Preparing to Intercede

Mathew 6:9-13

“Father hallowed by Thy Name”
God says, ‘if you call me Father, that means you have brothers and sisters, who are they?’ You have to identify who is your family before to call me Father. And who is your Father?

Today we are here to pray for our spiritual family who are suffering and as they are our brothers and sisters it is important to remember that when we pray. Try to think of them in the same we you do of your biological family. I will try to imagine that it is my mum.


What does hallowed mean? Why do you want my name to be hallowed? You can’t pray for something that you don’t understand. If you don’t understand, ask God to help you.

Hallowed means to make God’s name holy. How do we make it holy? By being holy yourself. So what does holy mean and why do we want the Holy Spirit? In previous Bible studies we have learnt that if children are naughty people will assume it’s because of bad parenting and if children are good, people will know it’s because the parents are good. It’s the same with us as children of God, if our actions are holy people will know our Father must also be Holy and this will make His name to be called Holy.

“Kingdom come”
Where? Where do we want the kingdom to come? God says, ‘I’m ready to bring my Kingdom into your life, are you ready to receive it and are you ready to accept me to lead you, are you ready to offer your body, soul and mind and let me be King of your life completely, 100%?’

I believe that if you are here today it is because you want God to lead you 100% and so let's ready to be led by him today as we pray, 100%. Don’t be distracted.

“Your will be done”

There are two ways God can answer us, either yes or no so when we pray we have to be ready to accept whatever God will answer. We also have to understand God’s timing. It is also hard when we are praying for the others because we can’t always see direct results but we can pray that God will encourage us with good signs so that we can have assurance that our prayers are being heard by God.

"Give us our daily bread”We must feed new Christians with our daily bread. We have to learn everyday from the Bible something to teach others with. This is the daily bread, it is eternal and it will never stop, it’s what you give to others so God’s Name will be Holy. What do you give to others or tell others so they can know God’s Name is Holy?

“Forgive our debts”
Have you forgiven your debtors? Have you solved all the problems you have with others? Count from Monday to Thursday and see how many sins you did. To be free in God you must repent your sins.

“Protect me from temptation”Do you accept God’s protection? If you want to be far from temptation control your body and mind so God’s name can be called Holy. If you control your mind you can control your tongue, we must think before to speak. In doing anything ask yourself, is God here?

“Deliver us from satan”
The power over satan has been given to you and you are stronger than satan. When you resist, he’ll flee from you. Today you will be attacked because satan is not happy when we try to destroy his plans so be ready for that attack and make sure to resist.

Remember that satan tried to tempt Jesus 3x and then he left so if you feel attacked, just persevere two more times and satan will leave you alone after that (or find a new tactic). So if you always feel tired before to pray, cast satan out and carry on, don’t give in to the tiredness and a couple more times of resisting will send satan on his way because he will see you won’t give in and he is wasting his time. Or if you feel distracted, pull your mind in. Or if you feel doubts, or if get phonecalls or sickness before to come, don’t give in to it.

“Amen”
What does Amen mean? God says, ‘everything that you ask of Me, if you agree with Me, it will be done as we said.

There are two ways of praying: with God which is in Spirit and in Truth or to recite a text which is without Spirit and Truth. We have to ask ourselves, does what I tell God have a meaning for me?

We must pray in faith and in truth which means we must be guided by the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit because Himself is powerful and without Him we won’t know which words to use. We have to ask ourselves is the Holy Spirit really acting in our lives or not? There is no formula to praying, just to be lead by the Holy Spirit. Because He is powerful, you will also be powerful but when you pray with the flesh, your prayer will be weak.

If you want your prayer to be really powerful you have to be humble and accept God’s help. Tell God, “I’m here waiting, I have no where else I can go to get help’.

Before to pray we must prepare ourselves, ask yourself, "am I ready to pray or not"? Even before to eat, when we say grace we must make sure we are pure to pray. We need to pray for people so they can see change and see God. Before to pray you have to understand what you are doing and saying. We need to know the secret of prayer. The power of prayer works together with promises, if you made a promise with God you must fulfil it. If you are not ready to fulfil it then don’t make a contract with God because He doesn’t forget.

God asked Israel to walk around Jericho seven times which is equivalent to walking around Hamilton every day for seven days. After God looking at their perseverance and determination He decided to give them an answer, ‘Just blow the trumpet and you’ll see the power of prayer’. That powerful prayer was escorted by determination.

Prayer is powerful and it is the biggest thing that God has given to the church for all situations; communicating with God, casting out evil spirits etc.


SUMMARY1. First understand what is prayer, who you are praying to, what you are praying
2. Then understand what God’s time is
3. Tell God you need to hear from Him
4. Pray in faith and truth, guided by the Holy Spirit
5. Pray with humility
6. Pray with determination and perseverance
7. Accept God’s answer