Below is a list of personal and professional
qualities that make good attorneys. Let's see how these qualities also
help make good intercessors.
1. Dedication. An
intercessor must be committed to Christ, to others and to the task of
intercession. There simply is no substitute for dedication. As Phillips
Brooks once said, "If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer
is not merely an awful thing; it is an infinitely foolish thing."
2. Reliability. It's
not our ability that God looks for, but our availability. Paul Daniel
Rader once said: "If you can beat the devil in the matter of regular
daily prayer, you can beat him anywhere. If he can beat you there, he
can possibly beat you anywhere." Or as a country preacher once said, "If
your day is hemmed with prayer, it's less likely to come unraveled."
3. Integrity. In Alice Smith's book Beyond the Veil,
she writes: "If we accept an assignment from God, we can be sure that
He will attempt to build integrity into our lives. I (Alice) love Psalm
26:11-12: 'But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me.
My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the
Lord.'
"My paraphrase would read: 'In all
my public trust I will walk uprightly and pay strict attention to truth,
honesty, justice and mercy. I will not plan evil schemes or use myself
to promote my own cause. I will be true to the integrity of the Word. I
will live a moral life in private and in public. I stand firmly on
principles of proper conduct, and I will not turn aside.'"
4. Objectivity and empathy. Objectivity and empathy are tricky. Both are necessary, but they must be kept in balance.
If
we are empathetic intercessors who cannot find objectivity in prayer,
we will soon be consumed emotionally and ultimately overwhelmed with the
prayer needs we bear. Remember the words of the old song "Leave It
There" by Charles Albert Tindley: "Take your burden to the Lord and
leave it there."
On the other hand, if we
are objective intercessors without empathy, who cannot feel the needs of
those for whom we have been commissioned to pray, our prayer life will
grow stale and eventually dry up.
5. Kind. Kindness is a necessary commodity for the intercessor-advocate, as illustrated by the following story.
An
old man carried a little can of oil with him everywhere he went. If he
passed through a door with squeaky hinges, he put a little oil on the
hinges. If the gate was hard to open, he poured a little oil upon the
latch.
Every day he found a variety of
ways to use his pocket oil can to others' advantage. Neighbors thought
he was eccentric, but he went on his way, doing all within his power to
lubricate the hard places and make life easier and more enjoyable for
others.
Do we carry with us the oil of
human kindness? When the traffic is backed up, the grocery clerk is rude
or your boss decides to come down on you, are you exercising the oil of
gladness? Go ahead and do it. It will make your day.
6. Discipline. The
intercessor will not be successful without applying discipline to his
or her work of intercession. As the next story illustrate, discipline is
vitally important.
A visitor to a famous
pottery establishment was puzzled by an operation that seemed aimless.
In one room there was a mass of clay beside a workman. Every now and
then he took up a large mallet and struck several smart blows on the
surface of the lump. Curiosity led to the question: "Why do you do
that?"
"Wait a bit, sir, and watch it," was the reply.
The visitor obeyed, and soon the top of the mass began to heave and swell. Bubbles formed upon its face.
"Now
sir, you will see," said the modeler with a smile. "I could never shape
the clay into a vase if these air bubbles were in it, therefore I
gradually beat them out."
It sounded in
the ears of the visitor like an allegory of Romans 5:3-5, "Tribulation
produces perseverance ... character ... hope" (NKJV). Is not the
discipline of life, so hard to bear sometimes, just a beating out of the
bubbles of pride and self-will, so the Master may form a vessel of
earth to hold heavenly treasures?
7. Leadership ability. In his book Wind and Fire, Bruce Larson points out some interesting facts about sandhill cranes:
"These
large birds that fly great distances across continents have three
remarkable qualities. First, they rotate leadership. No one bird stays
out in front all the time.
Second, they
choose leaders who can handle turbulence. And then, all during the time
one bird leads, the rest honk their affirmation.
"That's
not a bad model for the church. Certainly we need leaders who can
handle turbulence and who are aware that leadership ought to be shared.
But most of all, we need a church where we all honk encouragement.
It
is safe to say that some of our prayer assignments are also being borne
by other Christians. Let's guard our hearts against feeling that
we--and our prayers--are "the only reasons" something happens.
The
apostle Paul warned us that we are "not to think of [ourselves] more
highly than [we] ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt
to each one a measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3).
8. High moral character. A
Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, who was acquainted with both Christianity
and Buddhism, was once asked what he thought was the great difference
between the two. He replied, "There is much that is good in each of
them, and probably in all religions.
"But
what seems to me to be the greatest difference is that you Christians
know what is right and have the power to do it, while we Buddhists know
what is right but have not any such power."
The monk was right. True freedom is not the right to do as we please. It is the power to do what is right!
A
lawyer who lived in the chambers of the temple told a story about an
old gray-haired man in the room next to his who knelt down every night
and said his prayers aloud. The partition between their rooms was thin,
and he heard what the old man said quite distinctly. He was greatly
surprised to hear him always say this prayer: "Lord, make me a good
boy."
This may seem rather ludicrous. But
if you think of it, you will be touched by its beauty. Long years before
when, as a little child, that old man had knelt at his mother's knee,
she had taught him this petition, "Lord, make me a good boy."
And
through the years with their trials and temptations, he still felt the
need of offering that cry in the old, simple language of childhood,
knowing that in the sight of the ageless God he was still a child.
Just
as a good advocate should be a person of high moral character, an
effective intercessor must also live a holy life of high moral
character.
9. A team player. Corporate
intercession is almost an unknown art. In most places it is individual
intercession in a corporate setting. Thankfully, the church is beginning
to understand how to gather as a group and approach God as one person!
We
are also beginning to network as intercessors. We realize that the more
testimonies we have in court, the stronger our case will be. We are
grateful for the 61 personal intercessors who faithfully serve us and
our ministry in prayer. We take seriously the hours they spend in court
on our behalf.
We never cease to be amazed
at the self-discipline exerted by intercessors. The abilities to work
well under pressure and with minimal supervision are grace gifts that
God has given most intercessors. People of prayer, we admire your
faithfulness to voluntarily spend the time you do in prayer on behalf of
others.
We can experience transformation of our families, cities and nations if we will be willing to labor together.
