The Gift of Intercession
I think the word intercession is familiar to most of us in the church because when we pray for someone, we pray an intercessory prayer, or pray on someone’s behalf. It is the same way with the gift of intercession. It may be in prayer or it may be giving someone a voice who has no voice. The definition is this: “The gift of intercession allows an individual to stand in for others whether it be for prayer for someone, something, someplace or the belief of specific results. A person with the gift of intercession should practice the execution of their divine patience by knowing the right time to step in. Exercise your power to speak by partaking in public speaking engagements and learning the styles of different personalities. Be a people person.”
Especially in this time of national unrest, we have many people who don’t feel like they have a voice. We have immigrants who do not have any say in their future either in their home country or in this newly adopted country.
We also have a time of national unrest in relation to racial issues. Just today I read a tweet where there was another killing of a young black person. And the deaths do not seem to end for the person or the families.
If this gift of intercession is a spiritual gift of yours, this is a perfect time to exercise it. If not, there are still things you can do to help others have a voice. For those of us who do not have the spiritual gift of intercession, we are still called to exercise this gift with the possibility of gaining skills in this area. So here are four ideas to ease into standing in the stead of others while using some of your God-given spiritual gifts:
1. Do Some Research
This would be a perfect time to investigate the types of people who are disenfranchised in your area. After you have done your research brainstorm with several other people to decide what you and your church might do to speak out for them and help them to have a voice in the community. Get in touch with a group in the community who does work with these individuals and see how you can help both practically and by changing laws.
2. Get to School
Choose to take a public speaking course at a local community college or online. This way you will become more used to speaking aloud and thinking through what you will say when speaking on behalf of others. If it is not possible to do this, plan to have a speaker at church that can help members learn the basics of public speaking.
3. Have a Tea Party
I had a conversation with a Latina pastor once who said that she would like to learn to speak English more clearly. She said she would like to have someone who would just have tea or coffee with her every afternoon and have a conversation. She felt like she could learn colloquialisms of the area and more naturally practice her English. This would be a great way to build relationships and at the same time build confidence in those who can use their own voices with a little bit of help.
4. Let Us Pray
If you are like me, you often say you will pray for someone when they tell you about some hardship they are having. Then there are prayer lists at church, at work and at Bible study, or small group. Begin keeping a central list of all those people. While writing these names down, say a prayer of intercession for them. You might even take a calendar page and put a name in each square. Commit to do praying in color and pray for the person whose name is on that day. While you do, you can doodle around their name and raise them up to God. At the end of each month, you will have remembered to pray and have a decorative calendar page!