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What is Intercession?
To intercede is to stand the gap – Ezekiel 22:30
Because of sin, man is separated from GOD – Rom. 3:23
There is gap between GOD and man.
Intercession is coming in between GOD and man by means of prayer.
It is GOD’s will to save all – 1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9; John 3:16
How will God save?
Thru intercession! Ezekiel 22:30
The greatest intercessor is JESUS – Isa. 53:12; 2 Cor. 5:21
JESUS earned salvation for us on the cross.
This salvation that JESUS earned for us on the cross – we bring to others through intercession.
This is the reason why GOD is looking for intercessors – Ezekiel 22:30 – “so I sought for a man… who would… stand in the gap”
How do we intercede?
Example of Moses – Exo. 32:1-14
Sin of idolatry – vs. 1-4
Foolishness – Idolatry makes one foolish. The creature worships another creature, instead of the Creator.
Confusion – Idolatry makes people confused (v. 5). The people make a feast to the real GOD, but at the same time they worship an idol.
Corruption and Stubbornness – vs. 7,9
Idolatry causes people to be “corrupt” and “stiff-necked”. To be corrupt means to be an abomination to GOD. To be stiff-necked means to be stubborn and proud.
Reasons Moses used in Intercession – vs. 11-13
For GOD’s people – v. 11
For GOD’s name and honor – vs. 11-12
For GOD’s Word – v.13
GOD granted the intercession of Moses – v.14
Note that GOD could not destroy the idolatrous people because Moses was standing in the gap – see v.10
Example of Joshua – Joshua 7:6-9
Reasons used by Joshua in intercession.
For GOD’s name and honor
For GOD’s Word.
Sin causes defeat – Joshua 7:12
Because sin was in the camp of Israel, they were defeated by their enemies.
The sin of one man affected the entire people – Joshua 7:11
Sin is contagious and must be rooted out of the camp.
Sin causes the Presence of GOD to depart from the camp – Joshua 7:12
After Joshua’s Intercession and the rooting out of the sin from the camp, GOD gave victory to Israel.
Four kinds of Anointing for Intercession
Bearing the burden of the LORD – Luke 19:41
The LORD gives a burden to pray and intercede for a group of people or a place.
Identifying with the needs of others – Rom. 12:15
The LORD reveals the needs of someone and we identify with his problems. So we pray for him.
Travail – Isaiah 66:8
To travail means to labor as in birth pangs, like a woman giving birth to her child. When one travails in prayer, he gives birth to children in the kingdom of GOD.
Note: The first three kinds of intercession usually involve crying and tears.
How important are our tears to the LORD?
GOD preserves and puts our tears in HIS bottles – Psalm 56:8
He even records in HIS book the reason for our tears – Psalm 56:8
GOD is moved by our tears – 2 Kings 20:1-5
The LORD extended in life of Hezekiah because GOD said: “I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears.” – v.5
Fighting against the powers of darkness – Eph. 6:12; Matt. 18:18; Matt. 12:29
We fight against spiritual hosts of wickedness principalities, powers and rulers of darkness.
Because we sit with JESUS in the highest position of authority (Eph. 2:5-6), we can bind and even cast out these evil spirits in JESUS’ name (Mark 16:17)
LESSON IX - INTERCESSION
To intercede is to stand in the gap. There is a gap between God and man. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). Because of sin, man is separated from God. There is a gap between God and man.
It is God’s will to save all (1Timothy 2:# & 4). How did God save? Through intercession. The greatest intercessor is Jesus, “… HE poured out His soul unto death… and HE bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Jesus interceded for us while He was hanging on the cross. He bore our sins. “ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus suffered and interceded and died for us there on the cross. Jesus earned salvation for us on the cross.
How do we bring about this salvation that the Lord Jesus earned for us on the cross. Through intercession. When we pray for sinners, we intercede for them.
God is looking for intercessors. In Ezekiel 22:30, God says:
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall (of paryer), and stand in the gap (intercede) before ME on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”
If God Himself is looking for intercessors, what is His purpose? In the same verse 30, God’s purpose is so that He should not destroy. Therefore, it is God’s will to save. How does God save? Through intercession.
HOW DO WE INTERCEDE?
To learn intercession, we need to study how the men of God interceded. Let us see how Moses interceded as recorded in Exodus 32:11-13. (1-14)
Here is the background of the story. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and God delivered them through signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. The Israelites experienced God’s intervention, as they were able to cross the Red Sea just like they were walking on the dry land. But when the Egyptian soldiers followed after the Israelites, the soldiers were drowned. As the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness, God provided them a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). So during daytime the Israelites were walking protected from the heat in the wilderness by the pillar of cloud. During the night the Israelites had the pillar of fire to give them light and the heat as protection from the cold. When the Israelites were thirsty God gave them water from the rock. When they were hungry, God gave them manna every morning. So the Israelites knew and experienced their God.
