Our spiritual Enemy is real. We’re in a war, and we can’t take spiritual opposition for granted. I’m convinced that if we are pushing the frontiers of leadership to advance Christ’s kingdom, we don’t need to look for demons—they will be looking for us. We don’t glorify what the Enemy does, but at the same time we acknowledge that we are in a battle and we must learn to prevail in Jesus’ name, the One who has defeated Satan through His death on a cross and resurrection from the dead.

Spiritual warfare is an inescapable reality of ministry leadership. When ministries I led began to move forward in effectiveness, invariably we experienced increased spiritual opposition. At one time, I pastored a church in a city where there was a lot of spiritual darkness. So much so that sometimes I had to push myself just to get normal things done in a day. I’ve occasionally heard missionaries talk about similar kinds of experiences. At other churches I noticed that whenever we came under spiritual attack, the people on my leadership teams started to feel edgy and conflicted with each other. Everything felt annoying, like sandpaper was grating on our spirits. Sometimes I saw the Enemy come against my wife and daughters with discouragement and hurtful experiences.

Paul’s concern at the end of his letter to the Ephesians is the same daunting issue that faces all of us as ministry leaders: our capacity to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” in order to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph. 6:10–11). Paul here reminds us that our real enemy is not people who aggravate us, critics who oppose us, or even persecutors who kill us. Our real war is transacted in unseen spiritual realms against sinister forces, “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).

One of the great mysteries of the relationship between Christ and His church is that He involves us in His purposes.

Wars such as these are not won through conflict resolution or strategic planning alone. As helpful as those activities are, they don’t engage the power structures resident in spiritual realms. Taken alone, they’re about as effective as attacking armored tanks with water pistols. So Paul exhorted the Ephesians to “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground” (v. 13).

He then linked each piece of armor to essential gospel realities such as salvation, truth, righteousness, faith, Word, and readiness (vv. 14–17). These pieces of armor function through the power of the Holy Spirit and, taken together, this “armor of God” proves spiritually potent—both offensively and defensively.

Paul then combined the “putting on” of spiritual armor into an “all occasions” assignment: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (v.18). What harnesses the spiritual potency of each piece of spiritual armor? What ties those pieces together into a potent, unified, wearable whole? What foundational activity is common to every victory in the unseen realms? It is prayer—“in the Spirit,” of “all kinds,” and directed toward “all the Lord’s people.”

Samuel Chadwick rightfully claimed, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

One of the great mysteries of the relationship between Christ and His church is that He involves us in His purposes. He has chosen to work through us rather than around us. This is how we understand prayer. The release of His power comes as we partner with Him, based on His will, in prayer and intercession. Beyond simply nourishing our own spiritual health, prayer is what advances ministry by first engaging spiritual dimensions.

A. C. Dixon, pastor of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, once observed that, “When we rely on organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely on education, we get what education can do; when we rely on eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. But when we rely on prayer, we get what God can do.”

It is ultimately “what God can do” that gives us any hope of standing our ground in the spiritual battle around us and against us. Paul’s Ephesians 6:18 assertion is that we can prevail if our circumstances, experiences, conflicts, and struggles are all bathed in ongoing, saturating praying—“on all occasions . . . for all the Lord’s people.”

Intercessory Prayer
Paul here is calling us to intercessory prayer. This is praying that is engaged “in the Spirit” but focused on the needs of other people. Intercession is taking up faith-filled prayer on behalf of others, as if calling out to God in their stead. Remarkably, God actually postures Himself to respond to this proxy praying. Intercession paves the way for God’s intervention in people’s lives and in the circumstances we face. Interceding for others is one of the ways we lead spiritually.

Intercessors understand that spiritual conflict demands a prayerful fight. Intercessory prayer is the act of yearning for God’s intervention and calling forth His life-giving power in the places where the Enemy has brought destruction and loss. So Paul calls us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions . . . for all the Lord’s people” (v. 18).

