Supplication and Intercession

In this episode, Michelle Steele teaches about the difference between supplication and intercession, and how understanding each one helps open the door for God’s mercy to flow into the lives of those we love. Learn how to pray with greater purpose, clarity, and confidence for your family. 🙏📖

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Faith for Your Family. My name is Michelle Steele, and I'm so thankful to have this time with you, this opportunity for us to sit down over the Word of God and to learn how to release faith for our family, how to connect to the promises of God and see God work in the lives of those people that we love. I am so grateful for the things that I've learned about prayer, but I have to admit to you that when I first came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, it was a difficult thing for me. Prayer was something I had not been raised in church to see people pray. I had not been uh taught in a home where people prayed. And so I was very um withdrawn and and self-conscious of myself in prayer. And so it was a difficult thing for me to talk to God, for me to actually pray, asking him for help, knowing if I'm doing this right. And so I want to help you in that area because God has provided such a privilege for you and I to come to him to converse with him, to receive from him. Not prayer is more than just asking for things. That's a part of it, and God definitely gave us that petition of prayer as a vital part of receiving from him. But there is so much more. You know, I used to make the statement because we were in our last session together, we were talking about different types of prayer, and and let me say this: I I have a teaching called effective prayer, and this is the CD. If you still have a CD player, I I don't have one in my car anymore. So I have MP3s, flash drives that are available as well, and they're downloadable from our website, and we have a study guide. And so, in the study guide and the the lessons, we have 12 different lessons where we go through prayer, how to have effective prayer. We talk about the different types of prayer, the ministry of prayer, how to be effective in the prayer of faith, uh, making tremendous power available, um, obtaining answers from heaven, how to have confidence in prayer. And so, this is a great tool for you to use for your personal study, or if you want to have a Bible study, a home group, and and you want to have something to follow along. It's got all the verses, all the teaching points, it's got uh some questions, uh, and you can fill out the answers in in there and and study along uh each week for 12 weeks and gain that. All of these teachings are available for free on our YouTube channel. There's a whole playlist for effective prayer teachings, and you can go through and watch the videos from the effective prayer series, and so those are available to help you grow. And so I when I first started learning how to pray, and I've made this statement, I didn't forget where I was going. I made this statement a lot of times, especially when I first started teaching on prayer, because of where I was at the time, I would make the statement the prayer of petition is probably the prayer you're gonna use the most, which is the prayer of faith, the prayer of petition. And so um as I grew, I began to see, you know what? I that I do use that prayer a lot. And I like I liken it to my toolbox. I have a prayer toolbox, and in my prayer toolbox, that's probably the one that I started going to in the beginning the most. And as a believer, God wants us to be very skilled with that tool in our toolbox. He wants us to have the prayer of faith, a skill in it, so that we're not over here in desperation, but we're actually believing we receive when we pray, and we're laying hold of it. And but as I moved in more, I found myself utilizing as much and sometimes maybe even more, the prayer of praise and worship. Because when I would use the prayer of faith, I would say, I believe, I receive, Father, I thank you, and I'm I want to have skill, so I know I can't come back and make the same prayer because I already believed I received it the first time I prayed. So, what do I do to release my faith about that connection I made in the prayer of faith? I use the prayer of praise and worship. Father, I praise you that I have received. Father, I praise you. But then I would also need to be strengthened. I would be maybe resisting depression or resisting oppression, resisting uh um uh maybe I was just exhausted from different things that were taxing my spiritual strength, and I needed to strengthen myself. And so what did I use? The prayer, praise, and worship. Because in that praising, in that rejoicing, there's a power flow, there's a strength. And so I would get over there in that praise and worship, and I would strengthen myself in the rejoicing. I would strengthen myself with joy. I draw water out of the wells of salvation. And so I found myself using that type of prayer as much, if not more, than the prayer of faith. And so there are different types of prayer in the toolbox. And so uh some of the different types of prayer that we see in the toolbox is the prayer of faith or petition, the prayer of consecration, the prayer of praise and worship, united prayer. That one's emphasized in the New Testament. United prayer has a greater emphasis in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you see a lot of lone prayers. They are, you know, and we're gonna look at some today in our lesson for today, but you can see those lone prayers and and the effect that they had that made the pages of the Bible. Daniel's prayers made the pages of the Bible. Elijah's praying made the pages of the Bible, and even, you know, we're used uh we're pointed back to Elijah's praying, you know, to talk about the prayer of faith that Elijah he prayed and the heavens were shut up. And and and so um when when we see the uh the the power of prayer, uh we see that that emphasis in the Old Testament on those lone prayers, but in the New Testament, we see that emphasis in the united praying. And