Intercessory Prayer By Dutch Sheets: Book Review

Intercessory Prayer
By Dutch Sheets 

Find it on: 

First Person
Non-Fiction
286 Pages

About the Book (Backcover Blurb):

Called foundational, revolutionary, illuminating, and motivating, Intercessory Prayer continues to be a classic work after more than 20 years. This rich, biblical teaching is full of fresh insights showing how vital our prayers are and how God has always planned to work in partnership with us through prayer. As Dutch explains the nuts and bolts of prayer with wisdom, gentleness, and humor, readers will find inspiration and courage to pray for the impossible–and the persistence to see prayers to completion. 

Why I Choose this Book: 

I know prayer works, and that it’s extremely important, but far too often I don’t pray as much, or the way, that I should. Recently I’ve decided to read some books about prayer and implement more structured prayer into my life. 

What I Thought About this Book:

Going into the book I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I was soon drawn in by the author’s writing style, and then the information grabbed me, too. Mr. Sheets wrote a book with a lot of seriousness, but he found a good balance of throwing in funny little stories or rabbit trails at just the right time to help balance the book. There was one time when I literally laughed out loud, which was totally unexpected for me. 
Intercessory Prayer explores the topic of prayer to great levels. Mr. Sheets doesn’t shy away from “hard” (aka confusing) questions, like “Is prayer really necessary? Isn’t God sovereign? If so, then why do we have to pray?” Instead, he delves into the Bible and explores hundreds of verses, going into the Greek and Hebrew origins of different words, and helping give a more complete picture of why prayer is important. 
The fact that Mr. Sheets uses so many verses from the Bible while explaining his standing was a huge plus. It’s always encouraging to me when people go to God’s Word as their standard, instead of just quoting other people or using logical. (The book uses all three examples, so yay.) 
Mr. Sheets also told of multitudes of miracles and answers to prayers that he’s experienced, or else known people who have experienced them, over the years. That was quite encouraging and inspiring and helped remind me in more than one way how important it is to pray. Mr. Sheets also gave some ideas of specific things to pray about in certain situations, drawing from the Bible for examples.

Overall, I enjoyed the first half better than the second half, but both of them had lots of good information. Some of what Mr. Sheets pointed out about different Hebrew and Greek words was totally new to me and helped me learn a lot. It also helped me to understand prayer to a greater degree. I always knew it was important, but this helped spotlight the reasons it’s important. 

Conclusion:

There were some things I didn’t agree with in the book, as well as some doctrines that I need to study more before I agree or disagree with them. I suggest people who read the book do so willing to set aside their own preconceived ideas and really study God’s Word. At the same time I caution people not to blindly accept everything the author says. Overall though, the book was edifying, uplifting, challenging, and full of God’s Word.

Rating:


I’m giving Intercessory Prayer 4 stars out of 5, and 8 stars out of 10. I recommend it to Christians who want to serve God. 

*I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review*

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