07/21/2026
My Intercessory Prayer for Preserving Mercy and Extended Grace
Father, in the mighty, matchless, and merciful name of Jesus Christ, we come before Thy throne of grace. We come humbly, yet boldly, because Thou hast invited us to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We do not come trusting in our own righteousness, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, His finished work at Calvary, and His perfect ministry as our great High Priest.
Thou art the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thou art the God who creates life, sustains life, preserves life, heals the sick, delivers the oppressed, and raises the dead. Thou hast declared, “I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal.” Thou alone art sovereign over life and death. Jesus Christ has conquered death, hell, and the grave. He is alive forevermore, and He holds the keys of hell and of death.
Father, we lift before Thee every member of our churches and every household represented in our congregations. Remember my wife, my sons and daughter, with their families; every child, grandchild, spouse, parent, sibling, relative, neighbor, friend, leader, minister, missionary, elder, deacon, trustee, officer, and servant of the Lord. Remember The Evidence Churches, The Historic Edenton District (Greater Harvest Fellowship COGIC, Edenton COGIC, Liberty Worship Center COGIC, Victory Temple COGIC, our surrounding communities, and the entire Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ.
Let preserving mercy rest upon every district, church, pastor, superintendent, district missionary, department president, auxiliary leader, credential holder, mother, father, young person, senior saint, and family connected to this jurisdiction. Grant us extended grace, and let Thy hand protect us from dangers seen and unseen.
Father, we lift before Thee our prelate, Bishop LeRoy Jackson Woolard. Preserve his life, strengthen his body, renew his mind, refresh his spirit, and guard his heart. Protect him from sickness, exhaustion, hidden disease, accidents, violence, discouragement, and every danger known and unknown.
Grant Bishop Woolard long life, sound health, spiritual discernment, godly wisdom, and renewed strength for every assignment Thou hast placed upon him. Let no weapon formed against him prosper. Protect him as he travels, preaches, teaches, counsels, appoints, corrects, comforts, and leads Thy people.
Let his decisions be directed by the Holy Ghost. Surround him with men and women who are prayerful, faithful, honest, discerning, and committed to holiness. Give those who serve with him clean hands, pure hearts, right motives, and a sincere love for Thy Church.
Remember the entire Woolard family. Cover his household, his wife, children, grandchildren, relatives, and everyone connected to him. Preserve their health, homes, travels, minds, marriages, children, and future. Do not allow the weight of leadership to rob the family of peace, unity, affection, joy, and strength. Let their home remain a place of prayer, refuge, love, healing, laughter, and restoration.
Father, remember the leaders of the bishop’s presidium and every person who helps carry the weight of jurisdictional leadership. Strengthen every administrative assistant, superintendent, district missionary, department president, chairman, secretary, adjutant, officer, and servant assigned to advance the work of this jurisdiction.
Protect them from division, jealousy, pride, misunderstanding, offense, competition, burnout, and spiritual fatigue. Give them one heart, one mind, and one purpose. Let them serve with humility, integrity, loyalty, wisdom, and the fear of the Lord. Let no spirit of confusion, hidden agenda, or personal ambition weaken the mission of the Church.
Everybody listens to somebody—just do not let us listen to everybody. Make our lives credible enough to be trusted and our humility deep enough to be heard. Give our leaders wisdom to know when to speak, when to listen, when to move, when to wait, when to correct, and when to extend mercy.
Father, remember every superintendent throughout the Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction. Strengthen us as we oversee pastors, churches, districts, ministries, conferences, and families. Give us wisdom to lead, courage to correct, compassion to restore, and discernment to recognize both danger and opportunity.
Preserve our lives and protect our households. Guard us from heart attacks, strokes, cancers, blood clots, respiratory illness, neurological conditions, accidents, violence, and every hidden threat to life. Renew us when we become weary, encourage us when leadership feels lonely, and give us trusted voices who will pray, counsel, and help carry the burden.
Remind us that we do not have to carry everything alone. Moses needed Aaron and Hur, Paul needed Timothy and Titus, and Jesus sent His disciples forth by two and two. Deliver us from the pride that refuses help. Give us humility to receive prayer, counsel, rest, support, and medical care when needed.
