Intercessor

P 3427 Let Him prune you.

/ DVH

Now there’s another happy thought. Most of us, if we are truthful, start backing up and going the other way when we see the Lord Jesus coming at us with the secateurs! Like I said: … let’s be honest!! We look lovingly at some little, hopeful, tender tendril, that has started to grow at the end of what looks like a dead stick on His vine and start to feel ….  a little bit proud of ourselves… ‘Look at what we’ve made … all-by-ourselves!’ And here comes Jesus, snip snip, snipping away. If we had legs in this dumb allegory, we’d run away.

It is unrealistic to continually tell people that our new life in Christ means we will grow a bunch of juicy grapes year after year. Grapes grow best when you prune them. You see, the Lord Jesus is the Master Vine-dresser and He knows exactly when and where to prune so that the vine produces only the best sweetest grapes … and He wants quality, not just quantity. To get that there must be sacrifice and that means even those things that have heaps of potential. All this happens so the sap in the vine will be channelled into less bunches of fruit, and produce better quality grapes in the ones that remain. This happens in winter, when the vine seems to be dormant.

What that means to us, is this — sometimes our most unfruitful seasons, our times of great difficulty and trials, are channelling the flow of God’s Spirit in our lives in certain directions. So we can see the tendrils of new growth in good things like worship leading, or preaching … yet the Lord says … ‘I don’t want fruit from those branches, I want fruit from this little nub down here.’ Then the fruit that will remain comes from the branches HE chooses. Maybe that means developing greater service to others, or deep empathy in our lives. We need to listen, step down from the platform, and follow the SAP!

Let’s make sure we are able to clearly identify what is the Holy Spirit’s work, and what is not! Sometimes our own good works can get in the way of what the Spirit of the Living God wants to do in our hearts and lives. We can be so enamoured with what He is doing through us, we don’t even want to know what He wants to do IN US. That little tendril we like so well could have come from a sucker that snuck itself in at the base of the vine. If it is left untended, it will draw all the goodness out of the true vine, and waste it on growing that sucker. Suckers don’t produce fruit – they are parasitical. They steal growth energy from the host. It seems to me that Jesus utterly understood this and lived by it.

I believe this is one of the reasons why the Lord Jesus said in John 5:19-20. “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”

And then He said this in John 12:49: “This is because I have never spoken on My own authority or of My own accord or as self-appointed, but the Father Who sent Me has Himself given Me orders [concerning] what to say and what to tell.” The Lord Jesus laid aside His own will to manifest His Father’s will in everything He did and said. Think about it!  He LIMITED Himself. This is what He is asking us to do, limit ourselves to His plans for us, the same way He limited Himself to His Father’s plans. There are more instances where the Lord said the same thing: John 5:19; John 8:28 and John 14:10. 

Jesus prunes away every single bit of growth that will not profit us spiritually, because we need the energy and the zest of His life in us to be protected, and channelled in the direction He has chosen for our lives. This is why Father God gave gifts to the whole church. Because no human being is meant to have to hold up the entire weight of the vine. The Lord sent back His Spirit to help us achieve what He wants from us. 

“However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. “John 16:7.

The Lord Jesus knew what He could do and say, and He also knew when to be quiet. It doesn’t say He didn’t know stuff, the book clearly tells us that He chose to be limited by His obedience to His Father’s Will. We are asked to do the same. Let’s not get distracted by what this life demands that we do. Obviously we need to do normal stuff, like eat, sleep and take care of our families, but in everything we do, we must choose to go where the SAP of the Holy Spirit goes. That requires us knowing and recognising His Ways.

You know, we’ve all probably bought a bunch of grapes in the supermarket that looked fantastic, but they had no taste. For our personal spiritual fruit to be juicy and full of the flavour of Jesus, we must learn to “… throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us …” Hebrews 12:1a. Bye. 👋 🍇

P3378 Wise like a serpent, gentle as a dove.

/ DVH

Jesus is gentle, humble and lowly in His heart and He wants to lead us into His rest. That’s the kind of rest where I do what He says, how He says to do it, and He does the rest! We don’t have to work at it, we just follow Him. That’s wisdom. Here is the Message version in Matthew:

V28-30:“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” … 

Jesus was talking to the people, gently, tenderly — telling His audience that what He is saying is what the Father wants to say to them. There’s also a big clue and a great promise in Matthew 11:30b. Jesus is speaking: “But I’m not keeping it (God’s Ways) to Myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.” Godly assurance is available, we just need to be willing to listen. That’s the key, and it’s even more wisdom! It’s an equal playing field.

