As we look at Christ’s role as our Great Intercessor, there are three
important phases in intercession:
1.
Identification
2.
Self-sacrifice
3. Power
and authority
All three of these are vital in your role as a member of the Global
Prayer Strike Force.
An INTERCESSOR is “one who stands in the gap; who prays, petitions, or
pleads on behalf of others, as well as entire nations.”
PHASE ONE: IDENTIFICATION
True intercession, first of all, involves identification. As our High
Priest-Intercessor, Christ identified with us by taking upon Himself the form
of flesh and blood. He left the glories of Heaven and His glory with the Father
and became one of us so that He would be a faithful and merciful High Priest Who
feels our infirmities and would be qualified to intercede on our behalf.
In our intercession, we must also first be willing to IDENTIFY with
those for whom we are interceding...at the point of their need. We must so
identify with them that we take their burdens upon ourselves...feel their pain
and sorrow...and present their needs before the Father as if they were our own.
It is not enough to simply pray, “Lord, save the lost.” As intercessors,
we must be willing first of all to identify with the people who are lost in our
communities and cities.
There is no way we can possibly pray effectively for the lost and
intercede upon their behalf if we are so far removed from them we cannot
identify with them at the point of their need.
What has happened within the Church today is that we have separated and
isolated ourselves from the lost. We are far removed from their needs and their
suffering. For the most part, we stay within the four walls of our comfortable
churches. Our hearts have become hardened to the desperate needs of the lost in
our cities.
We must be willing to identify with the homeless, the destitute, those
bound by drugs or alcohol, the prostitutes and gang members, to the point we
feel their infirmities, we feel their pain and sorrow, and our hearts are moved
with compassion upon them. Only then will we be able to stand in the gap before
God and effectively intercede upon their behalf and move the hand of God
This type of identification was manifested in Christ’s life. As our High
Priest-Intercessor, interceding for a lost world, He sat where we sit. He took
our nature upon Himself. He learned obedience through the things which He
suffered. He was tempted in all points as we are. And, He who knew no sin
became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Through His intercession for us, He
gained his position of supreme power and authority over all things!
An intercessor is able to plead effectively because he gives his life
for others. He has laid aside His own self interests and, as much as possible,
has taken their place. Intercession is not substitution for sin. There has only
been one substitute for a world of sinners...Jesus Christ.
True intercession so identifies the intercessor with the one for whom he
is praying, that it brings him into a prevailing place with God.
PHASE TWO: SELF-SACRIFICE
Christ, the Great-Intercessor, made the ultimate sacrifice by laying
down His life for us. Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
In our intercession, we must come to the place where we are willing to
lay down our own lives sacrificially on behalf of those for whom we are
praying. Self must be crucified! We must be willing to lay aside our own
desires and give ourselves sacrificially through prayer and fasting on behalf
of the needs of others.
Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Only
as we begin to die to our own selfish desires and give ourselves sacrificially
through fasting and prayer on behalf of others, will the Holy Spirit be
released to flow through us to fulfill His work of intercession.
One of the major ministries of the Holy Spirit upon the earth today is
intercession. It is the Holy Spirit who lays a burden upon our hearts for
others and calls us to intercede. Only as we are dead to self can He flow
freely...to intercede through us.
There are many Christians today who mistakenly think they are not
qualified, or do not know how to intercede. The truth is, we become
intercessors by reason of the Intercessor who lives within us! The more we die
to self and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the more He is able to
intercede through us.
When we come to the place where we have fully surrendered our
lives...our wills...our desires...our plans, and allow the Holy Spirit free
reign in our lives, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO LIMIT to the depths of intercession
and what we can get accomplished on earth through us! “...the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. 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 (Romans 8:26-27).
During intercession, as we fully yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He
will pray through us. As we begin to pray in the Spirit, in unknown tongues,
the Spirit begins to travail and make intercession “with groanings which cannot
be uttered.”
When we pray in the Spirit...in tongues...we are also building up
ourselves and our faith (Jude 20). The Holy Spirit is released within us to
strengthen us in our time of need.
When we face circumstances which seem overwhelming...impossible in the
natural realm, as we begin to pray in the Holy Spirit...in tongues...the Holy
Spirit intercedes for us. He comes to our aid and releases His power within us
to overcome every obstacle and trial we face.
PHASE THREE: POWER AND AUTHORITY
Through Christ’s intercession...His identification...His obedience and
full surrender to God’s will...His willingness to lay down His life as a
sacrifice...His death upon the cross...He obtained His position of supreme
power and authority over all things.
As self begins to die and we allow the Holy Spirit to have full control
to pray through us through groanings and gushings of the Spirit, we then enter
into that realm of power and authority that is ours in Jesus’ Name. We have
gained a powerful spiritual position through intercession where we are able to
speak the word of deliverance. We are “clothed” with authority by the Holy
Spirit; and it is from this position of strength the “greater works” Jesus
spoke of are done in His Name! This is true intercession. This is what is meant
by going into the spiritual arena of intercession to win the battle first in
prayer.
There have been many times on the frontlines of battle, in the nations
of the world, when I have prayed in the Spirit, wrestled and travailed on
behalf of the needs of that nation for hours and hours and days at a time,
until we experienced a full release of the power and anointing of God. The
battle was first won through this intercession before we saw the great victory
of multiplied thousands accept Christ and a release of His miracle-healing
power.
This place of power and authority is not something we can obtain in our
own strength. It is a place of intercession that the Holy Spirit will bring us
into as we yield ourselves to Him. The Intercessor, Who lives within us, will
fulfill His work of intercession upon the earth today through us as we present
our bodies a living sacrifice.
This new dimension of power and authority through intercession, is where
we are able to come before God on behalf of our needs; on behalf of our
families and unsaved loved ones: on behalf of the lost and desperate needs in
our cities and BOLDLY take hold of ALL God has provided through His covenant
with us.
YOU HAVE A SACRED, HOLY CALLING!
The role of Intercessor is a high and holy calling. Just as Jesus made
intercession for the world through His life and death and has reconciled us to
God, His Church...you and I...have been called to intercede and reconcile men
to God.
By His Spirit, you have been made a priest...a royal priesthood.
The Apostle Paul said: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1
Peter 2:9).
In your role as a member of the Global Prayer Strike Force, God has
called you to come BOLDLY before Him and present the needs of the people around
you, BELIEVING Him to intervene...to save...heal...deliver and break every yoke
of bondage off their lives.
God wants you to become an intercessor...not only through intercessory
prayer, but also through your life...through your actions, as well as your
words.
As you intercede, remember these three vital phases of intercession:
IDENTIFICATION
SELF-SACRIFICE
POWER
AND AUTHORITY.
The type of intercession God is calling us to involves getting on our
faces before Him in prayer; mourning, weeping, and travailing in the spirit. It
involves consecrating and setting ourselves apart for fasting and
prayer...waiting before Him and not letting go until the work has been done. It
requires us to be willing to stand in the gap on behalf of others, as well as entire
nations.
God wants to use you in this end time hour to fulfill His will.
As we join together in this new, powerful dimension of prayer, we will
see greater answers to prayer than we have ever seen! Our intercessory prayers
will impact entire nations!
