Intercessory Prayer: Praying for Friends and Enemies

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Intercessory prayer is the prayer form used when we ask God to intercede in the lives of others. This style of prayer is one of the most common in the Christian tradition and also one that is often misunderstood. I wrote Praying for Friends and Enemies to encourage people to pray for others on their own as well as in church and to answer questions that are frequently asked about intercessory prayer.
--Do my prayers do any good?
--Why pray if God already knows what needs to happen?
--Should I pray for what I want or for what I think the other person wants?
--What happens if people are praying for opposite results?
--Does God answer our prayers?
--When I pray for someone what should I say?
--Can intercessory prayers cause harm?

My prayer is that this book will answer some basic questions, explore the rich possibilities in the experience of prayer, and guide readers into a deeper relationship with God.


About the Author
Jane E. Vennard is ordained in the United Church of Christ and serves as senior adjunct faculty of prayer and spirituality at the Iliff School of Theology. She is the author of three books.


Excerpted from Praying for Friends and Enemies by Jane E. Vennard. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Capture Your Call

How do we go about capturing our threefold call? There are a number of different aspects to consider, but the following seven steps will provide a concrete plan of action:
--Courage
--Action
--Prayer
--Testing
--Unity
--Reverence
--Expectation

Courage
Have you noticed how frequently God tells those he is calling not to be afraid?

Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." (2 Kings 1:15)

"Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you [Jeremiah] to deliver you, says the Lord." (Jeremiah 1:8)

The angel said to [Mary], "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus." (Luke 1:30-31)

Shock, surprise, and even fear are natural reactions when we start to realize that God is speaking to us. Yet the creator of the universe, the God who loved us so much that he was prepared to die on a cross for us, that same God is the one who meets with us and asks us to step into new challenges and opportunities. Life is never boring as a Christian! Daily we see God's hand in the things that happen around us and occasionally we gulp with astonishment as he creates opportunities that we had not expected.

Sometimes the more clearly we hear his call, the more daunting it can be. I remember leaving college and joining a theater company. I had only been a Christian for a few weeks and did not know the Bible well. A friend suggested that I write to a Christian theater company and apply to join their team. This I did and, following an interview, I was offered a position, with the condition that when I prayed about the offer, I should sense that God wanted me to accept. I sat down to pray but was distracted by the word Deuteronomy coming to my mind. I tried to dismiss it but seemed unable to forget it. I called a friend, who pointed out that this was a book in the Old Testament (I had not at this time even started reading the Old Testament!) and maybe I should read it. As I sat down and started with chapter 1, I soon read:

The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions-the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast-the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them." (Deuteronomy 1:6-8)

This seemed fairly clear to me! I certainly felt that I had been in London quite long enough and was keen to leave the city. I called the director of the theater company and read the verses. He laughed! The first place where the company was booked to work was on the seacoast of Devon. Then it was up to the hill country of Scotland and then, during the following two years, to just about every town and village in between!

It was only later, though, that I really understood the significance of this clear calling. While I loved travelling the country and telling people about Jesus, I found much of the work and the lifestyle incredibly difficult. There were many times when I simply wanted to walk away. It was at these times that the Holy Spirit reminded me of that initial call and how God had asked me to be there. This helped to put everything into perspective, and there is something very therapeutic about being able to say to God, "You asked me to come, I'm trying to be obedient, forgive me where I've failed, and please sort out the problems!" Since that time, I have noticed a consistency of pattern-the more clearly God calls me to a task, the more difficult I usually find it.

Calling is frequently accompanied by change. Change is seldom easy and requires a great deal of courage. Moving, changing jobs, getting married, accepting a role within a church-all can require significant changes and often involve a steep learning curve. God has created the world with order and pattern. Night follows day. Autumn follows summer. A new year succeeds a past one. We can get used to a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual routines. These patterns, with a mixture of work and play, are beneficial and help to keep our lives balanced and fruitful. But God is also a God of surprises! Routine can sometimes become a barrier to hearing and accepting a call from God, as we become so comfortable as we are that we do not even continue to ask if we are still in the right place and doing the right things.

Being prepared to change, to grow, to move, requires courage. We need to place our fears and concerns into the hands of our loving creator to recognize that God knows the plans he has for us and that they are "plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jeremiah 29:11). Trusting God, hearing his call, and stepping into the future is often scary, but God knows what is best for each one of us. As we offer our fear to him, he gent-ly gives us all the courage, help, and encouragement (which is another way of saying that we are being "empowered with courage") that he knows we will need. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.