Would you turn with me to the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 62?
We will read from verse 1:
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.
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.
Then, if you will turn with me to 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, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments: we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from Thy precepts and from Thine ordinances. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, that spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are afar off, through all the countries whither Thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against Thee.
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. Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city.
We will stop there. Then I would like to add something in the New Testament. If you will turn to the Galatian letter, chapter 4, verse 19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
We will just have a word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that we have been found in Your presence this morning, and once again reminded of that great cost to which You went joyfully in order to save us.
Lord, we commit now the ministry of Your Word to You. Will You grant an anointing upon both the speaking and the hearing of it? In weakness, Lord, let Your power and strength be manifest.
Touch our hearts, Lord, by Your Spirit. Do not let this just be another message, another sermon; but, Lord, make it a living word from Yourself to our hearts. Hear this, Lord. We are asking this in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and we shall be careful to give You all the praise and glory and thanksgiving for the answer. Amen.
I want to speak this morning about a subject that is perhaps the most costly and the most precious, as far as God is concerned. I want to talk about intercession.
There have been a number of biblical phrases and words that have been totally devalued over these past years. One of them is “born again.” We hear about born-again presidents, only to discover that they are not born again. We hear about people being born again, and we find that they are not born of God. They fall away as quickly as they came.
Another term is intercession. I travel all over the world, and I often hear people say, “I’m an intercessor.” I know full well that when a person says they are an intercessor, they are not.
I have yet to meet anyone who is a true intercessor who claims to be one. They are all learners. They do not feel they have arrived. They do not feel they have got to that place.
I remember my many visits to the Rhys Howells work in Wales, and the fellowship I had with Samuel, his son, and with others there—Gladys Roberts, Kitty Morgan, all with him through the war years in those tremendous times of intercession; Dr. Rees and the others.
I never heard one of them claim to be an intercessor. Yet they were the most powerful intercessors I had ever met.
I think I first began to see what an intercessor was when I was ill in Egypt. Egypt is—well, it is very easy to be ill in Egypt.
I had jaundice, and after I recovered I was sent to convalesce with two old missionaries. They were supposed to be retired, but they did not believe that the servants of God retired.
They had an apartment in Port Said, and I had been warned by other missionaries, “Now you watch them.” I was very arrogant. I was nineteen—unbelievably arrogant. Because of the family I was brought up in, I was used to speaking my mind, which is not exactly the right thing to do with certain questions.
I remember being warned by missionaries, “You watch yourself. These are the holiest people in Egypt. They will be horrified with you.”
I went off to be looked after by these two old missionaries. I remember immediately that, when something came up about the cross, they asked me a question. I was only nineteen, and I had just had an experience of what it was to be crucified with Christ.
I was very nervous when they asked me, “What do you understand by this?” When I began to tell them, I have never forgotten the smile that came across their faces. They said, “From now on, God will begin to do something with you.”
Well, I think I have told you this story before. I could not believe it. I was there for two and a half weeks, and I could not believe that this little apartment in Port Said seemed to be a spiritual CIA. It was like the Pentagon, only a spiritual form of it.
These two old ladies—you younger people would probably not have thought twice about them—they looked like withered old prunes. I mean, you would not have thought for a moment that something was happening.
But I heard phone calls come from Algiers, from Marrakesh, from Casablanca, from Baghdad, from Beirut; letters opened in my presence from other places—in Luxor and Damanhur and so on.
I noticed how they talked together. Of course, I was forbidden to have anything to do with it. I was supposed to be convalescing, and I do not know whether they were afraid that I might ruin the times of intercession.
I always remember that when a phone call came through, Auntie Smith would say, “Alex, intercession room.” The door would open, and out would come Auntie Alex. They would both go off into this room and shut the door.
And I died to get into that room, because each time they got in there, somehow or other there would be a phone call that evening. I would hear one of them saying, “Yes, we got the victory at such-and-such a time. We knew that it was over.”
Now, it did not always happen. There were some things they were still praying for when I left Egypt. But, to me, these two old ladies were the most extraordinary thing.
