The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation

TRANSFIGURATION PRAYER: Where Heaven Meets Here | Moses Teaches Us to INTERCEDE in Prayer | Convo #2

• Tosha Williams for FDM • Season 6 • Episode 13

Share episode

The story opens with Jesus radiant on a mountaintop, flanked by Moses and Elijah, while a voice from the cloud commands, “Listen to Him.” From that moment, we trace a surprising thread to the glory Moses once tasted on another mountain, a life of prayer that begins with knowing God and overflows into bold intercession for others.

In this episode, we walk through Moses’ journey from burning bush to parted sea to the daring request, “Now show me Your glory.” He had witnessed miracles, yet he wanted more than gifts; he wanted the Giver. That hunger changed him. When God proclaimed His Name and goodness, Moses came down shining, a living sign that prayer is not transactional but transformational. 

From mountain to mission, Moses came down to face the golden calf crisis. Instead of retreating or raging, Moses stood in the breach, reminding God of His promises and pleading for mercy. Moses is a beautiful example of what Paul reminded Timothy to do in prayer:  “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.” (1 Timothy 2:1).

Moses sets an example, but then we then lift our eyes beyond him to Jesus. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the prophets fade and the Son remains as the true Mediator "who always lives to intercede for us" (Hebrews 7:25). We explore what it means to join His ongoing ministry: carrying names into the throne room with promise-shaped prayers and returning to daily life with quiet radiance and steady courage. 

If your heart longs for a prayer life that bridges heaven and earth, this conversation invites you up the mountain in prayer and back into the valley with purpose. Listen, reflect, and share it with someone you’re standing in the gap for.  

This episode goes along with a coordinating devotion-driven discipleship guide at Moses Teaches Us to Intercede in Prayer.

______________________

The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org

SPEAKER_00:

