Power of Intercessory Prayer

I've had a few moments in my life when I know that God woke me up from my sleep to intercede for either a person or a situation through prayer. Some of those times I knew exactly who I was praying for and the situation, other times I just knew that God wanted to hear from me.

It doesn't have that often, but I actually experienced this last night. There was a girl in my dream who I was never particularly close with, never really actually got along with, and who I haven't seen in over 10 years, but I woke up fairly instantly and felt the need to pray. I don't have any idea why, but I was obedient like I have been in the past and after praying felt right back into sleep.

Unlike last night, most of the situations or people that I've felt God ask me to pray for are close to me. And even though I know that God has called me to intercede in those situations, I'm often hesitant to ask others to intercede for me. When they announce the prayer teams at church, I typically decide I'm strong enough to battle it on my own and that I don't need to waste their time. When my friends ask me if they can pray for anything I typically tell them while thinking that it won't make a difference. I've never been able to understand why someone else interceding on my behalf would have any more power than my asking God directly. That's why this section of scripture I read last night was so profound to me.

In Acts 12, King Herod murders James the brother of John - one of the original 12 disciples. After murdering John and seeing that the Jews approved, he arrested Peter and threw him into prison with the intent to do the same to him. Verse 5 - "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."

That verse stands alone in the text. Verse 4 talks about how the prison was guarded and verse 6 talks about the result of their prayer. Without verse 5 there is no other reason stated for what is about to happen. We don't know if Peter was pleading with the Lord to be rescued, although I'm sure he was, but that's not what we're told. God specifically wanted this verse to tell us that the church was earnestly interceding for Peter as he was in prison.

In the following verses, Peter is laying on the ground bound by chains and guarded by two soldiers awaiting his trial the next day, where he would surely be murdered, when an angel appears to him and tells him to get up. His chains instantly fall off, and the angel leads him out of the prison, right passed the prison guards and out the city gate which opened on its own as they approached it. Herod and the soldiers didn't even find out until the next morning.

The power of the church called on God to intercede into Peter's situation. Although Peter was most likely asking for rescuing as well, it was the church that the passage credits for praying.

The church is the family of God. The sons and the daughters. When one person in a family stands tall against an injustice, some people may notice. When the entire family fights together, walls come down. God created us to be in community with each other - not just to live alongside each other, but to live for each other and to fight for each other.

Remember the battle of Jericho? God ended up bringing the walls down, but He asked for the entire army to show up. We aren't created to go into battle alone. We're created to go into battle as a family that loves one another as much as we love ourselves. God loves to bless obedience. Through obedience Isaac isn't killed, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego arne't burned in the furnace, Solomon is made to be the wisest person to ever live, Daniel closes the mouths of lions, Lazarus is raised from the dead, the bleeding woman is healed, the lame man can walk, the blind man can see, Rahab and her family are saved.... and probably a thousand other Biblical references to God blessing obedience.

Let's be the family God calls us to be. Let's fight for each other. Let's love each other and care to fight for each other as much as we care to fight for ourselves. When a family stands together in God's name, mountains are going to move.

The Seriousness of God's Wrath

There are some topics that never seem to find their way to the pulpit. I'm sure there's a fear of certain topics and what kind of response would result from a sermon focused on one of those topics. But, I just write blogs and I don't even know who reads them, so if what I write scares someone away, I'll be okay! I'm confident in the truth that I write about, and trust that God will use Biblical truths to lead people where He wants them to be.

Ever since I started reading the Bible I've always been confused how a loving God can command the Israelites to go into a town and kill every living thing, including women and children. Even Jesus told us that unless we approach Him as little children, we have no place in Heaven. Through Jesus, we know that God loves children immensely and He instructs us to protect them in every way we can. If Jesus is God and shares the same Spirit as God, then why do we see two completely different attitudes when it comes to sinners and children?

The answer is in the character of God. I can't even begin to explain the character of God through one little post, but we can touch on a couple little pieces.

• God is 100% free of sin and can not be approached by sin. That means that not one person, baby or elder can approach God. Romans 3:23 tells us; "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Through this verse and others, the Bible teaches us that we are born sinners. As soon as we have life, we are already destined for Hell. Nothing our parents do can help us escape that fault. The sin of Adam and Eve opened up the door to allow all of humanity to be affected by temptation and sin that separates us from God. This means that the babies and women that God commanded the Israelites to kill were not pure and blameless as we like to see most people through our worldly eyes, but they were just as guilty as the robbers, murderers, sexual immoral, and other transgressors of that time and our time. 

• God sent Jesus to bridge the gap. God wasn't able to be around sin, but loved the people that were covered in sin. Imagine someone who gags around poop and a baby that's covered in it. That person can love that baby more than anything, but until someone else comes and cleans the baby up, they aren't able to approach the child. Because of God's character, He wasn't able to cleanse us of our sin Himself, because He couldn't get that close to it, so He sent Jesus to clean us up. The only way that Jesus was able to provide a way for us to be clean was to die a sinless Man. So, God sent His Son to die for our sins because He loved us so much that He didn't want to be eternally separated from us. 

I think this also explains the phrase "the fear of God". We learn to fear God in a healthy way when we realize that he completely hates the sin in our lives. It's never permissible. It's never ok. It's never something that He can just accept as a mistake. It's never just a little booboo. Every time we sin, it's deserving of death... as powerful of death as killing off an entire city of babies because of it! That's hard to hear, but the God who loves us can not stand the evilness that lives in us when we are living in sin. The only solution we have and the only reason the New Testament is completely about love and is completely free of God commanding people to kill others is that fact that Jesus washed us clean. He died once and for all to wash us clean for ever. We now have the freedom to approach God as clean children, and to be seen by Him as forgiven, clean and pure. 

I'm thankful for the sacrifice Jesus paid and the love that God had for us that led to a way we could be with Him. There's nothing greater.