All tagged intercession

Are we making intercession for others? Do we even know how to pray in such a manner? I worry about this often as I watch us attempt to pray for one another. Are our hearts in worship as we lift up prayers for those in need? Is there anyone even attempting such prayer? There have been times throughout biblical history when there has been no true intercession. One of them is recorded in Isaiah, and we can read of it in this verse...

I really enjoyed the devotional message that I read this morning. Pastor E .M. Bounds wrote about praying for one another. He spoke of how the power of our prayers will draw us close to God in a holy, reverent, and magnificent way. So often we view Jesus as a stoic man, and not as someone who pleaded loudly with God, and cried crocodile tears as He prayed, but this is indeed the man Jesus was.

Intercessory prayer is more than just praying for someone... it is praying with them; it is praying the needs and desires of someone who might be in a coma using the words and supplication that we would pray with them if they were able to hold our hands and pray alongside us... it remains a joint prayer as we ask for God's intercession in a situation or life. It is being with someone who might be silent, but who prays with us in the presence of God. Isn’t this exactly what the Holy Spirit does when he prays for us in groanings which we alone cannot utter; at times when we have no words?

One morning in 2015 I was reading a devotional and preparing for prayer. The subject was the absolute perfection of Christ and the compassion which leads Him to intercede for us. The accompanying verse was Hebrews 4:15, and it was so encouraging to me. Jesus understands us and what tempts us as men, and this gives Him the ability to intercede for us in prayer from a place of experience and a knowledge of our circumstances. Do we completely grasp the degree to which He is like us? Do we pray for others as Jesus prays for us; with empathy that is born of understanding and experience?

This morning we will begin by studying one of the most incredible examples of intercessory prayer. Moses goes to the mountain to receive the first set of tablets but while he is gone the Israelites ask Aaron to build them a golden calf to worship... which he does. Moses isn't aware of this when God tells him He will destroy the Israelites and build a nation from his offspring (much like the promise to Abraham). But, Moses prays that God will spare them.

It is true that people do pray more when they are in trouble, and they are also inclined to criticize God in the midst of great trouble, but in God's eyes our lives here are just a portion of the journey... When many are lost to calamity we have a tendency to think they are gone because this life is all we know, but in God it is not the end... Evil never triumphs, the journey is not complete. We already know the end of the story, and God is victorious and dries the tears of the martyred saints. Jesus has already risen and the promise of His return is real… He will return to claim His bride, and the dead in Christ will rise to meet Him. Are we ready?

Something happened this week that shook me, and took me back to the year 2016 when I was in what I hoped were the final stages of dealing with cancer. A couple of days ago I learned that someone very close to me, who had battled cancer once before, had been told, following a routine check-up, that the doctor had found two places which appeared to be cancerous tumors. This is a moment that anyone who has ever had cancer fears… the return of their old nemesis. The return of Satan to sift us yet again.

Are we men and women who humble ourselves before God? Humility is a characteristic that is unmistakable in a person and gives them a certain quality that allows them to care for others and walk in faith without so much as causing a ripple... They become a part of the faith that surrounds them. However, the pride of doing, this morning's message, is one that convicts me often. Sometimes I struggle with that fine line between giving God the glory for answering a prayer and feeling that MY prayer might have been the source of that miracle. When you pray for people as often as I do and God answers our prayers for the needs of others, we might begin to associate God's movements with our own. When people seek you out as if there is some cure or other miracle that you can perform for them it presents you with a spiritual danger. The truth of course is that God performs all miracles and a person's faith is the catalyst that makes him worthy.

Who will we come into contact with today? Will there be some chance happening in our life that isn’t quite as chance as it might seem, and that the Lord will orchestrate for His purposes, and glory? There are many intercessions that occur during what we think are less than significant meetings and encounters, and in those brief moments when we witness someone’s need or struggle, our minds often wander to God as we think such prayerful things as “Oh God.”, or “Jesus!”. Have you ever considered these instant utterances to be moments of prayerful intercession?

Are we making intercession for others? Do we even know how to pray in such a manner? I worry about this often as I watch us attempt to pray for one another. Are our hearts in worship as we lift up prayers for those in need? Is there anyone even attempting such prayer? There have been times throughout biblical history when there has been no true intercession. One of them is recorded in Isaiah, and we can read it in these words...

Have you ever been in prayer and found yourself unable to express yourself to God in words? In that moment did the Holy Spirit well up in you, and with a moan, a groan, a sigh, or even in a deep tearful silence, did you feel a connection with the Lord that was far beyond your ability to express in words, or even understand the depth of? This is prayer at its very foundation. This is the language of the soul. Have you experienced it?