THE GIFT OF INTERCESSION
Psalms 77:3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
Have you ever been in the situation where you were so down that even hope in the Lord seemed distant and impossible? Even words seemed impossible to even come out of your mouth, and all you could do was groan in agony and despair? It is never a good place to be. There are even times when Christians have something in their life, and almost every ounce of hope seems to have been taken away. It doesn’t mean that they are not Christians or that they are not trusting in Jesus enough. What it means is Christians are human too.
While we are all human and struggle with our humanity, we do have one on our side that is higher than we are. It is Jesus Christ. Jesus became part of his own creation not only to bring an atonement that would provide forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God, but Jesus came and took the form of humanity that he might be the perfect intercessor for us. Jesus knows what it is like when it seems everyone is against you. There were even times when Jesus own mother, brothers and sisters wanted to take him back home and stop his ministry. He knew rejection from not only from Satan, the powers of darkness, the evil of this world, but even his disciples. Once after taking communion, many of his disciples turned from him.
Even those that were so close to him and loved him so much like Mary and Martha, became angry and disappointed with him when he let Lazarus die. And then worse of all as he hung on Calvary’s cross, his Heavenly Father forsook him. No one hasn’t experienced anything that Jesus didn’t in his life on earth. Not only did he take our sins upon himself, but he felt all that pulls us down as well. Jesus sympathized or felt sorry for us before he ever came to earth. He saw all the hurt and sorrow that people go through and he felt sorry for us. But when he came to earth and took on the form of humanity and he experienced those things that we experience he could empathize with us. Now his sympathy extended not only for us, but now he could say, “Father, I know what it is like.” It is Jesus’ empathy that reaches out to us from the very throne of God to embrace us and say, “I know.”
When Jesus conquered sin and death and ascended up to be with his Heavenly Father he had the Heavenly Father send us the Holy Spirit to do some incredible things in and for us. One of those things was to give us a prayer language. This is where the Holy Spirit intercedes for us as it says in Romans 8:26,27, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” We see this taking place at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples in the upper room. While this is not a sign or proof that a person is a Christian as some pastors and denominations may profess, I Corinthians 12 and 14 tell us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to help the church and no everyone has the same gifts. The prayer language or tongues as some call it, is beneficial for intercession. For people that feel led to pray and intercede for others this gift is so very important. As a pastor I wanted and needed to pray for people that I didn’t know all about their need. Since the Holy Spirit knows all about everything, he knows how to intercede through us. I needed this gift and he gave it to me.
To have this gift a person first needs to be a Christian. Next they need to ask the Holy Spirit to give you this gift of tongues or intercession. Then in an act of faith they need to start making sounds as the Holy Spirit leds. At first it may be just groans or word that make no sense at first. If you want to know what the Holy Spirit said all you have to do is ask for him to give you the interpretation. Then start saying whatever you feel is in your heart. God will not pray something that is wrong, or interpret it wrong. God will not let Satan or the powers of darkness do this through you, so don’t worry about that. God will reward you faith and trust in him to intercede on the behalf of others. While I pray in my understanding and in tongues, I do pray in tongues a lot because I am confident that the Holy Spirit will always pray in one accord with the will of Jesus and the Heavenly Father. Don’t give up if you don’t seem to do it right away. God may be testing you to see how much you want to intercede for others. Intercession is a very important and valued gift or ministry in God’s heart.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, thank you for helping us pray and intercede for others. Please help us to pray with our understanding (our natural language) and in tongues. You are a wonderful God. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
