Intercession spells intervention

Intercession spells interventionBy Lars Widerberg1. Allow your eyes and mind to be directed to an old but by no means obsolete or indistinct picture of the world of today and of the Church of our days:Justice has to turn away defeated. Justice has received a firm note of relegation into the background as a minor track in the common experience of the Church.Righteousness is forced to hold aloof. This precious virtue of godliness has been reduced into insignificance. It is considered and classified as having very little practical application.Truth has no footing in the assemblies. Prophets profess fidelity to the Word, but count it as their own possession to generate profit and a frame of security befitting a self-styled man of God.Truth stumbles in the streets. The poor and oppressed are to pay with their lives. Victims are turned into perpetrators and the oppressor pays his way through.Uprightness is not welcome. Honesty may not enter the court. He who turns away from evil becomes a prey.Isa 59:14-15, NASB, Moffat.

2. Truth has been out of stock for a long time in this our modern society. There is no new delivery to be expected. Truth is considered to be an obsolete, even an awkward concept in the modern Church. With God truth is absolute. To walk by the Spirit of God is to walk in truth, Gal 5:16, John 16:13.God, with whom truth never will be subjected to change, looks at his creation in which he placed man as the moral agent to reflect and have life in the qualities of God’s own nature. The Father watches every society with eyes full of tender love, compassion and piercing righteousness that he may find and strongly support those whose heart is completely his, 2 Chron 16:9.He carefully monitors Christian communities in which the name of the Son is used in repeated confessions for the sake of mastering circumstances and events but in which the joyful willingness to display the life of the Son in disciplined obedience is a rare commodity.

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3. Blessed is the man who is able to embrace even the smallest quantity of the reality of the Father’s love. Blessed is any person who reaches out thirsty for the righteousness of God. The superiority and eternal existence of God is a mystery to us all. Blessed are those who have come to rest facing issues of this calibre. Serious consideration in regards to his nature, his otherness, will bless us all with a healthy portion of fear to be blended into the sound experience of the presence of the Lord.Who stops to look into the face of the Lord? Who stops to marvel? Who dares to look into the Light? Who among us have ever stopped long enough to be able to notice the astonishment written all over that face, which we are born and bought to behold all through eternity.The Lord sees how truth is made to stumble in the streets. The Lord surely takes note of the way the Church and the society handle righteousness. The Lord sees, and it displeases him that there is no justice. God, who is truth and faithfulness personified, still carries astonishment written all over his face, Isa 59:15-16. There is, as ever, a deficiency to cover. There is, as always, a call to answer up to. No one to intercede. No one to intervene.

a healthy portion of fear The primary missing ingredient today.No one to intercede. No one to intervene. A nobody to cry out from the heart "Have mercy on me, a sinner""And like their bow they have bent their tounges for lies.They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.For they procede from evil to evil,And they do not know Me" says the Lord. Jeremiah 9:3

4. Consider the astonishment of God. Consider the call to intervention. Consider the possibilities of intervention. Consider the irrevocable promises given as an invitation to prayer. Prayer - a futile task. Prayer - a work for those who have no ability to engage in men’s business of politics and lobbying, writing and talking. Prayer is God’s politics. Intercession is the business of the Son. Prevailing prayer is the hard work of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the major means of intervention designed to produce godly rule in this dispensation. Intercessors are marked by hunger and thirst for righteousness. Intercessors are driven to intervene. Intercessors are guided by the Spirit of truth. The Father’s house, the Church, should as a whole carry this particular mark. Intercession is readiness to serve. Prayer is readiness to give. Prayer is eagerness to get - for the sake of giving away all. Intercessors spend their lives. They live their lives, not close to, but on the altar. The intercessors role is the role of a priest. But it is even more the role of the sacrificial lamb. Intercession spells intervention. Intercession never bullies its way across. It is truly the Lamb’s walk among men.

