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We started talking about grief in our last lesson, and there are three things I need to say about grief:
We talked about the first two in our last lesson, and now it is time to move on to the last one.
Healed Wounds Help Our Intercession
Healed wounds help our intercession. Let me set the basis for this teaching by reviewing Jesus' present work in heaven. You may need to review this portion of the teaching a few times, for the Holy Spirit to reveal its truths to your spirit.
While on earth, Jesus completed the work of atonement. As our High Priest, Christ gave His perfect life on the cross (Hebrews 9: 11-14). His righteous payment cancelled our unrighteous deeds, past, present, and future. He saved us from hell and destined us for heaven.
Today in heaven, Jesus continues the work of attainment. His life and death on earth sensitized Him to our needs. He gained a first-hand, intimate knowledge of our plight, because He lived with the same problems and limitations we do. Jesus felt the pain caused by our humanity in several ways. First, He experienced the physical pangs and emotional needs that arose from his humanity. He hungered (Matthew 4:2) and he was thirsty (John 19:28). And He experienced death. The Bible states that Jesus was tempted in all the things we've been tempted. "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted" (Hebrew 2:17-18).
Also, some of His desires went unmet. Jesus didn't fall into sin. Even though He felt the temptation to fulfill His needs in ways God did not condone, He didn't. Thus, Jesus didn't suffer the consequences of his own sin, because He didn't sin. However, Jesus did experience the consequences of our sins on the cross.
So, Jesus understands first-hand the reasons behind the prayer requests that we bring to His throne. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:14-15).
Today, Christ applies His finished sacrifice to the ongoing sanctification of believers: "Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
In other words, Jesus' present here-and-now work prepares us for the hereafter.
Now, there is priestly anointing received for those who enter joint- intercession with Christ over His people. As Jesus' wounds sensitize His understanding of our needs, our wounds sensitize us to the intercessory needs of others.
Those who draw near to Christ, and pray with Him on behalf of His body, receive the high priest anointing. Our hurts help us sympathize with their hurts. As self is emptied, your heart becomes a mirror that echoes Christ's emotions over those He intercedes for. You enter joint intercession with Jesus on behalf of others.
Your hurts, whether healed or not, serve as a magnet to the type of hurts you pray for. It is a form of a word of knowledge, as the hurt resonates within you. Remember, we are primarily addressing emotional wounds, and not physical wounds. An unhealed hurt is like an acoustically-sensitive room filled with baggage. Though a sound will echo in it, the sound is muffled, and the direction it comes from is indistinct. A healed wound is like the same room, except the baggage has been removed. The same sound, noted previously, is no longer muffled, and it is easier to tell which direction the sound came from.
As we emphasized in our series, "Praying to Obtain God's Best," Christians have been taught to distrust their emotions. Many non- charismatic groups teach that our feelings can't be trusted, under the guise of putting our faith in the Bible alone. While that notion is partially true, the enemy uses it for other purposes. The teaching is part of a backlash against what non-charismatics see as excessive emotionalism involved when charismatic Christians exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Evangelical Christians are instructed to distrust their feelings as one means to inoculate them against becoming Charismatic. I know, because that's the background I grew up in and out of.
"Yet, one of the ways the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in intercession is through our emotions" (Cindy Jacobs, "Possessing the Gates of the Enemy", p. 112). As we pray, and our feelings change, we need to ask God what the shift in our emotions mean. Both the Old Testament and New Testaments refer to this facet of intercession:
"...weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15b)."Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?" (Job 30:25).
A type of burden-sharing is seen in the life of Moses (Numbers 11:11- 30). When Moses complained to God that the burden of leading the Israelites was too great, God shifted the some of the load to seventy other elders of Israel. The days of Moses had to bear the burden alone ended.
Jesus, as a type of Moses, alone bears the burden of interceding on behalf of His people before the Father. Though He is God, Jesus desires co-labors on this earth to reflect His intercession in heaven. That establishes the necessary agreement between earthly and heavenly intercession for God to answers prayers (Matthews 18:19-20). It's like a person yelling instructions down a canyon to people below. Without an echo, the voice of the one above, would not reach those below.
Besides the identification we feel with others, as our wounds resonate with their wounds, how can prayer warriors join the heavenly calling? Old Testament priests prayed for others in the Temple. Christ is the head that prays in heaven, while we His body (or temple), pray on earth. Leviticus recalls the priests' duties. Before the altar, the book governed their ministry to God.
Our praying should also be according to the book. God's promises need to be pled over His people. The Lord honors requests made according to His perspective (1 John 5:14-15). Our altar work on earth releases Jesus' altar work in heaven. Like the seraphim, we draw coals from the heavenly hearth, and apply them to others (Isaiah 6:5-7).
Next, realize you are a priest in God's eyes, even if you don't hold the title (1 Peter 2: 9). Intercessors are the praying hands and prostrate knees of Jesus' body. We plead on earth for what He pleads for in heaven.
Then, go through your prayer list. Ask God to reveal His burdens for a person and to reveal scriptures He wants you to pray over each one. Give Him time to complete the list and reveal His burdens. You don't need verses for everyone before you begin. Use that list once a week to declare Jesus' "priestly praying" over your folks.
And don't forget to make notes with dates beside each name. The remarks will encourage you, as you see God's promises change their lives. Such intercession does two things. First, our prayers plant the seed of God's word in others. We release the word's ability to accomplish God's purposes in them (Isaiah 55:11). Second, our petitions remind God that the honor of His name is on the line. Our Father stakes his reputation on His keeping His word (Psalms 138:2).
Numbers 11 also gives qualifications for those who would be co-intercessors with Jesus. First, we need to be spiritually mature, responsible people. Moses was told to choose people he knew to be elders of the Israel. An elder is one who takes care of themselves, their own family, and others outside their household.
Second, we must be willing to be led by the Lord. Moses told the elders to assemble at a certain place and time. He didn't worry about whether they would make it. In the same fashion, we must be willing to follow Jesus' lead in prayer. We should not dismiss God's leading, even if from our perspective, a detail seems insignificant.
Third, we must be willing to be spiritually-stretched. The Holy Spirit fell on the elders and they prophesied. That never happened to them before. You must also be willing for God to work through you in unexpected ways.
Rees Howell's story, as told by Norman Grubb in the book, "Intercessor," goes into further detail about the Lord's sharing His burdens with earthbound prayer warriors. It is necessary read for those who embark on the ministry of intercession.