Bill Johnson - Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit Are Interceding for You
Sometimes we pray for a situation; intercession stands in the shoes of another and prays on behalf of them as though it were our own issue. When you pray for your neighbor, it’s not just praying at them; we pray as though their struggles are ours. This is incredible! Jesus and the Holy Spirit both put on our shoes and pray for us as though our issues were theirs. Now, let’s move on to verse 26. It says, «Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness.» We don’t know how, I mean, we all have weaknesses; is anyone aware of those? Yeah, but we probably wouldn’t have listed the one He listed: «for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.» He considers it a weakness for us not to know what to pray for. In verse 27, «He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.»
Now, I don’t know how you look at this, but this is how I look at it: God, I want a million dollars, and then I pray in tongues, and the Holy Spirit says, «Man, don’t give him a million dollars!» Do not listen to that last request because we’re trying to make him like Jesus, and that will only mess things up. He always prays exactly according to the heart and the will of God. He knows exactly the tools, the elements, and the issues that will take us to where we are all headed. We have all been predestined, according to scripture, to be conformed to the image of Jesus. So, everything that He does in us, He works in us to that end: that the end result is we would adequately represent Jesus.
Well, now look at verse 28. This is a verse that is quoted very often from this chapter: «We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.» Look at it again: «We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.» I’m not a cook; my job is to buy cookbooks because I married a cook. It’s my job to inspire her, and thankfully she’s easily inspired. I did a fast some years ago; maybe you heard me confess my sins: I did a long fast, and during that fast, I bought 29 cookbooks! Oh really? I even bought a deep fryer, and we don’t eat fried foods, but I was dreaming of sweet potato fries. I figured that was the will of God for my life, so I bought a deep fryer. I love Amazon.com and the one-click thing, you know? You buy a book on there, and with just one click—boom, it’s mine. They send it in the mail, and it says, «Those who bought that cookbook also bought these,» and I look at them and think, «Oh, I see why,» and click, «That one’s mine too! That one’s nice!»
So, I’m not a cook; I suppose my wife is encouraging me to learn with her so we can cook together. Who knows? It could happen, but let’s just say we were going to make some cookies today. You need some sort of flour, butter—oh, wait, that’s just a cracker; there’s no butter! Please, something else; it’s not a cookie without butter. You need some sort of sugar; I like coconut sugar because it’s healthier, and I like its flavor. So we’ve got butter, flour, and sugar. I don’t know; you may want oatmeal. I like oatmeal chocolate chips—no raisins! No raisins! You can’t make it as a grape, so we don’t want you in our cookie. Yes, I’m sorry if you like raisins, but I’d rather avoid them. I like them in their pre-spoiled form: a grape! Anyway, then maybe you add some vanilla extract. You ever taste vanilla extract? It’s nasty, but somehow that nasty thing enhances this entire recipe.
Most everyone in this room has some nasty ingredient in your life that, when it gets worked into the entire recipe, testifies to God’s grace. Suddenly, that which you didn’t like takes on meaning; it illustrates the redemptive work of Christ. It models grace, and a lot of the things we would remove—well, He didn’t cause them. He has decided, «I’m going to demonstrate that all things work together for good.» I’m going to use every part of the recipe, and the end result will be that you’ll be like Jesus. That’s His ambition; that’s His vision for us.
Verse 31: «If God is for us, who can be against us?» I love that verse so much! I don’t know why; I guess, how many know people can be against you? Demons can be against you; the devil can be against you. He’s not saying nobody can be against you because God is for you; he’s just saying if God is for you, no one else gets to vote. No one else gets a say in the outcome. They can have their opinion, but the council is comprised of God. If God is for you, nobody can be against you. That counts!
Here’s the verse that would probably do us well to prayerfully meditate on for about 20 years: verse 32. «He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?» Look at it again: «He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?» Stunning verse! Stunning verse! Biblical meditation seems to be almost a lost art, at least in many circles. Eastern meditation is about emptying the mind; biblical meditation is about filling the mind. It’s completely different. Eastern meditation actually opens you up to a spiritual realm where you can easily come under the influence of an evil spirit. Biblical meditation is joining your mind with the mind of Christ and considering—it’s probably the best illustration of biblical meditation is a cow chewing its cud.
It brings it up to chew over and over again; that’s what meditation is. You take a thought or a verse and you review it, you pray over it, you think about it, maybe you quote it, you write it on paper, put it on the dashboard of your car. It’s just something you review over and over again because you can tell there is something here for me, and I don’t want to glance over it quickly. I want to ensure that the full impact of this verse hits me. This is one of them: Can this Father who freely gave us His Son to suffer in ways that are unimaginable, how would He do something so extreme and not also include everything else that is short of that extreme? If He did this, do you think your car payment doesn’t matter to Him? Do you think it’s possible for a Father who is that good to go to this extreme and not care about what you care about?
We make Him this religious figure that cares about spiritual things and nothing else, and it’s just not consistent with the testimony of scripture. It’s not consistent with the lifestyle and model that Jesus Himself gave for us. So here’s this statement, a statement that could stand by itself for eternity: «How shall He who gave us His Son to not only die a most gruesome death but to carry upon His flesh the weight of every sin of every human being throughout all time—how could there be anything that would come up in our life that wouldn’t matter to Him?» This chapter is to endear us to the Spirit of God, who models and illustrates this kind of Father, who models and illustrates this kind of compassion, this kind of deep, deep concern.
Jump down to verse, excuse me, verse 34: «Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.» Here’s the interesting thing: verse 26 and 27 says the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us; verse 28 says all things work together for good; verse 34 says Jesus makes intercession for us. I wonder why everything works out. What does intercession mean? It means to stand in the shoes of another. Sometimes we pray for people; forgive me, but I’ve seen this for years. People will pray for effective ones. A lady that was visiting met me at the back door and said, «I want you to agree with me to curse the city of San Francisco.» I said, «No,» I said, «I’m not going to be doing that.» So she tried to cast a demon out of me; that was interesting. She said, «Come out of him, you foul spirit!» Yeah, yeah, let’s go.
Sometimes we pray for a situation; intercession stands in the shoes of another and prays on behalf of them as though it were our own issue. When you pray for your neighbor, it’s not just praying at them; we pray as though their struggles are ours. This is incredible! Jesus and the Holy Spirit both put on our shoes and pray for us as though our issues were theirs. They’re approaching the Father not because He has chosen evil and they’re trying to talk Him out of it. There’s been that concept for years that couldn’t be more wrong. It’s the Holy Spirit and Jesus that are coming before the Father because prayer is His assignment; it is His will. This is how the economy of Heaven functions. There is a partnership, and there are requests. In this request, the partnership of God and man, or the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is illustrated through perfect unity and camaraderie. Here, they pray for you and for me, and the testimony of God praying for us is the covenant promise: it’ll all work together for good.