Living like this is not a once-off thing. It happens over and over again. Walking in His Grace flows along, dipping up and down, but it is a continuous theme that we go back to. The continuous theme of our lives is now UNFORCED GRACE – we choose to be saturated in His LOVE for people. It has already been given to us, so now we receive it by faith, and we are commanded to give it away to people who don’t deserve it any more than we do! The fact that we know we cannot possibly live that way by ourselves, shows us how much we need the Holy Spirit! We are learning His wisdom.

Unforced Grace is a series of love choices – it’s not the ‘grit-your-teeth-and-put-up-with-it-kind. We simply use every opportunity to practise loving those who are unloving to us. If a harsh word comes up in our mouths, we take a breath, pray(!) and then respond with His Grace. He’s the same Spirit Who was in Christ Jesus – and if we want Him and His guidance, we can have Him. He’s gentle and He will lovingly teach us.

In Acts 2:1-4 the Holy Spirit’s Presence was a sovereign foretold act from heaven. It was announced a number of times. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

This happened TO those obedient, waiting people – they could not, and did not make it happen by themselves. Their part was to obey the last thing Jesus told them to do, which was … you guessed it … WAIT! We can’t make the Lord do anything. But we can position ourselves by our willing obedience, however the minute we make something a rule, the Holy Spirit will leave. He goes wherever He wants to go. We just get to watch — and what a privilege that is!

There are precious sincere souls who have frightened other people into believing that if they don’t pray in tongues they are not born again. That is error. It is not wisdom, and a lot of the time, it isn’t gentle either. If we are going to be pedantic about things, then everyone who has been filled with the Holy Spirit, should have what looked like a tongue of fire over their heads and come away from that experience fearlessly preaching the gospel in the streets!!

“I fell down,” is also not listed as a criteria for receiving the Holy Spirit and His guidance into our lives. That experience is amazing, but it is not mentioned as a criteria. And if the sound of a strong wind was needed, then many enthusiastic churches would probably hire a wind machine for special effects! Even staggering about after we are filled with the Spirit, is not proof we were filled. We receive and walk with Him BY FAITH! That means we believe He is with us – feelings, experiences or not. We obey because Jesus said so.

The Christian life is not a fruit market, we cannot pick and choose what we want to believe. That’s what the book is for – to teach us His ways — ALL His ways. Not just the exciting bits. We are filled with His Spirit because the bible says so.  “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—“ John 14:16. Jesus asked His Father to send us the Holy Spirit and the Father sent Him… end of story. The Holy Spirit never went away – we simply stopped living a life that will make Him welcome by the way we choose to live.

We will always need the Holy Spirit, and being excluded because of tongues is a tragedy. Tongues are like the fire that appeared, or spontaneous preaching, or the power of God let loose. A SIGN and a WONDER. Let’s use our faith to ask for His help, and then believe He will help us. I’ve personally found that obedience sharpens my hearing. Now we live this life the way He chooses for US. The Holy Spirit is unseen and often underestimated, and He loves it when we recognise His gentle, wise kindness quietly operating in and through our lives. 

Taking up Jesus’ yoke simply means we choose to do things His Way. It doesn’t mean we can never have an idea of our own — it simply means we yield and submit everything to Him, plus those who have the responsibility of caring for our souls. This is protection, not restriction! There’s a lion out there that wants to eat us for lunch. However, we don’t have to be afraid, because the Holy Spirit knows God’s Ways and He will teach us to be be wise and gentle. ‘Wise and shrewd like a serpent, gentle and innocent as a dove.’ Bye. 🕊️

P 3283 This is our destiny …

/ DVH

“Now, this is the goal: to live in harmony with one another and demonstrate affectionate love, sympathy, and kindness toward other believers. Let humility describe who you are as you dearly love one another. Never retaliate when someone treats you wrongly, nor insult those who insult you, but instead, respond by speaking a blessing over them—because a blessing is what God promised to give you. For the Scriptures tell us: Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say. Always turn from what is wrong and cultivate what is good; eagerly pursue peace in every relationship, making it your prize.” 1 Peter 3:8-11 TPT.

