While We Are Yet Standing…
1 Timothy 2:1-6 (Amplified Bible)
1FIRST OF all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,
2For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way.
3For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior,
4Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth.
5For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
6Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time.
The other day after a series of events had taken place in my life and people I was close to began to come under attack in a very real way, I asked what was going on. As I began to meditate and enter into a time of prayer, God reminded me of something that happened when my son was much younger. The children and I were walking across a parking lot, and my son had an awful habit of walking with his head down and not stopping to observe his surroundings, not even on coming traffic. I had spoken with him about this on many occasions and reminded him of the importance of looking up, every time we got out of the car (or at least so it seemed). This day was no different, but my son kept up his normal routine, as he reached a section of the parking lot where more traffic was present and flowing he stepped forward without a look. I looked directly at him seeing the imminent danger he was in, ran towards him and grabbed at an article of clothing he had on to push or pull him out of the way quickly. As I pushed Him into safety, and managed to thrust him out of harms way, my balance at that point was not as stable and firm as minutes before when I was just standing and walking at a leisurely pace. While I was pushing him into a place of safety, I had inadvertently placed myself in a place where harm could have come to me if I had totally lost my balance.
How many times have you lifted up people before the Lord and all hell began to break loose in your life? I am sure you have been called to pray for others in harms way and found that the peace that once was abiding in your life had taken a mass exodus. Like me, I am positive that anyone that has stood on the wall or in the gap for others has found their situation and their own footing becoming shaky at best and feeling as if you had taken the place of the individual that you had begun standing for. As the individual found themselves free from harm, from the test or attack we seem to have found ourselves thrust right in the midst of a battle or some harmful place that was not even ours to begin with. Just as Christ did for us and still continues to do for us. He made Himself sin for us, He paid a price He did not owe and He stood in harms way and the gap for us when we could not withstand the penalty that we so obviously deserved. Jesus is still at the right hand making intercession for us. His blood deposited to cover every thing that would hurt, harm or destroy us. You see we may become the sacrifice in that moment or balance may look off, and it may appear that we are wobbly, but it is in that moment that we are carrying a care, to the throne and as we stand in strength for others, but we have to keep our eyes on Christ. The enemy comes to try to get us off the wall, to distract us from the task at hand, and to cause us to doubt our purpose. But truly greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world!
Through our time of standing, pushing, pulling, interceding and being in the gap for others, remember that the enemy seeks to bring you instability, seeks to make you weak, and to discourage you off the wall and out of your purpose as an intercessor, warrior and disciple. Just as Christ withstood for us, so it is with us that we must withstand for others, not allowing a moment of imbalance to take our focus from Christ and what we are there to do. Even when we lose our perfect balance God is right there to help us recover get back on the wall to fight again and to stand stronger than before. “For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.4For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, 5[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
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