04 THE INTERCESSORY MOOD
THE INTERCESSORY MOOD And then there is the intercessory mood. It differs from the ordinary prayerful mood. In Romans He talks about it in the 8th chapter and the 26th and 27th verses, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
Here is the most profound realm to human experience, the realm of intercession wherein you do not make any petitions that you utter in words, but it is the groaning of the Holy Spirit in your soul. Did you ever get those inexpressible petitions on your soul and did not know what they were about? -- when you went to prayer you could not pray about them, you just had to groan, and if you tried to pray after this there came a check. You just groaned. You did not want to get simply on your knees, but on your face as low as you could get before God, and simply groan out what was in you, and after each groan you wondered that there followed another one.
I have had folks to come to meeting and say, "I have such a burden on my heart. I wish you would pray that I may get rid of it." No, I will pray for Him to keep it on you as long as He wants to. It is a sign you are in deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Don’t you believe a word of the devil to the contrary. That is intercession.
Notice: He said He is making intercession for the saints. It is not a prayer for sinners. When the Holy Spirit is groaning in you like that He is praying for God’s children. A long time before they ever discovered wireless, God knew all about it, and He knew where to find an intercessor who could, because of Spirit-likeness, effect most by prayer, for the one in need. The devil tells people about that condition, and calls it affinity. The Holy Ghost knows who you can help, but never lets you know anything about it, but puts the prayer through you which helps them. There may be a missionary in the field struggling, burdened, and ready to give up when all at once you get a burden and pour out your soul in groanings that cannot be uttered. God knows who needs the help and the Holy Spirit sees in you the human channel and He groans through you and your prayer goes to headquarters, in code so to speak. He, the Son of God, interprets your prayer before the throne and the petition is answered and poured out on the person away out yonder. You did not, nor will you, know anything about it until you get to Heaven where it will not in any way endanger your soul. The Holy Spirit is just groaning through you! Now, do not try to shout when you have a mood like that. Do not think you have to shout all the time. Just let Him groan it out through you. When it is all over with, you will be free and somebody will be helped. That soul out there needed encouragement and God knew it and He just brought you in and laid hold on you and prayed through you and brought belief.
After a while He will tell you about it, when you can stand it. When you get before the throne He may say, "This man was about to die from a broken heart and discouragement, but I put that groan on you that day and brought relief."
Now, an intercessor is one who has not any job to fix up for himself. You are never ready to intercede for others until your own business is ended. As long as you have praying for yourself to do you are not ready for intercession. So, if you never get any groan on hand perhaps there is something you need to fix up so that God can put a groan in you for that which He wants done in His kingdom.
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