This is a guest post by Dave Wernli: Dave Wernli is an author, blogger, and speaker. He and his wife Janet help Christians stuck in brokenness live the adventure God created them for. Dave and Janet have a passion to see the Body of Christ walking whole and set free. Visit their blog at www.IdentityInWholeness.com. Dave and Janet live in Stafford, VA.
In 2 Kings 6, Elisha the prophet got into hot water with the King of Aram. The King of Aram was trying to ambush the King of Israel, but Elisha warned the King of Israel time and time again. The King of Aram was convinced he had a mole in his intelligence network who was leaking their ambush plans to the King of Israel. It wasn’t possible for the King of Israel to avoid so many consecutive traps without inside information.
In verse 11, he began to interrogate his officers, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the King of Israel?”
His officers replied, in verse 12, “None of us, my Lord the King, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel the very words you speak in your bed chambers.”
In Biblical times, it was understood that kings have two main places where they do business, their throne room and their bed chambers. They pronounce judgements, hold court, and generally do the business of running their kingdom from the throne room. But they forge the desires of their heart into their secret plans in their bed chambers.
A king’s bed chambers are his personal space, not open to the general public. It’s a place of intimacy, where the King reveals the secret plans of his heart to a trusted few. His closest advisors meet with him privately there, as do his lovers.
God has called us to be both trusted close friends and lovers. He invites us into his bed chambers. How do we get there? With intimacy. What does that look like? Intercession.
While worship sweeps us into God’s throne room, where the business of the kingdom gets done, we enter his bed chambers with intercession.
It’s within the intimacy of intercession where we get God’s heart for people and situations.
It’s where we find out what God wants to do.
So often we just start praying what we want in a given situation or for a given person. But how often do we first pause and ask God for his heart for the situation or the person? What does God what to do here? Once we have the answer to that question, then we can enter into intercession and pray God’s heart, desires, and plans back to him. That’s how we pray according to God’s will, and those prays will always be answered.
Intercession is like date night with God. Although there’s no formula, it’s typically a time set aside, blocked out on our schedule for several hours. We unplug, no email, no phone, no distractions. Special time, just us and God, alone with him in his bed chambers. Intimacy.
The sticky wicket is intimacy flows both ways. We can’t be intimate with God if we’re not willing to let him be intimate with us. Before he shares his heart for a situation or another person, he often wants to share his heart for us. Especially if there’s something in our heart that he wants to deal with. Something that’s blocking intimacy with him.
We can resist, or we can let it go and let him have his way. Once we let it go, let him have his way, and accept the path of painfully healing, the freedom we receive is overwhelming. Then we can pass into that place of intimacy with him, in his bed chambers. He shares his heart with us and we find out what he wants to do in situations and people’s lives. When we pray that back to him, and now we’re praying with real power that accomplishes tangible results.
What do you think? Are you willing to enter that place of two-way intimacy with the Lord, or does intimacy scare you? What are your experiences with intercession? Talk to us in the comments and tell us your story.
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