Participant's Book Intro

Participant's Book

Daily Exercises

Leader's Guide

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PART 3, WEEK 3
Prayers of Petition and Intercession

Preparation
Prepare yourself spiritually. Read "Prayers of Petition and Intercession," do all the exercises, and keep a notebook or journal along with the participants. Pray that God will prepare you and each participant to receive the greatest benefit from your group meeting.

Prepare materials and the room. Select songs and gather hymnals/songbooks. Arrange the room, making sure there is sufficient space for small groups of four to form later in the meeting. Set chairs in a circle with a center table and candle.

Review the intent of this meeting: that participants deepen their understanding of intercessory prayer and engage in intercessory healing prayer for one another.

Opening (10 minutes)
Welcome all participants personally as they enter.
Set a context.

• This meeting is on the nature and practice of prayer. In deepening our prayer life, we become united more fully to the heart of Christ. This week we will be expanding our understanding and practice of intercessory prayer. Intercession is a wonderful way of joining our hearts and wills to Jesus Christ, the great Intercessor.

• Light a candle to represent Christ in your midst, and invite silent reflection on the truth written in Hebrews 7:25: "He is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Repeat this phrase after a pause, and invite participants to visualize Christ interceding for them personally in some way.
  
• After a minute of silence, invite participants to speak the names of persons for whom they have been praying this week. Request that they speak all together (not in sequence), so they can hear the sound of many voices and names. Then encourage them to "see" Jesus as he hears and receives all these prayers and presents them to God through his own pure mercy and love.
  
• Sing a song of thanks or confidence. Suggestions: "Spirit Song," "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," or "Thank You, Lord."

Sharing Insights (45 minutes)
Ask the group members to identify where they have experienced God's presence in their lives this past week.
Invite sharing around the daily exercises.

• Give participants a moment to look over their notebooks or journals and identify what spoke most deeply to them.
  
• Encourage them to be listeners: "Practice listening for God in each person's reflections and story."
  
• As leader, model sharing by offering your response first (briefly) and then inviting their responses.
  
• After everyone has shared, invite participants to identify any patterns or themes that surfaced.

Break (10 minutes)

Deeper Explorations (45 minutes)
Set a context for a guided experience of intercessory prayer based on Mark 2:1-12 (10 minutes).

• Read Mark 2:1-12 aloud for the group. Invite the group to focus on verses 1-5.
  
• Invite the group members to discuss briefly some of the connections between this story and the nature of intercessory prayer. Avoid a long, drawn-out Bible discussion of every aspect of the story. Stay focused on how this passage sets a context for intercessory prayer. Some possible insights include the following:
  

  a) Sometimes we have no faith for ourselves; we need others to have faith for us. In healing the paralytic, Jesus honors the faith and love of the four friends for the man.
  b) The role of the four was not to cure their friend but to care for him and to carry him into the healing presence of Jesus. That defines our role in ministry and in intercessory prayer.
  c) Their active willingness to go out of their way for their friend and to persevere in love for their friend evidences their care. Love (not our diagnosis or instructions to God) is the content of prayer for others. We unite our spirits with Christ to be means by which God loves the world.
  d) Certain factors in and among us (the crowd, the cynics, the roofing) keep people from God, obstruct love and intercession. So prayer requires a love that perseveres.

Lead the group in intercessory prayer guided by images from this story (twenty minutes).

• Ask everyone to find a comfortable place to sit or lie down and to enter into an attitude of prayer.
• Acknowledge that God is with us and invites us to offer ourselves as vessels for God's presence to others.
• Assure the participants that it is all right to follow their own way of reflecting if they have difficulty visualizing what is being suggested.
  
• After another moment of silence, guide their prayer with directions like these:
  
  • "Imagine yourself as one of the four holding a corner of a stretcher. Now take note of who God places on the stretcher for you to help carry. Who is God calling you to care for, to help carry into God's presence today? Take a moment to see this person, receiving him or her in love." (Pause for thirty seconds.)
  • "Imagine yourself carrying your friend toward Jesus. In what ways do you feel the path for your friend is obstructed? Or in what ways are you frustrated in your effort to care for this person? Who or what gets in the way?" (Pause for thirty seconds.)
  • "Now imagine yourself persevering in your intent to care for your friend and to bring your friend into Jesus' presence. Dig through the roofing that separates your friend and you from Jesus and the needed healing. How many layers are there? What are they?" (Pause for thirty seconds.)
  • "Lower your friend into Jesus' presence. Watch and see how Jesus receives your friend, what he does and what he says. See your friend being restored to wholeness in the glow of divine love." (Pause for one minute.)
  • "Release your friend to God's care. Give thanks to God. Return to your home." (Pause for one minute, then say, "Amen.")
• Give the group members a few more minutes in silence to reflect on their prayer and to write in their notebooks or journals.
  
• Ask participants to turn to another person and share something they received or something that caused them to struggle.

Invite the group to enter into a second experience of prayer: silent healing prayer for one another. (15 minutes)

• Set a context. We are accustomed to praying for one another with many words, but words can hinder as well as help the flow of God's love.
  
• Form groups of four. Give simple guidance for the exercise that follows.
  
• Sit in circles with an empty chair in the center of each.
  
• As a person wishes to be "on the stretcher" and be carried into Jesus' restorative presence, he or she goes and sits in the center chair. The person may express a need, but it is unnecessary to do so.
  
• Group members silently place their hands on the person's head and shoulders and carry the person into Jesus' presence in the prayer of their hearts.
  
• After a few moments, all return to their seats. This pattern continues until everyone who chooses to has had a chance to present him- or herself for prayer.
  
• Emphasize at the outset that it is okay to participate without choosing to sit in the center chair for prayer.

Closing (10 minutes)

Sing quietly a song of confidence, peace, or healing. (See list of suggestions in the Opening.)

Invite brief reflections on, or responses to, the experience of being prayed for and praying for one another in the groups of four.

Invite thanksgivings and celebrations for the ways we have experienced Christ's presence.

Say or sing a benediction.