Herald International
What Nation Are You Asking For?
By Wesley L. Duewel
“Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession” (Psa. 2:8).
This is the command and promise of God the Father to Jesus, His Messiah Son. Jesus was to inherit the nations – not by conquest by the sword, but by intercession, by Jesus’ asking.
This is what Jesus our High Priest is fulfilling today. This is His role, His divine assignment until He comes again. He is seated at the right hand of God on heaven’s throne (Heb. 8:1). He has been exalted to the position of Sovereign of the universe. He is to reign by intercession until He comes for us. He is to conquer and to win the nations by asking for them.
Jesus ever lives to intercede (Heb. 7:25). Intercession is prayer for others, blessing others by prayer that makes requests for them. Today Jesus is asking for the nations – asking for them nation by nation. What a revelation it would be if we could hear the actual words of Jesus as He asks for and pleads for each individual people.
God did not plan for Jesus to intercede alone. God planned that Jesus would be the High Priest over a whole priesthood. God chose that every child of His would be not only a member of the family of God but also a member of His royal priesthood. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9). Jesus’ blood has freed us from our sins and made us to be priests to God (Rev. 1:5-6).
The high priest needs assisting priests. You and I are to assist Jesus by our priestly intercession. The Old Testament high-priestly responsibility was to mediate by offering sacrifices and by intercession. At the Cross Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice that fulfilled all redemptive sacrifices. “It is finished,” Jesus cried. Christ’s sacrifice was His finished work. Intercession is the unfinished work of Christ – the work to which He devotes Himself unceasingly today and to which He summons you and me. Intercession is His primary work now and, as His royal helping priests, we are to join Him in that intercession.
Holy Intercession
...In this dispensation Jesus asks for the people of the nations and for national groupings. Jesus won the battle of the ages in Gethsemane and on the Cross. The redemptive price is complete. Now the battle is to apply that redemptive victory in place after place and in individual lives, as each person is led to make his or her own appropriation of Calvary’s victory. Christ intercedes, and so should we. As we join in holy intercession in Jesus’ name for person after person, we are His royal priests.
Ask for persons, ask for families, ask for towns and cities, ask for nations. Do you know what it is to wrestle in prayer for a person or for a nation? Have you an extensive daily prayer list? Are you carrying a daily intercessory burden for one or more nations and peoples?
Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. There is holy joy in being faithful to the prayer needs God the Spirit has placed on your heart and has assigned to you. The more faithful you are in your intercession, the deeper will be the hunger that the Holy Spirit shares with you. Have you often seen people weep in their intercession as they fulfilled Psalm 2:8? I have no more precious memory of my mother than that of seeing her on her knees interceding with sobs and tears day after day as she loved, hungered for, and asked for China and India. I am sure thousands of Chinese and Indian people will come to her and thank her in heaven for her love, prayers, and tears.
On the day you stand before Christ’s glorious throne to receive your eternal reward, may God reward you abundantly for your holy intercessions. May you be introduced to persons and national groups as one of those who faithfully and lovingly hungered and interceded for them and their land day after day. God grant that with shining faces they may come to you, thank you, embrace you, and welcome you as one of God’s great gifts to them.
Oh, you will be eternally glad for every person on your prayer list, for every prayer burden you carried, and every loving tear you shed. Don’t miss the special joys of that glorious Judgment Day when you will be rewarded for all your intercessory prayer. Don’t forget to ask for nations from today on.
Lord, teach me to intercede with Christ.
– Quoted from the book, God’s Power Is For You, by Wesley Duewel. Copyright © 1977 by Wesley L. Duewel. Used by permission of the Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Dr. Duewel’s books may be purchased by calling (317) 881-6755, Ext. 361.