#2 Pilot Prayer Team Meeting

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

*December 2, 2009
<http://www.2rbetter.org/>*



   “*WHAT IS AN INTERCESSOR” - 2009-11-13*

*(From “Rees Howells, Intercessor” by Norman P. Grubb)*


 The Central truth, which the Holy Ghost gradually revealed to Mr. Howells,
and which was the mainspring of his whole life's ministry, was that of
intercession. The Spirit can be seen leading him into this in all His
dealings with him, from the time He took full possession of him in the
Llandrindod Convention, until in his dealings with the consumptive woman,
the meaning of intercession became fully clear. From then onward the Spirit
was constantly leading him both to gain new positions as an intercessor, and
to reveal the precious truths he had learned to others able to bear them. It
will be useful, therefore, to stop a moment and to look a little more
carefully into what is meant by being an intercessor.


 That God seeks intercessors, but seldom finds them, is plain from the pain
of His exclamation through Isaiah: *“He saw that there was no man, and
wondered that there was no intercessor”*; and His protest of disappointment
through Ezekiel: *“I sought for a man among them, that should make up the
hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land . . . but I found none.”*


 Perhaps believers in general have regarded intercession as just some form
of rather intensified prayer. It is, so long as there is great emphasis on
the word “intensified”; for there are three things to be seen in an
intercessor, which are not necessarily found in ordinary prayer:
identification, agony and authority.


 The* identification *of the intercessor with the ones for whom he
intercedes is perfectly seen in the Savior. Of Him it was said that He
poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors;
and He bore the sin of many, and *made intercession* for the transgressors.
As the Divine Intercessor, interceding for a lost world, He drained the cup
of our lost condition to its last drop, He *“tasted death for every man”. *To
do that, in the fullest possible sense, He sat where we sit. By taking our
nature upon Himself, by learning obedience through the things which He
suffered, by being tempted in all points like as we are, by becoming poor
for our sakes, and finally by being made sin for us, He gained the position
in which, with the fullest authority as the captain of our salvation made
perfect through sufferings, and the fullest understanding of all we go
through, He can ever live to make intercession for us, and by effective
pleadings with the Father *“is able to save to the uttermost them that come
unto God by Him.” Identification* is thus the first law of the intercessor.
He pleads effectively because he gives his life for those he pleads for; he
is their genuine representative; he has submerged his self-interest in their
needs and sufferings, and as far as possible has literally taken their
place.


 There is another Intercessor, and in Him we see the *agony* of this
ministry; for He, the Holy Spirit, *“makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered.”* This One, the only present Intercessor
on earth, has no hearts upon which He can lay His burdens, and no bodies
through which He can suffer and work, except the hearts and bodies of those
who are His dwelling place. Through them He does His intercessory work on
earth, and they become intercessors by reason of the Intercessor within
them. It is a real life to which He calls them, the very same kind of life,
in lesser measure, which the Savior Himself lived on earth.


 But before He can lead a chosen vessel into such a life of intercession, He
first has to deal to the bottom with all that is natural. Love of money,
personal ambition, natural affection for parents and loved ones, the
appetites of the body, the love of life itself, all that makes even a
converted man live unto himself, for his own comfort or advantage, for his
own advancement, even for his own circle of friends, has to go to the cross.
It is no theoretical death, but a real crucifixion with Christ, such as only
the Holy Ghost Himself can make actual in the experience of His servant.
Both as a crisis and process, Paul's testimony must be made ours: *“I have
been and still am crucified with Christ.”* The self must be released from
itself to become the agent of the Holy Ghost.


 As crucifixion proceeds, intercession begins. By inner burdens, by calls to
outward obediences, the Spirit begins to live His own life of love and
sacrifice for a lost world through His cleansed channel. We see it in Rees
Howell's life. We see it at its greatest height in the Scriptures. Watch
Moses, the young intercessor, leaving the palace by free choice to identify
himself with his slave-brethren. See him accompanying them through *“the
waste and howling wilderness”*. See him reach the very summit of
intercession, when the wrath of God was upon them for their idolatry, and
their destruction was imminent. It is not his body he now offers for them as
intercessor, but his immortal soul: *“If You will forgive their sin -; and
if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your Book”; *and he actually called this
*“making an atonement”* for them.