Then one day they said to me, “Would you like to join us for intercession?” I put on my most English manner and said, “Oh, that would be very nice.” But, in fact, I was dying to get in there.
When we got in, my eyes were like organ stops, watching everything. My ears were like radar, picking up every single thing.
I have never forgotten it. They shared this letter and a phone call, and then one said to the other, “Have you anything in the Word for this?”
The other said, “Yes. I believe God gave me something in Obadiah last night.” Well, I do not think I had ever read Obadiah. I did not even know where it was. I knew it was in the Old Testament, but I had no idea where it was.
To my amazement, these two old sisters got on their knees, and they took that verse in Obadiah. I can only describe it like this: if any of you have seen those old Pathé news films from the Second World War—the big boats, the big battleships, and the people with helmets turning the gun turrets—you know the kind of thing.
That was the atmosphere. It was just like ammunition going out, one after the other.
Then one of them would say to the other, “Do you think we are through?” I thought they were through long ago, you know, but the other one said, “Not yet.” Then they went back at it again.
Finally, one of them would say, “Praise the Lord, I believe the Lord has heard our prayer,” and the other one would answer. Then they would turn to me and say, “Don’t you think we are through?”
Well, of course, I did not know the first thing about it. I just mumbled, “Yes, I think so.” But it was my introduction to intercession.
I had already been introduced to prayer. Alan Redpath never missed the prayer meeting on a Monday unless he was in an evangelistic crusade. My earliest and lasting memories of Alan Redpath were of him on his knees in a dirty, dusty old church hall for one and a half hours every Monday evening.
There were others, too, who knew something about prayer and had a great effect on me. But those two old sisters changed my life. That is all I can say.
What is intercession? Intercession begins with the knowledge of what God’s will is.
You cannot intercede until you know what the Lord is planning to do. You will remember Moses, when the Lord said to Moses, “Stand aside. I am going to destroy this nation, and I will make you a new nation. From you I will start again.”
Then Moses began to intercede. “Do You remember, Lord? You cannot do this. If You were to do this, we should be in serious trouble. What will the nations say—that You brought these people out and then destroyed them?”
You remember Abraham. The Lord said, “Shall I withhold this information from My friend Abraham?” The Lord said to him, “I am going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Then Abraham began his amazing intercession. I have often wondered what would have happened if Abraham had only gone down to five. You remember? He bargained in true Jewish style.
“Well, Lord, if there were fifty, what do You say to that? Would You?” “Yes,” the Lord said, “if there were fifty, I will forgo the thing.” Then he came right down to ten, but he left it there.
I have often wondered what would have happened if he had gone lower. But, anyway, Sodom and Gomorrah got destroyed. Intercession began with a knowledge of God’s will.
Daniel is the most extraordinary case. Daniel was a eunuch. He had been made a eunuch; he had been castrated, as all young men taken from noble families to work as civil servants in the Babylonian Empire were automatically made into eunuchs.
This was a terrible thing because Daniel remembered the Word of the Lord: that a eunuch could not serve in the house of the Lord to the third or fourth generation.
This makes all the more remarkable the fact that Daniel refused to take unkosher food. What did he have to gain from it? What had they done to him? He could have been embittered and thought, “Well, I will eat anything. What does it matter? The Lord has allowed this thing to happen to me.”
But he did not. Instead, he would not touch anything unkosher, and the Lord honoured him for it. You all know the story of Daniel: how he rose from one position to another, and another, and another, until he became the supreme power next to the emperor of that great empire.
When his desk was filled with government business, not a single thing could be executed until it was authorized—until it had his seal on it, as well as the emperor’s seal. That was how powerful Daniel was.
It is amazing that God brought him to such a place of power. It was all to do with the chapter we read. He discovered in the books—so he studied the books.
There is the first thing about the intercessor: they study the Word of God. Here is the second thing: he relied on the Holy Spirit for revelation.
