When you pray each day, how much of those prayers do you offer for other people?
Our daily prayers should include praise, thanksgiving and repentance. But the majority of our prayers should be intercessory prayers: praying for God’s Work and for other people.
That is not natural. Particularly when we’re amid a trial, our prayers can begin turning inward, focusing on ourselves and our troubles. Some people’s physical pain can be so intense that it is difficult to focus attention on anything else. In a way, that is probably how we all tend to be: Whatever pain or problem we might have, it’s easy for that to dominate our minds—and our prayers.
We must make a strong effort every day to fight our own selfishness in our prayer life. We must learn and become very skilled at making intercessions the heart of our prayers.
The Bible shows that those individuals God calls into His Church today are His priests (1 Peter 2:9). That will be our job forever—yet God says He has already made us priests (Revelation 1:6; 5:10). In a sense, as far as God is concerned, all of His Spirit-begotten people, not just the ministers, hold that office in a spiritual sense today.
One of the major responsibilities of a priest of God is intercessory prayer.
A Holy Priesthood
The Apostle Peter gave us a wonderful picture of our calling, labeling God’s people “an holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). How vibrant is that reality in your mind: that as one of God’s firstfruits, you are part of a holy priesthood?
In the same passage, the chief apostle wrote that God’s people are “a royal priesthood”—not just the ministers, but all of God’s firstfruits!
Why did Peter use that terminology? He was an expert in the Old Testament, and he linked our job as God’s firstfruits with the priests that served in the tabernacle and the temple in ancient Israel. There you had a high priest—who pointed toward our High Priest today, Jesus Christ. Then serving under him was a whole priesthood, each priest fulfilling his priestly duties.
Those priests were a type of God’s firstfruits today! They pointed toward the role of the firstfruits in God’s eternal Family! They were a type of the firstfruits. The job they did teaches us about our job—as God’s royal priesthood today.
What is the job of a priest? Peter gets pretty specific: “… to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (verse 5). Those priests offered physical sacrifices—but that was only a type of what we offer today. We offer up spiritual sacrifices.
How much do you know about those sacrifices? How much does what Peter is talking about here impact your everyday life?
One of the offerings the priests made anciently was actually a direct type of our daily prayers.
A Priestly Honor
Anciently, right at the heart of the tabernacle was the ark of the covenant, covered by the mercy seat. That holiest of all holy places was sealed off by a veil. Right in front of that veil was the golden altar, upon which the high priest would burn incense every morning and evening.
That physical altar was a type of the true golden altar that sits in the third heaven, right before God’s throne! The incense ritual anciently was a type of our daily prayers—ascending to God like a sweet fragrance, offered right before God’s throne. There an angel offers spiritual incense “with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne,” and this holy mixture “ascend[s] up before God” (Revelation 8:3-4). And remember, the veil separating the altar from the ark was ripped in two when Christ died (Matthew 27:51)—which symbolized the reality that we now have direct access to God’s throne room in our prayers.
When we pray, our prayers ascend right to God’s royal throne room! To kneel down and speak to God in prayer—to be able to make an offering to God before the incense altar—is a noble, exalted priestly privilege! We’re entering the royal throne room and making a spiritual sacrifice on that golden altar as one of God’s royal priests! What an honor.
And what a responsibility. One of our duties as part of God’s holy priesthood is to offer sweet incense to God each day. The job of a priest really revolves around this golden altar.
Our Primary Focus in Life
Revelation 11:1 contains an important commission for our work today, “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.”
God revealed the truth about this verse to our pastor general back in 1992. Even in Malachi’s Message, Gerald Flurry put in a reference linking the altar with the ministry. But in the February 1992 Trumpet, he printed an article called “Inspiring New Truth—Measuring the Temple.”
“In Revelation 11:1, God commissions the pcg to measure the ‘altar’ first, and secondly ‘them that worship therein,’” he wrote. “Today, the altar represents the ministers that lead the worshippers. The altar is mentioned first because of the very crucial responsibility the ministers have toward God and the saints” (emphasis mine throughout).
Mr. Flurry then talked about how this “altar” is referring to the golden altar before God’s throne. “The ministers’ job is to direct the kind of spiritual sacrifices made on the golden altar! The greatest, most magnificent job ever given to any man! And God watches it with the closest scrutiny.
“The incense altar is a type of the holiest place in the universe. Spiritually, it [also] represents the ministers serving the great God!” That is what God is referring to when He calls His ministry “the altar.” He’s talking about the fact that a priest’s job revolves around that golden altar!
The incense altar is so closely associated with the priesthood that it is actually a type of the priesthood!
