The Building Blocks of Intercession

I'd like to continue to discuss the relationship between faith and prayer. I want to repeat portions of our opening illustration from last time, as it remains germane to our discussion:

We grow to meet the challenges we pray for. I am reminded of a story of a climbing expedition to Mount Everest in 1924. A group of climbers tried twice to get to the top of the world's tallest mountain but two of their party were killed in that endeavor. They met in London later to give a report before a crowd of supporters. One of the men stood up to speak [and] turned to [a] picture of Everest. "You have conquered us twice, but Mount Everest, you will not conquer us every time." He turned to the audience and with determination said, "Because Mount Everest can grow no larger, but we can." ("Partners in Prayer," by John Maxwell, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996, p. 9.)

I'd like to discuss some additional observations over prayer, faith, and God's destiny for us. Those observations surround the importance of pursuing God's destiny through prayer. I'd also like to discus how to face challenges when following God's way gets tough.

Pursuing God's Destiny Through Prayer

It's important to pursue God's destiny through prayer. One way to explore the importance of, "why." is to ask, "What if I didn't pursue God's destiny for me? What difference would it make?"

George Bailey, the fictional character from, "It's A Wonderful Life," faced a similar question. He was given the rare opportunity to see what the world would have been like if he'd never been born. He was shocked at the difference one life--his own--made in the lives of hundreds of people.

You and I have no idea how many lives we touch. Only God sees that. One of the biggest things George found out was that, the simple act of saving his careless younger brother's life, a venture that cost him part of his hearing, later prevented the death of a score of soldiers. That younger brother's heroic acts on the battlefield made the difference. A story yes, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

This bears repeating: you and I have no clue how many lives we influence. You don't know the number of lives your prayers touch beyond the person you pray for. And, we haven't a notion as to how many we touch when, through prayer and obedience, we pursue God's destiny for us.

For example, often God wants you to blaze a trail or break through a wall, so others can follow you to their own freedom in Christ. There is a "breaker anointing," where God helps us as we go "out-on-a-limb" in following His will: "The breaker goes up before them; they break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their king goes on before them, and the Lord at their head" (Micah 2:13).

This is not an automatic formula for success. We know that Hebrews 11:13 says: "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth."

But, we know that, as we follow God in faith and take Him at His word, despite our circumstances, He is able to do more with us than we ever dreamed possible. It is only when we are walking with the Lord, that we feel truly alive (Luke 24:32).

Facing Challenges (or When the Going Gets Tough)

I can promise you that there will be obstacles and challenges as you pursue God's destiny for your life. The question is not "will they come?" but "How will you face them when they do come?"

Things get tough when you set your mind to follow God's will. As Jesus approached the cross and Jerusalem, the Bible says: "Now when the time was almost come for Jesus to be received up [to heaven], He steadfastly and determinedly set His face to go to Jerusalem." (Luke 9:51). In other words, Jesus set his mind and purpose to follow God plan. The fact that he had to make this type of commitment shows that following His Father's plans didn't come automatically. If Jesus wasn't exempt, then neither are we.

The Bible makes certain promises for those who make up their minds and resolve their emotions to follow God's purpose: "The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

Literally, God empowers your decision when you make up your mind. A mind at peace is similar to a plane that follows a hurricane within the eye of the storm. Getting to that place of peace is turbulent; often you feel you're about to be blown off course. But, once you've arrived, there is no danger. There is danger in indecision.

Let's draw this out a little bit. The scriptures talk about that eye-of-the-storm place with several illustrations. Here are two of them: "For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock" Psalms 27:5. "You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues" (Psalms 31:10).

Observe how the eye-of-the-storm is called a, "secret place." In other passages, it's called a, "hidden place." In both instances, God's secret place shields a person from "days of troubles," from conspiracies, and from slanderous tongues.

Where is the secret place? Let's examine a set of verses God brought to my attention recently:

"...and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, for, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time; casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:5b-7).

