Bonhoffer Chapter 3

In the middle of this chapter, Bonhoffer states, 

“Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day” (86). 

He later explains that being in a state of intercession means that we bring ourselves or our brothers and sisters into the presence of God, bringing all that we are to the foot of the cross. Being in a state of intercession is so much more than just saying a simple prayer. It means being in a deeply spiritual state and in communion with God. It’s a feeling that is so refreshing and brings an overwhelming amount of joy.

When I am in a state of intercession, I can literally feel weights being lifted off of my shoulders and chains being broken. Being in an intercessional state means something different for everyone. Some people become very charismatic and express their state through walking around, raising their hands, crying, speaking in tongues, and various other ways. For myself, when I am in a deep intercessory state, I am often overwhelmed by God’s grace and the ways that he has provided for me and I often become very emotional.

I can always tell when I am about to have a really deep encounter with the Lord, because shortly before the encounter I will have a weird sense of others judging me. Usually when someone cries, it means there is something wrong. The enemy has a way of trying to destroy my encounter with the Lord by telling me lies that no one will believe me when they see me crying and I tell them it was a good thing. He will try to make me feel fear about having this encounter, that something bad is going to happen. As much as I hate to admit it, there are sometimes when I have that feeling, and I know it’s a lie from the enemy, but I’d rather listen to the lie of the enemy and avoid people looking at me for crying, than enter into an intercessional state and let God work on my heart. When it’s put into words, this sounds awful, but in the moment, it is so easy to take the bait and not listen to my heart.

When I choose not to take the “bait” that I mentioned previously, I never regret it. By the end of the intercessional time I was able to have with God, I could care less what people think about the fact that I became emotional. In fact, I am always excited to explain what God was doing in my heart at the time. I appreciate Bonhoffer's attempt to explain intercession throughout this chapter.