In 1998, Mr. Flurry reprinted this article in the May-June issue of Royal Vision. When he did, he added this statement: “The royal ministry must lead the people in building the golden character of God. That is why mankind was created. The ministry must lead God’s people in building their entire lives around the incense altar!” Are you and I building our lives around the incense altar? He continued, “Our primary focus in life must be on how we talk to God in prayer! That is our number-one priority. That is how we grow in God’s royal Family.” What an earthshaking statement!
God has made us priests. We are called to serve as the priests of God forever. And perhaps the best way to prepare to be a priest is to learn to pray like a priest.
This is particularly important for those of us who have been ordained into the ministry today. But the fact is, all of God’s firstfruits are called into God’s royal priesthood. The job the ministers have in the Church today is just a type of the job that all of us will have toward the whole world very soon! God needs a royal priesthood to serve the needs of the world.
As Herbert W. Armstrong said, one of the primary ways we serve this world—and this Work and Church, and God’s people—is through our prayers (sidebar, page 21). As we do so, God builds our character and prepares us for our eternal positions as priests of God and of Christ.
How does God expect His priests to pray?
The Art of Prayer
The golden altar God had the Israelites construct anciently was beautiful and elegant (e.g. Exodus 30:1-5). He instructed, “And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee” (verse 6). The altar was right before the ark and the mercy seat, and God said, This is where I’m going to meet with you! We have an appointment—we’re going to gather together—and we’re going to commune with each other at my throne—by way of this golden altar.
Verses 7-8 show that the priest would offer incense every morning and every evening, just as most of us do today. But it is called “a perpetual incense.” It was to be constantly burning. Likewise, we are to “[p]ray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). That is a priestly priority.
It took a lot of work to prepare this incense and offer it just as God commanded (Exodus 30:34). God is also specific about how He wants us to pray. We need to work at it, and must not be casual or cavalier about it.
Anciently that incense was to be “blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy” (verse 35, Revised Standard Version). Our July/August 2009 Royal Vision explained: “God expected the priests to delight in and take tremendous care, and to be constantly honing and perfecting their ability to make incense. He wanted them to make it a form of art. God wants the same from His priests today: He wants His people to hone and perfect the way they pray. He wants His priests to develop the art of prayer!” (“Burning Incense: Our Number-One Priority!”, read this entire article for a more detailed description of these physical types.)
Verse 36 shows that the incense had to be beaten “very small.” Grinding these spices finely took great effort and time. Likewise, our prayers are to be detailed and specific. It’s not good enough to say, “Bless Mr. Flurry,” “Bless the brethren,” or “Heal the sick.” God really wants us to get detailed, and to beat those prayers fine.
Our prayers should have the “ingredients” that God commands throughout the Bible, including praise, thanksgiving and repentance. But again, the most plentiful ingredient in our prayers should be intercessions.
Why Pray for Others?
The Apostle Paul wrote, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1, rsv). First of all! Paul is talking about our number-one priority—our primary focus in life: improving our prayer life.
The apostle urges us to make supplications (petitions or requests), prayers, intercessions, and even thanksgivings (gratitude—grateful language to God, as an act of worship) for all men! We should actually thank God for them, and for the good things He does for them. That is a good-size prayer list right there.
Take this to heart when you come before God. Regularly make requests, intercessions and offer thanksgiving for all men! That means more than just saying, “I pray for all men—I thank you for all men”—it means really breaking it down, beating it fine, and getting specific.
Paul gets even more specific. He instructs us to pray for kings and those in authority (verse 2). God wants us to expand our thinking, broaden our perspective, through our prayers. He wants us to build the mindset of Jesus Christ by the way we pray. Why would God want us to learn to pray for all men? “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (verses 3-4). God wants us to realize that His plan includes everybody!
Yes, God is only calling a few today. But He is only calling those few in order to help Him bring everyone into the Family! He wants all men to be saved and to learn the truth. What Paul is saying is, we need to want the same thing! We need to learn to think like that—and a major way to do that is by developing that mindset in our daily prayers!
If you want to learn to think like God, Paul is saying, then first of all, I urge you to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings for all men! Because God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth!
Are your prayers too small-minded? Are they too focused on yourself, or the people or circumstances immediately around you? If we are bringing God into our prayers—if we’re praying in the Spirit and thinking like God—then our prayers will show real concern and love for all men. We will be earnest in our prayers for this Work, which is their only hope. We will pray that we would be able to reach people, that we’d get God’s warning to them! We will pray that God would correct them—in love and with mercy. We will pray that they would all come to the knowledge of the truth.
What a Priest Really Does
Notice how Paul continued this thought: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Here is how Christ conducted Himself.
If you want to know what the role of a priest is, just look at Christ! He is giving Himself and serving and sacrificing—to be a mediator between God and men. A mediator is a go-between—a reconciler or intercessor. That is what being a priest is about: bringing people to God. It is about serving as a link between God and man. It’s about facilitating a family relationship between the Father and a Spirit-begotten son.
