The Ministry of Intercession Part 1

The Ministry of Intercession.

by Andrew Murray.

THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION

There is no holy service But hath its secret bliss: Yet, of all blessed ministries, Is one so dear as this?

The ministry that cannot be A wondering seraph's dower, Enduing mortal weakness With more than angel-power; The ministry of purest love Uncrossed by any fear, That bids us meet At the Master's feet And keeps us very near.

G.o.d's ministers are many, For this His gracious will, Remembrancers that day and night This holy office fill.

While some are hushed in slumber, Some to fresh service wake, And thus the saintly number No change or chance can break.

And thus the sacred courses Are evermore fulfilled, The tide of grace By time or place Is never stayed or stilled.

Oh, if our ears were opened To hear as angels do The Intercession-chorus Arising full and true, We should hear it soft up-welling In morning's pearly light; Through evening's shadows swelling In grandly gathering might; The sultry silence filling Of noontide's thunderous glow, And the solemn starlight thrilling With ever-deepening flow.

We should hear it through the rushing Of the city's restless roar, And trace its gentle gushing O'er ocean's crystal floor: We should hear it far up-floating Beneath the Orient moon, And catch the golden noting From the busy Western noon; And pine-robed heights would echo As the mystic chant up-floats, And the sunny plain Resound again With the myriad-mingling notes.

Who are the blessed ministers Of this world-gathering band?

All who have learnt one language, Through each far-parted land; All who have learnt the story Of Jesu's love and grace, And are longing for His glory To shine in every face.

All who have known the Father In Jesus Christ our Lord, And know the might And love the light Of the Spirit in the Word.

Yet there are some who see not Their calling high and grand, Who seldom pa.s.s the portals, And never boldly stand Before the golden altar On the crimson-stained floor, Who wait afar and falter, And dare not hope for more.

Will ye not join the blessed ranks In their beautiful array?

Let intercession blend with thanks As ye minister to-day!

There are little ones among them Child-ministers of prayer, White robes of intercession Those tiny servants wear.

First for the near and dear ones Is that fair ministry, Then for the poor black children, So far beyond the sea.

The busy hands are folded, As the little heart uplifts In simple love, To G.o.d above, Its prayer for all good gifts.

There are hands too often weary With the business of the day, With G.o.d-entrusted duties, Who are toiling while they pray.

They bear the golden vials, And the golden harps of praise Through all the daily trials, Through all the dusty ways, These hands, so tired, so faithful, With odours sweet are filled, And in the ministry of prayer Are wonderfully skilled.

There are ministers unlettered, Not of Earth's great and wise, Yet mighty and unfettered Their eagle-prayers arise.

Free of the heavenly storehouse!

For they hold the master-key That opens all the fulness Of G.o.d's great treasury.

They bring the needs of others, And all things are their own, For their one grand claim Is Jesu's name Before their Father's throne.

There are n.o.ble Christian workers, The men of faith and power, The overcoming wrestlers Of many a midnight hour; Prevailing princes with their G.o.d, Who will not be denied, Who bring down showers of blessing To swell the rising tide.

The Prince of Darkness quaileth At their triumphant way, Their fervent prayer availeth To sap his subtle sway.

But in this temple service Are sealed and set apart Arch-priests of intercession, Of undivided heart.

The fulness of anointing On these is doubly shed, The consecration of their G.o.d Is on each low-bowed head.

They bear the golden vials With white and trembling hand; In quiet room Or wakeful gloom These ministers must stand,--

To the Intercession-Priesthood Mysteriously ordained, When the strange dark gift of suffering This added gift hath gained.

For the holy hands uplifted In suffering's longest hour Are truly Spirit-gifted With intercession-power.

The Lord of Blessing fills them With His uncounted gold, An unseen store, Still more and more, Those trembling hands shall hold.

Not always with rejoicing This ministry is wrought, For many a sigh is mingled With the sweet odours brought.

Yet every tear bedewing The faith-fed altar fire May be its bright renewing To purer flame, and higher.

But when the oil of gladness G.o.d graciously outpours, The heavenward blaze, With blended praise, More mightily upsoars.

So the incense-cloud ascendeth As through calm, crystal air, A pillar reaching unto heaven Of wreathed faith and prayer.

