March 1, 2004

"Ask And It Shall Be Given"

All that intercessors really do is bridge the gap.  We're like the old-fashioned telephone operators.  We plug in the one who is requesting something into God.  We stay out of the way, but we're the connectors.  We are the bridges.

Jesus wants us to ask.  If human beings have Jesus Christ alive within them, when they pray, it's the Lord who is asking.  The Father will not refuse that prayer because Jesus is the one and only Intercessor and Mediator.  Jesus said, "If you live in Me, and My words stay part of you, you may ask what you will-it  will be done for you. . . All you ask the Father in my name he will give you" (Jn 15:7, 16 ).  The little catch here though is "in My name."  It is not just praying in the name of Jesus, but it is praying in union with Jesus.   When a woman marries, she receives the name of her husband because of the union, the relationship.  Jesus is talking about those in relationship with Him, those who are praying in His name because then it's really Jesus Himself who is asking.  He said, "Ask what you will and it will be done" - and here's the condition - "if you live in Me and My Words stay part of you."  Not just to hear My words, but to live them out, to enflesh them.  He said, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who lives in Me and I in him, will produce abundantly, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5).  So there are many prayers going forth, but some of them are apart from Him so they are not bearing a lot of fruit.  Effective intercession is remembering that we're only the branches.  The branch can't bear fruit without being attached to the vine or the tree.  Jesus said, "Your fruit must endure so that all you ask the Father in My name He will give you" (Jn 15:16). 

We haven't begun to tap into the power of this ministry, but Jesus is spelling it out for us.  The reason that we start everything with, "Lord, teach us to pray" is because of a simple Scripture that He gave us years ago.   The prophet Amos  said, "The Lord God does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants, the prophets" (see Am 3:7).  We begin to realize that if we want God to move, first He will reveal to us how He wants to move.  That's what we're seeking when we pray, "Lord, teach us how to pray.  Show us what You want to do."  We receive letters that ask us to pray for a particular healing, but many times when we lift it up to the Lord, He reveals that He wants to heal some other things first.  So we always need to seek His mind on how to pray first.  Once He reveals what He wants to do, then we ask Him to do it.  In a sense, all intercessors are prophets.  We hear God's Word, we speak it right back to Him, and He goes into action.

Excerpt from "Bringing Forth the Kingdom of God," Escondido, CA, 2002.