Remember our Supervisor Harrizene Keyes and District Missionary Audrey K Whidbee, their husbands and families, and every district missionary and every woman who labors beside the superintendents in ministry. Anoint them afresh, strengthen their bodies, protect their families, and reward their sacrifices. Give them wisdom as they serve the women, young people, families, and churches under their care. Let superintendents and district missionaries labor together in holiness, prayer, mutual respect, and spiritual agreement. Where there has been misunderstanding, bring clarity. Where there has been hurt, bring healing. Where there has been division, bring reconciliation.
Father, remember every pastor throughout our jurisdiction. Protect the shepherds who stand before Thy people week after week. Preserve their lives, guard their minds, strengthen their bodies, and keep their hearts tender before Thee.
Protect pastors from exhaustion, depression, discouragement, isolation, hidden sickness, financial pressure, family strain, scandal, temptation, and premature death. Help every pastor recognize when rest is needed, when medical attention is necessary, when counsel should be sought, and when burdens should be shared.
Do not allow pastors to carry privately what should be brought into prayer, wise counsel, and godly support. Some burdens prayer will lift, and other burdens prayer will show us how to carry. Give every shepherd wisdom to know the difference.
Remember every pastor’s spouse and family. Protect their marriages, strengthen their homes, heal strained relationships, and cover their children and grandchildren. Let ministry never destroy the family it was intended to serve. Give pastoral families grace to serve without losing their identity, joy, health, or peace. Let them receive the same care, prayer, compassion, and concern they continually give to others.
Father, remember every church throughout the Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction. Let Thy presence rest in every sanctuary. Protect our churches from fire, storms, flooding, structural failure, violence, theft, vandalism, and every threat against the house of God.
Cover every worship service, Sunday school, Bible study, prayer meeting, revival, conference, funeral, wedding, outreach effort, district gathering, and jurisdictional assembly. Let no weapon enter our sanctuaries, no violence disrupt our worship, and no accident occur upon our church grounds.
Give wisdom to ushers, security teams, trustees, nurses, ministers, and leaders. Help them recognize danger and respond with courage, wisdom, and sound judgment. Give our churches proper emergency plans, working equipment, responsible leadership, and the humility to prepare while we pray.
Father, remember every member of every congregation. Let death pass over our houses. Let destruction pass over our families. Let sudden calamity pass over our children. Let accidents, violence, sickness, hidden disease, dangerous complications, and premature death be turned away by Thy merciful hand.
We do not trust in superstition, human formulas, fear, or religious tradition. We trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We plead the blood of Jesus, not as an empty expression, but as our confession that Christ has redeemed us, purchased us, justified us, sanctified us, and conquered the power of sin, Satan, death, hell, and the grave.
As Aaron stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed, raise up intercessors who will stand in the gap. Let prayer rise from our churches morning, noon, and night. Stir the saints to pray before tragedy and not merely after tragedy. Awaken watchmen who will not sleep through the hour of danger.
In the name of Jesus, restrain every assignment of destruction. Rebuke murder, violence, domestic abuse, criminal activity, reckless driving, road rage, intoxicated driving, distracted driving, and dangerous behavior.
Protect those traveling upon the highways, flying in airplanes, riding on trains, working around machinery, serving in dangerous occupations, and moving through unsafe environments. Protect our bishop, presidium, superintendents, district missionaries, pastors, ministers, missionaries, members, and families as they travel from place to place.
Bring them safely to their destinations and safely home again. Prevent collisions, mechanical failures, tire blowouts, dangerous weather, fatigue, confusion, poor judgment, and every circumstance that could result in injury or loss of life.
Father, give our people wisdom. Remind them to take prescribed medication properly, attend medical appointments, seek care when symptoms arise, wear seat belts, observe safety precautions, and refuse unnecessary risks.
Let no one call presumption faith. Faith does not ignore wisdom, and wisdom does not cancel faith. Give us faith that prays and wisdom that acts. Going to the doctor does not mean we do not believe God. The physician may diagnose, but God is still the healer.
Expose hidden illnesses before they become life-threatening. Reveal heart disease, strokes, blood clots, cancers, infections, aneurysms, respiratory problems, diabetes complications, kidney and liver disease, neurological disorders, and every condition working secretly in the body.
