Intercessory Prayer

# 52 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 1Ti 2:1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, (1 Tim 2:1) Paul is passing instructions along to Timothy as to “how to do church.” First of all he stresses what Jesus stressed, “My house shall be a house of prayer!” We have been looking at the different aspects of prayer and today we'll talk about intercessions. I am surprised to see that this Greek word used here for intercessions is only found in two places in Scripture. The other place is 1Ti 4:3-5, “forbidding to marry--to abstain from meats that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those believing and acknowledging the truth, 4 because every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, with thanksgiving being received, 5 for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession. By understanding it's use here, we can get a better idea of the concept of intercession in general. Paul was addressing some false teaching that had sprung up in the church which forbade marriage and eating certain foods. The biblical commentator Lenski calls these teachings “devilish,” and asserts that the “demons do like to contradict God.” After all, God-created marriage and God created foods are good! Now stick with me here! My Zodhiates Hebrew/Greek Study Bible defines intercession as “interrupting another while speaking.” So when the church speaks intercessions for all men, they are interrupting the lies and contradictions being spoken by the devil into the lives of others. These intercessions of the church therefore are designed to lift up those experiencing spiritual attack. They are “interruptions” against the lies of the devil using the truth of the Word of God! It's why the writer of Heb 12:12,13 says, “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. This then is the heart of intercessory prayer, it's a tool God has given the church to “interrupt the work of the devil” and strengthen those who are in the throes of spiritual warfare.