Divine Name Popping

Just a little bit ago I got a call out of the blue from a friend just to tell me that in her prayer time this morning God had brought me to mind and wanted me to know that me and my family were being prayed for and are very loved. Earlier this month I shared in Thirty Years Later that Christmas can be a tough time for me. This friend of mine knows this…and has reasons of her own for having a hard time at Christmas too. Her call made my day. I needed to hear that.

It brought to mind an important truth: that Jesus is always praying for us. Paul says in Romans 8:34 (NIV) Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

And so is the Spirit. Romans 8:26-27 (NIV) 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 through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

What I have been learning is that Jesus and the Spirit like to include us in their intercession, so the Spirit brings people to mind for us to pray for with Him and Jesus. You have experienced that right? A name pops into your head for no apparent reason and you are suddenly moved to pray for them? I believe that this is what is going on, that Jesus is leading us to join Him in His ministry of intercession for His people.

A few years ago I listened to a man tell the story of how he was working in a mine when a beam collapsed and hit him in the back of the head. He was rushed to the hospital with a serious head injury. The doctors told him that an inch lower and it would have missed his hard hat and he would have died. But because of where it hit and his hard hat, he would make a full recovery.

The next day while he was in the hospital a friend called him on his cell (he no idea that he was in the hospital) and asked him if anything had happened the night before at 5:15pm because his name came suddenly came to mind at that time and felt a serious compulsion from the Spirit to pray for his safety. That was the same time he got hit with the beam. Coincidence? I think not.

So the next time a name pops into your head and you get the urge to pray, do it. Do it however you feel led. You never know how much of a difference you will make. But big or little, you will make a difference.