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VINEYARD VALUES FOR INTERCESSION

1. God's Glory. We are seeking the elevation of God’s reputation and magnificence; and we aim to resist anything that detracts from it. Conversely, excessive focus on evil powers, principalities, stratospheric strategies of prayer, praying with hidden or personal agendas, or seeking personal gain or recognition - all these can undermine our needed focus on God’s glory and dependency on God’s power.

2. Holy Spirit as Helper and Scripture as Plumbline. Our highest aim in prayer is for God to pray His prayers through us. This can only happen by means of the Holy Spirit guiding and empowering our prayer (Rom. 8:26-27; Eph. 6:18). We discern the source and significance of the spiritual influence that guides us by means of the normal-language interpretation of Scripture (the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible), which is our plumbline of Truth. Consequently, the Spirit-wielded Word becomes our offensive weapon in advancing God’s Kingdom amidst opposition from spiritual wickedness (Eph. 6:17).

3. Genuineness and Simplicity. We want our hearts, prayers, relationships, and ministry marked by genuineness and simplicity to the core. We seek to be naturally supernatural. We should resist the air of unnatural spirituality like we find with religiously affected language. Pretentiousness, presumption, religious externalism, and judgmentalism are offensive to God and should be to us, as well. Our prayers should be simple and consistent with the truths and promises of God’s Word (Matt. 6:7-13, 5:37).

4. Humility. To be pleasing to God, our prayers should be drenched in humility (1 Pet. 5:5; Ps. 51:17; Isa. 57:15). They should be characterized by poverty of spirit, absolute dependence on God, and emptiness of self. This means we often learn to wait on God rather than fill the air with words, which will result in asserting our agendas and self-will.

5. Unity. There is great power in agreement before God in prayer – with Him and each other (Matt. 18:19; Acts 1:14; 4:24ff; Rom. 15:5-6). This is reflected in our loyalty to God, to the leaders God has placed over us, and to each other (Heb. 13:17; Eph. 4:3). Moreover, our prayers should reflect concern for the whole church, not just the cause of certain individuals or groups within the church. We must avoid elitism.

6. Expectancy. We wait on God with the expectation that He will act. We anticipate God’s intervention in the affairs of people (Heb. 11:6; Ps. 37:4-7). Faith is God’s gift, not our work. Therefore, we humbly wait on God and call out to God. He will give us the faith to trust Him for the great things He wants to accomplish (Isa. 64:4, 65:24, I Cor. 12:7, 9-10; 1 John. 5:14-15).

7. Perseverance. We must persist with God in prayer. Against any discouragement or opposition until we either receive from God what we request or are released from that burden of prayer. We must persist until God redirects us, stretches us, or grants our request (Lk.11:5-13, esp. vv. 9-10; 18:1-8; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Acts 16:6-10; 21:3-4, 10-14).