PRAYING FOR THE SAINTS Prayer is an essential ingredient in the fulfillment of God’s Word and His will in your life as a Christian, and you need to be constantly mindful of its importance. I’ve seen folks who have been Christians for many years, but rather than grow spiritually, they grew more and more religious. They emphasized how long they’d been Christians, and prided themselves in their long stay in the faith. God’s Word and the things of the Spirit became so commonplace to them, because they thought they’d seen and heard it all. Such an attitude is an offensive to the Spirit of God. This is why we ought to pray for the saints of God, so that they’ll know His Word by revelation and be effective in the things of the Spirit. WISDOM AND REVELATION “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe…” (Ephesians 1:15-19). You may confess, “I have the spirit of wisdom and revelation,” but it doesn’t come just by confession, otherwise Paul wouldn’t have had to pray this prayer for the Ephesian Christians. The spirit of wisdom Paul talking about here is the same mentioned in Isaiah 11:1-2: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;” Paul said, “I pray that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (God).” This is an intercession Paul made on behalf of the Ephesians Christians. Now, there are people who are born again, who have come to accept that God is their heavenly Father, Jesus is the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, but they don’t have divine insights about God. They’ve received the Holy Spirit, but haven’t come to know the kind of heavenly Father they have, or who the Holy Spirit is and what He can do in their lives. You ought to intercede for such people who have been born again but don’t have the light of God’s Word. They may even be ‘old’ Christians, but as long as they’re not walking in the light of God’s Word, they should be prayed for in this manner. You can also personalize the Pauline prayer in the book of Ephesians to yourself, for increase of revelation and wisdom. The Bible talked about how Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52). When you pray this way for yourself, you’ll also begin to experience spiritual development and have insight into the things of God. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” (Colossians 1:9). We need to apply wisdom and spiritual understanding in our lives. The Lord Jesus functioned by them; that’s why He could fulfill His ministry on earth in spite of the criticisms and persecutions He faced. When the Pharisees asked His views on the payment of taxes, he took a piece of coin and asked, “Whose image is on it?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. Then He said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:2!) and they were all dumbfounded. That was wisdom! When you study the life of Jesus and how He responded to the constant baiting from the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and doctors of the law, you can’t but agree that He really is the embodiment of Wisdom. By operating in wisdom, Jesus also knew when to escape from physical harm, even though He was the all-powerful Son of God. On a certain occasion, He had just finished preaching in the temple court when some of the Jews, offended by His teaching, wanted to seize Him and stone Him to death. He knew it wasn’t yet His time to be offered up, because He had spiritual understanding of the mind of God, and so He escaped before they could capture Him (John 10:22-39). Some Christians in the same situation today could say, “Nobody can touch me!” or “Go and ahead and shoot; it won’t hurt me!” Meanwhile, the Spirit of Wisdom could be telling them to get out of there. This may have been what happened with Paul that he was beaten to death at one time in Lystra. Thank God for the prayers of the saints that brought him back to life (Acts 14:19-20). Of course we must also remember that the Lord said we would suffer persecution for His sake. Therefore, we’re not exempt from such experiences either. Nevertheless, the Lord would have us filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I believe in this kind of prayer, and I have prayed it for myself and others through the years. THE SPIRIT OF MIGHT “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” (Ephesians 3:16) Colossians 1:11 also says: “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” Here we see Paul praying for the Ephesian and Colossian Christians to be strengthened with might. ‘Might’ here is not referring to your muscles or physical strength. It refers to the miracle-working ability of God though the Spirit. Remember that in Acts 1:8, Jesus said to His disciples, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” The word “power” in Acts 1:8 is from the same Greek word “dunamis” translated “might” in Ephesians 3:16 and Colossians 1:11. Power is the inherent, dynamic ability to cause changes. If you want changes in your body, family, job, or finances, you receive the inherent, dynamic ability to effect those changes when you receive the Holy Ghost! Thus, “might” in Ephesians 3:16 connotes miracle-working ability. So Paul’s prayer is that we be invigorated with miracle-working power in our spirits by the Holy Ghost. When this ability of the Spirit came upon Samson, it made Him more than a man and he performed extraordinary feats. One day, he got to the city gates of Gaza and pulled it out, poles, bars and all! You can imagine how heavy a city gate could be. Well, Samson not only pulls this one out, he hefted it on his shoulder and carried it far away from town to the top of a hill! That’s might! But Samson did even more. After the Philistines had captured him and gouged his eyes, they brought him out to entertain them during a great feast they were having in the temple of Dagon. Then Samson prayed, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes” (Judges 16:28). After he had prayed thus, the Spirit came upon him and gave him supernatural strength as before. When he placed his hands on the two middle pillars of the temple and started heaving against them, his captors thought he was kidding and started laughing at him. But before they knew what was happening, huge slabs of rock started pelting down as the supporting columns gave way. Their laughter turned into screams of terror as they were crushed under the