Andrew Murray: AnIntercessory Spirit

I find there are Christians who think little of that. I find there are prayer unions where they pray for the members, and not for all believers. I pray you, take time to pray for the Church of Christ. It is right to pray for the heathen, as I have already said. God help us to pray more for them. It is right to pray for missionaries and for evangelistic work, and for the unconverted. But Paul did not tell people to pray for the heathen or the unconverted. Paul told them to pray for believers. Do make this your first prayer every day: “Lord, bless Thy saints everywhere.”

The state of Christ’s Church is indescribably low. Plead for God’s people that He would visit them, plead for each other, plead for all believers who are trying to work for God. Let love fill your heart. Ask Christ to pour it out afresh into you every day. Try to get it into you by the Holy Spirit of God: I am separated unto the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. God help us to understand it.

May God grant that we learn day by day to wait more quietly upon Him. Do not wait upon God only for ourselves, or the power to do so will soon be lost; but give ourselves up to the ministry and the love of intercession, and pray more for God’s people, for God’s people round about us, for the Spirit of love in ourselves and in them, and for the work of God we are connected with; and the answer will surely come, and our waiting upon God will be a source of untold blessing and power.”

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) in Absolute Surrender (Chicago: Moody Press, 1895) 17-18. Download this classic work in PDF form freely here. 

This is the sixth of seven posts from this book at this time. Each day I will conclude with the Surrender Novena (in bold italics). Pray it daily. See what happens.

Today's photo features a sunset from a past hunting trip to Mott, North Dakota. As I hunt for pheasant and pursue absolute surrender, I just had a cool aha moment.

God reminded me to seek Him with all I am and all I have, like my dog works the fields from side to side, nose up sniffing or nose down tracking the scent of pheasant.

At the end of a day, the dog eats and drops in bed. Why? She gave 100% to seeking the pheasant. That needs to be you and me giving our all to seek after God.

An area of growth for me in seeking God is intercessory prayer for others.

This reading really convicted me in my own pursuit of absolute surrender. But first think of what we have learned this week and how it all fits together.

The one thing God desires is absolute surrender. Then we learned that we need grace and God’s Word to live a life of surrender and obedience in fellowship with God.

We learned to set aside our will and do the work God asks of us, while simultaneously letting God work in us as He pleases.

Then we took the form of empty cups and asked God to fill us with love. And yet, notice where Murray goes next. We shift the focus from ourselves to praying for the Lord’s people everywhere.

I have been trying to increase the amount of time I pray each day. I do it when I am walking. And yet, today’s post was really eye-opening for me. Why? I don’t pray for the saints enough.

While I think Murray overlooks New Testament texts where Paul does call for prayer for the lost (Romans 10:1), for evangelistic efforts (Colossians 4:3 and 2 Thessalonians 3:1), and for everyone (1 Timothy 2:1-4), he’s right to emphasize that we should pray for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

Notice how this links to surrender and generosity.

We appear before the throne of God as empty, loving, and humble intercessors caring for others, and not just with our own list of petitions.

I visited my parents last week. They model this. Every day we prayed for long blocks of time. It was so sweet. I see God care for them year after year as they give themselves to caring for and praying for the neighbors in their lives.

Again, I have room for growth in this area. What about you? How might your absolute surrender journey benefit by more time praying for all the saints? 

The fuel for this, I am finding, is gratitude. When we take a posture of thankfulness for all God’s blessings, rather than focus on ourselves and our own problems we get eyes to see the needs around us and a heart to pray for fellow believers going through hard times.

Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything. Amen.