Intimate Intercession: The Sacred Joy of Praying for Others

by Tricia McCary Rhodes

Overview

So what is the point of intercession, anyway? Author Tricia Rhodes defines intercession in vivid terms-"to stand in the gap between God and needy people, our hearts bonded to theirs as we plead their case in prayer, regardless of what they have done or haven't done to deserve God's intervention." Moses did it and saved the Israelites from God's wrath. Stephen interceded for those who stoned him. Paul prayed for countless Christians and non-believers alike. And we see intercession most extravagantly displayed through Jesus Christ, who walked the earth a friend of sinners.

Tricia declares, "We are never more like Christ than when we connect with others in their pain or their sin and choose to bear their burdens in prayer. Intercession is simple, yet profound." Offering easy-to-grasp tools and truths, Intimate Intercession will show the reader how to know and to pray God's heart. Each chapter is divided into segments that provide a biblical basis, inspirational thoughts, and personal devotional exercises that will engage the reader both in connecting with God and experiencing intimacy with Him.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780849905636
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	10/02/2005
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Tricia McCary Rhodes is the author of four books on the subject of prayer and the cross, including Contemplating the Cross. In 1981, she and her husband, Joe, started New Hope Church in San Diego. The mother of two sons and grandmother of two, Tricia believes God's call on her life is to help others deepen their intimacy with Christ. For more information about Tricia Rhodes and her ministry, see www.soulatrest.com.

Read an Excerpt

Intimate Intercession

The Sacred Joy of Praying for Others

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By Tricia McCary Rhodes

W Publishing Group

Copyright © 2007 Tricia McCary Rhodes
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8499-0563-6

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Chapter One

In Search of a Definition

The Beauty and Simplicity of Intercessory Prayer

I think about people I know, the saints with their swollen ankles or their knobby hands, the rickety prayer warriors who don't have the physical strength to open a pickle jar but who set whole legions of demons flying for cover whenever they kneel. Some are pious misfits, holy eccentrics. Most are just ordinary, with nothing but the presence of God to distinguish them from all the other people on the face of the earth.

Mark Buchanan

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Intercession is a spiritual discipline fraught with paradox. It can be as mysterious as a shooting star one minute and as mundane as breathing in and out the next. Sometimes it feels like a dance with destiny, but more often like a labor of love. Personally, I've had some great adventures in intercession, and even an occasional walk on the wild side, yet there are days I'm put off by the monotony of it. Intercession is an art form, a craft with delicate nuances developed over the course of a lifetime, yet even a child can do it. (Perhaps that is why we tend to come at it with a sort of nonchalance when we ought to be standing gape-jawed at the possibilities before us.)

I've read some books on intercession and pondered numerous definitions and still I'm not sure what to say here, but let me begin with this. I once heard of a Christian leader who didn't believe in praying for his own needs. Whenever he asked for anything from God, it was for someone else's benefit. His reasoning was that he could count on God's taking care of him, since He always had, and besides, praying for other people was just more enjoyable. Although I'm not sure I agree with his theology on prayer (Jesus did tell us to ask for our daily bread), I do believe this man is an intercessor, because the cornerstone of intercession is the act of pleading someone else's case before God in prayer.

From bedtime prayers to huddles in hospital waiting rooms, from e-mail prayer chains to collective cries for revival, from forty-day fasts to Sunday benedictions-intercession can be at the heart of each of these. Even the Wednesday night prayer meetings I was weaned on, the kind that usually turned into a litany of personal or family ailments (Aunt Gracie's hiatal hernia, Bob's lost job, Diane's depression, and of course the unspoken requests), in all likelihood included intercession.

It just seems to me that we often elevate this form of prayer to a lofty plane on which most of us never feel at home. Isn't there some simple way to approach intercession? Some definition that draws us in, no matter what level of maturity we're at or what degree of knowledge we've acquired?