SIN OF IDOLATRY
But look now at verse 1 of Exodus 32. The Israelites asked Aaron to “make us gods that it go before us.” They wanted gods what they can see and touch, gods that they made for their own pleasures. They turned away from the one and true God and embraced idols. What is an idol? It is anything or any person that causes us to turn away from the one and true God. Is there anything in your life that you cannot surrender to Jesus? Then this thing or this person that you cannot surrender becomes your idol?
In verse 4 of Exodus 32, the people just finished making a golden calf and they said “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
FOOLISHNESS
Idolatry makes one foolish. Why? Look at these people. They had gone out of Egypt a long time ago. They had just made the golden calf and yet they were saying that it was the golden calf that brought them out of Egypt. What nonsense! How can something that did not exist before help? The Israelites knew very well that it was the one true God, not the golden calf, which they just, made, who brought them out of Egypt. But idolatry made them foolish.
CONFUSSION
In verse 5 of Exodus 32, the people were confused. They said “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” Notice that the word “Lord” was capitalized. So, the people were referring to the one true God, and they will have a feast the next day. But at the same time they had the idol, the golden calf. Is it possible to love God and have idols at the same time? These people were in this condition. They were confused. Idolatry makes people confused.
CORRUPTION
How does God look upon idolatrous people? As “corrupted.” This means dead and decaying body, which has a foul odor. God hates idolatry. In verse 9, God describes these idolatrous Israelites as “stiff-necked,” which means proud and stubborn. Idolatry makes people proud and stubborn. Notice verse 10 of the same chapter. God said, “Now therefore, let me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” God was very angry and wanted to kill all the idolatrous people. But God could not do this if there was an intercessor. That is why the Lord said, “Let Me alone.” And Moses would not leave God alone. Moses interceded. Moses stood in the gap.
REASONS MOSES USED IN INTERCESSION
How did Moses intercede? In verse 11, Moses emphasized that the Israelites were “Your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.” In effect Moses was saying that the Israelites are God’s people and God’s honor and Name is intertwine with the destiny of God’s people, the Israelites.
So Moses said in verse 12 “Why should the Egyptian speak and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.’” In other words, Moses is concerned with the Name and honor of God. Moses is saying that if God destroy His people, then His Name and honor would suffer reproach.
Another reason that Moses used in his intercession is found in verse 13, “Remember, Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoke of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” Moses love God’s Word. If God would destroy the Israelites then His promise that the descendants of Abraham and Isaac would inherit Canaan would never be fulfilled. Then His Word not come to pass. But Moses was concerned that God’s Word should come to pass. Moses loved God’s Word.
Did God listen to Moses’ intercession? Yes, because verse 14 says, “So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Truly, intercession saves.
INTERCESSION OF JOSHUA
Another example of intercession is found in Joshua 7. The Israelites have just entered the promise land. Moses was dead and Joshua became the leader. The Israelites defeated the city of Jericho. Next they were fighting against a smaller city called Ai. But the Israelites were defeated and they fled before the name of Ai (Joshua 7:4).
REASONS USED BY JOSHUA IN INTERCESSION
This was a dangerous situation for the enemies of Israel would no longer be afraid. They would unite to fight Israel. SO Joshua and the elders fell on their faces before the Lord until evening (verse 6). Listen now to the intercession of Joshua: “for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great Name? (Joshua 7:9)
Joshua loved the Name of honor of God. God’s Name was intertwined with the destiny of His people, the Israelites. If the Israelites were defeated and driven away from the promise land, then God’s honor would suffer. Why? Because God was identified with His people and He promised to fight for them and to give Canaan to the Israelites. The promise of God must come true. And if the Israelites were defeated, then God’s Word would not be fulfilled. Joshua loved the Word of God and he wanted the Word to be fulfilled.
SIN CAUSE DEFEAT
God heard Joshua’s intercession. So God told Joshua to remove the hindrance to the victory of the Israelites. That hindrance was sin. There was sin in the camp of the Israelites. God said in verse 11, “Israel has sin”.
This is very surprising. Only one man, Acan, sinned. But the Lord was saying that there was a sin in the entire nation. This is true, for sin affects the entire group. Just like a rotten mango will contaminate the entire basket of mango. Sin must be rooted out.
The Lord also said in verse 12: “Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies…” Sin causes defeat. Because of the sin, the Israelites were defeated. Any sin in a believer’s life will cause defeat for him.