Misconceptions About Intercessors
Unfortunately, stereotypes and misconceptions abound when it comes to intercessory people. Those who do intercede a lot in the Spirit are often branded as emotional, mystical, or unstable. They can seem like spiritual oddities in a world full of naturally normal Christians. So we tend to label and compartmentalize them, all the while exempting ourselves as leaders from a deeper life in prayer and lowering the defenses against the Enemy that we may need more than we realize.

It’s also a misconception that intercessors always feel like praying, or at least find it easy. It’s true that the more we pray, the more we will want to pray, and the less we pray, the less we will want to. It’s also true that there are times when God imparts an unusual urgency and ability to pray in very travailing, connecting ways.

Intercessors understand that spiritual conflict demands a prayerful fight.

But the act of praying “for all the Lord’s people” is also a command, making it a choice to be made, even though it isn’t always easy. Because prayer brings us into the arena of spiritual conflict, it’s common to experience resistance, fatigue, and even discouragement as we try to pray. True intercession may take its toll on us physically and emotionally, even though it strengthens us spiritually.

Obviously, it’s the decision to pray that is crucial, not the feeling. Neither is it hypocritical to pray even when we don’t feel like it. God hears our prayer regardless of our emotional condition. He is faithful even when we feel weary or unengaged. He is not weakened by what weakens us. He does not change! The issue isn’t how we feel, but what His Spirit can do to engender in us faith and hunger for Him as we simply and willingly give ourselves to intercessory prayer.

Guidelines for Intercession
So how can we who lead others also grow in interceding for others? Here is a short-list of things that I have found personally helpful.

Give God Time
More than anything else, God needs us to give Him time—time to be before Him and time enough for Him to give us His heart. On many occasions I have begun times of prayer not feeling particularly spiritual or motivated. Rather than crumpling under a lot of pressure or false guilt, I would simply begin praying in tongues, letting the Spirit pray through me. Or I would take Scripture and begin praying it back to God. Or I would deliberately start to pray for known, specific needs. With time, God’s heart would take hold of my otherwise cold heart. It sometimes felt like I began by praying “in the flesh” only to end up praying “in the Spirit.” But it takes time. Start small and let it grow from there. Time with God bends our hearts to His, yielding an inevitable desire to spend even more time with Him.

Stand on the Merits of Christ’s Blood Alone
Often at the heart of our spiritual insecurity is self-condemnation, which afflicts us with a debilitating sense of unworthiness. Some people find that this feeling becomes more pronounced as they move deeper into effective intercession. It’s part of the spiritual warfare and totally contrary to the gospel. I have frequently had to assert by faith, in spite of my feelings, that my standing before God is based solely on Christ’s shed blood not on my impressiveness or self-righteousness. In Christ (not in ourselves), “we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Eph. 3:12).

Focus on the Spirit’s Help
A friend of mine once described his journey into intercession this way: “I used to start praying by first looking inside myself for the desire and strength to pray. It only pulled me down. But I decided to start my times of prayer by looking upward instead of inward, asking the Holy Spirit to come and teach me to pray. It changed everything.” The Holy Spirit can, indeed, teach us to pray, and we have the privilege of listening to the Holy Spirit as we do pray. This isn’t all up to us. No wonder Paul calls us in Ephesians 6 to pray “in the Spirit.”

Great intercessors often spend more time adoring God than asking Him for help.

Keep Prayer God-Centered Rather Than Problem-Centered
This is why starting prayer with praise is so important. For a season in my life I found myself avoiding extended prayer because I didn’t have the emotional energy to revisit all the discouraging circumstances and situations that needed prayer. My focus was on the greatness of the problems rather than the greatness of God. I would finish a half hour of prayer more depressed than when I started. But prevailing intercession focuses on God’s promises and provision, by faith, more than it concentrates on the overwhelming need. Great intercessors often spend more time adoring God than asking Him for help.