Yes, it’s the same scripture again! More to think on. First point to remember … um… not sure how to say this nicely, so I will just say it!  Watch what you say. This is hard for me, mainly because I find out what I’m thinking by talking! However I found a way to do it – I let the Holy Spirit help me – and I’ve learnt to give up quickly, and repent a lot. Boy that last one smarts! I’m pretty sure I haven’t hit humility yet. I think Peter has a wonderful way of describing how to walk in the Spirit. Especially the bit about pursuing peace in every relationship. Pursue BTW, means: go after it …like… chase it!

…And this is how Jesus makes it possible for anyone of us to live like this:  ““And I will send you the Divine Encourager from the very presence of My Father. He will come to you, the Spirit of Truth, emanating from the Father, and He will speak to you about Me. And you will tell everyone the truth about Me, for you have walked with Me from the start.””John 15:26-27. The Holy Spirit has already been sent to us! One of His Names is ‘the One called alongside us to help us!’ … He came to earth at Pentecost and He never left! Now let me list His other qualities. Hang on to your socks it’s a big list.  

Helper / Comforter / Advocate (Paraclete): (John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7);  Spirit of Truth: (John 14:17, 16:13); Spirit of Christ / Spirit of Jesus: (Romans 8:9, 1 Peter 1:11);  Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost: (Matthew 1:18, Psalm 51:11);  Breath of the Almighty / Breath of God: (Job 33:4, Genesis 1:2);  Spirit of Adoption: (Romans 8:15);  Spirit of Grace: (Hebrews 10:29); Spirit of Wisdom/Understanding/Counsel/Might/Knowledge/Fear of the Lord: (Isaiah 11:2);  Eternal Spirit: (Hebrews 9:14);  Spirit of Glory: (1 Peter 4:14);  Spirit of Life: (Romans 8:2);  Spirit of Burning / Judgment: (Isaiah 4:4);  The Promise of the Father: (Acts 1:4);  The Anointing: (1 John 2:27);  Intercessor: (Romans 8:26,27).

You can take a breath now!  Yeah. And He is here with us, right here, right now as you are reading this — and He walks with us to help us be all that God designed us to be. We simply cannot transform ourselves, it doesn’t work! Human beings become proud because we are doing it right, or lose hope because we are lousy at it! We need His transformation – WE NEED A HELPER. And this beautiful Person is here to assist us at any time, in any place, anywhere. Ya might want to just meditate on that!

We can short-circuit His help etc. by choosing to stay in and cultivate, sinful attitudes. The fear of the Lord is with those who are humble. They weep at the very thought of losing His sweet Presence. He has a way of looking at this tattered and torn old world that is beyond our imagination. He sees hope in hopelessness, freedom in captivity, beauty in heartache. He knows the way through anything that is plaguing you. And He will show us God’s way, one step at a time. Why one step at a time? Because He LOVES to walk with us. We are His passion and He is the same Person Who helped Jesus complete His mission … He saw every pain, all the suffering, all the hopelessness, and yet He flowed out through Christ to the needy – endlessly. 

He was so present with Jesus, one woman just touched the Lord’s clothes and she was healed of an ailment she had had for twelve years! He loves 💕TOGETHER — it is His greatest joy, to be one with us. When we begin to function as a Body under His guidance, we will also begin to understand a little bit of what it is like for the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit’s union and unity. They simply never disagree because They all have the same goal.

Jesus clearly told us we were better off with the Holy Spirit, when He left here and went back home to the Father, because the Holy Spirit can be everywhere. We are better off because the One Who lived within Christ, in Him and through Him, can be IN us, and work THROUGH us to bring forth the Father’s will for others.This is why we are called sons and daughters, we now have our Father’s DNA and that DNA brings forth fruit that is good and sweet – it will bring life all around it. This is our destiny, to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit, all the time, everywhere we go. Bye. 👋

P 2540 Our new life is OURS – right now!

/ DVH

Learning to walk in the Spirit is not like learning French! There will never be a better time to begin than … right here right now. We cannot achieve unity with Christ Himself in our own flesh, which is why we must choose to die daily. This means that we need to get used to saying NO to our flesh and YES to His ways, and those choices are often minute by minute. His new life in us = the Holy Spirit + our choices + follow through.

That new life will be activated inside our own personal relationship with Him – the daily, moment by moment fellowship we share together … Every day we need to break bread with Christ. That means we take His Word, pray over it, ask for help to understand it personally, and then we deliberately go and obey Him.

Other people can’t give us this, it is something that we must choose to prioritise for ourselves, with the Lord’s help. Today our world concentrates on getting what it wants by its own means. Remember, mankind was organised and clever enough to build the tower of Babel. I urge you not to give into being hurried, or pushed when it comes to reading His book. The church itself has wanted to push God’s people into a pure devotion to God that can only be gained by personal spiritual investment.

