7/7/2022 • Desk of Dennis Piller
The Ministry of Intercession and Travail. Part II
What a deep hurt for a parent or grandparent to see a young child who does not develop properly, whether it be intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually … They can’t seem to get out of the nursery of things or the wiles of those younger years of rebellion. It pains us to tears to see the apparent inability to grow beyond the age of a child. And so, we pray!
It is the same in our church today. Can I be very direct and bottom-line with you today? I do not hesitate to say that it is an abomination to God that his children remain sucking on a bottle, sitting in a pew, waiting for the next message to bless them, bless them, and bless them more with the great words of wisdom that come from the pulpit. I love the Prayer of Jabez…But they remain in their pews! They remain on the sidelines of life. They never seem to engage and choose to join the army of Christ. It requires the death of our selfish, old self and the putting on of the new you that Christ has called us to.
Perhaps yours is a call to prayer. "The prayers of a righteous man availeth much" James 5;16. Often the prayers that God has called us to are to strengthen and anoint his army of prayer warriors to pull down the walls and take up positions on the front line and move through the birthing process that will send the church's sheep out of their pews into the streets, bringing in the lost so that they may know the truth. Some of the lost include our children, who may know about serving but have
never really learned and developed an abiding relationship with Jesus.
Travail is an actual ministry. To be used by God in this manner requires you to be obedient on your knees. To listen and hear God's voice. As he will direct you, and he will give you the power of his anointing to pull down the strongholds that will set many free from their bondage
Isaiah 66:8 speaks of travail and the birthing of God's children. "8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children". Practically, that may have been a grandmother who prayed for that grandchild for decades through the ministry of travail. That father who prayed for his prodigal, and watched for him on the horizon, carried the ministry of travail breaking down those barriers that finally allowed that child to see the truth of God’s love and forgiveness.
(That child they saved may have been you.)
I pray that you are beginning to see the seriousness of this call of God to pray with your family. To cover your families in prayer personally. To come out of your pew and listlessness into the ministry of prayer and intercession.
Often intercessory prayer is not about being people conscious or cause conscious but it is being submitted completely to the Holy Spirit and how he would direct your prayers. "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26 ESV).
Intercession and travail will often put you in the place of being a substitute for another person. Covering them. Putting a hedge around them. Standing in the gap for them and perhaps even literally saving their lives as the Holy Spirit directs you completely.
Travail is the second level of intercession. It is often a level of weeping, crying, and groaning in the spirit. It is on the level of birth pains themselves, bringing forth a new life and new birth in the spirit. Like everything, we crawl before we walk, but we always move forward with the unction God has given us. Obedience.
I believe that intercessory prayer and travail is a battle cry of our spirit. Satan sets these mountains up against and around God's children and sends his demons and antagonists to beat them down. He creates this sensitivity in our feelings that separates families and marriages. It’s what he does! But God raises up his intercessors and those with the ministry of travail to stand in the gap to help them in those days of weakness and rebellion until they free them from the clench hold of the enemy. You may not even know who you pray for.
Micah 4: 10 “Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go [even] to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee
from the hand of thy enemies”.
Knowledge abounds in this generation. But wisdom remains scarce. The Church is called to model what it means to be fully human, to suffer, grieve, travail before God, and to live life in fellowship and in a community of believers with all their challenges … with God
Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus 4 days later. The people with Jesus did not know that he was dead then and were surely interceding for him. How could they not? But God allows Lazarus to get sick, suffer, and die so that it would glorify God. A preacher once said, " Many say they have enough faith to be healed, but do we have enough faith not to be healed?
What if our intercession is to strengthen them in the spirit of that truth? What if more people became converted through our death than our life? What if our sickness glorified God more than our health? This year, I realized God does not need me to make more goals and plans. (although they are scriptural). He needs me to make a total surrender first!
Starting today, I rededicated my life to Jesus and told Him I was totally surrendered to Him. He can take me and do with me as He pleases. What about you? Is God calling you to this area of prayer that has always been a battle? Surrender to Him, and His Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see in the spirit, and He will be your strength!. Step Out…and His promise is to meet you there!
–Ellen White, Conflict and Courage, Page 314. said, "The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who has drunk most deeply of His spirit of self-sacrificing love,–love that “vaunteth not itself, . . . seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,”–love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death, for the saving of humanity.
WILL YOU COME PRAY WITH ME FOR A HALF-HOUR?
TOMORROW PART 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUjLd6k6uXk
The Lord's Prayer Hillsong
