Who Are You Standing For?
Colossians 4:12 (New Living Translation)
12 Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God.
Recently, my God daughter has been lead into a season of intercession and prayer. I smiled brightly as she entered this season, because I have known it well for years. Laying prostrate and calling on the name of the Lord for others has been part of my spiritual DNA and I am blessed to have had this opportunity and been entrusted with this gifting. For years I watched my grandmother get up before the sun came up and get down on her knees and pray, like her life depended on it for others, their needs and even things they did not know they needed. I watched my mother cry out at home and in church for family, friends, churches, nations, as God lead her. I watched her travail in the floor with others for deliverance, salvation, giftings and callings. I am watching as my daughters, spiritual and natural begin to pick up the charge of standing for others and pressing into God for the very life of those around them. It is a legacy, but all too often it is not something that is taught or even really encouraged. People think we have to be anointed with the gift of intercession to pray for others, but that is far from the truth.
James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” We are supposed to have apart in praying for someone, besides ourselves. We are supposed to stand in the gap for one another. It is when we yield to God and to His voice and we are able to obey His call to pray for others, events, countries, and situations our prayers can become a hedge of protection. It can be a vehicle by which God ushers in blessings, deliverance, healing and safety. It can be a place of instruction and correction, reproof and rebuke. It can be the place where God begins to unfold a plan and a purpose. It is also a place where God can send a warning or place a notice in the forefront. When we take a stand we are part of an arena that can usher in power and authority. One thing I do know to be truth is that many people do not want to stand in a place of prayer for someone else because it is thought that God may ask something of us or require us to give or sacrifice and for many of us we struggle with that and have not yet come to a place where we can get passed the selfish part of us that says I can pray, for others, but if it requires anything more I am out!
Jesus stands at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, when we are good, and when we aren’t. When we deserve it or when we do not (but do we really ever deserve it). He doesn’t struggle with this assignment so why do we? Primarily because we are fully man and we have not tapped into the fully spiritual portion of us that can help us overcome the flesh. But a little know thing is when we stand for others, God sees that are can open up and meet our needs. We also never know when we will need someone to stand in the gap for us. What we can make happen for someone else God can make happen for us!
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