There are five qualities of the spirit of an effective intercessor which are very important for us to grasp, for this is what we want to be.
First of all, an intercessor has a right spirit (or a righteous spirit). Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:1, 2.
You are wasting your time praying if there is sin in your life. Take care of that first. There is no point in trying to accomplish great things for God if you have not repented of your sins. There is nothing wrong with God: His ear is not heavy; His hand is not short; but iniquity separates you and God, and sins hide His face from you.
The book of Hebrews is very rich in imagery taken out of the Pentateuch. So often it refers back to the Tabernacle and the Temple, the old sanctuary, the old covenants and promises in the Old Testament.
It is significant that the book of Hebrews was issued upon the Christian world approximately one year before the fall of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), so that the people of Jerusalem who had set such high store upon the city of David already had been prepared by the Holy Spirit that there was a heavenly Jerusalem far greater than that earthly city which was to pass away.
And though they knew the prophecies of Jesus that Jerusalem would fall and not one stone of the Temple would be left standing upon another, yet it was a great shock even to the Christian Jew to see it ravaged as it was under the Roman domination.
Hebrews 10:22 is a verse hard to be understood unless you know the reference to the Old Testament: Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water.
How do you sprinkle your hearts and wash your body with clean water? This is referring to the way people in the Old Testament approached God, but it applies to the right way an intercessor must approach Him.
The symbolism of this is very evident. First of all, as one entered the Old Testament sanctuary of the Tabernacle, he would come into the outer court, then into the Tabernacle itself—it was a tent of dwelling, a tent of meeting with God, divided into a room that occupied two-thirds of the area and another section that occupied one-third of the area.
The larger area was called “the holy place”; the smaller area was called “the Holy of Holies.”
In the holy place was the table of showbread (which was baked daily), the lamp stands and the altar of incense just before the veil.
It is significant that the book of Hebrews puts the altar of incense within the veil.
In the Holy of Holies, according to Hebrews 9:3–4, was the altar of incense plus the ark of the covenant, but actually, in the Old Testament, the altar of incense was on the outside of the veil before the priest entered in.
If you were to enter the Tabernacle, your first impression as you came into the outer court would be very disconcerting.
There would be priests who looked more like men of a slaughterhouse, because at the altar of burnt offering there would be people bringing their animals as sin offerings before the Lord.
The stench of hide and skin and whole burnt offerings burning pervaded the outer court.
Imagine what the Tabernacle was like with between one and a half to three million people bringing sacrifices for their sins.
Just by the law of averages there is a lot of sin in three million people. One whole tribe was occupied with the priesthood and was busy about this service. The sacrifices represented a great deal of blood. The priests ripped open some of them and took out the entrails, which were taken without the camp and burned; others were whole burnt offerings before the Lord.
The priests would leave the altar bloody and stinking; then before entering the Tabernacle, they could come to the holy laver.
The laver was beautiful—a great open vessel containing a large quantity of pure water. Here the priests washed.
It is significant that it was built with mirrors the Israelite women had borrowed from the Egyptians when they left.
The laver was made of shining brass in which the priest looked down after he left the place of sacrifice and there could see his face.
It is a type of our being cleansed with the washing of the water of the word (Ephesians 5:26). With the marvelous ministry of the Word we see what manner of man we are, and we wash and make ourselves clean.
Then the priest went on into the holy place. In referring to this, Hebrews 10:22 says, “With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, we draw nigh unto the Lord with a true heart in fullness of faith.”
That is the first picture of an effective intercessor as he comes before the altar of incense and offers his worship, intercession and prayers to the Lord.
The book of Revelation twice refers to the prayers of the saints as sweet incense that came up to the Lord. As they come up, it is acceptable to God because they have already been through the route of being cleansed by a sacrifice offered for them, through that which washes them of the stench and leaves them clean before God by a substituted righteousness, and they come into another room where there is no stench, only the sweet incense burning. That is the way God views our prayers when we come with spirits made right before Him.
“If I look with favor upon iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18). God does not want you to come before His presence while you are harboring sin.
It is sin that separates you and your God so that He will not hear. We come before the Lord with a righteousness, knowing that we have the promise, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.
The first prerequisite of prevailing prayer is that we come before the Lord with a spirit made right by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The second quality of an effective intercessor—and that would be a quality of spirit—is a separated spirit, or a spirit that is detached from the rest of the world. So much the more went abroad the report concerning him: (Jesus) and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed of their infirmities. But he withdrew himself in the deserts and prayed. Luke 5:15, 16.
We can look to no better example of a detached or separated spirit than that of the Lord’s. Though He cared for the multitudes (Matthew 9:36 says He was moved with compassion when He looked upon them because they were as sheep without a shepherd), it still did not stop Him from withdrawing to pray, for He had to be detached.
A man that is overwhelmed with human sympathy in a situation is sure to bog down and become ineffective. Christ was always effective because He was always separated from the situation. Oh, He was made flesh like as we. He could understand it perfectly, but He did not involve Himself with a sympathy that absorbed the problem in Himself; He was ready to deliver it.
