Intercession-What is it?

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t been able to post up something up for the past few days, but here’s just a little bit about what God has placed on my heart this last week-it's more of a short bible study and what God is showing rather than what were doing. It is a fairly deep topic and could be discussed in much more length but, here is just a short summary.

It has to do with prayer, talking to God, building a relationship with Him, and having time alone with the creator of the universe. Let’s stop. If you are reading this and do not recognize that God created this earth and all that is in it and has the power to move in it, then you may not realize the point of what I am about to say. If you do not recognize this and are curious about it, by all means message me on facebook and I would love to share . And for those of you who do recognize this and are not open to being challenged then there is probably no point to continue reading.

Now, to the point. And that point is Intercession. Intercession?!?!?! Oooo, now there is a big scary word that comes from those weirdos in those pentacostal churches where they do crazy stuff. Hmph, how small our view of Christianity is. Intercession is not “just” for those crazy people. If you say that, than would you mind calling Jesus crazy. Before we start talking about it I guess we should define what intercession (the act of interceding) is. Intercession is “standing in the gap” for someone through prayer. Ezekiel 22:30 talks about how God is looking for that person to “stand in the gap” on behalf of the land so he wouldn’t destroy it. God looks to us to stand in that gap for others. When Christ came into the picture he showed us he was the ultimate intercessor. Now Christ interceded on our behalf through the physical act of dying on the cross so we could have eternal life (John 3:16). Isaiah 53:12 says, “For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressions.”

Alright, so people in the Old Testament would intercede so that God wouldn’t “do” something bad. Jonah interceded on behalf of Nineveh and God relented. But now that Jesus came he was the final “stand in the gap” guy. So now we can just leave it alone, He did it all. This is both true and false. It says in Romans 8:34 that Jesus continues to intercede for us. Jesus stood in the gap so we have access to God the father but there is still intercession (praying for someone, standing in the gap) that needs to be done. It is vital for knowing the heart of God. Knowing God’s will comes from spending time in His word, prayer and other means. Interceding for various people or situations can show us what breaks God’s heart and in turn, should break ours.

Paul writes in his letter to Timothy, “I urge you then, first of all, that requests, prayer, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone... This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” Do you see a pattern there? Requests, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving- these are all things we bring before God. Why? Because it PLEASES HIM and why wouldn’t we want to please the maker of us all?!?

I hope this is making some sense. It may be easier to just throw away the terminology of “intercession” altogether and just think of it as praying “ on behalf of others”. If we desire to be Christ-like in how we act, this is something we need to do.

“Why God do I continue to struggle with intercession? It is obviously so critical! God oh God, allow me to pray like you do.”-this was my prayer as I was struggling with this topic of prayer. We can talk and talk about the different “types” of prayer, how they should be done, or in what situations they need to be done in. BUT, if we do not have the cry on our heart for God’s will to be done in every situation then we miss the point. Jesus went and appealed to His father three times at Gethsemane praying the same thing, “My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. YET NOT AS I WILL BUT, BUT AS YOU WILL. God will do what God will do. Then why pray? Because God answers prayers in His infinite grace! He created everything in this world. He even knows the very hairs on our head! He knit us together in our mother’s womb! If we do not make our prayer, no matter what it is or how we pray it, for God’s will to be done in all situations then we miss the point.