What Is Intercessory Prayer? Praying for Others

Praying for others — what it is, why it matters, and how to do it well

When Abraham stood before God and pleaded for the city of Sodom — bargaining downward from fifty righteous people to ten, pressing the negotiation with a boldness that still feels startling — he was not praying for himself. When Moses stood between an angry God and a people who had just built a golden calf and asked God to spare them or blot his own name from the book — he was not praying for himself. When Paul wrote to the Romans that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and then asked the same community to pray for him in his missionary work — none of that was private petition.

Intercessory prayer — prayer offered on behalf of others — runs through the entire biblical narrative as one of the most consequential things a human being can do. It is not a minor devotional practice. It is one of the primary ways the Christian tradition has understood human beings as participating in God's work in the world. This article explores what intercession actually is, why the tradition has always taken it seriously, what it means theologically, and how to practise it in a way that is both honest and sustainable. If you are looking for the broader foundations of a Christian prayer life, our Practical Guide to Christian Prayer covers them fully.

What Intercessory Prayer Is

Intercession is prayer offered on behalf of another — bringing someone else's needs, situations, suffering, or wellbeing before God rather than one's own. The word comes from the Latin intercedere: to go between, to stand in the middle, to act as a mediator between two parties. The intercessor stands before God on behalf of the person being prayed for — not as their representative in a legal sense, but as someone who cares enough to bring their needs into God's presence alongside whatever prayer that person may or may not be offering for themselves. Intercession is an act of loving advocacy, not a gateway that others require in order to be heard.

The distinction from petition is straightforward: petition is prayer for oneself, intercession is prayer for another. Both are central to the Christian life. Both are modelled throughout Scripture. The difference is simply the direction of the asking — and in intercession, that direction is outward rather than inward, toward the needs of others rather than one's own.

What makes intercession distinctive in the Christian tradition is its grounding in something larger than personal compassion. The intercessor does not pray for others merely because they feel sorry for them. They pray because they understand, at some level, that they are participating in something God is already doing — that their prayer is not creating divine concern for the person being prayed for but joining a concern that was already present, already active, and that invites human partnership rather than requiring it.

The Biblical Roots of Intercession

No practice in Christian prayer has deeper biblical roots than intercession. It appears in the earliest narratives of Scripture and runs unbroken through both Testaments.

Abraham's intercession for Sodom in Genesis 18 is the first extended intercessory prayer in the Bible — and it is remarkable for its boldness. Abraham approaches God not with a formal petition but with a negotiation, pressing the case for the city's innocent inhabitants with a persistence that does not let go until the terms have been driven as far as they will go. The prayer does not produce the outcome Abraham hoped for, but it is never criticised — not by God, not by the narrative. Boldness in intercession, the text implies, is appropriate.

Moses's intercession for Israel after the golden calf incident in Exodus 32 goes further still. God announces his intention to destroy the people and start again with Moses. Moses refuses — and his refusal takes the form of prayer: "But now, if you will forgive their sin — but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written" (Exodus 32:32). He places himself between God's judgment and the people. He makes himself part of the outcome. And God relents. The language of Scripture here is deliberate and worth sitting with: God responds to Moses's intercession. The tradition has always been careful not to flatten this into a simple story of Moses persuading a reluctant God to change course — but it has also refused to drain the passage of its force by reducing the divine response to mere appearance. The fuller theological account of what is happening here is worth exploring carefully, and the new section below takes it on directly.

In the New Testament, Paul's letters are saturated with intercessory prayer — both his own intercessions for the communities he writes to and his requests for their intercessions on his behalf. Romans 8:26–27 grounds the entire practice in something beyond human effort:

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

— Romans 8:26

The intercession the Spirit offers is not a supplement to human prayer — it is the ground on which human prayer operates. We do not fully know what to ask for. We pray imperfectly, with partial knowledge and imperfect love. But the Spirit takes those imperfect prayers and intercedes through them and beyond them, translating what we cannot articulate into what God knows we need. The intercessor, in this understanding, is never praying alone.

Does Intercessory Prayer Change God's Mind?

