God yearns for us to “stand in the gap” for our prodigal children and pray for them to be delivered from destruction —- and from the very clutches of the enemy who comes to lie, kill, steal and destroy.  In Ezekiel, the Lord scanned the entire earth for anyone who would stand in the gap and build a hedge of protection around the land, but could not find a single person.

The Lord told Ezekiel: “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall [a hedge of protection] and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.”  –Ezekiel 22:30

The Lord desires that we intercede in prayer for others for their protection.  “Intercede” is a Latin word that literally means, “go between.”  We must ‘go between’ our children and the enemy, praying a holy and blessed hedge of protection around them.

We must also remain mindful in our prayers for our children that the ever-watchful enemy is on a never-ending quest to produce gaps and cracks in the armor of our children. Indeed, he maliciously targets the very weakest fragments of people, scrutinizing their experiences and abilities; and then attacks each area of vulnerability, including opening deep emotional wounds, producing an endless stream of guilt and shame.

As depicted in Ezekiel, nobody would intercede for the nation to create a spiritual wall of protection around the house of Israel. So, the enemy ran free in his quest to steal, kill, and destroy.   God is appalled when no one is found to intervene:  “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene.”  (Isaiah 59:16a). 

Jesus was the paramount example of someone standing in the gap for others and can be our model for how we should intercede for our loved ones.  (See John 17, Luke 22:31-32, Luke 23:33-34, and 1 John 2:1).

Won’t you please stand in the gap with me today for the liberation of our children, interceding in prayer that God’s Truth, Hope and Love prevail?