It was not just studying the books. The Holy Spirit revealed to him when the seventy years began. When he understood that the seventy years began not with Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, but with Jehoiachin, a king or two before, he suddenly realized with his acute brain, “We are near to the end of the seventy years.”
Now, if he had been a good charismatic, he would have said to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “Let us have a ball. We will have a time of praise. We will have a banquet. We are nearly there. It is going to happen because the Lord said it to Jeremiah, and it is the Word of the Lord and the purpose of the Lord.”
But instead, to our amazement, Daniel remembered the prayer of dedication of King Solomon: that if you are anywhere in the furthest part of the earth and you pray towards this place where God had caused His name to dwell—which at that time was in ruins—He would hear and answer, restore you from exile, and bring you back.
So Daniel opened his shutters three times a day and prayed loudly, apparently, because the spies who watched him reported that the king had made a decree that no one should pray to anyone but the emperor, and Daniel was praying to the God of Israel.
So Daniel ended up in the lions’ den.
It seems to me that Satan knew he had to destroy Daniel. If he did not destroy Daniel, then the purpose of God would be fulfilled, the Jewish people would go back to the Promised Land, and the Messiah would come.
I think this is a tremendous thing even to consider for a few moments: Daniel unwittingly got caught up in the whole spiritual, divine machinery of the fulfilment of the purpose of God.
That is why I read the last part of Daniel 9. Those seventy weeks are all to do with the coming of the Messiah. It was almost as if the Lord said, “Daniel, dear Daniel, how I love you. You have understood this is not just rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, rebuilding Jerusalem, rebuilding the cities, and the people going there. You have somehow touched the heart of the purpose of God: a Saviour, a Redeemer, the Messiah.”
Now, that teaches me a few things about intercession. The first is this: real intercession is always linked to the Lord Jesus.
It is always to do with His glory. It is always to do with the fulfilment of the purpose of God for Him and for His own.
Another thing you learn: Daniel put sackcloth on, put ashes on his head, and fasted. I am not suggesting you do this, but that is what he did.
Then we have a sample of his prayer ministry. This prayer ministry got him into the lions’ den.
When Satan understood what he was doing, he said, “This man is the most dangerous man on the face of the earth. We have got to get rid of him.”
And the Lord said, “Daniel is the most strategically important man on the face of the earth. We have to deliver him.”
In this matter, we begin to understand what intercession is. I have said it a few times. Let me say it again: you will never become an intercessor unless you first face the essential mystery of intercession.
Why should the Lord need us to pray something He has said is going to happen? Why should He need us to pray it into existence?
It is a good question. Could He not do it Himself? Does He really need us? Is He dependent upon us? Of course not.
The Lord could do it much more easily without you and me. We are a load of trouble. I do not know if you have discovered that about yourself, but you have probably found it out about other members of the fellowship.
We are a load of trouble. It is a very big thing when we finally come to a recognition that I am a load of trouble to the Lord and to my brothers and sisters.
The Lord could do this thing so much more easily without us, but He has chosen not to. It really is a mystery. It is almost as if the Lord says, “Daniel, if you do not pray this thing into being, I will not do it. I will find someone else who will stand in the gap.”
When you read the paraphrase of Daniel’s prayer, you will notice that he prays as if he has not read Jeremiah. He keeps saying to the Lord, “Defer not, Lord. We know You are angry, but think of these people.”
“Do not defer. Do not be put off. Do not let their sins, as it were, obscure everything. Remember Your purpose, and remember the Messiah.”
I think that is extraordinary.
If you are going to pray for this nation, you have to remember this. Here is another point: Daniel prays as if it is his sin.
It is not “them”—you know, the others. “They have sinned. They have done this. They have treated the prophets badly. They have contradicted Your covenant. They have done this. They have done that.”
He says, “Lord, we have sinned. We have acted perversely. We have contradicted Your covenant.”
Here is something that Rhys Howells got hold of: identification with those you are praying for, interceding for. You are standing in their place.
Now, this has been taken too far by some people. I remember a youngish man—he was about thirty-five—who came up to me at the end of a session here in the States, not anywhere here in Tennessee but further north.
