Interceding on Behalf of my Neighbors

Intercessory prayer is not something I do enough of.  I would consider this area one where I fall down.  It is also one of those areas where I can most get out of myself and into the perspective of my Master.  Considering the sorts of things He is teaching me lately, it would seem like it would take more of a central position in my life with my Master.  Unfortunately, I seem more consumed by other things.  For instance, this blog has taken up my morning devotion time.  In a way it has become that morning devotion time.  And as of Friday, I will not be making more entries (they will run on automatic until February 2).

Intercessory prayer is also something I feel impressed to do from my Master’s Spirit.  I have people just “pop” into my mind while praying, and they need to be brought before my Master.  Sometimes He brings them to me; sometimes thoughts of them need to be brought to Him in captivity.  What Chambers says to pray for is along the lines of the redemption of the person.  A lot of the time, though, my prayer and who is brought to my mind are people I know have a relationship with my Master.  Along my street there are examples of people I have no idea about.  They could be saved already, but I know so few of them.

Intercession is a priestly role, so I suppose it really is more on behalf of those who have no relationship with my Master.  When I have the opportunity so close around me then I avoid a clear and present responsibility.  As I think about it, I have had contact with several of the families around me already.  I have had enough contact to pray for them (even if I can’t remember their names).  Perhaps that’s what I should be doing now instead of typing…

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, December 13

The Future, Myself, This Blog, and my Master

The site for MUFHH is back online.  What a relief?  Not really.  Now I am questioning the entire work of this blog.  Today, using the passage in 1 Peter 2:9 (royal priesthood and so on), Chambers says I am to forget about praying and focusing on my own change, and focus on priestly prayer for others.  So, does that nullify all that I have written over the past six months on this blog? 

This blog has ever been about God’s work in my life.  It has been about where He is changing me, and what I see I need to change.  It has never been about what others should do.  I write to hold myself accountable to a wider group, not to propagate change in others.  That sounds self-centered, but I believe that my Master is working out the change in me, and will do so in others.  It’s not my job to change others.  Perhaps these entries will influence others.

But writing for me, writing about what I am going through, and writing daily may be overly self-focused.  What about the work of intercessory prayer for others?  After all, the passage referring to believers as a royal priesthood is about going before my Master on behalf of others.  This is a lot of work and time to spend on myself.  So, is it right to spend so liberally on myself?

I really do not have a lot of feedback on any effect this is having on others.  And from the beginning I said that this is not about the effect it has on others.  From the outset this has been about being accountable with the work of my Master in my own life.  And there has been a lot of change in my own life.  I am not the same person I was at the end of 2010.  I have a long way to go, just for 12 months of sobriety.  And I have a lot to pass through to get there.  But I have come so far, and I am humbled, and confused.

Why has it taken so long?  Why, after wrestling with my addictive sin for over 20 years, am I only now finding freedom from it?  The only real difference is my posture of submission.  I have tried to submit before, but had a mental block or wall.  I am not sure what it was other than depression.  I seemed drawn to depression as a default response to most of life.

Once I have moved, I plan to jump into another 12-step program I have found where I am going.  It is one I am familiar with already, and really like.  Not every place does the program the same, and I prefer when it is done according to the program guidelines.  So I am a bit concerned about how they do it, but since I have no way of knowing, there is no sense in worrying about it.  That it is available is remarkable enough.

Perhaps that program will be enough of an outlet that this blog will no longer be necessary.  I would miss the discipline.  But I need to be open to my Master’s leading and guiding.  This discipline can be replaced by another.  But I also sense I would miss this blog on a relational level as well.  It is as if I am writing to someone, even if no one reads this.

Maybe this blog will continue, but rather than meanderings from MUFHH, I will meander from another source, and toward another goal.  Perhaps I will begin to write for others, not necessarily to others, but on their behalf, fulfilling the role of royal priest in that way.  There is certainly a lot for which to pray, the world is filled with need.  In fact, much of the hurt and pain in this world is caused by excessive degrees of the addiction I suffer.  I have some specific insight into an area of human need I know too much about.  Perhaps that will be what this blog will morph into.

In any case, and to whatever degree, the important thing is not to jump into or out of something unless I am following my Master.  It is not what I or others think of the actions I take, but whether those actions I take are guided and directed by my Master, driven by obedient devotion to Him.  Obedience is better than sacrifice, especially in ministering, and even more so in spiritual disciplines.  I cannot allow this blog to become about this blog, it must always be an expression of my Master’s will.  I believe that to date, He has been glorified, and not so much me.  This is a season of change in my life, and so this blog may change too.  But as I have followed my Master through this change, I must continue to follow Him; even regarding this blog.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, June 21

Intercession to Whom?

