My team went into a village one Sunday morning in India to preach and share testimonies. Since the pastor “wasn’t ready” at the proposed hour of noon to start church, we ate lunch and arrived a lot later than we intended to, around 2 pm. Even though Indians are flexible with time and arriving places, they are very particular about the end time! Their church service was supposed to end at 3 pm no matter how late the pastor was. We joined the service and sat in the front. The congregation was sitting on the floor, the women and men separated; men on the right and women on the left.
I shared a testimony about using our gifts (based on Matthew 25:14-30) and our teammate Joanna shared a condensed version of the sermon she gave at a different church the prior Sunday on Jeremiah 29:11. Afterward we got to pray for anyone that came up to the front. I jumped at the chance to pray!
Two woman came to the front; one wanting prayer and her friend offering her emotional support, I think. I laid hands on her and without knowing this woman’s name or background, I started praying aloud. I said words that “sounded good” (aka Christian-ese) and that I hoped were touching on what this women needed, even though she couldn’t understand me. When I was done, I looked up and let go of her. But she started crying in my arms! I didn’t know what to do! She leaned her head on my chest and I just held her in my arms and that’s when I felt my heart actually invest in this woman. Sometimes in ministry we can feel like we’re performing our prayers instead of really feeling and believing them. I wasn’t just “saying words” anymore but the cry of her heart was reaching out to mine and I started crying out for her.
Sometimes the people around us just need someone to intercede for them. Intercession is intervening on someone else’s behalf. In the Bible, its when you pray for someone else’s needs. You fill in the gap when they might not be able to. For this woman, I was able to with the help of the Holy Spirit. Who knows what her needs actually were. Who knows if I actually “said” the “right” things. We may never know, but to God, that’s not the point, since He knows. All we can do sometimes is just be there to fill in the gap for our brother or sister.
“In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, since we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27