Guide the hands of physicians, give discernment to nurses, accuracy to laboratories, and wisdom to specialists. Let examinations, scans, bloodwork, and tests reveal what must be known. Prevent misdiagnosis, medical error, dangerous medication interactions, unnecessary procedures, and delays in treatment.
Grant mercy to those facing surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, or serious diagnosis. Let the healing virtue of Jesus Christ flow through their bodies. Restore breathing, strengthen hearts, clear arteries, regulate blood pressure, stabilize blood sugar, and strengthen bones, muscles, organs, nerves, and immune systems.
Give every leader and member wisdom to care for the body while caring for the work of ministry. Remind us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost. Teach us the difference between sacrifice and self-destruction. Help us serve faithfully without abusing the bodies Thou hast given us. Give us grace to rest without guilt, receive help without shame, and seek treatment without fear.
Father, remember those struggling emotionally and mentally. Protect those whose grief, depression, anxiety, fear, confusion, trauma, loneliness, or despair may place their lives in danger.
Send the right person to call them, visit them, listen to them, sit with them, and help them. Break the silence around suffering. Let no one die because they believed nobody cared, and let no one take his or her own life because the pain seemed greater than the possibility of healing.
Protect leaders who have learned to preach while hurting, smile while grieving, lead while bleeding, and serve while empty. Give them permission to receive care, seek counsel, rest, and be restored.
Heal those wounded by betrayal, conflict, criticism, rejection, disappointment, and loss. The real victory is allowing God to heal us without becoming like those who or that which hurt us.
Father, protect our children, teenagers, young adults, college students, and young families. Deliver them from violence, drugs, fentanyl, reckless behavior, destructive relationships, gang activity, exploitation, trafficking, and decisions made in anger.
Put a hedge around them. Interrupt dangerous plans, separate them from harmful influences, and let the Holy Ghost trouble them before they enter places from which they may not return. Let them hear the voice of wisdom before they listen to temptation.
Protect them in schools, colleges, workplaces, athletic activities, social gatherings, and while traveling. Give parents wisdom to recognize danger, and give young people courage to speak when they need help. Surround them with godly mentors whose lives are credible enough to be trusted and whose humility is deep enough to be heard.
Father, protect our senior saints. Prevent falls, household accidents, medication errors, financial exploitation, neglect, abuse, confusion, and isolation. Renew their strength, preserve their minds, and give them restful sleep and peaceful days.
Let them know they remain valuable, necessary, loved, and needed in the Body of Christ. Do not allow the Church to forget those whose prayers, sacrifices, service, and faith helped bring us to where we are today.
Lord, where judgment may be deserved, we plead for mercy. Where sin has opened doors, grant repentance. Where bitterness has poisoned hearts, grant forgiveness. Where pride has replaced humility, competition has replaced fellowship, personal ambition has replaced spiritual assignment, or prayerlessness has left us careless, correct us and awaken us again.
Thy Word says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,” Thou wilt hear from heaven, forgive sin, and heal the land. Therefore, search us, cleanse us, correct us, sanctify us, and bring us back into holy alignment with Thy will.
Help us not only to pray against death, but also to turn away from the sins, habits, negligence, and behaviors that produce destruction. You cannot do wrong long if you intend to do right. Therefore, correct our intentions, decisions, habits, and direction. Give us hearts determined to please Thee.
Where relationships have been broken, give us grace to forgive. Forgiveness realizes that some things cannot be undone or taken back; it is broken and cannot be fixed, and forgiveness is necessary. Give us grace to forgive, wisdom to establish proper boundaries, and faith to move forward without bitterness, hatred, or revenge.
Father, grant extended grace. Add years where it pleases Thee. Extend days so that unfinished assignments may be completed. Preserve our bishop to lead, the presidium to serve, superintendents to oversee, district missionaries to strengthen the work, pastors to shepherd, evangelists to proclaim, missionaries to serve, teachers to teach, parents to raise their children, grandparents to pour wisdom into generations, and witnesses to tell what the Lord has done.
Let us declare with the psalmist, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” Complete the work Thou hast begun in Bishop Woolard, every jurisdictional leader, superintendent, district missionary, pastor, church, family, and member.
