Will you turn with me, first of all, to the prophecy of Isaiah, Chapter 62? I am only going to read a few verses from this wonderful prophecy. It is the Messiah Himself who is speaking.
For Zion’s sake will I not hold My peace,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her righteousness go forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a lamp that burneth.
And the nations shall see thy righteousness,
and all kings thy glory;
and thou shalt be called by a new name,
which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.— Isaiah 62:1-3
Verse 6:
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem;
they shall never hold their peace day nor night:
ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, take ye no rest,
and give Him no rest, till He establish,
and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.— Isaiah 62:6-7
Then, if you will turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, Chapter 22, verse 30:
And I sought for a man among them,
that should build up the wall,
and stand in the gap before Me for the land,
that I should not destroy it;
but I found none.— Ezekiel 22:30
Back to Isaiah, Chapter 59, verse 16:
And He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him;
and His righteousness, it upheld Him.— Isaiah 59:16
Then, if you will turn to Daniel, the book of Daniel, Chapter 9, from verse 1:
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made confession.
— Daniel 9:1-4
Then, in the same chapter, from verse 20:
And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
And he instructed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
— Daniel 9:20-23
Then, if you will turn to the New Covenant, to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Chapter 8, from verse 1:
And when He opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels that stand before God; and there were given unto them seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel taketh the censer; and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth: and there followed thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
— Revelation 8:1-6
Just a few single verses in Romans, the Roman letter, Chapter 8, verses 26 and 27:
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
— Romans 8:26-27
And lastly, in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians, Chapter 4, verse 19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
— Galatians 4:19
Can we just bow together in a further word of prayer?
Beloved Lord, we want to thank You that, as we come to our afternoon time, You have provided for us an anointing. Into that anointing we want to stand by faith—an anointing You have given us through that finished work upon the cross at Calvary.
We want to stand by faith in that anointing for the speaking of Your Word, for the translating of it, and, Lord, for the hearing of it.
We want to stand against all sleepiness and all dullness that comes sometimes in afternoon sessions. Fill the time with Your presence, Lord, and let this be, above everything else, a meeting with Yourself.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
I think you know that I was asked to speak on prayer and intercession, and I have confined myself to prayer warfare. We have spoken about prayer warfare, the divine strategy, and we talked about when the enemy comes in like a flood, how we are to face it.
I want to speak this afternoon about the divine call to intercession.
This word intercession has, along with a number of other words in Christian circles, been greatly devalued.
I read sometimes in worldly newspapers about “born-again presidents.” It seems that half of America is born again, from listening to some things. Would to God people really were born again.
I think much of our evangelism is like a presidential election: you make a decision. There is no conviction of sin. There is no going through weeks of anguish and coming finally to repentance and being born of the Spirit.
What a thousand and one problems in the assemblies and fellowships we would be saved from if people had healthy, strong spiritual births. But we do not. We have very poor births, shallow births; and with those poor births come all the problems that we face amongst the people of God.
But intercession is another word. Everywhere I go, people come to me and say, “I am an intercessor.” I know immediately a person tells me they are an intercessor that they are not.
For anyone who knows anything about real intercession would hardly dare to call themselves an intercessor. Yes, you may say that you are a person in prayer; you are a person involved even in prayer warfare. But to say, “I am an intercessor,” is—I think, for most who are intercessors—we all feel we have learner plates on us.
We feel somehow that we are like undergraduates. We have not graduated. We are still students in the school of God, being trained and being instructed.
But there is no call as great as the calling of an intercessor.
Intercession begins where prayer—that is, the pouring out of your heart in petition and request—and supplication—that is, appealing to the Lord and inquiry—ends.
It is not a question of inquiry. It is not a question even of a beseeching appeal as such. It may be further in it. It is not even a question of just pouring out what is in your heart.
Intercession begins with a knowledge of the will of God.
When God reveals what His will is in any particular matter or situation, then intercession begins.
The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I will do with Sodom and Gomorrah?” The Lord spoke with Abraham and told him what He was going to do. The Lord knew exactly; He was, in one sense, testing and proving Abraham—the spiritual character of Abraham—and Abraham began to intercede.
The Lord spoke to Moses and said—even more, I might say, if I may say it reverently, even more wily, even more cunning—the Lord said to Moses, “Step aside, Moses. I am angry with this people. I am going to destroy them, but I will take you, Moses, and I will make you a nation.”
That appeal would normally appeal to something within even a servant of the Lord. But Moses, when he knew what was in the mind of the Lord, started to intercede.