He said, “Brother, I wish you could help me.” I said, “Well, how can I help you?” He said, “My wife says she is an intercessor.”
“Oh, really?” I said. But he said, “I do not think she is.”
I said, “Why do you not think she is?” He said, “It is weird. I come home in the evening. The children are not washed; they are not fed; they are running around wild. She and her friend are in the broom cupboard screaming.”
“When I asked her what she was doing, they said, ‘This is vicarious suffering. We are taking on the suffering of the people around us.’ What do you think about that?”
I said, “I think it is nonsense. First of all, if she is a housewife and a mother, her first priority is to be a housewife and a mother.”
To be an intercessor is very important, but to forego your priorities while the children are filthy, unfed, and running around in an unkempt condition, and while a husband has to come back after a day’s work and wash them, feed them, and put them away—and then be told by his wife, “Well, you see, I am an intercessor”—that is not right.
I have met some of these intercessors. May the good Lord deliver us. They are nuts.
Now, Jerusalem attracts nuts. It also brings real pilgrims and choice things, but, boy, does it attract some nuts.
On the present count, we have three Virgin Marys, two Jeremiahs, three Elijahs, one John the Baptist. It is unbelievable to me. We have so many of the two witnesses, you could fill a cathedral with them.
Do you know that we have a mental hospital just outside Jerusalem, and it has two whole wards entitled “The Jerusalem Syndrome”?
When I talked with one of the specialists, he said, “People are perfectly normal. They come here to this land, and suddenly they see themselves as a Sunday school Bible character. It is a mental condition. When they leave, they revert immediately.”
I remember very well: I had an Elijah go past my kitchen three times a day with an attaché case. Written on it in Hebrew, Arabic, and English was, “Elijah.”
When one of my good friends, who is a pastor in Jerusalem, was called by the police to deal with him—because the police had put him away in a cell for a night—he said to him, “But you are Ernie from Wyoming. How could you call yourself Elijah?” Then he burst into tears.
It is very sad, this thing. We need to be delivered from it. But, on the other hand, we need intercessors.
Now, let me backtrack. To be an intercessor, you have to be saved. Is that not simple?
To be an intercessor, you have to be born of the Spirit of God. Here is the second thing: you have to have a minimum maturity.
The Apostle Paul uses that extraordinary phrase: “My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you.”
I find this very interesting because this word travail in the Greek original is simply to do with the agony of childbirth. So it was no small thing that the apostle was in.
Would to God there were people who could pray for young Christians like that, instead of simply criticizing them for their worldliness, their dress, their slovenliness, and this, that, and the other.
If only there were those who really prayed and travailed in the secret place—the agony of childbirth.
Did you notice the little word again? “My little children, of whom I am again in travail.” He had obviously been in travail for their spiritual birth. Now he was in travail again: the agony of childbirth that Christ be formed in them.
This is so foreign to modern Christianity: Christ formed in us.
We seem to think that all that is necessary is to make a decision for the Lord, and then He will do the rest. He will clean up our messes, look after us, give us a good home, give us a good wife or husband, give us blessed and sweet little children, and all the rest of it.
The Lord is there for us. There is no idea of our serving. There is no idea of denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Him.
Anyway, to come back to this, there has to be a minimum maturity.
I do not know if it is right to speak of the Lord like this, but He understands. What is the divine dilemma? Is it possible for God to have a dilemma, since He knows everything, is infinite, all-powerful, almighty?
Here is the divine dilemma: to get His purpose fulfilled, He needs people. He needs people who will follow the Lord Jesus the whole way.
He needs people who will become living sacrifices out of which the body of Christ can be produced.
By and large, the church today is filled with spiritual babies—people thirty years old in Christ, twenty years old in Christ, ten years old in Christ; some forty years old in Christ, some even older—and they have never grown an inch.
There is something very beautiful about babyhood. When a baby is a baby, it is wonderful. We all ply them with toys, we hum and we coo, we speak baby language, and all the rest of it. We become almost over-babies.
