Representative prayer

The first Adam was to represent God on earth. He was charged with representing the Godhead to humanity. Sin however ruined his communion with the One that he was to represent. The first Adam failed and so in the "fullness of time", God sent His own Son, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, to do what the first Adam was supposed to do but messed up.

Jesus was to show humanity God - to 're present' Him.  The irony of this is that man was supposed to be God's representative on earth but now needed someone else to mediate for humanity. Christ came to represent God to humanity but also to represent humanity to God. He became sin for us and carried the judgement for our sin upon Himself. He more than appeased the requirements of a just and holy God and now is at the right hand of the Father representing believers before His Father.

When believers pray, Jesus presents them before the Father as righteous and belonging to the family of God. Jesus intercedes for the believer so that the believer can have direct access before God whenever we bring our petitions before Him."For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Jesus Christ". (1 Tim.2:5)

Just as Christ represents us before our Heavenly Father, the church is to re present the finished work of Christ on earth to the whole of humanity. Jesus was the sent one from heaven to earth and believers (the church) are called to be the sent ones to the world. As 'sent ones', believers are given heaven's authority in the name of Jesus Christ, to pass forward all that the Son did for humanity - grace that overcomes sin, mercy that triumphs over judgement, forgiveness that overcomes condemnation,

Therefore when we pray for 'yet to be saved persons', we can release the finished work of Christ - declaring the promises of God and declaring victory over the powers of darkness. The work has already been done. The work of intercession has already been generated. It just needs to be distributed! Prayer that re presents what He has done, works! This sort of prayer will create collision courses between people (the objects of our prayers) and the purpose of God ( the motives of our prayers). Collision courses will happen between the finished work of Chris and the unfinished work of people - in terms of their state of heart, their health, their relationships, their past and their present. Collision courses happen when grace meets sin, when humility meets pride, when light meets darkness, when love meets fear, when blessing meets cursing, when mercy meets judgement, when faith meets law and when life meets death.

This is re presenting to our world what Christ has already done! Holy Spirit, help us to see, to declare and to distribute through prayer what Christ has done.







This blog is based on a message given by Ross Smith at The Vine Church, Springwood, Logan City, Queensland, Australia on Sunday 24th April 2016. The full message can be accessed by podcast from www.thevine.org.au/teaching