God continually drew my attention to the phrase, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time." "Humbling yourself under God's mighty hand," has nothing to do with being passive. Since there is a, "proper time," for exaltation, we have a couple of choices when a promotion, with our name written all over it, goes to someone else.

The topic of promotions isn't limited to the workplace.

Your feelings will run the gambit in this situation. You'll feel numb due to shock. You may lose sleep trying to reason out what went wrong. You may feel angry with the people in charge of handing out the promotions. You may envy the person promoted. You may find yourself wondering if the process was fixed, and whether you were ever in the running from the start.

These feelings are normal. Humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God spells the difference between success and failure. The bottom line question is, "What do you do with the feelings?"

God's way is to allow their expression, without encouraging them to take root in us. For example, the easy thing to do is stay mad at the people involved. That leads to unforgiveness and envy. If we permit either unforgiveness or envy to take root, we open ourselves up to the attacks of the enemy (Matthew 18:21-35; James 3:16). The hard choice is not to dwell on those emotions when they arise.

We must be wary of what stirs up our emotions. In many instances, it's the enemy. He disguises his voice as our own, and intrudes on our thoughts. You are thinking about an unrelated subject, then suddenly, an idea on how to "get even" comes to mind. Should you follow it unchallenged? Based upon this teaching, no. You should command the thought to leave you, in Jesus' name. If it disappears, then there's a good chance the thought had a demonic origin.

I do want to talk about one exception here. Sometimes, God allows you to be passed over, to expose leftover roots from similar situations in the past. He wants to cleanse old wounds that never healed properly. Or, the Lord wants to expose areas of unforgiveness that, in our immaturity or reluctance, we held onto. Our Father doesn't enjoy watching the enemy bully us, because of long-standing bitterness, envy, or lack of forgiveness. Look at Hebrews 12:15: "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled."

I don't want to minimize the seriousness of any acts perpetuated against someone. For example, being used by God to bless someone does not mean we should allow ourselves to be misused by them. I do want to stress a different way of dealing with a past injustice, one that promises release, versus further bondage. When you make room for God's qualities to grow in you, you are positioned for God to use you (1 Peter 1:5-8).

We also need to bless those who passed over us, and the people chosen for the position we hoped to get. We should pray for them. We need to bless them with our lips. That means we shouldn't spread rumors about the selection process, whether it was fair or unfair. That means we should not cut them down in the presence of other people.

Why? The easy thing to do is blame everyone else for our difficulties. The hard choice is to see where I share the blame, learn what I did wrong, so that, should another chance come, I can do things the right way. You increase your chance of winning if you don't repeat the same mistakes. When we chose to trust God despite the circumstances, we position ourselves for future promotional opportunities.

We must avoid developing a habit of doubt. The enemy can use disappointment over an unanswered or delayed prayer request as a foundation for doubting God.

Once, I rode in an uncle's car, and ever 3-4 minutes, he would pull the hand-brake release. I watched this go on for about 15 minutes for no apparent rhyme or reason. When asked, he said that long ago, he forgot to unlock his emergency brakes while parked, and promptly burnt out his brakes. So, even though that was many years earlier, and his brakes had been fixed since then, he still hit his emergency brake handle ever few miles. Over time, my Uncle's concern about his parking brake developed into annoying habit.

If doubt becomes a habit, we weigh ourselves down with unnecessary worries. Fear may stop us from taking a necessary step of faith. To avoid such doubts, we must believe that, whatever decision the people made, God is the one ultimately responsible for the decision: "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes" (Proverbs 21:2).

That means that God either swayed the decision to what He thought was best for us now, waiting to give us a better opportunity later. Or, if another person was wrongly chosen by the deciding officials, that He will work to right that inequity. Remember, when Joseph was wronged, God still gave him favor in each situation (Genesis 39:2, 4-5, 21-23). Let's not forget that ultimately, we work for God, and not man. Our loyalty belongs to the Lord (Ephesians 6:5-9)