Daily Devotional
Deuteronomy 9:18-19 And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also.
By examining the life of Moses, we can identify the traits of a true intercessor. One story that gives us these clues was when Aaron and the Children of Israel made and worshipped the golden calf while Moses was on top of the mountain. Following the incident, it was in the mind of God to completely destroy them, the only reason it never happened was because Moses interceded on their behalf. In responding to this situation, there were three (3) traits that Moses portrayed while interceding on behalf of the Israelites. The first trait of a true intercessor is to maintain favor with God by obeying His laws and instructions. The only reason Moses was in a position for God to listen to his plea for the Israelites is because he consistently acted in a manner that pleased God. Otherwise, God would have simply shut his ears to his cry. Psalms 34:15 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. A true intercessor will walk in righteousness so that God’s ears will be open to their prayers,
Another trait of true intercessors is to put themselves in the shoes of those who they are interceding for. Moses was willing to take the place of the Children of Israel in Exodus 33:32, when he told God that if He would not forgive the sin of the Israelites, then He should blot him out of the Book that He wrote. What Moses was communicating to God was that He was willing to feel and go through what they would go through if they were not being forgiven for their wrong.
The third trait of a true intercessor is self-sacrifice. In Exodus 32:10 when God told Moses to leave Him alone so that he could destroy the Israelites and make him into a great nation. Even though that would benefit Moses, it never excited him; he proceeded to tell God all the reasons this should not be done. He was not interested in benefiting at the expense of those he was interceding for.
Another example of the level of self-sacrifice that Moses put himself through to intercede for the Israelites was recorded in Deuteronomy 9:18-19. To keep the wrath of God away from them he went before God for forty days and nights without bread or water. What was significant about this self-sacrifice was that Moses had just ended a similar fast before the incident, but he never thought it too much for him to do.
In the same way that Moses stood in the gap for the Israelites, be willing to stand in the gap for someone else.
Life Application: Stand in the gap for someone else by maintaining favor with God, put yourself in their shoes and be willing to make great sacrifices.
Prayer: Lord, help me to stand in the gap for those who truly need you, father help me not to put myself above their needs but to put myself in their position as I intercede on their behalf. In Jesus name, amen.
Daily Devotional 
Leave a Reply