Is There Any Scriptural Backing For Calling Someone An Intercessor?

[ARBITER01]

I so agree with this. We must help people find what God has put in them as individuals, what lights up their eyes when they think of serving in His kingdom, and then encourage them to do that.

To put all saints in a very small box of what being a witness of Christ means in this world, is very confusing and damaging to people. The WHOLE counsel of God opens our eyes to what this 'ministry of reconciliation' looks like.

I wanted to expand on the ministry aspect of prayer. GOD reminded me of things HE taught me to do which have become second nature to me but are not the norm for those not operating in it.

One of those things is how GOD operates with me in a service. During the praise and worship I'm consistently prompted to pray in The Spirit the whole time. There are very few moments that I actually sing any of the songs, and normally only bits and pieces of them till I am prompted to pray again.

Additionally, throughout the pastors preaching I'm again prompted to pray quietly for him in tongues during the service. This is a big part of the edifying portion that a prayer ministry provides to the body also.

 

[MadameGuyon]

but it is interesting that the tone of your post has changed from presenting a Biblical case to making sweeping generalizations about Tree of Life Church.

They were not sweeping generalizations. I was trying to use something you could relate to as Pastor, to make you aware that we put names to things that, while not specifically called such in the Bible, are none the less, generally accepted by the corporate Church..........

......things such as Sunday School, youth pastors, the Trinity, worship leaders, intercessors. In fact, WE name the moves of God............. the Reformation, the Charismatic Movement, the Great Awakening, the Pentecostal Movement.

So, naming people who spend tremendous amounts of time in prayer on a regular basis, 'intercessors', is not different than the above.

And I gave you plenty of ample evidence from the Bible that such people and ministry existed in scripture. You casually dismissed all of it.

You dismissed Anna (who spent night and day in the temple serving God with prayer and fastings) as "just having a great relationship and hearing from God some things about the future". That woman DID have a great relationship, but she also had a very real ministry work that she carried out faithfully. I would have been glad to sit at this woman's feet and learn from her anyday.

You agreed that God recognized Cornelius's much praying as a legit service while other places you said of prayer that it's just a relationship, but "not the actual work". Make up your mind please.

When I pointed out Epaphras who Paul commended for laboring fervently for 3 churches, you dismiss this great work and labor unto God with a simple "it's vital that we have people who pray for the church". So in this case, are you admitting that prayer is an actual work or "just the basis for work" as you said elsewhere. Paul called some of his praying "labor and travail". Sounds like real work to me.

When I provided you with several scriptures from the Old Testament pattern of "burning incense", you dismissed it with......"we're all priests" even though I showed you that God actually called a certain people from the Levites (Aarons' line) to be consecrated to burn incense night and day. Again, you dismissed it.

Then you asked, "Do we have direct information that Jesus Christ has placed intercessors in the church, or that certain people should act as intercessors?" So I ask YOU.....do we have direct information that Jesus Christ has placed worship leaders in the church, or that certain people should act as worship leaders?

Arbitero1 pointed out three scriptures where Christ is continually making intercession for His Church, but you seem to think He doesn't use His own Body (the Church) to do this. That really surprised me.

You said that we should not create an office that doesn't exist and then you refer to the 'office' of the Ephes. 4:11 gifts, while the word office is not used at all in the New Testament. You said the term was "useful to you". If the term 'intercessor' is useful to me, can I use it?

You are right, KingZzub, my tone did change in the post I made to you. I went to a lot of trouble to try to show you the concept of intercessors in both the Old and New Testament, finding and pasteing a lot of scriptures, and your reply seemed to me to be both intellectually dishonest and sophomoric. I no longer felt I was holding a conversation with a truth seeker, but someone who had closed their mind on the subject.

 

[MadameGuyon]

I wanted to expand on the ministry aspect of prayer. GOD reminded me of things HE taught me to do which have become second nature to me but are not the norm for those not operating in it.

One of those things is how GOD operates with me in a service. During the praise and worship I'm consistently prompted to pray in The Spirit the whole time. There are very few moments that I actually sing any of the songs, and normally only bits and pieces of them till I am prompted to pray again.

Additionally, throughout the pastors preaching I'm again prompted to pray quietly for him in tongues during the service. This is a big part of the edifying portion that a prayer ministry provides to the body also.

Wow, I can relate to that! I try to keep my praying in tongues very quiet so that no one around me is disturbed from their singing, but like you I just can't sing very long before I'm praying in tongues again. Ha!

 

[ARBITER01]

Wow, I can relate to that! I try to keep my praying in tongues very quiet so that no one around me is disturbed from their singing, but like you I just can't sing very long before I'm praying in tongues again. Ha!

That's how we are to operate the prayer portion of that gift since it is between GOD and us. Unless GOD is going to have us speak out prophetically by tongues, we are to keep it quiet between HIM and us.

See if The Holy Spirit prompts you to pray during the preaching. If so, you'll watch Him connect with the person preaching or teaching, and they will start speaking distinctively by inspiration and revelation at that point. You'll also watch the crowd respond to the Holy Spirit operating through that person.

To me, that is when prayer has become a ministry, when edification from The Holy Spirit is happening to the body of Christ.

 

[MadameGuyon]

See if The Holy Spirit prompts you to pray during the preaching. If so, you'll watch Him connect with the person preaching or teaching, and they will start speaking distinctively by inspiration and revelation at that point. You'll also watch the crowd respond to the Holy Spirit operating through that person.

