Sunday, July 15,
2018 – Ephesians 6:19
The Importance of Intercessory Prayer, Pt. 2
Grace
Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher,
Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
4. The Energy, vs. 18-20, God’s Appeal for Prayer in the
Church.
Vs. 19,
Intercessory Prayer.
Eph 6:19, “And pray
on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”
Principles of Intercessory Prayer:
The principles of Christian service apply to every believer
and every prayer the believer makes. Prayer, especially intercessory prayer, is
a major part of your Christian service inside the body of Christ. Since every
believer is in fulltime Christian service, he should express in prayer that
service by praying for other members of the Church. When he does under the
filling of the Holy Spirit, his intercession for others will be Divine Good
rather than human good or dead works.
Interceding on behalf of others is
of major importance. It is a holy calling made to each Christian, Luke 18:1; Col 4:2. As we noted in Eph
6:18, Paul, through the Holy Spirit, commanded it, 1 Thes 5:17; 1 Tim 2:1; cf. Col
1:3.
1 Tim 2:1, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and
prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.”
As you know, the basic principle for prayers is that the believer offers
all prayers to God the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of the filling
of God the Holy Spirit. Prayer should be
directed to God the Father, Mat 4:10,
(but there are also examples that prayer can be made to Christ, Luke 23:42; Acts 7:59). Believers are
to pray in the name of Jesus, John 14:13,
(who was Himself the greatest example of one who prays, Luke 11:1). Believers may pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, Eph 2:18; 6:18; Jude 20; cf. 1 Cor 14:14. They are to pray in light
of the great forgiveness they have received, Mat 6:12, and with all confidence, Mat 7:7-8, 11; Mark 11:24; Phil 4:6; Heb 4:16. Although prayer can
take place anywhere, an emphasis is placed upon private prayer, Mat 6:6; cf. 1 Tim 2:8.
There are several examples of Intercessory
prayers in the Bible that we can learn from.
1. Elijah’s prayer on Mount Carmel demonstrated
the power of intercessory prayer for the nation, 1 Kings 18:42-46; James 5:16-18. Compare with Solomon’s prayer at
the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings 8,
and Daniel’s prayer for Israel while in captivity, Dan 9:1-19.
2. The true “Lord’s Prayer” is found in John 17, the most phenomenal prayer
ever made, where He prayed on behalf of all future believers.
3. The power of prevailing prayer was exercised
in the early Church on behalf of Peter, who was in prison and about to be
executed, Acts 12:5.
Acts
12:5, “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made
fervently by the church to God.”
The result of this prayer was Peter’s dramatic
deliverance. He was chained between two Roman soldiers. But with every Roman
guard asleep, Peter simply walked out of the prison. All the Roman soldiers
were executed for this.
4. Prayer for unbelievers is legitimate and a
part of your dynamics in intercessory prayer. You can absolutely pray for the
salvation of the unbelievers. But, remember not to ask God to violate their
volition by asking Him to make them believe in Christ. That He cannot do. Yet,
He can work to present the gospel to them clearly and often, Rom 10:1 .
5. We can pray for believers we have not met, Col 1:3- 12.
This is a demonstration of the power of impersonal love. When we can pray for
those we personally do not know or even our enemies. It demonstrates the
functional virtue of impersonal love.
6. Therefore, with impersonal love operating
within our souls, we can also pray intercessory prayers for our enemies, Mat 5:44.
Mat 5:44,
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
7. Eph 1:15-23; 3:14-21, demonstrates intercessory prayer for
believers we do know.
8. We can have intercessory prayers for
the sick, James 5:13-15.
James 5:15, “And the
prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will
raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”
9. We can pray that others reach
spiritual
adulthood, Phil 1:9-11.
10. There is prayer for the communication and
communicators of Bible doctrine; for Pastor‑Teachers, missionaries, evangelists,
etc., Col 4:2-3; 2 Thes 3:1; Heb 13:18 .
2 Thes
3:1, “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread
rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you.”
Heb
13:18, “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring
to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.”
11. There is the intercessory prayer of widows,
that is, ladies who become single either by the death, divorce, or abandonment
of their husbands. They have a special opportunity to pray intercessory prayers
both night and day, (more often than once a day), because first, they can no
longer rely upon their husband to take care of them, so they must turn to God,
and secondly, they may not be distracted by the details of life caring for
their husband as the married woman might be. As a result of their very tranquil
and uncomplicated life, they are able to be effective in continuous prayer on
behalf of others, 1 Tim 5:5.
1 Tim
5:5, “Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her
hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day.”
When you reach spiritual adulthood, intercessory
prayers really become effective, because now, like never before, you have
impersonal love that gives you the ability to forget about the personality, the
idiocy, the antagonism, etc. of others, and to actually pray for those people
with whom you do not agree with.
This is very important regarding political
leaders who you may think are leading our nation in the wrong direction, or the
wrong way, or are damaging our client nation. Regardless of what you think
about them, as a Christian you are to be praying for them. Cf. Rom 13:1-10. In fact, not praying for
them and instead running them down all the time with your mouth is “doing evil”
and not applying impersonal AGAPE love.
Impersonal love gives
you phenomenal power and the confidence to offer all kinds of intercessory
prayer, which comes from having personal love for God in the first place. That is because; virtue‑love is confidence from personal love for
God and impersonal love toward man. Virtue‑love is not only a Problem Solving
Device, but it is maximum effectiveness in prayer. This is especially true for
the various categories of intercessory prayers.
Remember, prayer is a privilege, the function of the Royal Priesthood.
Therefore, it is a powerful weapon in the hands of the believer.
Since grace is the principle of prayer, no
believer can petition for himself or make intercession for others on the basis
of human merit, ability, morality, production, service, or spiritual gift.
Every believer approaches the Throne of Grace on the merits of our Lord Jesus
Christ who is our great High Priest. While the Father is propitiated with the
work of Christ on the Cross, He is no respecter of persons. Therefore we must
approach the Father from our position of fellowship and Grace.
Grace is the policy of the integrity of God in
the imputation of blessing from the justice of God to the indwelling
righteousness of God in the believer. The believer out of fellowship is not
only weak but has no effectiveness in his prayer life because, God does not
answer prayer because the believer is “good,” moral, sincere, benevolent,
religious, concerned, altruistic, talented, or possesses a pleasing
personality. Answer to prayer is based on the Divine Integrity of God.
Therefore, the believer’s human merit is never a factor in answered prayer.
Finally, remember that prayer is a weapon. You
must understand how it functions, just as you should understand how any weapon
functions before you use it. One prayer can change the course of history, e.g.,
some of Christ’s prayers, and Paul’s prayer in Ephesians. Prayer must be used
as a weapon. Unfortunately, most people blaspheme when they pray because of
arrogance while praying and ignorance of how to pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment