Intercession: The Throne Ministry # 10

Corporate Continuing Prayer (continued)

Continuing Prayer with Thanksgiving (continued)

Hear the Spirit of the Son as He cries out from the depths of His being unto His Father: "ABBA, FATHER."

"ABBA FATHER",

not My will (My desire) but Thine be done ...
Lo, here I AM, come to do Your Will, O God;
[to fulfill what is written of Me
in the volume of the Book...
I delight (I desire, I AM grateful, I AM thankful,
I AM well-pleased) to do Thy Will ...
My desire, My disposition, My attitude, My 
inclination, the whole bent of My Mind and Spirit,
the desire of My Whole Being,
IS to please Thee, My Father, to pleasure Thee
with that which is "according to Your good Pleasure,"
MY FATHER, "ABBA, FATHER."

Herein dwells the Spirit of the Son, and in these beautiful words we find the meaning of "Abba, Father": this is the accompanying power we need to balance our praying and watching. Beloved, there is great power that joins our prayers when, in spite of all circumstances, we can intercede for God's Purpose with the cry in our heart, "Not my will but Thine be done," - Abba, Father, it is my pleasure, my joy to do Your Will."

So we see that intercession "with thanksgiving" involves much more than just our praise and worship, or our being grateful for His blessings and benefits. The accompanying power of thanksgiving, which completes the whole of effectual prayer, consists of a heart which [no matter what the trial or circumstances] has learned in measure, and is learning unto fullness, that "all things work together for good (God's End through His Way) to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His Purpose."

In the New Testament, our brethren knew the reality of what it was to intercede "with thanksgiving" - 

Jude: "Earnestly contending for the faith," prayed ... "Now (right now while in the midst of contending ...) Now Unto Him That is able to keep..." (verse 24).

John: on the Isle of Patmos, realizing the magnitude of God's judgment said, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus ... Amen" (Revelation 22:20, 21).

Peter: encouraging his persecuted brethren, and facing death himself, triumphantly prays, "To Him = He is (which is stating a fact not a wish,) His Is The Might Unto The Ages of the Ages: men" (1 Peter 5:11).

Paul: realizing his kinsmen after the flesh were cut off (later to be restored) so "that He (God) may show mercy to all," prayed, "Because of Him and Through Him and To Him are all things; To Him be The Glory Unto the Ages: Amen" (Romans 11:36).

Paul: later from his prison cell, with his heart throbbing with The Glory of The Great Mystery cries out, "Now to the One being able beyond all things to do super-abundantly of which we ask or we think according to the power operating in us, to Him [be] the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all the Generations of the Age of the Ages: Amen" (Ephesians 3:20, 21).

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 11 - (The Value of Corporate Prayer)