The Bible sheds an interesting light on the question. The word intercession itself rarely appears, and there are few texts that could even be considered direct teaching on it (we'll get to those later). What Scripture offers instead is a cornucopia of simple stories that show people praying for one another in all kinds of situations.

There are the Sunday school favorites-Abraham pleading for Sodom to be spared and Aaron and Hur holding up Moses's arms as he interceded over the battle below. But consider some of these lesser-known prayers from the Old Testament: The servant Eliezer prayed that God would bring the perfect bride for Isaac, and Isaac prayed for his own wife in her barrenness. In his dying hours, Jacob prayed a blessing over each of his twelve sons, and Boaz prayed that Ruth would experience a full reward for her labor as well as the comfort of God's sheltering wings. Elijah prayed for healing for King Jeroboam's withered hand, Job prayed for his friends (the pious ones who had judged him during his time of distress), and David pleaded with God not to take his own sin out on the Israelites.

The New Testament also unveils an assorted array of specific requests people made on behalf of others. Jesus asked His Father to keep Peter strong in faith when He knew he was going to be sifted by Satan. He prayed for a unity among believers that would be so powerful the world would stand back in awe. He wept over Lazarus and then spoke His prayer out loud so that those who were watching would grow in their understanding of God. In His dying moments Jesus prayed for forgiveness for His enemies, and His final good-bye before ascending to heaven was a prayer of blessing that filled the hearts of those left behind with joy.

Paul prayed for healing for the father of Publius on the island of Melita and pleaded for the salvation of his Hebrew kinsmen. He prayed that the Roman church would have unity of mind and for those in Ephesus to have spiritual eyes to see and know the mysteries of God. He asked that the Colossian believers would come to know God's will fully and that the Thessalonians might be counted worthy of their calling.

In the same way, Paul was always appealing to others to pray for him. He encouraged his fellow saints to ask that he'd be delivered from evil men and that other believers would accept his ministry. He told Philemon to pray he'd be released from prison and asked the Roman church to entreat God to send him their way soon. Because he so longed to be used to spread the gospel, Paul often urged the churches to pray that his efforts would be successful.

In other New Testament examples, we find Stephen appealing on behalf of those who were stoning him, that they not be held accountable for their horrific acts, and Peter and John praying for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit. The fledgling church prayed for Peter upon his arrest, and Epaphras labored fervently for the Colossian believers that they would stand mature and complete in God's will.

Clearly the act of one person pleading on behalf of another is a common theme throughout Scripture. But are all of these actually examples of intercession? Does intercession differ from petition or supplication, or simply making another's needs known to God? If so, how? I believe the answer can be found by looking at Moses, the humble intercessor of the Old Testament. Moses engaged in many conversations with God on behalf of the Hebrew people that he led out of Egypt. On more than one occasion, he pleaded for God to have mercy when the people had been extremely rebellious. Psalm 106 tells of the critical role Moses played at one point when God was furious with them: "He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them" (v. 23). Moses "stood in the breach." This is an awesome concept and seems to symbolize the very heart of what makes intercession unique.

When Scripture speaks of a gap or a breach, it refers to something that is no longer as it ought to be, something that has been torn apart or broken down, leaving things in a state of disrepair. In this case, God had made a covenant with Israel-He would be their God, and they would enjoy a relationship of unprecedented favor as His beloved. But within days after He'd miraculously delivered them from Egypt, they began to act as if they'd never known Him or experienced His goodness. They griped and complained and finally created a god of their own liking in the form of a golden calf.

The covenant relationship between God and His people was now broken down, their rebellion having created a breach that seemed irreparable. In His great anger, God let Moses in on His plans to destroy the obstinate bunch and start over, using him to make a great nation from scratch. Moses rejected God's offer, though he had plenty of reasons to be mad at the Israelites himself. Instead, he took their side, aligning himself with the very ones who had given him such grief as a leader. Standing in the gap between them and God, Moses pleaded for Him to have mercy on them one more time.