huge stones that fell from everywhere in the building. Samson brought the whole building down on over three thousand people and not one of them escaped; he killed more Philistines in his death than in his lifetime. He was indeed a mighty man of valour, the champion of Israel. David must have read about Samson and was inspired by his testimonies. The day came when Samuel, the prophet of God, poured oil on David’s head and anointed him as a King. From then on, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon David. He went back to tending his father’s sheep, but he was a different man; he was carrying the anointing. One of those days, a lion came to take a lamb from his flock. Other men would have fled, but David, anointed by the Spirit of might, charged after the lion, caught it by its beard and killed it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. Another time, a bear came to take one of the lambs and it met the same fate as the lion. Also, when he faced Goliath of Gath, the Philistine giant, he told him he would end up like those beasts he had killed, and that was exactly what happened. These acts of magnificent gallantry were not done in Samson’s or David’s physical strength, but by the anointing of the Spirit of might that came upon them. When the Spirit of might is at work in you, He not only gives you boldness, but also brings you might – that overpowering force or extraordinary power that overcomes and surpasses strength itself. This is why you’ve got to pray, not only for yourself bur for other saints also, that we be filled with the Spirit of might to do superhuman things and bring glory to the Lord. CHRIST IN OUR HEARTS The Spirit of God at several times inspired Paul and other apostles of the early Church to pray for the saints. One of such instructive prayers is found in Ephesians 3:14-17: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith...... Here, Paul prays for God’s people that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. In other words, he prayed that we’d have a revelation of the mystery of Christ. In Colossians 1:27, he said, “... God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ in you – this is the mystery that had been hidden for ages and generations. Even the great apostles of Jesus Christ at the council in Jerusalem didn’t have a full grasp of it, because until the Holy Spirit taught them differently, they argue that Gentiles couldn’t be saved except they were circumcised according to the Old Testament Law (Acts 15:1-2). The Church of Jesus Christ at that time was still a baby Church. They were just beginning to understand a few things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His intercessory ministry for the saints. They didn’t realize that Gentiles (non-Jews) too could be saved by the blood of Jesus and become members of His body. That’s why Paul had to pray for them that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith; that they would understand “this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” THE LOVE OF CHRIST ....that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend will all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19). This prayer had to do with the revelation of the love of God in our daily walk. We’ve got to know the length, breadth, height and depth of the compelling love that made the Lord Jesus suffer and die for us. Have you heard someone ‘say, “I can’t please you and displease myself.” That’s not God’s kind of love; folks with such understanding haven’s received insight into the mind and plans of God. They’re not yet filled with the love of God. This is why you’ve got to pray for God’s people that they would have insight into the love of Christ, which is beyond natural, human comprehension. UTTERANCE AND BOLDNESS In Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Christians, he asked them to pray for him “... that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, “ (Ephesians 6:19). In another letter to Timothy, he said, “..God has not given us a spirit of fear (cowardice, timidity), but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). All these show that God wants Hs children to be very courageous. Paul asked the saints to intercede for him so he would be able to open his mouth boldly to preach the gospel, not because he didn’t have the spirit of boldness. Certainly not! Remember, it was Paul himself who affirmed that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and a sound mind. Imagine if a child of God gets the chance to face a crowd and share the gospel, and suddenly gets nervous. If the boldness of God doesn’t rise from his spirit, he’ll likely lose that wonderful opportunity to bring many to salvation. So when you pray like this for God’s saints, what you’re asking is for that character of God that is expressed in love, boldness, power, and wisdom to be evident in their lives. THAT LOVE MAY ABOUND “And this I pray, that your love many abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of are righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). I love Paul; he prayed with knowledge and understanding. He prayed, “that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge.” Love with knowledge is vital, He also prayed that our love will be in all judgment, that is, through the Spirit of counsel within, our love will be displayed with a good sense of judgment. Judgment here doesn’t refer to the kind handed down by a judge in a courtroom, but the ability to walk with divine counsel and know what to do by spiritual intuition. Paul also prayed that the Holy Spirit would work in our lives and enable us to approve things that are excellent, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. These are just some of the many prayers you can pray for God’s people to build them up, strengthen them and cause His counsel to be established in their lives. So it’s time for you to make a fresh commitment to your intercession ministry. Your motivation for intercession is not to see God meet your personal needs, but to see His will established in their lives of others. There’s so much you can accomplish when you pray like this. So, get to work. Start interceding for others and expect positive changes and outstanding results.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:00:27 +0000
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