One who is an intercessor must do the same thing. If you are going to intercede because you have sympathy for a brother, then get somebody else to pray for him.
Even a doctor follows a certain procedure if his wife is sick: he gets some other doctor to care for her. Problems could arise from treating members of his family; they are too close.
In some cases, a ministry cannot minister to his own family, for if there is any sympathy, he must be withdrawn from it. Christ Himself was not accepted by His brethren. He said, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin. Mark 6:4.
In Acts 20:24 is a picture of a minister or an intercessor who has a perfect, separated spirit, completely detached. Paul says (as they were telling him about the problems that were awaiting him in Jerusalem): But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
He did not count his life to be anything. An intercessor, to be really effective, should be just as willing, if the Lord would ask him, to lay down his life in order to see the will of God wrought in a situation. It is that supreme case of unselfishness.
The thing that renders intercession ineffective is self-interest. When we come to the place in which we lay everything on the altar, our intercession will be effective. When it has self-interest or self-seeking, the answer does not come forth. There must be that which is detached and separated, which prays for the greater glory of God alone.
Do not get the idea we are talking about some special elite ministry when we refer to intercession. Every ministry has an element of intercession in it. No matter what you are doing in the church, even if it is only a manual function with your hands, be very careful to give yourself to intercession. If your spirit is not really dedicated and seeking the Lord, things go wrong. They go right when you have a right spirit, and they go better when that right spirit has an additional quality of being separated.
Perhaps you feel you are not ready for the self-denial and discipline required to intercede. You may not be that kind of person in many areas of your life, but anything for which you are burdened to pray, you can pray for it!
How detached, how separated can we be in our spirits, so that we do not respond to things that affect us with vindictiveness, anger or temper, with any human response?
Suppose you come out of a denominational church where the pastor is giving everyone who received the Holy Spirit a bad time, and they are being railroaded out of the church. What do you do after you leave, pray for God to bring that church down? Or will you pray for the work that God is doing there?
There must be in our spirits only a drive to see the will of God accomplished. Whatever God says, do it; with no pity, no vindictiveness, no bogging down in personal feelings. We must be able to pray for one another with a pure heart and a right spirit. To pray for one another without self-seeking entering into it is not easy.
The third quality of an effective intercessor is the focused spirit. A spirit that is focused can pray, no matter what a person is going through.
If God lays a burden upon his heart to pray for one thing, and in spite of problems, troubles, harassment and distractions, he continues to pray for that one burden, he is a real intercessor.
If, in an upheaval of emotions and disturbances, he starts praying against everything under the sun, the devil has accomplished his purpose. He will always create distractions, but the man who intercedes and prevails is the man who stays on one course and never stops until he gets an answer.
Real intercession is prayer according to the will of God; it is prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (therefore, under His authority); it is prayer in the Spirit. It is not prayer from your own spirit but through the Holy Spirit. Your spirit is involved in the exercise of the Holy Spirit in pure prayer that comes in the name of Jesus, according to His will.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do. John 14:13, 14. “Whatsoever you ask”—that means your spirit has to be focused on something. The promise “whatsoever” may be general, but it is general to people who will make a specific request. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13.
How are you going to pray, “O Lord, save whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord”? You will get nowhere with that. You are praying that He will keep His promise. You have to make the promise a specific thing.
It is like having a check made out to “Cash.” You cannot write “Cash” on the back of the check and expect anyone to cash it; it needs your signature.
So, when the Lord says: “Whatsoever you shall ask,” “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord,” “If ye shall ask anything,” it is like having the check written out to “Cash.” But in order to get it, you have to be specific and definite before the money is yours.
An intercessor’s spirit must be focused on actual objectives. He is praying for definite people, for definite situations. “O Lord, bless this church” is very good, but be more specific: pray for the glory of the Lord; pray for the thing that has to be. Pray for the pastor and the elders. Go down the line and bring down everything that stands in the way. Name it; identify it! What you need in the Lord, pray for it.
An intercessor’s spirit has to focus on the thing that he is praying for, if he wants to receive it from the Lord. An illustration of that is in Acts 4. Peter and John had gotten into trouble with the authorities and came back after they were released and had a prayer meeting. There was nothing vindictive about their prayers, although they had been threatened with future warrants.
And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest forth thy hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of thy holy Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:29–31.
God heard that because it was specific. They were not praying out of the will of the Lord. They lifted up their voices together, praying, “Lord, hear their threatenings. Give us boldness when we speak. Bring signs and wonders, miracles, healings.” They said exactly what they wanted, and it pleased the Holy Spirit so much that He shook the buildings; He filled them.
The Word does not say they even prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit again, nor did they pray: “Lord, shake the buildings.” They were praying for definite, specific things, and that intercession so pleased God that the whole thing was given to them. When you learn to intercede in the will of God and seek first the Kingdom, you will be surprised how many other things will be added to you.
Number four: a true intercessor has a relentless, aggressive and intense spirit. One of the truest examples of intercession in the Bible is in Romans 9, verses 1–3: I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ (that means accursed from Christ) for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites. Romans 9:1–4a.