When Moses met Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, he stood there talking with him, like an old friend. Can you imagine that moment? Peter, James, and John, they were watching as Jesus' face shone like the sun, as his clothes turned dazzling white, and all of a sudden, right beside him were Moses and Elijah just talking to him. What a sight that must have been. Jesus shining in glory, just chatting with some old friends. But for Moses, the thing is, this wasn't the first time that he had stood on a mountain talking with God. In fact, he'd been on the mountaintop talking to God many times before. He first met the Lord at the burning bush in the desert, and he learned to hear the voice of God. Eventually, that encounter led him to Mount Sinai, the mountain where he met God face to face, received the law from the hands of God Himself, and saw God reveal himself in glory. So now, fast forward, I don't know, a bunch of centuries. We'll have to look up that exact number. We see Moses standing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's almost as if he's picking up the conversation where they'd left off centuries prior. Talking with the Lord was a way of life for Moses. That's how he lived once he set his heart to know God. That's where he began, was with the desire to know God. And friends, that's where we want to begin today as well. Because before prayer is about asking for ourselves or for all those that God has entrusted to us, prayer is first about knowing the God whom we're asking. Before prayer is about us, it's about him. So hello, welcome. My name is Tasha, and welcome to the Family Disciple Me Ministry. Our goal as a ministry is simple. We want to seek him, speak him. That means that we want to spend time meeting with God and then turning around and making him known to those entrusted to us. This is what we call devotion-driven discipleship. So everything that we do is not just about saying, here, go have some devotions. As amazing, as important as that is, everything we do is about saying, go have your devotions, spend time with God, and now go tell someone else who's entrusted to you. So with that, in this new conversation collection that we're calling Transfiguration Prayer, today we're going up the mountain of prayer together, and we're going to continue learning what God wants to show us there on that mountain. And today we're starting with Moses, the man who prayed to God. Now show me your glory. Then the man who stood in the gap for God's people when they fell away. You see, Moses is our model for intercession. Moses' prayer life shows us how to seek God's glory and then stand in the gap for others. Now, when Moses prayed in Exodus 33, verse 18, saying, Now show me your glory. He had already seen God's miracles. He had seen, well, let's try to count some of them. He had seen the Red Sea part. He'd seen their deliverance from Egypt. He had seen manna fall. He had seen water come from the rock. Moses had seen a lot of miracles. But thing is, he wasn't content with that. He didn't just want miracles. He wanted more of God Himself. Moses was a man who prayed for God's presence. He specifically asked God for that. And listen to how the Lord responded to him. The Lord answered, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. How amazing is that! Moses saw the glory of God. And when he came down from that mountain, his face was radiant because he had been with God. And friend, that's what happens to us when we truly seek the Lord. His presence changes us from the inside out, and we start to reflect his light, his glory to the world around us. Thing is, before Moses ever stood in the gap for others, he first stood in the presence of God for himself. And that's where it must start for us as well. This hunger to know God, it became the wellspring of everything else that Moses did. You see, here we go. True intimacy always births intercession. I'm going to say that again. True intimacy always births intercession. Prayer that reveals that kind of glory. It's not just transactional, it's transformational. And that's what I believe we experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Prayer is where transformation meets transfiguration. We go up the mountain, we go to that secret place so that we can be in God's presence. And then when we come down, others can see Jesus in us and through us. Thing is, Moses didn't just stay on that mountain, he came down into real life. And isn't that true for all of us? We can have these amazing worship moments, but then we have to step back into the realities of our lives. And when Moses came down from the mountain where he received the law from the hand of God Himself, Moses was smacked in the face with what he saw in front of him with the people. Once he stepped off that mountain holding the commandments, he saw the chaos. The people, they were dancing around a golden calf. They were breaking their covenant relationship with God before you could say, before the stone tablets had even cooled. But this is where Moses teaches us something so important. This is where he teaches us to intercede. You see, intercession, it's not just a formula, it's not just a fancy kind of prayer. Intercession is an overflow that comes out of friendship with God. Because once we've seen his glory, then we begin to carry his heart. Listen to what God's word says in Exodus chapter 32, verse 11 through 14. It says, Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, and he interceded, turn from your fierce anger, relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. You see, Moses stood in the gap. He became a breach mind to use the old English. He was the person who held the line in prayer between a holy God and a sinful people. Moses reminded God of his promises. He carried God's mercy to those who had forgotten it, to those who didn't even necessarily care about it anymore. Moses became the bridge between heaven and earth. I love how the book of Psalms remembers what happened. Psalm 106, verse 23 tells us so God said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them. The breach was the gap, the unpassable distance between God and man. And Moses stood in that place in prayerful intercession. I feel emotional right now because I think about who I am standing in the gap for. And perhaps the fact that is my prayers of intercession that is creating that bridge between a holy God and a person who needs it so much. And sometimes I give up in prayer, sometimes I get tired in prayer. Sometimes I wonder if my prayers are ever going to be answered. And yet, when I look at what Moses teaches me in prayer, I see that intercession stands in the gap. And for whatever reason that I can't explain, God listens to those kinds of prayers. He listened to that prayer that Moses prayed on behalf of the nation of Israel. This, my friend, is the legacy of intercession. And it's not just Moses' story, it's our invitation too. In First Timothy chapter 2, verse 1, Paul wrote, I urge then, first of all, that the petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people. That's Moses' heart of intercession captured for us, the body of Christ, a life, a prayerful life that presses into God for others, a life that loves deeply, that prays boldly, that faithfully stands in the breach, in the gap. Maybe today God is calling you to stand in the gap for someone. Maybe it's your child, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your friend, or maybe it's our nation, or maybe it's your church, or maybe it's your family, maybe it's your neighbors down the street. Don't underestimate what can happen when you pray. Because here's the thing when you've been in God's presence, when you've seen his glory, you begin to carry his heart and reflect his mercy, and that is what fuels true intercession. So, friend, I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord today. I challenge you to consider the truths that we learn from Moses' example in prayer. And I have to say, there are so many things we can learn from Moses' example in prayer. We're just scratching the surface with what I'm saying here. But as we begin to look at him, we understand prayer just a little bit better than perhaps we did before. And then here's where we go from there, because as we look at Moses' example, then we look past him to the greater one, the greatest one. And that is the God of prayer. We look past Moses and we see Jesus. And there on the mountain of transfiguration, we see Jesus and we hear God's voice say through the cloud and speak to Peter, James, and John, as they were saying, Hey, let's just stay here and worship all of you. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, God spoke through and he said, This is my son whom I love. Listen to him. In that moment when God spoke, Moses and Elijah, they faded from view. And that's the moment that we realize. As powerful as Moses' story is, as powerful as the others' stories are, which we'll look at in the days to come, these are always pointing us toward Jesus because get this, he is the greatest intercessor, the one who lives forever to make intercession for us, Scripture says. So when we learn from Moses to intercede, we're really learning to follow the pattern of Christ, the one who stands before the Father on your behalf, on my behalf, the one who bridges that gap between God and us so that we can have a real relationship with God Almighty. He is our model and he is our mediator. So, friend, as you go today, here's my challenge for you. May the glory that Moses sought and the mercy that he carried back into his life, the chaos of his life, may that become the rhythm of your own prayer life. I challenge you today to spend some time in the accompanying devotion-driven discipleship guide. Spend some time with Jesus and ask him what he wants to say to you about intercessory prayer. Ask God to show you which scripture he wants to highlight for your life, how he wants to teach you more about prayer through Moses' example, what he wants to say to you as you build deeper, real relationship with him, whom he wants you to pray for like never before. Then once you seek him in your own life, I hope and pray that you'll speak him into the life of someone that he's entrusted to you. If you have little children, perhaps you could tell them just a little bit about the story of Moses. Explain to them what it means to intercede. Talk to them about how intercessory prayer stands in the gap between God and man and talks to God on behalf of someone else. Kids get that. Maybe if you have a teenager, you can talk more deeply about intercessory prayer. And you can make a commitment with your teenager or teenagers to specifically intercede for someone in your family. Or maybe you don't have children, but you have a friend who's struggling, and you can speak him by inviting that friend into this transfiguration prayer conversation collection with you. And each day along the way in this series, invite them to pray with you about whatever the particular prayer point is for that day. There's so many ways that we can seek him, speak him. But my friend, my prayer for you is that you'll spend time with God and you'll seek him with the same hunger that Moses had, that same hunger that says, Now show me your glory, and then turns around and speaks him with the same courage that Moses had, standing in the gap for others. And above all, may your eyes be fixed on Jesus, the one who reveals God's glory so perfectly and still lives to intercede for us, for us completely. Go in that peace, go in that confidence. Now go back on up that mountain of prayer and spend some time with him today. I'll see you in the next episode.