in-ter-cede (in-tər-ˈsēd) verb – to intervene on behalf of another

This week I had a new experience. Our church has a team in Tanzania right now ministering to all of the Reach Global missionaries on the continent of Africa. On Wednesday the team held an extended time of worship and prayer for the missionaries. So we gathered a team here at our church to intercede for our team, the missionaries and the gospel work going on in Africa!

Tanzania is 8hrs ahead of us in Tennessee, so from 11:30pm to just after 3am, I sat in our conference room at church and we prayed. We prayed; we drank coffee; we prayed; we drank more coffee and we prayed!

It was amazing. I’ve never been part of an intercessory prayer team like that. I’ve been “on the ground” so to speak during those ministry times, but never behind the scenes in the prayer room. It was so cool to experience God putting things on our hearts to pray – names of people, specific Scriptures…even how to join the spiritual battle going on. Yes, there is a battle going on that we can’t see. There is an enemy who would like to destroy the Kingdom work going on in Africa and that means discouraging and distracting the workers who are in the field.

The coolest thing is when you feel God is prompting you to pray about someone or something and then others chime in and say they were hearing the same thing! That’s because God speaks (He is the Shepherd) and as His sheep, we can hear His voice.

This experience really encouraged me. As I put my head on the pillow that night I was still interceding. God was using me to do battle for His Kingdom.