it's not that it's not in the Old Testament, Jehoshaphat, he he was praying, but the whole people of Judah were praying with him. And so we see their united prayer. We see the in the Acts chapter 4 when when in the New Testament, when the disciples were threatened not to preach anymore in Jesus' name, that they got together in that united praying. So there's power in that united praying that we don't want to leave on the table. We don't want to leave that unused. We want to access that power as well. So, you know, you need a church that has corporate prayer, and you need to learn how to get in there and pray in corporate prayer with your local church family because that's where you're gonna find a lot of those people that you're gonna need somebody to agree with you someday. It would definitely help you not to have to be dependent upon just yourself, because there are times you need some faith of other people to help you make some things happen. And so I encourage you, united prayer is something we need to develop in as the body of Christ, and we need to develop individually in joining into that united prayer. Um, the prayer of agreement. The prayer of agreement has some specific attributes to it as well. The prayer of agreement, you can't say, hey, agree with me in prayer, and that person says, Yeah, I will. You hadn't done it yet. You hadn't done it until there's some asking. It says the agreeing, and I'll just read the verse there for the prayer of agreement, Matthew 18, 18. Jesus said, Truly, I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on the earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven. Again, I tell you, if any two on earth shall agree, and this is the amplified, harmonize together, make a symphony together about whatever, anything and everything they may ask. They need to be asking together. They need to be asking. And so if you say, hey, agree with me, and that person says, Yeah, what are we asking? I need to know what we're asking. I can't agree until we're asking. And so that both agreers need to be making petition and agreeing in that petition. It will come to pass what and be done for them by my Father in heaven, for whether two or three are gathered, drawn together as my followers in my name, there I am in the midst of them. So that prayer of agreement has some specifics to working it, doesn't it? And that's what studying and and and knowing these different tools in the toolbox, knowing different applications of prayer. Um, the Holy Spirit, I believe, gave Brother Hagin the illustration that there's many different types of sports and they all have different rules to make them work. And you cannot use tool regulations, you can, I'm sorry, you cannot use tennis regulations in a basketball game, and you cannot use the same rules for football in uh in a soccer match. You need to, there are rules for each different application of sport, and so the same is true with prayer. There are different um applications of that praying, and so let me talk about one today that sometimes gets um always kind of combobulated, it gets kind of stuck in there together, and and that would be the supplication and intercession. And um when when Ephesians chapter 6 tells us in verse 18, and let me read that for you in the amplified, pray at all times, on every occasion, in every season, in the spirit, with all manner of prayer, using all the tools in the toolbox and entreaty. To that end, keep alert and watch with strong person purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints, interceding, and so we see, but um the King James says all manner of prayer and supplication, and and then we see interceding is in there. So supplication and interceding often um get kind of merged together, and they're they're similar, very similar, but there are attributes in the supplication and attributes in the intercession. And so supplication is let me give you a definition for the prayer of supplication: an intense petition with a fervent heart, praying heart and soul, praying heart and soul. That would be the ingredient. The desire is the ingredient that marks a supplication, the desire, the desire marks this is I'm supplicating. And so my husband would teach in our church. He would say, you know, um, and he'd heard me say it, I think, because I teach the ladies in our ladies' group that we're not governed by our emotions, that we are women of faith. We are women who walk in the word. And so my husband, you know, like my like my wife says, you know, you ladies, you you're you're not given to your emotions, you're not, you're not driven by your emotions, you're not governed by your emotions. And and then the husbands started using that on their wives, and they're woman, don't be emotional. Quit being emotional. Well, I never said that, and my husband didn't say not to be emotional. God gave us emotions, he gave us emotions. What I said, and though what my husband uh got in trouble for repeating, was we're not governed by our emotions, but we have them. We have them, and they are tools, they're they're part of the way God made us, and we need to use them for the benefit that God gave them to us for, and not allow them to become something that's an obstacle for our obedience to the word or an obstacle for us to walk in the spirit, because a lot of times people get over in into their emotions and they they let their emotions take them towards the flesh instead of taking them towards the spirit, and so it in praying we can have the same danger of the emotions taking us over into doubt, and the emotions taking us over into trying to use hope to get a prayer answered, and so we need to recognize in praying, emotions are to be um to be exercised, to be given a flow, but to let that flow that the emotions have lead us towards a spiritual flow and not towards a fleshly flow. And the prayer of supplication oftentimes gets missed because people don't want to get, don't want to let that emotional part of that desire that that yearning for it have any part in their action of praying. And so supplication is that fervency. And so your emotions may be employed. They're not