Intercession: Transforming Power
As we allow Christ to transform
us while experiencing His Presence in prayer, we will be elevated to the Father's
Right Hand. We will never be more like Jesus than when standing with Him before
the Father, vocalizing as one with His intercession. Therefore, interceding
with Christ is a primary way we experience God's transforming power.
In that same vein, no activity
undertaken to bring about personal change bears as much fruit as engaging God
with Christ in true intercession. Think about it: In our primary passage that
the Lord has given us to comprehend Him and us interceding together, He says, "those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed
to the image of His Son." (Romans 8:29) Intercession is about changing us, and as we
are changed that which Christ desires for the church will be revealed. And as
it is revealed, it can be entered into if it is agreed upon (Mt.6:10).
Therefore, true intercession is a
primary way we access the resurrection power of Christ and mature in our
relationship with God. As we truly intercede, what flows over our lips will be
the very words and prayer of Jesus to the Father. The fruit of such prayer will
release the revelation of God's will in every circumstance it addresses. The
result of such prayer will also release the impartation of Christ's heart to
ours by conforming us to His image. Then it is up to us to agree with Christ by
allowing, responding and even promoting what the Spirit reveals is to be
established (Romans 8:29).
God has chosen authentic,
Spirit-birthed, powered and directed intercession with Him to unify and prepare
the Bride for the Bridegroom. See what the Lord goes on to say:
So that
He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined,
He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He
justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is
for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him
over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who
will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is
the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. (Romans8:29-34)
By continually flowing with Him
in this way, the conduit between Heaven and Earth is laid. Through our
agreement with Christ's desire, His flow is released and experienced as a
living reality within us, becoming the pipeline between Heaven and Earth. As
that begins to become operational and we continue in that flow, we increasingly
yearn for that which Christ yearns, because His heart and life begin to
overtake our own.
The immeasurable impact of true
intercession with Christ increasingly turns us toward Him and His desires until
we operate with Him as One (Ro.8:29). This type of relationship with Christ
will enable one to not only experience, but actually begin to carry that very
same anointing. It is those carrying that anointing who will produce the
miracles and signs so desperately needed to convince the unbelieving in this
hour (1Cor.14:24-25). Then, Jesus Christ will be truly represented in the Earth
as anointed ones go forth from Heaven's Throne with God's presence, power and
purposes in spirit and in truth. (Jn.4:24; 14:6)
Intercession- Sensitivity to the Spirit
When the Spirit desires to make
intercession through us with Christ for others, we may be prompted in various
ways:
1.
We may sense a spiritual leading to pray. (This
differs from fear, worry, or anxiety).
2.
While praying, specific individuals are brought
before us in our own spirit.
3.
We could have a dream that contains true
revelation of how to pray for others.
4.
Similarly, a vision may reveal the angelic or
demonic at work in a circumstance.
The Lord has a multitude of ways
of getting our attention, and He knows how. We should walk in the realization
of being interrupted by Him at any time for communications of any kind, including
intercession, but we need to allow that to take place. That is what will enable
us to be directed by God. Although it is essential in every season to yield to
the Spirit in prayer, in this hour we must protect this priority with all our
resolve.
The tendency for us is to fail to
be predisposed to His Presence, because it seems less urgent than the work
before us. Although it may (now) seem less urgent, we will (later) find that by
failing to enter in, we have completely missed what was clearly most important.
In the same way we are to be attentively perceptive in conversation with
others, our role is to be especially sensitive to the Spirit of God as we
proceed with Him in life as well as in prayer to the Father. The result being
that the more personal and relational our prayer life becomes, the more we will
be used of God in agreement with Christ: for (1) self-intercession, (2)
interceding with Him for His Body, and (3) going forth to fulfill the Great
Commission.
Intercession: Staying Within the Grace of
God
Once a prompting or direction for
intercession has been received, it is crucial that we not use it as an
opportunity to change others into our image. In prayer, it is very possible to
be right about what we see, yet very wrong in how we respond. Even though we
will receive correct understanding of a situation, if uttered apart from the
Spirit or beyond the grace of God we will miss the purpose for which we were
apprehended. Many times we lack the Father's heart: not only for understanding
our own progress and His process, but especially for specifics of the journey
He has called others to.
If we do not remain aware of
that, it will be easy to go past the grace of God into the witchcraft of trying
to control people and situations we are not responsible for. At best, we are
only allowed to see what the Lord shows us regarding a specific circumstance
(1Cor.13:9, 12). This is because we are always without the full understanding
of a person's unique destiny in Christ. If we are to truly be intercessors, we
must not pray from a general Scriptural knowledge apart from the Spirit.
Granted, not everything we pray needs to be the result of a profound
revelation, but all prayer is to be anointed by the Spirit. If misunderstanding
what God is truly revealing by trying to pour it into the old wineskin of our
knowledge and desire, we can all too easily become part of the problem by not
joining with Christ for His will to be accomplished.
Intercession: Activation of Christ's Mind
As we grow with the Spirit
through ongoing intercession, what is revealed to us in those moments causes
our wineskin to be transformed. We become those who flow in the new wine of the
mind of Christ (1Cor.2:16). As God moves in ways we would have never imagined
or even desired, we then can begin to discern the way to react and relate to
what is being revealed. Sometimes we will just wait, rightly sensing that we
have been shown something by God, but not yet knowing whether there is
something we must do, or (if even there is) how we must proceed. During that
time Christ's Heart calls us even deeper into His before giving us what is
needed to make a true faith response (Ro.10:17; Heb.11:6). With that in mind,
we must content ourselves, knowing that interceding with Christ for others will
often lead to a cycle of praying, trusting, and waiting. When the answer comes,
however, word will be given resulting in the declaration of God's truth,
becoming a decree in the earth (Jb.22:28; 2Cor.4:13).
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