Intercessors are Bridge Builders 8

 

INTERCESSORS ARE BRIDGE-BUILDERS

¹⁹ ”Man is also chastened with pain on his bed,
And with strong pain in many of his bones,
²⁰ So that his life abhors bread,
And his soul succulent food.
²¹ His flesh wastes away from sight,
And his bones stick out which once were not seen.
²² Yes, his soul draws near the Pit,
And his life to the executioners.
²³ “If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
²⁴ Then He is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom’;
²⁵ His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.
²⁶ He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him,
He shall see His face with joy,
For He restores to man His righteousness. Job 33:19-26

Your prayers in the throne room build a bridge to bring others back to God as you stand in the gap, that distance between where the person/situation is and where God desires them to be. Between the need we see and the provision we long for, there is a gap that must be filled by an intercessor (go between). Every Christian is to battle in prayer for those around us in need.

³⁰ So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Ezekiel 22:30

It’s time for us to become our brother’s keeper by intercessory prayer that’s motivated by love. We step into the breach for others, making our prayer a bridge for them to come to God. Now is the time for the church to arise with new anointing to build bridges for the lost and wondering ones to return to God.

Here are eight powerful truths we learn from Job 33.

¹⁹ ”Man is also chastened with pain on his bed,
And with strong pain in many of his bones,
²⁰ So that his life abhors bread,
And his soul succulent food.
²¹ His flesh wastes away from sight,
And his bones stick out which once were not seen.
²² Yes, his soul draws near the Pit,
And his life to the executioners.
²³ “If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
²⁴ Then He is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom’;
²⁵ His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.
²⁶ He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him,
He shall see His face with joy,
For He restores to man His righteousness. Job 33:19-26

1.  Intercessors are like angels (messengers) to intervene on behalf of hurting people. When you pray for someone else, you become God’s intercessor for them.

2.  Intercessors have authority through prayer to heal even those chastened by God. Your prayer can lessen the pain and problems others go through.

3.  A true intercessor is a mediator, a “go between.” You stand between a God who is ready to help and a hurting person who is wanting to be healed.

4.  Intercessors are precious and rare; they are “one out of a thousand.” God may be calling you into this precious and powerful ministry!

5.  Intercessors can go to God based on the ransom price of the blood. Jesus has paid it all, so we rest our prayers on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

6.  Intercessors find favor with God. You become like Christ when you become an intercessor. Others will note that you been with Jesus in the place of prayer.

7.  Intercessors pray until they see God’s face (the answer to their prayers) Revelation always flows through intimacy, and prayer is the key to intimacy.

8.  Intercessors will restore fallen ones back to their righteous state. Nothing can be more meaningful in life than to restore a fallen soul.

 

INTECESSION RELEASES OUR KINGLY ANOINTING

Earnest intercession makes every believer a king; investing him or her with authority so great that captives may be freed, and prisoners released from darkness.

¹ “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Isaiah 61:1

This fervent intercession contains the power to transform and release people. We must persist in prayer with boldness, using the name of Jesus and the Word of God until satan gives up his prey. Our willingness to engage in this type of prayer will decide the eternal destiny of neighbors, friends, co-workers, family, and even nations. Whoever is not loosed from satan’s grip in this lifetime will come under satan’s dominion for eternity. Our prayers hold the potential for their release. Through our Kingly anointing, our prayers have the power and authority to do anything our God can do.

The greatest thing you can do with God and for man is to pray. God shapes the world through prayer. Our intercession paints a target on those who are in need of the gospel, and God then zeros in on their hearts. He sets His sight on them and strikes them with the arrows of conviction. What goes up will come down! Prayer is the key to turning hearts to God.

 

INTERCESSORS IDENTIFY WITH OTHERS

Intercession requires that we identify with the person and take upon ourselves the entire situation of the person that we’re praying for. We may weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15

When we carry another’s burden, we fulfill the law of Christ.

² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Intercession cannot be made without paying some kind of sacrifice on behalf of another. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us and therefore has full authority to intercede on our behalf. Intercession and sacrifice are linked. The most powerful, effective intercession costs something. Your sacrifice of time and emotional energy will not be forgotten as you build a wall of protection or favor around those you intercede for. 

Jeremiah cried out for his people, “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children who faint from hunger at the head of every street”.

Lamentations 2:19.

 When the people are willing to pay a price in order to be heard, the heart of God is moved.

Paul was willing to be eternally condemned if it would mean the salvation of his race, Israel.

For my grief is so intense that I wish that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, if it would mean that you, my people, would come to faith in him! Romans 9:3

This willingness and sacrifice of Paul gave his intercession power before the throne. Paul expressed the very heart of God for the people. When our intercession takes on that intensity, heaven will be moved on behalf of others. Both Moses and Paul were great intercessors who led God’s people into the promised land of their inheritance. These warriors-watchmen carried great authority with God and ultimately transformed the lives of people. Exodus 32.

This is what we need today!

