First published June 26, 2008 at 4:00pm
And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Exodus 32:7-14
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin -- ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Exodus 32:30-33
Moses was the greatest prophet who ever walked before God, one called-out of 40 years on the back side of the desert to see God face to face on mount Horeb and live. Sent by God to lead the people of God out of Egyptian bondage, he faced the most daunting task of any ministry, in leading over 2.5 million, stubborn, rebellious, undisciplined people through one of the greatest deliverances and the greatest jail-break recorded in history. The fact that he was on the mountain 40 days in total fast, only to intercede for his nation and return to the mountain top for a second 40 day fast, totally sustained by the divine presence of God, is awe-inspiring.
Where was there ever a prophet of God like Moses that spoke to God face to face as a man speaks to his friend? Not even the exploits of the hot-tempered Elijah, who called down fire on a water-soaked sacrifice, slew 400 prophets of Baal, and even captains and fifties who came to take him by force, could out-shine the deeds of this man of God who called for plagues, divided seas, wrought deliverances and smote the Rock to water thirsting millions.
Moses understood one great truth, only those that walked with God day to day will ever know him in the power of his fullness and see the miracles, signs and wonders of the God who himself became mankind’s greatest prophetic intercessors. Hear the prophet’s prayer.
Very recently, I had a friend ask me what the prophet’s prayer is, based on a dream or vision they had had. I think she already knew the answer, but was feeling out my spirit to see what I would say, and if we were of a kindred spirit. Simply put, it is the prayer of the Prophetic Intercessor, those men or women of God who have walked with God in the secret places of the Most High, day in, day out, through the daily grind of life until they have been consumed with holy passion and become totally dependant on His presence and the yearning in their souls for more than just the common and mundane realms of the church, then placing themselves in the gap of intercession between lost mankind, a backslidden church, or even apostate ministries and the wrath and judgment of an angry God.
These men and women, these friends of God, these ones who have plugged into a hidden world around us, have walked with God through the darkest valleys of despair, faced the demons of their own soul and vanquished them, felt the cold clammy hands of death grasping at their spirit, climbed the rocky peaks, often alone, to wage war with the forces of hell and topple princes of cities, regions and nations in spiritual warfare. They have known the loss of friends precious to them during their time and moments of weakness when the enemy attacked at a precise moment when they were too weary to fight anymore. Only they will ever know the calling of the prophetic intercessor, those ones always planted on their faces in God’s presence, those who have turned from sin, the weights and cares of life, the world and even their own fleshly desires.
I asked before, now I ask you again, Apostolic Pentecostals, where are our prophetic intercessors?
Where are these men and women, these oddballs, these misfits, these ones that never seem to fit in, these ones who from the dawning of their existence and even the very forming of their bodies in their mother’s womb, have been totally out of sync, out of phase, out of touch with the cares of life, the ebbs and flows of society, these ones who from their earliest precognition have known that they didn’t fit in and were square pegs in the round holes of life? Where are these men and women, the fifth-wheels, the dregs of the church, the backwards ones, the outcasts, the fifth sparrows, those longing ones, the ones who march to the beat of a different drummer that resoundingly resonates from the backside of eternity, calling them to a destiny a wide-cut different from the masses?
Where are these ones who from the very core of their being have a hunger, a drive, an enveloping passionate desire, like fire shut up in their bones, to constantly seek out the presence of their God in prayer, fasting and intercession, so that they may drink from a fountain that few will ever drink from even in the Apostolic church? Where are these men and women who have drunk deep from the cup of trembling and known the pain, angst and agony of travailing in the Spirit for souls yet unborn, unreachable backsliders, friends long fallen, apostate ministries and even the hearts of men…hearts so hardened by sin as to become untouchable and reprobate? Where are their intercessors?
These are the ones that somehow the lime-light of society and even the church have seemingly passed them by. They shimmer and dance outside the eyesight of the common pew-dweller and out-of-focus ministries, toiling unnoticed except by THE ONE by whom they have been called “Friend.” These are the ones that by nature of their calling to prophetic intercession have become spiritual tuning-forks by their long walk in His presence, coming into full phase with the heartbeat of lost humanity and pouring the oil of healing into the hearts, souls and spirits of lost humanity. These are the last days prophets and prophetesses of the Apostolic church, born in a fire they cannot quench, hungering for a move of God they have not yet seen, yet they feel it coming in the very far reaches of their souls, reverberating in the far reaches of their ever-waking consciousness like thunder over the mountainous horizon. See the lightning and feel the thunder of the prophet’s prayer rise up in your soul.
Recently, I lost two good friends who walked in this realm. One knew of his prophetic calling. The other did not, or denied it, as yet unrevealed to her. The first, the more seasoned, fell to the treachery of picking the wrong woman for his mate, and sacrificed his calling on the altars of the personal desires of life. The other, new to her calling, died to the inner attack of a hidden seed of bitterness planted by the enemy during her childhood, and would not allow the light of the Holy Ghost to shine into her heart and remove the very thing that had taken root and was killing her, and by so doing, destroying one of the greatest fledgling ministries I have ever been privileged to witness, a soul-winner of extraordinary caliber, one called and consecrated to reaching the forgotten realms of hurting people in the last-days harvest fields…the domestic violence and homeless shelters.
Somehow we must evolve, Apostolic Pentecostals. Can we ignore the sonorous rumble of the cry of the intercessors among us? Where are the ones who have given up their aspirations of personal greatness in glorifying their own ministries and have taken the horns of the altar in a death-grip to cry out and groan in their spirit, travailing for the fallen ones? Who will stand in the gap and plead for this generation? Hear again the impassioned plea of Judah.
Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life; It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father. Genesis 44:30-34
Where are the Intercessors, those prophets and prophetesses of God that are so plugged into his presence that they feel the heartbeat of the souls of mankind? Who among us will find a place of solitude and pray the prophet’s prayer? Where are the intercessors that have gotten fed up with business and church-as-usual? There is no more time for dead church...not one more dead service. The sands of time are running out, and the cry has gone out to awake the prophetic intercessors.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. James 5:16-20
