Reading: I Timothy chapter 2
Text: I Timothy 2:1-5

Fulfilling the primary purpose…

If I may borrow from the book written by Jim Goll, intercession is truly a lost art. The priority of prayer in the life of the believer is not emphasized in the church today as it should be. I can vaguely remember the last time I heard a good sermon on prayer and intercession. Yet when you look through the epistles, especially Paul’s, he is constantly urging people to pray. In I Timothy 2:1 Paul makes a clear priority of prayer when he says, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone…” (emphasis added) The first priority of the believer is to pray, not only to pray but to have a daily regimen for prayer, a lifestyle of prayer. In verse 2 Paul challenges us to pray for our governmental leaders with an attached promise, “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” When I read the news today, it would seem that for the most part, we are not living peaceful and quiet lives. The world is full of chaos and corrupt government and lawlessness abounds in many parts of the world. Could this be a direct result of the church’s failure to carry out this command that Paul is urging for? Could it be that the breakdown in societies can be traced back to one little area of negligence, a lack of prayer as a lifestyle? What Paul is basically saying here is that a direct result of living a lifestyle of prayer and to especially pray for leaders in authority will result in us having a peaceful society. Could our prayers really be that influential?
Why does Paul place so much effort on prayer and intercession? In verse 5 it says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” As Christians we don’t have any trouble believing that we should try to model the life of Christ. We understand that Jesus came and lived as man for many reasons; one was to give us a clear model of how to live our own lives. Jesus even said if we obeyed His model we’d do even greater things than He did (John 14:12). But how are we supposed to model the life of Christ? One of the best ways we can and should model the life of Christ is to model what His primary purpose was and to make it our primary purpose. What was Christ’s primary purpose for becoming a man? His primary purpose was to be an intercessor. By His death on the cross, he carried out the greatest act of intercession that would ever be seen, the substitutional atonement for the sins of man. In Hebrews 7:25 it says that Jesus, “Always lives to intercede…” He continues that intercession for us to this day. His permanent place at the right hand of the Father is to make intercession for man. Jesus is a 24/7 intercessor. We are called to model this with our lives.
I used to think that intercession was an apostolic anointing. I often misquoted Ephesians 4:11 as saying, “…some to be prophets, some to be apostles and teachers, some to be intercessors…” Intercession is not a spiritual gift. It’s not a fruit of the spirit either. Intercession is the primary calling for every believer. Let me say that again. Every born again believer is called primarily to be an intercessor. When you pray for your families, when you witness to an unbeliever on the street, when you give to the poor, you are making intercession for another. In Paul’s writings alone, there is so much to confirm that the man lived his life on his knees, praying for the churches he started, praying for the young men he was mentoring and praying for governmental leaders and territories for an opening for him to go preach the gospel there(Colossians 4:3). I challenge you to study the apostolic prayers. They not only give insight into how often the apostles prayed but also into how effectively they prayed. We need to strive to model the prayer lives of the apostles and mostly to live out the life of intercession modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ.
I urge you, as Paul did, to allow the Lord to remove the blinders that you may have regarding the role of prayer in our lives. When the Lord revealed this to me I had to repent of having such a twisted paradigm, not only of prayer, but of God’s calling for my life. We are called to live lives of intercession. Everything we do should surround prayer. Everything we do in ministry should be secondary to a life spend wasted at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:39). There is no other way to find fullness and contentment other than to pursue a life of intercession. Accept the challenge and pursue a life of prayer.

How to pray this scripture:

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that you would open my eyes to the role of prayer in my Christian life. I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would break through the complacency that has kept me from praying like I should. I pray that I would pursue a life of intercession and that I would make the priority of my life to model your life by pursing a life of intercession. Lord, I pray for the leaders of our country. I pray for my President and Governor and all my local leaders that I may live a peaceful and quiet life. I pray that I would also submit to my leaders because “there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). In prayer, I stand against the culture rebellion and resolve to live a life submitted to Christ and to my governmental leaders. Lord, give me a deep desire to see all men and come to a knowledge of the truth. Thank You Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Other Scriptures to read:

John 14:12
Hebrews 7:25
Colossians 4:2-4
Luke 10:28-42
Romans 13:1-2
Ephesians 6:18

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