And sheep were scattered this morning. We do thank the Lord that our youth and young people are at Willow Run this morning. May the Lord really raise up our young people and call them to Himself, even this morning. May He do a miracle in every life, and may the Lord also touch our own hearts as well in this hour.
Lord, we do come to Thee this morning. We offer ourselves back unto Thee. We would seek Thy face this morning as we are together. Lord, we would exercise our hearts that they might be open to hear Thy words; Lord, that Thou mightest effect something in our lives that would really draw us to Jesus.
Lord, we do pray that in this last hour Thou wouldst raise up an intercessor on this earth—an intercessor after Thy heart, an intercessor after Thy concerns, an intercessor after Thy desire. Lord, it can only be done by Thy faithfulness and not our own strength.
Lord, today, as we come before Thee, we would ask that Thou wouldst open these words to us. Lord, speak, for Thy servant heareth. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
As we come this morning, I would like to begin by reading a couple of scriptures. And I do need these glasses; I cannot get anywhere close to reading this without them.
First of all, I want to read from 1 Samuel 2:35.
And I will raise Me up a faithful priest,
that shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind:
and I will build him a sure house;
and he shall walk before Mine anointed for ever.
“I will raise up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in My heart and in My mind.”
And 1 Samuel 13:19.
Now there was no blacksmith found throughout all the land of Israel:
for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.
There was no blacksmith found throughout the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “We cannot allow this, lest the Hebrews make swords and spears.”
And Isaiah 59:16.
And He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor.
He saw that there was no man, and He wondered that there was no intercessor.
Last time, as I shared, I spoke on this matter of the Lord’s call to intercessory prayer: to raise up a vessel in this last day, in this last hour, of intercession that will stand for the Lord’s heart and stand for His purpose.
This morning, as I read from 1 Samuel 2:35, it says that God would raise up a faithful priest. We know that that faithful priest was Jesus Christ.
He is the One whom John saw in the book of Revelation. When John saw Him, he fell at His feet as dead. This is the same One upon whose breast John had previously leaned—the One whom John had followed because he had been called to follow the Lamb.
John had seen the Savior and chosen to submit his heart and life to Jesus Christ, much as we have done. But, brothers and sisters, we also need to see this High Priest.
We see John’s reaction. John was a brother who had been faithful in following the Lord all of his life. In his old age, he was in prison because of his testimony of Jesus Christ, concerned about the churches, about what would happen to those in the churches, and about the testimony of Jesus.
Then he was given a vision of the Priest, this One whom God had faithfully raised up. When he saw Him, he fell at His feet as dead, brothers and sisters.
I am sure that at that moment John, with all of his love and all of his service, felt like it was as nothing. When he saw the faithful Priest, brothers and sisters, he saw the One who is concerned about the very hairs on your head. He is concerned about the sparrow that falls from the sky.
He is so concerned that He daily prays for you and for me. He never gives up His ministry of priesthood. He is so diligent as the High Priest that He offered His life on Calvary’s cross and took the sentence of death that we deserved.
He set the prisoner free. He set the guilty one free. Brothers and sisters, we know that sin had ensnared us and that we were in a prison.
I remember the testimony of a prisoner that he gave to Johnny Cash one time. Johnny always ended his prison ministries with that song, “Amazing Grace.” The prisoner came up to him and had found the Lord Jesus Christ previously in his life. He said, “Johnny, every time I hear ‘Amazing Grace,’ it sets me free. These prison bars are no longer there.”
Then he said, “But you know, Johnny, outside of these walls there are many still in prison.”
Brothers and sisters, Christ has set us free and set us free indeed. This is the faithful High Priest, and He is the One who is the Intercessor.
Yet we know that we are called not only to follow the Lamb, but to follow Him in this priestly service of intercession. John saw the great Intercessor, and all he could do was fall and say, “I am an unclean person.”
All of his ministry seemed as if it were nothing when he saw the ministry of this High Priest. This is the One, brothers and sisters, whom we are called to follow. We are called to follow Him in this priestly ministry of intercessory prayer.
As I had prepared this message previously, I had a thought right in the beginning: I wonder what would happen if we just stopped praying.
I wonder if we just stopped praying.
