Crisis Intercessors

Crisis Intercessors*

'Paramedics of Prayer'

Crisis Intercessors are 'in touch' with urgent needs and are on line with God at all times. Crisis Intercessors are the 'paramedics of prayer', rushing in and out of the throne room with urgent requests for the Father on behalf of others. When this gifting is combined with a spiritual warfare anointing, crisis intercessors are the watchmen who intercept and do battle with trespassers in the war between kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.

Crisis intercession is not only for leaders, but also for healings, finances, family, nations or any other pending issue on the Father's heart. Although crisis intercessors are usually called upon to pray for problems occurring in the 'now', there are times when God will give them an intercessory burden today, to ward off tomorrow's trouble.

Our heavenly Father not only knows trouble's timing, but He also when where and when to position crisis intercessors at just the right time, to enable them to partner in prayer for the situation. Often these intercessors don't know why they are feeling called to prayer - only that they have a strong sense that they are 'in place'. Details often come to them, as they respond to the urgency to pray and begin to cry out. The key is stay prayerfully close to God. God can streamline our steps to get us to appointed places of intercession, even when we can't understand why we are there. Even mature crisis intercessors tho, can fail to recognize God's signals and obey them at these times. There are many times when God is wanting to prepare the spiritual ground for protection long before an incident or need has occurred, by aligning the prayers of crisis intercessors. One of the hardest things for a crisis intercessor tho, is we do not always know 'who' we are praying for – we only know we've heard the 'alarm' – PRAY!

Crisis Intercession coupled with warfare can bring down walls or break assignments, in one swift instant! But like King David, we need to learn that being the man of the hour in crisis intercession is not something to base your future on. Remember he was given a prayer strategy of crisis intercession when he cuts of the arrogant head of Goliath? Yes, his heroism made him a target of jealousy. David spends years after that moving from crisis to crisis, which built his character and taught him how to identify with the hurting and rejected people. Though he was a man who knew how to fight, he also became a man of mercy and worship!

Crisis intercessors have a similar DNA – they have a desire to bring healing tho those who are hurting. The key is to lean first upon God for strength and strategies. ( Ps. 60:11, 108:12) When our hearts are fully knit to God's, He will generally bring along trustworthy friends, who can confirm His messages and strategies during crisis intercession. Only when we are in right relationship with God and others, can we be sure we are exactly where we belong and are hearing correctly from God.

Are you A Crisis intercessor?
-Are you commonly awakened with an urgent need to pray about a person, place or problem?
-In your regular times of prayer, are you often struck with a sense of pending emergency?
-Do you thrive in times of crisis, when others are sinking?
-Is your daily routine often interrupted with a call to pray about a face, a name that has come to mind, or situation you've witnessed?
-Do you find you have no rest in prayer until the crisis is over and you've got the assurance you're assignment is completed?

Pitfalls of Crisis Intercessors:
Believing you are in the right place for the right reason is often a challenge for crisis intercessors. It's common to second -guess yourself, wondering if it's just your imagination compelling you to go and do or say something, or whether it is really the Lord. ..Let's explore some other pitfall that can present challenges to a crisis intercessors:

-Feeling guilty for not responding when the opportunity to intercede is neglected
-Looking for a crisis in every situation
-Neglecting to use wisdom in corporate intercession and instead interrupting with any idea or impression rather than a true crisis.
-Running on adrenaline form crisis to crisis instead of being faith focused
-Getting a drug-like high from the crisis'
-Procrastinating or putting oneself in dangerous situations or time crunches, and then crashing at the end.
-Moving from crisis prayer to crisis prayer without spending time in a loving, intimate relationship with the Lord
-Refusing to release the situation because you don't see, hear and feel the results, EVEN THO the Holy Spirit has given you the inner witness to do so
-Carrying guilt for life and death situations that are not manifested in victory
-Basking in the past and so you end up missing the present
-Falling prey to the enemy's ' if onlys' and accusations for not praying long enough or hard enough
-Accepting judgement from others when you've already prayed it through, receive the peace of God and cannot muster up another prayer
-Taking on the burden personally

One challenge for Crisis intercessors is to conqueror our 'fear of man' in order to hear and obey the strategies of the Lord. Remember that crisis intercession flows out of an intimate love relationship with God, rather than from a service mentality. Allow humility to become your defense, by recognize your complete dependence on God, and make sure your motives have been submitted to the Father before you intervene in a crisis. Don't step outside of the boundaries God has set for you, and give yourself permission to make mistakes! Everyone makes them – none of us is perfect! If you need to grieve over the mistakes, do it, but set a time limit on the grieving. Always remember that the glory belongs to the Lord and not about 'us' and our prayers .

*taken from the the book 'Intercessors' by Tommi Femrite, E. Alves, K. Kaufman