The times I have been through the letter to the Hebrews, I have not reached the conclusion Chambers derives from verse 10:19.  Part of the reason why is an assumption on my part that I’m not supposed to intercede for others as if I know what God should do.  I save that ridiculous attitude for when I pray for myself.  Perhaps I used to pray for others that way.  I remember having a rather emotional discussion with a Korean student in my community college days about that issue.  She was very upset with God for allowing a woman to die, a friend of hers, who had a young daughter, a husband, and was herself very young.  Her question was why would God allow that?  I didn’t have an answer since the question is unanswerable on this side of heaven.  But I did have enough sense to encourage her to believe that whatever this circumstance may look like to her, God is still God, and His character remains intact.  She didn’t consider that much of an answer.

But there are other elements to a response that I did not have at the time.  For instance, as the latter part of verse 10:19 of Hebrews points out, the boldness to enter before our Master comes by means of the blood of Jesus!  So, after that, at what point am I justified in imputing a character flaw to my Master?  Where is the sense in complaining about a particular desire or idea of mine when I am conscious of what He has already done for me?  How can anything I want or think is important compare to what I already have through my Master?  Seriously, the perspective of anything viewed through the lens of the Cross and Empty Grave seems small and insignificant.  The irony is that, because of my Master’s interest in my life, He considers those things anyway.  He just considers my right relationship with Him to be more important.  When the relationship with Him is where it needs to be, then my desires match His anyway.

The necessity of a submissive aspect when interceding I would think is obvious.  I would expect that anyone approaching the Master of the Universe would do so in a penitent fashion.  If someone does not, they are not approaching the Master of the Universe, but rather some image they have invented in their mind.  The entrance to the Master of the Universe “loosens the bowels” to put it mildly.  It is the stuff of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1, it frightens, it shocks, it silences, it shows the paltriness of my holiness compared to His glory, it reveals the true meaning of “shock and awe”.  It is not possible to enter with a “-tude” and “be like all” anything.  The presence of my Master crushes the spirit, and as He bids me stand, my spirit is rebuilt without the props and pretenses.  The boldness I have before my Master is as a Knight of the Realm and Servant of the King, a status I hold because it was given, not because it was earned in anyway.

How is it that Moses was required to be hidden and see only the trailing filaments of the glory of the Master, but some who claim to be believers feel free to defiantly dictate terms to Him?  That baffles me.  Who are they talking to anyway?  It’s not the Master, Creator, Sustainer, and King of all Creation.  It can’t be.  It has to be some propped-up, straw-filled, empty-headed effigy of some weak and simple… I can’t even call it a god.  Even the pagans following other gods have some sense of reverence for them.  I have no idea what people talk to without a reverence that shatters the very soul.  I don’t even know what to call it.

To my Master I do complain of my circumstances.  I do plead for what I want selfishly.  I do seek my own interests rather than His.  But I do so on my knees.  Sure I’m stupid, but I know Who I speak to.  It is in these times of my complaint that He begins the transformation (or continues it – I don’t always cooperate very well) from self-focused to Jesus-focused.  He asks me to stand on the outside of the cave because He is about to pass by.  He seeks to draw me with a bush that is not consumed by fire.  He visits me as I rest beneath a tree, or thresh wheat in a wine press, or as I sleep.  He leads me somewhere else where He wants me to work with Him.  Sometimes I follow, sometimes I miss my queue, overshoot my mark, and end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But I do not forget Who I am supposed to be serving.  I may struggle with my belief or faith, but I do not forget in Whom that belief and faith are supposed to be.

I know exactly why I don’t understand my Master completely and can’t explain Him adequately.  I know precisely why I am trapped on this planet, a slave to gravity, yet able to gaze at the universe in wonder.  I get that part.  I am created, and so is the universe I view.  And there is no possible way I can fully comprehend the entirety of this creation, and therefore fully the Person responsible for it.  That make perfect sense to me.  I would think that any contact with such a Person would be a dramatic and possibly traumatic assault on my senses.  If there is no such drama or trauma, I would then wonder who I address instead.

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": May 4th.

Participating With My Master Through Prayer

According to Chambers, if I pray for you, I have to do so knowing, accepting, and looking for my Master to answer in ways which could cause you pain.  In other words, I am to pray for others with the expectation that their circumstances could degenerate as my Master answers the prayer.  And I need to be ok with that.  There is a statement in Chambers entry for today that is at the heart of my difficulty here.  As an extension of yesterday, I am not as sure of the will of my Master as I would like to be.  So, as Chambers says, “It is impossible to intercede vitally unless we are perfectly sure of God,” and I am not always perfectly sure of my Master.