To me, that is when prayer has become a ministry, when edification from The Holy Spirit is happening to the body of Christ.

I love this! We (the prayer team) have often been in a separate back room to pray during the Sunday morning service, but I'd like to try this next Sunday instead.

 

[KingZzub]

You are away praying when someone is preaching the Word.

I am not going to even ask for a Scriptural basis for that practise.

Do you not need to hear the preached Word then?

 

[Deba]

Maybe it's recorded (as yours are)

 

[KingZzub]

Second question then: does the Word of God need help to make it more powerful?

 

[Deba]

What is the state of the Christian church in a country where the Word of God is preached in millions of churches several times a week?

 

[~RENEE~]

does anyone realize that Jesus did not teach us to preach instead He taught us to pray?

 

[Deba]

does anyone realize that Jesus did not teach us to preach instead He taught us to pray?

 

[Joy]

does anyone realize that Jesus did not teach us to preach instead He taught us to pray?

Amen

 

[KingZzub]

Jesus didn't give us a message and tell us to go and preach it to the nations?

I am not anti-prayer by the way. Prayer as the Bible intends.

 

[~RENEE~]

Jesus said go and preach but read my words again they are He did not teach us how to preach He just said do it. He did however take the time to teach us to pray.

 

[ARBITER01]

I love this! We (the prayer team) have often been in a separate back room to pray during the Sunday morning service, but I'd like to try this next Sunday instead.

Yea just see if The Holy Spirit wants to prompt you during the preaching/teaching and watch the edification start happening. I normally sit in the back so my praying and raising hands is not a distraction to anyone.

Prayer is a spiritual connection to The Father, and during those times I can keep my eyes closed, pray quietly to HIM, raise hands, and also take in the message being spoken by the speaker. The message becomes very strong through the person, and deliverance and healing starts happening at times.

Again, it is following the leading of The Holy Spirit, not me just stepping out in my prayer language. I can do that 24/7 at any time, but that would be my spirit operating the gift, not The Holy Spirit operating it. We want to be carefully following The Holy Spirit so He is operating that gift in us and doing the work, not us.

 

[MadameGuyon]

You are away praying when someone is preaching the Word.

I am not going to even ask for a Scriptural basis for that practise.

Do you not need to hear the preached Word then?

Our church provides free cd's of the message to all those who aren't in the service, such as those doing children's church.

And anyway, we don't do this often on Sundays because we meet to pray on Saturday night with the Pastor and worship team.

Second question then: does the Word of God need help to make it more powerful?

The Spirit and the Word work together.

 

[MadameGuyon]

Jesus didn't give us a message and tell us to go and preach it to the nations?

I am not anti-prayer by the way. Prayer as the Bible intends.

Yep, we don't want to go overboard with that 'prayer' stuff.

May I suggest a book you might want to read. You can get it very cheap on Amazon.

Rees Howell, Intercessor by Norman Grubb

Also, have you heard of Loe Engle. He's a mighty intercessor and has started a great call to the youth of America ('The Call'), to pray for the restoration of our nation from it's sin.

I was part of his July 2007 Nashville Call in which the theme was to gather and repent of the downward trend that our nation took during the 'summer of love' of 1967 when the hippies met in California and threw off the traditions and restraints of the past generations.

There were no musical bands or teaching or preaching or christian celeb's advertised to be there, because the call was to fast and pray for 40 days prior to the event and then come to a solemn assembly for corporate prayer of repentance for our country. It was awesome to see the zeal and passion for repenting for our country. I believe God will give us the Awakening that we asked for.

And one last thing Zzub. You seem to think that intercessors don't do anything else but pray. While that takes the bulk of their time, the ones that I know do other ministry activities that flow out of their time before God. I myself minister one on one to the hurting women of my church, as the Pastor directs them my way. I also teach, but not at this present time.

 

[KingZzub]

You can go overboard in prayer and you can pray in a way that is not Biblical. Surely you believe that, even if we differ on where the boundaries are.

Remember the words of Jesus, "hypocrites love to pray". Just because someone loves to pray does not make them spiritual.

I never said "intercessors" did anything else but pray. I have read the Rees Howells book and I have heard Lou Engle preach in person.

We are talking about Biblical evidence here, not stories about people.

Your title for Lou Engle is "mighty intercessor". It reveals a lot about the way you think.

Regards,
Ben

 

[ARBITER01]

Yep, we don't want to go overboard with that 'prayer' stuff.

You know what, unless someone is intermingling worldly aspects into their Christian prayer life, I wouldn't begin to consider such a suggestion. Anna was a prophetess, that is a position of power with GOD, yet she "served" The LORD with fasting and prayers continuously it seems from scripture.

Each of us is given a different measure of faith to operate in, and while some of us may only see our prayers as reaching our immediate surroundings, there are some of us who have faith that our prayers reach any point on the planet.

 

[KingZzub]

You know what, unless someone is intermingling worldly aspects into their Christian prayer life, I wouldn't begin to consider such a suggestion. Anna was a prophetess, that is a position of power with GOD, yet she "served" The LORD with fasting and prayers continuously it seems from scripture.

Each of us is given a different measure of faith to operate in, and while some of us may only see our prayers as reaching our immediate surroundings, there are some of us who have faith that our prayers reach any point on the planet.

I love how no-one mentioned the other part of what Anna did:

Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

If you speak to all about the child who is the Redeemer, spend as much time in prayer as you want to.