’s mind on the matter. Then the Spirit of God will lead us to the Scriptures we should use. When we have enquired of the Lord, and He has given us the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, we do not have to play around.

We do not have to spend half an hour making noises or saying all sorts of lovely scriptural phrases which have no application to the need in hand. Sometimes the Lord will give that word to one person and we only need to arise and take up that word once it has come. The Holy Spirit will then give us all insight into that word. We will be able to pray through that whole situation with that Word from God. It is the Sword of the Spirit given to us to cut right through the problem.

The fact is that you cannot just take any Scripture and batter its fulfilment into being. You have to enquire of the Lord; and when you enquire of the Lord, and clearly hear in your spirit (and not your soul), God’s “Yes,” then living faith is born in us of the Spirit. Only then can we go ahead. Your mind may be assailed with doubts implanted by the enemy, but in your heart there is no doubt. You have heard the Lord’s “Yes.” We have therefore to enquire of the Lord and know the Lord’s mind and will on all kinds of matters.

The Lord Awaits a Spirit of Enquiry

This is the reason why this matter of supplication is absolutely fundamental. I do not think there is anything more that could be said to underline this matter of the necessity of supplication. It is sadly the missing link in so much corporate prayer ministry. The Lord will not keep us endlessly waiting. He only waits for us to come to Him with an enquiring attitude, and then He will say “here is the answer.” It may be a clearer understanding of the need and the Word of God which He would have us use concerning it.

We have the idea that the Lord is like us, and He has to be cajoled and humoured and nursed into a nice mood. Once He is in that sweet mood, we can get out of Him all that we desire. The Lord, however, is not like that; He is more interested in certain situations than we are. He only awaits a spirit of enquiry, and then, sometimes, almost immediately, He will give clearly the direction.

We should not handle prayer like a bull in a china shop or like a tank mowing everything down. We need to be still and wait on Him and for Him. We need simply to ask what His mind is on this matter. How are we to pray? What is the word that God would give us? What is the right weapon to use?

An Example of Supplication in Action

I remember many years ago when the elders at Halford House used to meet together for prayer every Monday evening to seek the Lord. The time was open to anyone in the fellowship to come with their needs or problems or criticism. On one particular Monday a very dear sister phoned and said, “I know that this time is really for people who are a part of the fellowship, but I have a friend here who is in very great need. Do you think that she could come and see you?” We said that she should come.

A Sister in Need

This dear sister had a close walk with the Lord and was a blessing to others. She had decided, in order to reach people in very great need, to move into a very run down part of the city in which she lived. She then told us how she had been through Bible school and had felt very strongly that the Lord had called her to this task of devoting herself to reaching the needy people in that city, and He had blessed her in this work.

Then suddenly she found that God was no longer speaking to her through the Bible. In fact, she felt the Lord had ceased to speak to her at all; and even when she went to a good fellowship, she found that everything that was said just went through one ear and out the other. She became more and more distressed and felt that she had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit.

Enquiring of the Lord

It was so bad that she was tempted to take her life. It was at this point that she came to stay for a few days with her close friend. We listened to the whole story and wondered what kind of demonic activity could be involved. Why was this happening to her? Our sister could not put her finger on anything that she had done wrong or any sin which she had committed. 

Now it was always our habit to begin by asking the Lord for wisdom, and we sought Him with an earnest enquiry about this sister’s need. We felt that her condition was desperate in that she had nearly committed suicide. She felt that she had committed this unpardonable sin, and that this was the reason why God did not speak to her.

“Water, Water, It is the Water”

We then felt that we should cut her off from any satanic influence and tampering with her circumstances. As we got up to pray over her, one of our very dear brothers said: “The Lord is saying something to me and I cannot understand it. Water, water, water; it is the water.” I thought maybe he had taken leave of his senses, because I could not see anything about our sister’s circumstances which had anything to do with water.

However, I asked her as a result of this word: “Why are you wearing tinted glasses?” She replied that it was because of the headaches she received from bright light. She said: “If you want me to throw them away I will do so.” But I told her: “No, keep them for now.” We went on then and in the Name of Jesus cut her off from demonic influences, praying for her deliverance and healing. She was obviously touched by the Lord and went back after a few days to the city in which she lived, much relieved and joyful. It seemed that the Lord had delivered her. 

Problems Arise Again

She had not been back in that city for more than a week or two, when all the old problems reared their head again, and once more she was tempted to take her life. She felt that coming to us at Halford House was almost her last resort and that there was now no hope at all. Then into her head came the word of our brother: “Water, water, water; it is in the water.” And she decided to take a bottle of the water from her apartment to a laboratory to have it tested. Within hours they were seeking her.

