Johanes joined Hope Singapore in January 1993. He has served in various ministries in the church. He joined the full time staff team in August 1995 as part of the Operations Division. He was in South Africa in May 2005 to January 2007 to oversee Hope Johannesburg and to raise a local leadership team. He currently he is overseeing the spiritual formation ministry in Hope Singapore. He is married to Kristine and has a four and a half year old daughter Alesha.
Introduction
Either through ignorance or through misunderstanding, many people believe that since they do not possess the gift of intercession, this means they are not intended to be intercessors and therefore cannot intercede effectively for people. But nothing could be further from the truth....
1) ENLIGHTEN PEOPLE WITH THE TRUTH
Teach people the truth about intercession.
Jesus’ life of intercession
A prophesy about Jesus being an intercessor is found in Isaiah 53:12 which says: “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus was an intercessor during his time on earth. He prayed for the sick and those possessed by demons. He prayed for His disciples. He interceded for all those who would believe in Him. Jesus continued His ministry of intercession when He returned to Heaven as stated in Hebrews 7:25: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
He now serves as our intercessor in Heaven. God predestined us to be like Christ
God has predestined us to conform to the likeness of Jesus for it is written: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Rom 8:29
Paul said we are God’s Royal Priesthood
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood…” 1 Pet 2:9
We are God’s priesthood and therefore we are to and can intercede for people.
2) ENLIST PEOPLE INTO INTERCESSORY MINISTRY
We identify people who have been interceding for their care group and/or have been fervently interceding on personal level to be in a core team to pioneer the intercessory ministry.
We use the Sunday bulletin and word of mouth to recruit prospective team members.
3) ENVISION INTERCESSORY TEAM
We envision the intercessory team to one day expand so that we can see everyone in the church becoming intercessors and play their part in the royal priesthood.
The end goal is to see people taking turns in playing their part and praying around the clock 24/7 interceding on a personal and corporate level because Jesus said, "My Father's house shall be a house of prayer," Matt 11:17. In other words, one of our main activities in the local church should be to seek God, listen to God and ask God to do His will in our church, in our communities and in our country and nations beyond our borders.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2
“… pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18
“pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
4) ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO INTERCEDE PRACTICALLY
i) We work toward the vision by mobilising the intercessory team to start praying together on a monthly basis on weeknights and also every Sunday when the worship service is in progress.
We proceed towards meeting fortnightly for intercessory prayer in June and July this year. During this month, we commenced our daily weeknight prayer, where all the team prayed everyday at 7.30-9.30pm in order to prepare the intercessory team for the official launch of the daily weeknight church level intercessory meeting in September. We will be inviting people in the church who needs prayer, ministering etc and those who want to pray for others to join us on any weeknight.
ii) We dedicate a room on church premises and call it a “house of prayer” so that we are reminded of the need for intercession and have people there interceding.
iii) We do not just pray, we also continue to edify ourselves and other people through teaching sessions about prayer, how to hear from God, how to pray for the sick, how to minister deliverance and share about the kingdom of God etc.
iv) There is a different theme every night. We provide information for focused intercessory prayer.
These may come in the form of: maps of countries where church planters currently are spreading the Word of God, pictures of government officials, hospital lists, and prayer request from sister churches etc.
v) We assign a team leader each night from 7.30 to 9.30pm to facilitate the intercessory prayer.
Each team leader is given a log book to record prophecies, prayer requests, testimonies and answered prayers.
vi) We are in the process of creating a website to include testimonies of answered prayers, people who receive healing, delivered etc.
vii) We get people in the intercessory group to write journals and share with people what God spoke to them as an individual and as part of the church during the intercessory meetings.
In these journals, we ask them to write down and memorise scriptures, and share their devotion in God during meetings. The aim is to encourage people to know and feel the heart of God through developing personal intimacy with God and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s voice. “…because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Rom 8:14
viii) We encourage people to learn to prophesy and pray over one another with the Holy Spirit empowering them.
This is because prayer is learned by doing rather than by reading. We encourage people to not be afraid to make mistakes because it’s the only way we can learn as we continue to progress in faith. We have people in the church who have been given the gift of prophesy and prayer to help determine whether the prophecy and prayer given was accurate.
ix) We share testimonies of how God have used individuals in prophecy to encourage and strengthen people.
x) We encourage people to share what they have learnt during intercessory meeting with their Care Group leaders and to embody the spirit of intercession in their daily lives.
Conclusion
God is love and God loves people. It is only when we are in love with God that we begin to be able to intercede for God’s people. Our love for people flows out from having a close relationship with God. In everything we do, we do out of our love for God through our interaction & intimacy with God. We want to be intertwined with God so that God’s heart becomes our heart, God’s will our will, God’s desire our desire.
Only then can God’s people be enabled and empowered in a new and exciting way to serve God out of love bringing renewal in themselves and others.
The recommended books:
- The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare by Dr Ed Murphy
- Miracles by Frank Damazio
- The Most powerful prayer on earth by Peter Horrobin
- Understanding the purpose and power of prayer by Dr Myles Munroe
- Free Indeed by Tom Marshall
- Healing through deliverance by Peter Horrobin Vol 1 & 2
We identify people who have been interceding for their care group and/or have been fervently interceding on personal level to be in a core team to pioneer the intercessory ministry. 
iv) There is a different theme every night. We provide information for focused intercessory prayer. 
