17 January 2024
A word from our Event Lead Paul Worth on intercessory prayer. We are committing to intercessory prayer on a weekly basis at Creation Fest. We’re doing this because we believe that Scripture invites us to pray in this way, Jesus models this prayer, and that we want to be part of seeing change and revival in our time, in our place.
In Scripture, we see the following clear prophetic images of intercessory prayer:
Ultimately, Jesus is the image of an intercessor. The Bible teaches that Jesus intercedes on behalf of believers before God (Hebrews 7:25), serving as a mediator between God and humanity. We follow the example of Jesus in interceding for others.
Intercessory prayer involves bringing the needs, concerns, and challenges of others before God. This can include prayers for healing, guidance, protection, salvation, reconciliation, and other specific needs individuals or communities may have. This practice is based on Jesus’ teaching that whatever is asked in His name will be granted (John 14:13-14).
We are doing this at Creation Fest in three ways:
In the words of Walter Wink:
“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualises an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. … History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. … Even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations, can decisively affect the shape the future takes. These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present.”
So what are we praying for? What do we want to see, what are we believing for, what are we brave enough to call out of the future into the new present?
We pray boldly, listening, as we feel led, not being afraid of silence and wait for prayers to form, but speaking out in faith, in authority, and in the knowledge that God IS listening.
So join us in praying that God open our minds and hearts to pray boldly for a fresh vision of his love and future in 2024.
With joy,
Paul Worth
Creation Fest Event Lead