For this weeks deeper dive into a scripture, I wanted to look at a concept in the Bible that I believe is one of the most powerful. As you guys know… I’m big on this concept of SHAREing. My mission is to teach people to share their blessings and their bruises to connect with love and empathy. That’s my LIFE mission statement currently.
There’s so much power in connecting with each other and growing empathy for one other. I believe that it’s holy and that it’s very much a representation of God’s nature. And as holy as it is.. it’s relatively easy. All we have to do is intentionally create safe space for each other to listen and to share. I believe the Holy Spirit will do the rest.
That’s it.
But, SHAREing isn’t the concept for today… as you can see, though, it’s the beat of my heart. I had a stranger tell me that I was true to my mission, this week. And she had JUST met me. It was powerful because it was unexpected and genuine and completely objective. I had to give her my email address (joel@wehavetoshare.com) and she had looked up the website in between our calls. She said that I represented my mission to SHARE very well because I made it so easy to connect. All I did was stop our business convo for a brief second to ask her how SHE was doing today.
Ok ok ok…. The topic for today!! lol
I think it is one of the next phases of SHAREing.
Intercession.
Now… if you’ve been around the church for awhile, this is a big churchy word and it can feel a bit overwhelming. Especially if you don’t really know what it means.
Interceding is going to God ON BEHALF of someone. See. Already it makes more sense. You ever prayed for someone? Yeah. That’s intercession. You have brought someone else’s needs or troubles to God for them.
This has a power that I don’t think most people can ever fully grasp because, first of all, we don’t put enough faith in prayer. If we really believed when God says “When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond….”
(Isaiah 58:9 GNT) then maybe we’d put prayer way higher on the list of things we should be doing.
Again… that’s another whole convo.
To go before God on behalf of someone… is one of the most powerful and sacred acts of our faith.
You know why I think that? Because that’s what Jesus did. If you think about the whole story. God sending His son… His Son giving His life for us… making a way for US to have relationship with God, the Father… Jesus in the flesh interceded with God the Father ON OUR BEHALF.
When we get to step into this gap for our brothers and sisters, it is one of the most profound and sacred acts that we can perform because it is Christlike. It is emulating the heart posture of that beaten and bruised innocent man that says “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:24)
I had someone step into that holy space for me this week. Tears are beginning to well up just thinking about it. I’ll be completely honest… I haven’t gone back to this moment much, since this happened … because I was in really bad shape.
I have been trying to go to the gym on off days from Physical Therapy. If I have to go under the knife again.. or not, I resolved to “leave it all on the field” so to speak. I’m trying to rehab the other 75% of my body that’s not damaged or disabled currently and also trying to think outside of the box on other things I could be doing to help my back and knee. This particular day, I walked backwards on the treadmill for 15 minutes on the lowest setting. There’s a lot of research around walking backwards to combat knee pain and I attempted it at its lowest possible setting.
It almost put me in the hospital. I was in so much pain within the hour that it sent me into a panic attack so bad that I could barely breathe. I think I began to cry because I was so heartbroken that something so simple could hurt me so badly. Something that I felt hope around made me lose it. I felt so discouraged. I have felt so discouraged for so long. Everything I do causes me pain. I mean… my bone swells … from the inside out… when it’s aggravated. I kept saying “God… this is unbelievable”.
I’m totally cool when the ‘unbelievable’ or the ‘impossible’ is a testimony of God. I bathe in that glorious testimony. But when the impossible or the unbelievable is my pain…. It devastates me.
I was devastated. Hysterical. Inconsolable.
In a panic, I just knew I needed someone to intercede for me. I knew I was too crushed by the weight of pain and heartbreak to pull myself out of it and I knew I needed prayer. I called a friend of mine Rachel and through my broken words and gasps for air, I told her that I was in so much pain I just needed her to pray for me. She did. Instantly. It was beautiful. And I got off the phone and I was still gasping for air… gasping for help… gasping for prayer.
I felt the Holy Spirit whisper the name Zoie. I didn’t even hesitate. That’s how you know I was down bad. I didn’t even process the fact that it had been at least a year since I’ve talked to Zoie. I didn’t spend the time to ponder if it would be ok. I didn’t second guess anything. I didn’t overthink anything. This was as urgent as it gets in the spiritual warfare world….
I didn’t even get the reason why I was calling her out of my mouth… in between sobs I said “I just need you to pray for me”. She did. Within three minutes, she had said “God is blessing the fruit of your labor.” Remember when I talked about how hard I’ve been working between PT and the gym? But it causes me so much pain? That labor. You know how hard I’ve been working to cook and create content around it? That labor. You know how hard I work to connect with others and pray for them and do life with them and SHARE with them? That labor. It echoed louder than my pain.
