Gen 25:21, And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
This morning, we continue with our deliberation of effective intercessory prayer. In these terms, we began looking at the Apostle Paul’s instruction for prayer in Eph 6:18-20. Please turn to it as we again read it together. Eph 6:18-20, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 
This is a measure of what is involved in true intercession. As Christians, we are to pray at all times with all our prayers under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Every prayer, to be effective and vital and filled with life, must be heart to heart and spirit to Spirit with God. We must always be so alert to the Holy Spirit with respect to that which honors God and calls forth His love for the sake of others. 
We now come to the fact that we are to pray with all perseverance. This means that we pray and pray and continue to pray without giving up or losing heart. We do not know when the Lord will answer our prayers. We do know, however, that He will answer them at the very perfect time in His divine wisdom and power. In line with constantly being on the alert, we are to watch ourselves with regard to our attitude and our constancy in trusting God to do that which He puts upon our hearts as expressed in our prayers.
As an example, we have those people in our lives for whom we continue to pray, some for 30 or 40 years knowing that those prayers will not be wasted in God’s economy. We do not know when those loved ones will come to know the Lord, but we trust Him to make Himself known to them at just the right time in their lives. Therefore we continually lift them up before the throne of God’s grace and mercy without failure and without doubting in His Sovereign purposes. 
These are those prayers for spouses, and parents, and children, and other family members, and friends, and co-workers, etc., which are brought before God day after day, month after month, year after year, and sometimes decade after decade. We lift them up unto God without losing faith or hope or allowing ourselves to slump into despair and despondency. 
The Lord so encouraged His disciples in the parable of the widow and the corrupt judge which begins with the following truth in Luke 18:1. Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. …to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. This is a core aspect to true intercession. It is not just a single prayer request, uttered once or twice and then forgotten. It is a continually coming before the Judge of Heaven and earth at every opportunity to lift up those whom He has put on our hearts. 
As delineated by The Bible Exposition Commentary, quote, The word perseverance simply means "to stick to it and not quit." The early believers prayed this way (Acts 1:14, These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers; Acts 2:42, And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer; Acts 6:4, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word); and we also should pray this way (Rom 12:12, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer). Perseverance in prayer does not mean we are trying to twist God's arm, but rather that we are deeply concerned and burdened and cannot rest until we get God's answer. As Robert Law puts it, "Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven; it is getting God's will done on earth" (Tests of Life, [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968]). Most of us quit praying just before God is about to give the victory. Not everybody is so constituted that he can sincerely spend a whole night in prayer, but all of us can persevere in prayer far more than we do. The early church prayed without ceasing when Peter was in prison and, at the last moment, God gave them their answer… End Quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
	The next reality of intercession described in this passage is that we are to …be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints… The focal point of these prayers is not ourselves, but other saints in Christ Jesus. This is something that we often fail to take to heart. We can lift our loved ones up in prayer and we often lift ourselves up in prayer. As well, we lovingly pray for those who are lost apart from Jesus because we know what our lives were like before our salvation. These are appropriate and right-minded prayers. But we are specifically instructed to intercede for those who are Christians on this earth. 
	Barnes’ Notes describes seven reasons that this intercession for Christians is so important before the throne of God’s grace and mercy. Quote, We should do this:
(1) because they are our brethren-though they may have a different skin, language, or name.
(2) because, like us, they have hearts prone to evil, and need, with us, the grace of God.
(3) because nothing tends so much to make us love others and to forget their faults, as to pray for them.
(4) because the condition of the church is always such that it greatly needs the grace of God. Many Christians … are cold or lukewarm; many are in error; many are conformed to the world; and we should pray that they may become more holy and may devote themselves more to God.
(5) because each day many a Christian is subjected to some special temptation or trial, and though he may be unknown to us, yet our prayers may benefit him.
(6) because each day and each night many Christians die. We may reflect each night as we lie down to rest, that while we sleep, some Christians are kept awake by the prospect of death, and are now passing through the dark valley; and each morning we may reflect that "today" some Christian will die, and we should remember them before God.
