Reminder: Inviting everyone to fast and pray tonight and break their in the morning at conference
Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
The priests were the leaders in Second Temple Israel. They were the spiritual leaders. Their role was to minister before the LORD, offering sacrifices on behalf of the people and leading the people in worship. Who are the spiritual leaders in our time? If you are reading this prayer guide, you can consider yourself a leader.
What is the specific assignment of the leaders in response to our need for renewal, revival, and restoration? We are all to repent and turn to the Lord. We are all to seek God in holy urgency. But there is an added set of instructions for spiritual leaders. Leaders are called to intercede.
“Let the priests…weep between the portico and the altar.” This is a visual image of intercession, of standing in the gap. Leaders must stand in between the purposes of heaven and the desperate needs on earth. The temple was understood as a literal meeting place between heaven and earth. It was a cosmos within a cosmos. Heaven and earth had been separated after the Fall of Humanity in the garden, they would be rejoined at the end of history…but in the meantime, God had provided in the Temple, a way for heaven and earth to overlap and interlock, and humans were able to access this overlap.
In the Temple, the altar was in the place where sacrifices were offered. There was an altar in the Holy Place and in the Most Holy Place of the temple. The altar was understood to be the place that made it possible, through sacrifice, for the presence and glory of God to dwell on earth. The portico, or porch of the Temple was like a portico today. It was the front porch, the outward facing part of the temple. It was the part of the Temple that touched the outside world, where men and women came and went. So when Joel calls the priests to position themselves in between the altar and the portico He wants them to position themselves in between the holy presence of God and the hustle and bustle of the outside world. This is the place of intercession, of standing in the gap. Standing in between God and the world.
We are called to live in this same place. Aware of the holiness of God. Aware of the brokenness of the world. It is a place of tension, discomfort…but also of honor. The great ones in God’s cloud of witnesses have stood in this same place. Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses for Israel. David interceded on the Temple Mount before the Temple was built there. Daniel. Ezra. Nehemiah. And of course Jesus, who with his very being stood in between God and Man, Heaven and Earth, and made intercession with his life. He transformed the Place of the Skull into the Altar of God. Friends and fellow leaders, we are called, in 2023, to position ourselves as intercessors.
And what do we do as we take on that intercessory role and stand in that place between the porch and the altar? We weep. Feeling the stretch and tug between heaven and earth, feeling the gap between the heart of God and the wandering lostness of the world, we weep. Feeling the apathy and weakness of the Church, we cry out to God. We say: “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn. Why should they say in the City of Providence, in the state of Rhode Island, in the region of New England, “where is their God?”
Pray
- For the fame and deeds of God to be known in Greater Providence. And that secular people would stop saying or thinking, “where is their God?” as they look at the church.
- Pray for the intercessors to rise up and take their place between the porch and the altar, for God to activate bands of intercessors to weep and intercede before the LORD with boldness.
- For ministry leaders in Sanctuary and beyond to devote themselves to the work of prayer and prioritize it over every other activity. That we’d spend more time praying in our preparations and plans for ministry.
- For more of the church to regularly attend and participate in prayer and worship spaces, seeking God for his Kingdom. Specifically, could we see 20% of the church regularly participate in corporate prayer on a weekly basis?
Stretch Assignment
- Spend a chunk of time tonight in prayer and fasting. Yes, we know it is a Friday night. It is the time for pizza and beer and movies and going out on the town. But could we as spiritual leaders sacrifice these seemingly urgent matters for one evening for what is truly important – the work of seeking God for his mercy and blessing on his people in our time.
- Pray for God to activate you in the ministry of intercession this year.
Sanctuary Church 