This series on intercessors training for Singapore is based off my written notes, which I took as I attended a church conference on this topic in Feb 2025.

Speaker: Ps Shayne Payne

If you want us to go home now, we can.

Praise the Lord.

We acknowledge the throne belongs to you alone, no man will take your glory.

All the majesty we give to you Lord, you deserve the glory and honour.

About courting the presence of God, I will get your questions.

But I want to say to you, that we make it complicated, as though we want to impress God.

And tell him a lot of things we don’t mean, hoping to impress him.

I challenge you to make your engagement with him, authentic, meaningful.

He knows you, what he has put in you.

Beloved, what he has put in you, is what he is expecting from you.

Allow your heart to talk to him, your mind to bless him.

Praise the Lord, be generous with thanksgiving.

I have sought to model that to you.

Now you have heard me pray here, is how I pray normally.

I celebrate him, I let him know I love him, I appreciate him, I can’t do anything without him, I need him, he’s all that I have.

He’s going to hear me? Praise the Lord.

Develop this vocabulary, learn how to talk to Jesus.

We don’t have kings here in SG, but Malaysia still have kings.

There is one of the tribes in Uganda, they still have a king.

And when a man goes to visit a king, they have to fall on the floor before the king.

And they would also rub their beard on the ground.

When they come before him, they are grateful for the privilege.

They esteem him as king.

How do you approach your king?

In Psa 100, David said make a joyful shout, all the land.

He is expecting you to come grateful.

He expects you to say thank you.

Do you remember the story of the leapers.

He healed the 10 leapers, but only 1 returned to thank Jesus.

And Jesus came, he asked him, where are the rest.

They were so excited about the healing, that their lives were going to be changed.

And they never bothered, to thank Jesus.

They were so busy celebrating, and never bothered to say thank you.

King Jehoshaphat going into battle, and God delivered him miraculously, all of the enemy killed themselves.

And they took three days gathering the spoils, and they dedicated a day just to say thank you.

Lord we appreciate what you have done, we don’t want to take this for granted.

We know what it’s like when we don’t have favour.

Now that you shine your face on us, we want to let you know we appreciate you.

Beloved, be generous about your thanksgiving everyday, find something to thank God for.

Simple things like the hair on your head, some of you have lost a lot of hair.

But when you had it, you didn’t appreciate it.

Take some time to thank God for your learning the past few days.

Lord I thank you for my teeth, to be able to chew.

Beloved, learn to give thanks.

You are in pain, your leg is hurting.

Would you rather not have the leg, and say this stupid leg of mine.

Do you want him to take the leg?

Instead, thank him for the leg.

That you can feel pain, is a blessing to you.

Lord thank you, in everything, in every situation.

I’m seeking to address your attitude as people of prayer.

When you come before him, come with thanksgiving.

Come into his courts with praise, declare truths about him.

Tell him God this is who I think you are, what I think about you.

He desires meaningful engagement, so when you are declaring truth about God, unpack it, tell him what it means.

This requires practice.

You are allowed to use the Bible.

When you read the word, take the time to meditate, envision what you’re seeing.

Isa 6: Isaiah I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up, his glory fills the temple.

You call me my Redeemer.

You paid the price, what price?

Unpack it, do you have any idea what price it is? Take your time.

And you have given your all, your precious son, to lay down his life on the cross, to pay for my sins.

You love me so much to lay down my life.

And because of your love, I can come to know you.

And you paid for my debts of sin, even when I do not know you or love you, and sinning greatly against you.

You first loved me, and first laid down your life for me.

I’m eternally grateful, without your blood, I’m in the pits of hell, I would have no victories.

I give you all the praise, glory and honour, you are an all-wise God.

A God of compassion and mercy, deep is your love for me.

That I’m your precious child, your jewel, and your inheritance.

There is a place when you are declaring to the truth, there is a place to respond to the truth too.

Declaring is this is who you are, this is what the word says about you.

Did you notice when her voice change, her clarity become sharper, her voice begin to melt.

This is what I mentioned earlier, about the presence of the Lord.

