Intercession series Archives • Paula Wiseman

Intercession: For the Sick

Intercession is intervening. More specifically it is going to God on someone’s behalf. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. It is strenuous and it can be messy. We have learned from Nehemiah and his BURDEN for others, and from Daniel and his IDENTIFICATION with those for whom he was interceding.

Now let’s switch gears a little and think more specifically about what we pray for. If you are in a group and someone asks for prayer requests, what do mot of the requests deal with? Illness. We live in a fallen world and one of the evidences of that is sickness. It touches young and old. It seems to strike without rhyme or reason. Along with the physical suffering, it causes emotional anguish and financial devastation. If we have any faith at all, we need to pray for those who are sick. James 5:14-15 instructs us to call the elders to pray for us when we are sick.

Does Scripture give us any guidance on how to pray for the sick?

In 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah is staying in the Canaanite town of Zarephath. A widow there is providing food and a room for him as God miraculously provides for her during the three and a half year drought. The woman’s only son becomes sick and the sickness is fatal. After the boy’s death, she confronts the prophet. While there are deeper theological implications here — like the local god Baal could not raise the dead while Yahweh could — and there is the fact the Elijah was a powerful prophet of God, he teaches us some important things about praying for the sick.

Elijah got personally involved.

But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. (1 Kings 17:19)

He took the woman’s son, figuratively taking her burden and her sorrow. There would be no rest, no business as usual for Elijah as he prayer for this boy.

This is connected to identifying with those we pray for and to the burden we have for them. If it doesn’t touch us personally, if we don’t become involved personally, we will mumble, “Be with the sick,” and call it good.

Elijah didn’t have the answers.

Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?” (1 Kings 17:20)

Elijah was confused. Would God do a miracle to keep them alive only to let the boy die? What would that do to the budding faith of the woman? What about God’s reputation here in Zarephath? What about Elijah’s own reputation? Was he somehow responsible for this like the woman said?

God’s ways are not ours and it is arrogant to presume we know why things happen the way they do. Elijah was humble enough to pour out his confusion to God. We can do the same when we pray for the sick.

Elijah did not give up.

Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again!” (1 Kings 17:21)

I don’t know why it took three times. God certainly could have raised the boy after the first prayer. Maybe there were bonus lessons for the widow or for Elijah in this. I don’t know what laying down over the boy meant. The stretching out over the boy perhaps demonstrated to his mother that the prophet was identifying himself with her son. Perhaps Elijah was acting out what he was praying for by laying down and getting back up.

In any case, Elijah was actively, physically, intensely involved in praying. It is that intensity and that unwillingness to give up that we can learn from.

Now, we also know that despite our intensity and sincerity in praying for the sick, sometimes healing does not come in this life. You may recall in 2 Samuel 12 David’s fervent prayers for the recovery of his young son. Despite David’s fasting and mourning, the child died. David clung to his assurance that he would see his son again.

In my own experience, I have seen God miraculously heal and I have seen Him refrain from intervening. The same God. How God chooses to work out His will does not absolves us from the charge to pray for each other, especially to pray for the sick.

Intercession: Identification

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Intercession is intervening. More specifically it is going to God on someone’s behalf. In the Old Testament, the priests did this. As New Testament believers, we are priests (1 Peter 2:9, Rev 5:10). We have access to God through Jesus Christ, but rather than enter the Holy Place in the tabernacle or Temple, we enter God’s presence through prayer. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. But it is no less strenuous and sometimes no less messy. Last week we looked at Nehemiah and his BURDEN for others. This week, let’s learn from Daniel and his IDENTIFICATION with those for whom he was interceding.

We know Daniel was a man of prayer. Habitual, heartfelt, prayer. Several are recorded in Scripture, but we are going to focus on his great prayer is in Daniel 9:4-19.

I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. Daniel 9:4-5 (ESV)

Look at what Daniel confessed. WE have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled and turned aside. Daniel had not done any of those things. I mean, he wasn’t perfect, but his life was exemplary. Was it false modesty? Was it delusion? Was it an overly active guilty conscience? No. None of those. He was identifying himself with his people who needed God’s forgiveness and help.

It takes humility and compassion to identify with those who have sinned and stand in need of prayer.

In the days of the Old Testament sacrifices, the one bringing the offering would first put his hands on the animal’s head in a symbolic gesture. It was a way of proclaiming, “The death of the animal is the death I should have received because of my sin.” That’s the humility part.

But it also takes a deep sense of compassion for those in sin, and sense of responsibility for their well-being. Daniel had just finished reading Jeremiah and he understood that the exile was the outworking of God’s judgment. Now the people would continue to suffer unless God showed them mercy. Because Daniel loved his people and identified with them, he interceded for God to act quickly to forgive them and restore them (vv. 16-19)

Identifying with sinners is Christlike.

