Intercessory Prayer

In Isaiah 53:12, we read...
...He poured out His soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

I have been immersed in prayer this week, and it has never felt more “intercessory” than it has this week. I never really related to being an “intercessor” before, but that’s exactly what we are when we “intercede” on someone else’s behalf. I want to thank very much everyone who has prayed with me.

In John 17, Jesus is hours away from being crucified and yet, on the way to Gethsemane, He prays this great intercessory  prayer...

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus (the) Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.
Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and not one of them has perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

That scripture might be fulfilled... Jesus did ALL things well. Fulfilling ALL scripture was paramount.
Matt. 5:17 I have not come to abolish the law, but to FULFILL it.... Rom. 1:16 “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” 

Then Jesus continues,
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they ALL may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Does that define or illustrate the “church” in the world today? Are Christians all one in Christ as Christ is in God? Do we manifest the glory that Christ gave us? Have we been made perfect in One? Does the world know that? We could say “Yes” to all that as our spiritual state in Christ. Sitting with Jesus in the heavenly places is a done deal by God’s will. But I ask about the church, the Body of Christ on earth now.

I’m talking about ME and everyone who professes to be a light to the world? Next to politics, the denominations of churches in the world are the biggest hypocrisy since the pharisees, and God doesn’t like it. But that passage, verses 20-23 certainly defines true believers walking in the Spirit, abiding in Christ, maturing in Grace and in Love, our whole spirit, soul and body preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as we read in 1 Thess. 5:23. But do we insure that our works will not be burned up as wood, hay, and stubble by growing in grace and love, and doing God’s will here and now, building on the foundation of Jesus Christ with gold, silver and precious stones? 1 Cor. 3:11-15

Does our light so shine before men, that they SEE our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven , or do we put our light under a bushel? Matt 5:15-16

Jesus continues...
Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

There is no question that Jesus is praying for all who will come to believe in Him. Any distinction between “disciples” in the first part and “those who will believe” is a distinction of time only and not between His disciples and everyone else. He prays for His disciples in the present then, and He prays for those who will believe in the future... His disciples now.

The person of Jesus Christ, portrayed in the whole Bible, is an awesome, majestic, overwhelming, breathtaking, remarkable reality of history. The praise, worship, and thanksgiving that He DESERVES is beyond my capacity of adequately giving in return... and God knew this. Only the deep sincerity of a mature, born again, holy heart with the Holy Spirit making intercession for us could express adequate worship.

Rom. 8:26 The Holy Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Heb. 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God’s Grace will only be exceeded by His wrath in the end. It is an everlasting wrath. But for us and all those who have come to believe, God has spent His wrath on Jesus. Those who will not believe are condemned already, says John 3:18.