O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
—Psalm 96:9
The better we know God, the more wonderful our insight into the power of intercession becomes. We begin to understand that it is the great means by which man can take part in the carrying out of God’s purpose. God has commissioned His people to make known and communicate to men the whole plan of redemption through Christ. In all this, intercession is the chief element, because in it His servants enter into the full fellowship with Christ, and they receive the power of the Spirit as their power for service.
It is easy to see why God has so ordered it. He desires to renew us after His image. And there is no other way to do this but by our making His desires our own, so that we breathe His character; and by sacrificing ourselves in love, so that we may become to some degree like Christ, ever living to make intercession. (See Hebrews 7:25.) Such can be the life of the consecrated believer.
The clearer one’s insight into this great purpose of God, the more the need will be felt to enter very truly into God’s presence in the spirit of humble worship and holy adoration. The more we take time to abide in God’s presence, to enter fully into His mind and will, to get our whole souls possessed by the thought of His glorious purpose, the stronger our faith will become that God will Himself work out all the good pleasure of His will (see Philippians 2:13) through our prayers. As the glory of God shines upon us, we will become conscious of the depths of our helplessness, and so we will rise up into the faith that believes that God will do “above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
Intercession will lead us to feel the need for a deeper adoration. Adoration will give us new power for intercession. A true intercession and a deeper adoration will always be inseparable.
The secret of true adoration can only be known by the individual who spends time waiting in God’s presence, yielding to God, so that He may reveal Himself. Adoration will indeed equip us for the great work of making God’s glory known.
“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God” (Psalm 95:6–7).
“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name” (1 Chronicles 16:29).