April 2007
Dearly Beloved of Our Lord:
Greetings in the mighty and wonderful name of our Lord, Savior, and King – Jesus! This season of Passover and Easter reminds us of His great love and His mighty power. It is a time of year when we can proclaim God’s wonderful love for mankind and the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome death through resurrection life. We all have such a great and wonderful future. He gives us a future and a hope and we enjoy sharing the good news of the new heaven and earth.
INTERCESSION ~ a testimony from Ron
When the weather is good I am able to walk from our house to downtown Portland. I use this hour as a prayer walk for the city and for the Northwest. As I walk across the Hawthorne bridge on the way into downtown Portland there is a place on the approach to the bridge where I am able to see a vast panorama of the city. I can stop and look to the south, the west, the north, and to the east and pray for the city and the surrounding region. When the weather is very clear I can see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood as I proceed across the Willamette River on the bridge.
As I look at the tall buildings and the I-5 freeway I am aware of a city filled with people and much activity and sense the great need of souls to turn to Jesus. I also become aware of how very, very small I am as one person walking into a city filled with thousands and thousands of people searching for answers to simple questions of the who, what, when, where, and why variety. Questions such as: “Who am I and why am I here?” “What is the meaning of life?” “When will I understand my purpose for living?” “Who is God?” “Where is heaven and how can I get there?”
As I walk along across the Hawthorne bridge I am aware that I walk as an intercessor and I am reminded of a verse which has motivated me throughout my life in Portland.
“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30)
Even though I am but one small man walking into a city of a few hundred thousand souls I can make a difference as I stand in the gap before the Lord on behalf of the city or the land of the Pacific Northwest. And if this is true for me it is also true for you. Wherever the Lord has called you to “stand in the gap” you make a difference in that “land” where you stand before Him. Your land may be at work, or school, in your family, or in your neighborhood, etc. Or it could be all of these. The important thing to realize is that you matter, that you make a difference, when you “stand in the gap” before the Lord on behalf of others.
Intercession is not complicated. It originates in the secret place in our heart where we meet with Him. (Psalm 91:1) Here are excerpts from a booklet called Intercession by Johannes Facius.
“…In I Timothy 2 .. Paul mentions supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks as four different disciplines of the exercise of prayer. This gives us reason to believe that there therefore is a difference between prayer and intercession… The word means "to go in between". It describes how someone deliberately goes in between two parties to intervene in a situation of conflict and to try to keep the parties apart from one another… It is an ongoing commitment to remain in a position before God until the case has been solved. Intercession is in other words a twenty-four hour position, which means that the intercessor is before God in a very conscious way constantly, even if he is not able to actually pray for more than a small part of the time.”
Wherever I am I am conscious of this place of intercession. When I am in a church meeting, in Pioneer Courthouse Square, or at Portland State University I am aware of this place of intercession, this place of “standing in the gap” before the Lord. I am often aware of this place of intercession when I lay down to sleep or awaken in the morning. Even though I often raise up my voice and preach open-air, I actually spend most of my time in quietness and confidence before the Lord. (Note Isaiah 30:15) For it is the Holy Spirit working in me and through me. I am just His vessel, His vessel of clay. And the same is true for you. He works in us all on behalf of others. He gives the grace to love the one in front of us.
FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST
We hope that our newsletters are encouraging to you. As we pray and write each monthly letter we desire that each letter is an inspiration and brings hope to those who read. After all, each one of us is engaged in warfare as we walk in this world before Him. We each have a real enemy who desires to steal, kill, and destroy us in any way he can. He wants to hinder us from walking in victory. But we know that Jesus is in our lives to bring life and to bring it abundantly. (Note John 10:10) And we also know that He gives us the victory.
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ… Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” (1 Corinthians 15:57 and 2 Corinthians 2:14; 15)
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTERCESSION
We are so blessed to know you and have you pray for us. We thank God for you. We thank you for your support and for your intercession. We could not walk in victory without your ministry to us as you remember us in your prayers and with your financial support. We live as missionaries and intercessors and are surrounded by many loving brothers and sisters who are also intercessors with missionary hearts. We pray for you as we send out each letter. May you be very, very fruitful in all you do. May you bear much fruit and bring Him glory in every way.
~Ron & Karen
E-mail: awakening1s@comcast.net
Home Page: awakening1s.net
church @ 24/7
Ron & Karen Rohman
PO Box 14292
PORTLAND OR 97293