The most extraordinary thing is the passage we read in Isaiah. Here is the Messiah, and it is like a window into the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus.
He is praying for His own, praying for the elect, praying for the redeemed. He is praying for Jerusalem. And He says He will not rest till her light goes forth as a lamp that burneth, a torch that burns; till her righteousness goes forth as a light to the ends of the earth.
He will not rest till it is done. This is His purpose. This is the burden on His heart. This is what He is interceding about.
And then He says, “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, that shall never hold their peace day nor night. Take ye no rest and give Him no rest,” He says, “ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers.”
Now, the extraordinary thing is that in the Hebrew, it is the modern word we use in Hebrew for secretaries. The Lord is saying, “You are My secretaries. You are My remembrancers.”
The thing the secretary is supposed to do is to remind the boss: “You know, you have got an appointment at such-and-such a time. You know, you have got another appointment at such-and-such. You know, you have a very important person coming in to see you today.” That is a remembrancer.
Does the Lord need a remembrancer?
So, the first thing I want to underline in talking about the divine call to intercession is the mystery of intercession. Why does the Lord say, “Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, give Him no rest and take no rest till He does it”?
If the Lord’s burden is to do this thing, why does He need remembrancers? Has the Lord, may I say reverently, got old like I am beginning to?
It is the first time I have ever been called by a brother here an old fixture. I shall not forget it—in my intercession for that brother.
Is the Lord getting old, so that He forgets? Has the Lord begun to forget what He said about His purpose, about His people, about His government? Of course not.
Then why does the Lord speak of remembrancers, as if the Lord needs to be reminded? We have already seen a window into the heart of the Lord Jesus, the Intercessor at the right hand of God. He is praying day and night for His own, for His people.
Why then does He say, “Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers”? Here is the mystery of intercession: why do we need to pray into being the will of God?
Prayer may—please do not misunderstand what I am saying—prayer may have nothing to do with the will of God. We are pouring out our hearts, saying, “Lord, will You do this? Will You do this? Will You do the other? I have this concern about so-and-so.”
We do not know what the will of God is. But intercession begins with a knowledge of the will of God. And here we are in the presence of the Lord: why do we need to pray into being what God has already said He will do?
Good question. Why?
If the Lord has said He will do it, surely He will do it.
Now, we read one little passage in Isaiah where the Lord says He wondered that there was no intercessor, that there was no man; and He said, therefore, He Himself wrought salvation. Which is obvious.
But I read the passage because the Lord could do anything He wants to do. Theologically, it is incorrect to say the Lord has a need, because the Lord has no need. Only God is totally sufficient.
Yet the Lord has a need in the sense that He says, “You have to be My remembrancers.” Why?
The Lord is not suffering from Alzheimer’s. His mind has not suddenly begun to go astray. He has not forgotten what He says. He has not forgotten His appointments. He has not forgotten all the appointments that are yet to come in the fulfilment of His purpose for the age in which we are living.
Nothing has been forgotten by the Lord. Yet the Lord says, “Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, watchmen on your walls.”
Why does the Lord need us? I have to say this: by introducing us into and involving us in the fulfilment of God’s purpose, the Lord has introduced a tremendous amount of problem into His work.
He would be much better without us. Much better.
After all, when He said, “Let there be light,” there was light. He did not have a whole lot of people saying, “I mean, what does He mean? How can we do it? Which way should we go?”—arguing with Him, murmuring with Him, and Him having to hold back and say, “Well, I will not say it yet.”
The Lord could do all this without you and me. He does not need you and me.
Why then does He speak of us as watchmen He Himself has set upon the walls?
We often think of watchmen as very old and aged gentlemen who have retired and want a little bit of money, and so we make them watchmen. They can hardly see, they can hardly hear, they can just about walk, but we make them watchmen.
And so we get an idea—especially you younger people—that all intercessors are toothless, old, as our brother said, fading.
You know, it is an idea that somehow intercession belongs to people when they are just about tottering into the kingdom of God at the end of their lives. Well, we leave that to them. They cannot do anything else. They are useless for anything else, but they can pray.
Now, I thank God for every old person who prays. I know so many who really pray; I value them. But a watchman—if you change the word watchman to security guard, now you have got it.
Would you ever think of putting a security guard on the walls of Jerusalem who cannot see, who cannot hear, who cannot run, who has not got muscle and ability? Of course not.
It changes the whole concept of intercession.