Jesus Christ identified with us. Philippians 2:8 explains how He humbled Himself and became a man. Hebrews 2:9-10 shows us that His being made a little lower than the angels allowed Him to go through the death sentence for every person.

Identifying with sinners is not sinning with them.

It is intervening on their behalf before the Father. Again, Jesus did not sin. Ever. Daniel did not commit the sins that caused the captivity of Judah. But their love for others, their heartbreak at the suffering caused them to act. In an oversimplified analogy, think of it like a prince who has access to his father the king. The prince knows a group of people in his kingdom who are suffering because they rebelled against the king. But the prince goes and asks for the king to be merciful. While the king might not hear the rebels, he might be moved by the pleas of his son.

The people may never know you are interceding for them.

It is unlikely the people in Judah knew how Daniel prayed for them. We don’t know all the ways Jesus intercedes for us even today. That shouldn’t stop us. In humility, we don’t pray to win points with God or with those we pray for. We do it because we love people, we want God to bless them and we know that God cannot bless them in their rebellion against Him?

So, what situations cause your heart to break because you know God is not pleased? What injustices need to be made right for us to live as God’s people? These things, the things that move you are invitations to intercession. Take those opportunities, identify with those people, and meet God in humility and with compassion just like Daniel.

Intercession: Burden

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Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Romans 8:34 (NKJV)

Intercession is intervening

More specifically, intercession is going to God on someone’s behalf. In the Old Testament, the priests did this. It was an exhausting, messy business. Think about it. The priests handled the sacrifices for the people. It was physical. It was bloody and messy, but it was critically necessary.

As New Testament believers, we are priests (1 Peter 2:9, Rev 5:10). We have access to God through Jesus Christ, but rather than enter the Holy Place in the tabernacle or Temple, we enter God’s presence through prayer. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. But it is no less strenuous and sometimes no less messy.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to look at some intercessory prayers in Scripture to learn from them. Let’s start with Nehemiah.

Nehemiah had a tremendous BURDEN for his countrymen. A burden for others and their situations is essential to intercession. We will not pray without one.

Late in the year 446 BC, Nehemiah was in the winter palace of the Persian kings, where he served Artaxerxes as cupbearer. His brother, Hanani, visited with some men who had just returned from Jerusalem. They had gone with Ezra in 458 BC in the second return.

He asked about the Jews who had returned with them. How were they doing? How were things going? A burden for others will show in concern for their well-being.

They told Nehemiah that the people lived in a burned out broken down city. They were enduring the insults and oppression of the locals and it was making life miserable for them.

Nehemiah was overwhelmed with grief, weeping and mourning for days over the news. A burden for others makes us tender-hearted toward them.

In his mourning, Nehemiah prayed and fasted for the Jews in his homeland. It was a serious concern that consumed his attention to the point that he didn’t eat.

Here’s what he prayed:

Nehemiah 1:5 And I said: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,”

Nehemiah is humble, not making demands. He appeals to God on the basis of God’s character, not his own.

Nehemiah 1:7 “We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.“

Again, a humble confession that God owes us nothing, because we are sinful and rebellious.

Nehemiah 1:10-11 “Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.“

But we have a standing because He has called us His people. Then Nehemiah makes his two requests. 1. Hear my pray and the prayer of others. 2. Grant him mercy in the sight of the king.

Those requests also teach us something important about intercession. Nehemiah had enlisted others to pray with him and for him. Paul tells us to bear one another’s burdens. Intercessory prayer is a way we do this.

Second, Nehemiah was resolved to act. We must be willing and prepared to act on behalf of others if we intercede for them.

If you keep reading in Nehemiah chapter 2, you’ll see it was four months before Nehemiah approached the king. His desire act was subject to God’s sovereign timing. In the intervening time, I’m sure there was more fasting, more praying. With Nehemiah’s great burden for his people and their situation how could he do any less?

Who are you burdened for? How are you interceding for them?

Intercession: For the Sick

Does Scripture give us any guidance on how to pray for the sick?

Elijah got personally involved.

Elijah didn’t have the answers.

Elijah did not give up.

Intercession: Identification

It takes humility and compassion to identify with those who have sinned and stand in need of prayer.

Identifying with sinners is Christlike.

Identifying with sinners is not sinning with them.

The people may never know you are interceding for them.

Intercession: Burden

Intercession is intervening

Nehemiah had a tremendous BURDEN for his countrymen. A burden for others and their situations is essential to intercession. We will not pray without one.

Here’s what he prayed:

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series