We’re entering Holy Week. Once more, we remember Christ’s journey to the cross: His final teachings and Passover meal with the disciples; His agonizing emotional struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane; His betrayal by Judas; and His voluntary submission to false accusations, humiliation, torture, and one of the cruelest forms of execution ever invented by humans.

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Following the sobering remembrance of His suffering, we celebrate the victorious end of the story on Resurrection Sunday (I prefer that term over Easter, a word with pagan roots). In the words of the venerable Dr. S.M. Lockridge: “It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming!”

For intercessors, Holy Week has special significance, for several reasons.

1. Christ’s blood purchased our right to walk intimately with the Father and to approach the throne of grace with boldness and confidence as children and heirs.

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Galatians 4:3–7).

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14–16).

When Jesus began teaching His disciples about prayer, approaching God directly and calling Him “Father” was new. Until then, they could only approach God through a priest. Sin, brought into the human race by Adam and Eve, caused that distance. When Jesus breathed His last on the cross to atone for the sin of mankind, the veil of the temple that signified separation from God was torn from top to bottom. Through the blood of Christ, intimacy with the Father was restored, and people like you and me regained direct access to the throne of grace.

The blood of Christ purchased our intercessory ministry because it gave us the right to call ourselves God’s children and heirs together with Christ. Thus it enabled intimacy with the Father and restored access to His grace with the promise that if we pray according to His will, He hears us and we have our request (see 1 John 5:14–15).

This gives us a special reason to contemplate the cross and to celebrate the resurrection. Without the love and tender mercy of God expressed in those, our prayers would be in vain.

2. Christ’s death and resurrection triumphed over Satan and his forces, which allows us to wage spiritual warfare from a place of victory.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:13–15).

Most of our intercessory prayers involve spiritual warfare because Satan is hard at work everywhere. Whenever that feels overwhelming, and we seem hard pressed from all sides (2 Corinthians 4:8), we may stand secure in the knowledge that we battle an enemy who has already been defeated and whose doom is sure. The blood of Christ washes away every sin, neutralizing the only weapon that the Accuser has. And the resurrection conquered death, breaking the power of eternal separation from God that Satan wields.

This position of victory over sin and death fuels our prayers with joyous faith while at the same time infusing them with vigilance, since we know that this defeated enemy still roars and seeks to devour (see 1 Peter 5:8–9).

Because of Christ’s victory on the cross, which opened the door for us to pray to the Father in His name, the Lord has ordained to win mighty victories through the prayers of His people. He has chosen to work through these, which is awe-inspiring. This is why He delights in hearing our voices cry out to Him — because our cry means that we take seriously His choice to work through our prayers and our faith in the victory won by Christ. God rejoices in His intercessors because of the cross!

3. Christ’s triumph on the cross set in motion the Great Commission by which His kingdom advances worldwide in human hearts.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

Most of our intercession is related to the advance of God’s kingdom in human hearts. Whether we pray for authorities, crises, or people in need, we bring God into the mix of every situation, and His purpose is always to bring people from darkness into His glorious light and to expand His reign in them. He is gathering a people of His own possession that will someday form a multitude from every tribe and nation that no one can count, standing before His throne to worship Him (see Revelation 7:9–10).

That overarching purpose of His reign in people’s hearts until His kingdom is fully established is the backdrop to all our prayers and helps us understand why intercession is essential. All our intercessory prayers fall under what Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

4. Christ restored our true identity through His death and resurrection, which includes the mantle of priestly intercession.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9–10).

Christ died and rose again so our true identity as people created in the image of God, consecrated to Him, and tasked with the stewardship of creation could be restored. Intercessors know that this restored identity includes the royal mantle of priesthood. A priest is an intermediary between God and man, which beautifully describes intercession. We approach the throne of grace on behalf of others — those who are in need and too overwhelmed to pray, and those who are in darkness and do not know (yet) how to pray.

The call to intercession is a call to the royal priesthood. It is supposed to be a part of every believer’s walk, but He has placed a particular calling on some to stand in the gap with an extra measure of faith, spiritual insight, and passion. You are those people. Chosen, holy, possessed by God, and royal priests serving before His altar in heaven (see Revelation 8:3–5).

Without the blood of Christ shed on the cross, there would be no resurrection. Without the resurrection, there would be no victory over death and Satan. And without victory, there would be no effective intercession.

So thank God this week for His incomparable love that drove Him to become one of us, take on the form of a servant, and subject Himself to the pain and humiliation of the cross so we could become children of the Father and approach His throne with boldness and confidence.

Our love for prayer is the humble and appropriate response to His love for us made visible by Christ’s death and resurrection. May it be a motive to never give up praying!

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Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: Alicia Quan on Unsplash.