She continued to pray for me in a way that brought down heaven. I have no idea how long she prayed for me… cried for me… spoke in the holiest of languages for me. When she was done, it was like the pain obeyed and shrunk back to the spaces in my body where they occurred. The pain was still there but it was as if I could ignore it for the first time in hours. My spirit felt calm. My ball of emotions had been supernaturally uncoiled. I was at peace. And I fell asleep. That, in and of itself is a miracle. I haven’t fallen asleep when I laid down in years probably. Whether it’s my mind or my pain… one or the other is gonna keep me up.
They interceded on MY behalf. They stepped into the gap for me like Jesus did for all of humanity. They said, God… hear our prayers for Joel. He needs you. He’s beaten up. He doesn’t have it in him to bring this to you himself, so here we are. On his behalf.
Romans 8:26 says “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” When we don’t know what to pray… like when you are hysterical crying in pain… the Holy Spirit takes your prayers to the Father. The same God that listens and answers. The same God that in Mark 11:24 said “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Oh, but I can’t even ask God… cuz I’m so beat up. I’m so weak right now. I don’t have the words! THAT is the power of interceding on someone’s behalf. God is so gracious, He sends the Holy Spirit to help you… and if you don’t call on the Holy Spirit… you can still call on a friend. And when that friend brings what YOU need to HIM… it will be done.
I want you to think about this the next time you have an urge to pray for someone. Whether they know it or not. Whether they asked for it or not. Whether they THINK they need it or not. I want you to think about the power of your faith in their lives. I want you to know that there is power in your prayers for others. If it brings down heaven and they fall asleep in pure bliss… awesome. If they never even know that you interceded in their behalf… also awesome.
Whatever you do…
intercede for people.
Pray for people.
Most people won’t ask.
Everyone needs it.
Everyone.
If you are called upon to pray for someone. I just want to give you a couple words of wisdom that I saw on beautiful display from my friends this week.
You don’t need to understand anything about their need. God knows everything they need and he is the only one that can fix it, so shake off any pressure that comes with this. “God, thank you for the opportunity to bring my friends issue to You. You know the answer. You are sovereign. You can handle it all.”
If you don’t have the words, get quiet and listen for them. When someone’s mind and spirit is going haywire, one of the best things you can do for them is bring peace and stillness into the room. You can repeat simple and peace bringing words. “Thank You Lord. We love You God. Thank you. You are Holy. Thank You for Your presence. We love You.” Don’t be afraid to slow it down. Breathe deep. Take your time. The words will come.
Be bold. The Bible says to go boldly before the throne of grace. Here’s the scripture “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 ESV) You are there because someone needed you there and God empowered you to be there. You get to call on the power of the almighty God on behalf of this person… be bold.
Lastly, the power of asking for prayer.
I don’t know why this is genuinely so hard for us but I have some educated guesses.
Ego is one of the blunt ways to put it… whether we don’t want someone to see us as weak or we want to be perceived as ‘in control’… that’s ego. Anything that come up inside of you that considers what someone else might think about you, is your ego outweighing your desire to be closer to God. That’s the harsh and gut wrenching truth. You care more about the perception of others than you do about someone knowing you in your weakness and bring that to God. Choose Jesus. Ego is overrated. And lonely.
Maybe you don’t think you deserve it. Yeah. Any of it. God’s attention. God’s healing. His time. The time of your friend to pray for you. Your friend having to stop what they are doing to pray for you. You feel like a bother. A bother to God… a bother to whoever you might need to intercede for you. You overthink asking for prayer. “Oh they have so much going on”. Or my go to excuse “everyone is going through THEIR OWN shit… they don’t wanna hear mine.” These are all thoughts of a person that might be struggling with feelings of worthiness. I’m praying for you right now to be reminded of your worthiness. I’m praying for you to know and believe in your CORE that God loves you so much that He would do everything and chase after you. He has done it and shown it constantly throughout the Bible. Read the parable of the shepherd in Matthew 10:10-14. Here’s a synopsis… He will leave the 99 for the one that strayed away. And when He gets you, He will carry you back to safety and rejoice in your return. You are worthy.
So, today, whether you are called upon to step in the gap on behalf of someone else, or you, yourself need someone in that gap who takes your needs to the father… I pray that God would wreck your thoughts on intercession. I pray that He will free your mind and your soul to grow closer to Him… even if someone else needs to help you get there. I pray that if someone else needs you to step into the gap for them, that you rely on Him to lead the conversation.
Long story short… it’s Him who ends up doin the heavy lifting. It’s Him that has promised to do so.
Be blessed.
Love,
Joel
One way to join our growing community is to join the Discord. Yes, I know it’s a weird name for a community building space and then there’s the whole “not another app” syndrome. I made a video explaining the benefits of discord and showing you what it’s all about. I’ll link that YouTube video down below! Be Blessed and if you need prayer… hit me up!! I got you!!
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