directing, your spirit's still directing, but your emotions are a part of it that help fuel a fire, help fuel, fuel me in this maintaining. So let me give you some examples. Um, Philippians 4.6 says, Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And that's Philippians 4 6 from the Amplified. Continue to make your wants known to God. So, how do we make our wants known? Those wants, those desires, those yearnings, those things that we want have a part to play in my supplication. Another example is from 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2. It says, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. So supplications be made for all men and especially for those who are in authority. Supplications. What do you desire? What do you want? What is that fervent desire that you have for the president, whoever the president is? Because you may like the president one election and not like him the next, but we're not talking about the person. We're talking about the office, the person that God has given the privilege of being in that office, and he tells us, make supplication for them. And what do you want? Well, number one, I want them to be saved. I want them to be saved. And this is president, governor, um, mayor, whoever's in lawmaking capacity, congressmen, senators, I want them saved. Why? Because I don't want laws in my country or my state or my city that violate God and his word. And so I want people who love God in office. So if they're not loving God, let me start praying that they do come to know Jesus. So that supplication, though, my purpose in using that as an example is that I have a desire that they know God. I want them to know God. I want them to choose to be an ally to Israel. I want them to choose to honor the life giver. I want them to choose God's design for marriage. And so I desire that. And that desire is of uh, it's like wood on the fire. It's fuel to the fire for my praying. So he says, make supplications and intercessions. Notice that the Bible identifies them and distinguishes them apart from each other. Supplications, if you look at it, you'll see more uh in the New Testament in of the word supplication than of the intercession. Not that it's more, uh, but we're it's there, it's emphasized more. So God wants us having some earnest, heartfelt prayers for people, for people to know God, for people to follow God. And so Matthew 9 is another example of a supplication when Jesus said, Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into the harvest. That's a supplication. Praying for the laborers to be sent. Why? Because we want a big harvest of souls. We want as many people going to heaven with us as we can get. Um, and so supplication uh is is this earnest heartfelt prayer, this desire, uh, this fervent praying with heart and soul. And so we're told to pray for the spiritual needs of others. That's a supplication when Ephesians 1.16, when it says, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. He what is what kind of the things are he is he mentioning? He's mentioning things he wants to see them have in their life. Philippians 1.9, and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Colossians 1.9, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So there's that spiritual desire. Colossians 4.12 shows in this example. It says, Ephaphhrus, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. What if everybody in the church was praying that for each other? What if what if you started praying that for all of your your church family, that they would stand complete? Lord, I am I am I am fervently praying for all of my church family, for all of my family, my my physical family, that they would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. And you just you just fuel that desire every day. That's one of those prayers. You you can pray that one today and tomorrow too. And you pray it next week. You can pray that one for me. Pray for Michelle to have Colossians 4 12, standing perfectly complete in all the will of God. So that's that's the the prayer of supplication, that fervent heart and soul praying. Now, what is intercession? Now, I talk about this a lot in the book, intervention prayers. I have a few chapters in intervention prayers where we talk about the the prayer of the the intercession because I I found it to be something confusing when I first got saved, because every everything was intercessory, intercessory this, intercessory that, and and everything. There was uh in especially when I first got saved and started praying, um, learning to pray, it was a big emphasis on intercession. I mean intercessor, intercession, and it became like it kind of became clicheic and and vain because it was losing the power of the emphasis. And so this helped me, and I hope it helps you. And I put it in the book because it helped me so much. Jesus is the intercessor, and he did a work of intercession, and all the praying of intercession that we do is an application of the work of intercession. He already did. And so intercess intercession to intercede, the definition is to go between. And Jesus interceded in two directions. He interceded going between us and God, giving us the new and living way for us to have a way to go to God. So now we have a way to God because of that work of intercession that He did through the cross, through His death, through His resurrection. Jesus interceded, and now we have a living, vital connection to the Father through Jesus. He is the new and the living way. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so he interceded to make that way. He went between us. Any prayer of intercession we do to apply that work of that way for a person to get to God, it's an application of what Jesus has done. Jesus, because you paved the way, because you shed the blood, I pray for my child, for them to walk that path to God. I pray for them to see that path, that that path would be laid before them. So that that's an intercessory going between. So we're he went between to do that. For Jesus to break the power that Satan had over us through sin, through fear of death, through the spiritual darkness that the spiritual death that dominated our spirits, Jesus had to go between us and Satan. And Jesus had to triumph over him in the cross. And Jesus had to defeat Satan, and he had to pay the price, and he had to triumph over him. And he did that. And so we can apply that triumph. And we can apply that freedom. And we can go between for our loved one. And we can break the power that Satan has over their mind. And we can break the power that Satan has over there. Now they have a choice, but with that power broken, it's a lot easier for them to make that choice. So our prayer of intercession is a going-between kind of praying. And so that's the way that that's a simplified way. But let's look at uh from scripture an aspect of the prayer of intercession. Let me give you this definition first. The prayer of intercession is praying for others motivated by God's love for that person. God's love is the ingredient that marks this prayer. And wouldn't you say intercession is an expression of the love of God? The work that Jesus did in the intercession is love, is love demonstrated. Going between us and God to make that way, breaking the power of Satan off of our life, that's love in demonstration. So love, the love of God, marks the prayer of intercession for us. It's a standing in the gap kind of praying between people who have provoked judgment on themselves by wrongdoing. So usually when you see the prayer of intercession, it's because that person is standing in the place where they deserve judgment and we don't want them to get judgment. God doesn't want them to get judgment. I know sometimes people, and that was a big thing for me when I first started praying for people that I knew were doing something wrong. I mean, they were living wrong, they're making wrong decisions, they got themselves in that mess. How do I talk God into getting out? How do I talk God into having mercy on them? And then I then I came to know God better. Then I saw the love of God in my own life and thought, God was waiting for the opportunity. I so, God never was like, I can't wait to get Michelle and give her what she got coming to her. He never had that in his mind. God never wanted to give me what I had coming. He was always saying, Won't somebody tell Michelle something that will cause her to turn towards my mercy? The more we know God, the more we see. He desires to show mercy and not judgment. And so we have examples, and I'm just going to go through them for the sake of time, uh, and and not try to read all my scriptures because a lot of scriptures here, but you know, um Genesis chapter 18, we see Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah had it coming to them. They were, they were filled. God said, I've come down to see if what I hear is that it that the judgment is crying out, if it's full, and he found it full. They were, they had reached the limit of how far that, and God says, judgment is what they have coming to them. But Abraham started praying, and we see him talk God down. He started at 50 and he brings brings him down to 45, he brings them down to 40. He said, Lord, if there be all the way down to 10, if you can find 10 righteous in the city, will you spare the whole city? And God was going to. If he could have found 10 righteous in the city, but still, listen, this prayer of Abraham is the reason Lot and his family got out. Because Abraham was praying, God, if you find 10 righteous in the city, God would have turned his judgment just because Abraham asked him to. Micah 7, 18 is the verse that shows us God delights in mercy. It says this in the amplified, who is a God like you who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger forever because he delights in mercy and loving kindness. You shouldn't meditate on that because it's a good possibility that the person God has you praying for, when you look at their life and you look at the decisions that you're making, all you see is they deserve judgment. They are spitting in God's face, they are thumbing their nose up at God, they are violating God's word left and right. They know better why are they doing what they're doing? If you focus on that, you'll have a hard time praying. You'll have a hard time interceding. You've got to come over here to Micah 7:18 and you've got to focus on God delights in mercy and loving kindness. God delights in turning his judgment away and showing his mercy. He does require that somebody ask him for it. He needs a legal entry to he needs a legal entry point where someone has made a petition for mercy, where someone it because chances are it's it's probably a very good scenario that the person that you're praying for is not asking for it. They're not positioned for it, they're not asking for it. They are found in that place where judgment is is coming. But if we're praying, God give them another chance. God send laborers across their path, open the eyes of their understanding. I take authority over the blindness that's causing them to continue walking in this darkness. And Father, I ask you for light to shine. Show them your mercy, show them your mercy and call out for the mercy of God because God delights in it. He would much rather give them another chance. And it's those those kind of prayings that allow God the opportunity to get in there and keep working with them until they they make that decision to turn to God, until that that that whatever it is that's been holding them from it, holding them on that course to destruction is broken off their life and the mercy of God comes rushing in. But your prayer of intercession, so supplications and intercessions, we need to have them both, and we need to know what what the difference is so that we can we can recognize and stay with what the Holy Spirit is telling us to bring in that situation. I'm so glad you tuned in today. Be sure and tune in to our next episode of Faith for Your Family. We've got so much more to help you believe God for the life of your loved one. Thank you for tuning in. I'll look forward to seeing you next time.

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Bye.

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