Father God reveals Himself through His word, intimately and personally. This is because our new life in Christ is about faith… and our relationship with Him, our obedience, is the stepping out in faith place! The only person who can walk that way IS ME. The way it works can be explained to us, but if we do not personally start taking faith steps, as He leads us, then we will end up back in the flesh. And sadly, the flesh will not profit us. Our flesh’s end-game is the glorifying of MAN. We will stop enjoying God and start ticking boxes.

The Lord gives us revelations because these interactions are part of intimacy – that’s why your revelation may not benefit me at some particular moment in my life. Because … He’s speaking to you! Whenever God shares His secrets with us, He is sharing Himself! Not every prophecy spoken in church is for the whole church – first and foremost it is for the speaker to digest and gain fresh insight and understanding for themselves. Otherwise it can be just another fresh load of instructions loaded onto backs that are already breaking!

Father God has always meant for us to discover Him afresh, every single morning, it is like the manna the Israelites gathered every day. In that time when we shut out the world, and listen to the things He speaks to us through His Word as if He were speaking them to us personally. Otherwise we simply end up following rules and hoping that will do. The flesh cannot give birth to the things of the Spirit. We need to seek Him, and go after the things He is revealing to us. It is meant to be a happy engagement between us and Him as He patiently teaches us His Ways.  

At the same time, we cannot tack Him onto, or into, our already established lives – He is now our life. ‘For me to live IS Christ to die is gain.’ Just as the Lord chose us, and called us to be His people, in the same manner we need to choose, prefer, and defer to Him. This means we will deliberately eliminate the things He points out to us – with the Holy Spirit’s help. Our flesh will lie to us. It will tell us we can’t do thus or thus because … we are too weak, too sick, too busy, too preoccupied with the business/busyness of this world. Sadly, if we are not aware, we can get so busy maintaining our little lives, and our own agendas, that we leave the Lord out and relegate Him as an add-on.

However, whatever our attitudes or thoughts, the truth is — we are now dead. So we have no other agenda but His. This is why we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. That personal cross is illustrated by the things in this life that will pull at us and demand our attention to the point where Christ becomes secondary – instead of primary. It can be people, or occupations, or leisure past-times. To walk by faith we will have to fight fear, guilt or blame to prioritise Christ. “But the]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.” John 14:26. He is always on STANDBY!

Sometimes I think, we have what we believe backwards. We fight for healing, or freedom in order to better serve Christ, but if the Lord is not building that house, then we are labouring in vain. It is not that God wants us to be sick, or infirm or in prison! It is that He does not want sickness etc to occupy all our thoughts. We can end up wasting our allotted time chasing answers to human problems when Jesus Christ Himself proved that HIS PRESENCE IS THE ANSWER. Wherever He went sickness, demons, infirmity left. EVERY SINGLE TIME. His new life is now ours, right here, right now.🙌

P 2307 Moses was a Leader and an Intercessor.

/ DVH

“For Yahweh is always good and ready to receive you. He’s so loving that it will amaze you— so kind that it will astound you! And He is famous for His faithfulness toward all. Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for He keeps His promises to every generation!” Psalms 100:5 TPT

Psalms 90 -100 are traditionally thought to have been written by Moses. I’ve mentioned this today because of an encounter Moses had with the Lord in person in Exodus 33:17-19:  “And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me Your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My Name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

This bible story is interesting. It shows Moses’ boldness and our Heavenly Father’s generosity. When Father God tells this man: ‘’I’m going to kill them all – I’m sick of them” – He is talking about the moaning groaning disobedient Israelites He had just rescued in the most astonishing fashion. Then God tells Moses: “I’m going to start over and use YOU to do it. I can’t hang around with this lot any longer. I’m going to scrap them and make a new nation through you!!”

Moses then reminds the Lord that it is His own reputation on the line. After all everyone knows that God chose these people and rescued them and now He wants to bail? How would that read again? In the course of this conversation the Lord says that He will stay with Moses, but not with the Israelites. He will not go with them any further because He just might kill them all off in the forward journey. And around about then the conversation I’ve quoted in Exodus above occurs.