“You that are the Lord’s remembrancers.” I read to you the little passage from Daniel because it is so amazing.
Here was Daniel. He was one of the most powerful men in one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. There were only two or three men higher than him before the sultan or emperor himself.
And yet he had time to be concerned for the purpose of God, for the covenants of God, for the people of God, for the fulfilment of the will of God in his day and generation.
The extraordinary thing about Daniel is that in his quiet time, or whenever it was, he was reading the book of Jeremiah, and somehow the Holy Spirit lit up the page and the phrase: “Seventy years. Seventy years.”
The most extraordinary thing is that the Lord revealed to Jeremiah when the seventy years began, which has always been a problem with a lot of Bible scholars. Not for Jeremiah, not for Daniel. The Holy Spirit revealed it to him.
It did not begin with Zedekiah. It began with Jehoiakim. And then he understood, “My goodness, we are only two or three years to go before the seventy years are finished.”
Now, as I have often said, some of you will have heard me: if he had been a good charismatic, he would have said, “Praise the Lord! We will have a ball. We will have a spiritual ball. We will get the friends together, share the kuchen, and let go. We will all get together and have a marvellous time of praise.”
Instead, he puts sackcloth on, ashes on his head, and he fasts and he prays—almost, almost as if the Lord is not going to do it.
That is the most extraordinary thing. It reveals to me the kind of spiritual character that Daniel had. He understood more than many New Testament saints: that somehow or other, even though the Lord had said seventy years only, and the seventy years were near to completion, the whole thing had to be prayed into being.
Someone had to stand with the Lord. Why?
I imagine Daniel thought to himself, “Why do I need to do all this?” Something within him, the Spirit of God within him, said, “Daniel, you have got to confess the sin. You have got to get on your knees. You have got to fast. You have got to take hold of the Lord.”
Do you know that this prayer of Daniel set in motion wheels within wheels within wheels? Suddenly, as it were, the whole unseen world was in motion, mobilised. The prince of Greece and the prince of Persia had a fight over this prayer.
And a little later on, when the angel came, he said, “I am sorry, for three weeks I have been held up.” It must sound to some of you like a fairy tale, but in fact it is amazing.
Daniel saw the Messiah. He saw that, in some extraordinary way, the going back of the people to Jerusalem, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of Bethlehem, the rebuilding of Nazareth, the rebuilding of Galilee, the rebuilding of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, had something to do with the coming of the Messiah and the salvation not only of the Jewish people, but of the nations.
We can easily say, “Look, look, look, just wait. God would have done that without Daniel.” Quite right. The Lord could easily have done it without Daniel.
But the Lord is training us. That is the point. That is the point. He is training us. He is instructing us.
So the Lord says, “I will not do it. Here is My will; here is My revealed will. But I want you to enter in and pray it into being.”
You know, it says somewhere in the Colossian letter, at the beginning of it, that there is something left of the sufferings of Christ for us to fill up. Now, that is a mysterious statement, is it not?
The sufferings of Christ have won for us our salvation. We cannot add anything to it. And yet, in some extraordinary way, on the principle of fellowship, the Lord says, “I want you in on the fellowship of My sufferings.”
You cannot win the salvation of the world, but you can at least have fellowship in My sufferings. I will leave a portion for you.
It is exactly the same in this matter of the fulfilment of the will of God. The Lord says, “I could do this without you, and it would be much easier to do it without you. But I do not want to. I want you to be in on this.”
So I have left something that you have to rise up as the people of God. You have to become My remembrancers. You have to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem. You are going to have to pray day and night. You will give Him no rest, and take no rest yourself, until He does this thing.
I hope that I am making myself clear.
When you come to the book of Revelation, do you not think that is an amazing window?
We have seen one into the heart of the Messiah and what He wants us to be with Him. We have seen another window in Daniel into what it means to pray into being the will of God. But now, in the book of Revelation, Chapter 8, we suddenly find the seven seals ended, the seven trumpets just about to begin, and suddenly there is silence in heaven for half an hour.
That would be a testing for many saints. Silence for half an hour. No one uttered a word.
And then John saw this angel taking incense and adding it to the prayers of the saints.
And as that incense—which is all the excellences and beauties of the Lord Jesus, all the consequences of His character and His finished work—is added into the poor, unworthy, unprofitable intercessors, as it rises to heaven, something happens.
Would to God in our prayer meetings such things happened. I do not know about lightning and thunder and an earthquake and a few other things, but would to God that something happened.