Well, interestingly enough, yesterday I had a little task to do around the house, as many of us husbands do. My wife has fixed up quite a pretty little garden area across the street, on a plot of land that we own.
It is a combination rock garden and flower garden. It has ivy on the hill, and it was quite pretty. But over the last number of years, there were quite a few oak trees there, and in the fall the leaves would fall on the ivy.
Me, not knowing too much about plants and flowers, I said, “Well, that will be good for them. They will decay and create fertilizer.” Well, that is not what happened at all.
After about four years, I looked at this beautiful hill of ivy the other day, and it was almost gone. It was almost nonexistent. There were big patches where there was no ivy at all.
What had happened was that, over the last three or four years, these leaves had fallen upon the ivy and gotten down into it. Instead of helping it grow, they were smothering the life from the ivy.
So I had to get out my Sears handy-dandy blower. I worked for about three hours in that little ivy garden. I had to get down, rip the vines back, get up under them, and blow. It was quite an effort to clean out all those decayed leaves which, instead of helping, were smothering the life from the ivy.
Now, I hope that my effort will result in a rejuvenation of the ivy, because it is really pretty when it is growing properly.
I mention this story to say, brothers and sisters, is this not what often happens in our life with the Lord Jesus Christ? It happens in our life before the Lord, in our worship, and in our prayer.
It is not necessarily the big things in our lives that set us aside. When something suddenly jolts us and we do not understand what is going on, we immediately respond to the Lord. Usually, we come back to the Lord and say, “Lord, You know I need You. I need Your help.”
But as the leaves of life—just little things, little distracting things, things of the world that we are interested in—begin to fall upon our hearts, brothers and sisters, they begin to smother the life within us.
We find that we are worshiping less. We find that we are praying less. Intercessory prayer is gone because our prayers have turned mostly to prayers concerning ourselves, rather than the other interests of the Lord.
Over the years, we stop praying. Our life becomes smothered.
But thank God, He has an air blower too. He comes in, and sometimes He has to really unsettle our lives, much as I did to that ivy garden yesterday. I mean, I was pretty violent, and I had to be, because those vines were netted together. It was not easy to get those leaves out from under all of that.
It was quite an effort, and I was quite violent. Yet it was necessary to restore life.
I only say that this morning, brothers and sisters, because sometimes in our spiritual lives we can almost be lulled into inactivity, particularly in this area of prayer and particularly in the area of intercessory prayer.
Well, what would happen if we stopped praying, brothers and sisters?
Philippians 4:6 says:
Be anxious for nothing;
but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.
God has ordained that this is the way we communicate with Him. We tend to be a very independent people, do we not? That was Eve’s problem in the beginning. She just did not feel like she needed the Lord to run her life.
Here we see that the Lord says, “Look, life is very troubling, but do not be anxious. What you need to do is pray. Pray with supplication. Supplicate the Lord, and with thanksgiving in your heart, knowing that the Lord will provide. The Lord will take care of you.”
Consider the lilies of the field, brothers and sisters.
I wonder if so much of our anxiousness in life is because we have stopped praying. We are trying to basically take it on ourselves, without the Lord. Simple things—simple things. Pray about everything.
Brothers and sisters, that is what the Lord asks of us. He says, “You will go through some tough times, hard times, difficult times. But there is no need to be anxious. I am in charge of your life.”
Brothers and sisters, I think we forget sometimes. May we be encouraged to pray about the little things as well as the big things.
I wonder how much anxiousness is in our lives simply because we are not casting ourselves upon the Lord in simple prayer.
James 4:2 says, “Ye have not, because ye ask not.”
We struggle sometimes over things in our lives, and we just do not ask Him. The Lord wants to take care of us as a Father who is very loving and very diligent. He says, “I want you to simply ask.”
I think often we just do not ask. Stop asking, and the blessings stop flowing.
Now, brothers and sisters, God is sovereign. Thank God for the sovereignty of God. I have always felt that it was our safety net as Christians.
When we are away from God, when we are not praying, when we are not worshiping, when our lives are in a mess, and for whatever reason our hearts will not turn back to the Lord, His sovereign hand is our safety net.
