Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 31

Prayers of Intercession continued...

One of the premier requirements for anyone who desires to be an intercessor is to have a true relationship with God. We cannot intercede on behalf of someone else to a third party which we do not know, have no relationship with, tangential or otherwise, and who we’ve never met. In order to be an intercessor, in order to pray prayers of intercession on behalf of others, we must first have true fellowship and intimacy with God ourselves.

I believe this is one of the reasons most every intercessor I’ve had the privilege of meeting throughout my life has been a person of mature faith, who had walked with God for many years before hearing the call of devoting their prayer lives to intercession.

Once we’ve established a relationship with God, once we’ve spent enough time in His presence, we have the boldness and freedom to come before Him with the needs, hurts, and petitions of others.

1 Timothy 2:1-4, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

In order to understand the need for an existing relationship between ourselves and God before we can pray prayers of intercession, we must understand the context in which Paul was writing to Timothy, his spiritual son.

He exhorts Timothy to all supplications, prayers, and intercessions, after confirming that he had faith, and a good conscience, and was ready to wage the good warfare.

No matter how much we might like it to, if we put the cart before the horse, the cart will never move an inch. There must first be fellowship, and a relationship with God, there must first be dialogue between us and God, before we can aspire to the calling of intercessor on behalf of others.

There is something else I wanted to point out in the aforementioned scripture, and that was Paul’s desire to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. Yes, we ought to desire, as Paul did, to lead a quiet and peaceable life, but not at the expense of godliness and reverence. If we can have a quiet and peaceable life in godliness and reverence, it is both good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. If however we are required to give up both godliness and reverence in order to live quietly and peaceably, it is a concession no true believer could ever make.

I mention this, because a great push has begun, targeting the children of God, demanding that they make concessions concerning godliness and reverence, that they stop calling sin by its name, that they embrace perversion as normalcy, and that they keep silent concerning what the Bible says in regard to these things.

Taking the aforementioned scripture out of context, many a hireling have started to insist that because the word of God says we ought to lead a quiet and peaceable life, then it is incumbent upon us to make the requisite concessions, allowances and compromises in order for this to occur.

Yes, I desire to live a quiet life, yes I desire to live a peaceable life, but not at the expense of the gospel of Christ, and not if it means betraying the godliness and reverence to which we were called.

As time marches on, hirelings, wolves, and other lecherous fiends who have wormed their way into the household of faith will become more insistent on this topic, and eventually begin to label those who refuse to betray Christ and the cross of Christ agents of division, dissident, instigators of rebellion, and enemies of change. Whether by intimidation, exclusionary tactics, or outright persecution, such men will attempt to whittle away the resolve of the righteous until no one stands in their way, and no one opposes the new paradigm they’ve created for what it means to be a believer.

This new wave is already fomenting, and with each passing day prominent names within evangelical circles keep jumping on the bandwagon of inclusiveness, acceptance, tolerance, and other words that sound really great, but are sinister in their intent.

We are the ones expected to accept perversion, we are the ones expected to tolerate sin, we are the ones expected to discount the word of God, and call evil good and good evil.

The choice of whether you will compromise truth just to spare yourself insult and injury, or stand on the word of God and be counted for righteousness’ sake is individual and something only you can make for yourself. I for one have already chosen, and as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

When we committed to serving Christ it was not only if we had no opposition, it was not only if the world didn’t hate us, nor was it only during the sunny days and the good times. When we committed to serving Christ it was with our whole lives until we breathe our last upon this earth, standing for truth in a world of deception, and defending righteousness at all cost.

Pray for strength in the battle to come, because battle is coming. Intercede on behalf of those who are not yet ready, who have not put on their armor, and who have no expectation of conflict or confrontation. Pray that their faith endures; pray that God opens their eyes to the reality of what is happening all around them, that they too might know the cost of true discipleship and be willing to give the last full measure of devotion for the cause of Christ their Lord.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.