We may think that serving God involves doing great works for God, laboring day and night, and having no personal freedom or enjoyment. But what we see in the Bible is that our main service to God is our prayer to Him according to His heart and will.
Our God is almighty and can do anything He wants, yet He placed Himself under the limitation of man’s cooperation in prayer; when man prays according to God’s will and heart, God can do what He wants, but when man doesn’t pray, God is limited and delayed in what He desires to do.
God needs us to exercise our spirit with our resurrected will to pray according to His divine will! For this reason, God regenerated us and He is now drawing us to Himself so that we may be mingled with Him and have His heart and thoughts imprinted into us to make us fully one with Him.
First, God’s will is something in God Himself; then, He reveals His will and heart to those who draw near to Him and spend adequate amount of time in His presence; these ones in turn pray back to God His will, and God can have the ground to accomplish His work according to His will.
We may think that this is too high for us, and it may not be practical to our situation, condition, and environment; but the Bible doesn’t give us only the principle of serving God in prayer but also some solid patterns of people just like us who were joined to God in His word to pray back His desire and will to Him for Him to do what He wants to do.
Hannah prayed not only for a son: she prayed for a son (which was her need) that she would present to the Lord for His service (this was God’s need); the result was Samuel, one who cooperate with God to turn the age (see 1 Sam. 1:10-20).
Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, and he prayed the prayer that was given to him by God; according to his prayer – which was God’s prayer – the heavens were closed and there was no rain for 3.5 years (James 5:17).
Daniel was a man of prayer: he saw God’s desire by reading His word, and he joined himself to God’s desire to pray back His word to Him, and God could move and do things that He wanted to do (Dan. 9:2-3, 17).
Today we want to see a further example: Abraham, the friend of God, who interceded before God for his nephew Lot in a very human conversation with Him.
Lingering in God’s Presence to Intercede for Others before Him according to His heart
Abraham lived in an intimate fellowship with God and became God’s friend (see James 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8); even before the incarnation of Christ, Jehovah as Christ appeared to Abraham in a human form, with a human body, and communed with him on a human level (see Gen. 13:18; 18:1-2, 13-15, 22).
When Abraham heard from God what He was about to do – the destruction of Sodom was imminent – he made a glorious intercession for his nephew Lot, which intercession was an intimate conversation between two friends, an intimate talk between Abraham and God according to the unveiling of God’s heart’s desire.
As Abraham was enjoying such sweet fellowship with God, he received revelation from Him regarding the birth of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom….The birth of Isaac is related to Christ, and the destruction of Sodom is related to God’s judgment upon sin….God’s concern is to bring Christ forth through us and to eliminate all the sinful things. He intends to produce Christ and to destroy the “Sodom” in our home life, work life, and even in our Christian and church life. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Genesis, p. 673)
We need to be the friend of God, those who have real intimacy with the Lord and spend much time with Him to have intimate talks with Him, so that He may reveal to us what is on His heart and we may pray it back to Him. As Abraham was enjoying sweet fellowship with God, he received a revelation from Him concerning the birth of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 18:9-22).
The birth of Isaac typifies God’s intention to work Christ into us and bring Christ forth through us; the destruction of Sodom is the destruction of anything negative and evil in our home life, work life, Christian life, and church life (Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1 Cor. 5:7-8).
We need to enter into our private room and spend personal, intimate, and spiritual time with the Lord, being open to Him as we read His word to be infused with Christ and have a revelation of His heart (Matt. 6:6).
When we spend intimate time with the Lord in a hidden way, the Father who sees us in secret will reward us in secret, we will provide the human nutrients for the seed of life to grow in us, anything negative in us is being eliminated, and we clearly see what is on God’s heart and pray for it.
In our intimate time with God we receive the revelation that all the impossibilities become possibilities with Christ; just as it was impossible for Sarah to bear a son in her old age, so many things that God wants to do in us may seem impossible – but in our intimate time with the Lord, we become clear that anything impossible with man is possible with God (see Gen. 18:14-15; 21:2-7; Luke 18:27).
God revealed to Abraham His intention to destroy Sodom because He was seeking an intercessor, and Abraham responded to God’s speaking by interceding for his nephew Lot who was living in Sodom (see Gen. 18:17-22; cf. Heb. 7:25; Isa. 59:16; Ezek. 22:30).
Proper intercession is not initiated by man but by God’s revelation; when we linger in God’s presence and spend intimate time with Him, He reveals to us what He wants to do, and we will pray prayers that express God’s desire and carry out God’s will.
Apparently Abraham was interceding for Sodom, but actually he was interceding for Lot by implication (see Gen. 14:12; 18:23; 19:1, 27-29), showing us that we as God’s people should intercede for those saints who have drifted into the world.
We need to have an intimate conversation with God according to the inward intention of His heart by lingering in the presence of God; as we linger in His presence, we are infused with God to shine forth God and we respond by praying according to His heart for Christ to be wrought into His people, the negative things to be judged, and those who have drifted into the world would be rescued and brought back into God’s family.
In our intercession before God according to his heart, we don’t beg God according to His love and grace but we may even challenge God according to His righteous ways: He will NOT judge the righteous with the unrighteous, so He HAS to save our brothers and sisters that have drifted into the world! Amen!
Just as Abraham’s intercession didn’t finish with his speaking but with God’s, so a genuine intercession is God’s speaking in our speaking (see Gen. 18:33; Rom. 8:26-27); we merely open to Him, are infused with Him, and converse with Him, and He in us speaks and prays what is in His heart.
Many times, however, we leave God’s presence before He stopped speaking; we may rush on with our day, but the Lord still has to say some things.
Genuine intercession is God’s speaking in our speaking; when we linger in God’s presence, He infuses us with His intention and desire, and we echo back to Him the prayer that He needs in order for Him to judge evil, reveal Christ, and rescue the backslidden and drifting believers from the world.
Lord, we want to linger in Your presence to have a clear revelation of Your heart’s desire and respond to You according to what You want to do. Lord, we treasure our time alone with You; we love to have intimate, personal, affectionate, and spiritual time with You to be infused with You and converse with You about what You want to do. Oh Lord, we want to be the friend of God, those who know what’s on Your heart and cooperate with You in prayer so that You may work Christ into us, eliminate anything negative and evil from us, and cause us to intercede one with You for the believers who drifted into the world!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee for this week, and portions from Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 50-51 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 7 / msg. 7, Serving God by Prayer according to His Heart and Will.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# While Abraham remained standing before Jehovah, / His purpose was to intercede for Lot, for Lot. / This glorious intercession that Abraham made / Was just a human conversation. (Song on Abraham’s intercession)
# 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)
# Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643)
