The Cross, the context of prayer

Prayer and intercession in its various forms are parts of the heavenly arrangement which allows for the complex and many-coloured work and expressions of the cross of Christ. The richness of the reality of the cross presents to us the very nature of God and the plight and predicament of man. The cross provides for the initiative of God and it breaks man’s urge to play his part at the center stage. Its work consists in presenting what is good, it bring goodness into life and prayer. It contains a heavenly quality which is aimed at bringing clarity and a correct focus to every prayer.

The cross is God’s invitation to prayer. Its power is salvation, and it thrusts man into a state of dependency which is to be handled by prayer, prayer only. Within its framework all things are gathered that belong to grace and goodness. Only on this ground there will be a seeing of God as he truly is. The cross of Christ is God’s invitation to fellowship. Its work in a man’s heart corresponds with that which sent the Son of God on his sacrificial route before the foundations of the world was laid. A man who begins to pray is taught to carry a cross within according to the same order as the Father carries his. Because of this, it leads to salvation from the wisdom and the power of this age.

Prayer finds its inception at the cross. The cross of Christ stands as the indispensable means of reconciliation throughout the ages. It writes humility in man’s heart and supplies all grace and salvation. The cross of Christ, as it operates as God’s means for reconciliation, turns to its second work – by no means secondary to the first – the second work which is a work of formation unto priestliness, unto likeness in character, made like Christ.

The Father deliberately chooses this, a most horrible instrument of destruction, as a means of self-display. A cross tells the truest truth about God. This Cross tells the truest truth about man. The cross of Christ stands as God’s means in making man a praying man. It produces priestliness, it makes you a priest unto God.

The power of the cross to execute change, its power to eliminate sin, its indisputable ability to bring life finds application wherever man begins to pray. The cross puts the nature of God on display – the Creator defends his creation and guards the fulfilment of the purposes of its existence. Prayer never has to turn his mind around. God is always before, the singer states. God is the instigator of all good works. The agreement between the Father and the Son which governs the walk of the cross stands firm and shows forth its absoluteness through all times. Prayer stands safe and secure on this foundation. The work of the cross creates a priestly mindset acceptable before the throne of God.

A life in prayer under the cross of Christ is brought to clarity, it gathers momentum through its proper perspective. It realises and confirms its dependence and confidence in God. It is brought to awareness of the limitations of man, of man’s smallness and learns with diligence the lessons of humility. Strenuous efforts according to law and regulations as well as goodness and openness according to humanistic initiative fall short, fall devastatingly short, never producing anything like prayer does. These two, the law and goodness according to man has come to an end, is confirmed to be of no use by the existence of the Savours cross.

The atoning death of Jesus Christ on that old, rugged cross divides for ever between Heaven and Earth. This cross introduces Heaven on Earth. The priestly ministry, condensed and encapsulated in the work of prayer, which lies before us all, opens the way to Heaven. The work of prayer under the cross opens the way for Heaven to you, to each and every little sector in which you engage in. Heaven travels along the paths of prayer in the same way and to the same degree that the Christian travels along these paths. Prayer which takes form with the help of the cross gives room to all goodness, all kindness, all things beautiful, all things holy.

The cross is the tool of discipleship, followers of Christ immediately come under its influence. The rule of the cross is the rule of priestliness and of prayer according to Christ. Its prayer is set to spending, it cannot but give. This kind of prayer never demands. It never sets out for personal vindication. It waits on the Lord, it abides his vindication, it rests in his just rulings. Prayer awaits help from the sanctuary, and strength out of Zion. Its pattern is set by the throne, its attitude is royal – Davidic. Its approach and conduct is governed by royal measure. It grows in minds which welcome instruction by the Spirit of God to be able to stand in perilous times. The cross marks a man for discipleship. The mind marked by the cross of Christ follows after goodness and purity. A praying of this category seeks after correspondence – the preciousness of Heaven found as goodness and kindness on Earth.

Prayer and praying men are attracted to and apprehended by amiable and compassionate words and wordings. The cross disqualifies rudeness as well as shallowness, it is the overt enemy of covetousness and self-gratification, it puts to death fleshly initiative and ambition. ‘Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ ‘Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.’ Fil. 2:4, 4:8.