Let no life be cut short before its God-given assignment is fulfilled. Let no one die because of preventable neglect, reckless behavior, violence, hidden danger, poor judgment, or an assignment of the enemy. Give us grace to finish our course and fulfill the ministry we have received from the Lord Jesus.
Yet, Father, we surrender every life to Thee. We understand that earthly life is temporary and that no prayer makes us immortal in this present body. When the appointed time comes for Thy children, let us be ready—saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, walking in holiness, and at peace with God.
We are not asking to remain here forever. We are asking for mercy, time, and grace to finish what Thou hast called us to do. Let no life be taken prematurely, and let every assignment be completed according to Thy will.
Comfort every family already touched by death. Remember every bishop, pastor, leader, church, and family who has stood beside an open grave. Heal those who are afraid because they have witnessed repeated losses.
Deliver us from living in expectation of another telephone call, emergency, accident, or funeral. Break the bo***ge of the fear of death. Thy Word declares that Jesus came to deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bo***ge.
Let faith replace fear, vigilance replace panic, wisdom replace superstition, and prayer replace helplessness. Do not let us become so concerned about a pattern of death that we begin to expect death more than we expect Thy mercy.
Help us notice what is happening without becoming controlled by what we see. Do not just let us think; teach us to think about what we think about. Bring our thoughts under the authority of Thy Word, and keep our minds sober, prayerful, discerning, and full of faith.
When we understand that God is never late, waiting is the process, not a delay. Help us trust Thee while we wait, believe Thee while we grieve, worship Thee while we heal, and continue serving while Thou art working.
Father, cover our homes during the night watches. Station Thy angels according to Thy will. Protect us while we sleep from fire, intruders, storms, flooding, carbon monoxide, electrical danger, gas leaks, and every unseen threat.
When we leave home, bring us back safely. When we gather for worship, let no weapon formed against us prosper. When our children go to school, protect them. When our people go to work, surround them. When our saints enter hospitals, nursing facilities, courtrooms, highways, airports, and public places, let Thy presence go with them.
Protect Bishop Woolard and his family wherever they travel. Protect the presidium, superintendents, district missionaries, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, ministers, members, churches, and families throughout the Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction.
Place mercy at the door, grace in the house, wisdom in the mind, health in the body, peace in the heart, holiness in the life, and salvation in the soul. Let the blood of Jesus be over our homes, families, churches, districts, and jurisdiction.
Father, we declare that death does not have the final word. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. The grave has been defeated, the sting of death has been broken, and Christ is alive. Because He lives, we shall live also.
We thank Thee for prayers already answered, accidents already prevented, sicknesses already discovered, dangers already avoided, and lives already spared. We thank Thee for the things Thou hast kept from happening that we may never know about until eternity.
We thank Thee for preserving Bishop LeRoy Jackson Woolard, his family, the leaders of the presidium, the superintendents, district missionaries, pastors, churches, members, and families throughout the Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction.
The peace of God is the reward of surrender to God. Therefore, after we have prayed, we surrender our bishop, jurisdiction, districts, churches, leaders, members, families, and future into Thy faithful hands.
When we get what we ask for, help us understand what Thou hast given us, because we only keep what we understand. Teach us the value of life, the importance of health, the necessity of prayer, the power of holiness, and the mercy of another day.
God is God, and we believe God. We believe Thou art able to keep that which we have committed unto Thee. We believe Thou art able to preserve us, heal us, guide us, correct us, and bring us safely through every danger.
In the mighty, matchless, saving, healing, preserving, and delivering name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen and amen.
What God Is Showing Me…
When God places a people upon the heart of an intercessor, He is not inviting us to panic. He is summoning us to stand between danger and destiny.
The shepherd cannot be everywhere his people are, but prayer can meet them before danger arrives.
We are not praying because death is sovereign. We are praying because Jesus is.
Download your digital copy of this message: Are You Fasting or Just Not Eating? https://us.amazon.com/Are-Fasting-Just-Eating-Rediscovering-ebook/dp/B0GYZF9QYK
Solidify the power of your fasting by reading the message in this book before our upcoming 105th Annual Holy Convocation July 27 - 31, 2026; 7:30 pm at:
The Jurisdictional Headquarters
1609 Wendell Blvd
Wendell NC 27591
