Who am I leading? That is to say, I’ve learned, who am I serving, and who am I influencing? I’m mentoring Jake, JP, and Carmody. I’m a leader in MYC. I’m influencing kids at Robiduex. I’m a spiritual leader to Carrie. I know I’ve influenced her in lots of ways, and she’s grown from that. She’s reading a book where it calls those who show you love in life “God’s love vessels”, that is people He pours his love into, who then show you God’s love. They want to be used. Which, if we pray, is wanting to be used by God as well. We do have dominion over this world (Psalm 8:6), and the Spirit can’t (or won’t) move until we do.
Yet
at the same time the Holy Spirit helps us to pray. Romans 8:26- “Likewise the Spirit also helps in
weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the
Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
This promise carries with it deep instruction. I know I can’t possibly truly
intercede on events and situations by just what I see and understand is going
on. (Prov. 3:5). The truth that I and everyone else will never really
thoroughly know how to pray as we should. So I have to be humble and have faith
for the Holy Ghost to direct me in prayer, to letting of what I perceive, and
flowing with Him. “Help” in this verse is the same as in Luke 10:4, where
Martha wants Mary’s “help”. The Holy Spirit doesn’t pray instead of us to the Father, he prays with us and makes our weak human prayers effective. Truthfully, I
don’t know what’s happening, or how to pray (Ish. 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways.”).
How can I know if I should pray through weeping, or travailing, or fasting, or
in tongues or dreams or visions? Should I pray from the Bible or simply remain
silent? Only by waiting on God’s moving in our spirits can we know (Psalm 62:5-
“My soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”).
“Groanings” is that the Holy Spirit says. “Which cannot be uttered” doesn’t
necessary mean silence, but more “can’t put into words”. If it be the same
groanings as in Hebrews 5:7, then groanings are simply an expression our heart
and spirit that we can’t even explain, are taken by the Holy Spirit and turned
into effective prayer. A lot of the time, this simply comes out as speaking in
tongues. Is the Holy Spirit our “helper” or what?
Eze
22:30 speaks of a “gap” that God percieves, and He searches the Earth for a man
to fill it. A gap is a hole, a break in the flow, and it’s mostly used to
describe a hole in a wall, in the defenses up against Satan’s attack. God
searches for those who can stand there and stop the power of the Enemy by
intercession!
Take
Job, who is Job 1:6 he offered sacrifices for his sons and daughters (who he
led, no doubt) that they be forgiven for anything they may have done wrong. And
way later in 42:8, after Jobs entire discourse with his three well meaning
“friends”, God tells Job to do the same things for them, so that He can forgive
them. That’s Old Testament, but in James 5:15 it says “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him
up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven”. Prayer for those I
lead can save them from God’s judgment.
But
I have to realize that my own sin can effect those influenced by me. David,
after his whole nasty affair with Bathsheba, mournfully pens Psalm 51, where he
cries for mercy and forgiveness for himself, but also for Jerusalem, “Look with favor on Zion, and help her,
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem” (verse 18). David cried for God’s mercy on
those he led, that his terrible sin wouldn’t hurt or effect them. On the flip
side of that you have Moses, who having done nothing wrong, interceded, stood
in the gap, for Israel from God’s wrath. Because of these two men, praying for
their people, God didn’t whip out their entire nation. He found what he was
looking for, someone standing in the “gap”.
When
Nehemiah prayed and fasted for Jerusalem (Neh. 1:4-11), he made intercession
for a people before he became a
leader over them. I find that very interesting, that he only became a leader
because he wanted to raise up his people, and his God, and not himself. Look
closely at verse 10; “Now these are Your servants, and Your people, whom You have
redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand”. Nehemiah never thought of
or prayed for those he influenced as his
people, or his servants, but God’s.
That’s a key. He realizes that they’re not his, so to say, but God’s. He is
merely looking after them for Him, in a way helping Him.
Even
Jesus understood this. In his final touching moments with His eleven disciples,
he lifts a prayer up to God for them, right in front of them. I try to imagine
the emotion and tears in John 17:6-19 where Jesus Christ prays (from “The
Message” Bible); “I have spelled out your
character in detail to the men and women that you gave to me. They were yours
in the first place, then you gave them to me”. This echoes Nehemiah, as
even Jesus says Peter, James, John, Andrew, all of them where God’s first
before they were entrusted to the Messiah.
There’s
much more to learn from Jesus pray for those he lead. He said “I pray for them, I’m not praying for the
God-rejecting world, but those you gave me”. He prays forcefully and
specifically for those he was leading, and again, acknowledges they where God’s
first. He goes on “And my life is on
display in them”. Whoa. Who I am is reflected in those I lead. One should
be able to see who I am by watching JP, Jake, or Jeremy. “Holy Father,” Jesus continues, “guard
them as they pursue this life… So they can be one heart and one mind! I’m not
asking that you take them out of the world, but that you guard them for the
Evil One.” Jesus specifically prays for unity among them, and for the
Father’s heavenly protection as they go through their lives following Christ,
especially from Satan. Finally he says, “They
are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world.” If I am
truly leading them, they are as strong as I am, because I can’t lead to places
I haven’t been to yet.
I
noticed here that Jesus only praised them to the Father. He doesn’t complain
about them, he doesn’t accuse them, he doesn’t even bring up all of them
fleeing, Peter’s denial of him, or really even Judas betrayal. He only prays
for them and lifts them up before the Father, having all faith in them, and all
love for them.
Jesus
ultimately stood in the ultimate gap on the Cross, become the ultimate
intercessor. He stood in the space between God and man, and they were finally
able to pass over and find each other. Intercession is pleading with a person
on behalf of another, and even now Jesus still does. His prayers for us didn’t
end in the garden, because even now he sits at God’s right hand side, and
brings our request before the maker of the universe. He continues to intercede,
to stand in the gap. That’s the example to follow. God entrusted people to be
under my influence. I have to be in the gap for them.