But God does not want us to live on the basis of His sovereignty—just living life as we choose, depending on His sovereign hand to take care of us. He wants us to cooperate with Him as priests. He wants us to come to Him. That is the kind of relationship He prefers.
In 1 Peter 4:7, it says:
But the end of all things is at hand:
be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
The end of all things is at hand. I may have mentioned this before, but look at Israel, the nation of Israel, which is so prevalent in the news today, and at what is happening in the Middle East.
If you have some knowledge of the Scriptures, you realize that before the Lord comes back there will be tremendous conflict there. Prior to that, there will be a promise of peace to that nation by the Antichrist. In the midst of those years, the Antichrist will turn, and it will be the time of Jacob’s trouble for the nation of Israel. It will be the great tribulation, as far as the Christian world is concerned.
The Lord had scattered the nation of Israel because of their unfaithfulness throughout all the world. They thought that was it; all the world did. But, to everyone’s amazement, in 1947 they were recognized as a nation.
The Lord says in Matthew, when the fig tree begins to blossom—and the fig tree always speaks of the nation of Israel—when you see the fig tree begin to blossom, you know that summer is near. You will know that the end is near and that His return is soon.
There is another scripture in Luke concerning the sign of the Lord’s return. He said that Jerusalem would be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled.
When Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took Jerusalem—about five hundred and something B.C., I cannot remember the exact year—Jerusalem came under the control of the Gentiles. Anybody who is not Jewish is considered a Gentile in the Bible.
Jerusalem remained under the control of the Gentiles until 1967. That was almost 2,500 years. In 1967, Jerusalem actually came under the full control of the nation of Israel. The Lord says, “When you see this happen, I am right at the door.”
Brothers and sisters, that was almost forty years ago. The Scripture says, “Watch and pray. The end of all things is at hand. Be sober, watch and pray.”
I wonder what happens if we do not do that—if we are not concerned about the Lord’s purpose in this end hour and no one prays. I wonder how long the Lord’s return would be delayed. We know that it is ultimately going to happen.
Luke 21:36, referring to the same matter, says:
Watch ye therefore, and pray always,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass,
and to stand before the Son of man.
I do not have time to go into all of that this morning, but brothers and sisters, the great tribulation is there. The Lord said, “Watch and pray, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.”
Now, it appears to me that intercessory prayer seems to be connected with rapture, with escaping these things. It makes you wonder if we are not watching and praying.
In Matthew 21:13, He says:
My house shall be called the house of prayer.
We know the Lord’s heart for His house, do we not? It is the place where the Lord is at home, the place of the testimony of Jesus. It is what we have been called to as Christians: to be His house, to be built together.
It is not enough to be a great spiritual Christian. The Lord insists that we be built together with others to be His house. But He has a name on His house. He says, “I want My house to be recognized as a house of prayer.”
Brothers and sisters, this is reality. It is not merely a name put on a place. When people say that, they should mean, “They pray. They are praying. They are concerned about the Lord’s interests, and they are in prayer.”
A house of prayer. If we are not praying, we are not a house of prayer. We are not really His house.
Let us think for a moment about intercessory prayer. Let us turn to Exodus 32.
The nation of Israel had come out of Egypt. At this point Moses was up on the mountain, receiving the Ten Commandments and the instructions for how the tabernacle was to be built. He had been up there a long time. They thought he was gone, and they built this golden calf and said, “This is our god.”
The Lord God became angry. In Exodus 32:10, He says to Moses:
Now therefore let Me alone,
that My wrath may wax hot against them,
and that I may consume them:
and I will make of thee a great nation.
Moses besought the Lord his God and said:
Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people,
which Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power, and with a mighty hand?Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say,
For mischief did He bring them out,
to slay them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the face of the earth?Turn from Thy fierce wrath,
and repent of this evil against Thy people.Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants,
to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst unto them,
I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven,
and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed.
And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.
Then, in Exodus 32:32, Moses prayed:
Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—;
and if not, blot me, I pray Thee,
out of Thy book which Thou hast written.
That is intercessory prayer, brothers and sisters. What would have happened if Moses had been of a different heart? When the Lord challenged him and said, “Look, Moses, I will destroy this group, and from you I will raise up the nation I am after,” that would be quite a challenge, would it not?