As I look back on the last few days, I have talked with God concerning a variety of situations-a friend who was struggling with outbursts of anger and my son's first day back at school after summer break. I've prayed for a young neighbor who is disillusioned with God and for missionary friends experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. I've made requests for the leaders in our church and for a prodigal niece and her grieving parents. In some cases I simply shared the person's needs with God, as I saw them. But in other cases when I prayed, my spirit experienced a unity-an identifying with the person and the deficiency they faced as if it were my own.

When I prayed for my niece, I felt a sense of personal outrage at what the enemy has stolen from her. As I lifted up our church leaders, I was overcome with a longing for joy and power as I sensed that one of them felt trapped in a dry and barren land. When I prayed for my friend, I experienced deep desire for her freedom and mine from the fleshly struggles that stem from living in a fallen world.

This, I believe, is intercession-to stand in the gap between God and needy people, our hearts bonded to theirs as we plead their cases in prayer, regardless of what they have done or haven't done to deserve His intervention. We see this most extravagantly displayed in our Lord, who walked the earth as a friend of sinners, identifying with us in all aspects of our humanity. In a prophetic word, Isaiah wrote of the Christ: "He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors" (53:12).

To a world in disrepair, Jesus came. He stretched out His arms on Calvary's tree and spanned the great breach between holy God and sinful man by allowing Himself to be numbered with cheaters and prostitutes and boasters and gossips and drunkards and gamblers and gluttons and sinners of every sort. He entered into your point of need and mine, interceding for us even to the point of death, so that the floodgates of God's mercy could flow once again through His shed blood.

Here's the most amazing thing: Jesus has invited you and me to join Him in bridging the gap between a dark and desperate world and His Father, who waits on high to be gracious to the people that inhabit it. Scripture tells us that even now Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). We are never more like Christ than when we connect with another in their pain or their sin and choose to carry their burdens in prayer, asking God to bring His kindness to bear on the disrepair in their lives.

Intercession is simple, yet profound. It is a precious privilege granted to each one of us. Through it we are brought into the very heart of the One who reigns above all and holds the worlds together by His power. From that place we live out our incredible destiny as co-laborers with Christ. I believe if we could see it, if we could just catch a glimpse of the wonder in each whisper of intercession, we'd be hooked for life.

What, Me, an Intercessor?

One night many years ago, I awoke from a deep sleep with a distinct sense that someone had spoken. The word I heard was intercessor. I lay there a few minutes, wondering what it meant and where it had come from, and then I heard it again. Intercessor. It wasn't an audible voice, but it seemed as real as if my husband had sat up in bed and said it himself. I knew that this was more than some random thought. Wide awake by now, I climbed out of bed and went to the living room to wait. Feeling a bit like the boy Samuel, I told God He could speak anytime-that His servant was listening. Nothing happened.

Although it was four in the morning, I decided to stay up and pray. Over the course of the next several weeks, I woke up at the same ghastly time every day, but I didn't feel tired or resistant, and in fact was excited about getting up and meeting with the Lord (trust me, this was a miracle). I never heard the word intercessor again, but I was certain God was calling me to an exciting new way of life. I couldn't wait for Him to make me a full-fledged intercessor.

But then one morning, and the next and the next, I woke up not to the dark of night, but to the sun streaming through my bedroom window. I tried setting my alarm for a few days to recapture the early-morning vigils but had to drag myself out of bed, that joyful sense of eagerness a thing of the past. I soon settled back into my old quiet-time schedule, but the memory of that voice, of that word-intercessor-haunted me like a tune I couldn't get out of my mind.

I began to read everything I could find on the subject of intercession, soaking up information from books and articles and Scripture passages like a sponge, but the more I read, the worse I felt. Don't get me wrong-the stories were exciting and the instruction was rich-but all I could think of was how far I was from what I was supposed to be. How would I ever live up to such noble aspirations?

