You are invited to join me on a journey in progress – one I’ve been exploring for a while without sharing. For reasons I will probably address in coming posts, I’ve been stingy. But I can no longer keep these things to myself, so I hope you’ll join me. Most come from conversations I had with Daddy, so some is in dialogue form, some sudden understandings by the Spirit, others indescribable. That’s the reality of living by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. What an interesting journey!
As I talked with Daddy about the terrible situation in Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Israel, and so many other nations, a familiar heaviness overwhelmed me as I considered how much I needed to pray for the entire Middle East. People’s lives hung in the balance, spiritually and physically, but I didn’t even know where to start. Then I heard it – His still, small voice – reminding me, “But you’re not supposed to carry it.”
Of course. None of us are supposed to carry it. Yet the emotional appeal that bombarded social media, the one fraught with unspoken guilt, told us our duty as Christians was to carry these hurting ones in prayer. Our emotions latched on, but they misled. Intercession is called for, not based on emotion, though emotion might be evidenced in the process. Rather, our intercession comes from Daddy’s perspective, from the victory He accomplished through Christ.
When we intercede, whether for far-away nations or next-door neighbors, asking (sometimes begging) God to do what He’s already done is ineffective. Instead, asking Him what He would have us declare and decree by His Spirit concerning what will and will not take place is called for. After all, we are not only priests, but kings. Kings don’t ask. Kings declare and decree. One word or many, spoken from the heart of our King Jesus, allows us to rest and stand, regardless of what we see or hear.
Ephesians 6:13 Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. AMP
With that understanding, I was stirred to intercede for my brothers and sisters all over the world. For all who are stuck in natural as they pray, exerting much effort with little effect, finding only frustration and even condemnation for not having prayed enough or hard enough. What an unforgiving treadmill! “Lord, what would You have me declare for them that they will see the reality of intercession from our seat next to Jesus and find rest there?”
Another understanding: We have been blinded and deceived, relying on religion to teach the Bible, to teach prayer, to teach only what religion wants us to know. But the very one who blinds and deceives and controls is the one at the root of religion!
By Your Spirit, I declare, “No more! In Your grace, I call forth the real body of Christ, the new creation born again in Christ’s resurrection after dying with Him in His death, hungering to live and move and have their being in Christ alone, no longer by religion’s deception and control. The body I call forth is fully alive in the righteousness of Christ in them, declaring and decreeing that same righteousness throughout the earth, in the infinite ways You speak it.”
With that, my session with Daddy ended that day, though it wasn’t the end of what He would share with me. Stay tuned for more of this journey . . .
(This one’s for you, Donna. I long for the revelation of Christ you now have, but I thank you for spurring me on.)
To Make Christ Known 