Apparently there was an unbelievably high lead content in the water. She was suffering from acute lead poisoning which had completely disoriented her mind and well-being. The moment the social authorities took her out of the place in which she was living into a new place, she immediately began to recover.

This is a very dramatic illustration of the need of supplication or of earnest enquiry concerning a desperate need. If we had not enquired of the Lord we would never have had the word about the “water.” Then, when her health took a dive again, she could well have committed suicide. Instead the Lord intervened and delivered her.

2. Prayers

The second aspect is translated by the English word prayers. Literally, it means “a pouring out.” It is the most frequently used word in the New Testament for prayer. One pours out all the need one has, all the hurt which one feels, all one’s feeling. It is a simple petitioning of God. The Lord Jesus said: “You have not because you ask not.”

This is the most basic comprehensive word and covers all kinds of prayer—from a pouring out of one’s soul’s troubles to an asking of God to meet one’s needs. This can also mean a request to God for very great matters to do with His purpose, and with his will. C.T. Studd used to say: “Why ask the Lord for an egg if you can ask Him for an elephant?” In other words, ask for great things according to the faith that you have. The Lord can always say, “No!” 

Amy Carmichael — The Nature of Prayer

Prayer is basically “a hit and miss operation.” You may not know what the will of the Lord is or what His purpose is, but you pour out your heart. Amy Carmichael used to say, “He can say, “Yes” or He can say, “No” or He can say, “Wait.” When she was a little girl growing up in a believing home, she disliked the colour of her brown eyes.

She heard from her parents that the Lord Jesus could do anything, that with Him nothing was impossible. So she asked repeatedly that He would change her eyes to blue. He never did. Many years later when she went into temples to rescue little girls from temple prostitution, she realised why the Lord never answered her prayer for blue eyes. In her sari, with her brown eyes, she blended with the Indian crowd.

Pouring Out One’s Heart

This word covers the kind of prayer that is generally found amongst believers. One does not have to know what the will of the Lord is, but you can just pour out your heart and ask of Him. It is not however that the Lord despises this kind of prayer. When Hannah was in her barren state, full of emotion and feeling, she poured out her heart to the Lord.

Her emotions so possessed her that Eli thought she was drunk. The Lord however heard her and touched her barrenness. She produced one of the great prophets of Israel—Samuel, who stood at one of the pivotal turning points in Divine history. Hannah even called him Samuel, “asked of God.”

It may appear to some people that I have been very harsh in what I have said about prayer meetings and the general understanding of prayer in Christian circles today. It is not that the Lord writes off the kind of corporate prayer we have become accustomed to; it is simply that so often it is at a kindergarten level. In His grace He sees the heart and answers accordingly. On the other hand, it is very often a religious ritual and exercise to which the Holy Spirit is a total stranger.

3. Intercessions

The third aspect is translated by the English word intercessions. The word used here has the idea of petitioning a superior, a king, a magistrate, or a prince; someone with authority. Originally, the idea was that you petitioned a superior. That is probably why the New American Standard Bible uses the word petitions instead of intercessions. The idea is to petition someone who has authority to accomplish matters. We are seeking the presence of God on behalf of others or for situations in which we are all involved. However, to use the word petitions instead of intercessions I think devalues the original meaning.

Intercession is the deepest aspect of prayer and the least experienced. There are few companies of God’s people who know much about corporate intercession. Why? The reason is that intercession is not merely a few words mouthed on behalf of a situation, even if it is with great feeling and passion. In fact, our whole being has to be involved—spirit, soul, and body. It requires that the intercessor be a living sacrifice.

God Requires Everything From Intercessors

If you would be an intercessor, God will require every single thing that belongs to you—your whole being, your time, your energy, your health, and even your possessions. God will take everything. Never devalue the word intercessor. It is not that one gives a half hour or an hour a week or even daily, as if that is all the Lord requires. To be an intercessor the Lord requires you, and all that you have.

For this reason Daniel is the greatest illustration of this in the Old Testament. He did pray daily and gave time to intercession in his very busy life at the top level of government. However, the real key to his intercession was the fact that he was a living sacrifice and wholly committed to the Lord.

Intercession can only begin when we know the mind and will of God in any situation which we face. When the Lord revealed to Moses that He was about to destroy the nation of Israel, it became the cause for the intercession of Moses for the nation. 

The Lord Shares His Heart with the Intercessor

When the Lord had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and shared it with Abraham, it became the cause for the intercession of Abraham for Lot and his family. If we understand this, then we begin to realise how important supplication or enquiry of the Lord is to intercession. We can only intercede when we know what the will of the Lord is concerning any situation.

