Intercessory Prayer

God calls us all to it, but some people have it as a gift... I wonder if it's something that we can pursue and then that God would give us out of zeal for it. I know that God gives us good gifts when we ask, and that He would be happy to give it to many people. Yet, I know that there are some people that have asked for tongues and other things that some would consider "available to all men"... Yet, there are people that have not received them after asking, and there are others gifts like healing that seem like they are for a select few. Where is intercessory in that?" There are other gifts like teaching and helps that sometimes seem natural to people or that people can get trained in.... Is intercessory prayer like that? I don't know - I could be completely wrong about all of this, but I know that it is something I've slacked in for a long time. There have always been times that God will give me someone's name to pray for, and there have been times where God has had me commit to pray for people. It always amazes me how God will remind me of those commitments that He had me made a year or two before. It's happened twice now in the past couple of months...

Yet, after meeting Oz in India, I have more ideas and inspiration to really focus on intercessory prayer. When I saw his daily list and then his "when I can" list for that day, I have to say that I was overwhelmed. There are people on his list that he doesn't even remember who they are, yet he continues to pray for them. It is amazing how much God has put it in his heart and has enabled him to do it. I am thankful to God for him, because he totally blessed and inspired me by just knowing how focused upon prayer he has made his life.

When I asked him for help in making my own list, here is the advice he gave (keep in mind that some of it is personal so it could changed for you and others I have taken out the specifics for confidentiality purposes):

The first thing I recommend is to keep it SMALL to start with. If you try to make a huge list, its pretty easy to fail because its just too big to get yourself around and if you get behind then you feel overwhelmed and you drop it.
Based on Biblical principles, the first people you should have on your list are people whose authority you are under. This has the added benefit of the fact that you are praying for people who greatly influence your life.
The second group of people is immeadiate family . Thirdly I put people who are in full time ministry or people who are in need. After that, I toss in people who I figure aren't getting much prayer support or just people I like.
So if I were building you a prayer list, I'd start with something like this:
DAILY
1) Your Pastor
2) PM and PW
3) Your Boss
4) Future spouse
5) Ben and Ranchana
The second part of the list is the "When you can list". The top part you do every day, the other part you do if you have extra time:
WHEN YOU CAN
6) Missionaries you know
7) Missionary friendships
8) People in crisis
9) Kids in your classes at church
10) India
11) Others
12) Cool people

I added that part so that any of you who would like to implement a similar list will have an easier way of creating it. I started creating my list yesterday, and I have to admit that I added between 10 and 20 people to it today. There are always a ton of people to pray for, but I will try to keep it small for now, and try to remember that if you create your own list.

For all of you that have this all worked out already, you can just disregard this entire post... :P