But Moses knew God. He knew that, in His wrath, God was also a God of mercy and love. Moses appealed to God on behalf of those people who certainly were not deserving.
Down in the depths of God’s heart, He wanted to save this people from their sin. But He wanted an intercessor, brothers and sisters. He wanted an intercessor who would appeal and bring forth His own heart for this people.
He wanted the people to see how much His heart was for them, even though they had fallen into sin and raised His anger to a level where He was prepared to destroy them. But God raised up an intercessor through Moses.
Intercessory prayer. I am so grateful for our brother Moses because he was not concerned about himself. He could have been full of pride and said, “Sure, make of me a great nation.” But he was concerned about these people who had turned on God and turned on him.
Out of that love of the Lord, Moses responded. The Lord was looking for this intercessor, and He found it in Moses. Thank the Lord. All the Jewish people should thank Moses for his intercessory prayer.
And Daniel 9. Let us go to Daniel 9.
Daniel 9:2-3 says:
In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books
the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet,
that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.And I set my face unto the Lord God,
to seek by prayer and supplications,
with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
Daniel had received the writings of Jeremiah the prophet and realized that Jeremiah had prophesied that the nation of Israel would be in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. There were only a couple of years left before the seventy years were up.
Daniel began to pray. He went in with supplication, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, and prayed unto the Lord his God. He made confession and said:
O Lord, the great and dreadful God,
keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him,
and to them that keep His commandments;
we have sinned, and have committed iniquity,
and have done wickedly, and have rebelled,
even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments:
neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets,
which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers,
and to all the people of the land.
Then, in Daniel 9:17-19, he prayed:
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant,
and his supplications,
and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate,
for the Lord’s sake.O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear;
open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations,
and the city which is called by Thy name:
for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses,
but for Thy great mercies.O Lord, hear;
O Lord, forgive;
O Lord, hearken and do;
defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God:
for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
Intercessory prayer.
As Daniel was before the Lord, it came to him as he read what the prophet Jeremiah had said and realized that they were going to be in captivity for seventy years. It was almost time for that captivity to be over.
Daniel immediately went into intercessory prayer. At the end of those seventy years, the king released the nation of Israel and said, “Okay, you can go back to Jerusalem and build the temple there.”
Brothers and sisters, God raised up an intercessor. It was Daniel.
We do trust in God’s sovereignty, but it appears to me that God always raises up an intercessor. That is God’s way. He wants us to cooperate in this priesthood of intercessory prayer, and He waits for an intercessor before He moves.
But He was faithful, and He raised up Daniel to be an intercessor for the nation.
As Daniel prayed, once again we see that Daniel said, “Lord, we have sinned.” He did not say, “Your people have sinned.” He said, “We have sinned.” He connected with the people. His heart was for the people.
That was the Lord’s heart. Once again we see the Lord’s heart coming back, wanting His people to be restored, wanting His temple to be restored, wanting His house to be restored. He raises up an intercessor.
I wonder if Daniel had not been there, who would have been raised up as an intercessor? I wonder.
The Lord has to be faithful to His word. He had said seventy years. He could have done it without Daniel—that is the point—but He chose not to.
Brothers and sisters, He is looking for us to be heart to heart with Him, to be prayer intercessors with Him, to enter into this priestly ministry that He has called us to.
God always waits for an intercessor. Think of mankind, brothers and sisters. We were all condemned to death. We were all without God, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We were under the penalty of death from the time we were born. We know that we are born in chains because sin is a part of our nature.
But Christ, our Intercessor, interceded for us. How did He intercede, brothers and sisters? When He was hanging on Calvary’s cross, His life was in the balance; all of mankind was in the balance.
Our Lord Jesus said:
Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do.
Brothers and sisters, without that intercessory prayer, today we would not be meeting together. Without the intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Father, asking Him to forgive us, we would not have salvation today. We would be without Christ.
It was through intercessory prayer. God raised up His Intercessor, His faithful Intercessor, Jesus. He is not only our Savior, brothers and sisters; He is the great Intercessor.
I cannot think of being in any more difficult situation than being in the midst of death on Calvary’s cross and still remaining an intercessor.
