Intercession: The Throne Ministry # 2

Intercessory Prayer (continued)

There are four realms of intercessory prayer, and each realm builds upon the other; it is a building process:

1. Intercessory prayer for salvation of souls.
2. Intercessory prayer for problems and troubles of Christians - "for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18).
3. Intercessory prayer for the maturing of the Body of Christ.
4. Intercessory prayer for the Divine Purpose of God as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

If anyone aspires to this highest form of ministry (that of an intercessor), he will have to be putting on and coming into the characteristics of an intercessor. The Lord gave the following characteristics of an intercessor; and through the years we have found that as we prayed these Scriptures which the Lord gave us, and as we prayerfully searched into them, the Lord has been, and still is, faithful in making them real in our experience.

1. An intercessor must know the Word and receive the Word by the Spirit - as Stephen, Daniel, and Solomon did (Acts 6:8-15; 7:1-60; Daniel 9; 1 Kings 8).

2. An intercessor has to be in the Spirit (2 Samuel 23:1, 2; Ephesians 6:18; Romans 8:14; Revelation 1:9, 10; Jude 20, 21).

3. An intercessor identifies himself with the Body of Christ (Isaiah 53; Nehemiah 1:11; 1 Samuel 12:1-25; Hebrews 4:1, 11, 14, 16).

4. An intercessor is concerned with the Full Purpose and Full Plan of God concerning the Body of Christ, and through prayer chooses to bring it about (Mark 1:14, 15; Philippians 2:9-11; John 17:21-26; Romans 8:27; Ephesians 1:10; 3:14-21).

5. An intercessor will birth and bring Christ forth in fullness in other believers by the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 3:10, 12, 13; Galatians 4:19).

6. An intercessor will have discerned as to how and what to pray and will lead the Body of Christ into effective praying; and an intercessor will know what is hindering the Body of Christ from coming into fullness.

There are two kinds of discernment. One kind of discernment is the gift of discernment as found in 1 Corinthians 12:10; Acts 8:14-24; 1 Kings 3:9-12; and Isaiah 7:14, 15. The other kind is growth in discernment through the Word, as given in Hebrews 5:11-14. Both are needed in the Body of Christ.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 3)