Prayer Warrior

She’s a prayer warrior down on her knees
Wrestling with powers and principalities
Standing in the gap for others
For her sisters and her brothers
Reaching Heaven with her heart
Prayer warrior

The words of the beautiful chorus from “Prayer Warrior” by Heirloom are a powerful reminder of how often someone has prayed intercessory prayers on our behalf. Recently, God has brought to my mind the many times I have been a recipient of intercessory prayers and those I have prayed for others.

When my firstborn daughter, Candace, was just a toddler, she began waking up nightly, coughing and wheezing. This went on for months and then into years. At the time, my husband and I worked full time, and these nightly interruptions were exhausting for her and us. We spent our days bleary-eyed, tripping through our lives in a sleep-deprived daze. Nightly, we would be awakened by her coughing and stumble into her room to do nebulizer treatments. Following these, she would be jittery and wide awake for hours, unlike her two weary parents.

We repeatedly prayed, asking God for her healing during those long nights, but healing didn’t come. Honestly, our prayers had become rote and faithless in our drained state. My mother was a powerful prayer warrior and had been praying with us for her healing to no avail.

I remember vividly one day being at my parents’ house with my mom and her close friend, Glenda Haney. I was sharing with them both our nightly struggles and exhaustion. This dear sister told me she would bind together with me in prayer for our daughter’s healing. She was willing to stand in the gap and intercede on behalf of our family. Romans 15:30 states, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me” (NIV). She was joining us in our struggle.

Intercession is warfare, but the battleground is not of this earth.

Ephesians 6:12 explains that we are not struggling against flesh and blood. We are fighting against powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavens above. Intercessory prayer takes place in this spiritual world where the battles for our own lives, our children, and our friends are won or lost!

I wish I could say that we noticed instantaneous healing that very day. We weren’t fully aware of what Jesus was doing until many months afterward. We finally realized that it had been weeks and even months since we were awakened by the familiar cough and cries for help. Our daughter was healed completely from asthma and, decades later, has never had any recurrence!

I am so thankful for this special prayer warrior in my life! Because it was a progressive healing, I’m not sure I have ever adequately expressed to this precious sister the impact her intercessory prayer had during one of the lowest periods of my life. I can see myself in the story of the ten lepers who were cleansed “as they went” by Jesus. Only one returned to Jesus to thank Him for His healing.

We see so many examples in scripture of intercession. Abraham stood in the gap for Lot and his family by asking God to spare Sodom for ten righteous. Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands when he became tired during the battle, and because of their support, the armies of God were victorious. Jesus Christ, the ultimate intercessor, is our advocate; His blood stands in the gap between God’s judgment and mercy on our behalf.

You undoubtedly have your own miraculous testimony of God’s grace, healing, or deliverance. Perhaps you experienced the blessing of interceding with a special friend on your behalf or as her intercessor. It’s a relief not to carry our burdens alone! Galatians 6:2 instructs, “Help carry one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will obey the law of Christ” (GNT).

The final verse of “Prayer Warrior” says,
And we’ll never fully know the debt we owe her
For we’ll never know the evil we’ve been spared
The many nights she’s crashed through Satan’s strongholds
Reaching Heaven with her prayer