Intercessory prayer and spiritual depression
The psalmist writes: I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. In Proberbs the author writes: Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Here in is the chief reason why intercessory prayer is so difficult, and why prayer itself weighs so heavily. I want God to act now! As God has stirred my heart to pray for revival in these past few years it has required me to reflect again and again on the desperate need of the church. As I mentioned this past Sunday we have witnessed a substantial number of young people from our own congregation make professions of faith only to turn away from this commitment. This is heartbreaking. It should cause us to grieve and to mourn. And this is a very difficult burden to bear. Revival praying requires stripping away all the props, all the excuses, and all the rationalizations. It involves identifying yourself with the need rather than distancing one’s self and praying for “those people, over there who need to do thus and so.” It means that we open our hearts and we take on ourselves the desperation and anguish that will propell us to pray and not give up. That last sentence is a hugh revelation to me. In order to pray with any passion or intensity I must allow myself to feel the desperation.
Intercessory prayer for revival requires living with deferred hope. Once we allow the Lord to draw us into intercession, particularly for revival we have signed up for deferred hope. And with that deferred hope is a very real temptation to become heart sick. Here is the deal: once you develop an appetite for revival, nothing else will do. That is a quandry - to be an intersessor for revival is to live in the tension of the already and the not yet. We want revival, but it is not here. We want more power from God (cause we see how little there is). We want to see the lost won to Jesus, because we see how few believe. We want to see deliverance from life controlling problems, because we see so many Christians living in bondage to sinful habits, fear, and worldliness. The more you pray for those situations the closer your heart is brought to the reality of how much we need Jesus, and how little we are actually pursuing Him.
One of the soul stirring encouragements which God gives to the intercessor is the prayers of other intercessors. My heart is always lifted by the sound of my fellow watchmen crying out to the Lord. I love hearing the groans of agreement, the amen’s, the thank you Jesus’ and the heartfelt cries to Jesus for His help. Do you know just how blessed it is to hear those sounds when you are praying? It is like food for the soul. The physical presence, and sounds of fellow intersessors strenghtens the hearts of other intersessors. It reminds me of a story from Exodus - (11)Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12)But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. I believe that we need each other in prayer if we are to sustain the persistant prayer to which God is calling LOG. We need to lift each others arms just like Aaron and Hur held up Moses arms.
I am confessing my need for that. I’m pretty sure that my fellow intercessors feel the same thing. My desire to see Tuesday morning, Thursday morning, Sunday morning and the monthly Cry for Awakening filled with intercessors is because there is great encouragement in the voices of many who allow their crys to rise up together. I am not talking about dutiful, obligatory prayer (which won’t last and is actually a drag). I’m talking about a family of brothers and sisters who can’t be contented with allowing their comrades to bear the weight of intercession alone.
Anyone who knows me, knows I try my best to avoid laying legalistic trips on people. I try and avoid saying things to people that I think would make them feel “guilty” or coerced in any way. But I believe that God is calling LOG to be a church which leads in the area of intercession for revival. What are your thoughts?