The last few points....

7. Be committed& Submitted:

If you are praying for your local church, it’s very important that those involved in that prayer meeting are committed members of a local church. (It's hard to pray for something you dn't belong to or believe in! )

Remember also that the enemy will send plants into prayer groups to ‘hi-jack’ or ‘disrupt’ with disunity or distractions etc. Also, as you earn a pastor’s trust, you will find yourself being able to pray more and more effectively into the life of your church – that will require trust and confidentiality on your part to be able to pray without judgement or agendas.

Also be willing to submit to the leadership of the group, if there are issues or disagreements. Remember, we’re only human, and things will come up. We’ve had to deal with many things over the years – even some of our best and senior intercessors having to be asked to NOT pray quite so long. Their committment to pray and their submission to the leadership of group, made talking about those things, easy – and they adjusted themselves to make room for the others, rather than get offended. We’ve had to address where people felt cut-off during a prayer, or that people felt they’d been spoken to rudely – it happens. But again, because our commitment is to pray and love one another, we can address issues in love!

8. Maintain the Integrity of the Group

Again this pertains both to local church prayer groups, and groups gathering for larger city-wide church issues.This requires you to not allow the prayer group to be used to ‘discuss’ people’s issues about their pastor or leaders, criticisms with the local church, or gossip etc. . It is very important that the group maintain Jesus heart towards whatever prayer issue (mandate) He has called your group to pray for.

Also, don’t take issues that God has given you to PRAY into, out into daily conversations with others. Many times what makes sense in an atmosphere of prayer, can be taken completely out of context over a casual coffee. Try to maintain a sense, not of elitism or secrecy, but one of integrity and confidentiality.

9. Be a Source of Confirmation – NOT direction:

Intercessory prayer groups, should seek to be a source of support for the local church and it’s leaders, NOT a source of power and direction. Remember our job is to pray for leaders to HEAR from God – not to hear God FOR them!

If you do feel you have something that needs to be shared with a leader, we advise our intercessors to give the word, and ‘leave it’. That means, once you have delivered what you ‘sense’ the Lord is saying – your job is done. Now it’s up to the leader to weigh and judge whether the word is accurate, or what the Lord is saying to him thru it. Remember, don’t over-explain a word either – you could be putting your interpretation on it, thus confusing the issue IF the person receiving it is actually to hear from the Lord for themselves.

For example: say your ‘word’ is like a pizza. You’re job is to simply deliver the pizza. You don’t stand around and watch the person eat it. You don’t ask for a tip. You don’t ask for part of it. You deliver the pizza, and go back to the source to see what’s else is assigned to you. You don’t get offended if they don’t like it, don’t finish it, or throw it away – it’s not YOUR pizza, you only deliver it.

Also, we have found thru discussion with many pastors that prayer people can end up inundating them with words – warning words, battle words, and prophetic calls – to the point where they are overwhelmed. One pastor told me that he actually began avoiding his ‘head intercessor’ because all she ever had to tell him was ‘bad news’, or to tell him what the Spirit of God was wanting for the church – that he must do or miss opportunities for blessing, growth etc. It’s your job to ‘pray thru’ most of those kinds of word. If God is showing you where He wants to ‘bless’, then pray for protection over what’s coming, and preparation for hearts to receive what God is wanting to do.

If God is showing you where an attack may happen, it’s SO THAT you pray protection over that area – that’s your job. You don’t need the pastor or leaders acknowledgment every time you wage war on their behalf – if you do, then you need to take a look at your motives for praying.

Lastly, we’ve found on the average that 9 out of 10 words you get in a prayer do not need to be shared – they need to be prayed! So…use your accessibility with your leaders with discretion – don’t burn them out. This way when you do come, they’ll listen because you’ve a proven track record of not coming with everything your ‘getting’ in prayer.


Blessings on your adventure in prayer! Remember, we have only shared some common boundaries that have helped our group stay together, and functioning in prayer for an extended period of time- it will be 15years this year! We do not presume to think we know all the ways God would teach a prayer group, but we do hope that some of what has ‘worked’ for us…will help your group also ‘go the distance’ and find the joy of intercession, that we have.

If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them!