Our Witness, Advocate and Intercessor

UV 605/10,000 Our Witness, Advocate and Intercessor “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high” Job 16 v 19 When we witness for Christ on earth, He witnesses for us in heaven. He watches all that we think, speak and do. Invariably, there is a gap between His standards of righteousness and justice and ours. But, by His grace He fills the gap. He is our advocate. Satan plays the role of public prosecutor and brings all accusations, small and big before the throne of God. Unless we are covered by faith with the redeeming blood of Jesus, we will look naked in our guilt. At the time, Jesus is our defence advocate. He is our bail. He bails us out of every tight or difficult situation in the span of our earthly lives as well as from the eternal judgement of the Father. Jesus is our intercessor. He intercedes with the Father to show us mercy regardless of the accusations satan brings against us. He pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. As we pour out our tears from our eyes, He collects every drop and turns it into prayer unto the Lord. Just as an advocate needs to know all the details of a person’s case, the Lord knows all aspects of our lives. Others might judge us out of the little that they know about us but the Lord is gracious and understanding. He knows the totality of our situations. Though He cried out, “ it is finished” meaning His work for humanity as a whole is over in His paying the price for our shortcomings, He continues to speak on our behalf for each one of us before the Father in Heaven. The verse speaks of two roles for Jesus: He is the witness who speaks about our faith and good deeds. He is the advocate to defend us on the issue of our sins of omission and commission. The uni-verse above echoes well ahead of time the intercessory work of Jesus long before it was revealed under the new covenant promises wherein St Paul refers to Jesus as our advocate. It was a prophetic revelation to Job even in the midst of his intense suffering. In addition to Jesus, the Holy Spirit also intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. The closest parallel we can see in nature is the constant moaning sound that pigeons make. Oftentimes, I imitate the Holy Spirit in praying while I am alone through sounds and moans. I find that when I cease to use words and use sounds, I get more mileage for my prayers. People pray in tongues, heavenly and as well as earthly tongues or languages not known to them to communicate the deeper emotions and intent of the spirit that words cannot convey adequately. Prateep V Philip