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 will draw close to the conclusion of our study of effective intercessory prayer. We have made use of this passage as the starting point of why it is so important to lift up others to the Lord with a heart that seeks only for their best interest in spiritual fruitfulness. As well, we have read many different quotations from an assortment of Biblical and theological sources. We have looked at numerous other passages of scripture over these past number of months in an intensity of seeking after the Lord as to what is His heart in regard to the prayers of His saints on this earth. 
This morning, we do so with an intercessory prayer that is a pattern of what it means to open our hearts for the sake of others before the throne of God. It is the prayer of the Apostle Paul recorded in his letter to the Ephesians. Please turn to Eph 3:14-19 and let us read it together. Eph 3:14-19. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Amen.
	This prayer is the heart of all intercessory prayer. Even in terms of our Genesis text, it is the desire after the one being lifted up to become fruitful in the depth of a living relationship with God. As we mentioned at the onset of this study, concerning Isaac and Rebekah, his true prayer was for her to be fruitful in the manner in which she fulfilled her place within the society of her peers as one of the Chosen People of God. 
At that time, it was utterly and absolutely imperative that every wife, who could bear children, did so for the sake of the very survival of the whole tribe of Abraham’s heritage. The only means of continuing to develop and to be strong against the onslaughts of the other tribes and peoples arrayed against them was to be more numerous, and that required many, many children. Therefore, any woman, perceived as barren, was a burden rather than a blessing to the whole tribe. In becoming a mother, Rebekah was translated from a burden to an integral part of the family, and thus was viewed as blessed. 
This correlates with our fruitfulness as Christians in our spiritual growth within the body of Christ. We are taught by the Holy Spirit and receive His guidance and His instruction in our hearts and come into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. All this is through the intercessory prayers of those saints so given to lift up the various members of the Body. In the course of that reality, we become a blessing unto the whole Body, with the heart that soon also begins to intercede on the behalf of others. We take our place within the corporate expression of those prayer warriors who give up all for the sake of the Lord’s testimony on this earth.
This is what the Apostle Paul is praying will develop in the believers at the Church of Ephesus. He desires with all his heart that they will come into spiritual fruitfulness into all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ. Quote, The worldly proverb is, "Every man for himself and God for us all"; the true Christian practice is, to follow Christ: -- "I have prayed for thee, that thy strength fail [sic] not"; "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." And in following the Lord, to follow St. Paul's advice and example: -- "For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." What an intercession this is which St. Paul makes for the Ephesians! It is a pattern of intercessory prayer; it is rightly grounded; it seeks the most precious gifts on behalf of his brethren; it has the highest designs in view in asking their bestowment. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
As we will see, there is a most effective pattern of intercession displayed in this passage. Once again, we are not trying to find a formula or a methodology by which we can force God to do anything. Everything in prayer is first and foremost based on the principle that we are seeking only God’s will in our every prayer. The Apostle Paul highlights this in his letter to the Colossians, Chapter 1, verses 9-12. Col 1:9-12, For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 
To pray effectively is to give ourselves over the Holy Spirit. We seek Him to reveal the knowledge of what is His plan and His purpose and His way in our lives and in the lives of others, no matter what the road or means necessary to that revelation. This is through the intense study of His Word and much time spent with Him in dedication and the absolute desire to be His fruitful people on this earth. In that light, we would come to God in humbleness of heart and contriteness of spirit to pray after His will alone. In the course of that seeking after Him, then, we will see this pattern of heart and mind being established in our prayers.
The first aspect of the Apostle Paul’s prayer was declared by Our Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 21:21+22, And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it shall happen. "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." 
Our faith in God’s will is the reality and the basis of the every prayer that we offer up to God. It must be based on faith. This is not a faith in ourselves to accomplish anything for the Lord. It is not a faith that is set on some fleeting ideal or hopeful stance that some good might come from any given situation. It is the faith in God that will not surrender or doubt or waiver, no matter what the cost, because it is worked into us by the every provision of God Almighty.