That is intercession. It is almost as if the Lord says, “I am not going to start on the trumpets, with all those stages in the fulfilment of the purpose of God, unless I have My intercessors.”
I do hope I have made clear this question of mystery. You will never be an intercessor unless you first face the mystery of intercession.
The Lord does not need me, yet He calls me. The Lord can do it without me, yet He says He will not do it unless I, in fellowship with Him, learn how to pray it into being.
That is the first thing I want to say this afternoon. And the second thing is the divine call to intercession.
The call is to every child of God, however young or however old. This is not to an elite or to some special category. This is a call to the whole household of faith.
The intercessor is the highest of all callings. Now, some may think I am getting into heresy on this thing. I personally do not believe so.
I believe it is the highest of all callings—higher than an apostle, higher than a prophet, higher than a pastor or shepherd or teacher or evangelist.
The highest calling that you and I can ever respond to is the calling to be an intercessor. Not all can be apostles. Not all can be prophets. Not all can be shepherds. Not all can be teachers. Not all can be evangelists. But all can be intercessors.
To be an intercessor, you have to learn to recognise the mind of the Lord and the heart of the Lord. You have to walk with the Lord.
It is not a bit of machinery. It is not a methodology. You have to walk with the Lord.
I want to be so careful what I say, but if I put it this way, maybe you will understand. It is wrong to speak of the Lord like this, but maybe it will bring something: you have to understand the moods of the Lord.
You have to be able to be so sensitive that the burden in the Intercessor’s heart can spill over into yours by the Holy Spirit.
You wake up one day with a burden. You hardly know why, but you have a burden. Where does it come from? It has come from the Lord. It has come from the Intercessor by the Spirit of intercession.
Is this too much for you?
It all begins with the simplest of steps.
I have no doubt that a lot of you, especially you younger ones, think, “Well, I do not know what I am doing here this afternoon. This is for the old ones—especially old ladies. I mean, this is not for us. I am wasting an afternoon sitting in here listening to all this about intercession. That is for a special kind of class of people in the body of Christ.”
This is nonsense.
To become an intercessor, you begin with the smallest and simplest steps. You commit yourself to the Lord, to His Lordship. It is a total commitment.
I was saved just before I was thirteen years of age. I had no Christian background whatsoever. I had never been in a Christian place of worship. In fact, I had never been in any religious place of worship of any kind.
I had never read the Bible. I did not know the Lord’s Prayer. I was mercifully excused prayers at the school I was at. My mother wrote a letter to the headmaster saying that I was to be excused, and so I was. I was very thankful for it, I might add. I thought it was horribly boring, from what I heard from the other boys.
But when I got saved, I heard the pastor, Alan Redpath. He was only thirty-one years of age. He was an international rugby player, very alive, very with it at that time.
And he said, “The prayer meeting is the most important meeting in the routine of the church, and I will always be at it.”
Something entered my heart, and I became the youngest person ever to go to their prayer meeting. It was every Monday evening, in a smelly old church hall—typical of those places: smelly, dusty, wooden floor.
The first thing that impressed me was that Alan Redpath, who was well over six foot, knelt on the wooden floor. That captured me for the rest of my life.
I thought he was such a great man, such a marvellous preacher; and to see him every Monday evening on his knees! The thing that struck me also was that all the other leaders of the church were far too busy to be there.
They all had wonderful excuses—big businessmen, commitments, could not possibly be there. I think one came irregularly, and another one a little more regularly, but that was all.
I thank God for those times.
I got rebuked a few times. I remember well the old brother who stood up and prayed, wringing his hands all about, “Oh Lord, we pray for our sisters.” We had about twenty ladies who were missionaries—no men among them.
He prayed, wringing his hands, very much like how Jewish people do—though he was not Jewish—“Oh Lord, we pray for our sisters, that they may be fishers of men.”
I found that so funny that I burst into laughter. I was only young; I knew nothing else.
Then there was the sister who always told my sister and me off. Every time we as much as smiled, she would come across and say, “You must be reverent in the house of the Lord.”
Then we were asked to pray for Brother Roberts. He had a gammy leg. And she said, “Oh Lord, I pray for Brother Roberts. I have had his leg on my heart the whole night.”
I was only thirteen or fourteen. That was my introduction to prayer.
Then in the church was a Swedish lady who became known to me as Auntie Dagmar. I always called her my Swedish aunt. She more or less adopted my sister and me. She lived in a huge mansion round the corner, and I used to go round there for prayer.
