University of the Nations
International Provost
Letter to all U of N Staff
20 August 6, 2006
Why is Intercession Required
in the University of the Nations?
Copyright 2006 by Thomas A. Bloomer
In the weekly schedule of all UofN schools, a strict minimum of three
hours per week is required for intercession, and all schools, of any
type, must have three hours of it per week.=20=20
Why do we have this type of requirement for intercession, and for
nothing else? Why is intercession so crucial to the way we learn?
First, it is an obedience. Many times we are exhorted to pray in
the New Testament (for example Matthew 6.5-13, 9.35-8, and 26.41; Luke
6.28; Romans 12.12; Ephesians 6.18; I Timothy 2.1); and examples of
priestly intercession abound in the Old (see the intercession of Moses
in Exodus 32, and the prayers of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel in Ezra 9,
Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9).
Second, intercession unites us as do few other activities. Along
with worship and responding to the anointed Word, it is a powerful
factor in keeping us from drifting apart, whether in a local base
community or as a mission worldwide. The 50 Days of Prayer was a
wonderful reminder of this dynamic for all of us.
Moreover, the type of intercession that we were originally called to in
YWAM is based on listening to the voice of the Lord and praying for the
nations. Of course, several different ways of praying are given
us in the Word, and all are valid at different times and for different
purposes.
But in the very first YWAM schools, Joy Dawson taught and modeled a
different way of praying. It began with asking for purification
of sins and included resisting the voice of the enemy of our
souls. Then we went into a time of waiting on God to receive His
burdens for us for that day. When we say "intercession" in YWAM,
we mean this type of listening prayer, centered on God's plans for the
nations. And the UofN requirement for three hours per week
concerns this type of prayer.
When I was a student in my YWAM school in Lausanne in 1974, we were
amazed at the precision and the unity of the impressions we received
for prayer for the nations. Even more astounding were the moments
we found ourselves weeping over cities and countries of which we had no
personal knowledge, and no human feelings - until that moment.=20=20
During that school, intercession became for us the primary way to know
God: in a small but real way, we began to think His thoughts, share His
burdens, feel a tiny part of His broken heart. Over and over we
prayed the prayer of Bob Pierce, founder of Samaritan's Purse: "Lord,
break my heart with the things that break yours." We were so
marked by intercession as a daily part of who we were and what we did,
that it became one of YWAM's values when the list was written down.
This process of knowing God better leads naturally to a deepening
desire to reach out to the lost; as we pray more and more with the
heartbeat of the Good Shepherd, how can we not share His burden for the
ninety and nine who are still outside the sheepfold?
These times of intercession, which at the beginning consisted of five
full hours per week in each lecture phase, led to our learning more
about the nations from a perspective that was very different from that
of our national media. I believe that intercession was the reason
that YWAM had authority for ministry in the nations, an authority that
went well beyond our training and experience.
If we try to teach our students how to hear the voice of God separately
from the work of the Kingdom and the priorities on His heart, it
becomes a theoretical exercise. If people want to hear His voice
just because it's another cool spiritual experience to chalk up, then
God will not honor that; I believe that this is one reason that some
have problems in hearing. If we desire to hear in order to obey,
and to do our small part in advancing the Kingdom, then we will know
the voice of the Shepherd (John 10). Teaching about the voice of
God is so much more effective when linked to the obedience of
intercession.
As we learned more about the character and nature of God in the
classroom, felt His presence in worship, and went on outreach during
some of the weekends, intercession became a primary place of
integrating mind and heart, soul and spirit. Teachings about God
weren't just theoretical, we could pray them out and believe that He
was working in the nations because of who He was and because He had
promised to use our small and humanly insignificant prayers. So
we weren't just getting theologically correct teaching about the
character and nature of God, we were in touch with His thoughts and His
emotions in the place of intercession. The Spirit confirmed and
deepened the truths of the Word.
Another reason for intercession is that prayer changes things!
One wrong teaching that we heard twenty years ago is that we
should pray in order to be changed by the Spirit of God as we come into
His presence, but that prayer doesn't really change anything. It
is certainly true that we are transformed when in His presence; but as
we read the prayers of the Apostle Paul, it is abundantly clear that he
prayed in order to see changes in real-life situations.
To be able to keep from falling into temptation, to have more workers
for the harvest, for strength and wisdom and love and hope, for healing
and deliverance from oppression, for the lost to have a desire to turn
to the Lord, for our ministry to have authority, for nations and
peoples and cities to be spared the judgments of God, to tear down
lofty things that rise up against the knowledge of God, to build up the
way of the Lord, to bind the strong men who hold the lost captive, are
these not changes that we all desire to see? Since our Lord in
His wisdom has chosen to work through the prayers and obedience of His
people, intercession is the beginning of the pathway to change, not
just us but nations.=20
Finally, another type of intercession in the University of the Nations
is in our learning. Although we don't count it in the three
required hours per week, our desire is for the Lord to be our Teacher;
we don't even want to try to learn without Him. How can we study
His Word without spending hours in prayer every week, listening to Him
speaking to us from His Book? How can we study missions, unless
we receive His burden for the unreached in the place of prayer?
How can we study counseling, unless we are convinced that He can do far
more for a broken person through prayer than we can ever accomplish
through techniques of therapy? How can we study the Arts, unless
we know the thoughts and burdens of the Original Artist?
This principle can be applied in every College/Faculty and Centre, in
every school and seminar. If we think we can learn what we need
to know about any topic by relying only on our efforts and on human
teachings, we will limit ourselves to what the world already
knows. And as we remain faithful in our listening intercession
for the nations, He will give us strategies to impact the nations
through what we learn in each of our Colleges and Centres.
Of course He wants us to use our minds to the fullest, to train them
and discipline them to learn from all who have glimpsed part of the
truth in any area. We do this in our UofN schools, especially in
the post-DTS schools at the 300 and 400 levels. But on our way to
learning how to love Him with our minds, we must weave intercession in
to our ways of learning. Hearing from Him as we stretch our
God-given minds is the best way to learn.
