By: Don MacIntyre
Handling The Rejection
What To Do When Heaven Is Silent
When Responsibility Clashes With Our Calling
Many Other Voices
Handling The Rejection
Leaders, friends, family, other christians, even some of those in intercession
may disown you. They may even become your worst and most painful persecutors.
They may ridicule you, mock you, pressure you, even to the point of threatening
to have you examined by a specialist. They may become such especially if
they are from a religious background where the miraculous or anything supernatural
are not accepted. (Just make sure the heat you are taking is not because
of something truly wrong or inconsiderate that you have done.) If you are
innocent of any genuine wrongdoing then be encouraged to know that your
Lord and our Chief intercessor Jesus suffered the same problem. His solution
was to be crucified for them and utter those words of forgiveness on the
cross. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" Your solution
is in His steps. And don't give up. Don't stop. If you stop interceding
for them who will carry their names before God? If you won't stand in the
gap for them, who will? There is far too much at stake here to give up
and quit. Let not the fears of others, their peer pressure, the roaring's
of Satan, or even your own weaknesses and inabilities frighten you away
from your post. Hold your position, meekly. Pour out your situation to
God. Fight for them. Fight hard! We MUST conquer. We MUST win! And don't
forget there is help available from others who have walked this path before
you. Seek them out, enlist their aid. You do not need to go onward alone.
What To Do When Heaven Is Silent
Dear friend expect seasons of silence. They won't last long. Little
new born babies need mother's attention continually. Some even cry when
mother leaves the room. They look this way and that way looking so forlorn
and lost, out comes their bottom lip in a pout, quivering, tears begin
to roll down their fat cheeks and they let out the most pitiful cry. Does
this mean mother doesn't love me anymore?? Have I done wrong?? These are
the thoughts of the immature, the infant. An older child knows that if
it had done wrong mother would have already dealt with it. A wise mother
will leave their child alone for small periods of time to train them not
to be afraid if they don't sense her presence for a moment. It will teach
them to be more stable, to trust their mother more deeply that "Yes she
will return to me, I need not worry, she will never forsake me". It is
a sign of spiritual maturity when we can hear silence from heaven for a
time and still be true to our post and not waiver from our responsibility
to intercede even when we feel no heavenly inspiration for it just now.
Don't misunderstand me, I am presuming that your walk with God is a close
one and the silence is not because you have knowingly erred and failed
to make something right in your relationship with Him. But rather heaven
is just silent for the moment. Let it be so. It has been the experience
of many intercessors that the worst enemy we have is ourselves. For some
unknown reason we expect of ourselves what we would never reasonably expect
of others. We expect to be in a spirit of prayer 24hours a day every day
of the week, and when we aren't, we get anxious and start listening to
the Accuser telling us we must have sinned somewhere along the way recently.
Or we get anxious that maybe God is angry with us just now. Well if we
have sinned we would know it, for sin will bring conviction from God. He
does chasten those He loves, count on it. If there is no conviction of
sin; if you come before Him and ask if anything is amiss and He does not
convict you of anything then ignore the accusation as an arrow from your
enemy. Don't let silence disturb you.
When Responsibility Clashes With Our Calling
Another area where intercessors may run into problems is the area of
earthly responsibilities. We each have them and they need taking care of
too. Do not fall into the trap of neglecting your responsibilities as a
mother or a father, a wife or a husband, nor your occupation. Daniel was
a prophet of God and a very busy man. He had tremendous responsibilities
in the senior government post that he held. Yet as busy as he was he found
time to pray faithfully three times each day and discharged his duties
to the king just as faithfully. It is foolishness to presume that you are
honoring God in prayer when you dishonor Him in other areas of your life.
Many Other Voices
Because intercession incorporates communication from earth to heaven
and heaven to earth it is to be expected that our enemy will try to interrupt
or confuse the communications. God knows our heart, that we want to hear
correctly and not be lead astray. He wants that for us too. God is not
the author of confusion. He is not some God that wants us to play guessing
games about His holy will in a particular matter. He does not want us to
make a mistake and we don't want to either. Our rule of operation must
therefore be: When in doubt, don't. That is why the writer says so firmly,
"They that wait upon the Lord shall rise up on wings as eagles". Having
patiently waited on God, praying patiently, fervently, in spite of the
enemy's attempts to confuse us we prayed on through, and THEN comes that
day at last that we KNOW God has spoken and we KNOW deep within us that
we HAVE that witness in our soul, THEN we can run with the mighty men,
THEN we can jump over the obstacles and conquer. The key is to faithfully,
prayerfully, wait.
sincerely,
Don
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