Do You Feel God’s Intercession?
Good Morning Friends,
Paul writes to the Corinthians in response to the existential loneliness, the emptiness inside that revisits them and us when we embrace a secular ecstasy that is born out of evil. At the heart of the problem is our separation from God…death. In today’s devotional we begin to see how the many gift of the One Spirit reconnect us to life. It is precursor to chapter 13 on love, the greatest of gifts and chapter 14 which addresses the disorders in public worship experienced by the Corinthians. We learn that spiritual gifts are supernatural manifestations of the Spirit designed by God to carry out the work of Jesus through the church universal. They are the ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives, our mind and our actions. They, in their totality, are designed to unify and propel our collective actions for good. This can happen when we all realize that the reason we have spiritual gifts is for the common good. When we misunderstand gifts we misunderstand service. The Holy Spirit is the reality behind the gifts, not us. When it becomes about us, not God, we miss the mark and are doomed to fall back into that hole in our soul. The result is loneliness for us and a fractured body with divisive actions for the church. Each gift therefore has its primary function in the church to mature the body in community…the world. The benefit for us as individuals is to experience the body of Christ and His provision made manifest. Do You Feel God’s Intercession?
Scripture: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NRSV)
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:1-10 (NRSV)
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’
Luke 5:4 (NRSV)
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.
Mark 6:41 (NRSV)
Message: Our purpose is to discover the unique gifts God has given to each of us and how they can be applied to God’s purpose. Know that His plan for you is really good. God will bless those who work together to help others become hungry for God. With God we can make the connections between becoming spiritually alive and experiencing the greatest desires of our hearts…a purpose in the love of God’s plan. We are a society of doers. But for most of us time spent in prayer, reflection and thought is often looked on as wasted time. But when Jesus is saying to us, to go out into the deep and let down our nets, I think Jesus is instructing us to obey and to pray. The irony of all this is that if we would stop to pray, and listen to him, we could do so much more with so much less effort. Peter spent all night and a lot of physical effort trying to do what the Lord helped him to do in one moment. You see, there is a difference in human effort and effort that has been divinely inspired. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time. And this friends is a gift that God can multiply like the loaves and fishes. When a little boy offered Christ five loaves and two fishes, he multiplied them. He does the same with our time, but only if we offer it to him in prayer. Intercessory prayer is not listed as a spiritual gift but I am convinced that intercessory pray taken to action is indeed a gift that not all have been given. It can be literally miraculous. Perhaps you have seen it manifested… the prayer answered.
Pray that all the tongues, feet, uplifted hands and the eyes and ears of the body work in harmony. Pray that we realize that God did not make us identical at the first birth, nor did He make us identical in our second birth. Pray that we face the paradox of being so dramatically different and still maintain our unity. Pray that we have the same goal. Pray that we care for one another. Pray that we encourage the body. Pray God’s power and love take action on our behalf. Pray we seek to learn the high privilege and holy intimacy of intercessory prayer that engages God in our actions. Pray we restore our spiritual sanity. Pray we watch with our heart for God’s call to action. Pray God’s providence into our existence with a faith that somehow grasps behind what is barely perceptible. Pray we believe that God works for the good of those who love Him. Pray our prayers honor God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 