In my mind there are a few incredible things happening here all at once. One of them is the intimacy between Moses and God Himself. Not only does Moses question GOD very respectfully, but he lives to do it!  Thinkaboudit! He is not too scared to challenge the Lord. However, I think that all those conversations in Almighty God’s Presence changed this man so much He cared more about God’s reputation than his own well being! Plus he also deeply cared for the bunch of grumbly Israelites more than anyone would ever have expected him too! After all, they wouldn’t co-operate with God, … even for their own sakes.

Self-centredness fell off Moses in God’s Presence. That shows me that true intimacy with God will transform us!  It doesn’t change the Lord, He is Who He is and He already has a plan. But knowing absolute goodness intimately, changes US!  We know God’s goodness, and compassion is available to us because this kind of scenario is repeated over and over again with other different men and women in the book.

We can all know God’s goodness personally, intimately. It ultimately depends on our willingness to have hard conversations with the Lord… AND STICK WITH IT. Like Moses, or Abraham, or Job, or Jeremiah or Ezekiel, or Elijah…whether we like what we hear or not. We will gain far more than our desires – we will come to know more about HIS desires and plans when we pray, persevere and don’t give up. 

At the same time we need to be prepared to love others so much that we will pray for them, and even get stuck in the same hole they are in… even if they are not living well. This is the hallmark of a true intercessor. Actually, to intercede, we need to praying for others until we know we are being heard … like Moses did. He didn’t just “post off” his prayers, then wipe off his hands and walk away. Until I learn how to pray for your problem ….like it’s MY problem … I am not loving you well. 

These things are all a sign of an inner transaction that leads to transformation and further intimacy and knowledge of God Himself. Even that aim changes us.🤗

P 2303 Prayer needs substance.

/ DVH

So put your feet to work underneath what you say you believe. Seriously. How many times have you said to someone: ‘Oh that’s terrible, I’ll pray for you.’ And maybe if you are someone who is on the ball, you walked away and prayed while you were walking away. Or maybe you prayed for them on the spot …brownie points to you! Perhaps you are one of those people who writes stuff down so they won’t forget and you put them on your prayer list. BP2U!

Hopefully you are not like me … if I don’t pray for you on the spot, while I think of it, then you’re a dead duck. I’m very sorry, but I have probably forgotten what you said as I’m walking away. This, by the way, is the reason why I pray for people on the spot – because my memory ain’t what it used to be. 

I’ve had many sweet people of God tell me I’m an intercessor – mainly because they did not have a clue with what to do with me. I didn’t FIT! You know, the whole world is in BIG trouble … try HUGE … if that’s what I’m supposed to be. I’m from the days when they always told non-clergy that was their gift, because they didn’t know what to do with lay people, and intercession seemed a safe not-in-charge-type-job! I mean prayer is a good thing right?

And BTW I don’t have to repent for telling the truth … although … I might have to review the ‘speaking the truth in love bit!’ But back then, most people were passengers on the good ship we’re-doing-church-now. However the church always wanted to have a fete to raise money and because I was a ‘crafty person’ they gave me craft stuff to do. Yet another huge mistake. I once cut the gloriously long fringe on a beautiful homespun shawl to 3 cms. The pastor’s wife didn’t kill me … but boy she thought about it!

I was moved right along from that disaster, to food stuffs. I mean anybody can make a sandwich right?? If you thought I sucked at craft, you should have seen me at sandwiches. Other ladies made lovely sandwiches – mine – fell apart instantly. I could do all that kind of stuff OK at my house. All my sandwich points stood upright like little soldiers. My cakes rose, and they were tasty. But mention the word fete and I fell apart, and so did everything I baked. Intimidation to the max.

So then people much smarter than me decided perhaps I was an evangelist in disguise. And they sent me off to learn how to do one of those fantastic you-learn-and-use-five- pages-of-memorised-stuff to help somebody get to know Jesus and sneak up on them. Sadly that didn’t workout well for me either. I was under firm instructions to never speak because that was the leader’s job… even thinking about me being silent on cue was scary.

The people we made appointments with, would turn to me — just as I was trying to blend in with their wallpaper and look invisible… and then they’d ask me … for no reason whatsoever … ‘what does that mean to you?’ And then I was stuck. I could either obey the leader and get a big tick, or I could disobey the rules, tell the truth, and somebody had a chance to meet Jesus. I disobeyed a lot in those days. Double sigh. At the same time I learnt you can’t be yourself at church!!