5. Prayer is God’s politics. The unjust ruler will be judged. God will interfere. Intercession balances God’s wrath and his mercy. Intercession holds back judgment for the sake of evangelism. Prayer prolongs the favourable year, the year of grace, Lk 4:19. Intercession is the business of the Son, Hebr 7:25. Prayer brings complete salvation. Intercession opens for a complete proclamation of the Gospel to the poor and oppressed and to produce a thorough release of the captives. The interceding Church is the intervening Church. It writes the necessary letters of petition to earthly rulers. It speaks up when righteousness is forced to hold aloof. But, it counts intercession as its first priority.Prevailing prayer takes the presence of the Holy Spirit. Prevailing prayer reveals the presence of the Holy Spirit. Intercessors keep on keeping on if lit by heavenly fire. Intercessors never give in.

Who stops to marvel? Who dares to look into the Light? Who among us have ever stopped long enough to be able to notice the astonishment written all over that face, “Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, cost an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market. To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole religious character short, skrimp, ungenerous, and careless, William Wilberforce, the peer of kings, said: ‘I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul; it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.’ “ E.M.Bounds.

Dear Christian,From which of the many books by Bounds did you cut this piece from??“Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, cost an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market. To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole religious character short, skrimp, ungenerous, and careless, William Wilberforce, the peer of kings, said: ‘I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul; it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.’ “ E.M.Bounds

6. To the Father’s amazement and astonishment his household rather attend to personal enrichment than engaging in solid intercession to bring forth a radical revelation of the Gospel of God’s intervention on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Justice has to turn away defeated. Justice has received a firm note of relegation into the background as a minor track in the common experience of the Church. Parts of the modern Church are proud to present themselves as ”prophetic” but do not care to open their eyes and hearts to a world in pain. Parts of the Church engage in social issues but do not care to pick up and add to their many-faceted competence a prophetic tone and touch. Both camps are missing the mark simply by neglecting true fellowship with God in prayer.

7. Righteousness is forced to hold aloof. This precious virtue of godliness has been reduced into insignificance. We find a Church out there who aspires to rulership. But the House of God is called to bring peace and righteousness to the scene by meekness and a humble heart. Righteousness is forced to hold aloof by our firm inclination to lordship. We hold on to our personal thrones claiming God’s righteousness and thereby losing every possibility to bear witness to grace and justice.

8. Truth has no foothold in the assemblies. Our churches are taken in by the folly of fantasy. God speaks blessings in abundance, they say, to a Church whose focus is personal and collective affluence. God’s face reflects astonishment. No one, no man, moves in to intervene, to intercede, to speak up, to bring firm rebuke. The Father’s house is a fellowship in which every part is engaged in an outpouring of the Father’s love, agape love, a love that never keeps anything to himself.

8. Truth has no footing in the assemblies. Our churches are taken in by the folly of fantasy. God speaks blessings in abundance, they say, to a Church whose focus is personal and collective affluence. God’s face reflects astonishment. No one, no man, moves in to intervene, to intercede, to speak up, to bring firm rebuke. The Father’s house is a fellowship in which every part is engaged in an outpouring of the Father’s love, agape love, a love that never keeps anything to himself.

9. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace and supplication, Zech 12:10. He is also the Spirit of power, love and discipline, 2 Tim 1:7. His power overrules timidity. It is present within to help keep on keeping on. It is present within to bring encouragement when you feel like giving in. He is ever present to teach the love that never keeps anything to itself. He is ever present to teach Christ to our hearts. He is present within to establish sound judgment and moderation - discipline. His discipline puts an end to the folly of fantasy. It puts an end to vanity and the craving for affluence. His discipline turns our hearts to see the needs of the poor and afflicted in every region of our world, but it also makes us able to stay focused on the special areas which we are called to give ourselves to.

10. Prayer mobilises grace. Prayer is grace mobilised. Intercession is truth and moderation restored. Our hunger for righteousness is firm, prevailing prayer. God has ears. God wants a praying Church. God has eyes. The Father watches every society with eyes full of tender love, compassion and piercing righteousness that he may find and strongly support those whose heart is completely his, 2 Chron 16:9. God has prepared a covenant which rules the activity of the intercessor for the sake of a testimony to his capacity as redeemer. Intercession is costly in the eyes of the Lord. Intercession prepares for God’s intervention. Intercession spells intervention. May he find intercessors who are willing to engage in the affairs of the Household of God. END