But there is nothing more horrifying than a person who is twenty years of age and still a baby. Then we do not know how to handle it. It is embarrassing. Do you understand?
God has a house full of babies that should now be adults. They should be soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They should be those who can travail in prayer.
They should be those who can fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on life eternal, to which we are called. They should be those who can build up others. They should be those who can care for others.
Here is the divine dilemma. We have a gospel which does not call on us to give ourselves entirely to the Lord. If it does, it is to consecrate our gifts, as if that would be a help to the Lord.
Watchman Nee, many years ago, said, “The church suffers more from the talents and gifts of its members than ever it has from their sins.” It is absolutely true.
You have all heard someone sing, and all you heard was them. You have all heard someone else sing, and you heard the Lord.
You have all heard someone play the piano or a musical instrument, and you were left with the thought, “Aren’t they clever?” Then someone else plays an instrument, and you have met the Lord.
It is the same with preaching. When the Lord speaks through somebody, we know it. We almost forget the person—though it is very hard with me, I must say, ever to forget me, because I am so grossly soulish, I suppose that would be the word.
But when people really hear the Lord, they forget the vessel.
I sometimes think Paul must have had an awful lot of very obvious faults. I do not know how all the churches in Asia turned away from him.
Give me that book. This is how I came to the Lord. This man, C. T. Studd—I came to the Lord by reading this book. It was the first Christian book I had ever read.
I had never read the Bible when I was nearly thirteen, and I had never read a Christian book. I had been excused all Christian instruction at school.
Then this book came into my hands. The only reason I read it was because it looked as if I had been denied it. I had to go and ask the man who was giving all the other fellows books.
By the way, they were dreadful. They let off stink bombs in the Sunday school. I am not giving any of you young ones ideas. But they were dreadful, and I thought I was very good, and I never got a book. I think he was afraid of my mother. That is my own conviction.
I read that book in one week, and at the end of it I became a child of God.
C. T. Studd was just such a person. He had so many weaknesses and so many faults, but he was on fire for God.
He became an intercessor, basically for Central Africa. It cost him everything, but he never looked back.
I must say, myself, I would not be here but for him. It took someone so on fire, so radical, so absolute before the Lord, obedient to what he saw in the Word of God, to bring someone like myself to the Lord.
This matter of being an intercessor is so important. There has to be a minimum maturity.
Can I put something to you younger people, and to some of you older ones who have wasted half your lives? Let me put it quite clearly: if you would only start again right now, today, God will compress into a very short time what normally would take years.
God is the God who restores what the locust has eaten—the palmerworm, the cankerworm, and all the other worms. Praise the Lord, He can do it, and He does it miraculously. But you have to be one hundred percent for the Lord.
So often when I speak about intercession, people used to say to me afterwards, “I will never be an intercessor, listening to you.”
I always said, “Are you ready to be a candidate?” If they say yes, I quote a Chinese proverb: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
That journey will take you to the throne of God and to the glory of God, but you have to take the first step.
So, this question of a minimum maturity: why join the norm and be so pathetic when you should be an adult in the Lord?
You younger ones, why do you not start? I started when I was fourteen. I gave myself to the Lord. I took that word of C. T. Studd: “If He has done all this for me, there is nothing too great for me to give to Him.”
Did you notice those words in Isaiah 62? Did you realize that those first words were not the words of Isaiah? They are the words of the Messiah.
Let me read it to you again:
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.
Who is speaking? Isaiah? No, I do not think so. Who is speaking? It is the Messiah.
Now we have a window into the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus at this moment. He will not rest.
Whether you understand Zion and Jerusalem as the earthly one—the Jewish people, Israel—or whether you see it as the church, or, better still, see it as both, the fact of the matter is this: the Lord will not rest until He has completed and fulfilled His purpose for the church, for Israel and the Jewish people, and for individual believers.
We need intercessors. We need people who are able to pray and pray by the energy of the Holy Spirit.
