Five intercession prayers in the spirit of Rees Howells — for identifying with those you intercede for, praying until breakthrough comes, interceding for nations, holding the ground in spiritual warfare, and understanding the cost of true intercession.
Get a Personal Prayer Written by AI →O God, I come before You with a person burdened on my heart, and I ask that You grant me the grace of true intercession. Lord, I do not come to You speaking distant words about someone I hardly know. Grant me to identify with them so deeply that their burden becomes my burden, their pain becomes my pain, their desperate need becomes the cry of my own heart. Let me see through their eyes the situation that overwhelms them. Let me feel in my spirit the weight they carry. Grant me not merely to recite their petition but to travail in prayer, to pray with intensity and passion, as one who truly cares for their deliverance. You have shown us that Jesus entered into our condition, took upon Himself our weakness, identified with our plight. Grant me a measure of that same identification with those for whom I intercede. Let me not withdraw from their pain into mere formality, but let me embrace their need and make it my own before Your throne. Grant that through this identification, this deep empathy, I might become a true intercessor, one through whom Your compassion flows toward another. I ask that as I identify with their burden, You might work through my intercession to bring about their deliverance and transformation. Amen.
Almighty God, I come before You with a request that seems impossible, a situation that has not yielded despite previous prayers. Grant me the persistence and the faith to continue praying until breakthrough comes. I confess the tendency to pray once and then abandon the matter, assuming that if breakthrough has not come quickly it will not come at all. Yet Your Word teaches us to pray and not to give up. You have promised to answer those who seek diligently and knock persistently at Your door. Grant me a faith that does not give up after one petition, but that continues to bring the request before You, night after night if necessary, until I sense the shifting of the situation, until I feel in my spirit the evidence that breakthrough is coming. Grant me to recognize that sometimes there is a delay not because You are unwilling but because You are working in ways I do not yet perceive. Grant me patience combined with persistence. Grant me to pray with the certainty that You hear me and are working, even when no visible evidence appears. Let my intercession not be slack prayer but urgent, passionate prayer that reflects the depth of my desire for Your intervention. Let me pray through to victory, through to the place where I sense not just that I have asked but that the answer is coming. Grant me the reward of those who persist in prayer. Amen.
O God of the nations, I come before You bearing in prayer the concerns of the peoples and the nations of the world. I am troubled by injustice, by war, by poverty and suffering that afflicts so many. Grant me to believe that prayer changes things, that the intercession of believers can influence the course of history and the destinies of nations. Grant me to stand in the gap between Your justice and mercy, interceding that mercy might prevail, that righteousness might be established, that peace might prevail where there is conflict. I think particularly of nations suffering under tyranny, of peoples experiencing oppression, of conflicts where the innocent suffer. Grant me to carry these burdens in prayer, to present them before Your throne, to ask that You would work in ways beyond human politics to bring about justice and freedom. Grant me also to intercede for the leaders of nations, that they might govern with wisdom, justice, and concern for the welfare of those in their charge. Grant me to believe that nations can be shaped by prayer more profoundly than by political maneuvering, that the prayers of believers are weighty in Your sight and genuinely influence world events. Grant me not to retreat into the false dichotomy that suggests either I pray or I act—grant me to both intercede and work for justice, both to seek God's intervention and to be a channel of His mercy. Let the concerns of the nations weigh heavily upon my heart and drive me to the throne of grace. Amen.
Eternal God, I acknowledge that the battles fought in the prayer room are real battles, that intercession is spiritual warfare against the forces of darkness that oppose Your purposes. Grant me to understand that I am not merely making polite requests to a distant God but engaging in genuine combat against spiritual powers that would resist Your kingdom. Grant me to hold the ground I have claimed through prayer, to not retreat from the position I have taken, to not allow discouragement to make me abandon the fight. The Enemy works through intimidation, through delays that discourage faith, through circumstances that seem to deny the reality of what I have prayed. Grant me to see through these tactics and to stand firm, continuing to declare in prayer that Christ has already won the victory, that what I have prayed in faith shall come to pass, that the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Grant me the warrior's spirit—not the spirit of aggression against other people, but the spirit of opposition to the forces that would block God's purposes. Grant me to pray with authority, not from my own strength but from the delegated authority of Christ who has already conquered. Let my intercession be not weak begging but bold declaration of what God has promised. Grant me to hold the ground until the victory is manifest, knowing that in the heavenly realms the battle has already been won. Amen.