Paul writes the same thing again in the tenth chapter, verse 1: Brethren, my heart’s desire and my supplication, to God is for them, that they may be saved.
How could a man love Christ that much? Didn’t Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, want to make heaven? Didn’t he want to spend eternity with Christ? He had written of his hunger and yearning after the Lord—“Oh, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
Yet when he began to intercede, he laid it right on the line: “I could wish myself accursed from Christ. I would be willing to go to hell, if it could mean the release of my brethren after the flesh.”
It was not that Paul and his brothers, after the flesh, were very close: they caused riots, arranged to have him beat up frequently, went on long fasts, vowing not to eat until they assassinated him.
It was not an especially congenial bunch that he was burdened for. Why did he love them? Because God put love in his heart for his people, he was ready to give himself for them.
After Paul became a Christian, he could not leave through the gates of the first city that he visited because they were set to assassinate him, so friends put him in a basket and let him down over the wall. Those boys did not leave town in an airplane or a limousine or with a police escort; they slipped out quietly, in the dark of the moon! But as they were out of sight, you could hear them pray; “O God, save them; deliver them.”
Can we become relentless, aggressive, intense in our spirits like that, with nothing moving us, nothing disturbing us, even when we are unappreciated and our love is not returned? That is the way Paul prayed.
Moses, in the Old Testament, had that same quality. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin and they have made themselves gods of gold, yet, now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; (A dash, carried through right from the old manuscripts, was put here in this particular verse of Scripture.) “If You will forgive their sin, fine—” and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Exodus 32:32.
God promised Moses that He would make of him a great nation, and fulfill the promises in him. Moses answered Him, “Lord, if You want to forgive them, O.K. If You do not want to forgive them, blot me out.”
How can we understand this continuing in prayer, this persistence, aggressiveness, relentlessness, this intensity of spirit that an intercessor has? We cannot, unless we identify it with Christ.
An intercessor is a perpetuation of Gethsemane and the sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. It is the perpetuation of Calvary’s cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
It is the ministry of Christ coming forth in His love and His compassion through people who can look round about them, yet continue bringing forth the intercession of Gethsemane and of Calvary’s cross in their own lives. Christ, living in them and praying in them—that is the only way we can understand intercessory prayer.
The fifth (and last) quality about the human spirit of an effective intercessor is a spirit that is audacious.
A person with this quality is bold; he looks at the promises of God and is willing to believe whatever God says. When summoned to walk on water, he hops out of a boat. An audacious spirit is bold to believe; it reaches out. It may not have much of a promise, but that is all it needs.
The spirit of Elijah was audacious. It had not rained for three and a half years, and the people were under the impression it would never rain again, but, up on the top of that mountain, Elijah faces the sea, bows his head between his knees and begins to pray that it might rain! He begins to cry out to the Lord with all of his heart, “O God, send the rain.” And he cannot see very well so he sends a little boy—“Go, look; see if there’s a cloud.”
The little boy looks all around and comes back: “No cloud; no rain.” So Elijah prays again, seven times. The seventh time the boy comes back and says: “Yes, I can see it. There’s a tiny little cloud out there,”
“How big is it?”
“About the size of a man’s hand.”
Elijah stands. “Get out of here fast. There’s going to be a flood.” That is audaciousness. Just give him a hint, a little suggestion, and he will stand on it. Just breathe on him and he will believe for another Pentecost with a rushing mighty wind.
That is all we need, a cloud the size of a man’s hand. Let us press for it.
“But it’s just a little cloud. It will disappear.”
It will disappear if you think that. But let us begin to pray, “Lord, bless that cloud; make it a big one. Send showers of blessing, not little sprinkles. Come on, now, we want that cloud. Let it expand until it begins to split off. Let’s have some more clouds.” Stand there and command those clouds, and soon we will see a famine of three and a half years ended if we believe!
And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked (or desired) of him. I John 5:14, 15.
Isn’t that audacious? That does not leave any opening to the devil at all. “This is the boldness which we have toward Him.” Your spirit has to have that audacious faith; it has to come boldly to the throne of grace. Because you know that He hears you, whatever you desire of Him you will receive as you seek it in His name.
Romans 4:20, 21: …looking unto the promise of God, he (Abraham) wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Imagine old Abraham getting up in the morning, going out for breakfast, thinking about the promises of God. He takes one look at Sarah, and decides he would rather take a walk down by the seashore. He remembers the promise, “As many as the grains of sand, so will your seed be.”
He refuses to waver in faith or stagger at the promises. He thinks “God will have to rejuvenate Sarah.” That night, he is so tired his bones are aching. He comes and Sarah gives him a look, so he goes and takes a look at himself. He decides that is not the course for him and hobbles out into the night. Looking up at the stars of the heavens, the promise is renewed: “So shall thy seed be.”
It takes a man or woman who is audacious to be an intercessor. They does not look at appearances, but at the Lord God, Who made the promise. It is an audacious spirit that lays hold upon the promises of the Lord.