For evermore the Angel Of Intercession stands In His Divine High Priesthood With fragrance-filled hands, To wave the golden censer Before His Father's throne, With Spirit-fire intenser, And incense all His own.

And evermore the Father Sends radiantly down All-marvellous responses, His ministers to crown; The incense-cloud returning As golden blessing-showers, We in each drop discerning Some feeble prayer of ours, Trans.m.u.ted into wealth unpriced, By Him who giveth thus The glory all to Jesus Christ, The gladness all to us!

F. R. HAVERGAL.

_September_ 1877.

INTRODUCTION

I have been asked by a friend, who heard of this book being published, what the difference would be between it and the previous one on the same subject, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER. An answer to that question may be the best introduction I can give to the present volume.

Any acceptance the former work has had must be attributed, as far as the contents go, to the prominence given to two great truths. The one was, the certainty that prayer will be answered. There is with some an idea that to ask and expect an answer is not the highest form of prayer.

Fellowship with G.o.d, apart from any request, is more than supplication.

About the pet.i.tion there is something of selfishness and bargaining--to worship is more than to beg. With others the thought that prayer is so often unanswered is so prominent, that they think more of the spiritual benefit derived from the exercise of prayer than the actual gifts to be obtained by it. While admitting the measure of truth in these views, when kept in their true place, THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER points out how our Lord continually spoke of prayer as a means of obtaining what we desire, and how He seeks in every possible way to waken in us the confident expectation of an answer. I was led to show how prayer, in which a man could enter into the mind of G.o.d, could a.s.sert the royal power of a renewed will, and bring down to earth what without prayer would not have been given, is the highest proof of his having been made in the likeness of G.o.d's Son. He is found worthy of entering into fellowship with Him, not only in adoration and worship, but in having his will actually taken up into the rule of the world, and becoming the intelligent channel through which G.o.d can fulfil his eternal purpose. The book sought to reiterate and enforce the precious truths Christ preaches so continually: the blessing of prayer is that you can ask and receive what you will: the highest exercise and the glory of prayer is that persevering importunity can prevail and obtain what G.o.d at first could not and would not give.

With this truth there was a second one that came out very strongly as we studied the Master's words. In answer to the question, But why, if the answer to prayer is so positively promised, why are there such numberless unanswered prayers? we found that Christ taught us that the answer depended upon certain conditions. He spoke of faith, of perseverance, of praying in His Name, of praying in the will of G.o.d. But all these conditions were summed up in the one central one: "_If ye abide in Me_, ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you." It became clear that the power to pray the effectual prayer of faith depended _upon the life_. It is only to a man given up to live as entirely in Christ and for Christ as the branch in the vine and for the vine, that these promises can come true. "_In that day_," Christ said, the day of Pentecost, "ye shall ask in My Name." It is only in a life full of the Holy Spirit that the true power to ask in Christ's Name can be known. This led to the emphasising the truth that the ordinary Christian life cannot appropriate these promises. It needs a spiritual life, altogether sound and vigorous, to pray in power. The teaching naturally led to press the need of a life of entire consecration. More than one has told me how it was in the reading of the book that he first saw what the better life was that could be lived, and must be lived, if Christ's wonderful promises are to come true to us.

In regard to these two truths there is no change in the present volume.

One only wishes that one could put them with such clearness and force as to help every beloved fellow-Christian to some right impression of the reality and the glory of our privilege as G.o.d's children: "Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The present volume owes its existence to the desire to enforce two truths, of which formerly I had no such impression as now.

The one is--that Christ actually meant prayer to be the great power by which His Church should do its work, and that the neglect of prayer is the great reason the Church has not greater power over the ma.s.ses in Christian and in heathen countries. In the first chapter I have stated how my convictions in regard to this have been strengthened, and what gave occasion to the writing of the book. It is meant to be, on behalf of myself and my brethren in the ministry and all G.o.d's people, a confession of shortcoming and of sin, and, at the same time, a call to believe that things can be different, and that Christ waits to fit us by His Spirit to pray as He would have us. This call, of course, brings me back to what I spoke of in connection with the former volume: that there is a life in the Spirit, a life of abiding in Christ, within our reach, in which the power of prayer--both the power to pray and the power to obtain the answer--can be realised in a measure which we could not have thought possible before. Any failure in the prayer-life, any desire or hope really to take the place Christ has prepared for us, brings us to the very root of the doctrine of grace as manifested in the Christian life. It is only by a full surrender to the life of abiding, by the yielding to the fulness of the Spirit's leading and quickening, that the prayer-life can be restored to a truly healthy state. I feel deeply how little I have been able to put this in the volume as I could wish. I have prayed and am trusting that G.o.d, who chooses the weak things, will use it for His own glory.