In the same verse 12, the Lord likewise said: “Neither will I be with you anymore.” Sin causes the Presence of God to depart from the sinner. He must repent in order that God’s presence be upon him.
After the sin was taken out of the camp, the Israelites won against the enemy. God heard the intercession of Joshua.
FOUR KINDS OF ANOINTING FOR INTERCESSION
There are four kinds of anointing for intercession namely:
Bearing the burden of the Lord – Luke 19:41
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.”
The Lord Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. He loved the city. He wanted the city to repent. It was a burden in His heart for the salvation of the people in the city. So He wept for Jerusalem.
The Lord may give you a burden for a place or for a group of people. Because of this burden, you will find yourself praying and weeping for the place or the people. One day, I found myself weeping for Thailand. Any news about Thailand or just the mere mention of that name would cause me heaviness in my heart and then I would cry for Thailand. This is an anointing for intercession for a place. The Lord give me the burden to pray for this place.
Identifying with the needs of others – Romans 12:15
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
This is another kind of intercession. We rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
One day a brother came to me for counseling. Since I was busy at the moment, I told him to wait for me at my office and I would attend to him after five minutes. While I was on the way to the office, the Lord revealed to me his problem and I had the heaviness in my heart hat after I knew his problems. I went inside the office and sat before the brother. We looked at each other and I cried. He also cried. We were saying for about 15 minutes until I felt a release in my spirit. Then I saw the brother stop crying and stood up and he said: “Thank you brother, my problems are solved! God heard prayers.” Then the brother left.
I cried with my brother because I had identified myself with his problems. When I was weeping, I was interceding for the brother.
Travail – Isaiah 66:8
“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, She gave birth to her children.”
To “travail” means to labor as in “birth pangs,” just like a woman who is giving birth. The above Word of God says that as soon as Zion (the people of God or the Church) travails she gave birth to her children. Notice that many children are born if the church travails. How do we travail?
One early morning, I was reading the Word and I felt a heaviness in my heart. The Lord told me to pray. Because I did not know what to pray for, I prayed in tongues. I found myself groaning and crying as I prayed in tongues. This continued for about two hours. Then I felt the burden was released. During this time I was teaching in the university. I shared the Gospel with my students and I saw signs and wonders and many of students were converted and baptized in the Holy Spirit. In about six months, more than 500 people were attending our prayer meeting. Then one day the Lord revealed to me that I was praying and groaning for my students that early morning. I was travailing for my students. I did not know how to pray for them nor what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit helped me to make intercession for my students with groaning or travailing (Romans 8:26).
The above three kinds of intercession will always involve tears or crying. How important are our tears before the Lord?
IMPORTANCE OF TEARS
In Psalm 58:8, David says: “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?”
God puts your tears in His bottle. This means that God picks up our tears and puts them in a special bottle there in heaven. God likewise records in His book the reasons for our tears. Therefore, when I see God in heaven He will show me the bottle of my tears and also the record book containing the reasons for my tears.
God is move by our tears. And example is found in 2 Kings 20:1-5:
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prohet, the som of Amoz, went to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying, ‘Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.’
And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the Word of the LORD came to him saying, ‘Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David, your father. I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.”
Listen to what God says: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears,” God saw the tears of Hezekiah and He was move, so He heard Hezekiah and extended his life for 15 years.
Fighting against the powers of darkness – Ephesians 6:12.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)
“Or else how can one enter a strongman’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And the he will plunder his house (Matthew 12:29)
Another anointing for intercession is to fight against the powers of darkness. Our enemy is not people. We fight against spiritual host of wickedness, principalities, powers and rulers of darkness.
How do we fight against these evil spirits? The Lord Jesus says that we can bind them and even cast them out in Jesus Name (Mark 16:17).
A Christian couple lived in a village and they began sharing the Gospel to the people. But no one would accept the Gospel. There were many outlaws in the village. As they were praying, they experienced that they were engaged in a fight, and they were rebuking and binding and casting out evil spirits. After several days of doing this, they felt a release of the oppression. Now this couple is pastoring the congregation of about 150 members who have trained and sent workers to handle services in the nearby villages. The outlaws transferred to another area. Praise the Lord!
The above are the four kinds of anointing for intercession. The believer can ask the Lord to anoint him with these four kinds of anointing for intercession. And the Lord will anoint you. Why? Because the Lord is looking for intercessors. His will is to save. Salvation can come through intercession.
What is intercession?
God’s will is not to destroy but to save. How does God save?
What are the reasons we can use in our intercession that are acceptable to God?
Enumerate the 4 kinds of anointings for the intercession.