Blend Specific Requests with Spiritual Travail
It’s good to keep a prayer list and have a prayer journal to record specific requests and answers. James 4:2 reminds us that the lack of specific answers is often the result of overly generalized praying. However, intercession sometimes takes us past prayerlist praying and into heart-gripping encounters with the grief, passion, and love of God’s heart. Interceding in tongues, weeping, and even groaning in spiritual travail may be a part of this. We need to be open, praying through to God’s heart and allowing His Spirit to pray God’s heart through us. At this point in intercession for others, we may also find ourselves actually pushing back against demonic powers and their purposes as they have attached themselves to the people and situations we are praying for.

Form a Team of Prayer Partners
Paul exhorted the Ephesians to pray at all times “for all the Lord’s people,” and then he included himself: “And pray for me” (Eph. 6:19). I sometimes tell people that I pray for myself just in case no one else is! But how powerful it is when other people are praying specifically for us as well. We need this type of prayer if we are to prevail as ministry leaders. I’ve often felt buoyed up in my spirit when I should have been pulled down by circumstances and spiritual battles, simply because intercessors were praying for me and God was answering them on my behalf.

At two of the churches I pastored there were about a hundred men in each who committed to be my personal prayer partners. They chose a day of the week (other than Sunday) to specifically pray for me as their pastor. I would send them a personal, a family, and a ministry prayer request for each week. Then on Sundays, teams of men would pray through the Sunday morning services in another room—for me, for the church, and for each other. The teams were organized around the day of the week they had committed to pray for me—the Monday guys on one Sunday, the Tuesday guys the next Sunday, etc. The spin-off was that men learned to pray and even gained the confidence they needed to lead their families spiritually.

Meanwhile, I was covered in prayer as a pastor.

P-R-A-Y
Of course, praying for each other is ultimately the task of the whole church. Beyond ministry systems and strategies, this is what makes us strong. So as a way of teaching prayer to everyone, I developed a simple acrostic around the word P-R-A-Y. It builds on the example of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and its gates burned with fire, he wept and fasted for days. The essence of his prayer, as recorded in Nehemiah 1:5–11, follows an intercessory pattern that is easy to learn:

P—Praise
Nehemiah didn’t begin his prayer with a request but with an expression of praise. In doing so, he focused on those attributes of God that he would need if the walls were to be rebuilt. He started with the dimensions of God’s greatness rather than the dimensions of the challenge.

R—Repent
Approaching God’s presence inevitably makes us aware of our own sinfulness and unworthiness. Yet repentance clears out the spiritual clutter and, in the words of John the Baptist, prepares “the way of the Lord.” So Nehemiah confessed both his own sins as well as those of his nation.

A—Ask
Prayer isn’t twisting the arm of a reluctant God, but touching the heart of a willing God. Nehemiah made his request for rebuilt walls by appealing to God’s promises. God’s promises express God’s willingness. Nehemiah quoted God’s Word, stood on God’s promises, and, in doing so, humbly asked for God’s intervention and help.

Y—Yield
Nehemiah knew that sometimes the Lord calls us to be the answer to our own prayers. He touchingly closed his prayer by personally surrendering to God’s purposes and yielding to God’s strength. Rather than saying amen, he simply said yes to God’s favor, direction, and help.

Grass On Our Path
Intercessory prayer “for all the saints” is incredibly potent. It changes ministries and helps us prevail as spiritual communities. The Enemy fights it with every kind of distraction and obstruction he can throw at us, but God honors faith-filled praying.

At the 2010 Lausanne III conference in South Africa, a Pentecostal pastor from Kenya told the story of the East African revival of over fifty years ago. During that time, people would walk well-worn pathways to prayer huts and places of intercession in the forest. When Christians slipped away from prayer, their friends would notice by the condition of their paths, and gently encourage each other: “Brother, the grass grows on your path.”

As leaders of God’s people, engaged in spiritual battle and committed to prevailing, our challenge is to never let the grass grow on our pathway to prayer.

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Excerpted with permission from James T. Bradford, Lead So Others Can Follow: 12 Practices and Principles for Ministry (Springfield, MO: Salubris Resources, 2015).