Then came the famous occasion when Auntie Dagmar called the whole staff. She had a staff of about ten men and women looking after this marvellous place and its garden. She said, “We have had a robbery, and very valuable jewellery and other things have been taken.”
She said, “I have asked the Lord who it is, and the Lord has revealed it to me.” So we all said, “Who is it?” She said, “It is the window cleaner.”
The superintendent was coming that morning, and we were told all to get on our knees and pray that the Lord would apprehend this man. We did.
She told me I could stay when the superintendent came. I was only fourteen years of age, and I heard her saying to the superintendent—he said, “Do you suspect anyone?” “Yes,” she said. “It is the window cleaner.”
She said in her Swedish-accented English, “Superintendent, we are all Christian believers in this house. We have prayed, and God has shown us that it is the window cleaner.”
“Madam,” he said, “you must be very careful. We will have a look to see if this man is on our books, if he has any record.”
The superintendent came back a few days later and said to Auntie Dagmar, “He is clean. We have followed him. We have watched him. He has no record, no criminal record.”
But Auntie Dagmar was more convinced. She said, “Oh no, no, superintendent. The Lord never lies. He told us it was the window cleaner. We have all prayed.”
“Madam,” he said, “you can say that to me. Do not say it outside of this house, or you might have a libel action.”
Well, a few days later, the window cleaner was coming to do the windows. Auntie Dagmar had the most extraordinary idea that she would go up into her bedroom and go under the big double bed whilst he was cleaning the windows.
The whole staff pleaded with her not to do it. “No,” she said, “I am set on this.” Up we went. We lifted the bed. She lay down on her back. We put the bed down and put the valance around the bed in its place.
She suffered from asthma, so of course the ladies on the staff were fairly upset about it. They all loved her so much. But we all went downstairs—myself with them—to pray.
We had not been praying for very long when we heard the most terrible scream from the bedroom. We all jumped up and ran up the stairs. There was Auntie Dagmar crawling from under the bed, with her face like a turkey cock.
She said, “It is him! It is him!”
He had been quietly doing the windows. She thought she was getting hotter and hotter, and she thought, “Oh, I am very foolish to have done this. The man is innocent. I should have listened to the superintendent.”
Then suddenly she heard him whistle to the other window cleaner and say, “Bert, it is clear.” Then she heard the window come up. He came in, went round, opened the door and shut the door, opened the door and shut it. Her heart began to go rather fast.
Then he came right round on the side of the bed, and he could not get open the lower drawer. So he bent right down, pulled it open, and sat right on Auntie Dagmar. That is when we heard the scream.
Now you can understand what simple steps led me to be an intercessor. I realised that prayer is not foolish. There is something actually in it. It did something to me. I understood that prayer was a reality.
It was thus that I joined a little prayer meeting in the fellowship that was formed of Paul. It was a group of about twenty people, most of them grey- or white-haired, and many of them—most of them—ladies.
All the other young people said to me, “You are not going to go there. What in the world are you going to do with those old folks?” But I felt called to pray with another young person. We two went and we prayed.
You know, that changed my life. Because in that prayer meeting, we were praying for two sisters, Dr. O’Hanlon and Lucy Steele. They were on the Indian side of the border with Nepal.
Nepal was a closed land. No missionary was allowed in it. No Nepali could become a Christian at that time.
These two sisters had a word from the Lord that the Lord would take them over into the kingdom of Nepal, and they would see a church planted in Nepal.
It seemed crazy. Some of the young people said to me, “You must be nuts. Nepal will never open. It is so steeped, entrenched in Hinduism, in the most militant form of Hinduism. You will never, never, never see anything there.”
But we prayed, and we prayed, and we prayed.
Then came the day when a cable came from India, and it just said, “Going over into Nepal tomorrow morning.”
Out of those two sisters has come all the work of the Lord in Nepal—everywhere, fellowships, assemblies. Some of you know that very well.
It changed my life. I thought to myself, these dear old people have never been in Downing Street. They have never been in the White House. They have never been in the Kremlin. They have never been in any place of power.
But these old folks, on their knees in the presence of God, have made history. They have broken a national decree, a royal decree, that no missionary would ever enter the kingdom of Nepal.
Then I thought to myself: there is nothing more exciting.
If I had a job in Downing Street, I would feel I was important. If I had a job in the White House, I might feel I was important. If I walked in the corridors of power of the nations or of the United Nations, I might think that I was important.
But the humblest, youngest, oldest child of God can be an intercessor in the throne room of the universe.
