became an intercessor and an evangelist extraordinaire (see Gal.
1:13–24).
Our music minister was feeling a special need for prayer. Our
youth group took the initiative of sitting at the front of the church
for several months to intercede for the worship team, the choir, and
the music minister. What a powerful difference they made! Our mu-
sicians felt a new freedom to worship and minister. And the worship
itself seemed to soar.
Each of us has a territory, an area of influence in which God calls
us to be an intercessor (a “Paul,” so to speak). We may be called to
intercede for children in our neighborhood. We may coach a neigh-
borhood baseball team. We may run errands for an elderly neighbor
and keep her in our prayers as we do.
One year our friend Gail White, a teacher, had a particularly dif-
ficult sixth-grade class. She gave each of us in our prayer group five
names, urging us to intercede for those children each day. She was
amazed at how quickly the spirit of her classroom began to turn
around as we daily brought her students before the Father.
My daughter-in-law Jenni gave me a ribbon-trimmed bulletin
board for Christmas this year. I knew immediately what I would use
it for. I hung it near the spot where I pray and attached recent pho-
tos of all the missionaries we support. Now I’m reminded daily to in-
tercede for them. Foreign missionaries desperately need our prayer,
not only for their ministries but for their physical safety and that of
their families.
When I go out to speak to women’s conferences, I rely strongly on
the intercessory prayers of others. My vision, my wisdom, my mes-
sage, my strength are only as powerful as the women who stand be-
hind me in prayer. I would not dream of trying to face down the
darkness unless I knew that committed intercessors were at home
lifting me into the Lord’s light. These women are the “Pauls” in my
34 CLAIRECLONINGER