This series on intercessory prayers is based off my handwritten notes, which I took as I attended a church conference on this topic in Aug 2024.

Introduction:

• 34 churches, and 2 Hong Kong delegates, among the 200+ attendees for this conference
• Speed for the sessions is fast, speakers had to choose from 47 years of vast ministry experience, and also led by the Holy Spirit what to share
• Sometimes in prayer, we reach a ceiling where we don’t want to push through anymore
• We say: Holy Spirit, use me this far, but don’t take me a step further where I’m exposed, and vulnerable

Forgiveness and brokenness:

• Forgiveness is a command from God (Matt 6:5-7)
• It brings us to a place of brokenness, and a daily aspect to grow in (please refer to Intercessory Prayers Pre-Session: Double Anointing article)
• Brokenness: Not just being upset, but a true move of the Holy Spirit bringing us to a place of healing where our lives will affect the lives of others, but comes only through power

Forgiving a person who hurt us:

• We seldom pray: Lord forgive that person
• This is why sometimes our prayer becomes stunted, because we allow ourselves to live in a pain-limited life, from a person that hurt us and just seemed to get away without saying sorry
• But we don’t need people to apologise before we forgive
• Jesus hung on the cross for us, and asked for forgiveness on behalf of those who beat him
• Sometimes we say we forgive, but certain triggers later bring up all the pain / hurt again
• And you’re back at the place where your prayer life is about how you feel, but not how God feels about you
• God loves is in our imperfections, are we willing to expose ourselves
• Forgiveness has 2 parts:
• a. Facts of the trauma: recognising what happened to you, e.g; being hurt, betrayed, slandered
• b. Impact of what they have done, which has hurt our own life, and even our Spirit
• God’s forgiveness is given to us, as unworthy people
• We don’t need to originate forgiveness, it happens at the cross
• We just need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to forgive
• Matt 6:13: When we have unforgiveness (v12), our prayer life won’t be impacting the way God wants us to be, and we will fall into evil
• Say to the Lord: Break me, clean me (even if You have to reopen the wound), and bring me to a new place
• If we don’t allow God to deal with our unforgiveness and heal our hurts, we live from one hurt to another hurt
• But God wants us to live from victory to victory, not from sorrow to sorrow
• When we forgive, we choose to live a life of freedom, and not walk into the pain someone else put us into
• Let us also look at other areas where we don’t allow God to work, because we don’t want to be exposed (but most often we are the ones that exposes ourselves)

Ministering to people who have been similarly hurt:

• We can only help people, if we have been to a place before
• For instance, because of how the speaker managed to forgive someone who took away everything she had, she is now able to minister to the prostitutes
• Because she now knows their pain of abuse / neglect