Why do you call me deliverer?

In engaging conversation with him, stay focussed on the topic.

When you were in bondage, he came to rescue you.

Because of you, I can go past the addictions, depression can have no hold over me.

Because you are the deliverer, you died so these bonds can break, and I can walk in freedom, praise the Lord.

I’m challenging you to think what you said to him.

I have done this with many different groups, many different places.

I’m stopping it short because I know what happens.

If I allow you to run, Psa 22:3 says the Lord is enthroned in the praise of Israel.

When you praise him, you are enthroning him.

When he is enthroned, everything around him responds to him, darkness bows, disappointment.

They may not be afraid of me, but him, they don’t know how to handle.

Let him sit on the throne of your own life.

And the way you do that, is start by declaring truth.

And he starts to come, closer and closer, like how my sister had that transition just now.

The more he comes, the more you feel the weight of his presence.

If you learn to do this well, meaningful conversation with him.

Just engaging with him.

This started for me how? When the Lord was teaching me vocabulary.

He asked me what do you call me, I said I call you my Lord, Father, king, deliverer.

Even as I was calling these things, my spiritual eyes started to open.

And I realised how many names could you call him? 10, 20?

I could see dominoes a long line, before I could get to all the names.

I just realised he has a lot of names, and is called by a lot of names in the Bible.

And then he said to me, unpack it.

Tell me why you call me Lord.

So I started and thought this is going to take a long time around 3-4hrs.

And I became so overwhelmed, at a place where my mind cannot contain.

He said to me, the trees know me by different names.

And my mind was blown, I didn’t know what to say.

Have you realised the animals talk to him, in a language you don’t know, he calls them and he responds.

Do you reminder the birds who brought food for Elijah.

And the ravens would even say ok Lord.

The whale and the fish came to swallow Jonah.

The lion roar after their prey, and they seek their food from God.

The lion asking God for food, that’s what the Bible says.

God is talking to Job, he asked him do you hear when those animals are asking me for food, do you think you know anything.

Let me tell you one story and we will do Q&A.

One of these days I was frustrated with God, he was not answering prayers, and seemed far away.

So I took a trip far away, but had no peace.

I went up to the mountain, and prayed, but was not getting anywhere.

I have a prayer book, and it is not working too.

I’m just standing there feeling hopeless, and I saw a lizard on a rock.

Overlooking the ocean too.

And I started talking to him, telling him how stupid he was, look at you you’re so foolish.

He was hunting so he was camouflaged to look like the rock, to look for food.

I was angry with him.

But in my heart, I could hear a response as though from the lizard, you would see, my God is faithful.

I said what you are going to be hungry, look at you.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a moth.

And he was flying around, and he goes right in front of the lizard.

And I screamed.

The lizard is saying, he’s my God, you may not trust him, but he provides for me.

I have learnt to appreciate God in the little things.

I want to give you one last portion from this exercise.

Now you can declare truth about him from the Bible, we start with mighty warrior.

Search the scriptures where you see God as mighty warrior.

When you engage in a battle, your weapons are not normal.

Man will fight with stones and stick, but you use lightning bolt.

I remember one time you brought thunder over the Philistines.

I remember in the days of Joshua, you used hailstones.

Not one of the Israelites were killed by hailstones.

You are my God.

The one who shuts the lion’s mouth.

You can pray for an hour, just saying God you are the mighty warrior from the Scriptures.

But you will not get past 10mins, because he will start reminding you, you see this one, what about the other one.

And while you are talking to him, he is reminding you how mighty he is.

And before you know it, tears run down your face.

Be intentional when you engage with him, make it meaningful, and make sense to you.

Imagine I’m with my wife and go with another couple for dinner too, but the other couple is very romantic.

He said to her wife your eyes are very beautiful, nicer than the moon.

And I took his words and said the same thing to my wife, how will she react?

And so don’t take the words of others praising God, package it and praise him.

But make your conversations to him authentic.

So when you sing a worship song, and feel like a line don’t resonate with your spirit, put it in your own words.