C. Peter Wagner shares with us about Three Types of Personal Intercessors:Pastors and other Christian Leaders who are open to receive personal intercession and who ask God for it should soon find that intercession makes a measurable difference in their ministries.
I fully recognize there are also many benefits of intercession that defy measurement, and sometimes they can be the most important.
But the tangible benefits will also raise both our faith and our spirits.
God provides intercession in a variety of forms. Most of this chapter will deal with three kinds of personal intercessors committed to pray on a regular basis for a certain pastor, but we need to recognize that God moves in other ways as well.
D. L Moody's invalid intercessor. In the previous chapter, (of PRAYER SHIELD), (#57 How Moody Learned the Lesson, #58 Undue Humility) we were introduced to the two intercessors God used to open Dwight L. Moody to personal intercession.
He was later involved in a dramatic incident that shows how God can touch an intercessor specifically for one event.
At Times God will assign what I have called a crisis intercessor to a particular task, rather than a personal intercessor.
This incident happened when Moody visited England in 1872 on a kind of sabbatical while his new church was being built in Chicago.
His main purpose was to listen to and learn from some of England's great preachers. But one Sunday he broke his routine and agreed to minister in a church in London.
The Sunday morning turned out to be a disastrous experience. He confessed afterward that he never had such a hard time preaching in his life.
Everything was perfectly dead.
Then the horrible thought came to him that he had to preach there again that night. He only went through with it because he had given his word he would do so.
But what a difference! That evening the church was packed and there was a new and vital spiritual atmosphere.
Moody said, 'The powers of an unseen world seemed to have fallen upon the audience.' Although he had not premeditated it, he decided to give an invitation for people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and was astounded when 500 people stood up
He repeated the invitation twice more to attempt to filter out the insincere, but all 500 went to the vestry to pray to receive Christ. A major revival started in that church and neighborhood that night!
And the intercession?
A woman who had attended the morning service returned home and told her invalid sister that a certain Mr. Moody from Chicago had preached.
The invalid sister turned pale. 'Mr. Moody from Chicago?' she asked in astonishment. 'I read about him some time ago in an American paper and I have been praying to God to send him to London and to our church. If I had known he was going to preach this morning, I would have eaten no breakfast and spent the whole time he was preaching in prayer for him.
Now, sister, go out of the room, lock the door, send me no dinner; no matter who comes don't let them see me. I am going to sped the whole afternoon and evening in prayer!'
This story is told by E. M Bounds, who comments, 'So while Mr. Moody stood in the pulpit that had been like an ice chamber in the morning the bedridden saint was holding him up before God, and in the evening God, who ever delights to answer prayer, poured out His Spirit in might power.' "
Two more types are to follow...
Today’s post -#59 Three Types of Personal Intercessors, in the series taken from C. Peter Wagner’s book, PRAYER SHIELD, How to intercede for pastors, Christian leaders and others on the spiritual frontlines.(pgs. 119-121)
6th- Thursday’s post: #60 Gary Greenwald's Team
C. Peter Wagner
7th- Friday's post: Are You Afraid of Loosing Your Salvation? Michael Brooks
9th- Sunday's post: When God is Silent
Dr. Charles Stanley
Sunday evening's extra post: The Discipline of Waiting David Roper
Let’s pray:
Father, when we think of someone's praying for a crisis, it tugs at our hearts.
I see that You're directing our thinking to realize that our prayers are important and necessary, if we want Your Spirit to move in our meetings.
May I be one who will be faithful to spend specific time in prayer on behalf of my leaders, that they will experience Your Divine power moving on and in them!
I'm thankful to learn of my importance in the Kingdom's effectiveness here in my area. In Jesus' Name I ask for Your guidance, that I will be more faithful in praying for my leaders. Amen.
Prayer for pastors: “Pray that your pastor
will make wise lifestyle choices in order to protect his health, especially in
the areas of exercising, eating moderately, and getting sufficient rest. Pray
for times of relaxation and renewal to balance the stress of ministry.” Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 9:27, 10:13; 6:19-20;
James 3:1-2 www.LifeAction.org
Today’s Bible verse: Phil. 4:6 "Be careful for nothing: but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Today’s quote:
Some thoughts today: Things change. Change is going to happen. God will take and move us to where He wants us.
- Just BE, and see what God will do.
A popular post: A Fresh Glimpse of Glory Joe Stowell - "We
take for granted His amazing work in our lives. We lose the
wonder of the cross. We forget the privilege of being His child."
take for granted His amazing work in our lives. We lose the
wonder of the cross. We forget the privilege of being His child."
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