Cooperating with Christ’s Intercession by Praying one with Him for His Move on Earth

After passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Lord Jesus was ascended to the heavens and was made Lord of all, King of kings, the High Priest, and the Minister of the heavenly places.

As our divine High priest, Christ is doing mainly two things: He is saving us to the uttermost by virtue of His indestructible life and He is interceding for us. The Bible clearly tells us that Christ always lives to intercede; He is at the right hand of God, on the throne, and He is our divine High Priest interceding for us that we may be saved to the uttermost.

As a result of His intercession, we repent, believe in the Lord, grow in life, are being renewed and transformed, and we will be eventually glorified; Christ intercedes for us until we are fully glorified by entering into the same glory and perfection that He is in!

Seeing that our ascended Christ as the divine High Priest is interceding for us we need to realize that we need to respond to His intercession. How can we respond to Christ’s intercession? First, we respond by repenting, then by cooperating with the Lord to grow in life, contact the Lord and enjoy Him, care for others, be willing to be transformed, and eventually to be glorified.

Furthermore, the intercession of Christ as the divine High Priest requires our response in prayer; we need to pray the prayers of the interceding Christ so that He would accomplish His economy and further His move in man and among man.

As the ascended One on the throne in the heavens, Christ is ruling over the universe for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, and He is interceding for us; we need to cooperate with Him through prayer by being one with Him in His intercession for the churches and for the Lord’s move.

We need to be the people on earth who correspond to the interceding Christ in the heavens, those who release God’s will and pray in oneness with the Lord for the furtherance of the Lord’s move throughout the earth.

Cooperating with Christ’s Intercession by Praying one with Him for His Move on Earth

In His work of creation of all things, God did not need or require the help of anyone; in His move in and among man, however, God works in the principle of incarnation – He limits Himself to man’s cooperation with His work.

The ascended Christ is interceding in the heavens for us, and He needs a people on earth to respond to His ministry in the heavens; by the Lord’s mercy and grace, may we be the people who respond to Christ’s heavenly ministry, being one with Him and saying Amen, Lord! to His intercessory prayer.

The intercession of Christ as the divine High Priest requires our response (see Heb. 7:25; Col. 4:2; Acts 12:1-5). We need to become on earth the reflection of Christ’s intercession in His heavenly ministry mainly by praying the prayers of the interceding Christ (Rom. 8:26-27, 34).

What we need to care for is not more ethics, morality, or even spirituality; we need to care for being one with the Lord in His heavenly ministry and enjoy the traffic between heaven and earth to release on earth what has been released in the heaven and bind on earth what has been bound in the heaven.

Christ today is very busy: He takes care of millions of saints, and He cares in love for all the local churches throughout the world; His desire is to build up the Body of Christ and form His Bride. However, we need to become on earth the reflection of Christ’s ministry in the heavens, caring for the Lord’s interests and responding in prayer on earth to what He prays in the heavens.

We need to be joined to this network of prayer, connected to the grid of God mingled with man in prayer, and participate in the heavenly intercession so that Christ will operate to release God’s will on earth. In all the church meetings we need to be joined to Christ’s heavenly ministry in interceding for God’s move on the earth.

The motivating power of God’s move is Christ Himself and our being joined to Him in prayer; whenever two or three are one on earth with the ascended Christ, He will do for them what He wills in heaven as they pray in oneness with Him. When we come together in this kind of intercessory prayer, we are joined to the Lord in His prayer for His move on the earth.

In Exodus 30, after the incense altar (a type of the interceding Christ in the heavens) we have the consecration of the expiation silver, showing us that we as God’s people need to respond to Christ’s ministry by consecrating ourselves to Him to pray for His move. In Psa. 110, after seeing a vision of the victorious Christ in His ascension, God’s people offer themselves willingly to the Lord to be one with Him in the splendor of their consecration.

