INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS PART OF GODS PURPOSE

“And be not anxie for anything but in everything through prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God” it is not bad to have problem, challenges are normal and do occur daily. We could be face with a challenge at any point in time and infant it is not possible to get to a level in life where you do not have challenges again. No, it is not possible,The reason is not far fetch, most of the things we categorizes as obstacle or challenges are actually necessities in life, there are necessary hurdles we have to deal with if we must grow or succeed in life, we make impact by providing solution to challenges around us, challenges are therefore obstacle we have to face if we want to succeed,

Permit me to categorize this one as positive challenges, this are the one that are necessary in business or in our work place for us to get that promotion or pay raise we are seeking for, Potiphar had a challenge and brought in Joseph. The challenge was therefore transferred to joseph to overseer the house and take care of his master business and everything his master has, there were left in his custody and it was a challenge in real sense,But he embrace it and sorted it out, infant it was recorded that the only thing that was not handed over to joseph was his master wife, everything else was in his custody, if he succeed, he was going to get more favour and attention from Potiphar but if he fail who knows he might be sent out or invariably killed but thank God that he succeeded and everything under his custody prospered and he enjoyed better working condition with his master.

When he was thrown into the prison as a result of the temptation from the master wife who wanted him to sleep with her, but he know that it was a sin against the man and God and he made up his mind that he was not going to do that, if he was not going to do, then there have to be  a way to escape it, this would have constituted a typical issues to worry for joseph, he would be worried and would be thinking of the best strategy and approach to use against this woman.Who knew what he was doing and had been doing to avoid this woman until that day when she was determine to force the illegal act on Joseph? She called him into her room while pretending to need something. Joseph rushed in and only to be faced with this woman once again. What is he going to do at a point like this when nobody is at home and all the other servant has been trikishly sent out by this woman to allow her do what she was planning to do?

But joseph escaped and the woman laid hold on his garment and started screaming and people rushed in and she started laying her false allegation against an innocent person. He was thrown into the prison and in the prison this young man did not forget his God, he was praying and asking God to intervene in this situation. He might have been making two prayers, one is for God to forgive the wife of Potipher and her husband and the second would have been for God to vindicate him and release him out of the prison wall.He would have been worried concerning this woman and her husband of what would be their fate should God remember them? they have accused this boy wrongly and had him thrown into the prison, he was eventually praying for them, that God will forgive them and not pay them back with whatever they have done to him,

A similar incidence of Joseph interceding for someone occurred even before he was sold out, he had a dream and always had a dream which he will tell his father and mother, he was interceding that though these men hates him and would not want to see these things manifest but he was praying that God should keep them alive to use their eyes and see what the future would be.When he was sold out, he knew his father was going to mourn for him and may be contemplating harming himself.by then the mother was late already. I foresee Joseph praying and asking God to keep his father from evil, when he eventually become a prime minister, he was enjoying and still I see him praying that death should not kill his brothers and his father through the famine.

Remember the case of Abraham and the land of Sodom. The cry of the city has gone up to the high heaven, a land filled with atrocities and unrighteousness to a great level. Infant there have been already a decision taking in heaven that Sodom should go down and that nothing should be spared at all, but when God choose to reveal to him his plan for this land and the mission of the Angels. He had pity on the land and started interceding on their behalf, he was praying that God should temper justice with mercy and forgive the iniquities of this land at least if he can find in it one person who has a good relationship with him.Remember when Job was asked to pray for his friends and he did pray for them, why because even God was upset with them for not speaking well to his friend job. Job interceded for his friends, what was he praying? That God should forgive them, if they have wrong in any way, he should please not count it anymore as a sin for them.The Christian journey is in phases and chapters, there are Christian who the only thing they think and pray about is their personal needs, only those things that concern them, the only time you see them serious with prayers is when they are the ones directly involved but when it is another person, it does not concern them, they are not sinners but they are yet not matured neither have they comprehended fully what Christianity is all about.

