What It Takes to Stand in the Gap
By Kathy Wenrich
Former New York Yankee Bobby Richardson once offered a brief but poignant prayer at a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes: “Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.”
That prayer has represented my longing since I embarked on a passionate prayer quest to develop a deeper intimacy with God as an intercessor. I hungered to know the unfamiliar facets of His character. I soon discovered that the further I pursued Him, the more I discovered of His infinite being. The more passionately I sought Him, the more He revealed Himself to me.
Through this quest, one word resounded deeply within my heart: consecration.
Exclusive Devotion to God
So what does consecration mean to us as intercessors? Similar to the Levitical priests, intercessors are conduits. They stand in the gap between God and others. In 1 Chronicles 15 we read that before the priests were allowed to carry the ark of the covenant, God instructed them to be consecrated. The ark was where God’s Spirit resided. He required anyone coming near His presence to be dedicated and separated unto God for His service alone.
Since the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we, too, have been appointed priests (Rev. 1:5–6). Therefore it is no surprise that we are also called to a life of consecration—to separation, to a total, exclusive devotion to God.
It seems we have lost a true understanding of consecration. Our modern society doesn’t require it. However, from a faith perspective, a recent example of consecration is Saeed Abedini. While on a missions trip, this American pastor was arrested for his Christian faith and sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison. During all that time he has been suffering torture and brutal beatings because he refuses to deny Christ.
By not backing down, though, no matter how difficult his persecution, he has proven that he is willing to die to his own life in order to accomplish the Father’s will. “Because I want to serve God,” Pastor Abedini wrote in a letter from prison, “I see all of these difficulties as golden opportunities and great doors to serve. There are empty containers who are thirsty for a taste of the Living Water and we can quench their thirst by giving them Jesus Christ.”
Because Saeed has consecrated himself, his position as an intercessor for the Muslim prisoners and guards he comes in contact with is that of a modern-day Paul. God is receiving glory as He answers prayers and Saeed’s fellow inmates learn of Jesus’ love.
Set Apart
Consecration literally means “the devoting or setting apart of anything to the worship or service of God.” When we consecrate ourselves to God, we separate ourselves from the desires of our flesh and wholly give ourselves—body, soul, and spirit—to Christ Jesus who lives within us.
Just as the disciples did during the Last Supper (Matt. 26:26–30), we share the cup of Jesus, saying, I pledge myself to Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else—even unto death. In consecration we join together our complete being with His Spirit. We deny anything that would take our focus off the mandate God has given us: to intercede on behalf of others.
Consecrated intercession involves taking hold of God’s will and praying it into existence. Sometimes the direction we are led to pray doesn’t make sense to our natural minds. If we are not open to praying God’s will, then we can easily be led astray by the flesh.
I recently had to pray the will of God when everything within me wanted to pray the opposite. A friend’s husband was dying. She asked that we pray for his healing. Understandably, she was not willing to watch her husband die. I went to war in the spirit, wholeheartedly focused on the victory of this man’s total healing.
However, when I began to pray, the Spirit impressed upon me that my prayer needed to change. I was not to pray for his healing. I was to pray for the family to stand strong in their faith even though they did not understand.
I desperately wanted this man to be healed for the glory of the Lord and for the sake of his family. But my focus in battle had to change in order to be consecrated.
I prayed this way until I sensed victory in the situation. Victory in God’s Kingdom realm is vastly different from that of the earthly realm. As intercessors, we need to perceive when the victory has been won in the Spirit, regardless of what it looks like from an earthly perspective.
A few days after my prayer perspective changed, my friend was able to release her husband to God, and soon the dear man peacefully slipped away to be with Jesus.
If we allow our human feelings or understanding to get in the way, we are in danger of praying amiss. As long as we try to intercede in the power of our own flesh, we will never be able to consecrate ourselves to fulfilling the Father’s will. Our battleground is not of this earth. We are fighting against strongholds and against spiritual powers in the heavens above (Eph. 6:12).
It takes a strong, dedicated, singularly focused warrior to fight for a cause not his own, believing it is more important.
War Heroes
In the garden of Gethsemane, just before Jesus went to the cross, He obviously prayed out of a consecrated heart. In prayer, His “human will” asked that the cup be removed. But because He was consecrated, His prayer changed to one that desired the Father’s will above His own (Matt. 26:36–46). There were no limits. Just as Jesus had lived each day dying to His own will and desires, He was now taking one step further. He was vowing to be faithful to the call even though it would cost Him His life. The vow of total consecration. No turning back. He could offer nothing more, for He had pledged all.
The nature of a consecrated intercessor is the willingness to sacrifice personal rights in order to petition God on behalf of those who cannot plead for themselves. Moses, for example, was willing to be blotted out of God’s book for the sake of the Israelites (Ex. 32:32). With Stephen’s last words he interceded for the ones who were killing him (Acts 7:59–60).
They, along with many others, were willing to lay down their own lives to intercede for the greater need. They emptied themselves of their own rights to stand in the gap and fight not only for the physical needs but the eternal life of others. We consider them war heroes because they went to battle and warred against powers and authorities to win the victory.
Consecrated intercessors run to the front lines whenever they perceive a threat from the enemy, regardless of their circumstance. Their peacemaker hearts suddenly become those of a mighty lion. The roar of a fully dedicated warrior resounds in the heavens. A divine, Holy Spirit power fills their being. Their lives have been emptied of self, anticipating being used mightily by the Father.
So a desire for consecration requires a personal inventory:
- Are we willing to die to our own desires? If not, our prayers have become wicked things. We are in essence saying, “My will be done, not Yours.”
- Are we willing to lay aside all that could hinder our ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit—then pray accordingly? If not, what do we count so dear that it interferes? Has it become an idol?
- Are we willing to drop all else and run to war when the Spirit sounds the battle cry? True consecration recognizes that we are not our own (and that includes our time); we’ve been bought with a price (1 Cor. 7:23).
Recognizing our need for consecration is only the beginning. When we empty ourselves of “self,” we become moldable—humble enough for God to use us. Only a vessel empty of self and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit can remain faithful to a pledge of consecration, even unto death of self. Only a vessel totally devoted to the will and purpose of our Lord God Almighty has the spiritual fortitude and strongman’s faith to run into battle and recapture ground taken by the enemy.
These are the vessels the Lord calls upon when He needs someone to stand in the gap (Ezek. 22:30). Only these set-apart ones know the priceless privilege of being able to say, “God, Your will be done. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.”
KATHY WENRICH is the director of the Ministry of Helps at Church for All Nations in Colorado Springs, CO. She enjoys freelance writing about the topics of prayer and spiritual growth.