God of compassion, I come before You asking for grace to bear the cost of true intercession. Grant me to understand that intercession is not a comfortable exercise, that to truly intercede requires laying down comfort, convenience, and ease. The intercessor becomes a bridge between Your justice and mercy, and to stand in that place often means feeling the weight of human need, bearing the burden of prayer in the night hours, experiencing the travail of spiritual birth. Grant me to embrace this cost not bitterly but joyfully, as one who loves You and loves the people for whom I intercede. Grant me to not count the cost, knowing that what seems costly in this moment will be of infinite value in eternity. Grant me the resolve to endure sleepless nights if that is what intercession requires, to persist in prayer when flesh grows weary, to continue bearing the burden even when others do not understand or support the work of intercession. Grant me to find joy not in ease but in sacrifice, not in comfort but in serving others through prayer. Grant me to see that my intercession, though I may never know the full effects, is genuinely bearing fruit in the spiritual realm and in the lives of those for whom I pray. Grant me to accept the cost and to count it all joy that I have been called to stand in the gap, to be a watchman on the walls, to hold the line of prayer until the breakthrough comes. Amen.
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Download Free on the App Store →Rees Howells (1879–1950) was a Welsh evangelist, founder of the Bible College of Wales, and one of the most remarkable intercessors of the twentieth century. His life exemplifies a radically centered commitment to prayer as the means by which God accomplishes His purposes in the world. Unlike many modern approaches to prayer that emphasize positive thinking or comfortable engagement, Howells taught a prayer life characterized by identification with others' burdens, travail, and deep intercession. His biography, written by Norman Grubb, reads like a modern hagiography, documenting countless stories of answered prayers that transformed circumstances and influenced world events.
What distinguished Howells' approach to intercession was his insistence that true intercession requires identification—the intercessor must come to feel the burden as if it were his own. This is not theoretical sympathy but practical, spiritual identification. When praying for someone or some nation, the intercessor asks not merely for an external change but to be united in prayer with the one needing deliverance. Howells believed that this identification brings the intercessor into touch with the actual situation as God sees it, enabling prayer that aligns with God's purposes rather than merely reflecting human wishes.
During World War II, Howells and his Bible College community engaged in intensive prayer for the outcome of the war and for the protection of the British Isles. Howells believed that the course of world events was being shaped by intercession, that prayers were genuinely affecting the tide of battle. This conviction stemmed not from naive idealism but from a lifetime of witnessing God's direct answers to specific prayers. He taught that intercessors are engaged in genuine spiritual warfare, standing in the gap between God's judgment and His mercy, and that the prayers of believers are crucial to God's purposes.
Central to Howells' teaching is the recognition that true intercession has a cost. It is not comfortable activity but requires sacrifice—of sleep, comfort, ease, and personal preference. The intercessor is called to bear burdens, to travail in prayer, to persist until breakthrough comes. Yet Howells also taught that this cost is willingly embraced by those who genuinely love God, and that the rewards are eternal. His life demonstrates that prayer is not peripheral to God's work in the world but central to it, that believers who intercede are participating in the most significant work that can be done—partnering with God to accomplish His purposes on earth.
Howells taught that true intercession requires identification with those you are praying for. The intercessor must come to feel the burden of the person's need or the nation's crisis as deeply as if it were his own. This is not superficial sympathy but a deep spiritual empathy that moves the intercessor to pray with travail, praying until a sense of breakthrough comes. Howells believed that intercessors are crucial to God's purposes and that nations can be shaped through prayer more profoundly than through political or military action.
During World War II, Howells and his Bible College community engaged in intense intercession for the nations and for the outcome of the war. He believed that prayer could influence events on the world stage and that intercessors were engaged in genuine spiritual warfare. His prayers were not for abstract victory but were accompanied by close attention to world events and a conviction that God's purposes were being worked out through history.
Howells emphasized that intercession is not easy or comfortable. The true intercessor bears in prayer the weight and burden of those for whom he prays. There is a cost involved—travail, sleepless nights, an intensity of desire for breakthrough. Yet Howells also taught that this cost is embraced by those who genuinely love God and others, and that the rewards are eternal, for the intercessor stands in the gap between God's judgment and His mercy on behalf of others.