A Word on Prayer
Good morning and happy Sunday! Every week we have a routine and for us Christians we are typically expected to go to a church service on Sunday. We enjoy worshipping the Lord, followed up with a feel-good message that may resonate with us. And I can really appreciate the fellowship after service with the remnant that linger before going out and about our day. However, I feel giving God one day a week is just simply not enough to be Truly Living in Jesus Christ.
The 12 disciples followed Jesus every single day. Walking, talking, sleeping, and eating together 24/7. Even still there were things they did not understand but they continued following Him. There were times when Jesus separated from the disciples when He spent personal 1:1 time with His Father. I wonder what that secret prayer life was like? How did He pray? And what was the purpose of doing that by Himself? If you notice, the greatest miracles happened around those times of prayer. Jesus publicly prayed and blessed the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish that was then miraculously distributed to 5000 people (Matthew 14:19). Shortly after, He sent the crowd of people away and his disciples across the sea of Galilee as He went up to a mountain alone to pray before He preceded to walk on water!
“Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.”
-Matthew 14:22-23.
I want to emphasize that Jesus went up to a mountain, to pray, by Himself. All the other parts of the story is amazing, but I believe what kept Jesus in God’s perfect will operating in miracles, signs, and wonders was prayer. We are called to be followers of Jesus and obey His commands as close as we can, but furthermore I see Jesus as the true hero in which we should model our lives in how He lives and moves in His being. There is something about that personal relationship with the Father; just as Jesus has that personal relationship where He secludes His time set apart with the Father in prayer, I think so should we. In my own personal walk I pray in car rides or before I’m getting ready for work and especially if I am about to do something that may be a bit stressful I call on for help. But maybe its extra spiritual to hike up a mountain by yourself to pray for a couple of hours…
In any case, I believe Jesus went to the Father in prayer alone to be filled up in the Spirit to the point of overflow where so many other spiritual operations are probably occurring more than I can contain in this message. Such as foresight downloads/visions of events where Jesus was being sent; Jesus prophesied the near future.
“The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” -Luke 9:21
To continue the journey…
“But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
-Matthew 14:24-33
In this instance, Jesus prayed in seclusion on the mountain in deep intimacy with the Father to the point where He was walking on water! Imagine being so filled up by the Spirit that the body becomes lighter! My speculation, I believe that time spent on the mountain caused His body to be spiritualized and touched by God’s glory. And in all of history we know that Peter is the only other that also walked on water. As he called out to Jesus He bid Peter to walk towards Him. It was not necessarily that Peter prayed and then walked on water, but his attention was prioritized towards Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus may have been in a spiritualized trance from the other realm. Lo and behold, the world was under Peter’s feet as He walked on water with his gaze solely on Jesus, doing what he commanded to by faith, but the moment he looked away he was filled with fear. The very moment that he took a glimpse of the storm that was brewing he began to succumb to the power of the sea and the heaviness of his earthly body went underwater from faith to fear, drowning…
Despite the engulfment of fear and the torrential storm around him, Jesus stretched out His hand pulling him out to safety, but He had to point out to Peter, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” I am not saying that if we had enough faith we can just go and walk on water. Mind you, Jesus commanded Peter to come to Him. When Jesus commands something, have faith and do His commands by faith. Let your doubts sink under water and rather let your faith rise up above the water and walk with Him!
Back to the subject of praying alone. Even Jesus instructed us saying, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
There is something spiritual about this secret place. Its that personal relationship we have with our Father and Jesus is re-affirming that “your Father who sees in secret” is there with you, seeing you. You are seen. And you are heard. I just want to say that He loves you and adores you. He wants a personal relationship with you! I’d like us all to let go of comparing ourselves to others too. It can be easy to look outwards as we watch a video, or go to church and look at another and feel like that person must have more faith etc…. I want to encourage you. Jesus Himself gives us the perfect model. Pray in secret. Go there in the secret place personally with your heavenly Father who wants to hear your unique voice and He sees your heart. And there are things He wants to do with you and speak to you in that personal relationship with your Father. I truly believe history is made in the secret place.
Jesus asked the disciples to pray with Him before He ultimately was crucified. Jesus did invite His closest followers, His inner circle, to pray with Him, but even they did not follow Him in deeper intimacy in the garden of Gethsemane where they stayed at a certain distance away, falling asleep. It says that He went into the garden a little further where we get a sneak peak into His personal prayer life right before He was taken away to be crucified,
“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.
-Luke 22:41-45
On His last hour with His disciples He found them sleeping. Yet only a stones throw away Jesus knelt down before His Father, knowing what was about to happen pleading with God to take this suffering away as a man but as the Son of God who came purposely to sacrifice Himself for the forgiveness of sins He came to do the Father’s will and ultimately that is what He prayed for. As we can see there was even angelic support present right there in that prayer to strengthen Jesus, yet knowing what was about to happen His physical body was still under such severe stress (Hematohidrosis) that “His sweat became like great drops of blood.” Suffering great stress to the point of sweating blood and God sent angelic support to strengthen Him, Jesus shows us the perfect example, even through suffering we can bring our weakness and requests to the Father but to ask for God’s will to be done. That secret place may be where we need to be to activate heaven’s support as we endure the trials and tribulations we face here on earth. Thank God Jesus did it all! We may not have to be crucified on the cross like He did but we all have to deal with some kind of suffering here on earth before we get to paradise, which is what Jesus paid for.
I want to add this scripture about being co-heirs and we co-suffer:
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
-Romans 8:15-18
Jesus showed us what we need to do to be led by our Father God to do His will.
Pray.
With you in Christ,
Truly Living Team
