A High Priest With An Inferiority Complex

 

1 Peter 2:5   Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

• High Priest appointed by God; exercised authority because of God’s power, not his own. What if he felt too “unworthy” to perform his duties?  Israel’s sins would not have been covered!
• Why pray? Isn’t God doing to do what he wants anyway? Does He need me to pray or just want me to pray? Can I frustrate the will of God?
• God gave man dominion, the responsibility of governing the earth.

 

 (Psalm 115:16)-  The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given (ASSIGNED) to the children of men.)

How real was man’s authority as God’s representative on earth?  So real that God allowed man to give authority over the earth to the devil through his disobedience!

 

Luke 4:6-7 – And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.  If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

• It cost God the crucifixion to win the authority back!
• Why would God take such a risk? The same as human parents – He wanted a family!

 

God has limited Himself on earth to working through humans!

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” – Isn’t that going to happen anyway?

“Give us this day our daily bread” – Doesn’t He know our needs before we ask?

“Pray that the Lord send forth laborers” – Doesn’t He want a harvest more than we do?

“Pray that the word of the Lord may be glorified” – Isn’t He already planning to do that?

 

Ezekiel 22:30-31    And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

• The implications of this verse are staggering! God wanted to forgive, but no one would pray!
• God will never fulfill His purpose for us outside of His program of prayer. He allows us to make decisions that can influence history.  Human inaction does not nullify the atonement, but human inaction can make the atonement ineffective for lost people.

 

The Issue Has Never Been Power; God Has The Power!  The Issue Is Authority, and That Has Been Placed In Our Hands To Use!

Priests were MEDIATORS between God and men.  The word INTERCESSION doesn’t mean PRAYER, but it is something we can DO in prayer.  INTERCESSION means to “mediate, represent, go between” – it involves AUTHORITY!

There is only one MEDIATOR/INTERCESSOR

 

(1 Timothy 2:5)  – For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;).

Our prayers are only an extension of His work; that is why it is crucial to ask in Jesus’ name!

 

Our Calling and Function Is Not to Replace God, but to Release Him!  We Are Not Producers of God’s Power , but Distributors of It!

We ENFORCE the victory that Jesus already won at Calvary!

Joshua (OT type of Jesus) brought 5 Canaanite kings out of cave in Joshua 10:22-27.  Instead of placing his foot on their necks to display his conquest, as was the custom, he did something prophetic!  He called his soldiers and had them place their feet on the necks of these defeated kings.  They shared in his authority!

 

Romans 16:20 – And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.  

Luke 10:19 – Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Joshua 1:3 – Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. 

 

Tread = Darak (Take your weapons and conquer  –  Still used today in Israeli Military for “Load Your Weapons”) We Must Do It!

 

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Belly = (Koilia) Womb  –  We “birth” things in the supernatural through the Holy Ghost!      

 

Isaiah 66:8 -Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.     

       

Galatians 4:1 – My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

Elijah couldn’t birth rain, but James 5:17-18 tells us his prayers did!

Paul couldn’t create maturity in the Galatians, but Galatians 4:19 implies that his intercession did!

We cannot produce spiritual sons and daughters, but Isaiah 66:8 tells us that our travail can!

 

Why is Warfare Necessary if Jesus Defeated the Devil? Satan’s Defeat Was Not A Literal “Wiping Out” But A Legal Defeat  –  Authority is the Issue!

Jesus did not come to earth to regain His power, nor to remove Satan’s power He came to regain the authority that Adam lost to the serpent!

In the battle between Israel and Amalek in Exodus 17:8-13, the victory was won when Moses lifted up his rod, representing God’s authority. It was not power on the battlefield, but authority on the mountain, that won the war!

 

What About Praying for the Lost?  Does Their Salvation Depend on Us?

• To a great extent, the answer is YES! God will not move outside of prayer!

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

There is a veil blinding the lost; we must pray for God to remove it.  They do not need gospel information, but gospel revelation!

 

STRONGHOLDS are not demons, but they are places from which demons control people’s lives. We must pray that three strongholds are cast down in the lives of the unsaved:

• Imaginations (Logismos) –  Mindsets

(accumulated information through which everything is filtered)

• High Things (Hupsoma) –  Pride

(same root word as “Most High”  –  human self-sufficiency, which is wrong)

• Thoughts (Noema) –  Temptations

(spontaneous temptations and schemes that Satan uses against them)

• Position Yourself as an Intercessor Between Satan and the Unsaved!

 

Why Do We Have to Persist in Prayer?  Is it to “earn” an answer?   NO!

We are releasing the Holy Ghost as we pray!

Mark 6 – There was not enough faith in Nazareth for Jesus to work a mighty miracle, but there was enough for Him to heal a few sick folks.

• Different Levels of Power Were Necessary!

This is why it takes more time or more people praying to get certain prayers answered!

Why did Elijah have to stretch himself on the corpse of the widow’s son three times?

Why did Daniel have to pray for 21 days before the angel came to him?

Why did Joshua have to lead his troops for 7 days around the city of Jericho?

Why was God angry that King Joash didn’t strike the ground more than three times?

God Has Designed it so That we Have the Authority to Release His Spirit and We Need to Keep Praying Until it Happens!

Push – Pray Until Something Happens!