“Men
ought always to pray, and not to faint” Luke 18:1
You cannot
intercede if you do not believe in the reality of the Redemption; you will turn
intercession into futile sympathy with human beings which will only increase
their submissive content to being out of touch with God. In intercession you
bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you
are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession
means filling up “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,” and that
is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of – “Put
yourself in his place.” Never! Try to put yourself in God's place.
As a worker,
be careful to keep pace with the communications of reality from God or you will
be crushed. If you know too much, more than God has engineered for you to know,
you cannot pray, the condition of the people is so crushing that you cannot get
through to reality.
Our work
lies in coming into definite contact with God about everything, and we shirk it
by becoming active workers. We do the things that can be tabulated but we will
not intercede. Intercession is the one thing that has no snares, because it
keeps our relationship with God completely open.
The thing to
watch in intercession is that no soul is patched up, a soul must get through
into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought
about our path and we have dropped them! When we pray on the ground of
Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through
intercessory prayer.