Often we find in our own lives that we are in circumstances that are very difficult, and our hearts turn inward toward ourselves. But that is the very moment when the Lord says, “I need an intercessor, and it is not for you. I need an intercessor for others. I need an intercessor for My purpose, for My heart, for what I want to do.”
“I need an intercessor who can stand in this last hour before I return, who can hasten the coming of My return.” The Lord is faithful. He will raise up His intercessor. Our part is to respond to the Lord’s call—to be an intercessor, to be in that priesthood.
Oh, brothers and sisters: “Father, forgive them.” The great, simple intercessory prayer that has resulted in your salvation and mine. The great Intercessor, Jesus Christ.
Do you not thank Him for that simple prayer on Calvary’s cross? Our Lord could have thought of Himself. He could have come down from that cross that day. We know that. We know there were legions of angels waiting to rescue our Lord.
But He stayed there on Calvary’s cross for your sake and my sake. He uttered that prayer, that intercessory prayer, which the Father has honored.
The Father has forgiven us because Jesus asked Him to.
Well, brothers and sisters, we have been reading in Ephesians 6. Let us turn to Ephesians 6.
All of this lies under the matter of spiritual warfare that we started many months ago, so I did want to return there this morning.
I will read three verses: Ephesians 6:10, 11, and 18.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord,
and in the power of His might.Put on the whole armour of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints.
Prayer is our spiritual weapon. Prayer is what activates God to move from heaven and operate upon this earth.
The Lord encourages us to be strong in the Lord. As He begins to talk about putting on the armor, prayer, the armor, and being strong in the Lord are all one thought.
In other words, you cannot pray if you do not have the armor on. You need the armor, and I will go into that in a moment. But He says to come strong in the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, when we come to prayer, we come strong. What does that mean? It means to be active, to be believing, to know that He is Lord.
We come strong in the Lord as we come to intercessory prayer, knowing that the Lord is faithful and that He is on the throne. That is the way we come. We do not have to come weak and unbelieving, because He is the Lord.
I think it should be obvious to all of us that one of the greatest tactics, one of the greatest wiles of the enemy, is to stop God’s people from praying.
God waits for an intercessor, and the enemy knows that.
I will read 1 Samuel 13:19 again:
Now there was no blacksmith found throughout all the land of Israel:
for the Philistines said,
Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.
In those days, in the days of the judges, the Philistines, to whom Israel was captive, would not allow them to have a blacksmith. It was a very simple strategy: without weapons, they would not be able to fight. They would not be able to make swords and spears.
Brothers and sisters, do you see how the enemy concentrates on this matter of prayer? He wants to take our weapon away. He does not tell us that he is going to do it, but slowly and gradually we find that we are not praying as we ought. We lose intercessory prayer altogether.
That is his tactic. He wants you to stop praying.
Now, why is the armor so important? Let me give you a few thoughts.
This matter of the loins being girt with truth: the enemy comes to you and says, “You are nothing. You are not spiritual. How can you enter into prayer with the other saints? You are nothing. Your prayers do not matter anyway.”
“You are too young to pray. Let the older ones pray. Let the more spiritual ones pray.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to have Christ on. We need to look at Him and say, “I may be nothing, but I have the Victor. Jesus is everything. In fact, Jesus has said I am a new creature in Christ, and He has called me to be a priest. I will pray.”
I may feel like nothing. I may feel unspiritual, unable. But the truth is, God has called me to prayer, and I will pray.
The breastplate of righteousness. The enemy says, “You are a sinner. Look how many times you have failed. How can you pray?”
Well, I cannot pray on the basis of my merits. I cannot come to God on the basis of my merits, but only on the blood of the Lamb, under which I submit myself before I pray.
“Lord, I am a sinner, but Your blood has cleansed me, and I come boldly to the throne of grace. I come boldly to pray before You, because You are my righteousness.”
That is the righteousness that stands up before the enemy.
This matter of the feet being shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: peace. The enemy says, “How can I pray? My life is chaotic. I am running from one thing to another. I hardly have time to think about the Lord. I am so busy.”