As highlighted in the opening stanza, The Apostle Paul’s prayer was founded on the following: quote, 1. The Fatherhood of God. This is the foundation thought of the Lord's prayer -- "Our Father." The Father will not fail us. 2. The brotherhood of the saints in Christ. Heaven and earth are knit into one in Jesus. "Of whom the whole family," every race, "in heaven and earth is named." The sense is that all the classes and communities of heaven and earth own a common paternity. End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
Our faith is in God the Father through Whom everything is brought together. He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for us and to bring us into His very own family. In Jesus Christ, we are presented all the fullness of the Godhead in perfection. This was the heart of the Father from before the very beginning of the eternal ages until its never ending fulfillment. Everything is centered in and to the glory of God, the Father. It is our faith in Him that is the basis of our every prayer of intercession through the ministry and the unity and the absolute inclusion that is ours in Jesus Christ. 
The next aspect of this prayer is that the Apostle Paul was seeking for the spiritual benefit of others in an earnest desire that they would all come into the reality of what it means to be put into the newness of spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Quote, 1. The infusion of spiritual strength -- "to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." 2. The indwelling of Christ -- "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." 3. The establishment of their hearts in the love of God "rooted and grounded in love." End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	This gift of the knowledge of these three elements of spiritual reality comprises the absolute living manifestation of our Christian life. Everything of our place in Christ Jesus is summed up in this infusion of spiritual strength by the indwelling living relationship that we have with Jesus Christ. This is through the revealed love of God in our day to day walk with Him on this earth. If every Christian would so come to the place where we would give ourselves wholly to the service of God in this actuality of life, the Lord’s name would be absolutely and definitively manifested throughout the whole of God’s creation.
	This is why the Apostle Paul was so adamant in this very prayer for all those who would believe upon the name of Jesus Christ. As he wrote to Philemon in verses 4-6, I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. 
	Over and over again, the Word declares that the saints in Christ are to seek this living and effective and sustaining knowledge of what it means to live by Jesus Christ on a daily basis. Such a gift of the knowledge of the fullness of what the Father has established in the giving of The Son should be the very core of everyone who is called by His name. 
	This leads to the final aspect of our consideration of the Apostle Paul’s effective intercession on the behalf of the saints in Ephesus. Quote, Such spiritual strength, and such an indwelling, were to lead to -- 1. Their comprehension of the love of Christ. This is St. Paul's paradox; to know the unknowable, to know the nature, if we cannot know the extent, of the love of Christ. 2. Their being "filled with the fulness of God." Where the Son of God dwells, there is the fulness of God… End quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
	The Apostle Paul expanded upon this prayer of spiritual fruitfulness in the believer as he wrote to the Church at Philippi. Phil 1:9-11, And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. His concern was that the manner in which the saints were conducting themselves would be ever more indicative of the fullness of Christ Who indwelled them. He wanted them to abound still more and more in all the knowledge of the complete treasury of Jesus Christ. Theirs was to be the increasing measure of the witness of Jesus Christ to each other and to all those in their community. 
	As he fully encourages in Chapter 4, verses 6+7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. There is no manner in which we are to allow ourselves to be frustrated and worried about the course of our lives on this earth. If we are fully brought into the living knowledge of the spiritual fruitfulness of Jesus Christ, we will never have any cause to become worried or fretful or have the peace of God frustrated in any manner. We will continually present to our fellow believers and to this world the living expression of those who are born of the Spirit in the full reality of Jesus Christ resurrected and glorified now and forevermore.
	Returning to the Letter to the Ephesians, we close this deliberation with the wonderful support of intercessory prayer that covers all the saints in the full measure of the love of God. Eph 1:18-21. Eph 1:18-21, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 
	Let us beseech the Lord to so reveal Himself to every one of us in order that our prayer ministry will be completely reflective of the living reality of Jesus Christ for His name’s sake in each of those whom He puts upon our hearts to lift before Him in grace and mercy and love. This is something that requires more than words and good intentions; it requires a complete surrender to His will. It demands an insatiable desire to know Him to the uttermost. So let it become the path of every one gathered together in His name. 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 Jer 10:6+7. There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might. Who would not fear Thee, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Thy due! For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like Thee. Amen.