A hole in the roof, or a window into heaven.

Luke 5:  ¹⁵ But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.¹⁷ One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. ¹⁸ And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. ¹⁹ But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. ²⁰ Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” ²¹ The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” ²² But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” ²⁵ Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. ²⁶ They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

We've looked quite a bit over these last days at the power of prayer and God's presence to sustain us and change our lives, to give us victory over our circumstances. Today in light of the passage above I want to look at how that same power works through us to change other peoples lives. Intercession is when we come between two things to affect change for the circumstances in some one elses life. We pray or take action on their behalf, when either they are unable or overwhelmed. Interceding for others is a high calling, a tremendous benefit to those in need and a true example of the love of Christ, whose work on the cross was the greatest act of intercession the world will ever know.

Intercession though can come with a very high price to the intercessor. Just as Christ in His act of intercession took on Himself all of the sin of the world, in intercession we take on the burdens of others. It is biblical and right that we do this as we see in Galations 6:

 ² Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. ⁵ For each one will bear his own load. 

I was blessed to hear a great teaching on this passage in Galations 6. I won't go into the full teaching at this time, but share with you just the very basic essence of the revelation. We are called to bear one anothers burdens but as verse 5 states each one must bear their own load. In the very simplest form the difference between the burdens that we share and the load each one must carry would be this. Burdens are circumstances that arise in a persons life beyond the realm of what is normal in their life. A load which each one must bear, would include the things and circumstances that a person is born into or the consequences of their own actions. So as harsh and unfair as this may sound a disease or disability that a person is born with, an experience of abuse in their past a failed marriage, are all part of the load a person must bear in their own life. This doesn't mean we don't love and support them as they walk under their load. But we can not take it from them it is theirs to carry. Remember what Paul shares in 2 Corithians 12, when talking about something in His life that he was called to carry,

2 Corithians 12:9  "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. God's grace is sufficient for the one who God calls to carry the load. When we take on loads that are not ours to bear we place ourselves outside the sufficiency of God's grace and we bear that load in our own strength.

It can be difficult sometimes when we are watching those we love struggle, whether it is under a heavy burden or load. Our tendency is to want to help to carry that weight. I believe there is a tremendous revelation for us found in Mark 15, the account leading up to Jesus crucifixtion.

¹⁶ The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they *called together the whole Roman cohort. ¹⁷ They *dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; ¹⁸ and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ¹⁹ They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. ²⁰ After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they *led Him out to crucify Him.

²¹ They *pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.²² Then they *brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. ²³ They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. ²⁴ And they *crucified Him...

In that passage Jesus had already been beaten, whipped to a point near death. Already battered and beaten the text tells us they continued beating His head... they led Him out to crucify Him. Jesus, the all powerful God was for this time limited by a body of flesh. He was to weak to bear the burden of carrying His cross. They pressed into service, Simon of Cyrene. He carried the cross of Christ to Golgatha. There though, the cross was something that only Jesus could bear. It was after all His load, the very reason He was born into the world as a man. Jesus alone could complete the work of the cross.

In the same way, we when we bear anothers burden, can not bear it day after day, continuing to carry it. We need like Simon to carry that burden of our loved one only to the foot of the cross. There, at the foot of the cross we need to lay it down, so that it is there when Jesus speaks the words "IT IS FINISHED".

I want to return briefly to the initial text in Luke 5, to see and understand the power and the purpose of intercession. These men, the friends of the paralytic, knew that there was power for healing in the presence of Jesus. There faith in the power of the presence of Jesus could not be derailed. They found a way to present their friend directly into the presence of Jesus. That's what we do in intercession. Just as those men lowered their friend to where Jesus was, we as we intercede, raise them up, into the heavenly realm. We lift them on the wings of our prayers into the very presence of God, where there is healing and wholeness. In the presence of God there is no sickness, there is no brokeness, no deformity. We lift them there into that Holy presence and pray, Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That's the miracle that we seek  that the realities of heaven would exist in this earthly realm.

 We carry the burden to the cross and lay it down. We lift the  life up to heaven and ask that it be raised up.