Title The Gift of Intercession/James 5:16
Contents
Introduction
Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we want to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit on the most important gift of intercession in the Christian life of faith, and it should be a time to discern what the gift is given to us by revealing the realized truth.
Theologian Don Carlson put it this way: “Prayer is work. Sit down and pray for an hour. You'll find that prayer is mentally and physically demanding, but I enjoy praying.” That's true.
This gift of prayer is a special ability to pray for a long time. They pray for other members of the church rather than for themselves. They are charismatic people who pray for the country, people, church, and neighbors for an average of 3-4 hours a day. They are characterized by always receiving answers to their prayers and living a rich life.
God has promised to be close to those who pray (Psalm 145:18:19). I want to have many prayer gifts in churches around the world. You can see that there are many believers who can't pray for a long time, no matter how long they have practiced their faith.
1. Definition of the gift of intercession
If we define this gift, “In the religious life of the saints, they pray regularly for a long time, and special prayers are always answered. It is the gift of prayer for the country, the church, and the neighbor, and it is the ability to intercede. It means “to do”. There is.
The quoted scriptures can be found in (Matthew 8:5,31, 2 Corinthians 10:2, 1 Timothy 2:5, Romans 1:10, Hebrews 8:6. Ephesians 6:18--19, ). In the Bible, there are countless records of people who received answers to their prayers (1 Samuel 1;9--20, Samuel (1 Samuel 7:5--12, 2 Samuel 12:16--25) Elijah (1 Kings 18:36--) 46), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-17), Daniel (Daniel 2:16-23), Paul (Acts 16:26), etc. Prayer is speaking to God in the name of Jesus. And it can be defined as actual fellowship (John 14:13-14, Matthew 6:9, John 17:1, Ephesians 2:18, 1 John 1:3).
2. Characteristics of the gift of intercession
The characteristics of this charismatic are: 1) I tend to pray a lot. 2) God responds in a visible way. 3) Joy comes when we pray in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit. 4) We believe that everything comes from God. 5) Pray without becoming discouraged even in a state of despair.
Their characteristic is that they pray for a long time and receive answers to special prayers. As a person of prayer, he is always zealous for intercession. In Colossians 4:12, Paul did not write “the Epaphras who came to you, the servants of Christ.” He simply said, “Epaphra, a servant of Jesus Christ.”
what a beautiful word It is a very noble calling for one of us to become a servant of Christ. Wouldn't it be great if these words were engraved on my tombstone? Paul goes on to write, “We always pray for you.” He was neither a good preacher nor an orator. His ministry is to pray for the Colossians. Some have said that prayer is the sharpening of the axe. A tree that would take all day to fall with a blunt ax would fall if cut with a sharpened ax in 30 minutes. Starting everything with prayer is the image of us as servants who give the sovereignty of the work to Christ.
3. Self-diagnosis of the gifted messenger
One). I feel the need for prayer more than any other gift, and I tend to ask for more.
2). God always responds to me in a visible way.
3). Whenever we pray hard in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit, God gives us answers with confidence and joy.
4). We believe that God is at work in everything, and we continue to pray for the needs of others.
5). No matter how desperate the situation is, never give up and pray until the end.
4. Discernment with the gift of intercession
1. The gift given as a gift of the Holy Spirit = If you hold on to a specific subject for a long time, you will receive a response. A person of prayer has the ability to intercede.
2. Human talent = In general, we pray with faith, but there are many formal prayers. I do not always pray a good prayer with a Mass, but it leans towards the formality and does not create certainty.
3. The analogue given by Satan = I pray a lot, cry out loudly, wave and try, but there is no answer. There is no joy. There are no blessings. Since there is no spiritual help, the devil approaches and takes over.
conclusion; I will summarize today's message. As I said before, the gift of intercession is an absolutely necessary gift for us believers who are living in a difficult generation. How long will you continue to pray only formally and for yourself and your family? Once all of us have discovered our gifts, we must work hard to sublimate them into a faith that receives answers. In the church, it is necessary to confirm the gift of intercession especially to serve the district head, evangelism, service, finance, and choir.