ESC Shabbat Service: 5 Pillars: Prophetic Intercession - Andrew Gudgeon

And I think the easy response for us is, well, they are healed on the other side and that is absolutely true. I am not minimizing the work of Yeshua. They are healed on the other side. But it can still leaving a lot of us who have our feet planted on the earth right now and breathing oxygen on planet earth asking why. Why this way? Why this timing? And when we're grieving, over the past few years, found my own heart asking this question of the Lord and I've discovered something to be true. The intercession is never wasted. It's not wasted breath. It's always been about relationship with a loving God at the core and it's at a deeper level than even my need or your need to know why. [01:40:50] (57 seconds)  #IntercessionNeverWasted

I know this has been something that I have dealt with because I want to bring high praise, I want to bring worship, I want to bring the fast songs, I want to bring the joy, I want to bring the exaltation and sometimes when I'm actually walking through, I feel a little bit more like Psalm 24, Why God? I feel forsaken right now. And so, would withhold that part of worship from the Lord and I just feel like the Lord is saying, I want all of your heart. I want all of your worship. So it may be that the beginning fruit of intercession is bringing a little bit of lament and he welcomes that in his presence. He's not rejecting part of our heart as we come before him. [01:45:41] (40 seconds)  #WorshipIncludesLament

And this morning, in pre service prayer, Tammy, you were praying about the reality for us is we don't have fear of the king that we can come boldly before the throne and that invitation is here for us today. So, as a community, standing on a pillar of prophetic intercession does not mean that we get everything that we want. If we did, it would make God a lot more like a genie in a bottle and a lot less than the almighty sovereign God of the universe. [01:47:34] (33 seconds)  #BoldlyBeforeTheThrone

The reality is that it took an individual woman to put her own life on the line in intercession to count the cost and say it's worth it all for her people. So this causes me, I'm curious about this, what causes someone to risk it all for the sake of another? And I think it comes back to love because love compels us to respond. Love leads to intercession. And so, we're getting into a little bit of the application for us today as believers and as I was praying for us and this might be a little emotional for me, we'll see but I just feel the Lord's heart in this for us as a community in this season. [01:38:48] (45 seconds)  #LoveLeadsToIntercession

She is not in the land of her fathers. She is an orphan raised by her cousin. She is basically in an arranged marriage. I don't know that she had a choice to go to this beauty pageant to find a new queen and then she ultimately had to make the sacrifice of my life is on the line, there is a very good chance, probably higher than fifty fifty that I die. And so that's a lot of disappointment if if you had dreams in your life looking forward of what you would want the outcome to be of your life. But I'm so thankful for her faith in God that it was higher than even the disappointment of her surroundings or situations that she counted the cost even in fear of the king and said, I'm going. If I perish, I perish. [01:46:50] (44 seconds)  #SacrificialFaith

Over the past few years as a community, we have prayed for healing for a lot of people, a lot of our close family, a lot of our close friends and praise the Lord, we have healings documented here in the community over the last few years. The Lord still heals and restores but there's also a lot of us who've had to see people go to be with the Lord over the past few years and not the outcome that we were hoping for. I have gathered with many of you in tears and intercession praying for healing and some have been healed and some are with the Lord. And so, I just felt the heart of the Lord saying that he wants to give space for us to deal with our disappointment as an invitation into intercession. [01:40:03] (47 seconds)  #SpaceForGriefAndIntercession

But for today, we can rest knowing that our prayers are heard, that we have access to the throne of grace, that Yeshua is making intercession for you and me and he's faithful and he's good at it. He's good at it. He's a high priest. Thank you, Lord. Think about this just for a moment. If Yeshua is continually making intercession for you and me, I wonder what he's interceding for us right now in this room or maybe for you on the livestream. [01:44:17] (34 seconds)  #JesusIntercedesForUs

So if you've ever supported someone going through a hardship, whether it's financial, whether it's health, whether it's end of life and you went into a place of prayer and intercession and stood with them in the gap believing for all the promises of God in their life, if you have placed all your hope in the only one who can truly heal and restore, then no matter what the physical outcome has been, your love did not fail because that kind of love is from the Lord. It may be that the reason why is still behind Amir Demly and I find that often that is the case. But a day is coming soon when we will know fully. [01:43:32] (46 seconds)  #LoveDidNotFail