We need them for those young ones amongst us, that they may grow up in the Lord and become soldiers of the Lord Jesus.
We need intercessors who can pray for the church—not just here amongst us, but for the church in the world. Thank God for what the Lord is doing in the Third World. Here in the West, it is a tragedy. It is a Laodicean church.
But we do not have to stop there. Why should we not pray? The Word of God is very clear.
It tells us that the bride will make herself ready. I love that, because it does not say the Lord will make her ready, though that is actually true. But it says the bride will make herself ready.
She will take the grace of God and the power of God, and by that grace and power there will be a faithful remnant who make themselves ready. Would you not prefer to be in that?
Or are you going to wait until the whole of society in the United States breaks up and collapses, until every single thing goes by the board, until there is unemployment everywhere and it is a mess?
Whether we are in the beginning of that now or not, it will come.
There is always the temptation: “Do not give yourself wholly to the Lord yet. You are young. You can enjoy yourself for a while,” and so on. But would it not be better to give yourself wholly to the Lord right from the start and allow Him to use all the years you have to develop something in you?
Here is another wonderful thing. The Lord says, “I will not hold My peace nor rest until I have done this for Zion and Jerusalem.” Then He says in verse 6, “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace nor rest night and day.”
“Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers”—that is my version, and I think it is a wonderful translation.
Does the Lord have a bad memory? Why does He need remembrancers? But that is exactly what it says. The word in Hebrew is a word sometimes used for clerks, for secretaries.
You who are the Lord’s clerks; you who are the Lord’s secretaries.
I do not know how many secretaries there are here this morning, but you all know that if you have a boss, you tell him, “You have an appointment at such-and-such a time,” or, “You have a free afternoon,” or, “At such-and-such a time you are meeting Mr. So-and-so.” You understand what I mean? That is the job of a good secretary.
Why does the Lord need people? It is such a good question.
You who are the Lord’s secretaries: you are telling the Lord, “Lord, You have an appointment with the Jewish people. You have got to keep it. There is no getting out of this.”
“You have an appointment with a faithful remnant. You cannot get out of it, Lord.” You understand?
You might well ask me, “Could not the Lord do all this without us?” I have said it already—two or three times. Of course He could. I can only believe it is a matter of fellowship.
The Lord wants co-workers.
There is a beautiful little word in the Old Testament. Moses said to the Lord, “Lord, will Your presence go with us?” The Lord said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Moses said, “If Your presence does not go with us, we will not go.” In the Hebrew, there is no “with us.”
I do not know if you can get this, but if I can put it literally—which you could not in good English—the Lord said, “My person shall go, and I will give you rest.” Moses was saying, “Lord, if Your presence does not go, we are not going.”
It is not the Lord getting behind us and helping us and supporting us. It is rather the Lord leading us. Have you got it?
It is what the Apostle Paul says: “We are God’s co-workers.” We are not workers for the Lord; we are workers with the Lord.
There is an enormous difference between being a worker for the Lord—you are doing your own thing and asking the Lord, “Bless it, provide for it, stand behind us; we need You”—and being a co-worker.
When you are a co-worker, it is a different concept. Someone else is the boss. That means we have to hear what He is saying, and we have to be with Him in the fulfilment of His purpose.
I will end really here, but let me tell you what I feel. I am not an American citizen. I think you have an enormous responsibility.
Basically, it is the church that has allowed this mess to develop, because it has neither been the light nor the salt, nor a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.
For the first time, everybody is beginning to feel a shiver: what is going to come? How is it all going to happen?
We have no need to fear. The Lord is in this thing. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, but we must have that unshakable King and kingdom in us.
So we need to really give ourselves afresh to the Lord.
My words have been very poor—not only this morning, but over these days. I am very conscious of it.
But if out of this time there came a bunch of people prepared to pray through the purpose of God in this nation, I believe the Lord will hear.
The responsibility is yours. It is no good just blaming the church: “The church is Laodicean here,” and this and that and the other. If you are a believer, you have a responsibility.