 See the Apostle Paul, the greatest man of the new dispensation as Moses was
of the old. For years his body, through the Holy Ghost, is a living
sacrifice, that the Gentiles might have the Gospel; finally, his immortal
soul is offered on the altar. The very one who was just rejoicing with the
Romans that nothing could separate him and them from the love of God (Rom.
8), says a moment later, the Spirit bearing him witness, that he could wish
himself *“accursed (separated) from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen
according to the flesh” (*Rom. 9). This is the intercessor in action. When
the Holy Ghost really lives His life in a chosen vessel, there is no limit
to the extremes to which He will take him, in His passion to warn and save
the lost. Isaiah, that aristocrat, had to go *“naked and bare-footed”* for
three years as a warning to Israel. We can hardly credit such a thing! Hosea
had to marry a harlot, to show his people that the heavenly Husband was
willing to take back His adulterous bride. Jeremiah was not allowed to
marry, as a warning to Israel against the terrors and tragedies of
captivity. Ezekiel was not allowed to shed one tear for the death of his
wife, *”the desire of his eyes”*. And so the list might be continued. Every
greatly used instrument of God has been, in his measure, an intercessor:
Wesley for back-sliding England; Booth for the down-and-outs; Hudson Taylor
for China; C. T. Studd for the unevangelized world.


 But intercession is more than the Spirit sharing His groanings with us, and
living His life of sacrifice for the world through us. It is the Spirit
gaining His ends of abundant grace. If the intercessor knows identification
and agony, he also knows *authority*. It is the law of the corn of wheat and
the harvest: *“if it die, it brings forth much fruit”*. Intercession is not
substitution for sin. There has only ever been one substitute for a world of
sinners, Jesus the Son of God. But intercession so identifies the
intercessor with the sufferer that it gives him a prevailing place with God.
He moves God. He even causes Him to change His mind. He gains his objective,
or rather the Spirit gains it through him. Thus Moses, by intercession,
became the savior of Israel and prevented their destruction; and we can have
little doubt that Paul's supreme act of intercession for God's chosen people
resulted in the great revelation given him at that time, of world-wide
evangelization and the final salvation of Israel (Romans 10 and 11), and is
enabling God to bring it about.


 Mr. Howells would often speak of “the gained position of intercession”, and
the truth of it is obvious on many occasions in his life. It is a fact of
experience. The price is paid, the obedience is fulfilled, the inner
wrestlings and groanings take their full course, and then *“the word of the
Lord comes”*. The weak channel is clothed with *authority* by the Holy Ghost
and can speak the word of deliverance. *“Greater works”* are done. Not only
this, but a new position in grace is gained and maintained, although, even
then, that grace can only be appropriated and applied in each instance under
the direct guidance of the Spirit. Mr. Howells used to speak of it, in Mr.
Muller's phrases, as entering *“the grace of faith”*, in contrast to
receiving *“the gifts of faith”*. What he meant was that, when we pray in a
normal way, we may hope that God of His goodness will give us the thing. If
He does, we rejoice; it is His gift to us; but we have no power or authority
to say that we can always get that same answer at any time. Such are the
gifts of faith. But when an intercessor has gained the place of intercession
in a certain realm, then he has entered into *“the grace of faith”*; along
that special line the measureless sea of God's grace is open to him. That is
the gained place of intercession.


 Mr. Howells referred to George Muller's experience. Mr. Muller had never
gained a place of intercession over sickness, but on one occasion God raised
up a sick person for whom he had prayed. On another occasion he prayed for
another sick person, but there was no healing. Mr. Muller, however, said
that this was not a failure in prayer, because he had never gained a place
of intercession over sickness, and therefore the answer to the first prayer
was merely *“a gift of faith”*, which would not necessarily be repeated. On
the other hand, he had gained a place of intercession for the orphans. He
was always ready to be the first sufferer on their behalf; if there was
enough food for all except one, he would be the one to go without; and in
the realm of supply, God held him responsible to see that the needs were
always met, for the doors of God's Treasury had been permanently opened to
him, and he could take as much as he needed.


 Pastor Blumhardt of Germany, on the other hand, was a man who had gained a
place of intercession for the sick. In his first struggles with evil
spirits, it took him more than eighteen months of prayer and fasting, before
he gained the final victory. Complaints were lodged against him of
neglecting his work as a minister and devoting himself to the healing of the
sick, but he said the Lord had given the parable of the friend at midnight
and the three loaves, and, though unworthy, he was going on knocking. He
prayed through, and God did open. Not only were hundreds blessed, but he
raised a standard for the church. After the final victory he gained such
ease of access to the Throne that often, when letters came asking for prayer
for sick people, after just looking up for a single moment, he could find
God's will as to whether they were to be healed or not. The sufferings of
others became so painful to him that he was pleading for them as if for
himself. That was intercession.


 *NOTE**: Report on #2 “Pilot Prayer Team” Meeting*


 We prayed through the chapter on Intercession above from the Biography on
Rees Howells. According tho this, few of us who see ourselves as
intercessors - truly understand how *God* looks on intercession We probably
for the most part are in the “Prayer Warrior” Camp, but are really not
intercessors.


