God loves common, simple praying from the least of His children. He delights to answer the prayer, "Father, help!" He heard our grandson Richmond praying years ago when he asked God to help him not be afraid.

But there is a difference between prayer and intercession until God's agenda is accomplished. The Spirit of intercession initiates intercession, sets its duration and content, and pleads before the throne of God to interpret His will (Rom 8:27). We intercede best when we admit our weakness and ask the Holy Spirit to pray through us. The Bible says, "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" (Rom. 8:26-27).

God leans out of heaven to hear and answer radical prayers prayed by radically committed people. Radical prayers are intense, passionate, immoderate, drastic, deep, fiery, and revolutionary. So are radical people. The times are radically serious and will not be changed by so-so prayers prayed by lukewarm, compromised people.

We need radical faith that "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" (Matt. 21:22) and "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15). And we need radical submission to the will and timing of God, knowing our times are in His hands (Ps. 31:15a).

We need radical vision and radical waiting on God. "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the LORD replied: 'Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay' " (Hab. 2:1-3).

We need radical obedience to tread in new places, and we need radical levels of trust to snuggle into His character, by faith content to see only what He lets us see. Trust and obey; there's no other way.

We need God to teach our hands to war (Ps. 144:1), and we need to learn to sit down to enjoy a feast of His presence and His rest in the thick of the battle, right before the eyes of our enemies (Ps. 23:5).

We need those who strongly travail in intercession, who are sharp arrows in the quiver of God, and we need nurturers in prayer who are gifted in mercy, service, and exhortation.

We need to hear God's marching orders and wait to let Him go before us (2 Sam 5:18-25).

We need what He can do, and we must surrender to let Him do it through our prayers.

We need to be strong as tempered steel and harmless as a dove.

Intercession is more than something you do. Intercession is something God does through you. It's not about a day of prayer. It is about a lifestyle of radical, on-going commitment to be available to Him and on assignment with Him in intercession. It is a calling of discernment and identification. It requires dedication of soul and spirit to discern the reality and truth of a situation and then to identify with God's purposes and pray the prayers that bring the two in line. An intercessor feels the needs involved and acts as a vessel to bring the promises and purposes of God to bear until God is glorified.

Intercession is a way of life, and radical intercession means radical worship, radical repentance and hunger for Godl, radical spiritual warfare, radical intimacy with God, and radical planting of the Word of God deep into our spirits to be available to the Spirit as His sword.

Are you radical? Are you ready to get radical?

from: http://www.thefathersbusiness.com/

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon