What Is Intercessory Prayer? How to Pray for Others
Adapted from Chapter 12 of our book, Conversations.
Intercessory prayer is praying to God on behalf of someone else. To intercede is to stand in the gap: to bring a person, a family, a city or a nation before the Father and say, "God, move here. Heal here. Act here." It is one of the most mature forms of prayer, because it carries the weight of other people's lives into the presence of God. And it is not reserved for a few spiritual specialists. Every follower of Jesus is invited into it.
Prayer is a conversation with God. Most of us start that conversation by talking about ourselves, and God welcomes that. But as we grow, something shifts. We begin to talk with God about others. That is intercession, and it changes both the person being prayed for and the one doing the praying.
Abraham Stands in the Gap
One of the earliest and clearest pictures of intercession is in Genesis 18, where Abraham stands before God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. He does not defend the cities. He pleads for the righteous within them.
Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?
Genesis 18:23, World English Bible
Abraham was not praying for himself. He had already been promised a blessing. He was praying for people he did not even know, some righteous and some wicked. What drove him? Compassion. Boldness. A growing awareness of God's justice and mercy.
He starts with fifty. Then forty-five. Then forty, thirty, twenty, ten. With every ask, Abraham draws closer to the heart of God. He does not pray in fear. He prays in friendship. That is what mature intercession looks like. It moves us beyond ourselves, trains us to carry other people before God, and teaches us to believe that mercy is always worth asking for.
Jesus Is Interceding for You
Intercession is not only something we do. It is something Jesus is doing right now.
Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25, World English Bible
And the Holy Spirit joins in, praying through us when we do not know what to say.
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
Romans 8:26, World English Bible
So when you pray for your child, your city, your church or your friend, you are joining a holy work that is already underway. You are echoing the heart of the Son and the groans of the Spirit to a Father who hears and responds.
How to Pray for Others: Five Steps
1. Ask what God wants. We are not trying to manipulate God. We are trying to align with Him. Real power in prayer starts with knowing what God wants, not just what we want. Jesus modeled this in Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). We discern God's will through Scripture, through the Spirit's prompting, and through wisdom and counsel. Before you intercede, pray, "Father, what do You want here?" Then listen. Wait. Let your desire be shaped by His.
2. Anchor your prayer in the Word. Intercession becomes powerful when it rests on the promises of God. Scripture gives shape, substance and confidence to our prayers.
This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.
1 John 5:14, World English Bible
When we pray the Word, we remind ourselves of what God has already said. The Word keeps intercession from drifting into emotionalism. It gives our passion precision. Match each request with a promise. If you are praying for breakthrough, pray Isaiah 43:19. If you are praying for peace, pray Philippians 4:6-7.
3. Keep asking. Jesus taught that we should keep knocking, keep asking and keep pressing (Luke 11 and Luke 18). The old word for this is importunity: bold, persistent, unrelenting prayer. Not because God is reluctant, but because persistence reveals desire and builds faith. Elijah prayed for rain seven times before a small cloud appeared (1 Kings 18:43-44). Set prayer reminders. Keep a journal. Pray until something shifts, either in the situation or in you.
4. Pray with faith. We do not intercede with guesswork. We intercede with confidence that God hears, that God is able and that God is good.
Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them.
Mark 11:24, World English Bible
We may not see immediate results, but we plant our prayers like seeds and trust God with the timing. After you pray, thank Him as if it is already done: "God, I believe You heard. I believe You are moving. I will wait with expectation."
5. Seal it with praise. The final movement of intercession is worship. Not because the answer has come, but because God is faithful. Paul and Silas praised God in prison before the doors opened (Acts 16:25-26). Praise sustains us in the waiting and keeps us from growing weary.
Intercession That Changed History
In 1877, George Mueller, who cared for thousands of orphans in Bristol, England, was crossing the Atlantic when dense fog slowed his ship near Newfoundland. The captain told him he would miss a preaching engagement in Quebec. Mueller asked the captain to come pray with him, prayed a simple prayer that the fog would lift, and then told him to open the door. The fog was gone, and Mueller arrived on time.
A generation later, the missionary J.O. Fraser labored for years among the Lisu people of southwest China with little fruit. What changed his ministry was not a new strategy but a small team of praying friends back in England, many of them older women, who interceded for specific villages. While Fraser was away on furlough, he received word that villages he had never visited were turning to Christ. The church among the Lisu numbers in the thousands today.
I have seen the same thing in our own ministry. Before an outreach at a local park, we prayed for weeks for people to surrender their lives to Jesus. The night before, a friend dreamed that five people would come to Christ. The next day, after we shared the gospel on a basketball court, exactly five young men raised their hands and prayed to follow Jesus. God heard, God showed us what He would do, and He did it.
Join the Work of Heaven
To intercede is to take up three roles at once: a priest, representing people before God; a warrior, waging battle in the unseen; and a partner, agreeing with heaven's agenda. You may not always see the outcome, but you are always planting seeds.
So discern His will. Anchor in His Word. Persist with boldness. Speak with faith. And seal it all with praise. Intercession is not just something you do. It is who you become.
Who is God putting on your heart today? Take two minutes right now and talk with Him about them.
Go deeper. This post is adapted from Conversations by Hazen and Hannah Stevens, thirteen chapters on hearing God's voice, the many ways prayer sounds, and praying for others. Get the book on Amazon, watch the Conversations series free, start the free Conversations prayer plan, or pray with us online Monday through Thursday.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
