"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her
husband...The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by
its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it" (Rev.
21:2, 23-24).

    
Lately the Lord has really been challenging me into a deeper level of
intercession and in bringing forth the church into the Bride He has called and
is soon coming for. It has been a heavy burden and passion for our team to see
a generation that will be a true lovesick worshipper that is free from the
spirit of religion that has bound the church for so long within its clutches.
Intercession has begun to play more and more of key role in our stay here and
Africa and has led me and a few others to begin seeking it out in true way.
Because of this I thought I would write some of my thoughts on how important I
believe intercession is to the church and some of the foundations that need to
be laid for the church to step in its spiritual authority as children of God
and the Bride to the coming King.

   
Intercession is the divine position in which the government of God is
administered through the activity of His servants. This being the case, "Our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12). Paul warns us that such a
battle must be fought with truth, righteousness, in faith, in the assurance of
our identity in Christ, peace, the power of the word of God, and through prayer
"in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" (Eph.
6:14-18). Intercession is a reality the Church must walk in and recognize as
essential to the real Christians walk and what is going to hasten the day of
the Lord's return for "the nations will walk by its [the Church's] light." This
reality will not come into fullness until the Son of Man has established his
rule on earth as it is written in Revelations, however, as daughters and sons
of the Most High God it is a reality we can already step into for it says, "It
is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the
heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of
the word of God and the powers of the coming age" (Heb. 6:4-5). The Church of
God must get a real revelation of our inheritance in Christ and what we, His
people, have authority over and the power intercession holds as a governmental
rule in the house of God.

    
A key to walking in this reality is for each individual, and the Church
as a whole, to receive divine revelation of being a son and daughter of the Most
High God through the Spirit that resides within us. Paul wrote concerning this
when he said, "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you
did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received
the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children,
then we are heirs -heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in
His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory" (Ro. 8:14-17). Do
you know the power that comes when we get the realization that we are children
of the most divine God? It is the secret to effective prayer, for when Jesus
taught us to pray He said, "This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father"
(Matt. 6:9); when He was raised from the dead and appeared to Mary in His most
glorious resurrected body He spoke, "Go instead to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'" (John 20:17).
In Luke 11:13, He continues to speak of prayer and gives an illustration of a
father and his children for it reads, "If you then, though you are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in
heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Two huge keys lie then in
prayer as well as intercession: the first is knowing our identity in God as His
children, and second is the receiving of the Holy Spirit which confirms within
us the truth of who we are in Christ. "For you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you" and than "you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). Who can be
a better witness of the Father, of Jesus, but a child of the Father, a brother
of the Son; "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). When we
received the Holy Spirit we became the very sons and daughters of God, the
representatives of God Himself.