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Following is an excerpt of "Intercessors" by Jesse Hendley added on 07/09/2003.
INTERCESSORS
Jesse M. Hendley
Isaiah 59:16

Now friends, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to
Isaiah 59:16. My subject today is, "What God Is Looking
For." God is looking for a man (human being) who will be an
intercessor. This world is lost. Everywhere you turn,
people are lost. So many people will say, "I'll go, I'll
give, whatever," but so few people will pray, and yet
praying is one of the most important things a person can
do.

I heard one great, Spirit instructed man make this remark,
"It is better to pray than to preach." Well, there is some
truth there, but actually, they must go together. They are
twins and are not to be separated. Prayerless preaching,
prayerless witnessing and prayerless worship are not worth
very much.

Somehow this business of prayer is being overlooked. I
wonder if it isn't because it is not seen. It is a secret
life. You must really love God to be an intercessor, a man
or woman of prayer. Nobody sees you pray. You are not
putting on a show. People may see you give, hear you
witness, and all those external things, but they don't see
a secret life of prayer. But that type of motivation is
wrong. We read in Colossians 3:17, "Whatsoever ye do in
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God." Whatever we do should be done for His
glory.

What is God looking for? We have the answer in Isaiah
59:16. In the days of Israel, when Israel was up to its
neck in sin, the prophet said, "And he (God) saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor." I
checked the Hebrew word for wondered, and do you know what
it is? It is the word astonished. It means to be disturbed
or appalled. God saw there wasn't any man who was an
intercessor and He was disturbed about it. Nobody cared
very much for souls is what He is getting at here. No one
cared enough to really pray for the lost.

Isaiah talks about people's sins. He began in chapter 59,
verses 1 & 2, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot
hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and
your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he
will not hear." Isaiah is speaking to the people of Israel
and He's saying, "You're not seeing God's deliverance, but
it's not because His hand has gotten short. He used to
reach out His hand and deliver you, but your sins are in
the way. They have raised a wall between you and God. Verse
3, "For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers
with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath
muttered perverseness." Sounds like a modern television
newscast, doesn't it? Verses 4 & 5, "None calleth for
justice, not any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity,
and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth
iniquity. They hatch cockatrice' eggs (serpent eggs), and
weave the spider's web: ...

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