Devotional - May 9, 2004

To most people, the word intercession can be used interchangeably with prayer. But intercession is much more than simply praying for someone. Moses's life demonstrated that intercession is a divine position before God, rather than a spoken word. Samuel's life also proved it (1Sam 7:5): "Then Samuel said, 'Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the LORD for you.'"

Samuel's intercession involved watching the people draw water and pour it out. The people fasted and confessed sin, but there was no notable prayer on the intercessor's part. Look at Philippians 2:5-11 and you'll also see the way Jesus interceded for us through His atonement. It was His action and not his words that interceded for us on the cross.

Please don't mistake this teaching as somehow diminishing the importance of prayer or excluding in within the ministry of intercession. Prayer is a vital part of intercession, but intercession is defined as action and not just a spoken word.

Ezekiel said that God is looking for someone to stand in the gap before Him for the land so he won't have to destroy it. (Ez 22:30) A good prayer for your country might be, "God, please don't destroy our land." But intercession, is getting involved to defend God's word in the judicial system, at school and work. Intercession is leading others to stand with you and heartily resisting the world's education system to corrupt your children whom you've dedicated to the Lord.

Intercession is a calling, but you get the call on the way to doing the work. Anyone can assume a position of intercession if they're willing to give up their own expectation and do things God's way. But, some have a natural position of ordained authority that automatically places them in the gap between God and other people. For example, parents are natural intercessors for their children, bosses for their employees and teachers for their students. Being in a position of divinely appointed authority places them in the right place to intercede for others.

How important is prayer to intercession? Simple. You can be a pray-er without being an intercessor, but you can't begin to be an intercessor without being a pray-er. But not everyone does it because it takes work. After all, if it was easy everyone would be doing it!

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( 1Sa. 5:1-7:17 Jn. 6:1-21 Ps. 106:13-31 Pr. 14:32-33 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society