by Guest Writer Kristoffer Riley
Intercessory prayer. Call for it and few will attend. Even the ones that do attend may or may not be there for out of appropriate motives. Announce a fellowship dinner and even the lest unfaithful members show up on time. Intercession is obviously not a favorite subject among the redeemed. It is probably tied with fasting as “Least Favorite Sermon Subjects”. True intercession requires dying to self, even more so than other areas of Christian living.
Can anyone be an intercessor? The short answer is yes. A little depth of explanation is necessary though. God spoke to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 22:30 saying, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” God was looking for someone, anyone that was willing to forget about their situation and trials and focus instead on the needs of others, namely, the spiritually depraved state that Israel had steep itself into. Anyone who is willing to die to self and subject their fleshly, Adamic nature to the Holy Spirit of God can be that person standing in the gap.
In the same way God was looking for those to stand in the gap during Ezekiel’s era, so He searches today. In Ezekiel 13:5 we hear the Father’s cry that “ye have not gone up into the gaps”. At our core, we are selfish and look out for number one before we look on the needs of others and when we do look on other’s needs it is often with an attitude of disdain rather than one of a willingness to help. Jeremiah 27:18 gives another clarion call for intercessors: “But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon”.
Intercession and people that will lose their life to its nature of necessity have never been needed more than they are needed today. We have a generation of young people that are falling headlong for the things of the world more and more each day and the old adages, “boys will be boys” and “girls just wanna have fun” are played out tricks that the enemy has long used to rob our youth of their destiny in God. No amount of Christian-themed skate parties or good human thinking can bring about change in the hearts and minds of young and old alike. The Bible clearly tells us in Isaiah 10:27 what it takes to destroy yokes of bondage: it is the Anointing alone that can accomplish this feat and you’ll never partake of the Anointing without dying to yourself.
For generations young people have seen church folks talk the talk, but rarely walk the walk. At the same time they’ve seen pimps, drug dealers, actors, and athletes attain instantaneous wealth while displaying apathy for the things of God. King David was almost caught in this trap as evidenced in Psalms 73. Eventually he realized the end that awaits the wicked. If only our young people (and us adults as well) would see this so clearly. Until we get our faces before God and intercede, stand in the gap, stay on the wall, and travail for our generation, our youth, school aged children, babies, and our unborn, we will continue to lose them to a hell that enlarged herself daily (Isaiah 5:14).
Until we walk the Word out and they see the blessing and peace that comes with a true life in Christ as opposed to the deadness and stagnation of vain religion, they will see no reason to change. God is looking for those that will stand in the gap.
Will the real intercessors please stand up?
Check out my Christian Meditation CD on Intercession for Loved Ones.
