Intercession by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The First Mention of Prophet — and Intercession

I want to show a text: Genesis 20:7. There is something called the law of first mention. The first place a word is used many times will determine how the word is understood throughout Scripture. This is the first time the word "prophet" comes out. "Now therefore restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you."

Prophets pray for you. The word "intercession" in the Greek means to confer with, to entreat — that is, to be in favor or against, to make a deal. It is the action of intervening on behalf of another. And the word intercession is more than prayer. Sometimes people need prayer. Sometimes they need love. Sometimes they need just someone who can listen. And that in itself is intercession.

To intercede means to stand in the gap, to be a strength or fortitude for someone else.

Intercession is More Than Reaction

It is more than a reaction to a problem. Help can be before a problem. That is what differentiates a prayer warrior and an intercessor. An intercessor is not reactive to a problem.

Jesus's ministry is intercession. Hebrews 7:25: "He lives to make intercession for them." That intercession doesn't mean Jesus is praying in heaven. Intercession is more than prayer. The intercession Jesus lives to make is that his death, burial, and resurrection has become a monument of intercession for us that makes us saved. Why are we saved? Because of his intercession. What was his intercession? Dying for us as a priest.

Jesus's priesthood is that priesthood that is both the priest and the sacrifice. Jesus is not in heaven praying to the Father every time you sin. He's seated at the right hand, told to sit until he makes his enemies his footstool. He is in rest in heaven. The intercessory ministry Jesus has in the resurrection is his death, burial, and resurrection covering our sins.

And you also find intercession in his earthly ministry where he told Peter, "The devil wants to have you, but I have prayed for you that he might not have you." If you notice, his intercessory ministry was before the problem. He said, "I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail." And when you are restored, he said, "Strengthen others."

The intercessor doesn't pray the problem away. He prays strength to face it.

It's not everything God shows you that you can cancel. There are some things he shows you and he's telling you to plan. You can't pray against a famine. As Joseph, you have that intelligence — you start saving. In Acts 11, the prophet Agabus prophesied that there will be a famine. The church packed reliefs and sent to Jerusalem. They didn't pray against it. They planned against it.

That same Agabus went to Paul and told him, "Thus says the Lord, the man whose belt I'm holding — this man, problem is waiting for you in Jerusalem." Paul took the prophecy not as a warning. He took it as God telling him what will come. He said, "There'll be a problem there. Thank you. I'll prepare my mind."

The intercessor doesn't pray away problems. The intercessor prays strength.

In Matthew 26, Jesus said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death." He carried three people — "You come and help me." He was asking for intercession. And the nature of the intercession Jesus was asking for is not "pray for me" — it is "pray with me." There is a level of intercession where you have to tell the owner of the problem to get involved.

This is what killed the children of Job. Job had a personal altar and interceded for them daily. But they didn't have personal altars. They still died. Some of us who say "my mother is praying for me" — it might not be enough.

Three Truths About Intercession

1. Intercession is Priesthood

   This is not something we do once in a while. It is something we offer continually. It is priesthood. Everyone here is going to have your family. You're going to be a pastor in your family, either as father or mother. You have to have priesthood.

   That priesthood must be vertical — unto God — and it must be horizontal. You must have channels with people. If not, your priesthood is not complete.

   This is the difference between Abraham and Lot. Abraham trained his servants on the ways of God. When God told him he was going to destroy Sodom, Abraham thought, "Wait, my brother's son is there." He didn't want to bring it up directly. So he said, "If you find 50 righteous people there, will you destroy them?" What was Abraham doing? Interceding. He negotiated down to 10. He assumed Lot had converted at least 10 from his household. That assumption is what made Lot lose his wife.

   Lot was by the gates. He was not in Sodom. He didn't care for Sodom. He was righteous for himself — sitting at the gate, not joining in the sin, but also not caring for the city. That is a faulty priesthood. The wife looked back because she had things there. If Lot had even carried his household into his priesthood, he wouldn't have lost her.

   When you make your Christianity personal, it will touch you personally. Paul said we should pray for those in authority that we may lead a peaceable life. In other words, if you are not praying for them, it will affect you. So that intercession — you have more to gain.

   The husbandman is the first partaker. The laborer is worthy of his wages. Anything you intercede for somebody on — it can't happen to you without happening to them first. When the boy with the loaves gave to Jesus and Jesus multiplied, how many baskets were remaining? One for each disciple. The people that intercede are the ones that collect bread.

