Today, I spent the majority of my work day in prayer work. Tomorrow, I will spend the morning in prayer. So, in case you’re wondering about the difference, let me explain.
Prayer is a time of being in fellowship with God. It is a time of speaking and listening to our Lord. Sometimes, it’s a time of quietly speaking with the Lord or reading Scripture.
Sometimes, it’s walking and praying out loud as I seek God’s will in a situation. Sometimes, it’s down on my knees in fervent intercession for someone else.
Prayer can be alone with God and it can also be time with someone else in intercession as I first listen and then pray with them for the concerns, burdens and praises that they want me to take before God. Prayer can be simple and it can be filled with passion. Time in prayer can be exhausting and it can be exhilarating. Prayer is always a connection with God.
If you’re an intercessor, I’ve probably not told you anything you didn’t already know. So, what is prayer work?
This is something that happens when your whole ministry is prayer. Prayer work lately has been traveling. It has been interceding for those I’ve just met in a country far away.
It is creating prayer chapels and working with others to get all the information needed for those attending to be able to pray well. Sometimes only a few people are involved, but other times many people may be involved before a prayer chapel is fully prepared. It starts with prayer, asking God what he wants to happen as I lead others in prayer, before launching into the planning and the leading of the prayer chapel. This may happen here at our headquarters or it may happen in another country half way around the world.
Prayer work for me also involves planning prayer retreats, preparing and leading prayer meetings with a group of intercessors and planning several prayer team trips to other countries. Some of these trips involve only two intercessors while others involve whole teams of people who feel called to go and pray.
Airline reservations, communications with field leaders around the world, and preparation zoom meetings are only the beginning of the plans that help us prepare to arrive on the field ready to serve in prayer. Many hours of determining what the field needs in prayer and preparing a group to go and serve where we have been called to go have already occurred in prayer work before we ever step foot in that country.
Mentoring others in prayer, sending written prayers through email and working with volunteers to provide prayer needs to them for their prayer groups can quickly fill a day with the work of prayer. The most important thing I have learned about prayer work is that it leads to helping others be able to pray for what is needed!
God sometimes calls me to pray. He calls me to intercede for many, and some days he calls me to prayer work so that others will also be able to pray. This is the life of an intercessor.