INTERCESSORS ARE BOLD

It’s time to move into the Promised Land of intercession. Only the bold, the passionate, the pioneers need apply. Highly affective intercession involves boldness. Watch as the confidence of the authority of Jesus rises up in your spirit. Bold prayer will get answers. We’ll change our prayer lives when we tap into bold praying.

¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

Those who understand they’re one with Christ pray boldly. There are times for quiet brokenness before God, and there are times for bold intercession. The lives of others depend upon it!

Peter and John were bold when they prayed for the lame man at the gate Beautiful. Their boldness offended the religious spirit of those nearby.

¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

Just like the spiritual boldness that bought a shaking with Peter and John, spiritual earthquakes will be released when the church learns to pray with boldness.

Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, ³⁰ by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
³¹ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:29-31

Paul even asked others to pray for boldness to come upon him in his ministry of proclaiming Christ.

¹⁸ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— ¹⁹ and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:18-20

Expect a greater boldness in prayer to surge into your spirit in coming days! God will take your intercession, as a prayer partner with Jesus, and change the world!

Bold, strategic breakers will push the lines back to where God has ordained them to be. Anointed forerunners of intercession are moving ahead and opening up territory right now. You can join them by taking on the burdens that the Father places upon your heart. Be bold and refuse to be intimidated by the enemy. Cast off all of his accusations and push aside all feelings of inferiority and condemnation as you intercede. This is the enemy’s strategy to deflate you and cause you to be self-focused. Because of the blood of His Son, the Father has no memory of anything you’ve done wrong. As far as He’s concerned you have no history-only destiny. Three nails ended your history. Now you have only a destiny!

INTERCESSORS HAVE AUTHORITY

“I searched for someone who would repair the wall, one who fills the gap, an intercessor to cry out for mercy, but I found no one. There was no one found who would keep my justice from destroying the nation. ³¹ So I will pour out my fury on them, and like a fire I will destroy them. I will punish them for the evil they have done. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken.” Ezekiel 22:30-31

God is searching for a man or woman. He only needs one person who will turn the tide of history. We come between God and His people pleading for mercy. This is good news! He’s pleading for someone to come and persuade Him not to pour out His indignation! The Ancient of Days invites our intercession! This Holy argument with God can avert or postpone judgement. Our intercession can be used to cut short, lesson, or delay righteous judgement until another day. The intercessor becomes one who stands in the gap between God’s righteous judgement (Jesus) and the need of the people for mercy (those without Jesus) to receive Him.

Jeremiah, Johah, Ezekiel and the prophets were all intercessors who intervened on behalf of the guilty pleading mercy. Sparing entire nations from coming judgment and destruction. Intercessors must tap into the mercy of God!

INTERCESSORS BRING IN THE HARVEST WITH TRAVAIL

God wants birth in the church, not convert to our form of Christianity. As a mother travails in labour to give birth, so the church must travail in intercession for the nations to give birth to souls. With a holy stubbornness, we cannot let Him go until God blesses the nations with His great end time harvest. The golden sickle with which to harvest. And the prayers of the saints will release “reaping angels” throughout the earth.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Revelation 14:15-16

The Hebrew word for intercession is Paga which means:

To struggle by prayer, To press forward, To travail, To weep, to come between, to touch, to reach, to strike the mark, to attack, to fall upon.

The scriptures paint a picture of a type of prayer that is messy! You cannot have birth without travail. Every woman who has given birth to a child knows what travail is. The baby does not birth itself. The Hebrew word travail is:

Yalad, Which means: The time of delivery or intense pain.

For spiritual children to be born, some intercessor somewhere has travailed and prevailed! When the spirit of travail for the lost is upon you, nothing else matters. You must labor until birth comes. And what grips god’s heart begins to grip yours. It is almost like God is preparing an opening for the baby to come forth and travail creates that opening for the new life.

Our intercessory travail is rooted in the confidence that God is love and wants the best for every human being. Therefore, we must pray to move God’s heart, appealing to His heart of love for humanity. And must wrestle for each other in prayer.

The backslidden will return when love moves us to pray. As we really begin to feel the heart of God for the end-time harvest, you may see tears flowing freely. The language of compassionate weeping never falls to touch the heart. Men can resist your words, but they cannot resist your tears.

Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet for many tears he cried over the stubbornness of God’s people.

Oh, that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people! Jeremiah 9:1

My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city. Lamentations 2:11

Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give your eyes no rest.
¹⁹ “Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” 

Lamentations 2:18-19

Paul was also one who daily warned the flock of God.

So be alert and discerning. Remember that for three years, night and day, I’ve never stopped warning each of you, pouring out my heart to you with tears. Acts 20:31

And we also learn this in the Psalms.

Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
⁶ He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him. Psalms 126:5-6

Pray this today:

Lord Jesus, we love you and want to be your constant companion. we long to be continually in prayer throughout our day. we want to cultivate a beautiful intimacy with you. Help us in our weakness and give us grace to grow in our ministry of prayer. we surrender our soul to you! Amen.

 

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