Prayer Ministry

What Is Intercession?

Believers in general have regarded intercession as just some form of rather intensified prayer. It is so long as there is great emphasis on the word "intensified"; for there are three things to be seen in an intercessor, which are not necessarily found in ordinary prayer: identification, agony, and authority.

The identification of the intercessor with the ones for whom he intercedes is perfectly seen in the Savior. Of him it was said that he poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressor. As the divine intercessor, interceding for a lost world, he drained the cup of our lost condition to that, in the fullest possible sense, he sat where we sit. By taking our nature upon himself, by learning obedience through the things which he suffered, by being tempted in all points like as we are, by becoming poor for our sake, and finally by being made sin for us, he gained the position in which, with the fullest authority as the captain of our salvation made perfect through sufferings, and fullest understanding of all we go through, he can ever live to make intercession for us, and by effective pleadings with the father “is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.” Identification is thus the first law of the intercessor. He pleads effectively because he gives his life for those he pleads for; he is their genuine representative; he has submerged his self-interest in their needs and sufferings, and as far as possible has literally taken their place.

There is another intercessor, and in him we see the agony of this ministry; for he, the Holy Spirit, “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” This one, the only present intercessor on earth, has no hearts upon which he can lay his burdens, and no bodies through which he can suffer and work, except the hearts and bodies of those who are his dwelling place. Through them he does his intercessory work on earth, and they become intercessors by reason of the intercessor within them.

But before he can lead a chosen vessel into such a life of intercession, he first has to deal to the bottom with all that is natural. Love of money, personal ambition, natural affection for parents and loved ones, the appetites of the body, the love of life itself, all that makes even a converted man live unto himself, for his own comfort or advantage, for his own advancement, even for his own circle of friends, has to go to the cross. It is no theoretical death, but a real crucifixion with Christ, such as only the Holy Ghost himself can make actual in the experience of his servant. Both as a crisis and process, Paul’s testimony must be made ours: “I have been and still am crucified with Christ.” The self must be released from itself to become the agent of the Holy Ghost.



Book: Intercessor
Author: Reese Howes