Summer 2000
The Heart of Intercession
Selected

There are times when the Lord desires to intervene in a situation and cannot find an intercessor to stand in the gap, in behalf of the need.

When the Lord first approached me to intercede, I responded by saying, "I know that You desire to intervene and change lives, and that You are asking me to intercede in their behalf. But Lord, I feel so inadequate, as I do not know how to do this. If I just had more understanding about intercession.”

Then the Lord caused me to consider the Holy of Holies, which the High Priest, cleansed to as near a state of purity as possible, entered once each year to approach the Living God. This high priest was the intercessor for all of Israel.

He did not itemize each Israelite's condition or sins, but came before God as a cleansed representative for the sins of all his people. The Lord intervened and reinstated the nation to Himself, by the conditions met of this one man. This is the type and shadow of what our Saviour, Jesus Christ, did on the cross for all mankind.

Jesus rent the veil that was before the Holy of Holies by His death on the cross, that each of us might individually enter into the Lord’s presence. The requirements are still there; only now they are not in ritual. We still must be cleansed, and with purity of heart, come before the Lord to minister unto Him, that we might be an intercessory representative for the people. In this, our state of being is more important than our activity of prayer.

We do not need to know all the circumstances, or that the Lord tell us the details of a crisis situation. We do need to become so wholly committed to the Lord that our very existence is for the Lord Himself. As we minister to Him in total purity and love, which the Lord can behold and embrace, then something happens.

There comes a joining between the Lord and man; a union of mind, will, and purpose, so great that out of this sense of complete oneness, the Lord is able to move in whatever way He may desire. When the Lord knows that He has our full support through our obedience in intercession, He intercepts and makes His victorious move.

The power in this ministry of intercession is not in our speaking in the name of Jesus, or using His authority against principalities, or in our discerning and praying through a given situation. True, we do all of these things as He burdens hearts for particular circumstances, but the Lord has revealed a new order of intercession - that of our so fully ministering unto Him that His heart is moved to action, because He knows that He has another in full agreement with Him on whatever is on His heart at that time.

Whole nations can be touched, as Israel was, by just one man who came before the Lord, fully cleansed and prepared to commune with His God. At that time, man lived by the code of the law and the Lord acted accordingly. Now the Lord looks at the inward parts and moves through a union of heart.

How exciting to realize that the world can be changed by our pure love relationship with our Lord, and our obedience to His intercessory call.