The Power of the Spoken Word: How to Partner with God in Prayer
When we study the eternal ministry of Jesus, two distinct revelations of intercession emerge: its power and its simplicity.
We will examine each of these realities, beginning with the power of intercession. I believe the Church is in desperate need of a fresh revelation of the power of prayer. If Jesus forever lives to make intercession, if God has chosen to release His resources through the speaking of the Word from eternity past to the present moment, then how much more should we build our lives and ministries around this reality? I believe the Holy Spirit is hovering over us, just as He did in Genesis, waiting to release light in areas of darkness as we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will and speak forth His desires.
Even now the Church is awakening to this revelation and returning to the simplicity of singing and speaking God’s words as the primary means of seeing His will manifested on earth. The ultimate governmental centers are not found in our white houses, state capitols, and legislative assemblies. They are found in our prayer rooms. When God’s words are spoken and sung back to Him, His power is released. This elementary yet profound truth will revolutionize the Church and connect believers with the only real source of authority. God’s thoughts expressed through God’s Word bring forth God’s Spirit. These prayers transcend time and distance, and their power cannot be contained or withheld. When believers speak the Word in agreement with God, even the darkest and most impenetrable places are filled with the light of the Spirit.
In Matthew 8 we see an amazing story illustrating this principle. Many of us are familiar with the passage: a Roman centurion approached Jesus and stated the condition of his servant who was lying at home, paralyzed and tormented. Jesus immediately responded, “I will come and heal him,” but the centurion made a profound statement in reply:
Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it. (Matthew 8:8b–9)
I cannot believe the response of this man—and neither could Jesus. This military leader understood the authority of the word. If he told a soldier under his command, “Do this,” it was done as soon as it came out of his mouth. His spoken word carried the power and weight of Rome, and he understood that the kingdom of heaven operated in the same way: the word was backed by the authority of the One who spoke it. He knew that Jesus only needed to give the command and it was as good as done. (So few believers truly grasp the authority of the Word of God that is resting in their Bibles, in their hearts, and in their mouths. We spend large amounts of time feeling overwhelmed and oppressed, fighting through so many issues, when all we need to do is speak and sing the Word of God. This is how power is released.)
In verse 10 it says that Jesus marveled—I like to imagine Jesus falling back, nearly slain in the Spirit here! He had never seen such great faith. Jesus actually began to prophesy about Gentile inclusion and end-time judgment in response to the centurion’s revelation of the power of the word.
Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. (Matthew 8:10b–12a)
Not only did the centurion grasp the power of the word, he also understood that it transcended distance. He knew Jesus did not have to physically lay hands on his servant. When the Man of authority speaks, His words travel miles to touch the paralyzed servant and heal him. Psalm 107:20a says, “He sent His word and healed them.” Have you ever stopped to consider how amazing it is that we can pray for people halfway around the globe and know that our prayers are being translated into spiritual power and influencing real people in real time? We are not limited in our impact by our circumstances or location. The will of the Father is released in fullness simply because we ask Him. The power of faith and prayer lies in believing that when we are in our room, talking to God, the words we speak have an impact on individuals in other cities and nations.
One of my favorite stories comes from the autobiography of John G. Lake. He was a missionary in South Africa, and one day a man approached him and asked him to pray for his cousin in Wales. She was insane, and the man was desperate for God to break in and deliver her. The two of them knelt down and began to pray together for this young woman. Suddenly Lake felt his spirit leave his body. In his own words, he describes the sensation of rising up out of the church and soaring over the ocean. The next thing he knew he was entering a room where a young woman was strapped to a bed, clearly being tormented. Lake walked up to her and said, “In the name of Jesus, come out of her.” Then he left the room, flew back over the ocean, and returned to his body. This was how he described the prayer time. Three weeks later the man came back to tell him he had just received a letter from his relatives. They wrote that the cousin was fully restored to her right mind and had been released from the asylum where she had lived for seven years.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Luke 11:10)
The second revelation of intercession is its profound simplicity. This may seem contradictory to the first revelation—the governmental power and authority of prayer—but power and simplicity go hand in hand. Many believers sign up eagerly for the immediate displays of power, but the common testimony throughout church history is that power is preceded by decades of regular, faithful intercession. Don’t get me wrong, I love the manifest glory of God and stories of supernatural breakthrough. But many of us fall into the trap of only wanting to receive from Him in this way. We must understand the simplicity and the power of intercession.
At its core, intercession is simply telling God what He tells us to tell Him. I like to describe it as inhaling and exhaling: we inhale the desires of God and exhale them back to Him. This is His brilliant method of including the saints in His government. Prayer is accessible to everyone. Asking God to act on our behalf is so simple that anyone can do it—and so simple that hardly anyone does it. In fact the weakness, simplicity, and humility of intercession cause many believers to discount its effectiveness. As I stated in the first chapter of this book, right now we are seeing daily prayer meetings arise across the earth. One of the functions of these prayer meetings is to detoxify us from fantasies of immediate, great displays of power. We are living in a generation that loves His power but will not embrace the simplicity, humility, and faithfulness of decades of mundane prayer. I believe this is why we stay stuck where we are, perpetually waiting for breakthrough and revival. The only way to enter into true maturity is through humility. We must learn to value and embrace the power of prayer even when it feels dull and tests our perseverance. The question the Spirit is asking in this hour is, “How low can you go?”
While we must be faithful in the midst of mundane prayer, we must also remain faith-filled. This is what it means to come like a child: we are called to carry expectation and faith in our hearts as we come to God again and again and offer up our prayers. He requires everyone, the weak and the strong, to enter the kingdom like children and engage Him through intercession. There are many times we pray and do not feel as though much is happening. However, it is wrong to conclude that because we do not feel much our prayers are not moving God. They are. Cornelius was an unredeemed Gentile who feared God and prayed to Him continually. I doubt that he felt or experienced much through his years of faithful worship, yet he was moving heaven. Finally an angel appeared to him and said that his prayers had come up before God as a memorial. This man’s dry prayer life opened a door for the gospel in the Gentile world (Acts 10).
A friend of mine often shares the story of his revelation of the power of “weak” prayer. In the summer of 1990, he arrived at his church to attend a small prayer meeting. As he got out of his car, he heard very loud, majestic music coming from the auditorium. Concerned that the sound system would malfunction due to the high volume, he rushed into the building. As soon as he was inside, however, the music disappeared, and when he entered the auditorium he only found two men kneeling at the altar praying. The sound system had not yet been turned on, and neither of them had heard the orchestral music. When he realized that he had heard angelic ministry, he was convinced that something amazing would occur during the prayer meeting. Much to his surprise, it was a completely ordinary and rather boring meeting, no different than any other prayer meeting held at the church. Here he describes his reaction to this event:
Afterward I pondered the meaning of my experience. The Lord then made it clear to me that He is blessed by such “ordinary” daily prayer meetings that seem so weak and unanointed. The heavenly hosts regularly attend such prayer meetings, unseen and unperceived, to mingle our weak prayers and praises with their strong and glorious heavenly music, worship, and prayer. The angelic choirs are always functioning in the spirit realm in concert with our earthly prayer meetings. This experience built up my faith as I saw the significance God puts on “dry” intercession.
Too often we measure our faith in prayer according to how loudly we yell or how emotionally connected we feel. Don’t get me wrong—I love it when God releases grace upon my heart and I am able to feel what He feels when I pray. However, if I only prayed when I felt something, then I would pray a lot less. When I first began my journey as an intercessor, I thought that the only manifestation of the spirit of prayer was groaning and travail. While I still believe this is a primary manifestation (and one we will look at later), my understanding has broadened over the years. The continual awareness that I am speaking into the open ear of heaven is also a manifestation of the spirit of prayer. This simple faith releases God’s power.
Intercession is not about winding up our emotions. It is about standing on our revelation of the Word of God and partnering with Jesus in declaring the desires of the Father. God Himself chooses weak, foolish, and insignificant things to shame the wise, mighty, and strong things of this world so that no flesh will glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:27–29). He chooses things like speaking to an invisible Person, fasting, and giving away money as the methods of releasing His power. This does not make any sense to our natural minds, but it is the operating principle of His kingdom.