The Abraham and Moses passages raise a question that honest readers cannot avoid: does intercessory prayer actually change what God does? If God is all-knowing and sovereign, what difference does human prayer make to his intentions? The Christian tradition has wrestled with this question across centuries and traditions, and its answer is more careful — and more interesting — than either of the obvious responses.

The tradition broadly rejects two extreme positions. The first is that intercession is simply a way of informing or persuading an otherwise uninformed or reluctant God — as if prayer were a lobbying effort directed at a divine administrator who might be moved by sufficient persistence or argument. Scripture itself refuses this picture. God knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8). His love for the people Moses interceded for was not something Moses created by praying. His purposes are not contingent on human initiative.

The second extreme — equally unhelpful — is that prayer makes no real difference to what happens, that it only changes the pray-er rather than the situation. This empties intercession of the weight Scripture gives it. The Abraham and Moses narratives are not stories about men who prayed and felt better. They are stories about men who prayed and something changed. The biblical language of God "relenting" in Exodus 32 is not decorative. The tradition takes it seriously.

The more faithful account lies between these poles, and it can be expressed simply: intercession is not overcoming God's reluctance — it is participating in God's providence. God, who knows all things and whose purposes hold, has chosen to work through the prayers of his people as one of the means by which his will is accomplished in the world. Human intercession does not surprise God or override his character. It participates in what he is already doing — as a genuinely effective instrument, not a mere formality. When Moses interceded, he was not bending God away from his true intention. He was, in some sense that Scripture leaves partially mysterious, acting within the space God had opened for exactly this kind of advocacy.

This does not resolve every philosophical question about divine sovereignty and human freedom — and the tradition is honest that it does not. But it holds the two realities together without collapsing either: God is fully sovereign, and human prayer genuinely matters. The question of does God always answer prayer — including what it means when the answer is not what was requested — is explored more fully in a dedicated article in this series.

Christ — The Intercessor

The theological foundation of all Christian intercession is not Abraham or Moses or Paul. It is Christ himself. The letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus's ongoing ministry in exactly these terms:

"He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

— Hebrews 7:25

Christ intercedes — present tense, always, continually. The one who prayed for his executioners from the cross (Luke 23:34), who prayed for his disciples that their faith would not fail (Luke 22:32), who prayed the extraordinary High Priestly Prayer of John 17 for all those who would believe through the disciples' testimony — whose full prayer life in the Gospels reveals intercession as the constant orientation of his ministry — that same Christ now intercedes before the Father for every person who comes to God through him. In his risen and exalted life before the Father, Christ's intercession continues — unbroken, unceasing, and grounded in the full reality of what he accomplished in his death and resurrection.

This means that every human act of intercession participates in something Christ is already doing. The person who prays for a sick friend, a broken community, or a nation in crisis is not introducing a concern that was previously absent from the divine attention. They are joining a prayer already in progress — adding their voice to the intercession of the one who has been praying for that person longer and more perfectly than any human ever could. This is why the tradition has always spoken of intercession with a seriousness that goes beyond compassionate sentiment. It is participation in Christ's own priestly work.

How to Pray Intercessory Prayer

Intercession does not require special technique, particular gifting, or extraordinary faith. It requires only the willingness to bring another person before God with honesty and persistence. The following is not a formula but a simple shape that the tradition has found helpful.

Movement	What It Involves
Name the person	Bring them specifically before God — not a vague category but this person, this situation, this need
Be honest about what you want	Say what you are actually asking for, without softening it into what seems theologically acceptable
Hold the outcome loosely	Pray for what seems good while trusting that God sees more completely than you do
Persist	Return to the same prayer over time — intercession is sustained faithfulness, not a single act
Release	Place the person in God's hands at the end of the prayer rather than continuing to carry them as a burden

The most important of these is the last. Intercession that does not end in release tends to become anxiety with religious language attached to it — a form of worry directed toward God rather than a genuine act of trust. The intercessor's role is to bring the person to God, not to manage the outcome once they have been brought. Release is not indifference. It is the specific act of faith that says: I have placed this person here. I trust that they are held.

Who to Pray For — and How to Sustain It

The New Testament is generous in its scope for intercession. Paul prays for the communities he writes to. He asks them to pray for him. He instructs Timothy that intercessions should be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2). The scope is not limited to personal acquaintance, shared faith, or deserving recipients. Matthew 5:44 pushes it further still: "Pray for those who persecute you." Intercession, in the New Testament's understanding, has no natural boundary. It extends as far as concern can reach — and then further.