And can see the purpose of God in this Book actually materialise, actually be fulfilled. They can see the Spirit of God take promises and statements from this Book, and they are energised by the Spirit of God in all the battle to stand on those promises and statements and see them fulfilled.
A few years later, I was in Egypt. I think that was a big turning point for me in the whole matter of prayer.
I was a young, very arrogant young man. The whole church I came from would bear witness to that. I always said what I thought, which was not diplomatic.
I became ill, and the missionaries in Ismailia said, “You must convalesce in Port Said. There are two very godly missionaries.”
One of the missionaries said to me, “Now, Lance, you just be careful. You like to laugh. They are very serious. They will put you in your place.”
But when I went, it was the first time I ever met Alexandra Liblich and Kathleen Smith. From the moment we met, we flowed together.
But I became more and more intrigued, because it seemed to me that they had letters from all over the Middle East, phone calls from all over the Middle East, sometimes cables. It seemed like an intelligence service to me.
These two old ladies were retired, by the way, from the mission. They were too old, apparently, to go on.
I heard them talking because I was in on everything, but they would not let me pray with them. I was convalescing.
But I would hear Auntie Kathleen say, “Alex,” and then feet would go down the corridor and a door would shut. I would not see them for an hour.
Then a bit later a phone would ring in the evening at supper, and I would hear one of them say, “Yes, yes, yes, we got the victory this morning at eleven o’clock.”
Then I thought, “What is this?” I asked, “What kind of denomination do you belong to?”
“Oh,” said Alex—Alexandra Liblich—“we belong to an assembly in Honor Oak.”
So I said, “That is the strangest denomination I have ever heard.”
“Well, who is the minister?”
“Well, we have a number,” she said.
“A number?” I said. “Well, give me a name.” In my arrogance, I thought, coming from Duke Street Baptist Church, Richmond, we know everything and everybody who is anything.
She said, “Theodore Austin-Sparks.”
“Never heard of him,” I said.
Then one day they tapped on my bedroom door and said, “Lance, would you like to join us?”
Now, I had been longing to get in on this. I wondered what went on in the room when these two got there. It seemed to me almost something strange. What were they doing? Why were all these things happening? How come they had this kind of contact with everybody in the Middle East?
When they finally said, “Will you join us?” I said in my most English manner, “Oh, that would be very nice.”
But I was dying to get in. When I got there, my eyes were out on organ stops and my ears were like radar equipment. I was waiting to see.
First they read the letter. Then they talked about it together. Then they turned to me and said, “Do you understand?” I did not really understand, so they explained a bit more about this situation in some place—I think it was Damietta in Egypt.
Then they got on their knees. One said to the other, “Have you a scripture, dear?”
The other said, “Well, you know, from early this morning, about two o’clock this morning, I got up at Obadiah—those soldiers.”
I thought, “Yes? Oh, but I have never read Obadiah. I have never heard of people praying on a verse from Obadiah.” I had never heard anything like it.
Then they got on their knees, and I had never seen anything like it. They prayed with such power, with such firmness, with such determination. Not long prayers—one way, then the other place, then the other place. I could not get in, of course; I would not have known what to say.
Then suddenly, after about an hour, one of them said, “Do you think we have got the victory yet?” “No, not yet,” said the other.
They went on for another half hour, and finally they began to praise the Lord.
To me, it was very much like those guns you see on battleships when enemy dive bombers are coming. You see them swivelling round with their guns, boom, boom, at this, you know, kind of thing. They are targeting the enemy down.
Now, I am not saying that every single time they prayed, they got an answer. No, no, no. There were some things they prayed for years.
It changed my life. For the first time, I understood that spiritual warfare is not a legend or a fairy tale, or something merely biblical that we relegate to history, like the falling down of the walls of Jericho or the moon standing still.
I understood: it is reality.
If you do not get behind the scenes and take hold of situations behind the scenes in the name of the Lord, if you do not learn what is the will of God in any given situation as the Holy Spirit applies it, and you take the Word and nail that situation, then it is almost as if Satan takes over the whole world.
I learned so much through those simple steps.
That is the call. If you will not take the first, simplest step, you will never come to the throne of God.
Why do I think that the intercessor is even more dear to the Lord than apostle or prophet? Because they are nearer to the heart of the Lord. That is why.
They have truly a bridal communion with the Lord.
Therefore, this is a tremendous call to all believers, whoever you are.
If you young ones are going to wait until you are old, you see, the enemy is so clever. He says to you young ones, “Do not get involved in this kind of thing. It is for old people.”
