PRAYER- PERSONAL, PRIVATE & PROGRESSIVE

I have written and taught much over the years on PRAYER, as I am convinced every Believer must have a daily, quality quiet time. Our prayer life needs to have structure so we get the very best out of our time alone with the Lord. That is why I developed the “8 essential ingredients to daily prayer”
Confession & Repentance
Surrender
Thanksgiving
Praise
Worship
Petition (praying for ourselves)
Intercession
Listening (to the still small voice of God within, and through the Word of God).
Jesus in Matthew 6:6 encourages us, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your  Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you openly”.
The 8 essential ingredients are not a formula but there is clear progression in the list, that should lead to and produce personally  in you my definition of prayer:

THE INTIMATE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TWO LOVERS

It is the area of Intercession I write about today, as it has been a growing and developing area in my prayer life.  As my public ministry continues to dramatically decline, I am learning to come to terms with this fact, and have been praying for months about a new area of ministry. It is the area of Intercession the Lord has been clearly leading me into, (it took a while for me to get the message !!!)
I have over the years had a prayer list of family, friends and ministry colleagues I have regularly prayed for, this increased a lot a couple of years ago. (Hindsight is so interesting, I did not recognise at the time what the lord had in mind)
I was then reminded  of Psalm 2:8 where  I believe King David was quoting the words of our Heavenly Father to Jesus “Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession”. I started daily praying for the nations, especially the 25+ I have had the privilege to visit and minister in.  Then I became aware that if the nations are going to be blessed then the Church in those nations needs to change (be revived) and “build according to the pattern”, and that every Believer would seek to fulfil the Great Commission and that God would raise up “signs following” Evangelists that would be used to bring in a mighty harvest of lost souls.
Then the Lord laid on my heart to pray for Church Planters  and Workers that I had some connection with (some being past students). This list now already has 40 names from 15+ nations, and I am excited to be able to pray for them daily.
The above is very much my journey regarding Intercession, and I have no doubt this is the new ministry that God has led me into, and I am so excited about it, and every day (almost) the Lord is leading me to new people to connect with.
This new ministry was not what I was looking for, I assumed the Lord would give me another form of “public” ministry, but His plans are so different to mine.
Just as we have to work hard at keeping our relationship with our spouse fresh and exciting, I recognise very much this is the same with prayer and Intercession.
Although it is almost 66 years since I was born again, I am still a “novice” when it comes to prayer,   James tells us (5:16) The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much. I can testify already to fantastic answers to prayers, AND THIS IS JUST THE START. Would you pray with me, that for God’s glory and the extension of the Kingdom of God this prayer ministry would grow. It is my intention not to mention the above again, like John the Baptist I want that “He (Jesus) must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30