Encouragement for Intercession
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15)
Introduction
Following the greatest writer on the subject of revival, Jonathan Edwards, (https://www.monergism.com/treatise-religious-affections-ebook), revival involves a radical shift in affections from our natural sympathies and concerns to sharing in the Father’s heart (Heb 4:12). Through such a transformation of focus “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19). The voluntary shedding of Christ’s blood cries out to God for mercy upon sinners in a way the Father must and will answer, because it expresses their shared innermost concern for lost humanity (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 12:24; Lev 17:11). In this dynamic is the secret of intercessory prayer (Rom 9:3). The common misunderstanding between those wrongly titled “pastor” (http://cross-connect.net.au/elders/) and those mistakenly designated “intercessors” (http://cross-connect.net.au/intercessory-life-2 / ) will never be resolved into the perfect functional unity for which Jesus interceded (John 17:22) until the whole Church enters the inner meaning of prayer from “above” (Col 3:1). Our minds must be one with Jesus (Phil 2:5) our archetypical Intercessor: “he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:25). The theology of Hebrews expounds these truths.
Priestly Access to God
The ordination of priests in the Old Testament is described as the “filling the hands” (Ex 29:9; Lev 4:5 etc). Until the hands of the priests were filled, they had nothing to sacrifice, there was no functional priesthood. This pointed towards the one all-prevailing sacrifice of the cross where Jesus offers himself as victim into the hands of his Father. “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46). His all-loving voluntary death opened up heavenly access to Jesus and all who follow him (Luke 23:45; Heb 4:14). Most significant for our topic, is that the Greek translators of the Old Testament used the word rendered in English as “perfect” in their translation of “fill the hands/ordain”. This and is the background for its use in Hebrews. Jesus is “made perfect” “through suffering” (Heb 2:10; 5:8-9), not any old suffering but various and substitutionary suffering. To share in this sort of suffering is the mystery/secret of the intercessory calling. The rarity of intercessory prayer in our Church today reflects our failure to treasure the high call to suffer with Jesus (Phil 3:10,14).
The Perfection of Intercession
To pray for others in a way they cannot pray for themselves is an elevated calling. I am unaware of anyone praying for my salvation, but when miraculous providential events started to happen around me, I began to sense the sovereign call of the “King of heaven” on my life (Dan 4:37). Someone was agonising in prayer for a paranoid, depressed, endarken 20-year-old and their prayers were being heard on high. Someone whose conscience had been made perfect through the blood of the cross (Heb 9:9, 14) so that they had authority to share my anguish was being heard by the Father of Jesus. Simply put, this was someone “perfected for all time by a single offering” (Heb10:14) enjoying unlimited approach in the heavenly sanctuary to God as the Father of my “spirit” (Heb 12:9). Such bold intercession (Heb 10:19-22) has borne fruit in countless revelations about Jesus to my innermost being (Eph 1:18). PTL for such glory! The mystery of intercession is the power of the gospel expressed, in priestly terms, of unlimited access to God.
Ordained Intercessors
As with all the other gifts of the ascended Lord (Eph 4:11-13), those, particularly empowered to intercede (cf. the prophets Gen 20:7, 17; Ex 32:9-14, 32; 1 Sam 12:23; Am 7:1-2 etc.), are special gifts to the Church. They have been honoured by Christ, not because of any intellectual or social specialness (cf. 1 Cor 1:26-31), but by divine choice bring granted unusual access into his own heart. This is manifested in their ability to speak out in prayer via their sensitivity to God’s own pain. Jesus explained, “out of the abundance/overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt 12:34). In seeing the Lord weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, lamenting over Jerusalem and his agony of forsakenness on the cross (John 11:3; Matt 23:37; Mark 15:34), we have direct access into the broken heart of God as Father. Christ’s sensitivity to our struggles continues now in heaven. When the Body suffers on earth, the Head cries out in heaven, e.g., “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). God has given intercessors unusual access to how we affect Him, both through the gift of “exalted joy” and/or enduring his “broken heart” (1 Pet 1:8; Acts 21:13). The highest purpose of this extraordinary intimacy of access is to empower mass repentance in the loss.
Look Again
From fear of “catholicising”, Western Christians have been misled into focussing on regeneration and justification to the exclusion of our sharing together in the high priesthood of Christ (1 Pet 2:5, 9; Heb 8:1; Rev 1:6; 5:10). This is especially true about the much-misunderstood role of intercessory prayer. Christ’s Spirit is saying (Rev 2:7 etc.) it is time to realise that anguish in prayer for others (Rom 9:3, 15:30; Col 4:12) is neither a sign of being under God’s judgment, nor even that our loving Father is disciplining us (Heb 12:5-11 cf. Matt 5:10; 1 Pet 3:14), but a sign of grace abounding to “the chief of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). Such holy anguish is the action of a perfected blood-cleansed conscience and a manifestation of our freedom in Christ to suffer with him (Phil 3:10,14). It explains why intercessory prayer is the key to continuous revival (https://docplayer.net/189113725-Prayer-key-to-revival.html ).
Conclusion
An older spiritual master (Oswald Chambers) warns us not to confuse our own heartfelt longings and concerns with those of Christ. Our personal sympathies cannot bring us into the presence of God, only the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin can do this. Neither should we confuse our access to the throne of God with our own personal spiritual status or attainments. Such perfections are functions of the perfection Christ has obtained in himself for us to be realised by grace through faith (Heb 7:26-28). A Church freed from these confusions will shine out in much prayer, and revival will become something we no longer need to pray for ourselves. May God in his mercy grant such maturity to the Church in Perth.