04/01/2025
We live in a time that pleads for reconciliation, a time when we are being called almost hourly to make intercession through prayer for those who are different from us. Whether it be a difference in righteousness, finances, race, color, nationality, or faith... intercession is of God and through it we are taught to love one another.
"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
Hebrews 7:25 ESV
Jesus saves us; He does so despite our physical appearance or the language we speak. He specifically sent His disciples into the world and preceded that mission by breathing the Holy Spirit upon them like tongues of fire... teaching them foreign languages. So, it is no surprise that we should be called to intercede in prayer for one another today... after all... even though our bodies, languages, and cultures may be different; is the same true of our souls? Who among us has laid eyes on the soul that is within each of us?
“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Romans 8:27, 34 KJV
So Jesus, the Great Intercessor, makes intercession for us regardless of who we are, and He sees us all the same in our worthiness of salvation and Good’s love; whether sinner or saint, jew or Gentile, whole or eunuch, citizen or not. Jesus expects us to view one another the same.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 ESV
A lawyer tempted Jesus by asking him what he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus turned the question around and asked him what the law said. The man then responded that it told him to love God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus then told him he was right... so do this. Then, the lawyer asked who his neighbor was and Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
In this parable Jesus told of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was robbed and beaten, then left half dead on the road. In this story Jesus went on to tell of a priest and a Levite who both passed him by without helping, but of a Samaritan who stopped and lent assistance. Jesus then asks the lawyer who the neighbor was to the man lying near death on the ground... and the lawyer said it was the one who gave aid. Jesus then responded... "Go, and do thou likewise."
“And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Luke 10:37 KJV
Love thy neighbor is not a commandment to love those who are just like us in appearance, belief, or in their mannerisms, it is exactly as this parable teaches us. When a Samaritan (a man that Jews held in low esteem) helped a Jew, he was called that Jew's neighbor. Who is our neighbor today?
Pastor Oswald Chambers wrote about the danger of our hearts becoming hardened to one another and what this does to our faith. Listen to what he had to say…
"If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and unless we are worshipping God, the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly, to give them a text like the jab of a spear, or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord." - Oswald Chambers
How often do we meet someone who is bitter towards the world, only to find that it isn't the world they are mad at, but something within themselves that is eating at them. We have all felt this sort of feeling when we have done something that disappoints us in ourselves, and instead of seeking to make it right, and gain forgiveness (even of ourselves), we attempt to live with it. A loss of faith in us leads us to a loss of faith in God by hardening our heart. Not recognizing our neighbor is one of those inward facing spears that pierces us through and through... it keeps us from worshipping as we should and builds a wall that blocks true prayer and righteousness.
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Hebrews 3:13-15 ESV
Today, as we examine ourselves, let's knock down those old walls that we believe to be protecting us, but are really hardening us towards not only others, but God as well. Let's then begin to intercede in prayer for our neighbors by asking that the Holy Spirit to open their eyes to those same hard and sinful walls within themselves. This might not happen overnight, but if we continue to make intercessory prayer for our neighbors, enemies, and those unlike ourselves, then God will surely work in his own time, and their hearts will be revealed to them through Jesus Christ.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus who makes intercession for me. I pray Father that you open the eyes of the world to the bitterness within us that prevents our hearts from worshipping you fully. I ask that even as tongues of fire taught language to the disciples of Jesus, that you will teach us to see each other as you see us... not as how we look physically, or the culture we live in, but as souls seeking you. Let the bitterness we have fostered for one another fall away, and the love, that allows us to pray and worship together, catch fire when exposed to your Spirit. Soften our hearts and replace hatred with harmony, racism with righteousness, humanity with humility, and distrust with divinity. Teach us Lord that just as we are all unique, we are also one in the spirit, and one in the reflection of our hearts as they reflect you. Then in this union of faith we can pray for one another and make intercession as Jesus does... seeing only the soul that cries out in despair for its salvation... unfettered by the hardness of our sins.
In this we will all come to praise you as one with the heavenly host. Angels and beasts alike, saints and martyrs, sinners who are now righteous, all with soft hearts that were once hard, and all of us who have replaced our hatred and anger with your love and kindness. Let the world and all of your creation see your glory in us as we are reborn, and despite our past differences let them see that we have been transformed by love into the image of Christ. Let every soul that breathes, and rock of the earth, sing your name and honor you with a newness of faith and resolve that has overcome them through their witness of our transformation. Hear us as we intercede alongside Jesus Christ for all men, and plead for the renewal of their hearts, and the righteous rebirth of their souls. Then hear us as we join all of heaven and creation in saying Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God almighty who was, and is, and is to come!!! Great are you above all!
Amen, and Amen!
Supporting Scripture:
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Isaiah 6:1-3 ESV
“and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:6-11 ESV
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
1 Timothy 2:1-4 ESV
Rich Forbes