March 15, 2004

"Does Intercession Really Work?"

Intercessors very rarely know the outcome of their intercession, but there are times when God is strengthening our faith or teaching us that He will let us know the outcome.  That's up to Him.  When He thinks that letting us know the outcome of our intercession would be helpful and give us more determination and courage, then He will let us know.

The first time I experienced God letting me know the result of my intercession was when I was still in the cloister.  Cloistered nuns know nothing about what is going on in the outside world.  There isn't a TV or a newspaper.  Superiors are very careful what they share.  There are family visits for a few hours once a year so there isn't much news there either.  You're getting everything from God.  There was a man in the state penitentiary in New Jersey and for some reason, my superior wanted me to read a book about him.  This was very unusual because it was a secular book.  I read his story and the Lord let me understand that this man was innocent.  He was sentenced to death and had already been on death row for fifteen years waiting electrocution. 

I thought, "Lord, obviously You want prayer for this man because He's innocent."  His mother had gone to work and was working around the clock, doing everything possible to earn money to get better attorneys so they could have more appeals.  But now the money had run out.  There just wasn't anything else that anyone could do except God.  You know, God's always the last resort.  Have you ever noticed?  When there isn't anyone else to turn to, we turn to God.  I wonder why we waste so much time, but that's how we are. 

I got about three of the cloistered sisters to pray with me.  We targeted him as our special focus to really get the grace for him.  As we prayed and made special sacrifices for him, I began to wonder, "Lord, we'll never know.  We'll never know if he's going to die or live.  He's in New Jersey; we're in a cloister in St. Paul, Minnesota.  We'll never know."  Or so I thought!  One night our superior said, "I know that you haven't seen television and that we don't have one here, but I know some of you like William Buckley and he's on television tonight.  I am bringing a little portable TV into the cloister for those sisters who want to watch this program."  It was called "Fireside Chat."  There were just a few of us who wanted to see this program, and it was really interesting.  When the program began, William Buckley said, "Tonight, we are not broadcasting from the studio.  We are at the entrance to the New Jersey State Penitentiary because Eddie Smith is being released."  Isn't that beautiful!  So God will let us know the result of our intercession when He thinks that we need to know.  We can press on. 

Excerpt from Powers and Principalities Conference, "Sword of Power: New Covenant Prayer," Omaha, NE, 2003.

March 8, 2004

"Active Listening"

The Lord has taught us to help people learn how to listen through what He calls active listening.  In active listening, we're listening, but we're also asking questions and listening for the answers.  If we go into the quiet and think that we're going to listen, we can't listen very long to silence.  The distractions will start, and we may be listening to ourselves or to all the noise within.  The Apostles asked questions all the time.  I never realized that until, while still in the cloister, the Lord wanted us to teach some seminarians how to pray.  I said, "How do You want us to teach these men to pray?"  He said, "The same way I taught the Apostles.  Let them ask questions."  When we read the Gospels, we found that the Apostles constantly asked Jesus questions, and He always gave them an answer. 

So we are children, and children love to ask questions.  This is how we begin, but the key here is only ask one question at a time.  If we ask two or three or four questions in sitting or in one little paragraph, as a rule we will find silence.  If God answered us, we wouldn't know what question He was talking about, so we only ask one question at a time. 

We place a great deal of emphasis on journaling.  We usually write the question and answer out.  You might want to start with a favorite Scripture and ask, "What do you mean by this, Lord?"  Or if you have something that is really bothering you, you can put that before the Lord.  Be very specific, but just ask one question at a time.  "Lord, I really need to hear from You about this." 

Then write what starts to come to your mind.  The wisdom within is going to start surfacing.  Our tendency may be to skip writing it down, saying, "Oh, this is just me."  Even if the first part is just us, it's still the Holy Spirit who is getting that out so room can be made for God's Word.  When our interior is so filled with our words and thoughts, there isn't much room for God's words and thoughts.  So He has to empty us out. 

So be sure that you are faithful to your journaling.  Ask questions.  When Gabriel came, even Our Lady asked a question.  Don't hesitate to ask a question.  Jesus is a teacher, Rabbouni, and teachers love questions. 

Excerpt from "Having the Heart of God," Escondido, CA, 2002.

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.

February 23, 2004

"The Power of Heart Piercings"

One of the most powerful methods of intercession is when God allows the piercing of the heart.  All of us have experienced our hearts being pierced at different times.   It can be pierced with rejection from someone we love.  It can be pierced with loneliness.  It can be pierced simply because of misunderstanding.  Our heart is usually pierced because someone who is close to us has hurt us.  Those are the ones who God will use because it's love that pierces the heart.  Love pierced the heart of Mary so that the thoughts of other hearts could be revealed (see Luke 2:35).  So if your heart is being pierced, know that you are empowered and intercede as never before.  Ask God to use your pain power, that suffering power in union with the heart of Mary and the pierced heart of Jesus.  The results will be phenomenal. 

The first time I realized this was when I came home from the cloister.  A doctor and his wife had given me a hermitage to live in as well as a darling little kitten.  I became very close to this little kitten.  In the meantime, I was involved in a lot of prayer ministry, intercession, and teaching.  Once while I was praying on a prayer team, a person came to us because she had a headache.  She looked like she was dying.  I thought to myself, "I hope she doesn't come to our prayer team when Father's not here because she looks awfully sick."  But sure enough, she came for prayer ministry the one day that Father wasn't there.  I thought, "Well, a headache shouldn't be too hard to get healing for."  You see, I was still thinking that we have something to do with it.  So we just asked the Lord, "Please heal her headache."  All of a sudden, she jumped up, right out of the chair, and her face looked so surprised.  Her eyes were open, and she said, "It's gone!"  I said, "That's wonderful.  How long have you had this headache?"  She said, "Five years."  She had really been suffering.

She had another illness somewhere in her spine.  When she had had a spinal tap, something had happened in her spine, and the doctors were not able to heal it.  So she went off to some very well-known doctors in Massachusetts to have more tests.  While she was out there, my kitten got killed.  That brought tremendous heart pain for me.  I was very bonded with this little kitten.  The phone rang that afternoon.  It was my friend who had this spinal problem.  I said, "Did the doctors find out what was wrong?"  She said, "No, but God healed me about an hour ago.  I'm totally healed.  I'm pain free."  She said, "I think I could fly home without the airplane."  So I knew then that when we're in pain ourselves, God will use our pain, in union with His pain, to heal the pain of others.  Intercession works in this tremendous power. 

So whenever you have heart pain, no matter what it is or what caused it, God will honor that pain.  So use your pain.  Pain has power for an intercessor.          A priest once told us that he thought the greatest sorrow really wasn't pain, but it was wasted pain. 

Excerpt from "Power of Intercessory Prayer," Drexel, PA, and "Intercession," Picayune, MS, 2002.