“My life is chaotic. The assembly is chaotic. Everything is chaotic. There is no need for me to go and pray. I need to get my life straight first.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to allow the peace of God to rule our hearts, even in the midst of being very busy. We need to concentrate on this God of peace. We need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are looking here and there, and we are so scattered. I am guilty of it as much as anyone in this room, or more so probably. I know how chaotic life can get.
But it says that the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. I have always thought it should say, “The God of war will crush Satan.” But everything that is counter to the peace of God will be destroyed.
Everything that is counter to God’s peace in your life and in your heart is opposed to Christ, and Christ will move upon it.
Remember, it says that the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the deep. The world was in darkness and chaos, it says in Genesis 1, and the Holy Spirit could not abide that darkness. He moved: “Let there be light.”
Brothers and sisters, there is the light of God available.
The shield of faith. The enemy says, “You are not worthy. You are not worthy to pray. How can you pray, particularly how can you come to the prayer meeting and pray corporately? You are not worthy. In fact, you have just failed the Lord.”
Brothers and sisters, we do need, of course, to be right with the Lord Jesus Christ. But can we not turn to Him and say, “The Lord is worthy, and because He is worthy, I am going to pray.”
I believe. I do not believe in my worth; I believe in the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will pray.
Faith. We do not need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe in Him.
The helmet of salvation. Oh, how the enemy attacks us with so many doubts, so many reasonings, so many thoughts—thoughts that are evil, thoughts that are contrary to Christ. They seem to fill our thought life.
Doubts. Brothers and sisters, have you been hit with doubt in your life? Doubt about yourself? Doubt about the assembly? Doubts.
Can I say this? I think doubts may be one of the greatest enemies to God. That is what the enemy did to Eve in the garden. He put doubt in her mind about God, about God’s love for her, and about God’s care for her. He said, “Hath God said?”
Doubts. How we need Christ to be our helmet concerning these doubts.
When doubts come to your mind about anything, please go back to the Lord immediately and say, “Lord, I do not understand the situation. I may not understand what is going on here, but I do not want to get into the place where I am doubting You.”
“I do not want these doubts to destroy me, because they will.” What do they do? They get your mind on the Lord in a negative way, or on the Lord’s things in a negative way.
It is very dangerous, I have learned through the years. Because of these doubts, often we finally cannot pray. They sap us of all spiritual energy.
That is why we need Christ as our helmet of salvation. I think the way through that is to look to the Lord and say, “Lord, I just believe You. I trust You. I am coming back to You right now.”
It says that if I turn my heart to Him, the veil will be lifted. It is simply living a life close to the Lord.
The armor is absolutely essential. Of course, we need the Word of God to use as the sword of the Spirit.
Prayer is your communication with God, and it is also your weapon against the enemy. The enemy wants to stop it at all costs because he knows God waits for us to pray.
“You have not because you ask not.” Watch and pray; the end is near. Watch and pray that you might be accounted worthy not to have to suffer all these things.
Brothers and sisters, prayer was so much a part of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was always praying. In the mornings He was healing and preaching, and in the evenings and at night He was on the mountain praying.
Remember when the disciples went out on the ship and the wind became contrary to them? The Lord was not with them. He was up on the mountain praying. It was another great hour of prayer.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ asked three of His disciples—Peter, James, and John—to come with Him and watch and pray with Him for an hour. They went into the garden.
I have often wondered why the Lord called these three to Him to watch and pray. I really think the Lord was looking for an intercessor to watch and pray with Him in that hour of great trial before He was to go to the cross.
I also realize that He needed to teach His disciples through this experience, that we might learn also that we need to watch and pray and not let the hour pass us by asleep.
The spiritual atmosphere was so intense that it says sweat, as it were great drops of blood, fell from our Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine praying that intently, but that is how intense the spiritual warfare was.
He asked those three to be with Him. Brothers and sisters, He asks us today to be with Him in this last hour.
He was praying, and He said, “Father, if this cup can pass from Me, let it be so.” He went back and found the disciples asleep.
He said, “Could ye not watch with Me one hour?” He went back, and of course, we know that the third time He said, “Sleep on now.” It was too late for them to pray with Him.
Our Lord Jesus did not admonish the disciples. I think it is because He realized that the spiritual warfare was so intense, and the flesh was so weak, that it simply could not hold up in that hour of prayer.