Then you graduate, you get married, then you have children, and then the enemy comes and says, “Do not get involved. Far too busy.”
Wait till you are a little older. Then you get middle-aged. Then begins the middle-aged spread. You do not feel like it.
Then the enemy says, “Wait till you are retired. Then you can do it.”
And then, when you can hardly see, can hardly hear, and can hardly walk, the enemy comes and says, “Do not you try to intercede. You are far too old.”
How clever the enemy is in all this thing.
Start.
I would like to say something about the cost of becoming an intercessor. Being an intercessor costs your whole life.
It is not a question of minutes per day, an hour in a day, a day a week, or even a few days in a year. To be an intercessor, the Lord wants you.
Actually, prayer is the least part about intercession, in other words.
I know that will cause a little bit of, “What does he mean? Intercession has to be prayer.” No, no, no. Prayer is words.
Intercession—the least part of it is prayer. When you can verbalise it, when you can put the burden into words, you get relief. But the burden is often inside the spirit, in the heart.
I hope I am making sense to you.
The Lord wants your whole life.
There is a fallacy about intercession—I have made reference to it already—and that is that you have got to be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use to be an intercessor.
In other words, if you are one of those people who cannot put a plug in the socket in the wall, cannot cook a meal, cannot wash a floor, cannot bring up a baby—if you are one of those people who is just impractical—you are an intercessor.
It is a kind of idea that all intercessors are basically impractical people. It is nonsense.
Daniel was the greatest statesman of the age. His desk was filled with documents. No man was more busy, and no man was as great an intercessor.
In our Jewish tradition, we do not put Daniel with the prophets. Although, for most Christians, Daniel would be the supreme prophet, we put him in the Writings, because we say Daniel’s real calling was to be an intercessor.
Let me try to explain this a little more. All the greatest intercessors I have known have been the most practical people: housewives, mothers, businessmen, even athletes.
Many people, especially men, get the idea, “Oh, you have got to be sort of a little willowy kind of lady to be an intercessor. Oh, have a man play American football—an intercessor?”
Would to God there were more men in intercession.
Paul put it beautifully. This is how he put it. Listen carefully:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
— Galatians 4:19
He had been once before. “Of whom I am again in travail”—that Christ be formed, and there is a little prefix in the Greek: fully formed in you.
The apostle had travailed, and the word in Greek is the pain of childbirth, the pangs of childbirth. He had already travailed for their spiritual birth. Now he was travailing that Christ be fully formed.
Oh, would to God there were more people in the house of God who prayed for Christ to be fully formed in those who found the Lord.
That has to be the job of shepherd and teacher.
Interestingly, the apostle himself was an intercessor. You see it in all his letters. He makes reference—not huge—but from which we understand this man knew what it was to pray. He knew what it was to intercede.
A prophet is an intercessor because God never gives visions to titillate or fascinate. Most prophets with prophetic insight are intercessors. They can be no other.
You understand? Now listen carefully. This means a spiritual conception has to take place.
Something has to be conceived by the Spirit of God within our spirit. And then it cannot get out. It grows within. It grows within. There is no way out. The only way out is by birth.
That is intercession.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “You may have ten thousand teachers; you have only one father. I begat you through the gospel.”
Our fellowships would be transformed if there were more intercessors.
Of course, we also have a kind of intercession that I am afraid of, where people get together and try to determine the course of the work in a wrong way. That is not intercession.
But I am talking about genuine intercession, and I do hope that somewhere it is coming in you.
You see, the whole question is this. Let me put it another way: a babe cannot conceive. A kindergarten child cannot conceive. You have to have a minimum maturity to be able to conceive.
Now, having said that God has no need, I want to use a very human term about the Lord. This is the divine dilemma. What is He to do?
Take our fellowship. Take ourselves. We are thousands of babes, spiritually kindergarten children, even those all starting on solid food.
Where are those who are able, mature enough, to be able to conceive a burden that the Holy Spirit can conceive within? Where?
And those who are, are often far too busy. They say, “I am too busy. I am too busy, and I am not called to this kind of thing.” Oh, dear people of God.
I read to you an amazing passage in Romans, Chapter 8, verses 26 and 27, about the Spirit. We should look at it.
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
— Romans 8:26-27
This intercession of the Spirit within, which cannot even somehow be verbalised—it is so painful, it is such a burden locked inside the spirit—Paul says, “The Spirit Himself maketh intercession,” and it is according to the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, have you ever had a groan like that? It means you are getting somewhere.
