Prayer has failed us, intercession alone will bring us through. Rees Howell
As I read this quote by Rees Howell, I began to understand this place that the Holy Spirit had led me into in my prayer life.
I have always been a person of prayer. I have always been a person who confessed the word, declared His word over my life and the life of my loved ones, it was what I did all the time. However, I have recently learned, there is a deeper place in prayer that I am now discovering.
Let’s take a look at 1 Timothy 2:1; Therefore, I exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.
We see from this scripture alone, there are several different types of prayers, perhaps even different layers of prayers.
Let’s look at a few of the words in this scripture.
Supplication – based on need, lack or desire – to ask God for something you need, lack or desire.
Prayer – a prayer addressed to God asking Him for something you want or need.
Intercession – a falling in with, a meeting, an interview, a petition, to light upon a person or thing, a fixed position, to hit the mark.
Thanks – a thankful heart, thankfulness.
We can see from the different definitions, prayers are different and there are indeed, different levels of prayer. In a supplication prayer, we are asking God for something we want or need. However, intercession appears to be a deeper place of prayer, where you fix your heart and your time of prayer upon that one thing until you hit the mark and have what you are asking for in your possession.
I taught about this on our Partner Prayer Call this week. I shared with our partners, how God had led me into this place of deep intercession in the past couple weeks.
Furthermore, I believe this is another place, a deeper level…travail.
Galatians 4:19 says; My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
There is a place in prayer where travail takes place. Travail is defined as; a hard and difficult labor, toil, hardship, distress with difficulty.
While travail doesn’t sound like a fun place, God promises us that when we travail we will bring forth to delivery. That excites me!
As I said earlier, I have always had a strong prayer life, however, God has taken me to a deeper place in prayer, it is a hard place, a difficult place and a rewarding beyond imagination place.
I believe for many of us, we will have to go to this place of deep intercession, of travail, before we see the promises we are contending for.
Today, ask God to take you to this place of deep intercession, this place of travail, where you lay hold of all He has promised you, I assure you, it will be worth it.
Quote:
Hold your confidence steadfast to the end. You will never regret standing when it looked like all hope was gone.