(7) because we shall soon die, and it will be a comfort to us if we can remember then that we have often prayed for dying saints, and if we may feel that they are praying for us. End quote. (from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)  
	The Bible Exposition Commentary further emphasizes the need to pray for fellow saints with respect to the very pattern of prayer given by Christ. Quote, The Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father" - not "My Father." We pray as part of a great family that is also talking to God, and we ought to pray for the other members of the family. Even Paul asked for the prayer support of the Ephesians - and he had been to the third heaven and back. If Paul needed the prayers of the saints, how much more do you and I need them! … Note that Paul did not ask them to pray for his comfort or safety, but for the effectiveness of his witness and ministry. End quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
We are to pray for fellow believers because we are part of one another in Christ. We are to pray for the ministers of the Word because it is required for the Word to be effectively preached and received. We are to pray for each other because it is an earnest and full expression of the love that is in our hearts for Christ and for those whom He has called unto Himself. 
When we give ourselves to intercede for another, we are giving ourselves unto the Lord for His power to be released in that prayer. This does not mean, in any measure that we have control over God or His power. It also does not mean that we have any power of our own to use. Rather, the power of God that is at work in us is His Love as we so give ourselves in prayer for the sake of another. 
If we truly are interceding for others, we know that we are absolutely unable to do anything of ourselves for them. However, we confidently stand in the assurance that God, through any means that He deems necessary in our lives, has the complete and perfect freedom to use us to His glory in their lives. Because we love God and because we love those whom He puts on our hearts, we soon find ourselves moved by that love as a living sacrifice for others. As Christ so loved and laid down His life for us, so do we lay down our lives in living intercession for the sake of His glory in the lives of others! There is no greater expression of love that can be given on this earth. 
	And, to quote J. Venn, Intercession for others will also produce the spirit of love in those for whom we pray. Love creates love. You cannot meet your friend after your heart has been engaged in fervent supplication for him, without expressing that genuine tenderness which will produce a reciprocal regard in him. Intercession enlarges the exercise of friendship: it opens a new source of love. Let not a Christian say, I am forsaken -- I meet with no acts of kindness. Has he then no Christian friends? Let him think of them as interceding for him. Intercession for our friends refines our friendship and redeems it from those debasing feelings by which the attachments of worldly men are so often degraded. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	The next reality of giving ourselves over to intercession for the sake of others is the fact that as we pray, it has a very direct influence on our relationship with God. Again quoting J. Venn, Can you go to the Father of Mercies day by day imploring blessings upon all you love? can you diversify these petitions, adapting them to the various necessities, sorrows, and circumstances of your friends? and do you not exclaim, How infinite the riches, how boundless the power, how vast the bounty of the Being I address? He is the Giver of all good things to my children, to my friend, to my neighbour, to my country, to the whole world, to the universe! End Quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	Think on this for a moment. To truly intercede is to truly know the One unto Whom we are bringing each and every petition, day after day after day. As we are in His immediate presence in our conscious endeavor of prayer, we see Him more and more clearly in all His beauty and grace and mercy and power and glory. We must be touched deep within our beings with the magnificence and the splendor of Him! It can be no other way as we beseech Him to express His infinite love in the lives of those covered in our petitions. 
	With each perfect answer to each prayer, we behold His Sovereignty and His Wisdom in action to manifest His Divine plan and purpose in the individual lives of His people. He guides us into a deeper and deeper relationship with Himself as He teaches us to pray and fills our hearts with the very love of Christ for those whom we lift before Him. Not only does He touch our lives, and the lives of those we bring before Him, but He opens His heart unto us in greater measure as we spend that concentrated time before Him, as we implore that His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven! He makes His will and Himself more and more known to us as we purposefully spend that time with Him in prayer. 
	 Finally, for this morning, is the fact that as we intercede for others, we come to know the One Who constantly intercedes for us. We come into a fuller relationship with Jesus Christ as we practice that which is His unvarying and continuous ministry for us before the Throne of God’s grace. We begin to realize, to an ever increasing measure, just how much He loves us in the giving of Himself for our sakes in eternal intercession. 
Not only do we learn more of the ways of Our Heavenly Father, but we are brought face-to-face with the very One Who laid down His life for us. We come into a complete reality of the totality of intercession in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. This is the core heart of why it is so urgent and so essential for us to become those prayer warriors after God’s hearts in this intercessory ministry. 
	As we pray for others, as instructed by Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Apostles, by the Prophets, and by the example of Isaac praying for the fruitfulness of His beloved wife, we will come into the endless blessing of aligning our hearts and minds into union with God as His people on this earth. The Apostle Paul so encourages us as he writes in 2 Thess 1:11+12. To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Reading this one more time with due diligence and reverence to God’s plan in our lives, 2 Thess 1:11+12, To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So be it!
And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 99:1-3. The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! The Lord is great in Zion, And He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Thy great and awesome name; Holy is He.  Amen.