God seeks Intercessors
"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace day nor night. Ye that are the Lord's
remembrancers, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth."--ISA. lxii. 6, 7.
"And He saw that there was _no man_, and wondered that there was _no
intercessor_."--ISA. lix. 16.
"And I looked, and there was _none to help_; and I wondered, and
there was _none to uphold_."--ISA. lxiii. 5.
"There is _none_ that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth himself
to take hold of Thee."--ISA. lxiv. 7.
"And I sought for a man that should stand in the gap before Me for
the land, that I should not destroy it; but _I found none_."--EZEK.
xxii. 30.
"I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit:
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give
it you."--JOHN xv. 16.
In the study of the starry heavens, how much depends upon a due
apprehension of magnitudes. Without some sense of the size of the
heavenly bodies, that appear so small to the eye, and yet are so great,
and of the almost illimitable extent of the regions in which they move,
though they appear so near and so familiar, there can be no true
knowledge of the heavenly world or its relation to this earth. It is
even so with the spiritual heavens, and the heavenly life in which we
are called to live. It is specially so in the life of intercession, that
most wondrous intercourse between heaven and earth. Everything depends
upon the due apprehension of magnitudes.
Just think of the three that come first: There is a world, with its
needs entirely dependent on and waiting to be helped by intercession;
there is a God in heaven, with His all-sufficient supply for all those
needs, waiting to be asked; there is a Church, with its wondrous calling
and its sure promises, waiting to be roused to a sense of its wondrous
responsibility and power.
_God seeks intercessors._--There is a world with its perishing millions,
with intercession as its only hope. How much of love and work is
comparatively vain, because there is so little intercession. A thousand
millions living as if there never had been a Son of God to die for
them. Thirty millions every year passing into the outer darkness without
hope. Fifty millions bearing the Christian name, and the great majority
living in utter ignorance or indifference. Millions of feeble, sickly
Christians; thousands of wearied workers, who could be blessed by
intercession, could help themselves to become mighty in intercession.
Churches and missions sacrificing life and labour often with little
result, for lack of intercession. Souls, each one worth more than
worlds, worth nothing less than the price paid for them in Christ's
blood, and within reach of the power that can be won by intercession. We
surely have no conception of the magnitude of the work to be done by
God's intercessors, or we should cry to God above everything to give
from heaven the spirit of intercession.
_God seeks intercessors._--There is a God of glory able to meet all
these needs. We are told that He delights in mercy, that He waits to be
gracious, that He longs to pour out His blessing; that the love that
gave the Son to death is the measure of the love that each moment hovers
over every human being. And yet He does not help. And there they perish,
a million a month in China alone, and it is as if God does not move. If
He does so love and long to bless, there must be some inscrutable reason
for His holding back. What can it be? Scripture says, because of your
unbelief. It is the faithlessness and consequent unfaithfulness of God's
people. He has taken them up into partnership with Himself; He has
honoured them, and bound Himself, by making their prayers one of the
standard measures of the working of His power. Lack of intercession is
one of the chief causes of lack of blessing. Oh, that we would turn eye
and heart from everything else and fix them upon this God who hears
prayer, until the magnificence of His promises, and His power, and His
purpose of love overwhelmed us! How our whole life and heart would
become intercession.
_God seeks intercessors._--There is a third magnitude to which our eyes
must be opened: the wondrous privilege and power of the intercessors.
There is a false humility, which makes a great virtue of
self-depreciation, because it has never seen its utter nothingness. If
it knew that, it would never apologise for its feebleness, but glory in
its utter weakness, as the one condition of Christ's power resting on
it. It would judge of itself, its power and influence before God in
prayer, as little by what it sees or feels, as we judge of the size of
the sun or stars by what the eye can see. Faith sees man created in
God's image and likeness to be God's representative in this world and
have dominion over it. Faith sees man redeemed and lifted into union
with Christ, abiding in Him, identified with Him, and clothed with His
power in intercession. Faith sees the Holy Spirit dwelling and praying
in the heart, making, in our sighings, intercession according to God.
Faith sees the intercession of the saints to be part of the life of the
Holy Trinity--the believer as God's child asking of the Father, in the
Son, through the Spirit. Faith sees something of the Divine fitness and
beauty of this scheme of salvation through intercession, wakens the soul
to a consciousness of its wondrous destiny, and girds it with strength
for the blessed self-sacrifice it calls to.
_God seeks intercessors._--When He called His people out of Egypt, He
separated the priestly tribe, to draw nigh to Him, and stand before Him,
and bless the people in His name. From time to time He sought and found
and honoured intercessors, for whose sake He spared or blessed His
people. When our Lord left the earth He said to the inner circle He had
gathered around Him--an inner circle of special devotion to His service,
to which access is still free to every disciple: "I chose you, and
appointed you, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He
may give it you." We have already noticed the six times repeated three
wonderful words--_Whatsoever_--_In My Name_--_It shall be done_. In them
Christ placed the powers of the heavenly world at their disposal--not
for their own selfish use, but in the interests of His kingdom. How
wondrously they used it we know. And since that time, down through the
ages, these men have had their successors, men who have proved how
surely God works in answer to prayer. And we may praise God that, in our
days too, there is an ever-increasing number who begin to see and prove
that in church and mission, in large societies and little circles and
individual effort, intercession is the chief thing, the power that moves
God and opens heaven. They are learning, and long to learn better, and
that all may learn, that in all work for souls intercession must take
the first place, and that those who in it have received from heaven, in
the power of the Holy Ghost, what they are to communicate to others,
will be best able to do the Lord's work.
