Recommended tape series with this article: 

"Priestly Intercession"

Faithful In Saving Power

by Bobbie Jean Merck

For my part, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time you wish; in your great love, answer me, God, faithful in saving power.

Psalms 69:13 The Jerusalem Bible

Whenever

 great 

revivals

were at

 hand,

God

 released

the

revelation

of

the

Priesthood

of

the

Believer

to the

Body

of 

Christ!

~

God

needs an

intercessor,

a people

of prayer

that will

exercise

their

authority

to bring

God's

heaven-born

possibilities

into

this earthly

realm.

"Call unto

Me and

I will

answer

you,

& show

 you

great &

mighty

things,

which

you do

not know"

 (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV).

~

"The

victory

is

certain.

The

Captain

on

whose

side

we are

knows no

defeat."

~

"Somehow

I

sense

God

is

speaking

to

the

Church

of

America,

calling

her

out

of

her

trouble."

   Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, the Messiah.  He is the Christ ~ the Anointed One.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He came to the earth as a living testimony of Almighty God, and as a living expression of the love and the compassion of the Father.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life.

                                                                                     John 3:16

   Jesus died for all ~ every nation, every race, and every tongue in every generation, so that whosoever believes on Him shall be saved and have eternal life.  "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto The knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3,4).  

   He came, died, was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us.  He is the perfect Lamb of God, Who was slain for our sins.  "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).When we trust in His sacrifice for sin, allowing His payment of the penalty for sin in death to be a substitute for us, through Him by faith we are made right with a holy God, and born again as a new creation in Christ Jesus. 

   Jesus Christ is Saviour, Deliverer, Baptizer, Master, Bridegroom, High Priest, and soon coming King.  His titles are too numerous to list here, but even as I have written these few, my soul is magnifying Him and my spirit is rejoicing in God, my Saviour.  "For He who is mighty has done great things for me.  And holy is His name" (Luke 1:59 New King James Version). 

   God is calling us to strengthen our hope, faith, trust and confidence in the ability of Jesus Christ to save and to deliver His people!  He is calling us to increase our expectations in the Lord!  It is time to be convicted and convinced that Jesus Christ is able and willing as our High Priest to do abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works in us for our families, our communities, our nation, and all of the nations in this trying hour that is upon us.  All things are possible with Him.

   "What can I do?" you may ask.  If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, your prayers are made acceptable to God when offered up to Him in the Name of Jesus.  He will hear and move on behalf of your petitions as you pray according to His will (which is revealed in His Word by the Holy Spirit to your born-again spirit) and by praying in the spirit; praying His perfect will out of your spirit in the language the Holy Spirit gave to you when you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. Simply believe that God is faithful and that He acts in accordance with His Word to perform it.  

...Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit...says the Lord of hosts.

                                                        Zechariah 4:6 The Amplifies Bible

The Priesthood of the Believer

   We are invited to enter into a place of prayer with God as a believer, co-laboring with Christ, to literally cause God's plans and purposes to be executed in accordance with His will.  God needs an intercessor, a people of prayer that will exercise their authority to bring God's heaven-born possibilities into this earthly realm.  

   There is a priesthood of the believer.  As I taught this in Stockholm, Sweden, an elderly man came to me bursting with joy.  He told me he was a missionary in Africa.  He was so excited that I had taught on what he called "the priesthood of the believer."  He said that when great revival times were at hand, this revelation was released to the body of Christ.  He had first heard this revelation many years ago at just such a time.

   My heart leaped with joy.  God had told me in 1979 that if He was to do what He wanted to do in the decade of the 80's, it must needs be that His people come into a wisdom, knowledge, and an understanding of the ministry of intercessory prayer.  One of the major truths I taught as He sent me forth to teach His people intercession was the priesthood of the believer.

   Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.  When He shed His blood for all upon the cross, He fulfilled all the law and the prophets and established the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek ~ an eternal priesthood.   His was a better sacrifice, greater than that of bulls and rams.  There is no more need for blood sacrifice for sin, because of Jesus offered up the perfect sacrifice once and for all, and is now our eternal High Priest.  The book of Hebrews expounds wonderfully on this in greater detail.  We too, as believers, are priests unto God.  

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood,

to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,

a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him

who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light....

                                                                                 1 Peter 2:5,9

and here...

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten

of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.  Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us

kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory

and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

                                                                          Revelation 1:5-6

   As a priest, we are intercessors. An intercessor intercedes between two parties, representing the cause of each to the other, seeking to bring reconciliation.  As intercessors, we plead other's cases before God, and we plead God's case to others!  The Latin word for priest is "pontifex", which literally means "bridge builder".  Isaiah 58:12 paints a beautiful picture of the priest-intercessor ministry.  "Those from among you shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In" (New King James Version).

