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4. MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION

God has given the government of the earth to the people – under His authority. Man's falling away from God did not change this order. Through Jesus, God raises people to rule the earth with Him. That is why He is looking for people as His partners. When He finds a person who is able to believe with Him, He anoints him as a fellow worker.

God first shows His new plan to His servant and asks: "Do you want this?". When His servant responds that I want, Jesus begins to implement the plan in cooperation with His servant. God is much more dependent on the church's co-operation than we usually realize. The earth is under man's authority and therefore God is limited in His actions to the will, faith and cooperation of his servants.

Morning 3:7: For the Lord, the Lord, does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

The most powerful and intimate spiritual office is intercession. In a spirit of praise and worship, the intercessor approaches Jesus and His throne. The anointing of the Holy Spirit opens him up to dialogue with Jesus and the Father. In a love relationship with the Father and Jesus, the intercessor receives God's plans by faith. Then he declares them to appear in visible realm.

Intercession is the duty of every servant of God. Then there is a separate office of intercession and anointing, to which Jesus separates his sons/daughters who love and worship Him. Jesus shares His secret things and plans with those serving in the office of intercession. This is the royal privilege the sons / daughters of God. The love relationship with God makes the ministry of intercession to be the most important ministry of God's kingdom.

The Holy Spirit will show you whether intercession is your special ministry. If Jesus is calling you to the ministry of intercession, He will lead you to know the Father's heart. You will receive a special power of revelation and faith to act in God's spiritual dimension and discuss with Him. He will give you powerful visions, revelations and encounters with him. He immerses you in the fire of the Holy Spirit and enables you to dwell in the presence of His glory and to join His plans.

INTERCESSION ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONS

The intercessors, that are immersed in the fire of the Holy Spirit, are the key servants in the revival of the fulfillment time. Jesus searches the whole earth to find someone who will agree to stand before Him on behalf of the nations. He is looking for a channel, a vessel that will stand in the opening of the wall to bring solutions from the throne of God. Jesus is looking for a heart that surrenders to Him and opens up before Him. He anoints these people in the love of God the Father to break the chains of the powers of darkness over entire nations. Jesus is the beginning, author and source of everything. The church is His body, whose mission is to fulfill Jesus' will on earth.

Hez. 22:30: I looked for a man among them who would repair the wall and stand in the opening in the wall before me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I did not find one.

Jesus needs people who come before Him in the anointing of the Holy Spirit and discuss with Him, led by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of intercession is invisible in the natural dimension. But in God's world, intercession is the most powerful ministry. All new plans of God's kingdom are revealed only through dedicated intercessory work. The revival of the time of fulfillment will be the greatest revival in the history of the world. Jesus needs many intercessors to prepare and implement this revival.

Even today, the Lord is looking for people in Finland, who can stand before Him to speak about the nation's affairs and receive from Him solutions for the salvation and healing of our nation. As a believer connected with the Holy Spirit, you have unlimited potential to be immersed in the Fire of the Holy Spirit and be equipped and anointed to any kind of ministry in Jesus's Glory.

SIMEON AND HANNA AS INTERCESSORS

The ministry of intercession of Simeon and Hanna was perhaps the greatest mission of intercession that we can imagine. They had received the revelation of the Holy Spirit that soon God would send the salvation, promised by the prophets, to the people of Israel. They had also received a promise that they would come to see the Son of God in the flesh!

Hannah and Simeon were devoted to the service of the Lord and their task was to pray for the appearance of the Anointed One in human form. They prayed for God's specially prepared parents for Jesus. A male prophet was needed to pray for a father who can receive a wife conceived by the Holy Spirit. A female prophet was needed to pray to God for a wife capable of receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit and giving birth to the Son of God in human form. A man and a woman were needed to pray to Jesus for disciples, the revival of Jerusalem and the birth of the church.

Luke 2:25-26: And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon; he was a pious and godly man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he had not seen death until he had seen the Lord's Anointed One.

Luke 2:36-37: And there was a prophetess, Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. He had already come of age. After marrying a virgin, she had lived with her husband for seven years, and was now a widow, eighty-four years of age. He did not leave the sanctuary, but served God there with fasting and prayers night and day.

When Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the temple, only the Holy Spirit could show that this child was the Son of God who became man. Only Simeon and Hanna, led by the Spirit, came to Jesus right then and prophesied God's plan to Him.

Simeon's and Hanna's ministry was extremely confidential. It is obvious that even the priests who served in the temple were not aware of what was happening. God wanted to keep the appearance of the Anointed Jesus secret from people and the powers of darkness for as long as possible. When Jesus was 30 years old, the Holy Spirit led Him to be baptized by immersion in front of John. Only then did Jesus as the Anointed One appear to the people of Israel.