Hilariously, I have survived other people’s various attempts to remodel me into a more suitable shape and in that process I learnt how to die to myself. However, no matter what I did, I have always tried to put my feet into action by applying what my mouth said. Nowadays, if you need prayer, I won’t just pray for you – I will also ask the Holy Spirit – “What can I do about that Lord?” And then I will do it. 

My point today is this: I have made and will continue to make big mistakes, you will make mistakes too … it’s OK. Our God has got us. Nothing gets past His gaze.  Just don’t stop with prayer, ask the Lord: ‘How can I HELP?’ Look, can I be honest with you? It is not helpful to ask the person with the problem …!!! “What can I do to help?” They have a problem! Their problem solving skills are a bit busy! DUH! Asking that question simply makes you feel better, like you’ve done something … but all you’ve done is transfer the weight back onto them.

So go and sit with the sick, help look after their kids, go be with the family who just lost their Grandpa, and find a way to give the unemployed back their dignity. Choose to learn to become God’s hands and feet as He directs you. 👋🏻

P 2255 A true intercessor.

/ DVH

In Genesis 18:23-25. Almighty God and Abraham are dialoguing about Sodom and Gomorrah. “Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

This is, by far, one of my very favourite verses in all the bible. This mighty man, Abraham, the Father of our Faith, has such incredible confidence in the Character of God! We all need this kind of confidence in Who our God is, and know His Ways, intimately. I pray the people of these current generations know the Lord so well, that they cannot comprehend Him doing anything evil! We all need that kind of confidence and knowledge about Him, desperately. Abraham is extremely respectful, but he insists.

This passage in Genesis is what I think that an intercessor looks like. I know many people think intercessors spend hours on their faces praying and interceding for the lost – and I praise God for that kind of gift! However I’d be overjoyed to have 5 minutes of someone praying for me, for my life and future, with this sort of confidence in God Himself. 

Abraham was interceding for the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they didn’t even know their fate. However God knew their hearts, and He had purposed to deal with the evil in this city. But one man stood in the breach and had a conversation with God about their destruction. Abraham’s point of intercession was not about the people, or their wickedness, or deeds … it was all about HIS CONFIDENCE IN THE CHARACTER OF GOD – He challenged God to do right.

If you read Chapter 18 you will see he gets pretty overwhelmed somewhere in the middle of this conversation. It is almost like he’s kind of got his big toe almost outside the door, ready to run, 😐 but he still talking and still bargaining for these lives. We need this kind of intercessor, today, people who hold God to His word. We can see that this man learnt the Father’s Ways as he journeyed with Him from Haran to Canaan.

However, the basis of Abraham’s prayers are about Who God is! The Father’s reputation. I have heard it taught before that perhaps Abraham did not bargain hard enough for these people to be saved. I don’t know about that – but I love this man who stood toe to toe with Almighty God and pleaded for the lives of these people, whether they deserved it or not. Please do not tell me that God doesn’t love or care about everybody – I don’t believe you. This is what He is like, right here in these few verses – He doesn’t just love good people – He loves all of mankind. Jesus died for all. The penalty that was paid indicates Almighty God’s estimation of worth!

Jesus Christ Himself prays and intercedes for us with even more fervency than Abraham shows here – we are so blessed to be alive NOW! I think you can see Father God’s righteous loving Character so clearly through Abraham’s confidence in Him, when this man speaks and negotiates with God. If the Lord had disagreed with him, He would have told Abraham not to bother praying for them. In my heart this is what real prayer looks like! It looks like this kind of confidence in God’s goodness. The Body of Christ must go far, far beyond the places we’ve already been before – right into His heart, and gain further understanding of His love for everyone. 

Meanwhile, just prior to the above verses God says this, in Genesis 18:17 “Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” I think that this is what true intimacy between God and man looks like. Father God regards Abraham with respect. This shows us over and over again, that the Lord loves to dialogue with mankind. What you and I can hear throughout the the pages of the bible, is His disappointment that the man He made doesn’t love Him back!

The wonderful old Patriarchs, Abraham and Moses, knew God in ways we can only imagine. However, we are so blessed to be alive today in this world we live in. Praise God we have the joy of knowing the Answer – Jesus! We can know the Father through Christ, even better than these men did. Jesus Christ is now our perfect intercessor. Let’s not live in the shallows, let’s dive deeper into the Bible, together with prayer, so we can know and understand Who He is, and what He wants, and fight for it. 

We need to learn how to pray with understanding for His heart, and His desires and passions. Let’s AIM bigger. We’ve been aiming at too little for too long. We need men and women who intercede like Abraham! 👋🏻