In many churches I have visited in the United States, we seem to be specialists in church socialization. From ‘pizza nights’ to ‘game nights’ to ‘movie nights’, we don’t hold back from opportunities to stay amused. Call an ‘all-intercession night’ and watch all the folks rummage through their box of excuses to avoid it. I admire the International House of Prayer and Pastor Mark Bickle for this reason. They know how to pray and to intercede.
What’s the relevance of intercession to healing? It has everything to do with it. Actually, I believe you can’t have an effective healing ministry in any church without a powerful and dedicated prayer ministry. Remember what Jesus would do on a regular basis, as in Mark 1:35:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
In addition, look at what the disciples were doing just before Pentecost came, in Acts 1:
14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
The same thing occurred just before Peter was set free from his captors. The plain fact is that spiritual battles must be fought in order for corporate healings to come. It is not only spiritual battles, but intimacy with the Holy Spirit and revelation of what God is doing that are gained as valuable prerequisites of successful healing ministry. If all we do is movie night and pizza night-not that these are bad in themselves-then we should not be too surprised at our corporate results.
I love intercessors and have had a season in my life (hopefully to be repeated before too long) where I spent considerable time daily interceding. It is effective as a preparatory tool, that’s for sure. Intercession changes the spiritual atmosphere in your church, it breaks demonic assignments that prevent a free flow of the Spirit, it builds up our most holy faith when we pray in the Spirit. A praying church is an anointed church. What is your church like? Do you have protracted times of prayer? Overnight prayer? All-day prayer? What has prayer done for you?