But, that doesn’t exclude me from praying in vital intercession.  I do have a gift of discernment.  It’s limited with me, but it is there.  So, according to Chambers, I am called through this gift, into vital intercession whenever it works.  And I admit that my normal response to insight into others is prayer.  It has been most of the time, but not all the time.  The times that this gift is something I do not use for prayer is when I am resentful toward the object of the discernment.  There are times I work through the resentment in prayer, and do intercede for them, but those times are inconsistent. 

So, I have limited insight into the intensions of my Master, and yet am called to intercede for others accepting that my Masters’ answer could very well hurt them as He answers.  The problem I leave open, which Chambers clearly puts to rest, is the sense that I have some control over what my Master does.  As if, in response to my intercession, my Master acts in the life of others.  Chambers clearly points out that intercession is my Master inviting me into what He is already doing in the life of another.  There is no fear that I don’t totally understand my Master’s work.  There can be no excuse that I don’t like that person at the moment (in fact that may be the reason my Master calls me into intercession).  The revelation of the point where my Master works in the life of another is the point where I am to focus my conversation with Him.  I petition on behalf of another, but we both change through the work of the Master.  In this way, my Master accomplishes two goals with one activity.  Very efficient.

So, I seek to know where my Master is working.  I can see several places with my co-workers.  I can sense places with my friends, some with my family.  But I don’t know how to pray in every situation, and what I mean is that I don’t really know or understand what my Master is doing in each of these situations.  So how do I participate with Him in what He is doing through prayer?  Sometimes, but not always, the answer is to follow the Nike slogan and “Just Do It.”  I need to move forward with intercession in the knowledge provided and not wait for more.  If I wait I will miss the opportunity, the invitation will close.  I believe that my Master will still work in the life of another, but I will miss the opportunity to participate in that work. 

So, with the limited sight given to me by my Master, I will stumble into and through this day praying in every opportunity in spirit staying alert in all perseverance and petition concerning all the holy ones of my Master (Ephesians 6:18).  I wish I had a spiritual activity detector with ear phones and a gauge.  Click…click…click, click, click-click-click, uh oh, time to pray!

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": May 3rd.

Intercession by Example

I have to admit that this intercession angle is really cutting into my “quiet time/blog time.”  Today, Chambers ties the work of interceding to the work of Jesus and His Spirit.  So, now I am faced with the example of my Master, and being an extension of His work as an intercessor. 

The story behind the April Fool is interesting.  Long ago, I believe during either the middle ages or just after, New Years Day was moved from April 1 to January 1 on the calendar.  Celebrating on April 1 corresponded to the beliefs of many religions, including the Hebrew Calendar (sort of, since the Hebrew Calendar is a “lunar” calendar, the correspondence varied every year).  I’m not sure the reasoning, but the change was made.  Anyone who forgot and celebrated New Years or said, “Happy New Years” on April 1 was referred to as the “April Fool”.  That is a very abbreviated version of the account, but the idea was the the person who was unaware that things had changed on them, or forgot something basic was deemed a fool.

Today, I am that fool.  Of course I should be doing intercession.  Of course I should be seeking the face of my Master in prayer.  But I have been blogging in response to Scripture and in response to the writings of another child of my King.  And this activity has sometimes taken the place of prayer.  On the other hand, I have been in prayer throughout the day.  I have sought my Master in the afternoons (not every afternoon, but I am getting there).  So, in the process of my day, I do intercede.  But I have let this activity interfere with the other.

So, today is the last entry and I will leave off writing for prayer.  I will instead of writing these entries in the morning, write them whenever I have time.  I know that they have been the catalyst of growth, the means of making myself available to my Master in the past 3 months.  I know that the growth I have enjoyed recently has been wonderful, but it is time to get back to the work of prayer and intercession.  Sure I can and do pray throughout the day.  But I have neglected this work of my Master long enough.  I will become that intercessor I should have been all along.

So, here I go, and good by for now…

You believed that?  Am I not an intercessor already?  Haven’t you read the last two entries?  I would be crazy to now isolate myself from the hands of my Master when He has begun to do so much.  Don’t be an April Fool!  Things have changed within me, and I would be a fool to return to my old busted ways of doing things.

But since I am also to be an intercessor, I will add that to my bag of activities which put me within reach of my Master.  Sorry for the prank, but it is the day, and I do love pranks.  If you are truly angry with me, comment…and I will intercede with my Master for you too.

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": April 1st.