Problems? Email Us!
THE POWER OF INTERCESSION

By: Don MacIntyre


Following the prescription of II Chronicles 7:14

The following letter was sent to intercessors in Whitehorse Yukon Canada to help them in their preparations for a 4 day workshop in intercession held there in August of 1996 with Don MacIntyre, Steward & Joan Gould, and Larry Roderick

Acts 1:12-14
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they had come in, they went into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren..... and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

We look upon this particular text as the all time greatest pattern for revival in a community. And so it is. The one word in this passage that should point you and me to the reason for Jerusalem experiencing what they were about to experience is in fact the very same word that should also point out to us the very reason why our community is not experiencing what Jerusalem did.

That one word is "accord". If we would take the time to define it, in the depth and degree that God defines it, we would see that with it He is in their midst "wherever two or three are gathered.." But were they just assembled?? NO!! They were assembled in "one accord.." With it, with "one accord" Jesus Christ IS there. Without it, He will NOT be there. Why? Because "where envy and strife are there is every evil work.." One accord... "Father I pray that they ALL may be one as we are one, that the world may believe that you have sent me. And my glory have I given them that they may be one as we are..."

If we could point to just one giant cause of His absence in our communities (not to mention His absence from our church gatherings) we would all have to admit that this lack of "one accord" is the most obvious. Search the scriptures, search the record of revival and you will see a universal pattern. When God's people repent of their divisions and come together in true humility and heart unity, confessing their faults one to another, forgiving and asking forgiveness, AND then pray to Him for help... guess what He does?? HE COMES !!!

If you take just a moment to think about it from His fatherly point of view, which of you parents would want to be in a room full of your own children if they could not so much as eat together at your table without bickering and back biting and name calling each other. Would you inhabit their praises? would you inhabit their attempts at worshipping you? Would you hear their requests? when in the same day that they come into your presence they have failed to be one family? Your family? Should not the children of one father dwell together here in unity??

We see in the holy record and the repeated history of revival a process by which God has made a way for us to come into that place where He will hear our plea for healing in our communities. 2 Chronicles 7:14 & 15 If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

We find in this passage a process by which God has ordained for man to come into His presence and favor. We also find in this a most sobering fact. If we see the land, our community, desolate of God, desolate of holiness and godly example in the lives of believers, desolate of the things pertaining to true christian character, desolate of even basic decency and moral propriety, this passage places the entire fault upon the shoulders of the "people who are called by my name".

We christians, called by the name of the Christ, are the very ones whom God is blaming for the state of affairs. We cannot blame the politicians, we cannot blame the unsaved, we cannot blame even the devil. God places the entire responsibility for the lack of His healing presence in our land squarely upon the shoulders of the "people who are called by my name". If we ever hope to see even a glimpse of His gracious mercy poured out upon our community, our first and foremost duty demands that we take hold of God's all knowing word and using it like a bright light searching our own hearts for the cause of the problem.

God has promised, and cannot lie, that if we will follow through and:

1. humble ourselves....
Confessing to each other before God and publicly before man that we are not what we claim to be. Exposing the sin, exposing the hypocrisy, exposing the whitewashed lies, exposing the hidden things of darkness, exposing the love affairs with this worlds allurements, and ways, and means, ambition, manipulation (both of our fellows and God), pride, reputation, status, money loving, spiritual laziness, and the sin of division and division building among God's people... uncovering everything that has been kept hidden, and then,

2 pray...
Praying toward God's throne of grace, asking forgiveness, and begging to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, thanking Him for bringing His truth to bear upon the sin we have kept hidden, thanking Him for granting us mercy and space to repent, and the privilege to make restitution, thanking Him for not dealing with us according to what our iniquities deserve but rather granting us a time of reprieve to get things right with Him and each other, thanking Him for not snuffing out our lives, thanking Him for the sacrifice of His holy Son Jesus Messiah through whom we can have forgiveness and cleansing from our sin, and..

3. seek My face....
Seeking His face is not the same thing as prayer. Prayer is communication to God. Seeking His face is searching for Him to look upon you. Seeking His grace, seeking first His kingdom and his righteousness. If we believe the scripture we must know that God will not defile His eyes by looking upon sin. "but your sins have hid my face from you" (Isaiah) We must seek his face to turn toward us.

I remember during my own time of seeking I would cry out from the depth of my heart "OH LORD LOOK UPON ME!!! KNOW ME!!! SEE ME!!! SEARCH ME!!! TURN YOUR EYES TOWARD ME THAT I MIGHT KNOW THAT YOU KNOW WHO I AM AND THAT YOU KNOW ME THROUGH AND THROUGH THAT I MIGHT HAVE A RELATIONSHIP AS INTIMATE AS JESUS HAS WITH YOU!! LOOK AT ME LORD!!! and...

4. turn from their wicked ways....
It does no good at all to ask God's divine forgiveness if down in our heart we have no intention of quitting our sin or letting him remove the sin we so enjoy. If we come to Him asking forgiveness we had better do so with the iron grit determination to seek Him until we no longer have any desire for that sin at all and stay seeking Him until we have that assurance that we are not only forgiven but CLEANSED from all that filth and the desire of it, and the sympathy with it, and the power of it! And from this day onward we have the faith to believe that we shall never fall to that temptation again. Not through our own strength but through His power to save us to the uttermost. "For if these things be in you and abound you shall never fall..."

5. then...
(and only then) will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

The eyes of God are upon any one of us just as soon as we get to that place in our lives where we will abandon ourselves to follow His requirements to their depth. If we will follow his requirements He has bound himself with an oath to:
a) hear us
b) forgive us
c) come to us!! and
d) heal our land!!

The only question left unanswered is this... Will you???
In the upcoming events that our Lord has willed for Whitehorse and the whole Yukon we see that He has determined a pattern. The truth is that no mighty work of God has ever occurred in the area of revival without first there was a concerted persistent concert of prayer offered in "one accord" from the hearts of His people who had taken themselves to task and walked out the process described in both Acts and 2Chronicles above.

In this time leading up to revival we see an ever clear pattern that prayer, true deep intercessory prayer, is the first fruit of God's hand upon His people and the first blows against the powers of darkness.

Blessings upon you all,
Don MacIntyre
 

To HarvestNET Revival page
 
JavaScript Menu, DHTML Menu Powered By Milonic