Reach out in exploration for the good words, words which represent goodness and holiness. These words do not lend themselves to values other than of the heavenly category. They are therefore easily identified. The cross makes us fit to use them properly. The cross makes us fit to use them in prayer. Lay hold of the good words, blend them into your prayer life, take them to your heart and make use of them in your prayers. Put the good words into your prayers, prepare godly speech, allow them to mirror the very best to be apprehended along the paths of the cross. Prayer of this king will be heard in Heaven.

The cross at work will bring you to the point of becoming an intercessor. The cross at work will throw doors open for you to a seeing of the world around you. The cross at work will produce an understanding of your role in the purposes of God. The cross at work will give you perspectives and proportions other than ordinary man’s. The cross at work invites to prayer. The cross arranges for us a stumbling stone, it confronts our seeing, it draws a line of demarcation, it differentiates and divides. It sets before us a stumbling stone, the name of which is ‘only on this ground’. . . Only through the work of the cross in our inner beings is the peculiar kind of prayer formed which gathers real prayer answers.

Let us pray in this direction, opening our inner man for the work of the cross, praying for intercessors to be brought forth in this hour of greatest need. . .

Lars Widerberg

A Prayer to be prayed in the midst of the Congregation

“We ask that we all may be completely certain of God’s will
and have the spiritual wisdom to understand it.”
From: “The Translators New Testament”.

The ability to pray is a gift from the Father to each one of us for the sake of communion. Intercession is God’s tool given to all of us that we might be able to handle the reality in which we exist. But prayer is first and foremost the method of God to implement His will in this world which is His.

The church, the congregation unto which the spiritually hungry are drawn and attracted, by which the presumptuous and self-important are provoked, at which notoriously evil men focus their hatred is the church which has allowed itself to become a temple where the glory of God has found a resting place. The interceding church is able to bring a definition of the life which comes down from Heaven because she carries that life within and lives it as the only possible way to relate properly to our common reality. The praying church is brought to a place where she defines the will of the Lord because she has listened to His words and description of it during her long and eagerly maintained prayer vigils.

To pray is to prepare and establish a stronghold for the will of the Lord. To pray is to be brought into unity with His will. Intercession never insist on man’s will to become foundation for God’s work. He who knows all things, He who listens to every voice and answers prayer does not comply with that which is not serving the purpose of Heaven. Prayer opens hearts and minds for Him to work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

The ministry of intercession implies battle, a battle for the establishment of His throne, a struggle regarding rulership. The church which attracts a spiritually hungry heart constitutes a temple unto His glory. The Son lives in it. It gives room for Jesus. ‘Christ in you, the hope of Glory’ is a reality in it. The first and only ambition of the Father focuses – expressed poorly and almost as a platitude – the glorification of the Son, a place for the Son, His honour, His position among the people and the peoples, His triumph. We have to try to grasp what really lies hidden in these short expressions. Intercession, communion is the tool of God in our hands for the apprehension of the will of God, for the attaining to the fullness of what lies within reach for the Church.

In the beginning – communion. The Father present, walking together with man in a paradise. When everything has come to an end and to its fulfilment – communion. The Father living amidst His people in a city which is even more a paradise. Intercession takes on the task, and the battle, to recover the intercourse, the fellowship. To pray is to search for what could have been, and an intercessor takes on the battle that must come to cover and protect the intimate fellowship. The praying community moves along paths leading to a fully mature fellowship and is continually involved in the securing of a thorough understanding of the will and the ways of God. Fellowship is definitely something more and decidedly something else than common interests and common views. Communion is Life and Spirit. Fellowship is Life and Peace.

Heaven – complete communion. Nothing unclean will ever enter into that place. No vulgarities, no pride, no offensiveness, no artificiality, nothing of all the shabby things which man holds so dear. The Gold of Heaven, the Glory of Heaven is without mixture, it contains no contamination, no pollution. As the water from a spring, exceedingly pure. As the fire of a lion’s eye, but terribly intense. The quality of this purity cannot be captured by words in any language. To search for that purity is to search for the will of the Lord. To pray for insight into the will of the Lord is an event which engages a maturing personality in a pursuit for the purity of Heaven and to apprehend and to capture some of it for the sake of displaying it in human relations and fellowship.

