Seattle, March 15, 2005.
21. THE PRAYER OF INTERCESSION OR TRAVAIL. Such a prayer is one where the Spirit of the Lord is in absolute and full control. It is the cry of the Lord being expressed through an individual who is Spirit filled. The Holy Spirit will pray through the person, not only in their language or tongues but will ultimately lead them to a prayer involving crying and groaning which may not be discernible as words. Travail, is travail, whether in childbirth or in the ultimate, the highest order of prayer. It must be motivated by the Spirit. It can be frightening to those who are present. It can be grossly misunderstood, even by good spiritual leadership. It is not common but is vital. As none are normally born to the earthly family without travail, so none are born into the heavenly family, without travail. Rom. 8:26
INTERCESSION MADE FOR THE SAINTS. The Spirit, always knowing and understanding the will of the Father is capable of motivating the body to prayer over situations of which they have received no news. The need can be great and must be met immediately, so the Spirit speaks to the heart to pray. Sometimes for a person, sometimes for a situation. The body becomes a unit through the unity of the Spirit in praying one for the other. Rom. 8:27 More wonderful yet, is the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself is the active great High Priest before the throne of His Father. It is He and not any other who makes intercession for His saints. Some would entrust that position to others but Jesus and Jesus alone has been designated to that status. He thoroughly knows and understands each side of the program, since He is both man and God. Rom. 8:34
THE TRAVAIL OF PAUL FOR THE GALATIAN CHURCH. The prayers of the Apostle had reached such a dimension that he called it travail. That there was a problem among them there is no doubt. They had those in their midst who would like to have led them back under the Law. Amazing, people once delivered from bondage will desire to return to the old life, but they did and they still do. His prayer for them is most informative. I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. In this fashion he is demonstrating that spiritual birth is accomplished by spiritual travail. Travail results in birth. Furthermore, he sought that Christ might be formed in them. The babe is formed in the womb over a process of time. So the spiritual man must be made to be in the form and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an imperative that the life of those born of the Spirit receive the spiritual shape and form which constitutes a follower of Christ. Gal. 4:19 It is in this process that the new man is formed and becomes dominate. Every child of the Lord is in the throes of a constant change, an act of creation that is changing their nature and character. The change comes by knowledge. A knowledge that we obtain from the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord will alter our life in every form, making it to be the life of the Christ of God lived in us. Changes have been made, and there are still changes being made until we reach His maturity. Col. 3:16