The second truth which I have sought to enforce is that we have far too little conception of the place that intercession, as distinguished from prayer for ourselves, ought to have in the Church and the Christian life. In intercession our King upon the throne finds His highest glory; in it we shall find our highest glory too. Through it He continues His saving work, and can do nothing without it; through it alone we can do our work, and nothing avails without it. In it He ever receives from the Father the Holy Spirit and all spiritual blessings to impart; in it we too are called to receive in ourselves the fulness of G.o.d's Spirit, with the power to impart spiritual blessing to others. The power of the Church truly to bless rests on intercession--asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men. Because this is so, it is no wonder that where, owing to lack of teaching or spiritual insight, we trust in our own diligence and effort, to the influence of the world and the flesh, and work more than we pray, the presence and power of G.o.d are not seen in our work as we would wish.

Such thoughts have led me to wonder what could be done to rouse believers to a sense of their high calling in this, and to help and train them to take part in it. And so this book differs from the former one in the attempt to open a practising school, and to invite all who have never taken systematic part in the great work of intercession to begin and give themselves to it. There are tens of thousands of workers who have known and are proving wonderfully what prayer can do. But there are tens of thousands who work with but little prayer, and as many more who do not work because they do not know how or where, who might all be won to swell the host of intercessors who are to bring down the blessings of heaven to earth. For their sakes, and the sake of all who feel the need of help, I have prepared helps and hints for a school of intercession for a month (see the Appendix). I have asked those who would join, to begin by giving at least ten minutes a day definitely to this work. It is in doing that we learn to do; it is as we take hold and begin that the help of G.o.d's Spirit will come. It is as we daily hear G.o.d's call, and at once put it into practice, that the consciousness will begin to live in us, I too am an intercessor; and that we shall feel the need of living in Christ and being full of the Spirit if we are to do this work aright. Nothing will so test and stimulate the Christian life as the honest attempt to be an intercessor. It is difficult to conceive how much we ourselves and the Church will be the gainers, if with our whole heart we accept the post of honour G.o.d is offering us.

With regard to the school of intercession, I am confident that the result of the first month's course will be to awake the feeling of how little we know how to intercede. And a second and a third month may only deepen the sense of ignorance and unfitness. This will be an unspeakable blessing. The confession, "We know not how to pray as we ought," is the introduction to the experience, "The Spirit maketh intercession for us"--our sense of ignorance will lead us to depend upon the Spirit praying in us, to feel the need of living in the Spirit.

We have heard a great deal of systematic Bible study, and we praise G.o.d for thousands on thousands of Bible cla.s.ses and Bible readings. Let all the leaders of such cla.s.ses see whether they could not open prayer cla.s.ses--helping their students to pray in secret, and training them to be, above everything, men of prayer. Let ministers ask what they can do in this. The faith in G.o.d's word can nowhere be so exercised and perfected as in the intercession that asks and expects and looks out for the answer. Throughout Scripture, in the life of every saint, of G.o.d's own Son, throughout the history of G.o.d's Church, G.o.d is, first of all, a prayer-hearing G.o.d. Let us try and help G.o.d's children to know their G.o.d, and encourage all G.o.d's servants to labour with the a.s.surance: the chief and most blessed part of my work is to ask and receive from my Father what I can bring to others.

It will now easily be understood how what this book contains will be nothing but the confirmation and the call to put into practice the two great lessons of the former one. "_Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done to you_"; "_Whatever ye ask, believe that ye have received_": these great prayer-promises, as part of the Church's enduement of power for her work, are to be taken as literally and actually true. "_If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you_"; "_In that day ye shall ask in My Name_": these great prayer-conditions are universal and unchangeable.

A life abiding in Christ and filled with the Spirit, a life entirely given up as a branch for the work of the vine, has the power to claim these promises and to pray the effectual prayer that availeth much.

Lord, teach us to pray.

ANDREW MURRAY.

WELLINGTON, _1st September 1897_.