Prayer, Intercession, and Forgiveness

Following a fantastic guy's weekend with my dear friends in CRU, I feel like I need to blog about prayer. Prayer holds different meanings and weights in different people's lives. For me, prayer means communicating with God. It is the only way to develop a relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ. Without prayer, we cannot know God, and if we do not know God, how can we know His will for our life? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" - Matthew 7:21-23. This is one of those verses that people like to ignore, because it is a hard teaching, but "All scripture is God breathed." So, before I get labeled a hypocrite, let me confirm that our salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But, because we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, we are forever changed because we are then filled with the Holy Spirit, who begins to work in our heart and change us from the inside out. By regularly praying, the Holy Spirit grows inside you, helping you see and follow God's will for your life, and when you follow God's will for your life, you go to Heaven. So, that being said, let me talk a little bit about intercessory prayer and forgiveness. Intercession, according to wikipedia, is "intervening or mediating between two parties". For Christians, this is praying to God on someone else's behalf, usually someone who would not pray for themselves, or someone who is not a Christian. It does not have to be for someone who would not pray for themselves, but it just, at least for me, always seems to be. In my mind, intercession and forgiveness go hand in hand. The best example that I have is when my car got broken into and my stuff stolen a few weeks ago. In my mind, I was frustrated and annoyed, but not hateful for some reason. After trying to clean up a bit and putting garbage bags over the broken window, I decided to have some Time Alone With God (TAWG) to see what God had to say about the issue. I found myself forgiving whoever it was that broke and stole my stuff and praying that God would forgive them and help them and that they could use the money they got from selling my stuff to better themselves and not to use it for self-detrimental things like alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. To me, I don't know how you could pray for God to forgive someone who you yourself have not forgiven, it just does not make much sense. Regardless, 'forgiving those who trespass against us' is one of the many things we are called to do as Christians. And praying for them is in the Bible many places I am sure, I just do not know of one off hand. Anyway, that's my two cents. Have a fantastic week!
His,
Bryan Britt
Proverbs 3:5-6

Romans 10:11-15

11: "As Scripture says, "Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame."

12: "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,"

13: "for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

14: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

15: "And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!""

I sit here in my comfortable room on my nice computer having just eaten a nice meal cooked by my loving mother and I am just completely broken by these words. This really puts things into perspective. Statistics say that 95% of all professing Christians will never share the Good News of Jesus Christ with a non-believer. Many of the non-believers in educated and developing countries will not accept the Gospel for the simple fact that there is so much hypocrisy in the Church today. I am not trying to judge you, the reader, I am just telling you the current general consensus of Christians. "People do crazy things when they are in love", this should be especially true with your relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus wants us to tell everyone that we encounter about Jesus, plain and simple. Jesus wants us to have a deep, intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, which should lead to you WANTING to tell every single person that you run into about Jesus! How awesome is that?

An analogy that Adrian Despres used was a comparison to cancer. The way that you should be able to tell that someone believes in Hell is if they tell people about Christ. How many of you, if you had the cure to cancer, would just conceal it and go about your life like it did not matter to you? No one with a conscious would keep the cure for cancer to themselves! Well guess what, Christians have the cure to hell, which is 1000 times worse than cancer, which is a great exaggeration. So, why is it that we, as Christians, with the cure to hell, actively choose to conceal it and go about your life like it does not matter? Think about it for a minute. Seriously.

So, go back and read the verses you skimmed over at the top. Really read them. These words are alive, I can promise you! We as Christians, are forgiven of our sins, which allows to to go to heaven. Jesus has interceded for us so that we do not have to suffer God's wrath!!!! Unfortunately, this does not apply to those who have never heard of or believed in Jesus. So, let me say this again...

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?" 

I think I need to pause here and clarify this last question. This is not, by any means or in any way, saying that only people who are "called" to be evangelists can preach to those who have never heard, so that they can believe and call on Jesus. Now, I am also not saying that everyone is supposed to go overseas to preach. I am saying that if you are in love with Jesus, that you should be telling every single person that you encounter on your life's journey about the lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Lowe put as being a signpost. A signpost's only purpose is to point onto something greater than itself. If the signpost does not point anywhere, what good is it doing?  And if a signpost points to itself, it is not a signpost at all, it is a monument, which does nothing but sit there and boast about itself, but no matter how much "glory" it gains, it will never be able to go anywhere.

For a much more in depth and well worded look into this subject matter, I strongly recommend that you read Radical Chapter 7.

His,

Bryan Britt

Proverbs 3:5-6