The Building Blocks of Intercession

Our society has witnessed a paradigm shift. Values once thought true have been challenged. The distinction between right and wrong has been blurred. Once, character counted. What a public figure did in private shaped their public effectiveness. Since then, apologists for athletes, industrialists, musicians, and Hollywood types have meddled with the idea. To them, what you do in secret has no bearing on what you do in public.

Politicians of both stripes also argue for the concept. If you follow that logic, the best-elected officials are those who steal the most without leaving a paper trail. Businesses too cut corners to boost a company's profits, and bankroll a CEO's compensation package. In turn, the words, "Made in America," call the product's quality and durability into question. As a result, business booms for Toyota, while Ford teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.

For intercessors, the artificial dichotomy peddled to the public is a myth. What infects your person impacts your prayers. In this module, we'll study how unhealed emotional wounds can impede our intercession in two parts:

1. How we cope with common wounds.
2. How our hurts can hinder our prayers.

Coping With Common Wounds

Let's first describe how we cope with commons wounds.

I'd like to use the term, "woundedness," when I talk about obstructions to prayers. What is woundedness? "Woundedness" describes emotionally hurts that haven't healed. Sometimes, the hurt continues, because you have an ongoing relationship with the wounder--a relative, spouse, etc. Or, the one who wounded us is gone, and the hurt is:

"Minimized"

we deny the wound's impact. We hope it will go away by itself.

"Sanitized"

we rationalize why someone harmed us. The wounder loved me and didn't mean it. Or, there was something wrong with me that caused the wounder to hurt me. If the person was a leader, you may have problems with authority figures.

"Euthanized"

we've buried the hurt somewhere in our unconscious. The wound may feel healed, but that's an illusion. The hurt has simply hid itself better. It's like forgetting where you parked your car after a day of shopping in the mall. The problem doesn't disappear simply because we don't remember where we put it.

In addition, we deal with our hurts in other ways. Some of these include:

"We hunker down"

We deal with the wound in our own strength. In the West, the myth of the self-made man may prevent us from getting help. Plus, there are some things that only God can heal. The Lord will let the hurt unmake the self-made man, until that person turns to Him for restoration.

"We heed it"

We believe nothing can be done about the hurt. So, we learn to live with it. Men and women take different approaches to cope with the pain. Attempts at self-medication (such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, a porn obsession, etc) temporarily salve the wounds, but don't heal the root problems.

"We honor it"

We assume God wounded us for some reason, even when the Lord hasn't said anything such thing. We rationalize that the wound keeps us humble. So, the hurt becomes part of our identity. To ask the Lord to heal us would be a sin, because the hurt is a gift from God. If we believe the enemy's lie, he uses the wound as a constant thorn in our flesh. Consequentially, we get mad at God for something He didn't do.

I'm not talking about the hard circumstances God sometimes uses to shape us into His son's image (Romans 8:29), prepare us for a Joseph moment (Genesis 41:39-46), etc. We need to stay close to God if we face difficulties, especially when they involve an emotional trauma or physical ailment. In groups that believe God ceased healing people after the last apostle died, or teach little about personally hearing from the Lord, it's too easy to believe an assignment of Satan is from God. The apostle John told us to test the spirits, to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1).

Two additional thoughts come to mind concerning Paul's acceptance of a thorn in a flesh. Hear the Apostle's words: "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

We glean two things from this. One, Paul sought the Lord through prayer over three extended periods to remove the thorn. Instead of passively accepting a satanic assignment, Paul sought to have it removed. So, in the same manner, we should resist any attempt by the enemy to wound us emotionally or physically afflict us.

Two, few of my associates have claimed to have supernatural revelations at the Apostle Paul's level (2 Corinthians 12:1-6). Therefore, many of us would never have met one of the prerequisites to be a candidate for a God-allowed thorn in the flesh. The Lord has many other ways to keep us humble, without resorting to a physical affliction or emotional wound to do so--financial reverses, unsupportive spouses, wayward children, etc.

The list isn't meant to be exhaustive. The descriptions are intended to help us reflect upon our own wounds.

The other point is that our hurts can hinder our prayers. We will talk about that in our next lesson.