Intercession

Is intercession a specific ministry? I sometimes here people say "I am an intercessor" aren't we all called to be intercessors. A friend of mine had someone preaching at his church at the end of the preachers talk he asked for the intercessors to come forward, no one moved!! This was because the whole church had been taught that they were all intercessors and that intercession was not a specific specialist ministry.

Is there a biblical theological argument to support intercession as a gift or ministry?

The word intercessor can only be found in Job 16 and it is not a specific reference to something that is given to one individual.

Aren't we all called to be intercessors, to bring our petitions, to pray continually. The minute you make intercessory ministry a job for specialists you create levels. You make it difficult for other people and prayer becomes exclusive.

Now I understand that there are people who can pray with ease for hours, there are prayer warriors and there are those who can wait on the Lord with ease. This is more a discipline than a gift. Yes and I do believe in intercession groups and meetings, there's nothing better than gathering together and interceding for something. What we do in San Antonio is intercession, we gather regularly to pray for our area and the people who live in it, we intercede, we become intercessors for that period of time.

I wanted to go a bit more biblical with this but until summer is over I don't have the time. When Paul talks of gifts in the New Testament he never mentions prayer or intercession as gift.

Thats why I love 24-7 prayer it encourages prayer for everyone, you don't need a great musician, you don't need to have a specially dedicated full time building. You can have a prayer room anywhere and pray anywhere it is not for specialists, it's inclusive.

Check out All About Prayer for a little more on intercession.