The question is: are you prepared for the price? The price is colossal. The price is your self-life.
If you are prepared to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, then I believe the Lord could use you to do a tremendous thing in North America, bringing thousands into the kingdom.
I do not know what will happen about the general structure of the States. That we leave with the Lord, because the Word of God does not speak of anywhere except one place as a refuge. It would be very interesting if it was the States.
But I personally would not comment any further on that. What I think is the greatest need is for you to respond to the challenge of the Lord.
You may feel you are so young that it is ridiculous. That is not the question. Do not let the enemy get you on that. That is stupid.
Why do you not start? That means next year you will be one year on, instead of twittering around now and saying, “Well, no, no, I am so young. I do not really understand things very well.”
Why do you not just say, “Lord, here am I. Send me”?
Why do you not just allow the Lord to do something in you? I do not have any doubt that He will do it.
I remember a little story, and with this I end. When I was a boy, a story captured my heart. My mother told me the story of a little Dutch boy who used to play on the great dykes that hold back the sea from the lowlands.
Everybody knew in that whole area—in the towns and villages—that if ever water was seen, they must act immediately.
One of the problems at the time was rabbits, who had burrowed into the dykes. They saw the dykes as God-given territory, something the Lord had provided for rabbits. They burrowed holes everywhere and had whole warrens.
This little boy was kicking a ball around when he heard water. He went round to look and found water gushing through one of these rabbit holes. It was salt water.
He did not know what to do. The town was too far away; the nearest people were too far away. So he put his arm in and plugged the hole.
They found him two days later. He had saved the whole of that part of Holland, but it had cost him his life.
This is intercession.
If God calls you, it is like putting your arm into the hole. It will cost you.
But that price will be nothing compared with the glory that will follow. The Lord is no man’s debtor.
You will not ever be able to stand before God and say loudly in front of everybody, “I did this and this and this for You. I became a living sacrifice for You.”
You will be so overwhelmed by the vision of the beauty of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, and the power of the Lord, that you will be only too thrilled that you are there.
You will not be saying, “Do remember all the things I did for You, Lord—the sacrifices I made.” It is nothing.
Why do we not bow our heads in prayer? In quietness, let us just be still for a few moments, and let us in our hearts answer the challenge.
Will you be an intercessor? Will you be part of a group of intercessors? I do not know how the Lord will lead. That is up to the Lord, the way that He does it and how He leads your brethren who are your leaders.
But what I do know is that this is not something we can put off. Shall we pray?
A moment or two of quietness. Let the Lord speak to your heart. Are you ready? Are you ready to take the first step in that thousand-mile journey?
Are you ready to be a living sacrifice? Are you ready for what it will take to be a true, genuine intercessor?
Dear Lord, You know the answer in every heart. Will You really meet us?
Let these few days, Lord, be somehow used of You to bring a new power in prayer and a new understanding of intercession.
Lord, in judgment remember mercy. Remember this nation. Remember the founders of it, those first Pilgrim Fathers. Will You, Lord, have mercy upon us?
Turn what is happening on this continent into the means by which a great spiritual awakening shall take place.
We ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
How many of you are prepared, whatever the cost, to follow the Lord? Would you like to stand up, just as a sign before God and in this company that you mean business with the Lord?
Just quietly stand in His presence.
Our Lord, You see every single life who means business with You. Will You do something, Lord? It will cost a lot, but the joy will be there, and the power will be there, and the touch of glory will be there.
Now, Lord, help these dear folks whom You have saved—all of us. Help us, Lord. We are at these great crossroads in history.
Will You do something in this matter of intercession, Lord? Deliver us from the weird, and the radical, and the overboard; and keep us for what is truly intercession.
Hear now this prayer of ours. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Just a little afterthought. Kate gave Richard that biography. I was saved sixty-five years ago, three days ago, on the twenty-seventh of November, 1943.
I am thankful for a life that was laid down. Whatever the faults and failings were in that life, it was a life laid down.
May yours be such in this generation, and, if the Lord tarry, in the next.