It is possible that in writing this, many will give up all hope of ever being an intercessor or being involved in corporate intercession. Do not faint or give up on this matter. The Lord has to start, and he starts with a person who is ready to offer themselves willingly and wholly. There is a Chinese proverb which states, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” We have to take the first step in faith. Once a believer is prepared to be an intercessor and offers his or her whole being to the Lord, He will lead you step by step.

He will lead you firmly and strongly just as you are able. It will be first from the kindergarten of prayer into the kindergarten of intercession, then into the preparatory school, on into the high school, and finally, into the university of intercession. Intercession requires some degree of spiritual maturity. That kind of spiritual maturity comes only with spiritual growth and experience, and develops in a person whose self-life has been laid down.

4. Thanksgivings

The fourth aspect is translated by the English word thanksgivings. Thanksgiving is the giving of thanks, not only for answered prayer, but for the Lord Himself. Most people think immediately of thanksgiving as thanking the Lord for the prayers we asked of Him last week which have been answered in between. We always think of thanksgiving this way. It says, “With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

Most believers understand this as making a request, and when you get the answer, you thank the Lord. Other believers understand it as making the request and thanking God for the answer already before it comes to pass. I think this devalues the word thanksgiving. But when you make the request you are to do it with thanksgiving. It is not only that we should thank God for answering our prayers; that is obvious!

 However, primarily we need to thank the Lord for who He is and what He is; for His so great salvation and for the finished work of the Lord Jesus upon which basis He gives us everything. We give thanks for His grace, His love, His mercy, His truth, His throne, His Kingdom. In other words, this thanksgiving is all to do with worship which is such a vital and strategic part of corporate prayer.

Feelings Not Essential to Thank the Lord 

Many of us are so self-centred that the enemy twists us around his little finger. He comes to us and says: “Now it is no good for you to worship the Lord because you have been in a bad mood all day, or the children have been behaving badly, or the office was awful because the boss gave you too much to do, or you have had a terrible journey home from work and are in a ratty mood. It is no good you thanking the Lord, because you have nothing to thank Him for.” And so often this is the way we respond: “I want to be real; I do not want to be a hypocrite. I will not open my mouth to praise and thank the Lord when it is hypocritical.” The enemy has now got us into a position where we can only praise the Lord when we feel good.

The Devil’s whole machine will now be geared up to making sure you feel bad, because he wants to destroy any thanksgiving and worship to the Lord. He knows that worship, thanksgiving and praise are tremendous weapons in the battle that we are in. We so often fall for this tactic of the enemy. Sometimes people will go for years without opening their mouth and praising the Lord. They cannot even bring themselves to tell Him how great and wonderful and praiseworthy He is.

Honesty with the Lord

We must realise that we can be honest with God. We can say: “Lord, I feel awful. I had a dreadful day today, but I thank and worship You, Lord, that Your throne is unshakable.” The fact that I have had an awful day has not brought about the abdication of the Lord Jesus. The idea seems to be that if we get out of bed on the wrong side, there has been a crisis in Heaven.

If we have eaten something the night before that did not agree with us and we wake up with a jaundiced view of things, the Lord has stepped down from His throne. That, however, is nonsense! When you are down, you can praise the Lord, and when you are up, you can praise the Lord. When you are down you can say: “Lord, I feel dreadful but I want to thank You for who You are. You are wonderful, all Your works are wonderful, and Your truth lasts forever.”

What then will the Devil say to this? “This person is talking truth now, what shall I do? I cannot do anything to stop this believer from worshipping God!” So he says to his whole hierarchy: “Leave So and So alone for a while; more value comes out of him when he is having a bad time than when he is having a good time.” Some of us are helping the enemy to keep us in a permanent bad time because we have not learned this lesson.

Worship Fulfils Our Function

“Bless the Lord, oh my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1). And again: “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). One can bless the Lord whether one is up or whether one is down. The praise of the Lord—His greatness, His majesty, His beauty, His power, His total victory over the forces of darkness—is the kind of praise that can be continually in one’s mouth.

As supplication is fundamental to all prayer, so is thanksgiving. It is the worship of our hearts for who He is, for what He is, for the salvation He has wrought, and for the way He has led us into that salvation. As human beings, we were created to worship, and we only come to an inner fulfilment when we learn how to worship. Worship is not tied to answers to prayer, but to the very being of God. When we worship the Lord, we fulfil a function for which we were created. But even further to this, we experience the fulfilment of the promise: “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand” (Psalm 149:6). Blessed are those who have such experience.