An excerpt from "The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium" by Walter Wink.

"Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces.  Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. This is not simply a religious statement. It is also true of Communists or capitalists or anarchists. The future belongs to whoever can envision a new and desirable possibility, which faith then fixes upon as inevitable. This is the politics of hope. Hope envisages its future and then acts as if that future is now irresistible, thus helping to create the reality for which it longs. The future is not closed. There are fields of forces whose actions are somewhat predictable. But how they will interact is not. Even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitablity on which they have fixed their imaginations, can decisively affect the shape the future takes.

These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present. In the New Testament, the name and texture and aura of that future is God's domination-free order, the reign of God.

No doubt our intercessions sometimes change us as we open ourselves to new possibilities we had not guessed. No doubt our prayers to God reflect back upon us as a divine command to become the answer to our prayer.  But if we are to take the biblical understanding seriously, intercession is more than that. It changes the world and it changes what is possible to God. It creates an island of relative freedom in a world gripped by unholy necessity. A new force field appears that hitherto was only potential. The entire configuration changes as the result of the change of a single part. A space opens in the praying person, permitting God to act without violating human freedom. The change in one person thus changes what God can thereby do in that world.

All of Jesus' teachings on prayer feature imperatives. (See for example, Luke 11:9 "Ask.....search.....knock.") In prayer we are ordering God to bring the Kingdom near. It will not do to implore. We have been commanded to command. We are required by God to haggle with God for the sake of the sick, the obsessed, the weak, and to conform our lives to our intercessions. This is a God who invents history in interaction with those "who hunger and thirst to see right prevail" (Matt. 5:6, REB). How different this is from the static god of Greek philosophy that all these years has lulled so many into adoration without intercession !

Praying is rattling God's cage and waking God up and setting God free and giving this famished God water and this starved God food and cutting the ropes off God's hands and the manacles off God's feet and washing the caked sweat from God's eyes and then watching God swell with life and vitality and energy and following God wherever God goes.

When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory centre of power that radiates the power of the universe.

History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing for action and of creating action. By means of our intercessions we veritably cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being."

Corporate listening to God in a local congregation or prayer group (Acts 13:1-3)

I. Church Leadership

1. It builds on common conviction among the leadership

a. Believe The Lord continues to speak to His children nowadays - through the Bible, through an idea in our mind, through dreams and visions, voices (inner and outer), daily devotion, sermon messages etc.

b. Children of God are able to receive different messages of God's direction to His Church.

Some are left-sided brain, which is more rational and prone to receiving more messages through reading of the Bible, devotion, listening to sermons and thinking; the others are right sided brain and would be more intuitive, and easier to get visions, ideas, voices and sensations. Some would even be equally strong on both sides too. Nevertheless, no one would be able to have all channels of reception and that is why we need each other in order to understand the Father's will to the Body as a whole.

c. Believe Jesus Christ is Lord, Head of the Church.

As part of the Body, a local Congregation eagerly desires to become healthy and function effectively to let everyone who is equipped be able to build together in the same direction. Expanding the kingdom should be the first priority of the Church!

d. Leaders believe that their first responsibility of leadership is to lead people into understanding the will of God.

This form of leadership in the way of corporate listening is not to fulfill anyone's presumed idea or agenda. So during this process of listening, no one is supposed to add any of his own presumed idea, but to simply come together before God and let Him speak to the whole Congregation, so that they can understand His will all together.

e. Leaders believe that once they understand clearly what the Lord says, His instruction is practical.

Those leaders who have the gifting of strategy and organization would be able to contribute more in the second stage. And leaders ought to be very determined to obey what the Father shows them at all costs.

2. Everyone in the leadership ought to participate and agree on the above convictions. However, corporate listening should not be only a meeting, but is a process of waiting on God and needs enough time to do so. To begin with, it takes two whole days to wait on God and cannot be done in a hurry.

II. How to do?

1. Two or three together in the leadership, one leads and the other one or two persons assist, helping in discernment and decision making.

2. The leader first briefly explains and instructs the congregation what to do.

3. The worship team and intercessory team prepare the people and lead them into the presence of the Spirit. These two teams are the catalyst in the listening and they are very important. That is why we need to make sure that they are the right people with the right spirit, mature, with the sign of God's favor upon them.

4. Two or three other persons would be needed to help in recording all messages, including songs, scriptures and where these songs came from, who has spoken, who has prayed and what was shared. Everything should be recorded for later reference.