That is what Christ is doing today. Christ is our High Priest. He is the Priest of all priests! He is Mediator—He is Intercessor—He is Advocate. He takes the incense we offer, and He refines it and brings it before the Father to intercede for us.
So much of His effort and energy is put into these intercessory prayers. Christ lives to make intercession for His people! (Hebrews 7:25). This is His purpose right now. This priestly job is a major, daily responsibility. His mind is constantly focused on our trials, problems, difficulties, requests.
Really, Christ is building His life around the incense altar! Because that is what makes possible this relationship between us and the Father.
We need to learn to pray like Christ! (1 Timothy 2:8). He is our example. He is the master at making supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings for all men. And God wants the same commitment to the responsibility of intercessory prayer from His priests today.
This is the primary way we can learn to pray like a priest.
How Christ Prays
How does Christ pray? The Apostle John wrote out a detailed outline of one of Christ’s prayers. It is the most remarkable prayer in Scripture—and is surely one of the Bible’s deepest chapters. It gives us wonderful insight into Christ’s prayer life with His Father. It shows how a faithful priest of God prays! It gives us much to emulate in our own prayers.
Lange’s Commentary labels John 17 “The high-priestly, intercessory prayer of Christ on behalf of His people.” Remarkably, He prayed this the night before He was crucified, while under the agony and pressure of that imminent brutality. If you want an example of how to pray while you’re in a trial, study this chapter.
None of us, of ourselves, could ever pray as Christ did here—but we can allow Christ to come in our flesh, and we can bring Christ’s mind into our prayers. Then we can pray like this! Our spiritual sacrifice on that golden altar will be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
This prayer is saturated with honor for the Father—not just at the beginning, but all the way through.
Father—I just want to glorify you, Christ begins in John 17:1. Note throughout the prayer how He focuses not on Himself but on His Father. Knowing you is real life! You are the only true God. You have given me these disciples, but they are yours. All mine are yours. Your word is truth. What deep respect and honor Christ showed toward His Father in His prayers.
We ought to strive to express such honor in our prayers. Rather than skipping through a few words of praise at the beginning so we can get to what we want, stop and really praise Him! Offer your heart to Him—at the beginning, and all the way through. That’s what a priest does.
Remarkably, in this prayer, Christ makes only two requests for Himself. The first is in verse 1: He asked the Father to glorify Him—so He could glorify the Father! The second is in verse 5: He asked the Father to glorify Him—so He could be with the Father! Christ prayed for Himself, but even those requests were unselfish.
The greatest portion of this prayer—more than double everything else—is Christ interceding for His people. Christ deeply focused on praying for others.
A Three-Part Formula
John 17 supplies a three-part formula that we can emulate in our intercessory prayers for God’s Work and God’s people.
First, Christ praised His people before the Father. Scripture says Satan is the accuser of the brethren. Christ is the praiser of the brethren! They have kept your word, He prayed. Notice that, Father! They have received your words. They have believed! They know! (verses 6-8). Christ brought to His Father’s attention all these good points. He reminded God of His disciples’ faithfulness and responsiveness to Him.
That is how a priest should pray. You must notice those positive things—and then talk to God about the good points you see in His precious people! As Paul said, offer up thanks for those people.
Second, Christ informed the Father about the difficulties His people face. “Jesus Christ came in human form and understands the pulls of the flesh,” Mr. Flurry writes. “He knows the weaknesses of the human spirit and the flesh. With that experience, He can help us get through to the Father in every detail. He has experience the Father doesn’t have. And the Father wants to hear His point of view. … The Father says to Christ, I want to hear you tell me about my son” (The Last Hour, “Our Advocate When We Sin”).
Here in John 17, we get a glimpse at those conversations that take place in the third heaven. In verses 11 and 14, Christ passionately and with detail says, Your people are right here in the midst of this satanic world—with all the pressures and pains and trials that come with it. They’re being hated—persecuted! They’re strangers and pilgrims—and that’s not an easy thing to endure. I can tell you—I experienced it! They have a difficult road. Satan is coming after them. The world hates them.
How awesome to have someone else, someone like that, praying for you! We can certainly talk to God in the same way. Discuss your own experiences. Share with God your point of view regarding someone who’s going through a trial. Intercede! God wants to hear us tell Him about His sons too.
Third, Christ made several requests on His people’s behalf. “I pray for them,” He said, specifically referring to His own people (verse 9). Later, He did pray for those in the world as well, but He definitely placed far greater emphasis on praying for God’s people.
Jesus made about 10 specific requests here. He asked the Father to keep them and help them to be united (verse 11). He asked the Father to fill them with His own joy (verse 13). What a remarkable request, considering the circumstances. When we are going through trials, strive to have the presence of Christ’s mind and actually pray that others would have the joy Christ has given us!
