Special Call of Intercessors
Specially Called Intercessors
All Christians are called to make intercession for others, but there are a few people whom God appears to be using in mighty ways for the task of intercessory prayer. The Bible does not speak of a special gift of “intercessory prayer,” but there are instances when certain individuals prayed earnestly on behalf of others. We think especially of people like Nehemiah and Daniel. We also have an image of persistent intercession in the story of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ hands when Joshua led the Israelites in war against the Amalekites (
Question: What is intercessory prayer?
Answer: Quite simply, intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others. The role of mediator in prayer was prevalent in the Old Testament, in the cases of Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Hezekiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Christ is pictured in the New Testament as the ultimate intercessor, and because of this, all Christian prayer becomes intercession since it is offered to God through and by Christ. Jesus closed the gap between us and God when He died on the cross. Because of Jesus’ mediation, we can now intercede in prayer on behalf of other Christians or for the lost, asking God to grant their requests according to His will. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (
Unrecognized Providence Of Prayer
The shrine of our conscious life is placed in a sacredness of circumstances engineered by God whereby He secures our effectual calling. That God engineers our circumstances for us if we accept His purpose in Christ Jesus is a thought of great practical moment.
Allow yourself to think for a little that you are to be a walking, living edition of the prayers of the Holy Spirit. No wonder God urges us to walk in the light! No wonder His Spirit prays in us and makes intercessions with groanings we cannot utter. We may feel burdened or we may not; we may consciously know nothing about it; the point is that God puts us into circumstances where He can answer the prayers of His Son and of the Holy Spirit. Remember the prayer of Jesus is ‘that they may be one, even as We are one.’ That is a oneness of personality in which individuality is completely transfigured; it is independence lost and identity revealed.
It is well to remember that it is the ‘together’ of circumstances that works for good. God changes our circumstances; sometimes they are bright, sometimes they are the opposite; but God makes them work together for our good, so that in each particular set of circumstances we are in, the Spirit of God has a better chance to pray the particular prayers that suit His designs, and the reason is only known to God, not to us.
In
