Just One Intercessor
You often hear people speak of a "holy generation" that God is raising up; a prophetic generation, a movement that will change history. I believe in this. Indeed, this is the very groan of creation itself - sons and daughters walking in the full glory and authority of God. I pray that this would be my own generation.
But how many men and women does it take to change history?
First Samuel tells of a time in Israel's history where "there was no widespread revelation" (1 Samuel 3:1). The phrase "no widespread revelation" means that God was not speaking to any of the religious leaders at that time. God doesn't release His word when no one is waiting for it. Why would God speak to those who don't care to listen? He never casts His pearls upon swines. Oh, don't misunderstand the religious atmosphere of the time - the teachers and preachers of the day were still teaching and preaching. They were still holding their conferences in Shiloh, telling the people all kinds of things.
But God wasn't speaking.
Eli was the head priest, and his sons basically ran the show. They led the services, accepted the sacrifices, and wore the special garments that distinguished them from the ordinary layperson. The Bible tells us that the sons of Eli gorged on the meat sacrifices of the people before they were offered to the Lord, and that they slept with the women who worked in the tabernacle. They were a disgrace to the true priesthood - preaching and “praying” in the house of God but brazenly doing as they pleased and feeding their every carnal desire. The people of the nation were dutifully going to church, listening to the words of their “pastors,” offering up their sacrifices, and yet, the "word of the Lord was rare."
I wonder, did anyone notice that the Lord was gone? It appears not. Eli attempted to reprimand his sons for their overt immorality on a few occasions, but then casually went on his way, perhaps with a flustered sigh. In fact, when he saw a woman named Hannah silently praying in the temple, he actually thought she was drunk! Apparently, it was more common for a drunkard to stumble into the temple and mumble to themselves than it was for a man or woman to actually pray. And yet, the prayers of one woman would prove to turn the very course of the very religious system that Eli was leading.
It may have been strange for a person to be praying at that time, but God has always answered the cries of the humble heart. Even one humble heart. Hannah was barren, and she was crying out to the Lord for a child. Hannah was looking for one child, and God was looking for one soul to change a nation. Hannah probably didn't even realize it at the time, but God used her weak prayers as adequate intercession for a barren nation. Soon, she had a son that she named Samuel, and she consecrated him as a Nazarite unto the Lord. In response to one woman's prayers, God raised up a prophet of thunder to speak to a nation.
It took one intercessor to birth a prophet, and God used one prophet to visit a nation. At the beginning of 1 Samuel 3 we find the words, "And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation." At the end of the chapter we see that "all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord."
The Lord appeared again! They may not have known that He was gone, but they knew it when He showed up again. One boy, faithfully ministering to the Lord night and day, was all God needed to speak to the soul of a nation. The desperate intercession of one woman, the faithful worship and consecration of one boy, and Yahweh appeared to Israel once again in word and deed.
One lovesick worshipper can steer the course of a nation…what could two do?
In Acts 13:2 we find something amazing: "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" Even as Samuel gave himself to ministry unto the Lord, 1000 years later we find a group of Christians in the city of Antioch giving themselves to prayer and fasting. The result of their focused pursuit was the commissioning of two genuine apostles, set apart to the nations of the earth. Read it yourself. God's sovereign choice met man's free response and two anointed messengers were sent to the ends of the earth. Cities, nations, whole cultures and even continental regions were affected by the words and power of these two men.
Two men praying and fasting can shake a region…what could a dozen do?
Years before Paul and Barnabas, Jesus Christ chose 12 men to be with him. They were the weakest of the weak, the insignificant ones, the rejected and pushed aside. He showed them how to pray, He showed them His wonders, He taught them the Word, and He showed them the Father. Three years later, He gave them His Holy Spirit as they ministered unto the Lord, and they were filled with the love and power of God. Eleven of these young men would go on to give their lives for His sake, even unto martyrdom; the other one would survive to give the church one of the most important prophecies in the entire Bible – the book of Revelation. None of them were religious scholars; all of them are considered to be the apostolic fathers of our religion. If two can shake a region, twelve can turn the world upside down for generations to come.
John Wesley, the founder of the powerful Methodist movement of the 18th century declared, “Give me 12 men that love nothing but God and hate nothing but sin and I will turn the world upside down.” Were these merely words – a good sermon title? A generation later the world was still recovering from the shock waves of the Spirit that had been poured out under Wesley’s ministry.
Recently I heard the story of a meeting between the revivalist Leonard Ravenhill and the leader of a major charismatic denomination. The leader was boasting that their ministry had seen 100 million believers baptized in the Spirit. Ravenhill stopped him and asked, "You're saying that there are 100 million believers baptized in the Holy Spirit in your denomination?" After the other man's confident affirmation, Ravenhill began to suddenly break down and weep. He said, "You're telling me that we have 100 million believers running around that are baptized in the Spirit, and yet there is not a single city in the western world that has been transformed by revival. It only took two men in the ancient world to turn an entire city on its head."
Beloved, we need to be weeping over the very same thing. We have fallen so far from our inheritance as Christians that we settle for the scraps of clever sermon series and talented worship leaders. Like the generation before Samuel, do we even notice any more when the Lord’s prophetic word and His miraculous power is absent in our midst? Who will give himself to the ministry of prayer until God's voice thunders over an entire region once again? A whole generation of holy vessels will truly be the climax of God's purposes on this side of eternity, but just as in the days of Hannah, it starts with one.
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