Christ also prayed for our protection from Satan (verse 15). He didn’t pray God would remove all problems from our lives, but He did pray that He would put a hedge of protection from the devil around us.
He also prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth …” (verse 17). I pray for my future disciples, Christ said, talking to the Father about us! (verse 20). He prayed that the Father would help us be one, perfectly united. He prayed heavily for our unity, and for perfect peace in the Church (verses 21-23). He prayed for our spiritual success. Jesus Christ prayed that we would grow and flourish spiritually. Again, He was thinking of us!
Notice this beautiful request: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (verse 24). Christ loves us so much—and He wants to be with us!
This is the way a true priest of God thinks. This is the way a true priest of God prays.
Remember this practical, three-part formula in your intercessory prayers when you pray for God’s Work and for God’s people: 1) Praise people before the Father; 2) tell the Father about their difficulties; 3) make requests on their behalf.
Praying for the World
Christ also prayed for the world. Even amid the most trying moments of His life, He directed His attention outward to the world. That is how big-minded He was. Read verse 21: “… that the world may believe that thou hast sent me,” and again in verse 23: “that the world may know that thou hast sent me,” and that you love my disciples. He prayed for His own people, and then extended out that love to the world—for all men to be saved!
Look at the extraordinary unselfishness of this prayer—right in the midst of oppressive trial! Jesus did not focus on Himself. He didn’t spend His prayer time wrapped up in His own problems, trying to get God focused on Him and what He wanted. He was praising—and empathizing—and interceding! He was praying the prayer of a holy, royal priest of God.
How beautiful. What a glory to the Father. What sweet incense.
We need to learn how to pray like this. We need to practice praying like this. We need to bring Christ into our prayers more and more—so we can pray like Him.
This is how we can pray like the priests of God.
Priestly Examples
God expects His ministers to pray for the brethren. The lives and the problems of the brethren whom the ministers pastor should fill our daily prayers. Notice some other godly priests who followed this pattern in their prayers.
When Samuel was priest, the Israelites knew they needed him to intercede for them (1 Samuel 12:19). Samuel responded, “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you” (verse 23). Yes—it is a sin for one of God’s leaders not to pray for the people he leads! That is against God’s law of love. Failing to intercede is simply not thinking like God.
We all need to learn how to think like priests of God—and that means becoming experts at intercession. Perhaps you are having trouble relating to someone. Pray for him, and you may find yourself empathizing with his specific troubles more. Intercessory prayer forces us to meditate more deeply on others’ situations and problems.
When someone is put out of the Church, God instructs us to pray for his repentance. Do we? How much love do we show toward him? Do we forget about him? How much do we pray for the Laodiceans? Their eternal lives are on the line!
When your mate has a problem, who do you take it to first? When we see someone having a spiritual problem, do we take it to God? Do we rally to that individual and pray passionately that God will help him? “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” and “he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:16, 20).
The Apostle Paul never ceased to pray for the brethren (Ephesians 1:15-16). He continually thanked God for them! “I do not cease … remembering you in my prayers” (rsv). He prayed for all men with thanksgiving. He practiced what he preached.
And Paul didn’t just pray for those who were going through trials—but for all the brethren. He prayed for their spiritual enlightenment and growth (verses 17-19). He wanted them to succeed as much as possible. We all need these types of prayers. And we all need to give these intercessory prayers for others.
Paul’s priestly example also radiates in Colossians 1:7-11. He prayed fervently for the people he was privileged to serve. He was always “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (verse 12, rsv).
A Measure of Our Love
Intercessory prayer is God’s way of give in action. It is a powerful antidote to our carnal selfishness. In many ways, we can look at this as a measure of our spiritual maturity. The more spiritually mature we are, the more that intercessions will be the heart of our prayers.
Our prayers are a measure of our love, of how much we’ve been converted by God. God can learn a lot about us by how we pray.
Those of us in the Body have been placed here so we can contribute—so we can back up God’s man. A major way we do that is through our prayers. That’s how this Work gets done. That’s how this Church moves forward spiritually. It is also how God develops His character in us: by teaching us how to love—through how we pray.
This is part of our calling as God’s priests. Our lives should revolve around that golden altar. Our primary focus in life must be on how we talk to God in prayer! That should be our number-one priority. That is how we grow in God’s royal Family.
God wants those prayers to be saturated with the love of God—the outflowing, unselfish love that God has. That means supplications—prayers—intercessions—thanksgivings—for all men. That is a major way we can fulfill our calling. Learn to pray like our High Priest, Jesus Christ, every day—every moment of our prayers. Let’s make our prayers the prayers of a priest.