Prayer is a gift of God to each and every one of us for the sake of communion. Prayer is the method of God to give room for Heaven and all its crystal purity – Thy will be done, as in Heaven… The method of God to reach the fulfilment of His own will comprises mature intercession. May we be made able to pray for this, to keep on praying for this until we have secured a radical prayer answer.

Lars Widerberg

Praying for the Hungry Preacher

First priority prayer, the highest order of intercession is designed and decreed to make way for men, to aid and assist all men in seeking after godliness. Piety, a reverent anticipation, a solemn aspiration for heavenly realities to register in man, in all men, holds the first position in the life of an intercessor. If not, words and prayers and longings are in vain. If godliness is found to be a secondary issue among those who declare willingness to stand for God, prayer answers will tarry. Godliness is the heart of the matter from all points of view. Godliness is the driving force in a life of prayer. Piety holds the place as its main desire, its source and will be its main outcome as God answers according to His heart.

First priority prayer willingly and eagerly surrounds, covers, embraces leadership wherever it is to be found. The shields of the earth belong to the Lord. A king is to be prayed for, the president needs prayer, emissaries and ambassadors need prayer cover, regional governors are included, leaders of every kind and category must be targeted in prayer. They all need intercessors engaged in the keeping of their role and office open to things pertaining to godliness. Intercessors are appointed to keep these men hungry, hungry for righteousness; intercessors are set apart to keep these men healthy and fed, fed with the presence of goodness and godliness in the land; intercessors need to keep themselves in position for the sake of a true cover and protection of the inroads into these men’s hearts.

Godliness reveals itself in the hunger for godliness. The intense desire for piety, the tender longing for righteousness declares already the presence of these precious virtues. The godly man finds himself in the balance only to become painfully aware of the deficiency, but the inward deposit, the spiritual values carried in such a vessel can be seen by all men but by the vessel itself.

The preacher finds himself to be the one who carries the heaviest burden in this realm. A hungry preacher is alive to heavenly realities. The hungry preacher is a man of God in the making. God has begun the process of moulding and formation – the hunger in such a man’s heart is the very testimony of the fact. The hungry preacher is a vulnerable man, a man taken through tests and temptations – the intercessor is there, made ready to come to his defence.

The praying man, gatherings of praying men, orders intercession and the very expressions of worship according to the prevailing hunger for godliness to be able to assist men in authority wherever they are to be found. Conditions and circumstances are of minor importance. Name, world view, religion, by what means they appeared in position, friend or foe, is of secondary importance. Godliness is the primary issue. Godliness is the heart of the matter from all points of view. Godliness adhered to and established is the only item worthy the agenda of the praying people.

The praying man, gatherings of praying men, orders intercession and the very expressions of worship according to the prevailing hunger for godliness to be able to assist the preacher. He is a man marked for a major role, a man positioned in a sensitive position. Support given to such a man in prayer, cover arranged for such a man in prevailing prayer will find its answer in categories and measures according to the very source in which it had its beginning. The love expressed in godly communion, in prayer, towards the hungry preacher assists him as no other service during the painful formation of his character and outlook. Intercession which fully expresses unity in position and ambition with such a man opens for the Lord to fill his cup. He is the man to lead on in the presentation and establishment of godliness.

Let us engage in prayer of the highest order. Let us pray together for the hungry preacher. Let us pray for the man of God, for him to find a place of rest and recovery, a place in which he will find a table arranged to satisfy his true desires, his thirst for a living word, his hunger for righteousness and his longing to see God.

Let us engage in prayer of the highest order. Let us pray for men in authority, for them, not against but for them, for the sake of godliness to become an item to be considered as a valid option. Let us pray for godliness to be seen and recognised among them as a force foremost among motivational forces, a virtue to be pondered, an outlook in life and a way of living to be counted upon. Let us pray first priority prayers.

Godliness is the heart of the matter from all points of view. It is the source of prevailing prayer. It is the one thing impacting and registering in the heavenlies. It is of God’s own order. It registers on earth as the one thing recognised by men in authority. It bears fruit for eternity. Godliness is the very condition of Heaven. It is meant to be seen on earth. Praying men, preachers and God’s peacemakers carries a hunger for this order of godliness.

Lars Widerberg