Mike Signorelli - How to Intercede In Prayer With POWER
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Summary:
Pastor Mike passionately teaches a powerful model of intercessory prayer to kick off the new year, urging boldness and rejecting shyness in prayer. His four-phase approach: (1) Adoration—exalting and magnifying God first to shift the atmosphere; (2) Thanksgiving—gratitude that renews the mind and unlocks God’s presence, even for trials; (3) Declaration—boldly decreeing God’s promises and commands using delegated authority; (4) Praise—celebrating in advance as proof of faith, confusing the enemy and activating breakthrough. He emphasizes praise as a weapon, encouraging undignified worship, dancing, shouting, and clapping to declare victory before seeing it, reminding believers their best days are ahead in 2024.
Introduction: Boldness in Prayer for the New Year
So what I’m going to do is teach you how to pray, how Jesus prayed. I’m going to teach you how to intercede. Are you willing to go there with me? You’re going to feel a tangible shift in the atmosphere because I’m not playing games. In 2024, you’re going to feel a tangible change. You’re going to start to feel it. Some of you may be thinking, «But I’m too shy to pray.» You weren’t too shy to sin, so you better stop being shy to pray! You weren’t shy when you were turning up at the club; you weren’t shy when flexing your RZ on some chick trying to get okay. So let’s not be shy about the things of God if we weren’t shy in the world.
Okay, you have men who are like, «I’m too shy to pray for my wife.» You weren’t too shy to make out with her, so now we’ve got to step into boldness this year. It’s your prayer life that’s under attack. The devil hates it when the people of God begin to pray. Are you with me? Are you willing to go there? Across every location, we’re going to start. This is the first Sunday of the year; we’re going to start it by praying. That’s how we’re going to begin this year—by praying.
Phase 1: Adoration — Magnifying God First
So here’s how Papa S does it. First, I start with adoration. I don’t start with petitions, which is begging and asking God to do stuff. That’s not a relationship. I start with adoration. I start with exaltation. I start by magnifying Him. Oh, you see how the atmosphere starts changing? You can borrow my words because we’re going to do this together. I start by saying, «Heavenly Father, I exalt You above every name that is a name. Jesus, You are exalted. Lord, I lift You on high, oh God, above all my problems, all my concerns and worries. You are high and lifted up. I magnify You, God. You are matchless.»
Come on, don’t watch me do it; do this with me right now. Stand up in your living room, wherever you’re at, and just begin to love on Him. «Lord, You and You alone are worthy of my affection. You and You alone are worthy of my attention.» Come on, you can use the same phrases as me, but you’re just adoring Him. «Oh God, I adore You. I worship You. You have all of my attention right now, God. I give You all my attention. All my focus is on You, Jesus. I’m looking at You, the author and the finisher of my faith. Oh, I lift You up; I glorify You. I magnify You, God. You are matchless. There is none like You, the fairest of ten thousand, the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon. Oh God, we worship You in this place.» Come on, do you feel that? Get your emotions in alignment. Don’t let your soul lead; let your spirit lead right now. Push past your own thoughts. «God, I lift You up high and exalted over Long Island, New York City, Miami, Bakersfield. We lift You up, God. Lord, You are undefeated. You have all power, all might, all wisdom.» Yeah, come on.
Phase 2: Thanksgiving — Gratitude Unlocks Presence
Okay, we’re going to shift now. We’re going to move into the next portion. So after that, I start doing— the Bible says, «Enter His courts with praise; enter His gates with thanksgiving.» As you enter into the next portion of intercession, you begin to thank Him. Come on, all over this place, start thanking Him right now. Thank Him! Gratitude unlocks the door to the glory; it unlocks the door to His presence. Just begin to say, «I thank You.» Some of you may not feel like you have a reason to thank Him, but you better thank again! Come on! «Father, I thank You. I thank You, God, for keeping me another year. I thank You for my children. I thank You for my car. Lord, I thank You for my house. I thank You for the things that I didn’t even choose, but they’re making me more like You. I thank You for my job. I thank You for my employer.» God, come on! I’m thankful! I’m thankful! God, I’m thankful!