Our Lord Jesus was to be taken to the cross and crucified there. He knew that not only would the Father have to reject Him there on the cross, because He became sin on our behalf, but that the Father would have to abandon Him during that dark hour.
He would have to be separated from the One to whom He was so close. It had never happened in the Godhead throughout all eternity, nor has it happened since. But in that moment, it did.
The Lord was not prepared for that. By that I mean He is God, but He had never known what sin was until that hour.
That is something that is a mystery to us, brothers and sisters. We can only fall down and worship Him, the righteous One.
But the point I wanted to make is this: we know that on the cross He stripped the principalities and powers, brothers and sisters, but the real battle was won in intercessory prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.
That is where it was settled. That is where the battle was really won. It was in that garden, in prayer before the Father, when He finally said:
Not My will, but Thine, be done.
The battle was won. That is where the real battle was: “Not my will, but Thine, Lord.” Brothers and sisters, that is the real battle in our lives, is it not? Not my will, but Thine be done.
The point being that even before the Lord went to Calvary’s cross, there was this intercessory prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was concerned that the Father’s will be done and that the world would be saved and reconciled to the Father.
It was a time of great intercession.
Remember, a number of weeks ago I shared about the terrestrial watchers and the celestial watchers. He has the holy angels and the seraphim; they are the heavenly watchers. But He has called us to watch as well.
We remember that it says an angel came and strengthened Him. As He was in this prayer, the angels came and strengthened Him. The three disciples were asleep.
They could not offer any strength to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God the celestial watchers did not fail in that hour. But our three brothers could not make it through.
Let me say this much: when it comes to intercessory prayer, we are in the last hour.
We have many things of the Lord before us. We have brothers from Russia, brothers and sisters in Haiti, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Muslim countries. It is the last hour.
We have been called to pray, to be intercessors. Regarding the world situation, we need to be standing that, in this last hour, many will be saved.
We need to be standing for the Lord’s interests in the church, in His house, that He would have the house for which He has been looking, that He would have His house of prayer.
We need to be standing for one another in intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is so necessary.
You remember, early on, after they had left Egypt, the nation of Israel got into a battle with the Amalekites. Moses went up on the mountain, and as long as he held up his hands, Joshua was in the field fighting the battle with the other men.
They were down on the plain fighting the Amalekites. As long as Moses held his hands up, the battle prevailed in the valley. But as he dropped his hands, the enemy began to prevail.
Finally, Aaron and Hur had to hold up Moses’ arms.
Brothers and sisters, that is intercessory prayer. The battle in the valley will not succeed, will not prevail, if there is not intercessory prayer holding up the arms on the mountaintop.
That is what we are called to in these situations. God is looking for a prayer instrument. If you read Ephesians 6, you will realize that it is a corporate prayer instrument—not just individuals, but brothers and sisters.
We need to pray in this last hour.
Let me read this one last scripture, and I will close. I have already shared about Samuel’s intercessory prayer.
The nation of Israel had failed and asked for a king. Samuel did anoint Saul, and right after that the anger and wrath of the Lord arose again. Samuel came before the Lord.
The people came to him and said, “The Lord is angry at us. He is going to destroy us, for we have sinned.” In asking for a king, they had rejected God.
Samuel’s words were these:
As for me, far be it from me
that I should sin against the Lord
in ceasing to pray for you.
Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. Intercessory prayer.
Lord, we do come today to Thee. We worship Thee. We exalt Thee. We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou art the faithful Priest, that served faithfully in intercessory prayer on Calvary’s cross on our behalf.
Lord, we thank Thee. I do not understand it all, but Lord, Thou always hast an intercessor. My prayer is that Thou wilt have an intercessor in this last hour.
My prayer is, Lord, that we will not fall asleep. Lord Jesus, the flesh indeed is weak, but we pray that Thy Spirit will be strong in us.
Lord, I just pray that somehow Thou wouldst come upon us with enlightenment in our hearts of how close Thy return is, how soon it will be when Thou wilt come.
Lord, how necessary it is in this hour to have an intercessor. Lord, only the Holy Spirit can do that work in our hearts. We pray that Thou wilt have a house of prayer.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.