2. Intercession is a Divine Responsibility

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   Pastor Dolapo Lawal

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   Ezekiel 33:3-8: If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, the people's blood will be required at the watchman's hand. Having unbelievers around you that you are not interceding for and not talking to Jesus about — their blood, God will ask you.

   You have to make sure you are either a witness of Jesus to them or a witness against them on the day of judgment: "I warned you. I told you that the way you are living..."

3. Intercession is the Nature of New Testament Prayer

   2 Timothy 1:3: "I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day."

   Romans 1:9: "Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers."

   Ephesians 1:16: "I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened."

   Colossians 1:9: "Since the day we heard of your faith and love in Christ, we do not cease to pray for you."

   Colossians 4:12: "Epaphras, one of you, a servant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."

   Philippians 1:4: "Always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy."

   You also see intercession in 2 Corinthians 9:14 and Acts 12:5. Intercession is the nature of New Testament prayer.

God Was Looking for One Man

Ezekiel 22:30: "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none."

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Ezekiel 33:11: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way." So when God told Moses, "I want to kill these people" — he was inviting Moses to intercede for them.

Moses was able to intercede for the children of Israel. But when Moses had a problem, he did not have someone to intercede for him. That is the pain of intercession — you can be praying for people, carrying their weights, and nobody is praying for you.

If you decide to start praying for somebody today, you do it for 4 days. The fifth or sixth day, they will offend you. The devil is looking for a reason to close your mouth over them. And if you notice — once you miss one night of prayer, it's as though it never happened. The devil is fighting that prophetic altar.

So when that conflict comes, if you are spiritually intelligent, you say, "I will not fight you. I bless you."

Jeremiah 7:16: "Therefore do not pray for these people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to me. For I will not hear." God said don't pray for them — meaning, if you stay long in this prayer you will make me change my mind. God told the prophet, "I will not hear." That's how powerful your intercession is.

The Intercessor Has More to Gain

If you can intercede for somebody to push through a problem, the husbandman is the first partaker.

Genesis 20:17-18: "So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female servants. Then they bore children." Abraham, whose problem was barrenness, was asked to pray for barrenness. And the barren man prayed and the wombs of Abimelech's household opened. Then Genesis 21:1: "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken." When Abraham prayed it for others, then God gave him.

If you want it very badly, pray it for others.

God is the chief cornerstone and rock of offense. That thing you want badly will position people around you who don't want it as badly — and they are getting it. But if you are offended and jealous, you die in the problem. Job's contradiction was his miracle point. Job 42:10: "The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends." That was all God was looking for. When Job prayed for them, their hearts were open to blessing him.

So if you want it so badly, you have to want it for others — meaning you have to be comfortable with it not being with you first. If you are trusting God for marriage, don't say, "I'm not going to any wedding."

Don't pray for them. Pray from them. See the pain, see the denial, enter into that situation and start to push through in prayer. See those tears — they enter a bottle. God records them.

Intercession Opens the Prophetic

There is a level of the prophetic you can't enter if you are not an intercessor. God could have been speaking to me about someone. But since I wasn't showing up for them, why give me a message for them?

God gets things to people he can get them through. God will spend more time speaking to someone who is giving the word away. God goes to the person that can do something about it. If you are not in a situation where you can change things, there is a limit to how much you can hear from God.

The more I spread myself in intercession, the more opening I give to myself for the Holy Spirit to speak to me. Intercession is one of the major keys to the prophetical.

Some of us, God will give a burden — "Pray for this person." That itself is prophetic. But if you want to kill your intercessory ministry, be an accuser. The Bible says the accuser of the brethren was cast down.

God told me: if I can raise you as an intercessor, you are made.

The Technology of Prophetic Prayer

Genesis 1:2: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters." Then God said — and it happened.

The creative power in the word of God comes when the Spirit moves and you say. God didn't speak until the Spirit moved. If you speak without the Spirit, it will drop. If you speak under the unction, it's called prophecy.

That's why he told Ezekiel, "Prophesy" — and Ezekiel prophesied as commanded. "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." When the Holy Spirit comes upon you like that, you will be behaving like someone drunk — the same effect. In Acts 2, they said they were drunk with new wine. Somebody under the influence of the Spirit cannot be cool.

When you get to that place of the gusher — the spirit overflows — what you say cannot come back void, because you are saying it by the Spirit. Angels who excel in strength and carry out the word of God — they didn't hear you. They heard the word of God because you said it by the Spirit.

Prophecy is not just saying what you like. That's affirmation. Prophecy is speaking under the Spirit.