_God seeks intercessors._--Though God had His appointed servants in
Israel, watchmen set by Himself to cry to Him day and night and give Him
no rest, He often had to wonder and complain that there was no
intercessor, none to stir himself up to take hold of His strength. And
He still waits and wonders in our day, that there are not more
intercessors, that all His children do not give themselves to this
highest and holiest work, that many of them who do so, do not engage in
it more intensely and perseveringly. He wonders to find ministers of His
gospel complaining that their duties do not allow them to find time for
this, which He counts their first, their highest, their most delightful,
their alone effective work. He wonders to find His sons and daughters,
who have forsaken home and friends for His sake and the gospel's, come
so short in what He meant to be their abiding strength--receiving day by
day all they needed to impart to the dark heathen. He wonders to find
multitudes of His children who have hardly any conception of what
intercession is. He wonders to find multitudes more who have learned
that it is their duty, and seek to obey it, but confess that they know
but little of taking hold upon God or prevailing with Him.
_God seeks intercessors._--He longs to dispense larger blessings. He
longs to reveal His power and glory as God, His saving love, more
abundantly. He seeks intercessors in larger number, in greater power, to
prepare the way of the Lord. He seeks them. Where could He seek them but
in His Church? And how does He expect to find them? He intrusted to His
Church the task of telling of their Lord's need, the task of encouraging
and training, and preparing them for His holy service. And He ever comes
again, seeking fruit, seeking intercessors. In His Word He has spoken of
the "widows indeed, who trust in God, and continue in supplication night
and day." He looks if the Church is training the great army of aged men
and women, whose time of outward work is past, but who can strengthen
the army of the "elect, who cry to Him day and night." He looks to the
great host of the Christian Endeavour, the three or four million of
young lives that have given themselves away in the solemn pledge, "I
promise the Lord Jesus Christ that I will strive to do whatever He
would like to have me do," and wonders how many are being trained to
pass from the brightness of the weekly prayer-meeting and its confession
of loyalty, to swell the secret intercession that is to save souls. He
looks to the thousands of young men and young women in training for the
work of ministry and mission, and gazes longingly to see if the Church
is teaching them that intercession, power with God, must be their first
care, and in seeking to train and help them to it. He looks to see
whether ministers and missionaries are understanding their opportunity,
and labouring to train the believers of their congregation into those
who can "help together" by their prayer, and can "strive with them in
their prayers." As Christ seeks the lost sheep until He find it, Gods
seeks intercessors. (Note F.)
_God seeks intercessors._--He will not, He cannot, take the work out of
the hands of His Church. And so He comes, calling and pleading in many
ways. Now by a man whom He raises up to live a life of faith in His
service, and to prove how actually and abundantly He answers prayer.
Then by the story of a church which makes prayer for souls its
starting-point, and bears testimony to God's faithfulness. Sometimes in
a mission which proves how special prayer can meet special need, and
bring down the power of the Spirit. And sometimes again by a season of
revival coming in answer to united urgent supplication. In these and
many other ways God is showing us what intercession can do, and
beseeching us to waken up and train His great host to be, every one, a
people of intercessors.
_God seeks intercessors._--He sends His servants out to call them. Let
ministers make this a part of their duty. Let them make their church a
training school of intercession. Give the people definite objects for
prayer. Encourage them to take a definite time to it, if it were only
ten minutes every day. Help them to understand the boldness they may use
with God. Teach them to expect and look out for answers. Show them what
it is first to pray and get an answer in secret, and then carry the
answer and impart the blessing. Tell everyone who is master of his own
time that he is as the angels, free to tarry before the throne and then
go out and minister to the heirs of salvation. Sound out the blessed
tidings that this honour is for all God's people. There is no
difference. That servant girl, this day labourer, that bedridden
invalid, this daughter in her mother's home, these men and young men in
business--all are called, all, all are needed. God seeks intercessors.
_God seeks intercessors._--As ministers take up the work of finding and
training them it will urge themselves to pray more. Christ gave Paul to
be a pattern of His grace before He made him a preacher of it. It has
been well said, "The first duty of a clergyman is humbly to beg of God
that all he would have done in his people may be first truly and fully
done in himself." The effort to bring this message of God may cause much
heart-searching and humiliation. All the better. The best practice in
doing a thing is helping others to do it. O ye servants of Christ, set
as watchmen to cry to God day and night, let us awake to our holy
calling. Let us believe in the power of intercession. Let us practise
it. Let us seek on behalf of our people to get from God Himself the
Spirit and the Life we preach. With our spirit and life given up to God
in intercession, the Spirit and Life that God gives them through us
cannot fail to be the Life of Intercession too.
A PLEA FOR MORE PRAYER