Overheard from an “official” intercessor:
“Then some one explained to me that the highest form of worship [to God], higher than music or anything else, really, is intercession. And it was like – of course!” Followed by a hand gesture that said I-am-called-to-THE-most-important-thing + a way huge smile.
{Well, isn’t she just the greatest in the Kingdom} Ping.
I hate that. I hate that I cannot just hear stuff like that and be ok with it and go on my merry Christian way. Or just think “She is where she is,” and not want to tell her how arrogant that seems. But dang, I find our Western Christian culture of so wanting, just like the conniving-striving-jealousy-position-guarding disciples, to be in the most powerful, important “ministry” irritating. And I know-I know, that is probably because of my own pride and sin and it-takes-one-to-know-one realization. That really IS what aggravates me: it is my own crap glaring harshly in some one else that causes me to want to strangle…them!!! Haha.
So, btw, don’t worry if you have ever aggravated me to your knowledge. I am really just seeing my own unholy reflection. It’s not you – it’s me.
I digress.
So, I knew when I heard Miss-intercessor triumphing in her role as highest-ever-worshiper and I felt ticked, that I shouldn’t leave it there, my attitude, I mean. I shouldn’t categorically now dismiss all intercessors, even though I have known some doozies. Because there are people called and they literally stand in the gap between God and man. I have a couple of amazing (and very humble) intercessor friends who haul my junk out and make a case for me, plead for God’s mercy over my life. When they are standing in the fray – they absolutely are giving God the highest praise, living their most glorious moment – because they are being all He created them to be. And that pleasure, that glory that God receives when my friends pray, it is complete and it is full and it is true.
But that is not the whole of the glory.
For a rose, it is when it has opened fully, released every drop of its’ perfume and is reaching far and wide in total splendor that it reveals the very glory of God.
For the singer, it is a note {the one} or a run echoing to heaven and back again.
For a woman giving birth, that moment when bebe passes, bloody and gasping, from the hiding place (where God has been knitting the child together) into air and bright light – is not that moment one of great triumph, the very glory of God revealed, somehow perhaps even symbolizing death passing to life? Glorious!
For a father in these days, to deliver his daughter to her intended at the wedding altar, pure, whole and holy – it is a moment of glory to our God.
When I am with my grandbebes and I am hearing them and seeing them beyond what the physical senses can pick up, when I am present in their lives and making inroads into their hearts where I deposit a seed of the sweet song of salvation into their tiny hearts and minds because I know I will reap what I sow, oh believe me, it is glory. It is why I was born. When I am long gone, that kind of glory remains.
We still try to get points
It is amusing, though, isn’t it? That even with our 7.4 Bibles per American person, though we have heard of those disciples jostling for position, though Paul writes extensively about the many parts of the one body and how each part must do its’ work so that then we’ll be healthy and growing and truly grow more and more to be like Christ – we are still trying to determine what role we have and how important we can make it seem.
The intercessors think they have the inside track, but if they’d talk to the prophets, they’d know better. The youth pastor is cooler than the children’s pastor and the evangelist can’t figure out why everyone is wasting time at church and won’t get out into the highways and byways this minute!? Pastors pretty much dread the charismatic “revivalist” who can come in and stir the pot but leaves before the mess is cleaned up. There are performance-driven “worship leaders,” who haven’t been in the secret place since they got to be the “leader,” and exhorts who are mad that no one receives their gift.
Please don’t ask me how I know.
How is it possible that the same God who called me also called all of those…weird, prideful, title-seeking people? What on earth? {you know I’m kidding, right?}
Maybe this, like Paul said:
Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
GOD’S PURPOSE IN ALL THIS WAS TO USE THE CHURCH TO DISPLAY HIS WISDOM in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 3
It is all for His glory. Your gift. Mine. The weird, prideful people. He knows. He knows that when those people and you and me become all He created us to be, when we are doing the things He planned for us before we were even one day old, when we are being who we are, an evangelist, a pastor or teacher or bread baker or car detailer – in the moment we are who he says we are – we are at our most glorious and we are, in fact {and in richest variety}, giving Him the highest praise.
