Intrercessory Prayer

You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to "fill up...(with) what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ" (Col. 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, "It is putting yourself in someone else's place'. That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God's place; it is having His mind and His prespective. Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything...intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.