Come on, open up a well! It’s too quiet; it’s too quiet in here. Sometimes you have to press into thankfulness. «I’m thankful for my spouse.» If you’re married, you might feel, «I don’t feel thankful.» Listen, intercession is not about feelings; it’s about faith, an activation of faith. «I thank You for my spouse.» If you’re single, «God, I thank You that You’re preparing me, and as You prepare me, You are preparing my mate. You will join us together. I thank You in advance for what You’re doing!» Yeah, come on! «Father, I thank You! Yes, yes, yes, yes! I thank You for the trials. I thank You for the pain. I thank You for the tribulations because You knew that it was going to make me more like You. You knew that it wasn’t going to destroy me. I’m thankful that they walked out on me because it drove me to the throne to know You more. God, I’m thankful that they rejected me because it taught me Your acceptance, and I learned another revelation of who You are. I’m thankful. I’m thankful. I’m thankful!»
Yeah, come on! See, what’s happening right now is you’re renewing your mind. Thanksgiving renews your mind. You hear that sound? Your spirit is regenerated when you accept Jesus, but your mind must be renewed. So when you’re thankful, you begin to renew your mind. We’re taking captive every thought that exalts itself against the word of God. Yes, yes, yes, yes!
Phase 3: Declaration — Using Delegated Authority
All right, this is the next phase now, teaching you how to intercede. Our whole church is doing this, so I start how we started with just adoration, lavishing Him. Then I transition into a time of thanking the Lord, and I’m telling you, my soul starts coming into alignment. Now here’s the next phase. This one’s going to feel awkward for many of you. This is called declaration. See, the oldest book of the Bible is Job. Job said, «I will decree a thing, and it will be established unto me.» The Bible says the power of life and death is in your tongue. So this next portion might feel weird for some of you because you’re like, «Who am I to say this?» But you are using delegated authority. You are a child of the King.
Just like my daughter Bella, she carries my authority. If I say, «Bella, go and do this thing, » she’s not carrying out her own will; she’s responding to a command that I gave her. Does that make sense? Jesus commanded us: heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, preach the gospel. He commanded! So the devil doesn’t respond to your voice; he responds to God’s command through your voice. Can I get an amen? For this next portion, we’re going to begin to declare. We’re going to begin to declare, and you can use my words. So let’s begin to declare. Listen to what I’m declaring; I’m going to do some on your behalf. I’m just going to begin to say this, and you guys just go in and start to pray with me.
«I declare that my spouse will be saved this year, that my spouse will be filled with the Holy Spirit, that my spouse will be activated in the gifts of the Spirit, that we will pray together, that we will read the Bible together. I declare that my finances will be blessed, that I am a river and not a reservoir, and there will be multiplication because He gives seed to the sower. I declare that I am going to walk in the favor of God. I declare that I am not going to enter this year and carry depression and anxiety— not anymore! I break the power of every demonic thought in my life. I pull down every stronghold that the enemy has erected in my mind. I speak to every demonic spirit, and I bind you in the name of Jesus, and I command you to loose my life and let me go.»
Come on, begin to make bold declarations! «I declare that I am going to operate in faith this year and that God is going to open doors that only He can open and close doors that shouldn’t be opened. I declare that I am the seed of Abraham and that I will see the promises of God fulfilled in my life. I declare that I will come into perfect health this year and that my body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.»
Okay, we could go longer, but do you see? Even as you begin to declare, you’re getting your fight back. You’re getting your fight back! The devil wants to keep you silenced. The devil wants to shut you up! Your own flesh wants to tell you, «Who are you to make those declarations?» But it’s not my power; it’s the power of God that works within me. See, this is greater; He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world. It’s the Spirit inside of me that’s collaborating in that declaration.
Phase 4: Praise — Proof of Faith and Weapon of Victory
Okay, here’s the last part—this is the last phase. Now, what we just did could take me hours or minutes, but I’ve been doing this since I was 15 years old. This is intercession! You could do it in different orders, but this is how you do it. The last portion of intercession, for me, has always been praise. Let me tell you why: because praise is your proof. Come on, somebody say it— «Praise is my proof!»
So you just declared a whole bunch of stuff that’s not real yet, and praise is your proof that it’s real in the spiritual realm before it becomes real in the natural realm. Praise is your proof that faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen. I don’t see it with my physical eyes, but in the supernatural realm, I already see it, and I’m going to praise! In the world, they praise after it happens. When your favorite team scores a goal, everybody goes, «Go!» They praise after it happens, but in the Kingdom, you praise before it happens, and then it happens; it activates your faith.
