I was recently reading a book about prayer. The author spent some considerable time talking about the difference between people of prayer, prayer warriors, and intercessors. “A prayer warrior can pray for a thing to be done without necessarily being willing for the answer to come through himself; and he is not even bound to continue in the prayer until it is answered. But an intercessor is responsible to gain his objective, and he can never be free till he has gained it. He will go to any lengths for the prayer to be answered through himself.” Rees Howells Intercessor, Norman Grubb p. 97.
I have been chewing that paragraph over and over again mulling it over in my mind. I found myself earlier today asking the Lord if He wanted me to be an intercessor and one who feels so burdened that prayers be answered that I cannot be free of them until they have come to pass. Am I willing to go to any lengths or pray until the Lord gives birth to miracles? Reading that statement made me feel like such a novice at prayer. I pray for things like you do but often I lose heart or interest if the prayer answer is delayed for a long season. An intercessor according Mr. Grubbs could be characterized by what the scriptures reads in [Luke 18:1] “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” Intercessors do not lose heart but stay the course until God breaks through.
Rees Howells was an ordinary man who prayed extraordinary prayers and God answered those prayers by transforming drunkards, prostitutes, and those with life threatening diseases. God used his intercessions to transform whole communities. He was tested time and again but he refused to give up and entertain doubt. Elijah was an intercessor and the scriptures reports that he too was a man like we are. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.” [James 5:17-18]
When I look at all the things people are facing today I am finding a deeper burden to pray and needing more extended time to pray than at any other time in my life and ministry. There are some who are facing economic devastation. There are those who are facing an onslaught of trial after trial with no end in sight. There are others who are battling rebellion in the lives of loved ones and those who have strayed far away from the Lord. Some are facing loss of jobs, others relational conflict, and still others the pain of losing and grieving over the death of loved ones. Many have been diagnosed with incurable diseases and multitudes live day in and day out in spiritual darkness speeding toward eternal damnation. There are the lives of students and educators in our local town who need prayers continually for God’s protection and peace. We need another spiritual awakening.
Again my question is if the Lord is calling me to a whole new level of prayer? Am I content to be a person who prays? Do I desire to rise above the standard of being a prayer warrior to become a true intercessor. Humbly, feebly, courageously I am asking the Lord to do just that in me. I know my nature. I can get excited about something for a few days, weeks, or months, but to take personally the responsibility to pray and knock on the doors of Heaven until the answers come is foreign to me over the long haul.
There are people I love and have witnessed to who give no evidence of interest or fruit of having a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Will I stay the course and intercede for them until they are gloriously saved? I must! Eternity stands in the balance. Many are being strangled by the strong hold of sin. I must intercede for God’s deliverance. Burdens must be prayerfully lifted, provision prayerfully made, and hope prayerfully restored. I am pleading to you to pray for me to become a faithful intercessor. I cannot think of anything I would rather leave in the wake of my life than a legacy of God’s faithfulness told and retold over and over again in testimonies of answered prayer. Only by His strength and resolve will I ever become an intercessor.
Steps To Trust And Obey
1. What burden is God putting on you to take personal prayer responsibility for?
2. How do you need to apply [Luke 18:1] in your prayer life?
3. Over the next three weeks what are you trusting God to do?
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