On the one hand Christ is interceding for us in the heavens, and on the other hand we need to give ourselves to respond on earth to Christ’s prayer in the heavens; when we do this, heaven and earth are joined together, the Lord can move freely, and the heavenly traffic will move God’s move forward.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be the people who respond to Your heavenly ministry by praying one with You for Your will to be done and for Your move to advance on earth. Lord, we want to be the reflection of Your heavenly ministry on earth, praying the prayers of the interceding Christ. Strengthen our organic union with You, and join us more with the saints that we may pray for Your move on earth. Keep us open to the heavenly transmission so that we may cooperate with You in Your heavenly ministry to pray Your prayers and echo Your intercession for the furtherance of Your move on earth!

Setting our Mind on the Things which are Above to Respond to Christ’s Intercession and Reflect what He’s Doing

Since we were raised together with Christ, we should seek the things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; we should set our mind on the things which are above, and not on the things which are on the earth, for we died and our life is hidden with Christ in God – and when Christ our life is manifested, we also will be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4).

How can we cooperate with the Lord’s heavenly ministry, His intercession? By setting our mind on the things which are above; we need to daily seek the things above so that we may correspond to Christ’s heavenly ministry. Our prayers should not be primarily concerning insignificant matters such as our daily needs and our problems; we should care more for the things above, being conscious of the traffic between us and Christ in the heaven.

Our life is hidden with Christ in God; we were raised together with Christ, and we should set our mind on the things above, where Christ is, executing His intercessory prayer. How much is our mind set on the things above? How much is our mind occupied with the things which are above? Is our mind set on the things related to Christ’s heavenly ministry, or are still so busy with many things on the earth?

When we seek the things above, we respond to the Lord’s heavenly ministry and reflect it. Our experience testifies of this. If in our prayer we are willing to forget insignificant matters and care for the things above, we shall become conscious of the traffic between us and Christ in heaven. We shall sense a current flowing back and forth between Him and us. By means of this kind of prayer, the divine riches are transfused into us. This enables us to be one with others and to be right with everyone. (Life-study of Colossians, msg. 60)

If we set our mind on the things which are above and are therefore one with Christ in His intercessory prayers, Christ as the Head will have a way to carry out His economy through His Body (Col. 1:18; 2:19; 3:1-2). As Christ is interceding in the heavens, we as His Body should be working on the earth by responding to His intercession and reflecting what He is doing (see Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26; 8:1-2; Rev. 5:6).

When the cup of prayers of the saints is filled up, Christ will pour it upon the altar and add Himself as the incense, and He will release God’s move on earth to accomplish His economy (see Rev. 8).

We need to cooperate with the Lord today, realizing that the world situation and the human governments are not in the hands of politicians, rich people, economists, or public opinion, but they are under Christ’s rule – and He rules through our intercessory prayer one with Him.

If we gossip or joke around, we don’t represent Christ, but if we set our mind on the things above where Christ is and are joined in prayer with other members of the Body on earth one with Christ, we will become an ambassador of the heavenly kingdom on earth in a practical way.

Lord Jesus, we choose to set our mind on the things which are above where Christ is, seated with God on the throne and interceding for the churches. Oh Lord, we want to respond to Your heavenly ministry and reflect it on earth through our intercessory prayer one with You. We want to give Your our cooperation in prayer so that You as the Head of the Body would have a way to carry out Your economy through Your Body. Lord Jesus, make us one with You in Your intercession for the churches today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 60 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection and Ascension, week 5 / msg 5, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Ascension (2) – Christ as the Divine High Priest Interceding for Us.
• All verses are taken from, Recovery Version Bible.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Set your mind on the things that are above, / Not on the things that are on earth. / For you have died and your life— / Is hid with Christ in God. / When Christ Who is our life—shall appear, / Then we also shall appear / With Him in GLORY! (Song on Col. 3:1-3)
  # Intercede! Intercede! For Your people, meet Your need! / Hallelujah! Get Your Bride this way. / Have Your way! Have Your way! Do a building work we pray— / Hallelujah—in our life each day! (Song on Interceding with Christ)