Intercessor

 

This will sound like a strange way to open this line of thought, but blogs allow us to express ourselves with that freedom. 
There is a Star Trek episode that deals with the testing of an empath. The way that she is able to heal and restore someone is to take that person's pain and suffering into her own body. She feels their pain in the process, and her own body is afflicted with the other person's injuries. The test involves the question of how far she is willing to go to relieve someone else. The rescue of her planet from destruction depends upon how she responds to the test. At first, she is willing to minister to minor injury and suffering. But as the severity of the other person's injuries increases, even to the point of near death, she is less willing to risk herself in the ministry to this person. Finally, she is drawn by her compassion for the other person, and she reaches out to relieve the suffering she sees.  
So what does this have to do with our Father, and scripture? Intercession is the type of prayer that brings others' needs before the LORD. Jesus is called the intercessor with the Father, as He is continually praying for us, and pleading for us before His Father:
"Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
"...It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who dies, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
                                                            Romans 8:27, 33-34
"Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."
                                                            Heb. 7:25 
As we intercede on behalf of others in prayer, we follow the image, likeness, and example of Jesus. 
In Hebrew, the word intercession is pa-gah'. It means to meet, to join, to make entreaty, to reach the mark. It can also mean to make attack, to strike. The word intercession in the Greek of the New Testament, means very much the same, but the root of the Greek word includes the description, "to hit the mark, of one discharging a javelin, or arrow". So part of the purpose of intercession is to do battle with, or pinpoint, those things that afflict a fellow human being. Our weapons in this case are spiritual, and include the Word of God, which is also called the "sword of the Spirit".
To get back to the Star Trek example, I believe that there is a type of intercession that is sacrificial intercession. I think there are examples in scripture of this type of intercession. When Jesus was on the cross, He prayed that His Father would forgive those who were killing Him. There is a prophetic description of this part of Jesus' purpose and character in Isaiah 53:12, written about 750 years before Jesus was born:
"Therefore I will divide with Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors." 

This type of intercession touched the heart of the Father.

The Apostle Paul said this to the Church:
"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church."
                                                               Colossians 1:24
Moses offered to sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of the people of Israel:
"Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!
Yet now, if You will forgive their sin- but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."
                                                                 Exodus 32:31-32
The prophet Daniel entered into deep, sacrificial prayer on behalf of the people:
"Then I set my face toward the LORD God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
And I prayerd to the LORD and made confession, and I said, "O LORD, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." 
                                                                    Daniel 9:3-5, 9  

These people, cited above, were willing to enter into physical and spiritual affliction in order to pray for others.
There are many in the earth who suffer daily on behalf of others. 
The attitude of prayer that I am also including in the term "sacrificial intercession", includes prayer that comes from a part of us that views another human being from the eyes of our Father. There are people, who, for various reasons may not be likeable to us. They have said things, or done things that are appalling to our souls and spirits. Perhaps they have hurt us personally. Perhaps they have falsely accused us, and caused us to suffer what we did not deserve. Yet we are commanded to "pray for our enemies":
"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven..."
                                                                     Mat. 5:44-45
What is being described above is not just a religious activity. It is not talking about prayer in which we pray for others to repent, although repentance is the ultimate desire and goal. 
If you saw your loved one about to fall into grievous harm, what would your attitude and actions be? What would you feel inside on behalf of that loved one in extreme danger? How would you pray to God for this person? What would you be willing to do to rescue them? If we were in dire peril, how would we hope and want others to pray for us?
From this same feeling and urgency, we are to pray for those we find difficult to love, difficult to like, difficult to "approve of", even for those who have sinned against man, and have sinned against God. We have to find it within us. We have to stir it up somehow. It is sacrificial to put aside our own comfort, and enter into that realm of the uncomfortable, the unlovable, the rebellious, the unrepentant, the scorners, the persecutors. For this is the place where our Father goes, This is the place where Jesus goes. This is the place where the Holy Spirit hovers, waiting and watching.

Our Father is an intercessor.

"Morning Prayer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyuQvwsQV8

"A Prayer for Healing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umD1R7C6EmM

"The Lord's Prayer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7ZV0XAMto