   As a priest-intercessor, we are bridge builders, building bridges in the spirit realm as we pray to God; bridges that others can walk on to reach God, and bridges that God can use to reach and to minister to people.  An example of this could be when we pray, "Lord of the Harvest, send labourers into the harvest".  As God answers that prayer, speaking to the heart of one you may never meet, and sending that one to a people prepared by His Spirit to receive His Word from His servant; you have been instrumental to help set things in motion in the spirit realm that resulted in God moving upon the hearts and lives of people, orchestrating His good plans and purposes on their behalf.  

   As we look to the Holy Spirit to lead us in prayer, we have the confidence that our prayers are effective. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" (Romans 8:26-27 The New International Version).

   Jesus Christ as the High Priest always lives to make intercession for us that He might save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).  Hebrews 7:24 tells us He has an unchangeable priesthood!  Because Jesus is our example, the ministry of a priest-intercessor is unchangeable.  We will always have a God-given desire to pray, and when we yield to that desire, or we simply make a decision to pray, God's Holy Spirit will soon be with us to anoint us for prayer.  Let us be unchangeable in our daily desire to pray.  

If we would rule as kings with Christ our King, we must serve as priests.

We must be intercessors!

WARRING PRIESTS

   Exodus 15:3 says, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name" (The New King James Version).  God had fought Israel's battle and had won.  He is the same today!

    Yes, we are in battles.  But, "The victory is certain.  The Captain on whose side we are knows no defeat" (2 Corinthians 2:14 Conybeare).  As Queen Victoria said, "We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.  They do not exist!"  They do not exist because "...as He is, so are we in this earth."  We are priests unto our God and priests to minister on the behalf of mankind.  Deuteronomy 20:1-4 describes the warring priest.

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.  So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.  And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel:  Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies; do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; for the LORD you God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you'

                                            The New King James Version

   This type of priest was especially appointed for the purpose and designated in rabbinical literature as the "priest anointed for war."  You and I are warring priests.  It is a part of our holy and royal priesthood.  Did you notice His title as a Man of War is connected with His Name being holy in Exodus 15:3?  If the priesthood of the believer especially accompanies revival, then how great it is to be stirred once again to our assignment ~ and here we are 23 years later; i.e. since 1979 ~ with unction to lift up once again the priesthood of the believer.

GREAT AND MIGHTY

   God is planning mighty things, and Jeremiah 33:3 tells us how to experience them.  "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (New King James Version). 

   I was impressed to refer to this verse in the Spirit Filled Life Bible.  I was surprised to see the Kingdom dynamic over this verse.  It is entitled, "Divine Revelation and Spiritual Warfare, Faith's Warfare."  It says:  God promised Jeremiah that if he would call to Him, not only would He answer him, but He would reveal to him "great and mighty things" that could not otherwise be known.  The word "mighty" (Hebrew batsar) is better rendered "isolated" or "inaccessible."  The suggestion is that God would give Jeremiah "revelational insight," revealing things that otherwise would be inaccessible or isolated.

   It further states that such "revelational insight" always has been essential for a clear understanding of victorious spiritual warfare.  One cannot pray effectively without insight into how to pray, as well as into what things that God truly longs for us to seek after in prayer.  The preceding nuggets absolutely link victory and victorious living to prayer.

   Mother Teresa was a mighty warrior as well as a living example of being a holy and royal priest.  She said, "Because we don't pray enough, we see only the human part.  We don't see the divine.  And we resent it."  Is it any wonder our thoughts are turning to our High Priest and prayer?

   Somehow, I sense God is speaking to the Church of America, calling her out of her trouble.  Psalm 69 is an urgent plea for help in trouble.  Verse 13 is the deciding factor in everything that happens in our life.  It determines and makes the difference between success and failure.  And it is our way out of trouble.  "But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear me in the truth of Your salvation" (Psalms 69:13 The New King James Version).

  I absolutely love this verse!  It is the acceptable time for us to rise up as holy, royal, and warring priests; as intercessors, as His holy temples in the truth of His salvation.  The Lord hears us in the acceptable time (Isaiah 49:8; 1 John 5:14,15)!  It is the acceptable time to pray and see Jesus Christ in His glory and resurrection saving and delivering those who are called, chosen, and marked for His possession and glory.

  "Lord, I believe!"  Let us pray!

God is

calling 

us to

strengthen

our hope,

faith,

confidence,

& trust

in the

ability  of

Jesus

Christ.

He is

calling

us to

 increase

our

expectations

in the 

Lord!

~

As a

priest-

intercessor

we are

bridge

builders,

building

bridges

in the

spirit

realm

as we

pray to

God,

bridges

that

others

can

walk

on to

reach

God,

and

bridges

that God

can use

to reach

and  to

minister

to people.

~

"Revelational

insight"

always

has been

essential

for a

clear

understanding

of

victorious

spiritual

warfare."

~

[Mother

Theresa]

"Because

we don't

pray

enough,

we only

see

the

human

part.

We don't

see

the

divine."