 We prayed for ourselves in the light of this chapter, that individually and
corporately God would lead us into this realm.


 One of our number reported that outside of our ranks, a misunderstanding
has developed. A pastor in the area feels we are trying to usurp the role of
existing prayer meetings. Our member reported that this was not so, and
queried whether the upset brother had contacted us in the light of Matthew
18:15-17. This was the major covenant condition that Derek Prince gave
“Pastor Prayer Meetings” in 1971. The various scriptural steps to retain
proper relationships with one another were agreed upon and accepted at that
time. As long as they were adhered to, an unusual blessing was present.
After 2 years, in the light of the “Disciple-Shepherding” Controversy, this
Covenant was dropped. Perhaps it needs to be re-instated.


 These are the goals we have for the “Pilot Prayer Team”. We desire to have
God possess us individually as God did for Rees Howells in 1906 in Wales.
Then corporately we desire God to possess us as He did 31 years later in
1937 for 120 of those open to follow God with Rees Howells. Sam Matthews of
Shawnee, Oklahoma has been following this same challenge since 1975 with
rather amazing results.


 God has indicated to me in 1966 and confirmed it in 1985 - that He would
like to find and use Pilot Teams of 8 - as His Automated Laser-Telescope.s
Through them He could eliminate principalities and powers over cities,
counties and municipalities, states and provinces - and countries. Teams of
this nature in key cities in Canada and the United States could count in
these last day prior to the return of our Lord Jesus. Such teams should not
interfere with any other existing Groups, but should rather complement and
undergird them. This was certainly true with the Intercessory Prayer Team of
Wales just preceding - and during World War II. We of course, will
appreciate any prayer undergirding on our behalf as we move out to be
available to the Lord.


 I am personally hopeful that the 3 major assignments the Lord has given me
might come to fruition and completion through this Team. I am at the
half-way mark of the Interlinear Greek NT - using the two Bible Numeric NT
texts of Ivan Panin. I have also made a good start on 14 major Greek Word
Study Outlines that undergird the Embryonic Revival Principles of 1948. And
lastly, we would like to see these Embryonic Revival Principles brought to
maturity in our day. They are listed on our Website at the instigation of
Richard Long of Ottawa, Canada.


 One of our Pilot Team members has submitted an article by David Wilkerson,
which he felt confirmed the way God is leading us. I am including this as a
conclusion. Thanks again to the many of you who have encouraged us to
persevere on this project. - Jim Watt


 “*Peace and the Holy Spirit” - David Wilkerson*


 On whom does Jesus bestow his peace? You may think, “I'm not worthy of
living in Christ's peace. I have too many struggles in my life. My faith is
so weak.” You may do well to consider the men to whom Jesus first gave his
peace. None of them was worthy, and none had a right to it. Think about
Peter. Jesus was about to bestow his peace on a minister of the gospel who
would soon be spewing out cursings. Peter was zealous in his love for
Christ, but he was also going to deny him. Then there was James and his
brother John, men with a competitive spirit, always seeking to be
recognized. They asked to sit at Jesus' right and left hand when he ascended
to his throne in glory. The other disciples were no more righteous. They
simmered with anger at James and John for trying to upstage them. There was
Thomas, a man of God who was given to doubt. All of the disciples were so
lacking in faith, it amazed and stressed Jesus. Indeed, in Christ's most
troubling hour, they would all forsake him and flee. Even after the
Resurrection, when the word spread that “Jesus is risen,” the disciples were
slow to believe. But there's even more. These were also confused men. They
did not understand the ways of the Lord. His parables confused them. After
the Crucifixion, they lost any sense of unity they had, scattering in all
directions. What a picture: These men were full of fear, unbelief, disunity,
sorrow, confusion, competitiveness, pride. Yet it was to these same troubled
servants that Jesus said, “I am going to give you my peace.” The disciples
weren't chosen because they were good or righteous; that much is clear. Nor
was it because they had talent or abilities. They were fishermen and day
laborers, meek and lowly. Christ called and chose the disciples because he
saw something in their hearts. As he looked into them, he knew each one *would
submit to the Holy Spirit*. At this point, all that the disciples had was a
promise from Christ of his peace. The fullness of that peace was yet to be
given to them, at Pentecost. That's when the Holy Spirit would come and
dwell in them. We receive the peace of Christ from the Holy Spirit. This
peace comes to us as the Spirit reveals Christ to us. The more of Jesus you
want, the more the Spirit will show you of him - and the more of Christ's
actual peace you will have.



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