Why would God call me to a discipline I seemed unable to achieve? Could I be an intercessor if I would just bite the bullet and force myself to spend hours on my face every day? Did all real intercessors carry burdens with such sobriety that they would gladly go without food or drink or sleep in their desire to see God intervene? Was I just (pick one) lazy, resistant, lackadaisical, rebellious, ignorant, hardhearted, or immature? Did I suffer from some spiritual stronghold or personality defect? This was a frustrating time, for no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I could never get away from the feeling that I hadn't yet become a real intercessor.

And then one day a couple of years later, God spoke about it again and His answer stunned me-it still does. In my spirit I sensed Him saying this: Tricia, when I whispered the word intercessor to you years ago, it was not because there was something I wanted you to become, but rather because it was something you already were. I just wanted you to know.

Me? An intercessor? How could this be? Immediately the objections started buzzing around inside my head. But I pondered what I'd heard, turning the words over and over in prayer until a sense of peace descended, and I knew something had changed. For the next several months, I put away the books and messages and articles and tried to listen to what God was saying to me. How can I explain this? At some point I just stopped trying to be something I wasn't and began to walk in the wonder of what God said I already was. Today I know this for certain-I am an intercessor-I have it on the highest authority. Just to write those words fills me with joy.

I want you to know this and believe it as well. If you are a Christian, you are, by your very nature, an intercessor. When God saved you, He filled you with the life of Christ, who is always interceding. And though our propensity to identify with another's pain or cry out on their behalf out of love and compassion may be buried beneath a load of guilt and a pound of flesh, intercession is every believer's call and destiny, joy and crown.

Please hear me-there are no chosen few. Intercession is not a spiritual gift bestowed on select saints. This myth of a special call has of late created an entire cottage industry of books and conferences and causes. Pastors during the past decade have been inundated with counsel and even condemnation from those who consider themselves uniquely set apart from the rest of the body to be intercessors.

So I will say it one more time: If you are a Christian, you are an intercessor. I am not writing this book to tell you what you ought to be, but to help you discover what you already are so that you can experience the wonder of it. What burns brightly within you is a heart to intercede, and it has been there a long time. (Repeat after me: I am an intercessor.)

The Universal Qualifier

People who read books on prayer are usually hoping to learn how to pray more effectively. If that describes you, you'll be eager for me to give you some handles on how to get started or move beyond the point you are at right now. Should you commit an hour a day to pray for others? Should you fast consistently or spend one night a week in prayer? Do you need to have some weekly plan that ensures every need is prayed for regularly?

The answer to all these things, for now, is no. What I'm going to ask you to do instead is to set aside your expectations of what this journey is supposed to be like. Let go of all the "should's" and "ought to's" that come at you when you think of prayer. Resist the nagging voices that tell you if you would just work harder or learn more or become more spiritual, you'd finally get this whole intercession thing right.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Intimate Intercession by Tricia McCary Rhodes Copyright © 2007 by Tricia McCary Rhodes. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Finding the Right Fit....................ix
Chapter One: In Search of a Definition The Beauty and Simplicity of Intercessory Prayer A Prayer of Daniel A Prayer of Anselm of Canterbury....................1
Chapter Two: The Great Invitation Our Holy Calling as Apprentices in the Creator's School of Prayer A Prayer of Abraham A Prayer of Saint Patrick of Ireland....................23
Chapter Three: The Contemplative Intercessor Beholding the Face of Christ as We Lift Others Up A Prayer of Nehemiah A Prayer of Clement of Rome....................51
Chapter Four: The Interceding Life Fulfilling Our Destiny as Intercessors A Prayer of Jesus A Prayer of Augustine of Hippo....................77
Chapter Five: There's a War Going On Interceding from the Trenches of Life as We Know It A Prayer of Asaph A Prayer of Charles Wesley....................105
Chapter Six: Learning the Language of Faith Praying until the Answers Come ... and What to Do When They Don't A Prayer of Jeremiah A Prayer of Christina Rossetti....................141
Chapter Seven: Around the Throne The Joy of Interceding with Eternity in Our Hearts The Prayers of Those Gathered Around the Throne A Prayer of the Missionaries of Charity....................173
Notes....................205
Resources....................209