Element 4: Intercessory Prayer

The Order affirms a worldview that recognizes the reality of the supernatural and of spiritual warfare. As Cuthbert and others "stormed the gates of heaven," so we also need to engage in and to become familiar with intercessory prayer. We do not project on to the supernatural what belongs to the sphere of human responsibility. We affirm national initiatives in intercessory prayer.

The description of intercessory prayer in element four of the Way of Life leaves many Explorers confused. Our most common image of intercessory prayer may be the public prayers in a worship service or the list of people and events we pray for in our own daily prayers. To begin our investigation of intercessory prayer we need first begin by examining the role of intercessor. An intercessor is one who seeks to make or break a connection. For  instance, when officials from one nation seek to negotiate peace between two nations at war, that nation functions as an intercessor, making a connection of peace. When a physician calls upon medical resources to destroy a  cancer, the physician acts as an intercessor to break the connection between the patient and the cancer and thus restore health.

So it is with intercessory prayer. We stand in prayer for reconciliation between people or stand in prayer for healing from disease. These are good things to pray for, however, we should be wary of limiting our prayers to individuals. It is also appropriate to pray for peoples and nations. The role of intercessor is more than just a pious exercise. For reasons we may never understand, God has chosen to make intercessory prayer an essential element in the spread of the Kingdom. It seems that God, having done what we could never do by the death of Jesus on the Cross, still expects His people to take a role in the working out of that salvation.

The mention of spiritual warfare in this element has also been known to make people nervous. Christianity in our culture has become a religion with deep ambivalence towards the supernatural, particularly towards the possibility of spirits of evil. Yet as distasteful as we may find militaristic imagery, the concept of spiritual warfare is well established in the Scriptures, in the whole breadth of Christian tradition, in the annals of Celtic Christianity and in contemporary experience. Satan (a title meaning adversary rather than a proper name) is indeed a defeated foe. Even so, the German theologian, Oscar Cullman, has likened the situation to World War II after the Normandy invasion. Between the Russians on the eastern front, and the western powers, the defeat of the Nazi regime was assured. However, the eleven months that followed held some of the fiercest combat and the highest casualties of that war.

The tools of the Enemy in spiritual warfare are not guns and bombs, but lies and deception. These tools can seduce human beings into acts of indescribable horror. Though seduced, we humans are always ultimately responsible for  our deeds, for God makes Truth always readily available. Thus the fourth element also includes the demurrer: We do not project on to the supernatural what belongs to the sphere of human responsibility.

That being said, how do we engage in spiritual warfare as part of intercession? It is not a matter of "duking it out with the devil" as the late John Wimber noted, but of calling on the resources of heaven to thwart the designs of the Evil One. Once, while Aidan was in retreat on the island of Inner Farne, Penda, the pagan king of Mercia besieged the royal city of Bamburgh. Unable to break the defense, Penda ordered his troops to gather wood, hay and other fuel and, when the wind was right, set it on fire that the city might be burned out. From the island, Aidan saw Bamburghs peril. Bede records that Aidan raised his eyes and hands to heaven, "saying with grief, 'Lord, see what evil Penda does!' No sooner had he spoken than the wind shifted away from the city, and drove back the flames on to those who had kindled them, so injuring and unnerving them that they abandoned their assault on a city so  clearly under God's protection."

When a nation closes it eyes, ears and hearts to those it oppresses, when leaders in church and government practice deceit, it is a matter of spiritual warfare. We do not pray against the people involved, for as Paul tells us "For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12) Instead, we pray for light, for truth, for the exposure of deception.

Finally, the fourth element of the Way declares: We affirm national initiatives in intercessory prayer. As a secular nation, the US is rarely given to such initiatives. Nonetheless, as members of the Order of St. Aidan we  are to pray for our nation, for its blessing, for its healing, for its forgiveness. We will not set ourselves apart from our national identity, but approach God as members of the nation, confessing our corporate sin, giving  thanks for the blessings bestowed, praying for our healing.