Luke 2:27-32: And he came by the Spirit into the sanctuary. And when the parents brought the child Jesus inside to do to him, as was the custom according to the law, he also took him in his arms and thanked God and said: "Lord, now you let your servant go in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your blessedness, which you thou hast prepared for the sight of all nations, a light that shall appear unto the Gentiles, and a glory unto thy people Israel."

Luke 2:38: And at that very moment he came into it, glorified God, and spoke of the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit led Simeon and Hanna to see with their own eyes the world's most supernatural and incomprehensible answer to prayer! God had come in human form among the people! These prophets lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit and it was not possible that the baby Jesus would have gone unnoticed by them. But no one else in the temple noticed this! The eyes of others had not been opened to see the fulfillment of God's supernatural plan.

No plan of God will be born and set in motion on earth without the intercession. Any new plan of God is first revealed to intercessors by the Holy Spirit. Behind all individual salvations, revivals and revelations of God, there are people who have poured out their hearts before God and surrendered to Him, looking for God's help and solution.

When we are praying for revival in Finland, we are asking for a supernatural thing. We are asking for something we have not seen or experienced before. We pray for an outpouring and a touch of the Spirit that is new and never seen before. We don't know how we should pray, but the Holy Spirit guides us and gives us more revelation information.

JESUS AS AN INTERCESSOR

One of the greatest, yet least known, ministry of Jesus was intercession. This ministry He accomplished in solitude with the Father. He did not announce these meetings to outsiders because they involved details of God's plan of salvation that the enemy was not to know. Jesus primarily wanted to please the Father and receive thanks from Him alone. In his Sermon on the mount, Jesus taught about prayer as He Himself was operating with God.

Matt. 14:23: And when he had counted the people, he went up into a mountain by solitude, to pray. And when evening came, he was there alone.

Mark. 6:46: And when he had said farewell to them, he went away into the mountain to pray.

Luke 6:12-13: So it happened in those days that he went up to the mountain to pray; and he was there all night praying to God. And when the day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles…

Luke 9:28-31: About eight days after he had spoken this, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the sight of his face was changed, and his clothes became radiant white. And behold, there were two men talking with him, and they were Moses and Elias. They appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to execute in Jerusalem.

We can only guess how great were the dimensions of Jesus's intercession. In these moments of prayer with the Father, Jesus received precise instructions and plans on how He should act. He received God's plans for the salvation of Israel and the whole world. Personally, I believe that Jesus already prayed for the salvation of every soul when he was here on earth. I believe that He prayed for the healing of every sick person and the release of every bound person, in addition to preparing and praying for His own mission.

Matt. 6:5-6: And when ye pray, be not as the gilded; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your chamber and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus showed Peter, John and James the true anointing of intercession on the mountain. God's cloud descended on Jesus and heaven opened! The scriptures do not say how many times this happened to Him, but this was the only time the disciples were allowed to witness this anointing. In Gethsemane, Jesus gave up the ministry of the Anointed One and took on the ministry of the Sacrificial Lamb. The forces of darkness got the right to come over Jesus. Therefore, the intercessory situation of Jesus was filled with great anxiety in Gethesemane.

Before his death, Jesus prayed a huge intercession for the disciples and for all those who believe through them. This intercession contains all the manifestation of God on earth for every person!

John 17:20-26: But I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one - I in them, and thou in me - that they may be perfectly one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as you have loved me. Father, I will that where I am, those whom you have given me may be with me, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I know you, and these have come to know that you have sent me. And I have made your name known to them, and I will do it again, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I may be in them."

Jesus' mission of intercession did not end with His death on the cross, but it continues in heaven. Jesus is our high priest and intercessor before the Father. He wants to share his heart and prayers with his congregation, to appear as Savior to all nations!

Hebrew 7:23-25: And those other priests have become more numerous, because death did not allow them to remain; but this has an imperishable priesthood, because he abides forever, because of which he also can perfectly save those who come to God through him, because he always lives to pray for them.

INTIMATE CONNECTION WITH GOD

The successful ministry requires a love relationship with God. Only in intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit can great things happen. The Lord wants a reliable partner, to whom He can entrust His secrets from his own heart and whom He can move and lead. Jesus reveals the most secret things of his own heart only to his own loved ones. Intercession is primarily a connection of love and worship with Jesus.

Rom. 8:26-27: Likewise, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we ought to pray, as we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself prays for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. But the searcher of hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, for the Spirit prays according to the will of God for the saints.