There is a level of spiritual growth you will get to and then all your cares and anxiety would not be personal nor centered on you and on you alone, you will start feeling for others and you will start carrying burdens for the needs and challenges affecting other people, you will have compassion of the depraved, the sick and the sinners and then moved with compassion. You will start interceding for them,It therefore means that the thing that should worry a man and get his attention should not be his needs only and only the challenges affecting him directly, no, but he should be for others and the well-being of your brothers and sisters and even your neighbours.  Remember Nehemiah and Ezra in Sushan, these men were comfortable and enjoying themselves, even though there were in captivity and in a foreign land, the lord was good unto them and had given them favour in the sight of the king Ahaserus and Atexexess. There were the kings cup bearers and were always happy, what more would they want and need. They were living in the king’s palace and were comfortably taken care of, they lack nothing and were not feeling any sense of sojourning in a strange land.

But someone came from Jerusalem and Nehemiah enquired from him about Jerusalem. The news he received got him embittered and unhappy though in the palace of the king, he fasted and mourn and weep to the God of heaven who keepeth covenant unto a thousand generation. He was making intersection for the land of Israel and was praying and asking God for his intervention. The wall of Jerusalem was overthrown and cast down. The inhabitant who stayed back and refused to join the exile are in great affliction and suffering,Someone would need to go and seek for the welfare of these people. the land has been conquered and cannot been rebuild without the authority of the king, but there is no body who has felt touched by these challenges and nobody has taken it upon himself to present the case to God. Nehemiah was praying and interceding. I believe he was presenting the case to God and reminding him about his promise never to leave his people nor forsake them. He should remember his covenant with his servant David to leave him an inheritance and servant in the throne.

Nehemiah by casting his cares and challenges of the fallen wall to God. he was invariably working into his destiny and God plan for him, he was interceding and God was saying, I have chosen you to go and rebuild the temple, he was fasting and God was telling him, go my son and meet the king, I have given you favour in his sight and he is going to listen to whatever you will tell him and I will use him as an instrument to rebuild the broken wall of Judah and Jerusalem.That faithful day, he was serving the king his water or his food or even drink and the king discovered that his countenance was not ok and he was not happy, the king asked was his challenge is?, this man did not ask for his freedom or release from captivity, neither was he asking for marriage support of better compensation package but for the welfare of his people who are in very difficult situation. Eventually he got the approval and he went and the temple in Jerusalem was rebuild, the walls which had fallen for years was rebuild also .

Remember when Peter was arrested and locked down in chain between two walls. It obvious that they sense an Angel or something supernatural might happen, therefore they did their best to protect and cover him properly to avoid any escape but the people of God gathered and made intercession on behalf of peter and heaven was left loosed and the Angels of the living God came down on an assignment which they cannot go back without executing. Infant they cannot go back and give excuses. Peter was released and set free and he came and joined those praying at the night.

I challenge you that intercession be made for all men especially those in leadership in the household of faith, pray and intercede on their behalf. Let it be part of your daily routine and operation. Seeking the welfare and wellbeing of others.it is really counted as spiritual growth to get to a certain stage in your Christian journey where all you care and all that bothers you is not yourself alone but about someone else. It is actually selfishness and does not benefit anybody at all to be thinking about yourself all the time.

When was the last time you prayed and it was not about you or your immediate family needs especially those ones very close to you? When was the last time you prayed for those who are sick and at the various hospital and have nobody to pay their medical bills? Some of them are suffering from incurable diseases which will only take the mercy and divine intervention of God for them to be healed. Some of them need to be flown abroad for operation but the money is not there and it will take your prayer for them to be free from their infirmities,

When was the last the time you prayed for the church of God and the workers there including the Angel of the church? (The ministers/Pastors), or don’t you know that they need your prayers and very much solely depend on your prayers for their success in their ministries? You want to hear them ministering with Rhema but you will not pray for them to activate it. You know why because you do not have such burden. You have not grown to that level of spiritual maturity to have a need and feel that burden to pray for someone else.

There are men who are mourning and fasting. They are praying day and night, not for their personal needs and challenges, but the needs and challenges of others that is the height they have reached in faith, where God could reveal to them, the problems and needs of other people and trust them to intercede till there is solution. When you reached that level then can we say that the lord can commit to you true riches and deeper revelation.What are those things around you making you unhappy? What are those challenges affecting your brother or sister or even your neighbour, and it is also making you unhappy to see them, then it is a care around you and you are to start praying to God for them about it and he will certainly intervene and do something?