Habits of the Highly Effective Intercessor – The Word of God

There are several successful habits of the Highly Effective Intercessor!

The first is reading and studying the word of God regularly.

We are commanded to both read and study to show ourselves approved as workers or ministers of God and particularly as effective Intercessors. In my opinion every Christian should read the bible through at least once in their lifetime and if called to a leadership ministry at least once every five years while pursuing definite areas of study along the way.

As an Effective Intercessor the habit of reading and studying the Word of God helps you in:

1) Having Accurate and Comprehensive Knowledge of the Word of God – Being accurate means not misquoting or misrepresenting scriptures, for instance: Saying that money is the root of all evil when the scripture actually says that THE LOVE of money is the root of all evil. It also means understanding the meaning of the scripture and not just being able to repeat it like a parrot. For instance, a very simple example is the 6th commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” Have you ever killed… a Mosquito, a Fly, an Ant? Of course you have, so it doesn’t mean exactly what it says, does it?

No it doesn’t it needs to be interpreted, do you see that? What the 6th commandment actually means is, “You must not UNLAWFULLY take the life of a human being.”

Having a comprehensive knowledge of the bible means being familiar with the entire word of God from Genesis to Revelation and is necessary in order to fully understand the mind of God. For instance, the book of Revelation is written with lots of signs and symbols and is generally very difficult to understand. However, there are a lot of concepts in the book of Revelation that are also discussed in other parts of the bible like the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Matthew, so if you were also familiar with these books it would be much easier to understand the book of Revelation.

Having an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the word of God therefore, will aid you in knowing the will of God in any particular situation. And knowing God’s will and the mind of God obviously will increase your level of effectiveness as an intercessor.

2) Knowing the Will of God – When you are in intercession and receiving impressions from the spirit realm you must be able to match up what you receive to what the will of God actually is according to His word.

The reason is you may hear not just the voice of God but also ANY voice in the spirit realm. For instance, the enemy is always trying to trip you up and cause you to pray contrary to God’s will, so he sends you impressions that may seem like they’re coming from God but are contrary to God’s will, that’s why you’ve got to be very discerning and know God’s written will.

Also, you may be praying with someone who desire’s a certain thing from the Lord but what he desires is NOT the will of God for him at that time. And this person’s thoughts and emotions may be so strong that as a prayer warrior with a very sensitive spirit you may actually pick up this person’s thoughts and feelings from the spirit realm and NOT the thoughts and emotions of God. So, you’ve got to be intimate with the mind of God in order to keep yourself from going into error.

You also need to know God’s will in order to effectively judge the prayers of anyone else!

This may come as a surprise to some of you but you’ve got to be able to accurately judge the intelligence and godliness of the prayers that people pray. Why, you ask? For two reasons, first, when young or immature Christians pray they will make mistakes due to their inexperience and ignorance, this is to be expected. So it’s the responsibility of the more mature Christians to guide these younger Christians to pray more effectively as time goes by.

Secondly, there are witches being sent out into churches specifically to infiltrate the prayer groups and do the enemy’s work. While every body else is praying they may be calling up demonic spirits to oppress the Christians and hinder the work of that church. This is one reason why it is very dangerous to have prayer meetings where everyone just goes and prays alone or in which everyone just prays out loud together at the same time with no one monitoring the prayers of anyone else.

This environment is ripe for Satanists to cast spells and do incantations against the very prayer group and the church that it represents. For this reason you must be able to listen and intelligently judge the content of someone else’s prayer. 1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

3) Possessing an Alert Mind – The overall quality of your mental processes are enhanced – more speed and efficiency. You are able to process information coming from the spirit realm and articulate it in natural speech more fluently. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. Ps 119:98-99

Remember, in intercessory prayer your spirit connects with God and receives instructions from Him, then your mind has to interpret what your spirit received making sense of it before you can speak it out loud. The capability of your mind and quality of your mental processes will either help or hinder the effectiveness of your intercessory prayers.

4) Practicing Wisdom and Spiritual Maturity – Zeal without wisdom is a very dangerous thing. When God begins revealing information to you about someone that you are praying for, some of the information may be personal and sensitive and one requires wisdom to know how and when to apply that information. Not everything that you sense from the spirit realm needs to be prayed for immediately! It can be kept and prayed for later, in private.

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2Ti 3:15

All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body. Jas 3:2 (CEV)

I have been in prayer meetings where someone prayed out loud about something that needed to be kept quiet and prayed about later in private because it was of a sensitive and personal nature. This eventually caused more problems than solving them and was a direct result of a lack of experience and wisdom.

5) Cultivating Discernment – You are in tune with the spirit realm around you and have your spiritual senses enhanced. You have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and error, according to the word of God and sense if a manifestation is of the Spirit of the Lord or a different spirit.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Heb 5:14 The spirit of Religion is a demonic spirit which imitates the Holy Spirit almost to perfection. If you are not discerning it’s easy to get caught up believing some of the manifestations of this spirit and be fooled into accepting its doctrines. The Bible says, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2 Cor 11:14

When Peter, Jesus’ trusted right hand man began dissuading Him from going to the cross Jesus immediately recognized that this was not just Peter speaking but he was being influenced by a satanic spirit and rebuked it accordingly.

Accurate discernment is an invaluable tool in becoming an effective Intercessor and having a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the word of God goes a long way in developing Godly discernment.