The Gifts Of The Spirit For The Work Of The Kingdom, Pt. 4: Intercession
Take Communion
Leader Note: Begin your time together by taking communion, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read from the book of Acts 1v8 as you welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Review the Last Practice
Leader Note: As you review the last Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to be hyper critical or judgmental of yourself or others.
Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Intercession, let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another how it went last week utilizing the Psalms in your prayers of Lament.
How did practicing Lament go this week? In what ways did you experience God’s presence through this practice?
In what moments did you experience comfort, or maybe discomfort, while sharing your grief with Jesus?
Was using a Psalm helpful to give voice to your grief? How so?
How is God inviting you to make Lament a more active part of your prayer life?
Read This Overview Aloud Together
Last week, we discussed how powerful the practice of Lament can be in moments of grieving and desperation. There are often moments of such deep sorrow, or compassion for another, that we find ourselves at a loss for words. And in those times, the psalms are a brilliant gift to us in finding the language that best articulates the cry of our hearts. But, there are also times when we meet the limitations of language, and are restricted by our native tongue — unable to find the words to capture our heart’s cry.
It is in these moments of grief, God, by His Spirit, grants us a gift. Throughout church history, followers of Jesus have practiced the spiritual gift of groaning and tongues as a response to these moments of impasse within intercessory prayer. In our current cultural moment, we tend to value technology, rationale, usefulness, and intellect, so we often undervalue this gift, and instead we seek to exhibit competence, coherence, and control in our spiritual lives. But in the midst of this discomfort, tongues has a way of building our faith, drawing us closer to the heart of God, and orienting our hearts toward others in the form of intercession.
Do This Practice Tonight
Tonight, we are going to practice interceding for one another in prayer, by means of groaning, tongues, or silence.
During our last Community Guide, we went around the room and shared the places in life we were holding the grief of unanswered prayer. We are going to revisit those again today, so we will go around and one-by-one remind the room of our request(s). Then, as a Community, we will all simultaneously pray aloud for that individual's request. If anyone wasn’t present for that discussion, take a moment now to identify an aspect of your life where you lack the words for what you want most from God, or want to say to God. Ask yourself, “What space in my life feels like my prayers are restricted by language?”
Let’s take a moment now to gather our thoughts and remember our requests.
[Pause for folks to reflect]
In moments of great desperation, grief, or compassion, the Spirit gives us a gift to communicate with God in a way that goes beyond language. One gift, or way to communicate, is through groaning, a form of lament that comes from your entire being. Another is the gift of tongues, a type of private speech that is led by the Spirit and is intelligible to us. A third way of communicating to God that goes beyond words is silence, holding a request before God without needing to make a sound. Each of these gifts relieve us of the burden to know all things and yet allow us to remain an active part of God’s good work in the lives around us.
We are going to use the remainder of our time together tonight to practice praying for each other. We will begin by hearing a lament from someone and then, after they share their request, we will all pray out loud together for that request. As we pray, let’s do so however the Spirit leads, keeping in mind that he may invite us out of our comfort zones, to intercede in one of the three ways we’ve just mentioned: through tongues, with groaning, or in silence. Then we will pray for the next person, and continue doing this for the rest of our time together.
Leader Note: Choose someone to share first and, when they’re done, introduce the moment of prayer by simply saying to the group “Let’s all pray aloud for this request.” Once there is a lull in the prayer, ask the next person in the circle to share and repeat the practice. When everyone has had the chance to be prayed for, thank the room for their vulnerability and participation.
Read The Practice for the Week Ahead
This week, we are going to intentionally practice intercessory prayer for the requests mentioned tonight, utilizing the three prayer gifts we talked about earlier.
Let’s all choose one request from the night to intercede for every day this week.
The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how practicing intercession has helped us grow in compassion for others and become more attuned to God’s presence in our lives.
End in Prayer
Leader note: Close your time together in prayer. Pray that God would continue to grow the Community with a renewed sense of the Holy Spirit’s power and loving presence.