Intercession and Spiritual Growth

Someone in your life is hurting. You feel that you cannot help them. You know that they are going the wrong way but find it difficult to alter their direction. You have tried telling them that Christ is the answer. But they will not listen. You have prayed for them, of course. You have held on helplessly, as you see time running out–for them and for you as the one who wants to help them.

You feel depleted, empty of sustenance that will, like chicken soup for the flu, comfort and lift them out of their spiritual disease. Then one day you realize that you have just not gotten down and asked God to intercede in your loved one’s condition. It’s not like you haven’t mentioned them in your communications with God. You have mentioned them, but have you asked the Father, like this: “Father, would you please help them to know that You love them? Father, would you reach down and show them Your wondrous love? Would You reach out Your hand to them and draw them into Your joyful bosom?” Or was your prayer a statement: “Father, I ask that you help them in their time of need.”

As you ask your Father for help, your heart begins to soften. You realize that He is not going to block His ears to your cry for help. In fact, He has been waiting for you to ask Him—not tell Him—what you desire of Him. Christ said, “Ask and it shall be given.” He continued, And if your son or daughter asked you for something to eat, would you give them a stone? If you know how to mercifully give good things to your children when they ask you, “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” ( Matthew 7:7-11).

And so, you ask Him, “Father would you please help them? Would you let your love embrace their fears? Would you show them that you are real and that you care?”

And then, something wonderful begins to happen in your heart. It is a realization that, yes, the Father is going to answer your prayers, but He wants to do it through you. He wants His Spirit of love to be magnified and multiplied in you. He wants to love the one you are praying for–the one that you’re concerned about—through you. You begin to realize that He will answer your prayer, in showing His love for them, through you.

This is intercessory prayer–real prayer that changes us.  God gives grace to the humble. Humility knocks on His door seeking help for someone else. God can work with that. And so he begins a change in our hearts, preparing us to be used as a vessel for his Spirit of love to work through. This is how we grow; this is actually how He grows in us.  Intercessory prayer is the process by which the Father fulfils his eternal purpose, which is to reproduce Himself in a body of many human beings. This is how He multiplies His love for his people.    

And it all starts with, “Ask and it shall be given.” But it is not selfishly asking for both physical and spiritual things. Rather it is asking the Father to touch someone else.

You love someone that is hurting…

Kenneth Wayne Hancock