A true worshiper stands before God's throne and receives inspiration and instructions directly from Jesus. God hears every weak plea, but only those who agree with Him receive the answer. There is a lot of begging that comes from a person's traumatic needs, lusts and desires. The Holy Spirit cannot connect the faith and will of God to such petitions.

The inspiration of the Spirit from the throne of God leads to supplication according to God's will. Then we know that we also have what we asked for. In the supplication led by the Holy Spirit, there is a fire of God, breaking of the heart and melting in the love of God. There is the supernatural and almighty power of God, glorious revelation and purifying of the heart. After such an intercession comes the joy of the Holy Spirit, which proves that the Lord has heard and answers it.

1 John 5:14-15: And this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, then we know that we also have all that we have asked of him.

A true intercessor lives in God's perspective and authority. He knows Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father. The desire of his heart is to praise the Lord in deep devotion and love. When the power, glory and light of God touches his spirit, soul and body, he is able to see things with the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit raises him to reign with Jesus on His throne. You need to understand that attempt to intercede without true unity of the Holy Spirit does not produce anything. Therefore, seek first the presence of the Holy Spirit and mind of Christ. Then everything else will be added to you.

John 4:21-24: Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me! The time is coming when you will neither pray to the Father on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You will worship what you do not know; we will worship what we know. For salvation is of the Jews. But the time will come, and already is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such worshipers the Father also wants. God is a Spirit; and those who worship him by kissing and bowing, they must worship in spirit and truth."

In this scripture, the Greek text uses the word 'proskyneo', which means to bow down with a kiss, to show worship and respect. The word 'pray', 'prayer' has indeed a wrong and misleading meaning because of pagan religions. Jesus is talking about true worshipers, who in their hearts worship, love and honor Him in the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is how He lived and worshipped the Father.

Jesus explains that the "place" of worship is not a natural mountain, temple or city. The "place" of true worship is in the Holy Spirit and truth. The true worshippers worship in the anointing of the Holy Spirit and before the Throne of the Father in the spiritual realm. They bow down in love, devotion and honor before Jesus and the Father. This is intimate meeting in the Glory of God. In true worship you meet Jeesus, experience His Glory and merge with His reality. This does not depend on any natural circumstances around you. It is the heart thing with Jesus.

When we get through the gates of praise to meet God, we no longer list our own requests, but surrender to the touch of His glory. Then the power and solutions flow through Jesus fast like strikes of lightning. Under the influence of the Spirit, we receive answers to our requests and needs, which we could not even express. We also receive new commissions to do things, to announce solutions and to receive by faith. Everything happens at the speed of thought. Everything is also unique. There is never any formula or routine, but the Lord always appears in a new and unique way.

INTERCESSION IN A GROUP

The ministry of intercession in a small group is very blessed and anointed. It is good to start the situation with personal silence and seek forgiveness and reconciliation for all the things that trouble the soul. When everyone has personally encountered the forgiveness and love of Jesus and the cleansing power of His blood, it is easy to continue with praise. This is the fastest way to get into the flow of the Holy Spirit that will lead into powerful intercession.

Instead of repeating prayer lists, you must open yourself up to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is very important that we intentionally quiet ourselves and decide to wait and listen to the revelation from the Lord. Then He always speaks to our heart and gives new revelation, new plans and solutions. This is the first step in bringing God's Kingdom on the earth.

Successful intercession in a group requires that each member of the group is sufficiently trained and aware of the principles of intercession. In the group, everyone has their own gifts, which can contribute to the intercessory situation. The Holy Spirit shares His revelation through every member of team. There is always greater anointing in fellowship of several people than in a lonely prayer. It's really great to be a part of an intercessory group that works in the flow of the Spirit. You will be amazed how the Holy Spirit unites your team and blesses all of you with His supernatural manifestations and answers.

In intercession you act in the authority of the throne of God, in the love of the Father, in the Spirit of revelation and in the faith of God. You need integrity, maturity and spiritual discernment. Your heart should be motivated by the Father's love for all people. The task of the prophets of the new covenant is not to announce judgments, but to glorify Jesus' salvation and rule over the powers of darkness. Jesus needs your heart, faith and love. He accomplishes everything else with his supernatural power.

Intercession moves huge and great things before God and people. Therefore, Jesus prepares the heart of the intersessor in His Fire. You must be completely died for your own pride and thinking. God must rule everything by His Holy Spirit. You minister in the mercy and grace of God. You can conquer outside of you only what you have conquered in our own heart first. Jesus has not called us rulers, but servants. He is the true King and ruler. We are His servants for the benefit of other people.