| Joining Forces With God In Prayer By the late Phillip Halverson and his wife Fern Halverson We've been asked the question many times, "What are the secrets of intercession?" At the heart of such a question was a belief that we had some sort of special, inside knowledge of how to pray effectively. But the truth is, the "secret" of intercession is right out in plain sight for all the world to see....in Galatians 6:2. For us, this verse sums up the essence of New Testament Christianity, and the heart of intercessory prayer. Bear one anothers burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ, the Messiah, and complete what is lacking in obedience to it. (Galatians 6:2 Amplified version) You see, the "secret" of intercession, is giving yourself to others. There's no question about it, great blessing is available to us as believers. In fact, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 NKJV) But we miss the mark when we become centered on ourselves. "I want to be healed.....I want a new car....I want to be blessed....I want..." Yes God wants to bless you. But He has a different way than you might think. The key to God's highest blessings, it to be a blessing to others. And one of the greatest ways that we can bless others is through intercessory prayer. There are things that God is wanting to loose on the earth....that will never be loosed but by intercessory prayer. There are ministries that are needed in this day and time, that will never come forth but by intercessory prayer. There are strategies from satan that will only be undone as we take authority through intercessory prayer. We know by reading in Genesis, that Adam turned Earth over to satan, making him the "god of this world." But we believers have been transfered from the domain of darkness, to the kingdom of God's beloved Son. (Colossians 1:13). Though our citizenship is in Heaven, we live here on this earth and through Jesus, we have authority in this domain. We have the right to ask God to come down here and intervene for us. Now, there are all kinds of prayers, prayers of faith, prayers of consecrations, prayers of agreement, etc. But the prayers of intercession is always for others. The good news is, we don't have to worry about ourselves. If we will take care of others, God will take care of us. And His Spirit is searching for those who will lay down their lives to join Him in intercessory prayer. God's heart is yearning for souls that are lost in darkness. Some have reaped the wages of sin and and are without hope. Perhaps no human can reach them. But an intercessor can reach out to them of the Spirit through prayer, and snatch them out of satans hand. In prayer, you can lift the darkness off them, and carry them back into the light. It is so simple, the Holy Spirit is our teacher and all we have to do is walk with Him. He will gently lead you and teach you all you need to know. It starts simply by knowing Him. Sometimes we can become so busy working for God that we never take time to just fellowship with Him. It can be compared to a wife who cooks and cleans for her husband but never spends time with him. Eventually they will hardly know each other! The Holy Spirit is a person. He wants to know you intimately. Spend time talking with Him and let Him talk to you. You'll get to know His voice and the sweetness of His presence. Listen to what He says - and then obey. You'll find that instead of working for God, you will be working with Him and being used by Him in marvelous ways! We also need to get our flesh out of the way. It's harder to hear His voice and obey it if we are bogged down with earthly desires. God is looking for a pipeline that He can flow through, and nothing can clog a pipe than our own selfishness. But when He is free to flow through our "pipe," oh how that pipeline is blessed! There was a time in our lives when we were frustrated in our Christian walk. We were always busy with church work and trying to help people with desperate needs. But in spite of all our work, we weren't seeing the type of dynamic help from Heaven we read about in the Bible. We wanted to know God in a deeper way, to see Him move as He did in the Book of Acts. There was such a strong desire to abandon our lives to Him. We decided to step out in faith and prove to Him we really "meant business." We had been desiring an increase in our income so we could help more of the needy people in our church. (For some people, a few dollars can mean the difference between survival and shipwreck.) We had always tithed but now we decided to increase our tithe, as if we already had the income we needed to help these people. We were certain that God would honor our step of faith. In response, God graciously met our needs, but the greatest miracle we experienced was not financial. Instead it seemed that a window was opened in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit came in like a flood. We felt the sweetness of His presence in fresh and powerful ways. And He became very real and close to us. Then He began to move our prayer life in an avelanche of unusual manifestations. The Holy Spirit began to pray through us in power, and demonstration, moving in words of wisdom and words of knowledge as we prayed. Now don't misunderstand, this is not a formula or recipe. For each person the path may be different. But God is looking at your heart. He is searching for a heart to serve others - one that He can flow through. He is searching for a pipeline to reach those people no one else can reach. He is looking for His intercessors to be His pipeline. And when He finds them, His Spirit takes hold of them in a mighty way. Certainly we can pray for others in our natural understanding, and when we don't know how to pray, we can pray in unknown tongues. But there is also a type of prayer in the Spirit where the Holy Spirit takes over and He prays through you! When you step into this realm of prayer, there is a great anointing, and great authority, and you feel overwhelmed by God's love. You speak life to that which is dead. You speak God's Word and it is done; For we do not know what we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us, through groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26). As the Spirit prays in this way, English words will often come forth, often the names of people and places we know nothing about. Sometimes we find out about these people or situations months later. We have seen people raised from the dead and delivered out of prison. It is the Holy Spirit praying through us. We feel like spectators as we sit back and watch with amazement what God has done through the simplicity of our prayers. Let us give you just one example of so many that we could cite. A very typical situation involved the name "Justin." We don't know anyone by the name of Justin. Yet for about a year we would hear the name being spoken out by the Holy Spirit as we prayed. One day we were in a grocery store and noticed a young couple behind us with a baby boy about eighteen months in age. They had no jackets, though it was a very cold day. Their purchase consisted of a quart of milk, a loaf of bread and some bologna. We didn't need a word from heaven to figure out these were people who were in trouble We had a twenty dollar bill and gave it to them and asked them if we could pray for them. The young man shared that he was out of work, so we prayed that God would give him a job. (Note: you cannot meet every need in the world, but you can meet those needs that He puts in front of you. There are people on your block and in your neighborhood that only you can reach. God will position you in front of a need to see if you will meet it. He needs you to listen to His voice and be led by His compassion. He is searching for those who will join forces with Him. It's not just in church, or even in your prayer closet. It is a way of life!) Three days later we contacted these people and learned that God had provided the young man with a job. They also wanted us to know that they had used the twenty dollars to buy a coat for their baby Justin. We were amazed that for nearly a year the Holy Spirit had been praying for Justin through us! Do you know how much God cares for these little ones? He cares more than we will ever know. He cares if they are cold and hungry or hurting. He is searching for intercessors who will pray into areas where no one else will reach. You may ask, "Would God care so much about a childs coat when there are wars and plagues, unjust goverments and corruption in high places?" The answer is "absolutely." Certainly God cares very much about our government. He knows every official and the very thoughts and intents of the hearts. In prayer, He has taken us to the highest places in the land -- and also to the lowest hells. But whether people have billions of dollars or live on the street, the need of every heart is the same. They all look the same to our Father, who loves each one and longs to draw each one to Himself. His heart of love is searching for intercessors to reach the unreachable. Intercessory prayer is reaching out to the world through us. Will you join forces with Him? This article was retrieved from: http://mac-hammond.org/ |
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