5. Worship is continuous without stopping, even when someone shares, until to a certain point of brief conclusion, in the form of a declaration, confession, prayer of conviction and repentance, related prophetic acts or an explanation. Every session may last for about two hours, depending on how long people can concentrate. Nevertheless, the duration of a session should not be limited to a definite time that it ought to be stopped. The most important here is to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

The last small session can be used to listen to one other about what they feel most strongly and any messages they received during the whole process, including their own personal perception or struggle that may need to be openly discussed.

III. How to help the congregation to grasp hold of the messages that Father God says?

1. Assume everyone is able to listen. For the first three years, we may need to help those who are inexperienced in listening to God's voice by some simple teachings and minister to each one personally in prayer.

2. Brief explanation in the beginning, of the purpose of obeying His instruction is to acknowledge His headship and exalt Christ as our Chief Commander, so that the Body can move forward accordingly.

3. During the time of worship, encourage people to come out to share anything they received, without requiring any interpretation. This can be in the form of a word or a phrase, a picture without understanding of its meaning, an idea that comes to their mind, a scripture, a song or a prayer one feels he should pray out. One's responsibility is to fully participate and be faithful in reporting to the others according to what each receives.

4. The responsibility of the leaders is to discern continuously all the different revelations received. This is to discern what the direction the Lord shows as well as any strategies from Him. Allow human mistakes, but do not concentrate on any false perception. Focus only on finding out the right direction and not integration of every thought, as our Father would never make any mistake of instruction. This is the benefit of corporate togetherness to allow people to grow into maturity during the process.

IV. Suggestion of doing the first time:

For the first time of doing this corporate listening, the run-down can better be started as follows. In later years, some time can firstly be spent on examination of some working reports and evaluation of some previous data.

1. Welcome each other

2. Brief explanation of why and how to do corporate listening.

3. Look back into the history of this congregation to understand what are their strengths, weaknesses and points of thanksgiving to the Lord.

4. Worship and thank the Lord, focusing on what He has done in this Congregation, thank Him for His resources that has been gracious provided, thank Him also for those who has brought an influence in the past as well as every kind of goodness from Him.

5. Dedication to the Lord of our own selves, rededicate the Congregation back to Him, and proclaim His lordship and headship over the whole congregation. Declaring our willingness to surrender to His leadership, welcome The Lord and let Him know that we will do whatever He is going to reveal, direct and assign to us. Then follow the flow of the Holy Spirit into His guidance accordingly. The whole process needs about 2.5 to 3 hours.

V. How the Church grows into maturity through the process of corporate listening?

1. Unity can be achieved and passed on to others in the future by walking forward together according to what Father God says rather than by pure discussion, human wisdom, organization and leadership skills.

2. The whole Congregation can embrace the same vision for God's kingdom. Everyone can then be fully involved in carrying out the Lord's assignment through their own different forms of contribution such as time, money and gifting, leading to almost 100% mobilization.

3. People's spiritual character grows more mature as they begin to love praying, seeking the Lord, reading the Bible, outreaching to the community, showing mercy to the poor and responding to the Lord and going on short term missions. People are becoming more like full time ministers.

4. The implementation of the vision will bring tremendous impact to the society and government, leading to popular respect for the church, and huge numbers of people will hear the gospel with church growth, like what has been happening in Taiwan, Malaysia, mainland China and elsewhere with overseas Chinese.

5. Some far reaching impact of this approach includes:

A. Evangelism Campaign in HK (from 1996 to 2004) has now become a prototype of pioneering in Taiwan, Malaysia, schools, factories and communities in different provinces of mainland China.

B. Quality changes of the Congregation to equip them to become visionary leaders who are equipped to show mercy to the poor, cooperate in working with the Holy Spirit.

C. Sichuan disaster relief (since 2008 May till now), helping in restoration and building up of victims involved and those "left behind children".

D. Serving the children in China (since 2009 till now) envisioned an organization to reach out to those "left behind children" with HK churches.

E. Intercession for Israel and the Muslim world (since 10 years ago).

i. Pray for the reconciliation between the sons of Ishmael and sons of Isaac.

ii. Organize intercessory teams to Muslim countries.

iii. Intercede for those women and children who are under the bondage of sex slavery.

VI. What I have learnt from this experience?

• Becoming more convicted in this kind of leadership in the local congregation.
• Humbled by God to see we are only His vessel and it is a great privilege being able to be used by Him.
• Becoming more united and trusting with other leaders, knowing that we need each other to build up a congregation that can obey the will of God.
• Church growth is no longer a target but the fruit of walking in the right direction.

Pastor Lydia Wong (translated from Chinese by Gloria Au-Yeung)
United Prayer Altar of Hong Kong
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