#1 Intercession The Gift To The Church

WHAT EVERY CHURCH NEEDS... STAND IN THE GAP...

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

INTERCEDE: to stand in the gap for another, to help settle, to defend, to intervene,

mediate, to pray for, to petition,

Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,

thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG) I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care

of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

**WHO ARE YOU?

**WHAT SEEDS ARE YOU PLANTING?

**Your words will reveal your heart...

**Your thanks or lack of thanks will reveal your attitudes...

**Your actions will reveal your value system and your priorities...

**Your behavioral patterns and the habits you establish

**Will say much about your future...

**Your daily choices will determine who you become...

** WHAT KIND OF SEEDS ARE YOU SOWING?

**WHAT HARVEST WILL YOU GATHER?

I. EVER HEARD SAD WORDS?

OFTEN THERE GOES AN UNHEED, UNTAUGHT MINISTRY IN THE MODERN CHURCH---

STAND IN THE GAP FOR OTHERS...

A. The Holy Spirit has an OFFICE WORK to teach and lead and guide us...

Ezekiel 22:30 (KJV) And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge,

and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

B. The role of an INTERCESSOR is applauded and seldom recognized by any one

but God...

II. GREAT MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD HAVE ACCEPTED THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE

INTERCESSORARY PRAYER WARRIOR...

A. ABRAHAM KNEW ABOUT THE TOUCH OF GOD, HE HAD MBEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN

OF MORIAH...

Abraham earnestly interceded for others...

B. ABRAHAM SAVED LOT AND HIS FAMILY ON SEVERAL OCCASSIONS...

HIS MEN FAOUGHT AND SAVED LOT. Lot seemed not to learn?

Genesis 18:28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the

city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

C. 50 ---45 ---40 ---30 ---20 ---10

Genesis 18:32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once:

Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

D. LOT'S FAMILY --- Lingering Lot... a wife salt?

E. MOSES WAS ONE OF THE BOLDEST INTERCESSOR IN HISTORY...

Exodus 32:32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy

book which thou hast written.

Numbers 12:13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.

III. WHAT IS BIBLICAL INTERCESSION?

DO I ACTIVELY INTERCEED FOR OTHERS?

Daniel 9:3 (KJV) And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications,

with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Daniel 9:3 (MSG) I turned to the Master God, asking for an answer—praying earnestly, fasting

from meals, wearing rough penitential burlap, and kneeling in the ashes.

A. THERE IS A STORY TOLD ABOUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN FROM THE WAR BETWEEN

THE STATES.

It was told a northern soldier was found asleep on duty. This was dangerous and could

endanger many soldiers. A group of people came before President Lincoln to make

an appeal for the young man's life.

B. The President felt this set an example and the morale of the troops rest on

the decision to execute this sleeping soldier.

The group left Lincoln's offices with their heads bowed low. The young man must die!

C. Tad, Lincoln's son had been in the room and went up to his Dad's side...

Tad spoke to his Father and said: "PLEASE, FATHER, FOR MY SAKE, DON'T LET THEM

SHOOT THIS POOR MAN!"

President Abraham Lincoln listened to TAD request and spared the soldier's life.

IV. DO WE KNOW THE PRIVILEDGE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER?

PERHAPS ONE OF THE GREATEST MINISTRIES THE CHURCH NEEDS

IS THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER...

A. PETER WAS HOPELESSLY IN JAIL...

Acts 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the

church unto God for him.

Acts 12:12 And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of

John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying.

B. From the Christian Business Men's League Bulletin:

A young preacher left the USA to go to London, England to Pastor a church in decline.

On his very first Sunday there was a powerful move of God, beyond any thing the young

man had ever experienced. Several people came to the altar and were converted that

morning. The community was changed through the messages this man preached.