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True Intercession
Dec 9, 07:13 PM
Recently, I was praying for a little boy of about eight who was facing a very difficult challenge to his health. He had been in the hospital for weeks. The prognosis was guardedly hopeful, but it was a very tough road. His parents were trying to bear up under hard circumstances, taking care of their son while also trying to give due attention to his siblings. My prayers for the young man took a passionate turn as I pleaded with God to show pity on this small boy. The voice of the Lord brought me to a halt: “What if I take the affliction from him and place it on you?”
The Lord was not being spiteful or cruel. He was making me face the level of my intercession and in some ways the level of my love. We all pray for others at varying measures of intensity. Obviously, the closer they are to us, the more fervent will be our prayers. If they are too close to us, or we are too emotionally involved, it will be more difficult for us to pray without our prayers becoming frantic begging. That is where faithful intercessors are so important – they pray for us when we are unable to pray.
That day, however, God was making me look at my own role as an intercessor for others. I am often convicted that if someone asks me for prayer, it is my duty to actually PRAY for them. The Lord has not called us merely to have occasional sentimental thoughts for one another but to pray and intercede in the Name of the Lord Jesus. How often have you flippantly told someone you would pray for them only to have their need evaporate from your mind? The role of intercessory prayer in the Kingdom of God cannot be overstated.
For me that day, the issue was not my faithfulness in prayer nor was it the level of my faith. Both are vital components to true and vital intercession. We must be faithful to do it and have faith as we do it. The issue that day was my love. Did I truly love that boy enough to ask God to take his affliction and place it on me? Obviously, that is the essence of Christ’s intercession for us and it is also the heart of God for all people. It is one thing to intercede for “good” people who we like, it is another to do it for the undeserving and ungrateful. Genuine intercession cannot be done from a place where you are aloof and removed. We truly intercede when we identify with the suffering or guilty and are willing to share their fate – even more, to be willing to bear their fate, their punishment, or affliction in their stead.
Would God actually do something like that – take the affliction of another and place it on us? Who knows? The issue was not whether He would actually do it; the issue was whether or not I was willing to have Him do it.