So when I’m interceding, all of a sudden, I’ll get done, and I might feel discouraged and depressed, and that anxiety might start coming back, and those thoughts might start coming back. All of a sudden, I say—and there’s no music, there’s no band—see, people say, «You’re a dancing pastor.» I say, «I’m not a dancing pastor; I’m a dancing believer! I dance in the living room; I dance in the bathroom.» I learned a long time ago that when you begin to praise at the end of your intercession, it sends confusion into the devil’s camp. The devil begins to say, «Wait a second! I gave them everything I got; I unloaded the whole clip! Why are they still dancing?» That’s because you can’t stop me, devil, because I see by faith what’s getting ready to happen, and I know how to praise. You are not too old to dance; you are not too old to praise; you are not too old to operate in faith! Come on!
Sometimes you have to begin to praise like this! David knew how to dance; David knew how to be undignified. David said, «I already know I win; the fight is fixed! I’m dancing!» I’m praising! Come on! Cut it, cut it, cut it! Okay, let me show you; some of you are like, «That’s so foolish.» That’s the point! Because we’re contradicting the natural mind; we’re operating in the spirit realm. In the spirit realm, David looks at Goliath and says, «There’s only one way to kill him—it’s this!» Slinging a stone—it won’t make any sense to the military strategist, but it’ll get the job done. There’s always an ingredient of foolishness in the spiritual realm. Why? Because foolishness undignifies you; it lowers your pride, and then God gets the glory.
So when people say, «Your whole situation changed, and you’ve been in that situation for years. Why did it finally change? What did you do?» You’ll say, «Oh, you don’t want to hear the answer!» What do you mean you don’t want to hear the answer? «When I tell you what I did, you’re not going to like it, but you’ve been in this situation for years, and now it’s all gone—everything changed! What did you do different?» «Oh, you don’t want to hear the answer. I began to praise! I began to praise! I began to praise!»
Why is that so powerful? Because when you begin to praise, what you are saying is, «God, what happens next is on You! I didn’t do anything to create this; I just got out of the way and said, 'God, I’m going to praise You! God, I’m going to worship You! God, I’m going to dance! God, I’m going to shout! God, I’m going to worship! I know all of my kids are going to be saved! All of my kids' kids are going to serve You! I know my finances are coming into alignment. All I’m going to do is pray; I’ll step back and praise! Praise is my weapon; praise is the proof! Praise is my weapon; praise is the proof!»
And sometimes I start clapping my hands, and a thunderclap is released, and the devil hears this: «I’m not dead yet! You can’t shut me up yet!» And I begin to clap like this, and I say, «You’re going to have to hear me, neighbors! You’re going to have to hear me in the other bedroom! This is the sound of breakthrough! This is the sound of healing! This is the sound of intercession! This is a thunderclap! Listen to me, devil; you can’t shut me up!»
Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me show you an impression of a dead person. Stop acting dead! You’re not dead yet! I don’t know who that was for, but the devil wants you acting dead. «Oh, that’s not my personality.» Oh, yes it is! I saw you in the spirit when you were a child; you didn’t act like this! To enter the Kingdom, you’ve got to become like a child again. It’s not an age thing; it’s not an age thing; it’s a revelation! I’m saying, «Oh God, I’m not going to the grave quietly! I’m going to the grave loud! I’m going to the grave loud! I’m going to the grave loud! You’re not going to take my praise! You’re not going to shut me up! You’re not going to get me acting like I’m in a tomb! Jesus resurrected, and so will I!»
Somebody’s got to learn how to praise! So here’s the thing: I’m giving you permission in this church. People are dealing with stuff; you look at them, and they’re annoying. Well, guess what? Then Heaven’s going to be really annoying to you because there are people going through stuff. When you go through this intercession, there’s a moment of worship and praise where you’ve just got to release it to God. So on the count of three, in Miami, Long Island, New York City, and all over the world, everybody watching right now, we are going to let out just a 2032 praise. And what that praise is going to be — our voice is going to resound in the atmospheres of the earth.
As we begin to release this praise, what we’re saying is, «It’s 2024! Devil, if you were going to kill me, you would have already done it! But God didn’t allow you! It’s 2024! You’re letting all the haters, all the backbiters, all the backstabbers- you tried to shut me up; you tried to put me in a corner; you tried to dismiss me! But I still have a voice! The Lord’s going to use my voice to declare His goodness in the earth, and you’re not shutting me down!»
This praise means something more; your best is ahead of you and not behind you! You have not seen your best days; you have not lived your best days! Your best is ahead of you and not behind you; the best is ahead of you! Come on, Bella! We’re going to face our future! We’re going to face our future! This is what praise represents; we’re going to face our future! Come on, somebody get a praise in you! One, two, three- come on! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Glory! Glory! Glory!