In practice, most believers find it helpful to work in concentric circles: beginning with those closest — family, friends, the immediate community — and moving outward toward the wider church, the nation, the world. This is not a limitation on the scope of intercession but a recognition that sustained, specific prayer for a person you know is more honestly practised than vague, general prayer for categories of people you have never met. Both matter. The specific tends to go deeper.

Sustaining an intercessory prayer practice over time follows the same principles as sustaining any prayer habit — consistency matters more than intensity, returning after absence is always possible, and a simple written list of people and situations can help the practice remain specific rather than drifting into generality. Our article on how to stay consistent in prayer applies here as directly as to any other form.

Intercession Carried to Jerusalem

One historical expression of intercessory prayer that has deep roots in Christian pilgrimage is the practice of entrusting intentions to those making the journey to Jerusalem — asking that the needs of others be remembered and prayed over at the sacred sites of the Holy Land. Christians have long associated pilgrimage with intercession, asking pilgrims to carry the names and needs of those who could not travel, and to offer them at the places where Christ himself prayed, suffered, and rose. The tradition of shared prayer across distance is woven into the fabric of how the Church has always understood intercession.

The practice of entrusting an intention to a pilgrim is one expression of this — intercessory prayer made physical, the concern of one believer for another carried into the geography of the Gospel. Our Prayer Request Courier service carries personal intercessory prayers — for sick family members, for struggling loved ones, for situations carried in prayer for a long time — to the Stone of Anointing, the Rock of Golgotha, and the Tomb of Jesus, placing them there on behalf of the one who sent them. The biblical and historical tradition behind why Christians bring their prayers to Jerusalem is explored fully in our article on why Christians bring their prayers to Jerusalem.

Frequently Asked Questions About Intercessory Prayer

What is intercessory prayer?

Intercessory prayer is prayer offered on behalf of another person or group — bringing their needs and situations before God rather than one's own. It is one of the oldest and most central forms of prayer in the Christian tradition, rooted in the biblical model of Abraham, Moses, and Paul, and grounded theologically in Christ's own ongoing intercession for humanity before the Father.

Does intercessory prayer actually work?

The Christian tradition answers yes — not because prayer overrides God's sovereignty or informs him of something he did not know, but because God genuinely invites human participation in his work through prayer. Intercession is not overcoming God's reluctance; it is participating in his providence. The relationship between prayer and divine action is real, even when the outcomes are not what was requested, and intercessory prayer always accomplishes something: it aligns the pray-er with God's heart for the person prayed for and places that person within the larger context of God's care.

How do you pray intercessory prayer?

Name the person specifically before God. Be honest about what you are asking for. Hold the outcome loosely — pray for what seems good while trusting that God sees more completely than you do. Persist in returning to the same prayer over time. And release the person into God's hands rather than continuing to carry them as a burden.

What is the difference between intercession and petition?

Petition is prayer for oneself — bringing one's own needs before God. Intercession is prayer for others — standing before God on behalf of someone else. Both are valid and important forms of prayer; the difference is simply the direction of the asking.

Can anyone pray intercessory prayer?

Yes — intercession is not reserved for particularly holy people or specialised ministers. Every Christian is invited to pray for others, and Scripture presents it as a normal and expected part of the life of faith. Paul's repeated requests for prayer in his letters show that he considered the intercessions of ordinary believers genuinely powerful and genuinely needed.

Closing Reflection

There is something quietly extraordinary about intercession — the act of bringing another person before God when they are not present, perhaps when they do not know you are doing it, perhaps when they would not ask you to. Standing in the gap for someone else. Placing their name, their situation, their need, into hands larger and wiser than your own, and trusting that those hands receive what is placed in them.

Abraham did it for a city he could not save. Moses did it for a people who did not deserve it. Christ does it still, always, for everyone who has ever turned toward the Father through him. And the ordinary believer who kneels in a quiet room and prays for a sick friend, a broken family, a troubled nation — that person is participating in the same movement. Not performing a religious duty. Joining a prayer already in progress, offered by the one who lives to intercede for us.