This morning, in my study time with the Lord, looking for another scripture, I “accidentally” came across a tremendous scripture to do with our prayer topic (refugees) and the root problem; wars on the earth, whether small or large. The scripture is found in Psalm 46:9
“He makes wars cease to the end of the earth
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot of fire.”
Knowing this, we have a promise given by God about Himself. If we are willing to use this in an unrelenting way (may God give us perseverance!), in prayer and petition, we have the confidence that we are praying according to His will and therefore have that petition. Of course, just like the widow and the judge (Luke 18:1-8), Daniel (Daniel 10:12) and many others; perseverance is of the essence. I don’t know why that is; in my simplistic mind I seem to think that asking Him once and then just thanking Him will “do the job”. I think that we have to let the Spirit guide us when it is time to move from intercession to thanksgiving alone. Our independent selves are tempted to be guided mainly by our own understanding. It would seem simpler that way but the fruit will be missing (“for without Me you can do nothing” John 15:5). He wants “fruit that will last”.
God Himself said of those interceding about Jerusalem, “give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem..” Is. 62:7. This is the same principle at work in any issue of intercession.
Another, seemingly obvious one is the issue of a pure heart before God; “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Ps 66:18. The reward is well worth it: the assurance of answered prayer and lasting peace!
Here is another article on intercession I found useful:
The Prayer of Intercession By Gordon Robertson, CEO, Christian Broadcasting Network
Welcome to the third in our series on how to get answers to prayer. We want you to have the direct experience of knowing that God is both hearing your prayers and He is sending answers.
The third lesson has to do with how we know that God is answering. Well, the Apostle John gives us that answer in 1 John 5:14-15: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
So, here is a tremendous key. If we are praying in accordance with God’s will, then we have the confidence that He is hearing us. We also have the confidence that if we know that He is hearing us, we know that we have the answer to what we are praying for.
How do we know if we are praying in accordance to God’s will? One of the prime ways is to study the prayers that are recorded in the Bible. If we pray in accordance with those prayers, then automatically we know that we are praying in accordance with God’s will. If we are praying any particular promise of God, then we know that we are praying in accordance with His will. One of the great promises is from Jeremiah: Ask of Me, call to Me, and I will show you great and mighty things. So, if you are praying, ‘Lord, I am praying in accordance with Your promise,’ then you know you are praying in accordance with His will and you know that you have the thing that you are requesting.
Now, some things come up in our lives where we don’t know, where there isn’t a particular promise in the Bible that we can rely on. What do we do then? We have the Comforter, and that is the Holy Spirit.
Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26
What a tremendous promise that the Spirit Himself is making intercession for us. This is what happens when we get into what I call intercessory prayer, where, literally, we get such a burden of prayer that there are groanings within us. Usually, we are on our knees, crying out to God because of that tremendous burden of prayer. If you haven’t yet experienced that in your prayer life, please pray for it, please ask for it, please seek for this. It is a tremendous thing that happens when the Spirit literally overtakes you and fills you with such a burden of prayer that groanings literally come out of you as you are laboring and travailing in prayer. This kind of prayer is a supernatural kind of prayer.
I have experienced it when I have prayed for nations, when I have prayed for people groups, and there wasn’t a particular promise in the Bible for that particular nation but there was the general promise, ask of Me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. When I began to pray that over particular nations, over particular people groups, then a tremendous burden of love and compassion and travailing prayer for that people group came over me. I started praying for laborers to go into that particular people group in accordance with Jesus’ admission to pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers to go into His harvest.
So, this links it all together, where we have the prayer of intercession, we have the Holy Spirit gifted to us, and the Holy Spirit then guides our prayers.
If you haven’t experienced this, please ask for this because it is a tremendous thing to be interceding in accordance with what the Spirit tells you.
Gordon Robertson became the Chief Executive Officer of CBN on November 30, 2007. Prior to being named CEO, Gordon was the Executive Producer of The 700 Club for the past six years and a member of the board of directors for the past five years. He is also founder and president of CBN Asia, Inc. and founder and president of the Asian Center for Missions.