Missions Resources - Bibliography
Bridal Intercession
Authors: Gary Wiens
ISBN: 0970479115
Publisher: Oasis House
Number of pages: 237
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary:
“Overcome with emotion, as joy or delight.” This is the Mirriam-Webster definition of ravished—just one of the words that takes some getting used to while reading Gary Wiens’ Bridal Intercession.
With bits of odd romantic vocabulary, the author approaches prayer from a much bigger picture than a religious commitment. Rather than list formulas and tactics, Wiens bases his book on the attitude of the heart. He invites the “activity-driven, performance-oriented church” to “live lives not on the basis of what they do for Him, but on the basis of the declarations of His ravished heart as the Heavenly Bridegroom.”
Bridal Intercession offers a new twist to certain parables and Bible characters. Wiens uses characters like Esther, Mary and Hosea to show how God’s will can be effectively accomplished through the angle of intimate prayer.
In his chapter “The Warring Bride,” Wiens proves that even spiritual warfare is not simply related to intimacy, but when it’s used properly, is grounded in it. Fear and anxiety tend to intertwine themselves throughout spiritual warfare, thus removing the focus from the Warrior and King himself, and onto the enormity of the issue. For Wiens, this is backward thinking, for “the more clearly we see Who God is, the more clearly we realize that the devil is under his control, ever and always.”
Yet Wiens also warns against the human attempt at fearlessness, or what he calls “Braveheart syndrome.” When rooted in intimacy with Christ, wars can be fought in a calm and collected manner, without Mel Gibson drama.
Wiens further expounds on other aspects of intercession through new allegorical applications, some of which feel a little far-fetched (for example, the ten foolish virgins who lack oil actually lacking intimacy with God). Yet if approached piece by piece, Bridal Intercession will make little sense. For it is not theological interpretations that Wiens is hoping his readers will accept, but rather an entire attitude that he is calling his readers to embody.
This book may not sound like one for the skeptic realists, but in fact, it is (which might explain the less romantic choice for a cover photo of a ghostly veiled face). Wiens himself admits that as a man, picturing himself as a bride was a struggle. His testimony proves that when viewed in the light of the goal of intimacy with Christ, the more muddied pictures of Christianity clear up.
While group prayer is merely touched on in the last chapter, this is in keeping with the rest of the book’s teaching that prayer must be approached from a very personal and relational level with God, and therefore must begin with the individual.
Bridal Intercession is a book that has long been needed—a strong invitation to draw near enough to the heart of Love, until the point is reached where “at the end of the day, only his presence is going to be enough.”
Shannon Whiting
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