You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in
the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning
intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to
increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God.
True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that
seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by
His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to
“fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24),
and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People
describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone
else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in
God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.
As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from
God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be
overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to
know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so
overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.
Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His
mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting
doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has
no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with
God.
What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be
simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into
contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has
brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the
basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way
than through intercessory prayer.
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