I do not mean this kind of thing. I have been in meetings where people have told me, “Brother So-and-so has the ministry of groaning.” I have never heard of anything like it.
I was in one meeting where there was a noise like a cow giving birth over in the corner. I wondered what on earth was going on. In the end, the pastor tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Are you bothered by our brother?”
“Well,” I said, “what, is he ill?”
He said, “No, no, no. It is the ministry of groaning.”
But I understand this groaning cannot even be heard. It is something locked within. We get relief when we can put it into words.
Are you ready? Take the first step.
Or do you think you will become an intercessor somehow when you reach mature years physically? When you get much older, into your late fifties or sixties, then suddenly, in a single moment of time, you will be an intercessor? Something will happen? It never will.
If you do not start now, you will never be an intercessor then.
And those of you who are older, who may feel, “Oh dear, dear, dear. I am past it”—no, you are not. You are not. You also can take the first step.
This is the divine challenge: “I looked for a man, and I found none.”
I have been privileged in my little life and ministry to have known some incredible intercessors. I could give a list as long as my arm.
I think of Sophia Johansson of Denmark and Anna Mikkelsen of Denmark. Sophia went to the Lord at one hundred and two years of age. She had worked as a missionary in China until she met Watchman Nee, and that was a life-changing appointment.
She went back to Denmark to pray for Scandinavia. I have never forgotten Sophia Johansson or Anna Mikkelsen. I miss them. They prayed for me every day, as well as thousands of others, and really prayed.
I think of Maria Monsen of Norway. There are some books about her; she is famous in Norway. She was greatly used in northeast China in revival in 1926 and 1927. She also talked with Watchman Nee and came back to Norway to pray for Norway.
She is one of the only two people I have ever known who actually saw, when they were dying, the glory of God actually manifested.
When I saw her, she was so weak she could not even lift a cup to her mouth. But there was a glow. For the first time, I understood why in those old pictures they put a halo round people. There was an actual glow of light around her.
She said to me, “I will wait for you at one of the gates of the city.”
It was the first time I had ever heard someone say something that was just like saying, “I will be waiting for you at Waterloo Station under the clock.” I fully expect to see her.
What a battle she fought in prayer.
Or I think of Kenneth Oliphant of Honor Oak. Elizabeth Fischbacher said to me that Brother T. Austin-Sparks said of him, “He is a womb.”
He had a travelling ministry, the gentlest, sweetest brother you could imagine. He was a vicar originally, till he gave it up to become just a brother in the house of the Lord.
Out of his suffering—and he had lifelong suffering—came a ministry of travail.
I remember once him phoning me and saying about a certain sister, “What is wrong? What is wrong with this sister? I have pleaded the burnt offering. I have pleaded the peace offering. I have already pleaded the sin offering and the trespass offering, and I get nowhere.”
That sister died under judgment.
Such amazing people. I have spoken about Alexandra Liblich and Kathleen Smith. They are all in the glory now. Who is going to follow them?
Many of you who are Chinese will have heard of Margaret Barber. What a battle she fought in prayer for China.
Only when we are in the glory will we ever know the consequences and fruit of that battle, that prayer battle she fought—and I believe won—in the secret place.
I say, it has been my privilege to know—I did not know Margaret Barber—but I knew all these others, and many more.
But they are all going home. Who will follow in their stead?
If you are afraid, do not be afraid. You will never regret it.
Commit yourself to the Lord. Take the first step and say, “Lord, I am hopeless. I am unworthy in myself. I am certainly unprofitable. But, Lord, take me. Here am I.”
Your education will begin within twenty-four hours. For the Spirit of the Lord is so looking for candidates for intercession that the moment you take the first step, He will start your education.
May the Lord bless you, my dear child of God. Listen to me: the path of the intercessor is a path of pain. It is a path of joy. And it is a path that ends in the throne of God.
May the Lord touch you this afternoon. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, hear us. A moment of quietness—let us be still before the Lord.
Lord, You know our hearts. You know our secret fears, and You know our secret hopes.
Wherever there is one person who says, “Here am I, Lord. Take me,” Lord, will You start that education?
Will You lead us in a genuine, real path of intercession? Help us, Lord, whether we are young or old.
We are moving into days of unparalleled turmoil and trouble. Lord, train us. Instruct us. Discipline us, Lord.
Produce within us something that is wholly of Yourself, and means that we shall, by Your grace, be overcomers.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.